25 years ago this week — 2000

PENDLETON — Tickets for the Round-Up/Happy Canyon Music Festival, starring Reba McEntire, will go on sale Wednesday.

The music festival will be held on Sunday, Sept. 10, in the Round-Up Arena. Also appearing will be the award-winning country duo Montgomery Gentry.

Tickets may be purchased at the Round-Up office at the Round-Up office at the Round-Up Grounds on Southwest Court Avenue in Pendleton beginning at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Tickets will also be available through Ticket Master outlets.

Seats are $25 for reserved and festival seating, and $100 for Let’er Buck Club seating directly in front of the stage. There is a $1 handling fee for the tickets purchased through the Round-Up office. The office can be reached during normal business hours at 276-2553 and at 1-800-457-6336 outside the local area. Ticket Master can be reached at (503) 224-4400.

“We urge people who want to enjoy the most popular entertainer in the country music field to buy their tickets early,” said Doug Corey, Happy Canyon publicity director.

Round-Up Publicity Director Steve Corey agreed. “Because of the interest expressed two months ago when we first announced Reba would be appearing, we anticipate tickets to sell quickly,” he said.

Reba McEntire is a favorite with Round-Up crowds. Her past performances, beginning years ago at Happy Canyon, are just one element of her attachment with the Pendleton rodeo. Her father, Clark McEntire, was inducted into the Round-Up Hall of Fame in 1984, after winning steer roping championships in Pendleton in 1947, 1957 and 1958. Her brother, Pake McEntire, is a regular steer roper at the Round-Up as well.

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ATHENA — When Steve Pyle first came to Athena to teach music, he had never seen a bagpipe. Now that he’s retiring, more than 30 years later, he can hardly talk about anything else. Bagpipes have been the defining mark of Pyle’s teaching career at Weston-McEwen High School.

“I’m a firm believer that you have to have something unique that separates you from other schools,” Pyle said Thursday, reflecting on his years of teaching in the Athena-Weston School District.

The Weston-McEwen Pipes & Drums and the school’s marching band, are one of a handful of high school bagpipe bands in the United States. They have been honored throughout the midwest and nationally.

Pyle said his most memorable experience was the first time the band marched in the Independence Day Parade in Washington D.C., in 1985. Weston-McEwen brought home the Grand Marshal’s Award – an amazing feat for a small-town band.

Weston-McEwen’s Pipes & Drums and marching band also appeared in the Holiday Festival Bowl in San Diego in 1994, recently performed with the Vancouver Pops Orchestra and have accepted an invitation to play in the Grand Floral Parade at this year’s Rose Festival in Portland in June.

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PENDLETON — The Pendleton City Council approved a proposal Tuesday for development  of the Main Street property damaged in a June 12 fire.

If the project proceeds according to plan, two empty lots in the historic section of town could be filled by the end of the next year, said David Glennie, president of Telos Development Co. of Salem, the only company to submit a proposal meeting all the development criteria outlined by the city.

The Telos proposal describes a three-story building that houses both retail and residential space and includes covered parking.

The first floor would have 4,500 square feet of commercial/retail space along Main Street. The second and third floors would have apartments accessed by an elevator. A covered parking area would be in the rear of the building.

Other development aspects include a third-floor recreation/meeting room.

According to Glennie, the residential housing would be a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments offered as “affordable” housing. One bedroom units would rent for $280 to $380; two bedroom apartments would rent for $325 to $460, he said.

“We specialize in small towns,” Glennie said, noting that his company is nearing completion of a 40-unit affordable housing apartment building in Burns.

The cost estimate of the project is $2.5 million. Telos would fund $500,000 of the construction costs and would acquire the balance through a loan, grant and tax credits.

50 years ago this week — 1975

There’s good news at the grocery store. An Associated Press marketbasket survey shows prices declined on a wide variety of items during March, cutting supermarket bills by more than 2 per cent.

The decreases did not follow any particular pattern and they were offset, in part, by increases in the price of chopped chuck and eggs. But the declines provide an indication that grocery prices may be levelling off and that this year’s rate of increase will be below the cost spirals of 1973 and 74.

The AP drew up a random list of 15 commonly purchased food and nonfood items, checked the price on March 1, 1973 at a supermarket in each of 13 cities and has rechecked at the start of each succeeding month.

During March, the marketbasket bill declined in 11 cities, down an average of 3.2 per cent, and increased in two cities, up an average of six-tenths of a per cent. Over-all, there was an average drop of 2.7 per cent.

The situation was an improvement over February, when the bill dropped in nine cities and rose in four, but the price of groceries was still much higher than last year. In the 12-months ended March 31, the marketbasket bill went up an average of 14.2 per cent. Over the 25-month period during which the AP has been checking prices, the bill went up 29.8 per cent.

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Mayor Eddie O. Knopp said Tuesday night at the Pendleton City Council meeting that he resented a citizen questioning the actions of a city government body.

