100 Years Ago
For the week ending
March 25, 1923
Shevlin-Hixon mill’s newest unit up to expectation
The new third unit of The Shevlin-Hixon Company’s sawmill in Bend has exceeded everything expected of it. Although this new addition has only been in operation a few weeks its daily output in 16 working hours has averaged 200,000 board feet, which is an increase of 50 per cent over the previous cutting capacity of the plant with a two unit mill.
The new section’s outstanding feature is the gang, the first of its kind to be used in Central Oregon. This saw, which really is a combination of 40 smaller saws, each 44 inches long, hangs in a sash which operates up and down 250 strokes a minute. The gang not only cuts as well, but is able to produce a great deal more board feet of a certain thickness faster and at less cost than the band saws generally in use in sawmills. But the value of the band is not lessened by the gang; each has its peculiar use, for the band is so fitted that it can cut any desired thickness of board after a moment’s adjustment, while several hours’ work is necessary to change the thickness of the cutting ability of the other.
Tiny child thriving in incubator
Bend has a real incubator baby.
The young lady is taking her rations enthusiastically from a medicine dropper and has gained whole ounces since Sunday. Even a single ounce is a large increase for an infant which weighed slightly more than three pounds to start with.
The incubator baby is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. P.S. Olson, and was born at the home of Mr. and Mrs. L.C. Hanson, on Columbia avenue, just one week ago. The tiny mite was losing weight, and chances for life seemed slim indeed when the wee thing was put in its incubator Sunday.
But now Miss Olson has taken a fresh interest in worldly things, chief of which is the above mentioned medicine dropper. And her physician modestly gives the credit to the incubator.
Coincidence bridges 67 years
Sixty-seven years ago, George Weimer, later a Central Oregon pioneer, built a flour mill at Phoenix, Oregon. A few days ago the destruction by fire of that same mill halted Weimer’s funeral procession as his body was being taken to Ashland, according to a letter received here from W. D. Barnes, former Deschutes county judge, now resident of Phoenix.
Weimer built the old mill in 1855, and operated it for 20 years. In 1902, he and his sons came to Central Oregon and took up homesteads on Bull creek flat. The original Tumalo postoffice was on Weimer’s homestead and he was postmaster. W.P. Downing, now a local restaurant proprietor, carried mail between Bend and the Tumalo postoffice. The present town of Tumalo was then known as Laidlaw. The land is now owned by Blaine Devers.
When the C.O.I. project was built, the state purchased the Weimers’ holdings, and George Weimer moved to Central Point, where he died two years ago. Recently his relatives decided to move his remains to Ashland for reburial.
The same day that the procession started, the old mill caught fire and burned to the ground. Fire fighting apparatus from Medford blocked the highway, and halted Weimer’s funeral procession for several hours.
Schools are all to have tennis courts
Tennis courts will be in evidence and in use in all the local schools in the near future, City Superintendent of Schools G.W. Ager said today. The Reid school has such a court already under construction which will be completed within the next two weeks. Work on the construction of tennis courts in other Bend schools will be started at an early date, early enough, if possible, Ager said, to give the children sufficient practice, or some practice at least, to qualify for the Central oregon school day tennis events, to be held in Redmond May 11.
75 Years AgoFor the week ending
March 25, 1948
High school honor students named
Priscilla Botkin has won top scholastic honors among the 139 members of the 1948 senior class, it was announced by R.E. Jewell, Bend high school principal.
In winning the honor of being valedictorian of the class, Miss Botkin maintained a grade average of 1.10, one of the highest in the school in recent years. Beverly Hebert is the class salutatorian with an average of 1.28 for her four years of high school.
Commencement exercises for the class have been set for May 28. Other seniors in the top 10 of the graduating class are; Frances Brooks 1.41, Betty Lewis 1.47, Betty Marie Hunt and Marjorie Tobias 1.52, June Nysteen 1.53, Don Benson 1.54, Lowell Maudlin 1.57, and Janet Cook 1.58. Both girls, along with nearly all of the other students in the top 10, were active in extra-curricular activities in their high school careers. Miss Hebert is editor of the 1948 Bear Tracks, the high school annual.
Bend medical center goal of campaign
Plans for a campaign to raise funds for the construction of a memorial medical center in Bend have reached a stage where campaign workers will soon move into the field, according to Carl A. Johnson, chairman of the civic hospital committee.
The hospital committee determined the best plan is to convert the St. Charles hospital to meet requirement of the state code and erect a three-story concrete addition to provide ample beds and create a medical center with modern equipment to serve Bend and surrounding territory.
It is planned that the medical center and hospital will continue to be operated by the present hospital management, the Sisters of St. Joseph, according to Johnson.
According to the plan, the hospitals foundation, through its board of directors, will administer the funds in building and equipping the hospital. The board of directors will be chosen from the hospital founders, who will include all persons who serve or subscribe in the fund-raising campaign.
