Dec. 7, 1950
The Junior Chamber of Commerce dressed the city up for a holiday appearance with tree greenery and colored lights along Main Street. Clusters of brightly colored bells, smiling Santa Claus faces and stars of Bethlehem ornaments also adorned seven blocks downtown.
Two days after Willamette National Lumber Plant Manager Mel Cutler’s car fender was damaged by a runaway tire, and was replaced, his car collided into a car at the Wiley Creek road junction, forcing him to re-replace his fender.
The city is preparing to go to voters for a $100,000 bond in a special election. Plans call for a 700,000 gallon water storage reservoir, filter plant and city water department warehouse, designed to facilitate future expansion. The water system currently processes 680,000 gallons a day, and the expansion would boost it to 2,000,000 gallons, enough for a population of 6,000 people.
Leasing of the two theaters, the Roxy and the Rio, was announced by owner George Gessler Sr. Jesse Jones leased the theaters for two years, and he is being replaced by Howard Mellinger.
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A demonstration of “how to pick musical notes out of the air” was given to the Kiwanis Club. On display was a theremin, an electrically operated instrument that is played without touching it. Said to be one of 10 instruments of its kind in the world, it produces a unique tone through a combination of the performer’s body static and impulses cast out in the electronic field created by the instrument’s various tubes and coils.
Dec. 4, 1975
The first Hospital Emergency Ambulance Radio (HEAR) system was installed in a Sweet Home ambulance recently. It was funded by a nearly four month fund drive, which raised $4,300, about $2,400 more than what was needed. The extra funds will be saved to purchase a Life Pak coronary care system for the ambulance, but to make that purchase, another $3,000 is needed.
Sweet Home Genealogical Society was chosen as the official name for the group of hobbyists who have been meeting at the library. Dues will cost $1 a year and meetings are weekly. Branching out from, but still closely associated with, the genealogical group is a committee of three people who are members of the East Linn Museum Society. Faye Farrier, Corean Morgan and Sara Johnson will begin interviewing old-timers for the oral history tape library in the museum.
Friends of the Library invites the public to help decorate a special Christmas tree at the library in an old-fashioned manner, including strings of popcorn. Attendees are asked to bring other ideas and materials for the project.
Dec. 6, 2000
State lottery funds will be used to fund an economic development coordinator for Sweet Home. The $30,000 grant will be awarded to the Sweet Home Economic Development Group with a $15,000 match to fund the position. The hired person will also help with the Chamber of Commerce, which at this point is operating without paid staff.
Freshman Blair Geil and fifth-grader James Sylvester were honored by the school district’s transportation department for their heroic efforts. While riding a school bus early in the morning on Sodaville-Mountain Home Drive, the bus hit a soft shoulder and was pulled down an embankment, coming to rest on its side where the door is. Bus driver Ina Lee was stuck in her seat, but Geil was able to free her from the seatbelt with a tool. Another bus driver, Emma Flanagan, received a fractured vertebrae. Geil and Sylvester checked on all the kids and waited by the road until help arrived.
High school student Jeff Briggs spent his summer starting his own business, Intrepid Enterprises, to design and sell original computer programs, screen savers and webpage designs. He started his business by trying to figure out how to make money off the Internet. He charges about $300 to make a website, and $100 to update the site.