25 years ago this week — 2000

WESTON – Excitement in a small town can be hard to come by some times, but a new police patrol car in Weston has a few people turning their heads.

“I’ve had a couple people nearly drive off the road as they were looking at it while they were driving by,” said David Ross, chief of the Weston Police Department.

The patrol car is a 2000 model silver Ford Crown Victoria “police interceptor.” Ross unveiled it at last week’s City Council meeting. The car is likely the first brand new police car Weston has ever had, according to what some long time residents have told Ross.

The police interceptor model has heavy duty suspension, a heavy duty engine and a safety screen between the front and back seats, Ross explained. It also has a new police radio, siren, spot light and is equipped with a three-phase light bar.

“The light bar is actually kind of fancy for us,” Ross said.

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Antone Mintorn: Chairman, Board of Trustees, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation:

“We are heartened and encouraged that Governor Kitzhaber today has called for breaching the lower four Snake River Dams. For far too long, the debate over salmon recovery has been characterized by a sad lack of courage and common sense. Today, Governor Kitzhaber displayed a welcome dose of courage and common sense that is necessary if we are going to save salmon for the region.

We fully agree with the governor that there are economic trade-offs inherent in restoring an ecosystem and that by working together we can equitably spread the economic burden of saving a species. The concerns of the communities that will be affected by breaching the lower Snake River dams can be addressed.

We have the technology, now we just need the public’s courage and will. We can have both healthy economies and healthy salmon runs if we put the divisive polarization of the breaching debate behind us and set to work on making it happen.”

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.:

“If the governor is telling us that he wants to turn off our lights, he must also tell us how he intends to turn them back on.

Governor Kitzhaber is certainly entitled to his opinion, but in this case I believe it is one that must not and will not prevail Breaching the four dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers is an irreversible decision that would harm countless Oregonians – including anyone who pays an energy bill of uses our highways.

I invite the governor to work with us to support the many reasonable options that will help salmon without destroying our most environmentally friendly energy resource.”

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PENDLETON – Call it sisterly love.

Tuesday morning, Pat Filkins will go into surgery at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. By morning’s end, she will have given her brother the gift of life.

Filkins is donating one of her kidneys to her older brother, Jim Reser of Condon.

Reser is a diabetic who requires dialysis four times a day for defective kidneys. His health has deteriorated to the point where his kidneys are functioning at only about 8 percent of normal capacity. With one of his sister’s kidneys, Reser, 44, could live another 30 years.

“Once it’s stitched in, it will begin working immediately,” said Filkins, who admitted Friday she was nervous before leaving for Portland.

She has gone through months of testing to determine whether she is a suitable donor.

“It’s amazing. I’ve had every test in the book done on me,” she said, noting doctors gave her a clean bill of health.

After the surgery, Filkins will stay in the hospital for a few days before coming home to Pendleton. Reser will stay in Portland, where he will be treated daily with anti-rejection medicine.

Filkins, the mother of three daughters and a dispatcher for the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s Tribal Police Department, will have a six-week recovery period.

50 years ago this week — 1975

Mabel Boylen says the office of the county treasurer ought to be combined with that of the tax collector.

She speaks from 27 years experience in the Umatilla County Courthouse, the last 14 as county treasurer and the 13 years before that as deputy treasurer. Mrs. Boylen retired from the office early this year.

“Several counties have already” combined the offices, she said. “It makes good sense” because their work is closely related – the tax collector takes in the money, and the treasurer distributes it to the taxing districts. She feels greater efficiency would result if the offices were combined.

Looking back, Mrs. Boylen said she thinks the merging hasn’t taken place because few people understand the functions of the office.

She said that even the county courts, now the board of commissioners, suffered from a lack of knowledge about the operation of the county’s financial system.

“And the county treasurer is underpaid for the work that’s done, too,” Mrs. Boylen said. The job is budgeted at $10,500.

A native of Umatilla County, and a resident of Pendleton since 1924, Mrs. Boylen is the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm McIntyre. Educated as a teacher, she taught in Pendleton and Pilot Rock schools for several years.

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Whatever the final outcome of problems with Pendleton’s Thornhollow water supply system, one thing seems certain – it’s going to cost the city a lot of money to make the system operable again.

Public Works Supt. Bob Swanson reported to the city council Tuesday night the progress of work being done to repair damage from a January flood.

Swanson also told council members that recent inspections of the system have revealed.

