Flashback: Gunners ready for deer, each other; fire hazards furnish competition in 1949; Enrollment up 22% at COCC in 1974; Teen courts immersed in law and order in 1999

Published 2:00 am Thursday, September 26, 2024

75 Years Ago

Sept. 29, 1949 — Gunners ready for deer, each other; fire hazards furnish competition

With the announcement from Governor Douglas McKay’s office that the 1949 deer season will open on schedule, hunters in central Oregon toe the mark waiting for the starting signal Saturday morning.

According to Sgt. Lowell Hirtzel of the state police, more gunners than ever before have migrated to central Oregon for this year’s shooting.

McKay has called for a modified postponement of deer season, which will take effect in that part of the state lying north of the Lane-Douglas county lines and west of the Cascades. However, added McKay, the advent of rain in sufficient quantity to abate the forest fire peril would result in opening the 20-day season on schedule.

Hirtzel said that most of the hunters in the area are pointing either toward the Burns country or the game reserve south of East and Paulina lakes. He announced that there is some indication that lack of rain in the game reserve has driven the deer out and that hunters may find poor hunting around Paulina lake.

He also warned hunters of the acute fire hazards, and begged them to be extremely careful in the woods.

“One more thing,” said Hirtzel, “remember that no human being ever looked like a deer.”

The Forest service cautions hunters about the 107,000 acres covering slash areas that are closed and posted.

Areas in the Sisters district are: Green Ridge, Minto Pass and Jack creek, Lake creek, Cache creek and Melvin butte.

An area on the Foster ranch in the upper river country of the Bend district is closed and in the Crescent district there are closures in the vicinity of Big Marsh, Little Deschutes and Walker mountain.

50 Years Ago

Oct. 2, 1974 — Enrollment up 22% at COCC

Comparative registration statistics at Central Oregon Community College indicate the institution is in for the biggest enrollment increase in its history.

As of Monday morning, and compared with statistics compiled at the same time last year, enrollment is up more than 22 per cent.

David Habura, dean of instruction, said the increase is spread over all divisions of the college and is causing scheduling problems due to the lack of sufficient chairs and classrooms. The college’s 1974-75 operating budget was based on a predicted eight per cent increase.

Habura said it is impossible to predict if the 22 per cent increase will hold through the entire academic year, but it would appear total enrollment will easily exceed the predicted eight per cent.

The projected full time equivalency (FTE) enrollment for fall term had been estimated at 1,136. An FTE is determined by dividing the total number of credit hours taken by all students by the number 15, a normal credit hour load during a term.

The community education registration also is headed toward a new all time record.

Natural gas to rise 122%

Residential customers will experience an average of $2.60 per month or about 12½ per cent hike in natural gas prices, estimates O.M. Jones, president of Cascade Natural Gas Corp.

“Even with the announced increase from Canada, natural gas should remain competitive with other forms of energy,” said Jones.

The increase will become effective Nov. 1 on deliveries from British Columbia and Jan. 1 from the rest of Canada.

25 Years Ago

Sept. 29, 1999 — Teen courts immersed in law and order

Glancing up at the dry-erase board where three words are defined, more than half the 90 high school students in the room raise their hands when asked if they are interested in a law career.

The interrogator was Steve Gunnels, an assistant district attorney for Deschutes County.

Respondents were youth court advocates from Oregon schools crowded into Redmond’s city council chambers last week for training and practice in their avocation — parlaying illegal actions by their peers into behavior-changing paybacks.

The words — restitution, rehabilitation and retribution — were the focus of opening comments by Deschutes County Circuit Judge Barbara Haslinger.

Haslinger, Gunnels and defense attorney Duane McCabe shared their legal philosophies in the morning. The afternoon was devoted to a Redmond Teen Court hearing the case of a 17-year-old Bend boy charged with minor in possession of alcohol who agreed to have his case heard as an aspect of training for the visiting youth courts.

Haslinger told the youths sentencing was “a balance of all philosophies. The challenge is to continue to bring originality to sentencing and not let yourself become stale.”

She also emphasized the importance of parental involvement. “Maybe you should require them to be involved in the sentence if they’re not taking an active interest — possibly community service, or ask the parent for a recommendation on sentencing. Kids have no jurisdiction over their parents.”

Or, she suggested, the community, presenting the scenario of a youth arrested for the eighth driving-under-the-influence violation. “He’ll never drive again (but) is there still the need for punishment?”

The message, she said, is the community has the right to expect “appropriate punishment” when a person breaks laws.

Frank Ribich, treasurer of the Oregon Youth Court Association and Juvenile Services Program director for Deschutes County, hosted the conference with the Redmond Teen Court.

The three speakers brought more than 15 years’ experience with juvenile infractions to the session, the first in Redmond. It is the last of four gatherings supported by a three-year, $300,000 grant from Oregon Department of Transportation.

Students attended from Crook County, Bethel, La Pine, Sisters, Hood River, Roseburg, Salem and Stayton.