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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2018)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • DECEMBER 5, 2018 • Offb eat Oregon: Klamath County’s courthouse squabble Special Offer SAVE 20% By Finn JD John SPECIAL OFFER! For The Sentinel ONLY $23 99 * B Order Now and SAVE 20% Only $23.99* (reg. $29.95), plus $8.50 shipping & handling per item. Visit CrownMapleSpecial.com to order item SC-101-DA_Ea Use Promo Code CROWN110 Order by Dec. 14, 2018 for Christmas delivery. Offer ends December 31, 2018 or while supplies last t int’l games excluded. Out-of-market games only. Selec Ask me how to Bundle and save. CALL TODAY! 1-855-502-2578 Iv Support Holdings Renews at full price. Offer ends 11/30/18. New approved customers only, lease required. Hardware and programming available separately. Other conditions apply. NFL, the NFL Shield design and the NFL SUNDAY TICKET name and logo are registered trademarks of the NFL and its affiliates. ©2018 AT&T Intellectual Property. All Rights Reserved. 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The Family Gourmet Feast 2 (5 oz.) Filet Mignons 2 (5 oz.) Top Sirloins 4 Boneless Chicken Breasts (1 lb. pkg.) 2 (4 oz.) Boneless Pork Chops 4 (3 oz.) Kielbasa Sausages 4 (4 oz.) Omaha Steaks Burgers Plus, 4 more 4 (3 oz.) Potatoes au Gratin Burgers 4 (4 oz.) Caramel Apple Tartlets FREE OS Seasoning Packet shown over 55586LDF | $199.91* separately *Savings aggregated single Combo Price $ 49 99 item base price. Limit 2 pkgs. Free gifts must ship with #55586. Standard S&H will be added. Expires 2/28/19. ©2018 OCG | 18M1531 | Omaha Steaks, Inc. Call 1-877-717-9688 ask for 55586LDF www.OmahaSteaks.com/cook31 ack in the early years of the Beaver State, the location of the county courthouse was a very big deal. Th ere are stories of residents of one town stealing the coun- ty records from another in the dark of night in the struggle to be named County Seat. But nowhere was the strug- gle for county supremacy more heated — and expensive! — than in Klamath County. Klamath County, in 1906, was exploding. Th e U.S. Bureau of the Interior had fi nished a dams-and-irrigation project that had turned thousands of acres of rugged rangeland into a lush, productive agrarian empire just as the railroad had arrived; sawmills were being built; and the population of the town, which stood at 447 in 1900, had quintupled in popu- lation just fi ve years later. Th e old county courthouse, built in 1888, was clearly inad- equate. Naturally, the county commissioners were thinking about replacing it with a new building — one that would be appropriately grand and stately for a community that was in a fair way to take its place as one of Oregon’s most important centers of commerce. And that’s when one of the local real-estate developers made an off er that the county couldn’t resist: A full fi ve-acre lot, donated to the city for con- struction of a county court- house — in the up-and-coming subdivision of Hot Springs. Naturally, the county com- missioners took them up on this generous off er, and started making plans for a $150,000 courthouse in the architectural style of the Greek Parthenon. But to the businessmen of Klamath Falls, this was a disas- ter. Although Hot Springs isn’t far from downtown Klamath Falls — just across Highway 97 from downtown — in 1906 it was some distance away, and well outside city limits. Instant- ly suspicions were aroused … was the developer planning to get the courthouse built and the county seat moved there, and then incorporate Hot Springs separate from Klamath Falls? Just like that, Hot Springs would be the county seat, and Klamath Falls would be just an- other town. Th at simply could not be allowed to happen. A special election was held. But, despite the businessmen’s Another dental visit? Turns out, you have better things to do with your time. best eff orts, voters — who cared a lot less about the for- tunes of downtown plutocrats than they did about the low- er tax bill the Hot Springs site represented — picked the out- of-town option by a substantial majority. Th e businessmen got a court to issue an injunction against construction; the Or- egon Supreme Court struck it down. By the time all this wran- gling was fi nished, it was 1912. Th e businessmen now passed a kitty, bought