Investigation has shown that approximately 150 feet of levee near one of the springs was washed away by high water which inundated the water source with heavily silted flood water, Swanson said.

Because Umatilla County has been declared a disaster area, the city hoped that the Army Corp of Engineers will repair the damage.

Swanson also pointed out that a 10-inch transmission main, severed when Union Pacific Railroad crews were removing gravel lodged under a trestle, has been repaired.

Inspection of another transmission system revealed that from 1,600 to 1,800 feet of pipe will have to be replaced, Swanson said.

“It will be of considerable cost to repair the damage,” he said.

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Sen. Bob Packwood said Thursday that he thinks a Ford administration concession on its energy program may bring passage of an oil tariff by Congress.

In a phone interview with the East Oregonian and other papers, Packwood referred to the administration’s decision to apply the tariff just to gasoline and not all petroleum products, as first proposed.

The Oregon senator said congressmen from the Northeast had lobbied hard against a tariff on all petroleum products because of that region’s heavy reliance on oil for heating and power production. Applying an import tax just to gasoline would remove a big congressional objection, said Packwood.

The senator voiced misgivings about the administration’s tax-rebate proposal. He notes the budget has a deficit of $40 billion to $45 billion and is expected to be in the red by another $90 billion next fiscal year. In addition, some agencies not in the budget borrow funds, he pointed out.

Packwood predicted that such deficits would require federal borrowing to the point where loan interest rates would rise to 12 or 13 per cent and inflation would reach 15 per cent a year. “That will kill the Oregon housing industry,” he said.

100 years ago this week — 1925

Intense interest attaches to the wrestling match Wednesday night between Frank Pilling and Farmer Vance of Idaho on the part of the two wrestlers themselves. Both men are in good condition for the fray and each seems to feel that the match must be won. Vance who is considered one of the toughest and strongest boys in the northwest has long been a trial horse around Portland for incoming wrestlers and for this reason hasn’t been accorded a chance at the main events there although Promoter Hamlin admits that he is one of the strongest wrestlers of them all.

“If I beat Pilling and a couple of the other boys I expect to wrestle within the next few weeks I’ll get a chance against Yokel and some of the other Portland headliners,” Vance declared today, “and that is just what I am after.”

On the other hand Pilling who has shown once in Portland will likely get a chance to go back if he conquers Vance.

The wrestling card this week will be staged at the Eagle-Woodman hall and the preliminary between Dee Hatton and H. D. Cross will start at 8:30. Promoter Cross announces that tickets are on sale at Griggs and Tryon’s.

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The formal written vetoes of Mayor J. A. Fee to three of the ordinances passed a week ago in which proposals were incorporated to refer bills to the people of the city in a special election to amend the city charter were read to the council last night and ordered spread on the records. Four ordinances were presented for action a week ago, and one, which would take the power of appointing a chief of police from the hands of the council and give it to the mayor, was defeated by the council.

After this measure was defeated, Mayor Fee announced that he would veto the other three measures, though conferences had been held on the proposed measures previous to their presentation, and the council and mayor were agreed on the desirability of adopting the changes.

Against the ordinance that would simplify the present method of foreclosing liens, the mayor’s veto was as follows:

“This ordinance is vetoed for the reason it was one of four measures presented to the council for submission to the people, one of the ordinances was designated to give the mayor power to enforce the law and that was defeated, while one councilman voted against it saying he favored its submission to the people, but the two ordinances conferring increased power upon the council were adopted. This ordinance is a meritorious measure. There is however, no such urgent necessity for its adoption as would justify calling a special election for the purpose of its adoption or rejection by the people.”

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John Bentley and R. Alexander, two of Pendleton’s pioneer citizens will be among the speakers at the Knights of Pythias banquet Money evening. Bentley was the very first candidate initiated in Damon Lodge No. 4. He became a member in 1876, the year the lodge was instituted. R. Alexander became a member two years later.

Some interesting heretofore unpublished history of early day life in Pendleton, especially as it pertained to Damon Lodge and its members will be revealed by these two speakers. Mr. Bentley will explain how the lodge obtained a certain very important part of the paraphernalia used in the initiatory work of the order.

An interesting feature of the evening will be the reading of letters from members of the lodge who are now living in other parts of the country. These are to be read as their names are called. Several have already been received and more are coming each mail. Some are from cities on the Atlantic coast and some are from the far south.