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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1945)
Monday, October 1, 1945 -.- i Page f wo Section A THE LA GRANDE EVEKING OBSERVER LA GRANDE, OREGON I Extensive Highvdy Many Business Changes of Importance During Last Year Record of the business changes In f-a Grande during the last year, since Oct. 1, 1944 and of the con templated construction and build ing work set out upon during the year shows that most of the changes were looking to future expansion of the economy and industry of the valley. One of the first changes in the year was the purchase in October of .Stoen's Fly ways by K e i t ii Province and Merlin Johnson who changed the name of the bus iness to the Eastern Oregon Air ways. Both the men hod more than 2,500 flying hours to their credit. They planned to continue Instruction with the trainer planes, both here and nt Enter prise. There were then 45 active students of flying. ' Absorb Bank Another important change dur ing the year wos the absorption byl! the U. S. N a 1 1 o n a 1 bunk branch here of the First National baflk of Elgin. The change was announced by Paul S. Dick, pres ident of the U. S. Nationul bank of .Portland. Still another important busi ness event, one in December, was the" Eastern Oregon Light and Power company's refunding of its $1,850,000 bonded debt to save 2 percent interest charges. The now issue was for $1,(100,000 with the odd $50,000 being paid off from current funds. The new issue was to be paid off at $110,000 a yeur for the first five years. $1)5,000 for the next five and $25,000 annually for the rest of the 25 year period. Farm Loan Grows In February, seven nutionnl ffcrm Joan agencies merged to form the La Grande National farm loan association. AVo in that month, the Eddy Bakeries bought the La Grande Bakery compuny from K. J. McWilliams. The city budget for the year was set at $170,857, which was $39,093 more than the overall cost uf.' government of the previous fiscal year ending June 1. The tujj rate was expected to be less, however, because uf elimination of'sinking funds and reserves und retirement of bond issues, as well as economies being effected. Drilling for oil in the valley also was started in June, with the work taking place on the Charles E. Davis and Richard B. Davis farms near Hot lake. Feeder Line Advantages of a feeder line for La Gfrande were explained in August at a meeting of the cham ber of commerce airport commit tee with representatives of the Zimmerly Airlines at the cham ber. Zimmerly lines purposes set up services between La Grande, Baker, Spokane and severul Ida ho cities. Summary of business changes and events in the year: October Steen's Flyways sold to Prov ince and Joluison . . . Cannery project ended with 17.801 cuns processed by 256 Xamilies . . . Priorities were offered to ease the housing shortage here by con cersions, where housing shortage was "causing undue hardship." . . . Mounting business in the postoffice hud uroused the reali zation of the need of more futil ities . . . during the first half of the month $!t,7!2 was the total of postal receipts. November Postal receipts for October were announced $0,734; for the pre vious Oetubor they hud been $5, 779 . . . The U. S. housing au thority was to make a survey of the housing situution here . . . A need of 50 temporary housing units was disclosed. December Fifty housing units were up- proved for La Grande by James Maxwell, housing administrator, 12 with three bedrooms each, 13 with one bed each in each wing. January, 1945 An increase of 75 percent in the city water supply by increasing tne height of the Beaver creek storage dam by 10 feet was rec ommended by the city munugor and engineers. It was said the 200 million gallons of sturjifie space wus adequate at present but would not meet postwar needs . . . Fire loss of $38,500 in MODERN RESEARCH HAS Wood is Now Being Transmuted into a Rapidly Expanding Group of Products It means a sustained flow of payroll funds into Hie community through I hp harvestine; of timber nnd I'inishinj- of lumber. It moans that u now group divoi sil'iod wood products ill jtivo now conveniences to the homo, lo business ... In all enterprise . . . and thai this workable material will moot a vast number of industrial roitiiroinonls. It provides a H. V J! I the Union Pacific roundhouse in creased the city file loss during the year to $40,249, the city fire chief reported. It hud been four time the loss of 1943 . . . Tele phone and electric service was disrupted Jan. 5 by violent wind storms during the previous night. February Seven nationul farm loan asso ciations consolidated to form the I.a Giunde National Farm Loan association, with C. T. Miles secretary-treasurer und Charles Liteh, Enterprise, president, and Charles Smut, La Grande, vire president . . . The city conunis- NEW F. REED LUMB Building .Planned for Postwar Era ROCK CREEK plant of lho Eastern Oregon Light and Power company five miles and a half west of Haines in Baker county, at the fool of the Blue mountain range. Although the penstock is not shown in the picture it is a steel pipe 2,720 feet long and the Pelton water wheels are rated at 880 horse. The generators are rated