a piece of down- town property, and off ered it to the county. Th e county passed, and awarded a contract for the construction of the Hot Springs courthouse. Th e busi- nessmen launched a recall bid to kick the presiding county judge, William Worden, out of offi ce. It failed. By February 1914, the Hot Springs courthouse was most- ly built. Th e die seemed cast. But then Judge Worden made a stupid mistake, and everything changed. A new amendment to the state constitution had extended the terms of service of county judges from four to six years. Worden, foolishly assuming that the change meant he got a two-year extension of his term, didn’t submit his paperwork and wasn’t on the 1914 ballot; but another local lawyer, Mar- ion Hanks, was. Hanks was elected. Worden clung to the fan- tasy of his term having been extended. So now Klamath County had two county judg- es — and three courthouses in various stages of construction. Th e Oregon Supreme Court had to step in again to offi cial- ly remind Worden that he had been elected for a four-year term, not a six-. Th e change in the law applied to future elec- tions, not past ones. Hanks was the county judge now. By this time, the Hot Springs courthouse was almost done. It had cost $112,000 — worth $3.1 million in 2018 curren- cy — and was about $50,000 away from being ready to open for business. Th at was a lot of money for a county with only 10,000 or so residents to cough up; but Klamath County res- idents were building for the future, and really looking for- ward to having a decent court- house, and aft er all, it was near- ly done. Th en — the trap sprang. Judge Hanks, it turned out, had been the businessmen’s agent all along. Moving as swift ly and stealthily as possible, he now offi cially accepted the donated downtown plot and awarded a $133,775 contract to J.M. Dou- gan Construction of Portland to build a courthouse on it. Voters were enraged at this fl agrant waste of their tax mon- ey. If Hanks had simply seized $100 ($2,800 in 2018 money) from every Klamath County family and lit it on fi re, the re- sult would have been about the same. Another recall eff ort was launched, and this one was successful; Hanks was out on his ear a few months later. But he’d accomplished what he’d set out to do: Irrevocably commit- ted the county to construction of a courthouse downtown, whether the voters liked it or not. Of course, in the process he’d wasted 120 grand in taxpayer money, but you can’t steal an omelet without breaking any eggs, right? He was replaced with judge Robert Bunnell — who, it soon became clear, had fallen in love with the grandeur of the Parthenon-style Hot Springs building. Immediately Bun- nell set to work refocusing the county on the task of getting that fi nished so he could move in. But the cat was out of the bag. Dougan had been paid a $41,548 advance and was al- ready pushing dirt around on the downtown site. And he absolutely refused to stop. De- spite the county’s increasingly desperate eff orts, he carried on with the project as if nothing were happening. Why would he do other- wise? He had a legally bind- ing, non-cancelable contract to build it. Of course, he burned through the 41 stacks fairly quickly. Luckily, city boosters were happy to loan him the funds to keep going, knowing he would collect it from the county with a lawsuit later. Th e county was stuck: it was going to have two new courthouses, whether its citizens liked the idea of paying for them or not. Th e county tried selling the land out from under Dougan. Th is had the unintended con- sequence of bringing the whole sorry spectacle to the attention of judge F.N. Calkins at the cir- cuit court in Medford. Calkins promptly issued an injunction preventing the sale — and an- other one stopping all work on the Hot Springs courthouse. Dougan fi nished the down- town courthouse in 1919, and the county, of course, re- fused to pay for it. Dougan, of course, sued; and in 1920 the Oregon Supreme Court (which was surely a bit tired of being dragged into Klamath County’s drama by this time) declared Dougan’s courthouse the offi - cial county courthouse and or- dered the county to pay its bill. So Dougan got his money, and, one assumes, shook the dust of Klamath Falls from his feet as he left . At this point, it was check- mate. But like a bad chess play- er who