Good Old Days: December 19, 2019

125 years ago

The Commoner

Dec. 21, 1894

At a special session of the board of school directors of District No. 1 (Colfax) on Friday evening last, the important matter of incurring the expense necessary to complete the present six months term of school was discussed, owing to the fact that the indebtedness of the districts is close to the legal limit, and it is now only in the middle of the term.

It was decided to call an election, the object of which is to obtain the approval and authority of the citizens in providing for the continuance of the school term as before mentioned.

The board issued the following notice:

“Notice is hereby given that a special election of the legal electors of School District No. 1 of Whitman County, Wash., will be held at Main Street school building, on the 26th day of December, 1894, beginning at the hour of 1 p.m. and polls to close at 4 p.m. of said day, for the purpose of authorizing the directors to incur the expenses necessary for the completion of the present six months’ term of school.”

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Dec. 12, 1919

The question of securing better fire protection will be given special attention at the next meeting of the club. The sentiment of the club members is divided in regard to just what equipment should be secured first, but many of the members favor the purchase of a chemical fire engine. Others believe that the city should authorize a bond issue to purchase fire equipment and to build a new reservoir.

The sentiment of the business men as well as the sentiment of the members of the council will be learned after the next meeting of the commercial club which is to be held next Wednesday noon.

Harry DePledge stated at the meeting that a well known farmer had told him he did not intend to locate at Colfax for the reason that the fire protection was poor. John Lich said the loaning company did not care to loan money to those who desired to build owing to the lack of fire protection. No definite action was taken by the members present Wednesday and it was decided to invite the members of the city council to be present at the next meeting and to present facts and figures for the consideration of the business men and officials of the city.

***

December, 1919, promises to go down in history of the county as one of the coldest Decembers that have ever been experienced in the Palouse country. The old pioneers of the county challenge this statement and insist the winter of 1873 was the coldest December that has ever been known in the county while others who came to the county a few years later are positive the winter of 1887 was the coldest.

The thermometer registered 21 degrees below zero Monday night and it was 14 degrees below on several nights last week. Those who have come to the state during the past twenty years were under the impression that there was no zero weather in the Palouse country but the weather the last two weeks has convinced them of their mistake. The damp atmosphere makes the cold more penetrating than it would be in a dryer climate. The coldest weather in thirty years has occurred at the time people faced a fuel shortage and the conditions have been anything but inviting.

J. A. Perkins says the present December is the coldest December with one exception that he has ever seen in the county. The winter of 1873 was colder and at that time the thermometer registered as low as 35 degrees below zero.

75 years ago

The Colfax Gazette-Commoner

Dec. 15, 1944

The large house on the west promontory overlooking Colfax, which had stood as a landmark since built by Tom Amos in 1883 and enlarged in 1898, was totally destroyed by fire Thursday night last week as were all of the household goods of the W. E. Griffin family except a rug and two desk drawers.

While listening to the radio Mr. and Mrs. Griffin and son, Billy, heard a crackling noise and upon investigation found the kitchen in flames. Firemen who answered an alarm were unable to check the flames as they had gained too much headway, but even had they not, the house was too far distant from a hydrant.

Lost also was a milk house, from which the Griffin’s saved an electric cream separator.

***

The southeast district basketball tournament will be held in Colfax again at the end of the season, the tentative dates being March 1, 2 and 3. The decision came as the result of an invitation extended by local school administration at a meeting of the Southeastern Washington Athletic association at Pullman Saturday.

Coaches and administrators were lavish in their praise of the excellent manner in which the Colfax community had served this important athletic event in past years, said Supt. R. E. Osborne.

The champion team will go to the state tournament in Seattle the middle of March. The tournament will follow one week after the county tournament here.

***

Discussing the future trends in agriculture at the Kiwanis club meeting Tuesday noon, R. M. Turner of the agricultural extension staff of the State college, said that high production is likely to continue after the war in view of machinery improvements that cuts down man hours of labor, and the increased use of fertilizer.

A large portion of his audience was made up of community Triple-A committeemen here to elect their county committee for 1945.

Mr. Turner said that price control should also continue to prevent skyrocketing of prices in the post-war period until production catches up with demand.

50 years ago

The Colfax Gazette

Dec. 18, 1969

Both “professionals” and “volunteers” performed well in Whitman Community hospital’s first disaster drill Tuesday afternoon, Sister Davenport, administrator, said yesterday.

