Flashback: V.E. Cerveny to manage Redmond Hotel Grill; City dads put garbage talk on shelf; Hot dry weather fans forest fires in 1974

Published 2:00 am Thursday, June 13, 2024

100 Years Ago

June 19, 1924 — V.E. Cerveny to manage Redmond Hotel Grill

V.E. Cerveny, formerly of Lower Bridge and who has conducted the boarding house at the Diatomite plant for several years, has taken over the Redmond Hotel Grill and will conduct this popular eating place. Mr. Cerveny has had years of experience in the feeding of the public and knows just how to please with well cooked and served food. We predict a good business for him in his new venture.

75 Years Ago

June 16, 1949 — City council put garbage talk on shelf

Visitors protest flat rate; alley parking to cease

After hearing some rather strong words from visitors on Redmond’s proposed compulsory garbage system at their meeting Tuesday night, city councilmen decided to table discussion on the subject, and moved to meet with the planning commission Tuesday, June 21, to settle the business once and for all.

Three men, L. L. Nichols, Robert Knorr and W. J. Newton, opened the garbage discussion by saying that they had heard all sorts of rumors on how the compulsory system will be worked, and they came to the council to get the answers themselves. The spokesman for the trio, Nichols, said he had heard that a flat rate of $1 was going to be charged. As all the garbage he had each month was a few tin cans and a couple of purex bottles he thought it was unfair, and wasn’t going to pay.

Voters Okeh’d It

Councilmen explained to the men that at the November election last year Redmond voters gave the council the go-ahead to draw up an ordinance regulating such a system with the idea that it would go into effect around July 1, 1949. The object of the plan is to clean up Redmond, councilmen said. If people are charged for garbage pickups they will be sure to get their garbage hauled away. As it is now some persons will not pay the fee and let their refuse pile up, councilmen argued.

The only bid offered to the city to operate the system came from Henry Walker, but no action was taken on his contract. The council’s goal is to arrive at a flat rate for everybody, and the city dads hope it won’t go over $1. Walker advised the council that if it does climb over this amount the city will have to rent the high school gym to hear the complaints.

50 Years Ago

June 19, 1974 — Hot, dry weather fans forest fires

The fire season arrived suddenly and in full force for Redmond Air Center, as the dry hot weather fanned man-caused and lightning-ignited forest fires across Oregon and Washington.

The biggest blaze in this area consumed some 45 to 50 acres of timberland on the southeast side of Pine Mountain, part of it in Deschutes National Forest and part on Bureau of Land Management property.

Two tankers, operating out of Redmond Air Center, dropped 14,100 gallons of retardant on the lightning caused fire Sunday. Mop-up was in progress Monday and Tuesday by the Inter-regional Suppression Crew, headquartered at the air center.

Meanwhile, the center yesterday had dispatched eight smokejumpers goes to fact-finding to four lightning-caused fires of a quarter acre or less on the Willamette National Forest. Twelve additional jumpers were sent to Cave Junction Smokejumper Base in Southern Oregon, where crews were left shorthanded by a series of blazes along the Rogue River.

Replenishing the smokejumper contingent at Redmond were 12 men, sent here yesterday from Missoula, Mont. Dispatcher Walt Baas reported the Montana jumpers were on standby yesterday noon.

On Saturday three Redmond jumpers were dropped on the five-acre lightning-caused Strawberry Fire in the Lakeview District of Fremont National Forest.

Thursday found 12 jumpers on the Jack Knife Fire in the Wallowa Whitman N.F. and five on the Hollenbeck Springs Fire in the Snow Mountain District of the Ochocos.

Two tankers from Redmond also dropped retardant on both of those man-caused blazes.

The same day a tanker was dispatched to the Baldy Mountain Fire on the Wenatchee NF in Washington. It remained in Washington until Saturday, making several runs on various forests.

Tuesday a DC-7 tanker dropped retardant on Little Butte Fire in the Winema.

25 Years Ago

June 16, 1999 — Parents, educators react to bomb threat

Within hours of a 20-minute evacuation of the high school last week, a Redmond parent of three stepped forward with a commitment to help children in this community remain safe.

Amidst opinions from parents over whatever decisions were or were not made by school officials after a third scrawled message was found in a boys’ restroom, Ron Nelson organized a committee to Stop Threats Against our Public Schools.

STOPS has established an account at the district office for cash rewards to students reporting information about crimes.

“We’re hopeful it will make a difference with more people talking (and will) lead to a strong feeling of community,” said Nelson, who is also a lieutenant with the Oregon State Police.

By the weekend, $1,000 had been donated to STOPS. Nelson said it’s “about awareness. Getting the word out. The attitude is, if it saves one incident what’s it worth to keep one handgun out of a backpack at school?”

Superintendent Jerry Colonna said after threatening messages were found at the high school, he, school administrators and the Redmond Police Department made no decisions without talking to each other.

“When we decided to evacuate (on Tuesday), we decided together,” Colonna said.

RHS Principal Dan Purple said after the first message was found, the district and Redmond police did a “threat analysis.” When another message appeared, bomb experts from Oregon State Police were consulted.

OSP investigators told them “bomb situations” usually do not come with warnings, said Purple. “That’s not the way an individual would do business. Ninety-five percent of the incidents are without warning, not on the stall of a bathroom.”