25 years ago this week — 1999

A caustic report on the state of the faculty at Blue Mountain Community College obviously stunned the Board of Directors Wednesday.

“In my 20 years of service to this college, I cannot remember a time when faculty morale was lower,” said incoming Faculty Associate Representative Mark Petersen. “This low morale is born out of frustration related to the perceived direction in which the college is headed. Most faculty feel as if we are on board a rudderless ship.”

Peterson cited a promise made two years ago that faculty would be involved in a participatory governance system.

“We were told that the management system would be from the bottom up,” he said. “It has not materialized.”

Plans for reorganization of the college departments, particularly in the arts and sciences, were developed without significant faculty input, according to Petersen.

“Faculty, for the most part, are not opposed to reorganization,” he said. “But the Arts and Sciences Department heads asked for time to develop a logical reorganization scheme and were largely ignored.”

The onset of service delivery options, distance education and Web-based instruction also have occurred without consultations with faculty, Petersen contended.

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A Chinese proverb says that a picture is worth more than 10 thousand words, but how many dollars is that?

To advertisers, pictures save time and sell products. Whether it is posters, newspapers, magazines or television, pictures have become a valuable tool.

Photography has even become an art form and made those with an eye for the sublime rich and famous.

Photography also has become an invaluable tool in recording History.

And it is history that Ed Zaha hoped will sell the legacy of unique pictures left to him by his father.

Abraham “Abe” Zaha was born to Romanian immigrants. Abe’s mother, the descendent of Romanian royalty, was smuggled out of the country with funds sent by her husband who had escaped to the United States, angry after his prize horses were confiscated by the Russian armies.

Early in his life, Abe showed promise as a musical prodigy. Raised in Michigan, the son of a shoe repairman, he began playing violin at the age of 5. At age 17, he graduated from the Detroit Conservatory of Music to tour the southern states as a professional classical musician.

He learned to fly as a very young man, and when World War II broke out, Abe hoped to fly fighter planes. Instead, the former Ford Motor Company worker was assigned as a flight instructor.

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Some people have told Hermiston Mayor Frank Harkenrider that he’s preaching to the choir when he says that dam breaching isn’t the answer to increasing Columbia River salmon runs. Harkenrider disagrees.

“If we don’t preach to the choir, nobody is going to know (how we feel),” he said. Harkenrider, like others in the area, believe that events such as Saturday’s “Save Our Communities” rally are the best way to get the attention of the lawmakers in Congress, who will ultimately decide whether to breach the dams.

More importantly, local officials have secured the support of two local congressmen, Sen. Gordon Smith and Rep. Greg Walden, both of whom will speak at the 10 a.m. rally at Spillway Park by McNary Dam.

“We need to bring this to their (the congressmen’s) attention,” Harkenrider said. THe mayor said he believes the only way to get Congressional attention is to have a charismatic speaker like Smith, whom he called the “next vice president of the United States.”

Of Oregon’s seven congressional delegates, only Walden and Smith have publicly come out against dam breaching.

50 years ago this week — 1974

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing abortions to be conducted in any state has reduced the number of out-of-state women coming to Washington for the operation. Nonetheless, the state remains a popular place to have an abortion.

“Doctors from other states simply can’t believe our statistics,” says Dr. Richard Soderstrom, chairman of Planned Parenthood’s West Region Medical Committee. “We have no reported maternal deaths from abortions. We have had no reported cases of permanently disabling complications. We have excellent follow-up compared with other states.”

“All in all,” he says, “we have done a fantastic job of performing this service cheaper than anyplace else in the nation.”

State statistics show that 17,319 abortions were performed in Washington last year. Comparing the number of abortions with the number of births in the state in 1973, it can be figured that there were 381 terminations for every 1,000 babies born.

No statistics are available that show how many of the women having abortions were from out of state.

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Of the several committees that have started up in the Pendleton School District, one of the most important is looking into how to deal with disruptive, uninterested and truant students.

Classrooms have always had their show-offs, day-dreamers and hell-raisers, but schools today face something different. Teachers report large numbers of junior high and high school youngsters who are rebellious, turned off and not reluctant to express disdain in rough language.

In the three grades at Pendleton High School this year, 11 per cent of the students dropped out of school. That rate is a good deal higher than it used to be.

The problem is considerable. Such young people make it hard with their attitudes to teach the rest of the students, who are apt to be distracted by their less interested classmates. And it is sad to see so many persons in their teens who are without purpose, motivation or interest. In today’s fast-paced world, their futures look a bit dim.

