Good Old Days

The Town of LaCrosse, circa 1908.

Pampa, circa 1905.

125 years ago

The Commoner

Jan. 9, 1891

Palouse City has entered the lists as an aspirant to be county seat of a prospective new county, and divisionists will be afforded a better opportunity to fight among themselves than ever before. Following is a portion of a circular being distributed by the projectors of the new movement:

A movement has been inaugurated to form a new county from that portion of Whitman bounded by a line running is follows:

Beginning at the northwest corner of the county, running thence west along the northern boundary line to the 44th meridian, thence south along said meridian to the Snake river, thence east along said river to the Idaho line and thence north to point of beginning.

The reasons for creating this county are as follows:

The division of Whitman County is inevitable. Already a strong effort is being made to take away two or three northern tiers of townships and by joining them to a portion of Spokane county, form what is to be known as Steptoe county.

Such a division will not benefit the residents in the eastern part of the county as much as the division by a line running north or south as suggested above.

This division would make a county fourteen miles wide by fifty-seven long, embracing within its boundaries the best farming lands in the state and with a population of at least 8,000.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Jan. 14, 1916

The statements issued by the Colfax banks show that the combined deposits of the four banks in this city totaled 2,229,640 dollars on the last day of the old year. The Colfax National reported $1,256,656 in deposits; the Farmers National, $676,794; The First Savings and Trust Bank of Whitman County, $246,272 in deposits with an additional amount of $304,912 of trust deposits; while the report of the Colfax State Bank showed that $119,916 were on deposits at the institution.

The statements show that the deposits have increased more than $60,000 over what they were a year ago. Not more than 60 per cent of this year's wheat crop has been sold by the farmers but many of the men who are in close touch with the wheat conditions in this part of the state say, that nearly forty five per cent of the crop is still in the hands of the farmers. When this part of the crop has been sold, the banks deposits of this city will show a much greater amount than was reported on the 31st day of December.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Jan. 10, 1941

Receipts at the post office last month totaled approximately $4,200, which exceeds by $700 the receipts of any previous December in the history of the office, according to the information from the post office. Receipts for the past year are greater by $2,000 than those of 1939 and $1,100 more than 1938, the largest previous year.

The Colfax office, however, has several thousand dollars to go before the $40,000 mark, when it would change from a second class to a first class office, can be reached.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Jan. 13, 1966

Colfax residents will get direct distance dialing service in August of 1966, if everything goes according to schedule, Earl Halverson, Pacific Northwest Bell manager, said this week.

Patrons of the St. John Cooperative Telephone & Telegraph and the Pioneer Telephone Co. (serving Lacrosse and Endicott areas) will also get direct distance dialing service at the same time since they are tied in with the Colfax plant of PNB for long distance service.

Direct distance dialing is already in operation in Garfield, Palouse and Pullman, served by General Telephone Co.

With this service, local telephone users could complete station-to-station long distance calls in less than a minute, Halverson explained. The first step will be dialing the digit “1” which connects the individual phone to the DDD switching unit in Spokane. Next step would be dialing the proper area code, as shown on page four of the current directory. Finally, the user dials the distant telephone number.

The local area code, “509”, is not dialed on long distance calls between Eastern Washington points.

During 1965, PNB introduced DDD in 14 additional Washington communities and long distance calls can now be dialed direct from more than 90 per cent of PNB phones in the state.

The direct distance dialing project here is part of the telephone company's $62 million construction program in 1966 – the largest program ever undertaken in the Northwest. Last year the firm invested some $54 million in its service expansion program.

Western Electric, the manufacturing, supply and installation unit of the Bell system, is scheduled to start the DDD equipment installation in Colfax in May. The $75,000 long distance service improvement job will tie Colfax, Pomeroy and five other surrounding communities into the nationwide direct dialing network.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Jan. 10, 1991

The odds are against a proposed constitutional amendment to allow the state gas tax to be used for mass transit, according to Sen. Pat Patterson, R-Pullman. Patterson is the chairman of the Senate transportation committee.

House speaker Joe King D-Vancouver raised the idea as the legislature prepared to reconvene next week.

The 22 cents a gallon tax is set to go up one cent April 1 after rising four cents last April 1. The legislature approved the increase last session to improve the state's road system.

Patterson said he had not talked to King about it but he heard it would be proposed.

Each legislature comes up with “lots of proposals to get every possible nickel,” Patterson commented.

A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote of the House and the Senate then a majority vote of the people.

This proposal is expected to pass the Democratic House but not the Republican Senate. The session opens next Monday.

The money for mass transit projects would come out of rural areas, Patterson said.

“Obviously I am concerned. Any money for the highway system used for mass transit is detrimental to the welfare and interests of the entire state.”

Former county commissioner Jim Henning, now a member of the state transportation commission, said the legislature has looked at this idea several times before.

He would like to see them take some of the money from the motor vehicle tax fund (license tabs and trucking fees) instead, Henning said.

“The gas tax is very definitely a user fee and it should be used for roads not rail lines or mass transit.”

If the amendment passed, there would not be enough money left for the cities and counties in Eastern Washington to repair their roads, Henning explained.

“Many billions” would be needed for any effective mass transit system in the Puget Sound or Spokane areas, he noted.

He was “not impressed” by Portland's mass transit system, which often took twice as long to get downtown as a car did, Henning added.

“We need to work with the laws we have,” he said.

House Transportation chairwoman Ruth Fisher D-Tacoma said the proposed amendment will be part of a Democratic House package to be presented in the new session. She expects it to pass the House but not the Senate.

Fisher probably will co-sponsor the bill along with house Speaker Joe King D-Vancouver but they are not that far yet, she said.

King was touring transportation boards in Eastern Washington Monday and was unavailable for comment.

“I try never to predict these things. I know (Pullman Republican Senator) Pat Patterson objects to it so it may not get far but I'm sure it will get a fair hearing. It is up to the Republican caucus.”

The state constitution's 18th amendment specifies that the state's 22-cent a gallon gas tax (highest in the nation) and other transportation taxes shall be “used exclusively for highway purposes.” This includes ferries as well as roads.

The amendment would allow the gas tax and other monies to be used for mass transit projects (including possibly light rail) to reduce congestion in Puget Sound area.

The proposal was raised after the old I-90 floating bridge across Lake Washington sank in November, also damaging the new span.

Repairs could cost $100 million. If the sinking is ruled an accident then federal funds would be available.

However, if the contractor is ruled at fault then they would lose their insurance bond and the state would pick up the difference, which could be as much as $50-60 million.

The bridge sinking also has renewed an effort to get the Transportation Department under the governor's control instead of the current independent commission.

Eastern Washington legislators fear that proposal would introduce politics into the road funding process and favor the populous west side of the state.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Jan. 12, 2006

The City of Pullman will begin public hearings on the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on Bishop Boulevard Friday, Jan. 13. The hearings will center on the city's approval of the Wal-Mart site plan and the city's determination of non-significance as to the State Environmental Policy Act checklist.

This Friday's hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Gladish Community Center, with Spokane attorney John Montgomery presiding, and will continue no later than 7:30 p.m. Hearings will continue the following Friday, Jan. 20 at 10:30 in Pullman City Hall.

The Wal-Mart store debate started when the first site plan was presented to the city in October, 2004.

Since then S&W Land Company, the firm that owns the land, provided three revised site plans. Public Works Director Mark Workman conditionally approved the final plan.

The appeal was presented by the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development on the grounds that Workman improperly determined the economic, environmental and cultural impacts of the 28-acre supercenter. PARD is asking the hearing examiner to overturn the city's rulings.