The drill was the first of semi-annual disaster drills that will be held in the future to keep both the hospital staff and community volunteers in practice in case disaster should ever strike the community, Sister Davenport said.

Tuesday’s “disaster” was a train-school bus accident in which 13 high school boys took part as the victims, and members of the hospital auxiliary assisted the regular hospital staff, along with Colfax Volunteer Firemen and the three ambulances.

Delivery of the “victims” from the supposed location of the accident in downtown Colfax to the hospital required 11 minutes and the hospital staff and volunteers took 13 minutes to get the patients through the “triage” area, where they were sorted according to types of injuries.

***

The long-awaited start on construction of Lower Granite dam three miles up stream from Almota appeared closer today following announcement by the corps of engineers that a call for bids will be issued about Jan. 15 of next year. Bid opening is scheduled about March 17.

According to an advance notice issued by the corps Tuesday, the project has been exempted from the construction restrictions of the budget bureau, which means that work could start immediately once the contract has been awarded.

Estimated cost of the project is “over $10 million” and will include the dam, lock, spillway, powerhouse, fish facilities and visitor building.

25 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Dec. 22, 1994

Need a developed lot in a friendly rural setting, close to schools and the downtown commercial district?

Those kind of sites are available in Endicott, and they are offered by the Town of Endicott.

Mayor Randall Schmick admits it’s a little unusual for a town to be in the real estate business, but that’s the way the project has evolved at this point.

Endicott has developed nine lots on property owned by the city, across from the school where the county road departs for St. John. The development has been tagged the C. G. Schmick addition, after the late Mr. Schmick, who provided the land for the city.

C. G. Schmick was a long-time civic leader in Endicott and later spent his retirement years in Colfax.

***

Colfax crews last week reopened a bypass valve which can spill raw sewage into the Palouse River. Failures at the city’s sewer treatment plant have caused sewage to back up and threaten houses in Brown’s addition, the houses closest to the sewer plant.

The valve, which was modified before it was reopened, acts to spill sewage when the flow backs up at the city’s plant on the Walla Walla highway. It had been closed under request from the state’s Department of Ecology and its reopening has brought questions from DOE officials.

Backup of sewage has flooded the basement of a house owned by the Don Nelsons at 414 A Street four times this year. The basement, which is the lowest point in the city’s main residential sewer system, becomes flooded when intake failures at the city’s plant, located on the other side of the Palouse River, cause the sewage to back up.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Dec. 17, 2009

Whitman County parks department faces steep cuts in the looming 2010 budget overhaul facing Whitman County. Loss of part-time seasonal employee hours, no overtime for regular employees and steep cutbacks on equipment repairs and office supplies are all factored into the budget which parks director Tim Myers has proposed to county commissioners.

Myers told the park board at a Dec. 10 meeting this budget was only sustainable in the short-term, short of laying off employees.

County commissioners have each put forth a proposal for the park department budget. The final county’s overall 2010 budget will be set Dec. 28. A second public hearing on the county’s budget is scheduled for next Monday, Dec. 21, at 10:30 a.m.

“Because parks isn’t state-mandated, we’ve got to look at it in a little different light,” County Commissioner Greg Partch told the Gazette Tuesday.

***

With gaping holes in the floor and knocked out walls, remodeling of the Whitman County Library is well under way. The $1 million project is three weeks along. The project will add an elevator for handicap access and other changes and is expected to be finished in about five months.

In the interim, library staffers have moved with some equipments across the street to the back and second floor of the U.S. Bank building.

The temporary, smaller space on the first floor holds four public computers and roughly 2,500 books. The bulk of the library’s books, 48,000, remain in a corner of the old building.

All library books are still available for checkout, said Library Director Kristie Kirkpatrick. Patrons can request a book at the library’s temporary desk in the U.S. Bank building. Once a day, staff members will go into the library building to fill book requests.

***

Whitman County Health Department Friday announced that it has supplies of H1N1 vaccine now sufficient enough to remove restrictions regarding who is eligible to receive the vaccine. Beginning Monday, Dec. 14, H1N1 vaccine will be available to any resident of Whitman County who wishes to receive it. The vaccine will be available at both offices of the Whitman County Health Department, many physician offices and some pharmacies. Check the WCHD website for locations to receive the vaccine.

Since early October when the vaccine was first available, the department has been following recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control by prioritizing the use of H1N1 vaccine while supplies were limited.

Although cases of H1N1 flu seem to be declining in frequency, both nationally and in our area, the upcoming holiday travel period may spark another wave of flu early into the next year.