Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Warm Springs, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1979)
PAGE 2 JANUARY 19, 1979 Submits Resignation Weeks Pleads Guilty to Rustling Charges Montee Accepts Prineville Police Chief O ffer holding the juvenile program in abeyance pending justification. by Cynthia Stowell Dick Montee’s January 16th letter of resignation brings to a quiet conclusion several months of uncertain and increasingly uncomfortable employment with the Confederated Tribes. But it also leaves the police depart ment with one more unanswered question. Whatever happened to the juvenile justice program? Montee, who was transfer red back to the juvenile program directorship after a five-month stint as the assistant chief of police, accepted an offer made by the city of Prineville on January 15. As of February 1, Montee will be that city’s Chief of Police. That will leave the two-year old juvenile justice program with a secretary and two vacant positions. Juvenile officer Neil Wagner resigned effective Jan uary 1. Juvenile-director Small Fire Hawk was transferred to drug investigation to make room for Montee. Hawk does not wish to be moved again. It all started when the posi tion of assistant chief of police was created last July and Mon tee was moved from the juvenile program to second-in-command August 1. When budget time rolled around, the new position was scrutinized and Tribal Coun cil deleted it for lack of justifica tion. Police chief Jeffery Sanders provided Council with a 30-page justification in October. The position has not been reconsider-/ ed. Effective January 1, Montee was moved out of the ill-fated job and back to the juvenile pro- * gram. The catch: Council is Montee began looking for employment elsewhere and just short of an anticipated confront ation with Council January 24, he took the Prineville position. He feels it was a matter of quitting before he got fired. “As far as Council is concerned his resigna tion was effective December 31,” said Council m em ber Rita Squiemphen. For a long time Montee Jias' believed that the color of his skin disqualified him from the assist ant chief’s job and put the - position itself in peril. Council told the Law and Order Commit tee recently, however, that the real reason for their non-support of the position is that it was never cleared by Council nor justified satisfactorily. Montee showed Spilyay two letters addressed to Municipal (Continued on Page 12) Stoney Vernon Weeks, 36, entered a plea of guilty to charges of “theft on a reserva tion — larceny” before U.S. District Judge Otto Skopil Jan uary 3. Weeks is a Klamath Indian and at one time was married to Helene Arthur Weeks, who is a Warm Springs Tribal member. Weeks was apprehended last March by tribal natural re sources and FBI officials while attempting to steal twelve head of cattle belonging to Herb Stwyer Sr. at the Madras auction yards. It is a federal offense and is punishable by not more than $5,000, not more than five years, or both. According to U.S. Attor ney Bill Youngman, it is highly unlikely that Weeks will receive both penalties. Weeks has been employed by the Confederated Tribes since September 1975 working as a forestry laborer, garage lube- man and most recently, as a Trackmac operator for the for estry department. Weeks’ ter mination this week according to supervisor Bill Apgar was based on “his personal situation and the uncertainty of the entire Trackmac operation.” Sentencing is scheduled for February 12, 1979. Federal Pub lic Defender Mark Griffin, who is Weeks’ attorney, preferred not to comment on what fine or sent ence he expected for Weeks. — ------ — Locals on TV Soon— ------------- We’re sure you’ve all been waiting to see those familiar faces on your TV screen on the series “How The West Was Won.” It may be a few weeks before the segment with the 32 locals appears on ABC, because at this time, MGM is unsure when it will be shown. So, keep your eye open for ads in the TV Guide announcing the “pre miere Community Coped Well With Power Outage But Dreaded Repeat Performance by Donna Behrend When Warm Springs resi dents saw the flickering lights this Sunday evening, the thought rushing through our minds was no doubt, “Oh no, not again.” Hurrying for candles, flashlights and other sources of light, we couldn’t help wondering if we were going to have a repeat performance of the eighteen- hour power outage of the week before. Luckily, the outage this week was due to a cross-arm failure near Crooked River Ranch and lasted only an hour and a half. The outage in the wee early morning hours of January 8 that affected 1,800 residents is' a different story. Shortly after midnight January 7 the lights went out, making the already cold night seem frigid. Lucky Madras residents. were without power for only five minutes. The failure was due to a faulty or damaged insulator, not an overload of circuits. Not sure what the problem was until late Monday morning, it was decided to transport a mobile substation from Medford and a replacement transformer from Albany. The freezing rain caused hazardous road conditions