Knopp’s remarks came during a public hearing on an appeal by Don Nearhood of a recent planning commission action granting a sign variance to VIP’s restaurant.

Nearhood has appealed the decision to the city council – an action anyone has the right to take if he doesn’t agree with a planning commission decision – because he felt it was illegal under the zoning ordinance.

He had apparently overlooked a planning commission public hearing on the variance and did not attend to voice opposition then.

“I resent you digging at the planning commission or nay other city commission for that matter,” Knopp said.

“They represent the people of this city,” he added. “They’re doing a fine job – don’t dig at them.”

Councilman John Conroy defended Nearhood’s appearance before the council. “I respect Mr. Nearhood for coming to the council,” he said. “I do not appreciate Mr. Nearhood being ridiculed by the mayor.”

“That’s my prerogative to do that,” Knopp countered. “If I want to ask you, I’ll ask – otherwise you remain in your chair.”

“I think you’re out of order, your honor,” Conroy said.

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Persistence sometimes pays off.

D.R. Satterwhite, Pendleton, proved Thursday when the Pendleton Planning Commission reversed itself and granted a conditional use permit to establish a mobile home perk near Blue Mountain Community College.

The decision, if it not appealed, could be the conclusion to a year-long attempt by Satterwhite to get city approval for the park.

Satterwhite was turned down by the planning commission last Sept. 19, by a two to one vote.

He appealed the decision to the city council in November only to be turned down again by another close vote.

With commissioner Betty McAuslan absent, the vote Thursday was four to one to grant the request. Commissioner Robert Larson voted against it.

However, it was apparent that the commissioners were thinking about previous problems the city has had with mobile home parks and they wanted to be certain that these problems would not be repeated.

It took three separate motions before the issue was voted on. The first two died because of a lack of second due to questioning details of conditions Satterwhite must meet in building the park.

100 years ago this week — 1925

Reports reaching here today from Portland suggest that the federal government may order that the water to be stored in the McKay reservoir be used upon the lands of the Teel project instead of on other land previously proposed for the reclamation under the project. The reports link Senator Stanfield with the move.

A long distance statement by H. M. Schilling, project engineer at Hermiston, indicated that the matter is not yet determined. According to Mr. Schilling, George C. Kreutzer, director of reclamation economics, who was recently at Hermiston, has ordered an economic survey of all the land that may be watered through use of McKay water. This will include Teel lands, also the lands of the Westland district and the Stanfield district. It is understood this survey will be made soon but the personnel of the committee to make the survey has not been announced.

Under the present rules of the reclamation bureau data of this sort is first secured by the bureau and then final action rests with bureau officials at Washington. Apparently the disposition of the McKay water will not be known until the bureau has acted.

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The vision of the O. A. C. memorial union building, as told by speakers at a dinner at the Elks club last evening, is of an enduring, towering structure that will be of great usefulness to students and at the same time will symbolize the service of college men and women in war time. It will cost $500,000 and will be built by hard earned coin subscribed by students, alumni and friends of the college. The students and faculty themselves are taking the heavy end of the burden by giving a total of $263,000.

Facts about the movement and its purposes were given last evening by E. T. Reed, college editor, by C. B. Hall, with the organization handling the campaign, and by Major Edward C. Allworth. Mr. Reed was introduced by Dr. F. W. Vincent who graduated from the college in the days when students were few and the college small. Major Allworth was introduced by Captain Frank Allen, instructor in the Pendleton high schools who served overseas in the artillery. A rising tribute was given by those present to Major Allworth who has the congressional medal of honor, the Croix d Guerre with two palms and the decoration of the Legion of Honor.

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Not content with his record as owner of several racehorses that win pretty consistently, his reputation as a sweet singer in his specialty, “Alfalfa Hay,” and with his record as the largest man physically in the horse business, C. B. Irwin, well known to Round-Up dans, has added to this list of accomplishments the distinction of winning a lawsuit in which he was defendant and appeared as his own attorney. The following account of Mr. Irwin’s feat was published in the San Diego Evening Tribune:

C. B. Irwin, weighty Wyoming turfman, seems to be getting back into form again, having won the lawsuit brought against him by Edward H. Banta in which he acted as his own attorney, and while thus away from the Tijuana track one of his horses scored a notable win for him. In previous meetings at Tijuana, Irwin has been the biggest winner, but this year has not treated him kindly.

The Banta suit was an effort to get judgment for $10,200 damaged as a result of injuries sustained when Banta accepted a “lift” in Irwin’s automobile last April and the car overturned. Judge W. P. Cary heard the evidence and the argument, and decided in Irwin’s favor yesterday. In argument, “Attorney” Irwin treated the court and spectators to a lay conception of law and litigants, not only paying attention to the plaintiff in this case, but to the kind of an “egg” who invented the law that says a generous motorists must pay damages for injuries to a passenger.