25 YEARS AGO

Jan. 5, 1999

Age didn’t prevent Dr. Milton Johnson from lending a hand in Nicaragua. During a fall 1998 service at the Hermiston Seventh-day Adventist Church, the 75-year-old retired doctor didn’t hesitate when it was announced that volunteers were needed to help after Hurricane Mitch.

He immediately wrote down the contact information.

“I was sitting there in church thinking that I should ask my wife, Wanda, before I called that number,” Johnson recalled. “She leaned over and asked me, ‘When are you going to leave?’”

By the following Tuesday, he was on a plane to an area north of Managua, Nicaragua, with his friend Del Orser, 52, of Athol, Idaho.

Expecting to put his medical skills to use, Johnson was surprised when they were asked to help drill a well. Although the area was spared from the full fury of the hurricane, a nearby river had flooded and contaminated water supplies.

After two weeks of setbacks and lots of grueling physical work, the well was properly established.

A celebration followed, including the mayor and representatives from the Danish Embassy in attendance.

Although the work was difficult, Johnson said he found it rewarding and hoped to return in the summer to dig more wells.

50 YEARS AGO

Jan. 3, 1974

Pacific Northwest Bell would help ring in the new year by installing an Electronic Switching System in Hermiston.

The new service would occupy more than 27,000 square feet on the corner of East Hurlburt Avenue and East Third Street, directly east of the present switching building.

PNB Manager Dale Slusher said construction would start within a month, and if everything went according to schedule, equipment would be installed in July and put to use by the following year.

Once fully constructed, Hermiston would join Prineville in housing Eastern Oregon’s second ESS facility.

The $1.6 million fully computerized system would yield several benefits, Slusher said, including making phone service adjustments easier.

It also would eliminate the need for an operator to ask which number the call is being made from on long-distance calls.

Along with these benefits, the ESS featured new services like touch-tone dialing, three-way conversations and automatic call forwarding. Adding icing to the cake, Slusher said phone numbers would remain the same.

The service would provide about 450 new phones in both Hermiston and Pendleton, 68 in Umatilla and 15 in Stanfield during its first year of operation.

75 YEARS AGO

Jan. 6, 1949

Wayne Collier was ready to take on the new year as owner of the Hermiston Chevrolet Company. With the purchase of the business, Collier became the Chevrolet dealer for western Umatilla County and northern Morrow County.

Despite the transition, he said there would not be any personnel changes. He also declared the firm would continue providing just as good or even better service as before and invited all to come in and get acquainted.

Collier had already been associated with the firm for nearly six months while handling the tractor and implement department. He previously worked as an automotive dealer in Milton-Freewater for 16 years.

Although Collier will face challenges, he was guaranteed to experience an early sense of success and pride. Chevrolet had just announced its new 1949 model and Collier would be involved with its display on Jan. 22.

90 YEARS AGO

Jan. 4, 1924

In his speech before Coident Roosevelt asked for a rigid continuation of the recovery campaign and addressed several problems plaguing the nation.

Roosevelt highlighted issues revolving around foreign concerns. He claimed the fear of immediate or future aggression, and the great amount of money allotted to precautionary measures, “prevent any great progress in peace of trade agreements.” He then switched focus to domestic troubles, with an emphasis on corrupt financial practices.

The president chastised corporate banking officials who grew richer at the expense of stockholders and the general public. He said their actions especially impacted farmers and people with little savings.

“I am speaking of these individuals who have evaded the spirit and purpose of our tax laws,” Roosevelt said.

He called on them to take ownership of their wrongdoings and use the new year as an opportunity to make amends.

“Recovery means a reform of many old methods (and) a permanent readjustment of many of our social and

economic arrangements,” he said in closing.