Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten years ago

August 8, 2012

The Pomeroy Swim team won the annual season-ending County Meet for the sixth consecutive time on Saturday, Aug 4. Ireland Mayfield was high-point 12-and-over individual female racer. She also set two County Meet records.

Schools in Pomeroy School District will open as scheduled on Sept. 5, but junior-senior high school students and staff could be sharing some of the space in the high school building with construction workers during the first days of class. District superintendent Kim Spacek said that added-value change orders the district has made for the modernization project in the building could extend the time that workers from contractor Leone and Keeble, Spokane, remain on the school grounds. “When the contractor is out of the classrooms, the teachers can move in,” Mr. Spacek said. The projected dates for teachers to begin unpacking are Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 27 and 28.

Twenty-five years ago

August 13, 1997

Garfield County businesses and residents will once again have the opportunity to recycle corrugated cardboard, thanks to Troy Berglund at Berglund’s Food City. When the county dropped its recycling program and turned it over to an outside service, businesses and residents were left without a recycling alternative locally. As a result, Berglund decided to purchase the cardboard baler the county had been using in its program and to build a dock onto the back of his store for the heavy machine.

The Garfield County Health District has received questions concerning children passing on head lice at the Pomeroy swimming pool. District officials said likelihood of head lice spreading at the pool is very remote because the water and chlorine aren’t a good living environment for head lice. As with any other environment, universal precautions should be taken to prevent the spread of lice, including not sharing hats and combs. Swimmers should use their own bags to store clothing and try not to stack used towels that will be used again.

Fifty years ago

August 10, 1972

Although they are having difficulty convincing people, several Forest Service officials at Pomeroy Ranger Station have determined that a small fire Monday afternoon on Short Ridge was caused by two sticks rubbing together: the sticks, in this case, being a dead and broken white fir rubbing against an adjoining live white fir. The two trees rubbed together about 60 feet above ground-and from scars on the trees they obviously rubbed together for a long time-and with the hot, dry weather Monday, conditions were apparently right for the friction generated by the two trees to ignite the twigs on the live tree, and then the fire was able to burn down the outside of the tree to the ground and set the ground fire.

School Superintendent Jesse Bender this week announced the appointment of Larry Wilson as new agriculture teacher for Pomeroy High School, to replace Lee Sederburg, who has resigned to head the Vancouver, Wash., school system’s new horticulture department. Wilson comes well qualified. He was horticulture, ag shop and classes teacher and FFA advisor at Arlington, in Snohomish County. Some of the major FFA activities there included beef cattle raising and judging teams.

Seventy-five years ago

August 14, 1947

Factory workers are taking home an average of $50 a week. They took home $24 a week before the war. Yet, the $50 today doesn’t buy any more than the $24 did. This fact suggests the big dollars do not buy any more than the little dollars did. The fact also suggests that the work done is the measure of value and not the money paid for it. The money paid may vary up or down but the number of hours or day required for the purchase of a home, a car, a washing machine or a pair of shoes seems to remain about the same.

Mr. and Mrs. Harold Morgan, accompanied by Mrs. Jack Denny and children, Mrs. Walter Long and Mrs. Ruby Denny, left Tuesday morning for Bow, in Skagit county, on a business and vacation trip. Mr. Morgan owns a 20-acre oyster bed on the coast, in Skagit county. He was called there to move back oysters that have drifted from their original planted area, thus clearing the sea surface for the new crop to be seeded this fall. The work must be done this week when the sea tide is just right. Mr. Morgan purchased his oyster bed a couple of years ago. The investment so far has been a profitable one.

One hundred years ago

August 12, 1922

Deputy Sheriff Ellis Powell, City Marshal Dan Fitzgerald and Night Officer N.A. Whittaker beat all speed records up Main Street Tuesday, when they ran down Lon McKinney and arrested him for carrying liquor. The officers were waiting for McKinney when he drove up in his Cole 8. He observed the fact and stepped on the accelerator, probably turning on too much gas. At any rate, the race, starting at the west end of Main Street, terminated at the east end with McKinney in the hands of the officers. A sack containing pieces of a broken gallon jug and drenched with booze was found in McKinney’s car.

The Pomeroy flour mills and warehouse have been taken over by a local corporation formed for the purpose, and capitalized at $50,000, the capital stock being fully paid up. The E.L. Sanford chop mill and warehouse are also included in the deal. The object of the corporation, according to the papers, is to do a general milling and brokerage business. The mill, which has been closed for some time, will be put in operation within a few days and will be run day and night, the manager, F.M. Robinson states.