insists on going on to the bitter end, Judge Bunnell stubbornly moved forward DENTAL Insurance Physicians Mutual Insurance Company A less expensive way to help get the dental care you deserve If you’re over 50, you can get coverage for about $1 a day* Keep your own dentist! NO networks to worry about NO annual or lifetime cap o n the cash benefi ts No wait for preventive care and no deductibles – you could get a checkup tomorrow Coverage for over 350 procedures including cleanings, exams, fi llings, crowns…even dentures you can receive FREE Information Kit 1-877-599-0125 www.dental50plus.com/25 *Individual plan. Product not available in MN, MT, NH, RI, VT, WA. Acceptance guaranteed for one insurance policy/certificate of this type. Contact us for complete details about this insurance solicitation. This specific offer is not available in CO, NY; call 1-800-969-4781 or respond for similar offer. Certificate C250A (ID: C250E; PA: C250Q); Insurance Policy P150(GA: P150GA; NY: P150NY; OK: P150OK; TN: P150TN) 6096C MB16-NM001Gc with plans to fi nish the Hot Springs courthouse. Th e county approved the fi nal plans and budgeted $50,000 to implement them. Angry taxpayers, who were for some reason averse to the idea of lighting another giant pile of tax money on fi re, got on the phone to Judge Calkins in Medford, and out came anoth- er injunction blocking the plan to spend any more money on duplicate courthouse facilities. Th e county then moved to sell the brand-new courthouse and use the proceeds to fi nish Hot Springs. Calkins — fi nally overstepping his bounds a bit — issued yet another injunc- tion to block that scheme. Th en the county made an- other bad mistake. Perhaps thinking it could move to the Hot Springs building one de- partment at a time, the coun- ty budgeted $15,000 to get the Hot Springs courthouse jail ready, to relieve the overcrowd- ing in the basement of the old 1888 courthouse. Well, that plan went over with a dull thud in the Hot Springs neighborhood. Th e de- velopment company that had given the city the land had giv- en it to be used as a courthouse. Now it appeared the city was going to use it for a jailhouse. Many people liked the idea of living in a neighborhood with a courthouse, but nobody wanted to be next door to the drunk tank on Saturday night. So the developer exercised his option to get the land back if the courthouse wasn’t built on it. Th e county now sued the developer to prevent this. Nat- urally, the minute it appeared before a judge, it was toast — a deal was a deal; but the county, game to the last, appealed it all the way to the state Supreme Court for a fourth and fi nal time. Th e Supreme Court, to no one’s surprise, said no. Th at was in September 1923. Th e struggle had dragged on for 17 years. Th e county now fi nally and grudgingly moved into the Dougan building downtown, and the Parthenon courthouse escheated back to the develop- er. Naturally, there were not many possible uses for a half- built courthouse; so the devel- oper, in 1927, demolished it to make room for other buildings. Historian David Braly reports it took a whole month to do the job, and half a ton of dynamite. Th e downtown courthouse served Klamath County faith- fully and well until the twin earthquakes of 1993, which split the building in half and infl icted irreparable structural damage. It was demolished and re- placed with the modern court- house that’s there today. (Sources: “Too Many Courthous- es,” an article by David Braly in Lit- tle Known Tales from Oregon His- tory Vol. II, a book edited by Geoff Hill and published in 1991 by Sun Publishing of Bend; “25 Years Af- ter the Big One,” an article by Kurt Liedtke published in the 20 Sep 2018 issue of the Klamath Falls Herald and News; and “Klamath County Library History,” a transcript of a presentation given by Ann DuPont at the 2005 Centennial Celebration at the Klamath County Library Ser- vice District, klamathlibrary.org) Heraej=bbkn`]^haHqtqnu We know your time is valuable. That's why we've invested in CEREC technology that allows for a faster experience when you need crowns, fillings or veneers. With CEREC, there's usually no need for a temporary and return visit. Everything is done in one visit, in about an hour - leaving more time for whatever is important to you. 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