100 Years Ago

Oct. 30, 1924 — Anderson repairs building

For the third week the office of the Spokesman has been traveling back and forth from one end of a room to the other and from one store room to another while workmen have been putting in concrete floors, repairing partitions and the roof and otherwise keeping the place in turmoil. It is hard enough to get out a fairly decent paper under ordinary conditions, let alone attempting to do this under the handicap we have had here recently.

… After we are straightened around out of the present chaos, we will do our best to make up for past failures, and we’ll ask our subscribers to be considerate with us in our mistakes.

75 Years Ago

Oct. 27, 1949 — Potato Harvest Nearly Finished

With the 1949 potato harvest closing, pickers are beginning to move out of the area, says W. H. Reifschneider, airbase employment office manager.

According to Reifschneider, his office has been quiet for the past few days, and he expects to see the final spuds pulled out of the ground next week. A few small patches remain, he said, but the pickers still in the district can handle them easily.

There has been no serious shortage of pickers this year, the employment manager commented, and the few tight spots encountered were caused by lack of housing. Some of the pickers were forced to sleep in their cars, even during the short freeze, he said.

The airbase employment office was opened on September 20, and Reifschneider expects it to close shortly after next week winds up the potato harvest.

Reifschneider wishes to thank the women of Redmond in behalf of the pickers for the dozen boxes of clothes donated the office for distribution. The pickers informed him that Redmond was the first community they had been in, which made such a gesture.

Dent Family Sails For Australia

Mr. and Mrs. Lowell Dent and small daughter Edna of Terrebonne sailed last Thursday from Vancouver, B.C., for Perth, Western Australia.

They will visit Mrs. Dent’s parents and other relatives in Australia and will be gone until next July.

Mr. and Mrs. Dent, were married during the war, and this is their first trip to visit Mrs. Dent’s relatives. Dent has been engaged in farming operations with his father, W. E. Dent, in the Terrebonne community.

50 Years Ago

Oct. 30, 1974 — Washington official says: P.B. postmaster vacancy will be filled

“There are no plans to consolidate this (Powell Butte) post office. Action is being taken to fill the postmaster vacancy.”

So read a letter written Sept. 30 by Norman S. Halliday, assistant Postmaster General in charge of the Government Relations Department.

The letter was addressed to Congressman Charles H. Wilson, chairman of the Postal Facilities, Mail and Labor Management Subcommittee of the Post Office and Civil Service Committee. Wilson sent a copy of the letter to Jo Hindman, who with her husband, Ed, has been leading a community fight to retain the post office at its current third class status.

The letter brought a new ray of hope to the over 600 patrons served by the post office, even though Hindman was quick to point out that Halliday had not specified if the postmaster vacancy would be filled with another postmaster or simply a clerk.

Earlier in October E.D. Spencer, sectional facility manager for the US Postal Service stationed in Salem, had suggested that the Powell Butte facility might be downgraded to a “community post office” headed by a clerk rather than a postmaster. The possibility arose after long-time postmaster Edgar Peterson retired in August.

Spencer, contacted by The Spokesman Friday, said he had not seen a copy of the letter. “It sounds like a definite decision … but I don’t get that correspondence.”

Explaining that he had not yet made his recommendation on the level of service for Powell Butte, Spencer said he was following routine procedures to evaluate the facility.

His recommendation, which he said would not be made public, will be forwarded to the district manager in Portland for approval or rejection; then to the regional office in San Bruno, Calif., and finally to Washington, D.C.

Spencer predicted that the final decision on the facility would be made public by late November. He has contended that the Powell Butte Post Office should be downgraded as a money saving measure. He points to receipts from the facility of $13,149 during the 1973-74 fiscal year, com pared to annual operating expenses of $17,845 (for rent and salaries for one postmaster and a part-time clerk).

Powell Butte residents disagree with the operating expense figure, claiming that the facility represents one of the few bargains the postal system enjoys. The building occupied by the post office is rented for only $20 per month; utilities consist of electricity for lighting and a wood stove for heat.

25 Years Ago

Oct. 27, 1999 — Johnson Community Center takes form

People in the Redmond area will have easy access to services for children and families come spring.

Construction on the Becky Johnson Community Center at SW Eighth Street and Deschutes Avenue is right on schedule for its completion by March 2000.

“If anything, it’s going even better than expected,” said Jan La Chapelle of the Deschutes Childrens Foundation, which will manage the center.

The center will house a variety of organizations that provide services for children and families.

It is named for long-time Redmond resident Elizabeth H. “Becky” Johnson, who has been active in education and family issues.

Work on the center began two months ago, when the old Redmond Medical Clinic (Toevs Building) at SW Eighth and Evergreen and two city tennis courts to the north were demolished.

The county purchased the Toeva Building in December for $187,000. The tennis courts were acquired in a three-way agreement among the county, the city and the Redmond School District.

Announced tenants include a consortium of early childhood organizations that includes Early Childhood Intervention and special education and the Alice Hatch Center, which work with special needs children and Head Start.

The Deschutes County Health Department will have programs geared toward infant and child health and parenting, family planning and immunization programs. The federally subsidized Women Infants Childron will offer classes on nutrition and parenting, and the Healthy Start Program will focus on prenatal care and maternal-child health, with a focus on young children.

Deschutes County Mental Health and Cascade Youth and Family Center also will have offices in the center, as will a new federally-funded program, the Early Childhood Family Access Network, which will link families with needed services.

Consumer Credit Counseling, Victims Assistance and Divorce Mediation will share office space at the center.

While the center’s space is almost fully occupied, other programs may become tenants.

“I’ve paid a lot of attention to the questionnaires that went out in the community,” when determining what services should be offered, La Chapelle said.

She also said she has had lots of interest and offers of support from service groups in Redmond. The groups are interested in sponsoring furnishings and equipment for the public spaces in the building

Tom L. Doran Construction of Sublimity is the general contractor for the $997,700, 10.000 square-foot building. The county is paying for construction of the building from interest from the sales of surplus county property

Barber Barrett Turner Architects of Bend designed the building.