PIONEER PORTRAITS

Ten Years Ago June 27, 2002

The Waitsburg City Council voted unanimously to priva- tize garbage collection, and will begin negotiations with Basin Disposal, Inc. (BDI) of Pasco, to collect garbage within the city limits. BDI was chosen due to being more city-oriented, providing assistance to senior citizens, and capacity for civic events, among other things. There will not be an increase in service price, and citizens should receive more service from BDI. This will be a two-year trial period for BDI. At the end of two years, the city could return to the previous system or other changes could possibly be made. In changing the service to BDI, Councilman Dave Philbrook said "I see lot of value. We have the opportunity to take rev- enue to produce a positive cash flow and better utilize our personnel while providing the same level of service."

Twenty-Five Years Ago June 25, 1987

A hearing on the matter of redrawing director districts for the Waitsburg School Board will be held Monday, July 20, in the high school auditorium. At this meeting, state- ments for and against the proposed new district boundaries will be made. The principle behind redistricting is to ensure that each director represents nearly the same number of school district patrons. If the new districts are formed, there is a possibility that some of the incumbent board members would be placed in the same district.

Fifty Years Ago June 29, 1962

The Prescott Lions Club will hold a Fourth of July cel- ebration at Prescott that will start with a beef barbecue at noon.

Work on Preston Hall was begun this week as the con- tractors started on the mechanical drawing room which will be partitioned off to make it a class room for the eighth grade next year.

"Good yields and good quality" have caused the local cannery to run at capacity since last weekend.

Harvesting is not expected to start until the middle or latter part of July due to the cool spring and early summer weather.

One Hundred Years Ago June 28, 1912

The Great Eastern Department Store is the name of the new mercantile establishment, which was recently incor- porated to do a general mercantile business in this city. The incorporators are A.S. Dickinson, of this city, B.J. Nichols, of Spokane; and J.W. Cram of Edwall.

The Aloha Club spent Wednesday afternoon with Mrs. H.S. Fender at Prescott. The ladies went down on the 1:15 train and the gentlemen driving down by auto at 6 o'clock for a sumptuous dinner served on the lawn.

During the months of July and August, the various churches of the city will hold out-door union services on the school grounds opposite the Christian Church. The church will preach in rotation.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago June 24, 1887

Charles Actor recently disposed of 100 head of horses to an English company at good figures.

The spirit of American Liberty, which sits astride of the Continental Divide, with one foot in the Atlantic and the other in the Pacific, will wink his patriotic eye at the City of Waitsburg on the morning of July 4, 1887, and say "Of my jewels, thou art chief!" and all patriotic Waitsburgers will say "Yea, verily. Amen!"

Jonathan Pettyjohn passed through this city last Tuesday with a big load of flag poles, which he said he was going to skin and paint red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July purposes at Prescott.

As D. N. Smith was returning home on Wednesday eve- ning, a crazy long-haired corn doctor, who was wobbling all over the road, scared his team and made it run away. Mr. Smith was a little bruised, the horses were somewhat skinned, and the wagon slightly damaged, but if Dave could have found him after the fracas, that corn doctor would have been the worst used up individual of the lot.