The BulleTin • Sunday, april 25, 2021 C7
YESTERYEAR
Deschutes County to install computers in 1971
Compiled by the Deschutes
County Historical Society
from the archived copies of
The Bulletin at the Deschutes
Historical Museum
100 YEARS AGO
For the week ending
April 24, 1921
Recorder gets petition
for city election
For the second time this
month, T.H. Foley, manager
of the Bend Water, Light &
Power Co., today submitted
to City Recorder Ross Farn-
ham for filling, a referendum
petition asking for an elec-
tion at which the people of
Bend may have the oppor-
tunity of passing on the wa-
ter works franchise recently
presented to Mayor E.D. Gil-
son by the city council. The
first petition, submitted to
the recorder on April 4 was
later rejected because a date
for the election was specified,
Mr. Farnham contending that
this was a point which should
be left entirely in the council’s
hands, according to the law.
As a result, the signed re-
quest for an election which
was turned in today names
no date. Although the time
for circulating was short, it
contains practically the same
number of signatures as the
first petition, in the neigh-
borhood of 600, or four times
as many as are required to
issue a referendum being
taken.
“In filing this petition, I
feel that I have done my duty
as a taxpayer in giving the
people the chance that the
council had refused them,
of protecting their interests,”
Mr. Foley said after submit-
ting the second referendum
petition to Recorder Farn-
ham.
“Now that it is filed I shall
take no further interest in it.
I shall leave to the people to
decide whether it is the duty
of a mayor to protect their
interests or to further some
petty scheme of his own at
their expense — whether it
is the duty of the council to
protect their interests or as-
sist the mayor in a question-
able deal.”
Needles call leaves
firemen without thrill
Members of the fire de-
partment feel a little thrill of
pride when they are called
upon to perform all sorts of
difficult services for the civic
good, but sometimes
After observing the eclipse
of last night until about mid-
night, the house crew of
the department turned out
the lights and were sleep-
ing soundly when, about 2
o’clock: Z-z-zing! One long
ring! Lights on, feet thrust
into turnout boots, down the
brass pole, and then —
“No fire,” coolly said the
engineer. “The automatic fire
bell down at Brooks-Scanlon
has been ringing for an hour
and somebody wants us to
stop it.”
The firemen returned the
sheets, secure in the knowl-
edge that one of the three
watchmen at the mill plant
would eventually wake up
and stop the bell, which was
disturbing the slumber of all
in the south part of town.
$500 dog case comes to end
With the dissenting opin-
ion, the state Supreme Court
has sustained in full the find-
ings of the circuit court in
the famous Deschutes county
dog case, heard here at the
November term in 1919. R.E.
Eaton, of La Pine, owner of
the dog, which was beaten to
death by Jerry Murphy and
Roy Lake, sheepherders, was
awarded $500 damages and
approximately $200 cost by
the trial jury.
W.P. Myers represented Ea-
ton, and R.S. Hamilton and
E.O. Stadter were attorneys
for Lake and Murphy. The
opinion, which was received
this morning by Mr. Myers,
was written by Justice Johns,
Justices McBride and Har-
ris concurring and Justice
Burnett dissenting. The high
value set upon the dog was
because of the animal’s train-
ing in driving cattle. It was
while cutting out a cow from
a band of sheep that the dog
was killed by Murphy and
Lake.
The law on which the ap-
peal of the defense was based
was passed in 1860 and, ac-
cording to Justice Johns, has
never before been construed
by the Supreme Court. It
provides “if any person shall
discover a dog in the act of
killing, wounding, or chasing
any sheep or other domestic
animals”, that the penalty of
death may be legally visited
upon the dog in question.
75 YEARS AGO
For the week ending
April 24, 1946
Dodgers to train here,
owner W.D. Cox reveals
The Brooklyn Dodgers,
all-American professional
football conference team,
will spend their July-August
training period in Bend, it
was announced here today
by owner William D. Cox
and chamber of commerce
officials. Final details for the
agreement were concluded
last night following the ar-
rival of Cox and team man-
ager Burton W. Warren yes-
terday afternoon.
