Good Old Days Dec. 24

125 years ago

The Commoner

Dec. 19, 1890

The city council surprised itself Monday evening. During the day the marshal went around to the councilmen and stated that if they were ready for a meeting the mayor would be glad to be notified. They were all ready, and when Mr. Perkins called them to order, the full council consisting of Bellinger, Waite, Metz, Hamilton and Warner were present.

The fire and water committee was instructed to purchase a car of coal for the use of the engine company.

The report of treasurer DePledge was read and approved and his resignation accepted. Walter J. Davenport was elected in his place by the unanimous vote of the council.

The report of J. B. Mackey, city marshal, accompanied by the city delinquent tax roll for 1890, and the return of his doings thereon endorsed was received and placed on fire.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Dec. 24, 1915

The aggregate wheat receipts in the public warehouses of the state this year up to November 1 were 44,501,695 bushels, without about 500,000 bushels placed in private warehouses, according to the records of State Grain Inspector, R. D. Jarboe. In addition to the grain received in warehouses. Inspector Jarboe estimates that sufficient wheat has remained on the farms to bring Washington's crop up to 51,000,000.

Whitman County warehouses received 11,938,134 bushels of wheat up to November 1 and 3,303,448 bushels of oats, which makes it the leading wheat county of the United States. The state grain inspector reports that insufficient moisture will result in a lighter wheat crop next year throughout the state. The acreage will also show a decrease.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Dec. 20, 1940

Approximately 1,200 people in Whitman County suffered from influenza during the past week. Dr. E. E. Palmquist, head of the county health department, estimated Wednesday. The figure was a conservative one, he said. Of these, probably 500 were school children, he declared.

“The disease first appeared in this county at Malden and Pine City,” he said, “about three weeks ago. The Bethel school east of Colfax Wednesday was added to St. John and Sunset in the list of schools shut down. Lacrosse schools have reopened after being closed for a time last week.”

“The disease does not seem to be increasing,” he asserted, “but moved from community to community until now it is general throughout the county. It is much worse in St. John than Colfax. We have not closed schools unless the number of absentees approached 50 per cent. The closing of public places seems to have little effect on the spread of the disease. The best thing when a person contracts the disease is to go to bed. Should complications develop, a doctor should be called. There are now two cases of pneumonia, one at the clinic and one at St. Ignatius hospital.”

Absentees at the local schools for the past six days were Friday of last week, Hamilton 70, high school 28, Martha Washington 25; Monday, Hamilton 69, high school 30, Martha Washington 58; Tuesday, Hamilton 67, high school 35, Martha Washington 62; Wednesday, Hamilton 49, high school 47, Martha Washington 74; and Thursday, Hamilton 47, high school 56, and Martha Washington 67.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Dec. 23, 1965

The new roadway from the Lower Granite damsite to Almota was within several blocks of “downtown Almota” Thursday morning but officials of Green Winston, dam contractors, declined to estimate how soon it would be linked with the county road which ends at Almota.

A Green Winston official wasn't sure whether the road would cross Almota creek on a “tin whistle” (culvert) or bridge of some sort, but was “reasonably sure” that the roadway would be connected with the county highway by the end of the year.

The contractor is using waste material for the road, which is actually being built as a “dump” for the rock and dirt excavated to provide a shoofly for the Camas Prairie railway while the temporary channel for the Snake river on the north side of the damsite is being made.

“We're not building this as a public access road, but for use of workers who may want to drive to and from the project via the Almota grade,” a Green Winston employee said. “Our contract doesn't call for building a public road, although eventually the engineers' plans call for an access road to the dam from Almota.”

Asked how many men might use the new shortcut to Colfax, a Green Winston man said he had no idea, but that some of the employees were anxious to use the road. The Almota road provides easy access from the river bottom to either Colfax or Pullman with a junction near the Onecho church.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Dec. 20, 1990

A Yakima attorney has proposed a south Colfax highway bypass which he believes would speed traffic flow to Pullman for motorist for the central and western parts of the state. Stan Pratt, a former president of the WSU Alumni Association, believes his proposal would eliminate congestion on big weekends at Pullman.

Pratt, who graduated from Tekoa High School in 1954, said he travels to Pullman 10 to 12 times a year and often encounters traffic snarls when motorists from the west side mix with motorists from the Spokane area at Colfax.

Don Walter, a program director for the DOT district office in Spokane, said the south Colfax bypass proposal was “one of the things we're looking at.” Walter pointed out a number of long-range proposals for the area have been bouncing around the district offices.

Pratt's plan would have a bypass leaving highway 26 near Dusty before the highway makes its climb up the first of two big grades on the 17 mile segment into Colfax. The bypass would cross into the Union Flat Creek drainage and continue toward Pullman.

Pratt said one problem would be for the climb out of the Union Flat Creek drainage before it connected with highway 195 at the Harlow dip area north of the Pullman exit.

“I think they should give this very serious consideration,” Pratt said. He estimates 90 percent of the motorists who are on highway 26 at Dusty are eventually bound for Pullman and would use the bypass. He noted projections for higher enrollment at WSU mean the congestion problem at Colfax will be increased in the future.

“I just think it's time they started to do something about it,” he said, noting a solution in the mid 1990s would be reasonable.

Pratt said WSU supporters from his area objected to the blockade of the Airport Road which already provides a south end bypass of Colfax. The road has been blocked off during WSU game days to keep traffic from decreasing the Almota grade road into the south end of Colfax and mixing with traffic on Colfax's Main Street.

Pratt also said he doesn't feel the proposed project for a three-lane extension out of Colfax would be much of a solution because of space constrictions. Also, changing into three lanes for a short segment on highway 195 fails to solve the basic problem caused by two-lanes of traffic entering and leaving Colfax.

Walter said the lane addition at south Colfax was still very much in district plans.

Walter acknowledged that at one time DOT plans for a highway 195 bypass at Colfax included a route alternative for the west side which would offer a connection with traffic from the west before it gets into Colfax. Walter also noted the Colfax bypass proposal was among those projects “now in a box in the basement” at the district office.

Four lanes for the Colfax-Pullman Highway segment of highway 195 and work on the Main Street segment of Colfax are other proposals being bounced around the district DOT office, Walter said.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Dec. 22, 2005

Whitman County took in a dozen evacuees in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and as winter settles in on the Palouse, a few remain. Of the evacuees, reports Liz Broadfoot with the county health department, only one family and a college student remain in Whitman County.

“The family is doing well,” Broadfoot said. “The mother has landed a job at Gritman Medical Center in Moscow, and they are back on their feet. They plan on settling in the area.”

Things are not quite as well for the other evacuee. Although living in WSU housing and attending classes at the university, she still has no transportation and very little money.

The student is going back to Louisiana for the holidays to check on her home and contact the university she was attending before Katrina forced her to evacuate. She will return to Pullman in January to finish the school year at WSU.

Broadfoot reports that while the evacuees are doing well in terms of shelter and warm clothing, they still require assistance with groceries and transportation. Monetary donations can still be made to the Whitman County Hurricane Relief Fund through the Bank of Whitman.

To donate an automobile or any other winter necessities, contact the Whitman County Health Department in Colfax.