May 18
20 Years Ago-1994
Basic cable television rates in The Dalles are below “benchmark” levels set late last year by the federal government. After reviewing information supplied by Falcon Cable, City Attorney Gene Parker concluded the cable company is justified in charging $22.36 per month for basic cable. A benchmark figure is the maximum amount a cable company is allowed to charge for its services under Federal Communications Commission rules. Parker and Falcon could actually raise its basic service rates to $22.82 and still be under the benchmarks.
Block scheduling will be in place for the Dalles high school and The Dalles middle school when schools starts up this fall for the 1994-1995 school year. The Dalles (D-12) school board gave final approval to the new scheduling systems at the two schools when they met on May 12. The board had approved the concept earlier this year, and the finalization of the scheduling was subject to successful negotiations with teachers in a change of working conditions. At the high school, students will go to class for four 90 minute periods each day. At the middle school, students will also go to class for four 90 minute periods, but they will be on an “A and “B” schedule, with those four classes alternating every other day.
40 Years Ago-1974
Pictures, clippings, plaster casts and other things pertaining to the legendary Big Foot and other primates are displayed in a museum-like trailer opened today near W. Sixth Street. Peter Byrne is operating the exhibit, known as the Big Foot Exhibition and Information Center in a 55 by 10 foot trailer parked just west of Spooky’s Pizza Village. Byrne named the Academy of Applied Science, Boston, as a sponsor of the exhibition which he hopes will become a center for “information and investigation: relating to the Big Foot, or Sasquatch phenomenon.”
The sixth anniversary of the Senior Citizens Bus Service will be observed at the Recreation Café Wednesday. After the birthday dinner a review of six years of business will be given. Entertainment will be provided and birthdays during May will be recognized. Judge John Jelderks will be the master of ceremonies, dinner is $2.25 and the public is invited to attend.
60 Years Ago-1954
Members of The Dalles Elks swim team have served notice early that they are going to be tough in state swimming circles this summer. Saturday, three Dalles swimmers took a good chunk of ribbons at the Oregon Journal Junior meet at Jantzen Beach pool, which served to kick off the summer out-door swim season. All this despite the fact that local swimmers had been in the water only three times this year prior to the meet, while most of the other competitors have been working out regularly in indoor pools. Phil Baker grabbed off first place in the boys 13 and 14 years division. He also took fourth in the 55 yard backstroke. Nathan Francis took third in the boys 11 and 12 years 55 yard freestyle and fourth in the 55 yard backstroke. Bonnie Osborne won fourth in the 55 yard backstroke and seventh in the 55 yard free style for girls 11 and 12 years.
The Dalles track team will be represented in two events at the state track meet in Corvallis Saturday after winning the 880 yard relay and placing second in the 220 in the district 2-A meet at Bend Saturday. Ed Chambers, running second in the 220, qualified for the state meet, while Jerry Urness, Ron Froebe, Chambers and Dave Jones combined talents to win the relay only one second off the record time set two years ago by The Dalles relay team.
80 Years Ago-1934
Plans for a municipal dock, warehouse and grain elevator — drawn by the army engineers themselves — were received here today by Edward C. Pease, local merchant, for inclusion in the brief now being prepared in support of sea locks in the Bonneville dam. Blueprints of the proposed structures, complete with estimates of cost, show a dock 150 by 492 feet to be erected between Union and Washington streets and fronting what will probably be the harbor line of the Columbia as it will be established by the engineers.
The primary election over, voters in school district No. 12 still have a job to do Monday when they will be called upon to cast their preferences as to whether or not a new high school gymnasium is to be erected here as an SERA project. The question submitted to the voters by the city school board is authorization for the board to contract on behalf of the district an indebtedness in an amount not to exceed $20,000 for the purpose of providing material and supervisory labor to be used in connection with other labor furnished by the SERA to construct the gymnasium at a total estimated cost of $40,000.
100 Years Ago-1914
The Dalles baseball team easily defeated the Portland Transportation club aggregation on the local lot yesterday. The game was called at the end of the eighth inning, with a score of 15 to 3, in favor of The Dalles. The visiting team scored one run in each of the first two innings, while The Dalles drew blanks. But in the third, Huntington enthusiastically drove the ball three blocks to the southeast, scored a home run, and thereby started something that the Portland boys were unable to stop.
The rodeo, which was scheduled for July 2, 3 and 4, has been postponed until the time of the county fair, during the latter part of September. The managers decided to put off the big Wild West show for two reasons. One is that the harvest is unusually early this season and therefore the farmers of this section will be too busy to attend the rodeo in July. The other reason is the inability to secure the best talent for July, as the star buckaroos are scattered all over the country and will not come to this section until fall.
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