Aug. 22, 1974
Disaster was narrowly avoided when a log truck struck a flatbed truck at the Holley Service Station. The flatbed was stopped on Hwy. 228 to turn into the station when a loaded log truck struck it. The impact forced the flatbed into the gas island, shearing off the gas pump, knocking aside a diesel pump, and barely missing the station owner and his wife. The impact ignited the gas, with fire burning beneath the truck and around the gas pump pipe. Witnesses extinguished the fire. No injuries were reported.
Police issued a warrant for the arrest of Thomas Eugene Creech, 24, in connection with the shooting death of William Joseph Dean, 22, who resided in Sweet Home for a few months this year. His partially decomposed body was found in the sexton’s room of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Portland after apparently dying from a gunshot wound several days prior. (Editor’s Note: Creech was ultimately sentenced as a serial killer in Idaho, including a conviction for Dean’s death.)
Donna Thompson, 28, achieved her goal of becoming a police officer when she became the first woman of the Sweet Home Police Department to graduate from the Oregon Police Academy. She worked since 1972 as a dispatcher and matron at the department. Now she is a policewoman and EMT. A meter maid friend from Klamath Falls encouraged Thompson to apply for a job at the police department, after which she later became interested in becoming an officer.
Willamette Industries Inc. and Johns-Manville Corporation announced an agreement in principle for Willamette to purchase the stock of Johns-Manville Timber Corporation for approximately $34 million in cash. J-M owns about 60,000 acres of timberland in Virginia.
Aug. 25, 1999
The City of Sweet Home is now a work site to provide food stamp recipients the chance to reimburse taxpayers for the benefits by working. For the last three years the federal government required states to put food stamp recipients to work. All able-bodied recipients aged 18-50 without dependents are required to perform 20 hours of work a month for a nonprofit or public agency. They can have three months “free” in a three-year period.
Gov. John Kitzhaber signed into law HB-2045 which will remove personal property taxes on environmentally sensitive logging equipment, such as harvesters and processors, ranging from $3 to $15 depending on county, for the first eight years of its working life. The bill – to sunset in 2008 – is considered a fairness issue by members of Associated Oregon Loggers, which supported its passage for eight years. It was said the governor liked the bill because it will dovetail with the Oregon Plan to save salmon and other fish runs.
Journalists who cover the environment for newspapers across the country converged on Sweet Home to learn more about their craft from families impacted by natural resource issues on a ground-level basis. Some 30 residents ate dinner with the group while offering their opinion about the coverage of environmental issues from the viewpoint of a community that’s been bombarded by media for more than a decade. The impact left many shell-shocked by what they believe was spotted, unbalanced and inaccurate reporting. The program coordinator said the group came to learn because they believe reporters must raise the standard, with “less ambush format and sound bites that pass for news coverage.”