25 years ago this week — 1999

PENDLETON — Thirty years ago, Jack Clubb bought a piece of property south of the Umatilla River and dreamed of making it his retirement home.

That dream has become his nightmare.

The city of Pendleton has chosen Clubb’s property near Goad Road as an ideal location to build a water treatment facility and he faces condemnation if he refuses to sell.

During a bittersweet tour of his property earlier this week, Clubb didn’t need any coaxing to reveal his emotional attachment to the property.

“This is the best horse ranch in the country,” he said, leaning against a fence post in a pasture cut for grass hay. “There’s no other place like it. Can you think of a nicer place than out here with no one bothering you?”

Clubb’s point is well taken.

His property could best be described as idyllic, with wide-open spaces for pasturing horses, a round pen for training them, a vintage-looking storage shed made of old wooden panels and a natural pond that is home to trout and turtles.

He leases the property to Elton Mendenhall who boards and trains horses.

“Because of a pending sale, we haven’t done much with the property this year,” said Mendenhall, a lieutenant at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. “We usually board up to 30 head of horses at a time.”

———

Final preparations were completed Friday afternoon as a truck hill of donated building materials left Masonite of Pilot Rock headed to Oklahoma City for tornado relief efforts.

The journey will take four days to traverse the 1,637 miles to Oklahoma. The truck, donated by Conus trucking company, carried $11,000 of sheathing donated by Masonite.

Its destination is Project Rebuild, a program sponsored by the Oklahoma Lumbermen’s Association to help low income, disabled and senior residents rebuild their homes, which were destroyed in the May 1 tornado.

More than 10,000 homes were destroyed in the f-5 tornado, the highest rating possible, in addition to an estimated $1 billion in damage throughout Oklahoma, according to a Newsweek article published shortly after the disaster.

On July 9, the Lumberman’s Associated launched a national campaign to help rebuild by contacting businesses for donations.

Once Lorraine Greene, customer service representative at Masonite, heard of the program, she wanted to help.

“It’s nice to be able to help other people,” she said about the donation.

Cliff Judy, plant manager, hopes that this donation will help people in Oklahoma get back on their feet.

———

PENDLETON — Fearlessness and introversion, when combined with water, can be a deadly combination for children and adults diagnosed with autism — a neurological learning syndrome.

But a pioneering program designed by Behavioral Health Services in Morrow and Wheeler counties is proving with the right kind of support, such people can enjoy being around — and in — the water.

“A child with autism, by definitions, has a communication disorder,” said Shannon Boor, a family support consultant with Morrow-Wheeler Behavioral Health Services. “They don’t always understand what is being said to them and they can’t always tell you what they are thinking or feeling. You have to do a lot more displaying instead of just talking.”

The mother of an autistic child in the program, Boor was aware of two other children in the community in need of water safety instruction. From her own experience she knows the concerns of their parents.

“My son almost drowned on two separate occasions,” she said.

Bobette Lovgren, manager of the Willow Creek Water Park in Heppner, welcomed the idea of a class for autistic children and helped Boor fashion the eight-week course.

50 years ago this week — 1974

A man-caused fire burned 300 acres of grass Sunday about three miles north of Spray in the Alder Creek area near the John Day River.

The fire, on State Forestry Department-protected land, also burned some timber and caused the loss of an undetermined amount of hay and wheat on rancher Bob Ordway’s property.

About 50 firefighters, including forestry personnel and ranchers in the area, brought the fire under control about 5 p.m. Sunday. It had been reported about 1:30 p.m.

Specific cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Another fire Sunday on State Forestry land burned less than an acre near an old sawmill on Government Mountain on a ridge above the North Fork of the Walla Walla River.

The fire, reported on Sunday at 2:30 p.m., was brought under control this morning by state forestry firefighters, with the assistance of a 10-man crew from the Umatilla County Boys Ranch.

The fire started in sawdust and rotten logs and spread to nearby timber. It has probably been smoldering for several days prior to when it was reported, said Knox Pipkin, unit forester for the Pendleton office of the State Forestry Dept. It is believed to have been man-caused.

———

An investigation of a Pendleton school bus driver and her husband was demanded Tuesday night by parents of two students who were reprimanded for alleged actions on the last day of school.