Tentative arrangements
call for the arrival of approx-
imately 60 players, coaches
and trainers by July 15, but
Cox said this figure may
be pared down a bit before
that date. Two inter squad
games, to be played on the
high school field the nights of
Aug. 2 and 9, are scheduled,
with chamber of commerce
officials underwriting for
the public appearance of the
teams on these dates.
The Dodgers led by
all-Americans Glen Dobbs,
Bill Daley and Martin Ruby,
open the 1946 season Aug. 16
in Portland against the Chi-
cago Rockets, and will make
the round trip from Bend
by bus for that engagement.
At the close of their summer
training period on Aug.20,
the eastern professionals
leave Bend for Spokane,
where they meet the New
York Yankees on Aug. 23.
Hosts make night
visit to rockery
Under April stars, Bend
tourist hosts joined in a field
trip last night in connection
with their school and vis-
ited the far-famed Petersen
rock gardens, where minia-
ture castles, tiny bridges, little
lakes and extensive rookeries
were viewed under colored
lights. Making the trip to the
gardens were tourist hosts
who filled one Pacific Trail-
ways bus to capacity. Others
went in private cars.
At the gardens, north of
Bend, the visitors were met
by Rasmussen Petersen, op-
erator, and from him the
group learned that the pres-
ent development represents
11 years of work. Each year
thousands of people, from
every state in America, visit
the gardens.
After visiting the rooker-
ies, and learning from their
guide, Phil F. Brogan, some-
thing of the story of the rocks
represented there, the tourist
hosts visited the museum,
where Lee Sigfrit operates a
mineral shop. As a side at-
traction, the visitors were
shown a collection of fluores-
cent rocks, which glow with
the impressive colors when
activated by an ultra violet
light.
Petersen invited the large
group into his home, where
coffee and doughnuts were
served. The trip concluded
the 1946 host school, and
early in May Governor Earl
Snell will come here to pres-
ent diplomas.
Aurora lights trace
pattern in north sky
A brief, but brilliant dis-
play of northern lights was
visible in Central Oregon last
night, with luminous fingers,
like diverging searchlights,
reaching to the zenith shortly
before 9 p.m. Observers in
charge of the Bend weather
station said the most im-
pressive display of the aurora
lasted only a few ministers,
with white rays reaching
from the northern horizon
to the Great Dipper. The ob-
servers added that the aurora,
as viewed from Pilot Butte,
gave the appearance of dawn
breaking in the northern sky,
directly over the Redmond
city lights. The aurora glow
remained visible through
most of the night.
by private computers.
The county computer, as
proposed, will perform all of
these functions, saving the
county an estimated $7,500
per year.
Commissioners said the
new installation will cost no
county employe his job, but
some employes will have to
be trained to change over
the county’s systems to ac-
commodate the computer. In
charge of programming and
operating the computer will
be Ralph Meeker, who now
supervises computer usage by
the road department.
For the first year’s budget,
the commissioners propose
to ask $6,000 from county
road funds for this com-
puter. The remaining $10,000
will be requested from the
tax-supported general fund
under a new account set up
especially for the computer.
Commissioners said the
IBM agreement had been
signed after negotiations with
several computer firms, and
after consideration several
systems and proposals.
Headlines: Authorities take
Charles Manson to San
Quentin — Vietnam veterans
stage D.C. — Hatfield
undecided, leaves door open
for possible presidential
nomination — Queen
Elizabeth observes 45th
birthday
25 YEARS AGO
For the week ending
April 24, 1996
Buildings in parkway
path up for auction
Sometime they sell for a
single dollar; other times
they sell for $20,000 or more.
Buildings auctioned off by the
Oregon Department of Trans-
portation sell for whatever
the people interested in buy-
ing them are willing to pay.