at 450 KW. 2.300 volts qach. The total head is 960 feet, one of the first high head plants in the northwest. Th e substations steps up the voltage to 23,000 volts for transmission lines extending to Union, Baker and Grant counties. The Rock Creek pla.it is the dispatching center for the system, it controls th e loading of the plants, switching of lines and other details of the system operation. sion voted to extend the sewer connections on Cove avenue, the cost to be borne by the adjacent property owners . . . An early start was planned on 20 new houses which had been author ized by the NHA ... The Eddy bakeries bought the La Grande USES FO MEER flexible substance front nature for even still further development in the future era. Its limits are bound less. Preserve our timber for our everlasting welfare. A sustained yield will lengthen its supply and keep lis from exhausting our tree capital. Elgin, . .1. hi 5 - j ' 1 Bakery company from K. J. Mc Williams. It was announced by J. E. O'Connell, president. Ralph Nelson .was to manage the ba kery plant here . . . The county unnounccd plans for improve ment of the Imbler-Summcrville road. . . .... -- .. Oregon 1 t U ""P T L JI. ' V i i i-'j.-l. VTA ).- re . ... March File threatened the Paul Bun yan plant but was extinguished quickly. It iiad been caused by -.1 faulty flue . . . Early action was promised in raising the height of the storage dam. Cost was ex pected to be about $25,000. See MANY . . . Page 0 IS?,-- . FOUND ER CO. Program to Include State, County Roads Postwar work to modernize and improve the highways of the Grande Itonde valley and in Union and Wallowa counties has Ions been planned aiid will offer considerable employment in many forms in the first few postwar years. Thorn have been many un I movements and extensions con 1 1 mplated. Many of the improve- incnts will be purely local in nu i lure and will be carried out by i ih. rnunlv road system and un I Her rountv financing. For this 1 k the county has, fiom all i sm.rees. about $90,000 a year. ' Thi includes construction und n itc nance of county roads 'and bridges, and puichase and main ! ti nance of equipment. ! Amounts to be spent on vari I ou parts of federal-state high v, i are not exactly lixed. but Mime of the exp; ndilures are ar. fuliows: On the Wallowa lake loud, on highway 82, from Klgin to the 1 im hill, a considerable sec tion of the road will be modern ized. It will mostly be rebuilt with new locations, new grades and other new installations. The cost is estimated to be about &27U.0on. For Union county secondary : roads under federal aid, as is tile st t highway above, there W'li j In- nbout 31.79 miies of impiovc j ment. It includes work on the ! Weston-Elgin road on the section : between Tullgate and Weston. I i e will be about lti inik-s of j leconsti uction and so far it is contemplated to spend about $195,000. Road program of Union county t If includes the following ! winch have already been set up. Other improvoiiTents of course ' :.re expected as fast us eileuin- stances warrant. 1 lie program: j Ruckniun-Imblt-r-Brnoks lane. ! Road 35, length 2.09 miles; grad ing and surfacing. This road be gins at the north cily limits of Imbler going due north, termin ating n?ar the J. W. Tuttle prop erty. Parks - Rhinehurt road 135. Length 4.17 miles. Grading and surfacing. This road starts at the northeast limits of Summerville, thence east past the Rhinehurt sta. ion, terminating near the J J. Hawks property. creek ! Grey's corner - Indian road 52. Length 4.32 mites, j lion road near the Enoch Pear gr.iuint; imd sui lacing. Inipiove- j Mtn property. Protect Our Forests . . . Keep Oregon Green Highway Shops to Expand Work in Postwar Era One of the industries which is expected to grow when the state and the community gets into full postwar activity is that of the state highway commission shop.? here. J The La Grande branch of the state highway department serv ices Baker, Gilliam, Grant, Mal heur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union and Wullowa counties and part of Harney and Wheeler counties, an area of about 39,000 square miles which has 2,200 miles of ' primary and secondary highways maintained by the state. j The shop, even during war time, ' supplied and maintained 470 I pieces of equipment used on the highways, including ears, trucks, snow plows, tractors, graders, power shovels, road oiling equip ment and many other pieces. A storeroom in connection with the shop supplies all the parts used by the shop and furnishes tools and supplies for the high way maintenance crews in the division. This stateroom in nyear purchases us much us $00,0110 worth of supplies. ment for this road starts near the F. C. Hunt property, thence in a northerly direction,- terminating at the Ivan Bingaman property. Starns-Craig road 21. Length 1.25 miles. Grading and surfac ing with pit-run gravel. The im provement for this road begins at the H. N. Starns property, thence in a northeast and south direc tion, terminating near the George Craig property. Steels - Bowman road 83. Length 3.6 miles. Grading. This road begins near the Sadie E. i Steers property, thence in a northeast and south direction, terminating on the Palmer June- '6