Mrs. Joe Angotti and Mrs. Walter Gibson of Meacham accused Margaret and Glenn Zink of harassing students riding the bus between Meacham and Pendleton, and passing out citations “like it was carnival time.”

The complaints were voiced at the Pendleton School Board meeting. The board told Supt. Ellis Neal to investigate the matter. Mrs. Zink, who has driven school bus 14 years, and her husband, a part-time driver, were not at the meeting.

The appearance by 17 Meacham residents was a reaction to a decision by the school board at its July meeting. The board at that meeting concurred with a suggestion by Neal that the parents of the two Meacham students who attended Pendleton High School be asked to show cause why the students should not forfeit their bus privileges.

The students or their parents were not mentioned in the East Oregonian story of the meeting, but the parents – the Angottis and the Gibsons – said everyone in the small community knew who they were talking about.

———

PENDLETON — Classes in Pendleton’s School District 16-R will start Aug. 29.

Registration for elementary school students will be Aug. 28 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Junior high school students, new to the district will register from Aug. 19 to 23 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Junior high school students who attended Pendleton schools last year may register Aug. 26 and 27.

At Pendleton High School seniors will register Aug. 26; juniors, Aug. 27; and sophomores, Aug. 28 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Lunch fees are tentatively set at the same rate as in 1973-74; 55 cents for senior high school students; 45 cents junior high; and 40 cents elementary schools.

Kindergarten children must be five by Nov. 15 to enroll. They must also present at the goldenrod form from their family physician or the health department showing the child has had a complete physical examination. Seventh graders also must present this goldenrod physical examination certificate.

All children, five through 14 years of age who are new to the district, must present a record of immunizations and the dates these were administered.

100 years ago this week — 1924

Scores of Pendleton people — men in Round-Up sombreros and gaudy shirts – an official reception committee mounted on horseback and headed by Henry Collins, president of the Round-Up — cheers and shrieks of youngsters clamoring for a glimpse of their hero – these, with a general “Let’er Buck” flavor which permeated the whole affair – were the features of the welcome to Hoot Gibson, Universal Pictures star and his company when they arrived here this morning from California, via Salt Lake.

Hoot, to be starred in “The Ridin’ Kid from Powder River,” and “Let’er Buck,” was met in a manner befitting a cowboy who in 1912 was awarded the first all-round cowboy championship at the Pendleton show.

He was taken from the train and mounted on a horse, while Pendleotn people applauded. Edward Sedgwick, director; Miss Marion Nixon, who in pictures here will play the feminine lead, and Miss Josie Sedgwicj, who has the sympathetic lead, and other members of the company, were well received also.

———

Some of the legal aspects of the proposed closing of the deer season are expected to be discussed tomorrow evening when the first regular meeting has been scheduled to be held in the rooms of the Pendleton Commercial association at 8 o’clock, and a large number of sportsmen are expected to be present.

The chief purpose of the meeting is to get the point of view of anglers from all over the county as to where the state game commission should plant the million or more trout that have been produced this season in the state hatchery at Bingham. The commission has expressed a desire for the matter to be settled by the county organization.

The matter of the proposed hunting season for deer was not mentioned in the call for the meeting sent out by Secretary Fred Moes of Helix, but many hunters are very keenly interested in the proposal. Some local sportsmen have been quoted lately as declaring that an executive proclamation can not apply to hunting on deeded land and will only be applicable to public lands. An effort to get a competent opinion on the matter will be made at the meeting Friday night.

———

Approximately 1,000,000 rainbow trout fry were apportioned to the various fishing streams of the county, a move was started to close some of the smaller streams to fishing for a period of years, a suggestion was made that the present open season on China pheasants be altered to prolong the season without increasing the number of days and a talk by Fred Steiwer was heard by representatives of the Umatilla County Fish & Game Protective association at its first open meeting held last night in the rooms of the Pendleton Comercial association.

Representatives were present from Umatilla, Hermiston, Echo, Pilot Rock, Athena, Freewater, Helix and Pendleton, and the interest shown was keen. It was decided that during the remainder of 1924 two or more meetings will be held, on the third Thursday in October and the third Thursday in December.