The auctioned buildings are
those acquired to make room
for new roads, road improve-
ments or relocate a displaced
home or business. Wednes-
day the state will hold an-
other auction, this time selling
buildings they’ve acquired to
make room for the $90 mil-
lion Bend Parkway. The trans-
portation department has
already sold 24 buildings pur-
chased to make room for the
parkway, and now hope to sell
seven more, said Nicki Barrett
of the state’s right-of-way of-
fice in Bend.
On the auction block
Wednesday are buildings
from three locations — Nels
Anderson Road, Railroad
Street and Division Street.
Most of the buildings are
warehouses or storage build-
ings. Before the buildings
are auctioned, the property
owners are allowed to salvage
whatever they want. Once
the state has a collection of
five or six buildings to sell,
it holds an auction. The lon-
ger a building sits empty, the
more susceptible it is to van-
dalism and the more attrac-
tive it is to transients, said
Barrett.
“We try to always take care
of a structure as quickly as we
can,” she said. “It’s a public
safety issue.”
Persons who buy the build-
ings may do so to salvage
whatever is inside, like an-
tique claw foot bathtubs or
expensive wood paneling. Or,
they may want the buildings
themselves, which often can
be purchased at a lower price
during the auctions.
But anyone thinking of
making a purchase at a state
auction should remember
that removal or demolition
costs go with the building.
Once you buy it, you have to
get rid of it, and generally in a
timely fashion, said Barrett.
That’s one of the reasons the
state auctions the buildings.
It saves demolition costs, and
helps generate funds, too.
The money earned from
the auctions are placed in the
transportation department’s
general fund, but not ear-
marked for specific projects.
So just because a house was
on the parkway route when
you bought it, it doesn’t mean
the money you paid is nec-
essarily going to pay for the
parkway.
50 YEARS AGO
For the week ending
April 24, 1971
County to install computers
Deschutes County Com-
missioners today announced
plans to put all of the county’s
clerical tasks on a computer
within the next three years.
Commissioners said they
signed an agreement yester-
day with the International
Business Machines Corp.
(IBM) to proceed with ar-
rangements for installation
of an IBM System 3-10 com-
puter.
The new machine will be
installed in a room on the
third floor of the courthouse
by July 1, the beginning of
the next fiscal year, if the
proposal is approved in next
month’s budget hearing. “If
the budget isn’t approved the
whole plan doesn’t mean a
darned thing,” Commission
Chairman W.F. “Bill” Schin-
dler said today.
The new installation will
cost the county an estimated
$16,000 for the first year.
The cost will total $24,000 by
the time the entire installa-
tion is in, at the end of three
years. Most of the computer
machinery will be leased, ac-
cording to Commissioner
G.W. McCann. Some smaller
components will be pur-
chased.
According to the commis-
sioners’ proposal, the com-
puter will be used in almost
all areas of the county’s re-
cordkeeping and clerical op-
eration. Payroll, bill-paying,
budget-keeping, and treasur-
er’s records will be the first
converted to the computer,
with records in the tax collec-
tion and county assessor’s of-
fice converted last, sometime
in 1973.
Other uses for the com-
puter are in the clerk’s and
sheriff ’s offices.
The county now pays for
computerized record-keep-
ing in the road department,
leasing computer time from
a local private firm. Payroll
is paid through the comput-
ers of a local bank, and other
functions are also performed
Living Well Begin s with Top -rate Ser vi ce
w w w.w h isper i ng w i nd s .i n fo • 5 41-312 -9 69 0 • 29 2 0 N E C on ners Ave ., Bend , OR 9 7 701
For almost 20 years Whispering Winds Retirement community has stood strong •
Being local and family owned, we’ve never waived on the values and dedication it
takes to make retirement living the best it can be.
We are all banded together in the love for our residents and team members.
We are dedicated to their safety and security, especially in these unsure times.
We believe that everyone deserves a safe place to call home. Whispering Winds...we are all in this together.
Providing End less Amenities to Ensure a High Qua lit y of Life