in the valley, making it a very difficult task to get the parts here. An outage like this happens infrequently, ac cording to Jim Welch, PP&L local manager in Madras. “In my 19 years with the company, this has happened only twice.” Once the parts arrived, work went quickly. There was no work for bureau, tribal or mill employees that day, so many had an unexpected three-day weekend. Families crowded into Madras restaurants for breakfast, in an attempt to get their fill of hot food and warm surroundings once again. Those who didn’t drive to Madras for hot food on that chilly day stayed home to cook on their camp stoves or Wood heaters. The Group Home staff proved to be resourceful, too, by traveling to the mill to get wood for their fireplace, so they could cook. The police department was on the job, as usual, with the patrolmen checking on people in isolated areas. Fortunately they could stay close to their warm cars. Back at the jail, inmates stayed warm with extra blankets and coats. The dispatcher had to pick up the phone every five minutes to check for incoming calls, since the bell and lights didn’t work. The electric front doors of Macy’s store couldn’t open, so they stayed closed all day until late afternoon. Waldron Lessert and Dan Macy were “at work, just like always,” according to Lessert. The mail was delivered, but customers couldn’t get in to pick it up. Of course, some people did have prior commitments in other cities, so they smugly drove away from the cold community to spend the day in comfort. WSFPI officials say that about 150 employees were told not to report for work that day as all production shifts were down. The mill generates its own power, but requires outside electricity to start up its opera,- tions. To eliminate that depend ency, the mill has asked PP&L to install isolation switches in the lines. As of Wednesday, January 17, the tribal utilities department had 65 homes on their list that required pipe thawing. Utilities M anager Herb Gray bael anticipates that 80 percent of the pipes that are frozen now, will be broken when, if ever, the weather warms. The Warm Springs volunteer fire department engines were ready to go and kept warm by a space heater, operating on a gas generator. Luckily, there have been no house fires reported since Hazel Suppah’s house was destroyed November 26. PP&L office personnel say that the outage was called in by a motorist who was on the Kah- Nee-Ta road. He saw what looked like three bolts of light ning striking all in the same place. If you see something like that, it should be called in as it saves hours in locating the problem. The numbers you can call a r e 475-3529 a fter 5, 475-2503 before 5, or Call collect to 382-1011. Spilyay Tymoo CAMP COFFEE - Extension Agent Pennie Albrandt was one of the resourceful ones when the electricity went off January 8. She had to have her coffee so she lit up her Coleman Stove, then stuck pretty close to her fireplace. Spilyay Tymoo Photo by CDS SPILYAY TYM O O STAFF Managing Editor Sid Miller Assistant Editor Sandy Rangila Photographic S p e c ia lis t/W rite r Cynthia Stowell Reporter/Photographers Roger Stwyer Donna Behrend Priscilla Squiemphen, Secretary FOUNDED IN MARCH OF 1976 Published bi-weekly by the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs R eservation of Oregon. Warm Springs, Oregon 97761. Located in the Old Administration Building. Any written material to Spilyay Tymoo should be addressed to: Spilyay Tymoo P. O. Box 735 Warm Springs, Oregon 97761 Phone 553-1644 or 553-1161, Ext. 274 Subscription Rate,$6.00 per year P e o p le ’s O pinion QUESTION: “What did you do during the power failure here on January 7th?” “The night the lights went out in Warm Springs.” Paul A. I was working over at Kah-Nee-Ta when the power went out. A short time later the power came back on over there. After learning the power was out in Warm Springs I stayed in the dorm at Kah-Nee-Ta. Marie S. I got up in the morning and put on my long Johns, went to the office to see if there was anyone at work. I had the funny feeling and was won dering why people were looking at me as they were and I finally realized that I had a sheer blouse on and you could see my flowered long johns so clear . Orthelia M. I had to do my cooking in our camper. It was warm in there also, then after that we went to Bend to escape the cold spell. It worked out pretty well. Mitch B. We were all gather ed around the fireplace trying to keep warm and also doing some cooking, heating water and mak ing coffee. ■ > Louise J. We arrived here early in the morning from Port- land to find no power. I even checked at the office to find no one around. So we drove to Madras then to Redmond and ended up in Bend. We spent the day in that area to avoid the power outage and keeping warm. When we returned the power was back in order. Roger S. We were out driving around and thought at first the fog was real heavy because we couldn’t see any lights in Warm Springs. We finally arrived home and found out the power was off. We have a wood stove in our house so all wé did was light some candles and started a fire in thè stove.