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Former city patrolman Mike Kingsbury said today his decision to resign from the Athena Police Department will stand, despite a concerted public effort Thursday night to have the patrolman reinstated.

Some 30 persons crowded into the muggy city recorder’s office to insist that Kingsbury be given one more chance on the force. The city council had accepted by minority vote Kingsbury’s resignation Monday night in regular session. The resignation came after a heated discussion on police procedure, communication, equipment, employment policy and salary.

The council agreed Thursday to allow Kingsbury to reapply for the position, but only after one and a half hours of fiery discussion. The decision was preceded by the emotional resignation of the Art Day, city councilman and police commissioner

Day said today he also would keep his resignation in effect.

“I can’t go back and do a good job and have to fight as in the past,” the former councilman said.

Day cast the only vote against allowing Kingsbury to resign Monday. Councilman Bud Schmidtgall and Bob Irving voted for the resignation. Tom Munck and Don Summers’ abstained Monday but said Thursday they favored keeping Kingsbury as a patrolman.

“I’m not going to work for the city anymore,” Kingsbury said today. Mayor Paul Fuchs discussed re-application with the policeman late Thursday night.

100 years ago this week — 1924

Another escape miracle in a road accident was enacted yesterday afternoon late when a car driven by Peter Tachella was hit in front of the stone warehouse just north of the bridge on the Oregon-Washington highway by a car driven by C. McDonald. McDonale was accompanied by two Indians who were with him when officers arrived on the scene, and a third Indian is said to have made his escape before he was detected.

Mr. Tachella suffered a cut over his forehead, a cut on his hand and the fracture of one of his fingers in addition to bruises. Mrs. Tachella and a neighbor’s baby who was riding with them were not seriously injured. Both cars were badly damaged by the collision, but the occupants in the McDonald car were not injured. The engine was driven back into the machine on the Tachella car.

Mr. And Mrs. Tachella were coming toward Pendleton, and the other car was outward bound. Mr. Tachella was quoted today as having said that he saw the car approaching and drove his machine out until two of the wheels were clear off the pavement.

The fragments of a one-gallon jug and a very strong odor of intoxicants were found by G. L. Clark and John H. Secor, deputy sheriffs, when they arrived on the scene. After an investigation, they arrested McDonald and his Indian friends and they were taken before Justice Parkes where they were charged with reckless driving and speeding.

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Two petitions for street paving were presented and granted, one for concrete pipe to serve the natatorium and the other for the paving of Matlock street between Court and Alta, were accepted by the city council last night at its weekly meeting.

The petitions for paving call for work to be done on High street between Thompson and Main, and on Jefferson Davis street between Lewis and Court streets. It was indicated last night that opposition to the work on High street will be expressed in the farm of a remonstrance.

The Warren Construction company’s bid for paving Matlock street was $3,373.99. The Concrete Pipe Co. of Walla Walla, submitted a bid of 63 cents the foot for 400 feet of 12-inch concrete pipe, the city to fill the trench.

A big community stove with brick sides and a sheetiron top to serve several families if necessary, will be constructed at the city auto camp. Councilman Bond, chairman of the parks committee, reported last night that on Tuesday night there were 66 cars at the camp and that there are only 25 individual stoves there. It was on his motion that the purchase of the big stove was authorized.

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The completion of the government dam on McKay creek and the use of the water for irrigation purposes that will be provided when the big reservoir is filled will bring the acreage of irrigated land in the Hermiston, Stanfield and Umatilla district up to approximately 100,000 acres, members of the state chamber of commerce and business men of Pendleton were told yesterday at Hermiston by E. P. Dodd.

These figures given by Mr. Doss include land now under water as well as the acreage that will be brought into production by using the McKay water. The greater part of the land is in Umatilla county, though there is some in Morrow county.

In the vicinity of Hermiston there is need now for 200 settlers to farm land that is ready for production, Mr. Dodd told visitors at the luncheon which was held at Hermiston after the tour had been made. With the completion of the government dam it has been figured that an additional 1,000 settlers will be needed to man the farms. These figures are based on the supposition that 40 acres will be the maximum size of the units offered.

There is a real interest in Oregon as a prospective place for homeseekers on the part of many living in the Middle West and other parts of the country, Whitney L. Boise, chairman of the land settlement and reclamation committee of the state chamber, told his audience.