100 Years Ago

April 16, 1925 — Preparing street for blading and oiling

Marshal Toney and his helpers have been busy filling in the low places on Sixth Street

with new gravel preparatory to the blading of the street when it will be given a coat of oil as it was last year. The oil certainly kept the dust down and made a smooth, level street all summer, in fact until winter snow and rains softened the street up and then the oil was gone.

75 Years Ago

April 13, 1950 — City Preparing Pound for Dogs In Tie-Up Time

Redmond will have a dog pound this year.

The place for keeping “delinquent” pups will be fixed up at one of the bomb storage dumps at the airbase, it was announced at the city council meeting Tuesday night.

The sod and cement structure will serve as a shelter for the logs, but it will be open to a fenced yard, councilmen said.

Arrangements for setting up the pound were revealed at the meeting when Claude Van Buskirk asked the council whether or not dog tie-up ordinance would be enforced this year.

The city’s tie-up time for dogs will start Saturday, April 15. Provisions of the ordinance are that all dogs must be kept on the owner’s property or restrained on a leash when not on the owner’s premises.

The ordinance is “not to be ignored this year,” Ken Vadnais, public safety commissioner, announced.

Dogs straying around the city in packs will be the main targets of the enforcement, Vadnais said.

The pound will be ready for canine visitors by April 15, he added.

50 Years Ago

April 16, 1975 — Redmond puts $100 into state tourist pot

The Redmond Chamber of Commerce has pledged $100 toward the $50,000 that Gov. Bob Straub has asked the tourist industry to contribute over the next two years toward promotion of Oregon tourism.

The chamber board took the action at a special meeting Friday noon following a plea Wednesday during a special seminar on tourism at Juniper Golf Club.

At the Wednesday meeting Bend Chamber of Commerce manager Allan Crisler had called on other Central Oregon chambers to help build the private sector matching fund for a $600,000 state promotional program aimed at encouraging out- of-state visitors to make Oregon their vacation destination.

According to Crisler, who had met with the governor last month, Straub would pledge his support to the travel industry only if the industry came up with the $50,000 for the biennium. The first half would have to be raised by July 1.

Crisler said he had pledged $1,000 on behalf of the Bend chamber, the same amount as the Eugene chamber. The Portland chamber has designated $2,000.

Dick Turner, head of The Turner Group, Inc., a Portland public relations firm, called on the 20 persons assembled at the golf club Wednesday to support Straub’s proposed tourist promotion budget.

He urged contacting state legislators for their support of the $600,000 package for the 1975-77 biennium.

Turner is touring the state in behalf of Straub’s tourism promotion package under retainer by the Travel Development Assn. of Oregon, an organization sponsored by banks and utilities in the state.

25 Years Ago

April 12, 2000 — City faces tough choice on street couplet proposal

Through a petition, nearly 200 citizens have told the City of Redmond they don’t want Glacier and Highland avenues turned into a one-way couplet.

The city’s planning commission also doesn’t like it.

But the Oregon Department of Transportation and a city appointed citizens advisory committee both prefer the couplet over widening Highland Avenue to five lanes west of Fifth Street.

Now the Redmond City Council has committed itself to choosing between the options at its next meeting on April 26.

A small knot of citizens spoke before the council Tuesday night. The speakers were both for and against the couplet.

Bill Selby, a Glacier Avenue resident, said the neighborhood is already partly commercial. He believes the couplet would improve pedestrian and traffic safety. He also said the couplet would make the area more appealing, and widening Highland Avenue would harm that area more.

“Moving our Glacier problems over into another neighborhood isn’t going to solve the problem,” he said. “You represent a community, not just a single neighborhood.”

Shirlee Evans, a Dogwood Avenue resident, agreed. “I really think a five lane highway on Highland … is simply an obstacle,” Evans said.

But just as many spoke against the couplet.

Wes Poe, a Glacier Avenue resident, said a couplet would force people to drive more because they would have to backtrack to reach addresses there.

“To me, extra driving means extra traffic,” he said, noting that reducing traffic is one of ODOT’s goals. Poe also believes Redmond’s growth will eventually necessitate widening Highland west of 15th Street.

Phil Goold, of Evergreen Avenue, said in circulating a petition against the couplet, only five of 55 declined to sign it.