50 Years Ago
For the week ending March 25, 1973
City decisions could put Bend in hospital business
St. Charles Memorial Hospital will ask Bend city commissioners tonight to pass a resolution which could put Bend in the hospital business in the year 2006.
The resolution would allow the hospital to use Bend’s tax-exempt bonding status. The hospital will be issuing bonds for the construction of its new $13 million facility at Neff and Denser roads. Sister Kathryn Hellmann, hospital president, has given commissioners financial projections on the new hospital she hopes will assure them and potential investors that the hospital will be able to pay off the city-sponsored bonds within 30 years.
If the city decides to participate, St. Charles will be the first hospital in Oregon to use municipal bonds to finance construction.
The municipal bond proposal will keep hospital expenses down by saving millions of dollars in interest. Just how much can be estimated accurately only after final costs are set and the bonds are sold. But, as an example, suppose the bond issue is $13 million and the interest on the tax-free bonds is 6-1/4 per cent. Then suppose conventional financing would cost the hospital 8-1/4 per cent. The two per cent savings adds up to approximately $6 million over 30 years.
Savings from the municipal bond issue will be passed on to patients, Sister Katheryn said. She estimated that the bond issue will allow St. Charles to charge an average of $5 per patient per day less. Under the proposal the hospital would issue the tax exempt bonds on behalf of the city. When the bonds are retired, the building and the land it sits on would belong to Bend. To attain the deed to the hospital all the city has to do is lend its tax-exempt bond status to the hospital. There is no risk financial or otherwise, City Attorney Ron Marceau said, because the hospital, not the city, will be issuing the bonds.
If the hospital defaults on its bond payments, the city will have first crack at the hospital property: It can, if it wants to, make the payments and run the hospital. Or it can let the bond holders dispose of the property.
Marceau said that when the hospital first approached the city about the bonding proposal, the hospital wanted an additional agreement guaranteeing that the city would deed over the property to the present hospital corporation after the bonds were paid off.
“But that definitely could not be part of the deal, for two reasons,” Marceau said. First, the Internal Revenue Service rule that allows the bonding procedure requires that title be offered to the city.
Second, the present city commission cannot bind the city commission of the year 2006 (when the bonds expire) to such an agreement.
Sister Kathryn said she is confident the city will not want to run the hospital when the bonds are retired. “If we (the Sisters of St. Joseph) do our job well, I’m sure the city will want us to continue to run the hospital,” she said. If not, the city has several options. The City could run the hospital itself, sell it to a proprietor, or lease it. Or it could simply sign over the hospital to the non-profit corporation that is running it now.
25 Years Ago
For the week ending March 25, 1998
Park district unveils projects
Four park projects along the Deschutes River and a new “lighted schools” program are among the highlights of a 1998-99 work plan for Bend’s park district.
The plan adopted by board members Tuesday night, also includes renovation and upgrades at several parks, the covering of an outdoor pool for expanded aquatic programs and a “youth sports summit” to help established and fledgling organizations coordinate their facility needs.
Three riverside park projects should ease the burden on Drake Park, the 77-year-old crown jewel of the Bend Metro Park and Recreation District.
An amphitheater and special event park in developer Bill Smith’s Old Mill District is just one such effort. Another riverfront park will take shape south of the Colorado Street bridge, as well as a nearby park block in the new Shevlin Riverfront mixed-use project, under a grant provided by the Brooks Corp.
The fourth riverfront project involves renovating the First Street rapids area, which is slated to host a kayaking event in next summer’s World Masters Games.
Away from the water, four schools have been picked to be the pilot sites for a concept called “lighted schools,” which basically turn school buildings into after-hour community centers, primarily aimed at young people.
Pilot Butte and Cascade middle schools and Elk Meadow and Bear Creek elementary schools were picked from among seven schools seeking to try out the new parks-school district partnership. It also will involve several youth groups, including Scouting, 4-H and the Boys and Girls Club.
Before the new fiscal year begins, the park district will celebrate a long-awaited opening in May of its new Big Sky youth Sports Complex, a group of soccer and baseball fields at Neff and Hamby roads in northeast Bend.
Measure 50, which puts a cap on property taxes, also did a favor to the park district, as it did other local governments. A five-year, $10 million special levy approved by voters became part of the district’s permanent tax rate. The measure also assures that new construction adds t the tax rolls and thus to government budgets.
The levy fund, now called a “special projects fund,” will pay for projects such as renovation of harmon and Pageant parks and more work around renovated Hollinshead Bar, Whitaker said. Other planned efforts include new intramural sports programs, first at the middle schools, followed by high schools.
A study is planned that could lead to a vote on expanding the park district’s boundary. To focus on other areas, a phasing out of adult recreation programs, many of which are being offered by Central Oregon Community College.
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