Pomeroy Pioneer Portraits

Ten years ago

October 3, 2012

Making sure that district patrons are aware of the website http://www.psd.wednet.edu and how it can make connecting with the district more easily is important to Marcus Pederson, school district music director and the technical coordinator. Pederson helped develop the website through a contract with Educational Service District 123. The project started in 2011 and was completed at the end of the year, with Pederson training on the “Joomla!” site-builder software. The most popular item on the site is the cafeteria menu. The school board’s site, the district calendar and staff contact are other high-traffic areas.

You know summer is officially over and the fall and winter seasons are on the way when the festivals and celebrations begin popping up. The first of these is usually Holy Rosary Catholic Church’s annual Oktoberfest event. The traditional home-made German sausage dinner includes potato casserole, fruit salad, green beans, home-made rolls, desserts, and drinks.

Twenty-five years ago

October 8, 1997

Washington Department of Wildlife Agent Jim Nelson of Pomeroy said deer and elk populations have been stable over the past year and the harvest for the upcoming hunting season should be about the same as in 1996. Archery season will run through September for deer and elk, and the season on cougar and black bear opened Aug. 1. Cougars may be taken through March 15 with a general hunting permit and there is no special tag. Black bear may be taken through Nov. 6. The WDW is encouraging harvest, Nelson said, since hunting with hounds and baiting for bears is now prohibited.

Pomeroy School District has an “apparent low bidder” for its elementary school remodeling project though it could mean postponement of some planned non-classroom work. Superintendent Terry Brandon said Northwestern Construction of Washington, a Spokane company, put in a rebid of $3,586,808. The district had put forth a list of deductive alternates to bring bids down from those originally submitted in August. Northwestern’s bid does not include work in the northwest corner of the elementary school that was planned for administrative use, work in the present boiler room area where district administrative offices were planned, some masonry cleaning work, and conversion of the area on the west side of the gym for locker rooms. The deleted alternates totaled $293,963, bringing the project in under budget.

Fifty years ago

October 5, 1972

A rubber boa was discovered and brought down from Calloway Hill Thursday afternoon by Everett Scoggin, who displayed the animal at the Forest Service office before returning it to its natural habitat. Also discovered recently by a county resident was a baby scorpion. Unlike the rubber boa, any scorpion could be dangerous and should not be handled.

Excavations at the museum site have begun! Following the issuance of a city building permit last week, excavation was begun Friday, Sept. 29, at Seventh and Columbia streets, site of a new museum. Meanwhile last week, a display “Grandma’s Attic” appeared in the windows of the former restaurant, Ellen’s Café between Sears Merchant Store and Paula’s Flower Basket, formerly Christopherson’s Jewelry (the Hallmark Store.) On display are a number of artifacts which might be found in “Grandma’s Attic”–artifacts which will go into the museum when it is completed. Also shown is the museum donations thermometer, which shows that the fund stands at a little less than one half the total needed to see the project through to completion, at today’s construction costs.

Seventy-five years ago

October 9, 1947

Judging from the number of “no hunting” and “no trespassing” signs purchased from the East Washingtonian office the past week, farmers in Garfield County will permit little if any pheasant hunting on their lands during the open hunting season, October 12 to 29, inclusive. Most of the farmers who have purchased signs prefer “no trespassing” to “no hunting”. They appear to be of the opinion that if they post their property with no trespassing signs they may permit their friends to hunt on their premises while with a no hunting sign it could be embarrassing, to say the least.

War not only consumes the food of the world while it is in progress, but it cuts down its production to starvation levels for years afterwards. These days call for the best type of home management. It is a resourceful housewife who can keep a family fed these days without practically demoralizing the family budget. The condition, one housewife tells us, has resulted in recipes being dug up that provide the requisite amount of nourishment at low cost. One would be surprised, she says, how many of such recipes there is.

One hundred years ago

October 7, 1922

An effort has been made to get men enough on the job to rush the Grouse creek road to completion during this month, according to a report made to the Commercial Club by G.W. Jewett, at the Monday luncheon in the Pomeroy Hotel. W.C. Ricketts, construction engineer, who was in Pomeroy last week, said the work could be done if 30 additional men could be secured, Mr. Jewett said. Six local men were employed, as a result of a call issued offering $4.00 a day less board furnished at $1.25 a day by the employer. On Saturday evening the engineer received a message that 20 men were coming from Portland. Mr. Ricketts believes there is no doubt that the road can be completed in time to celebrate the event on the 29th of October.

The state federation of taxpayers’ association has issued the following argument against initiative bill No. 46, known as the 30-10 school bill: The advocates of this measure in their arguments, speeches, pamphlets, etc., are becoming more and more reckless and exaggerated in their claims. There is constant shifting and dodging in an attempt to meet the tax increase argument and avoid admitting other phases of the question which reveal where the great increase in school funds will go. Washington has attained the highest rank educationally in the United States under to 10-10 system, and now, under a 20-10, continues in the first rank. A 30-10 system would raise by state taxation nearly $4,000,000 more, which would be not only an oppressive burden, but is wholly unnecessary.