September Index AND 1952 story that times were good for sugar beet growers

Sept. 27: Times were good for sugar beet growers
Story from 1952 Argus-Observer predicting a record sugar beet crop.

Sept. 24: Regional news -- Halfway Oregon, once half.com, finds a bidder
Account from 2007 Argus-Observer about Halfway Oregon’s successful Ebay auction of the town sign.
1952 Argus-Observer reports state police to move to Snake River Bridge location.
The Argus-Observes ---Public interest will determine the fate of school patrol

Sept. 20: Readers look back ---“Number please?” and how did the Doman twins get away with that car.
1952 story reporting state police promise to study school patrol.
2007 story saying potato harvest will be high in quality, low in quantity.

Sept. 17: The Argus Observes --- Brevity in feminine attire
1952 story reporting two polio deaths
2007 OHS Tiger footballers beat vale

Sept. 13: 1956 OHS classmates remember Ore-Ida start, dancing lessons, “whirlwind” Don Lynch, and Native Indian artifacts.
1952 flying saucer likely was a weather balloon.

Sept. 10: The Argus Observes: On football stirring the blood

Sept: 6: Coach Ken Glore says defense is troubled on his 1952 Tiger football team.

Sept. 3: 1952 student body moving into new high school is record in size.
Local riders win honors at 1952 County Fair.
The Argus Observers --- Don Lynch explains his reasons for starting a personal column.

FALL OF 1952 SUGAR BEET CROP EXPECTED TO BE A GOOD ONE:

The Sept. 29, 1952 issue of The Argus-Observer reported that a record sugar beet crop was about to be harvested for processing at the sugar plant in Nyssa.

Jared Lewis, district manager of the Amalgamated Sugar Beet Company told the newspaper that yield per acre, total yield and the price of beets were all expected to be the highest in history.

He predicted better than 22 tons per acre average yield, exceeding the year before and the average over the previous five years.

The sugar content of the beets was also testing high.

“It looks like a good year,” Lewis said, noting that his company’s plant would begin processing Oct. 6.

Payette teachers accept 2 percent raise

Payette school teachers and the board of education both signed a mediated agreement this week that gives teachers a 2 percent raise, the Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007 issue of The Argus Observer reported. Andrea Tuttle, president of the Payette Education Association, said the agreement was accepted “reluctantly” by teachers because otherwise they could have received no raise at all. “It was the best they could offer,” Tuttle said.

For more details follow our link to the newspaper’s web pages.

Regional News --- Halfway Oregon, once half.com, finds a bidder

Halfway, Oregon --- more than halfway along the highway 86 from Baker, Oregon to Hells Canyon National Recreation Area --- has sold a sign from it’s recent past for $1,000 on eBay.

The buyer: Josh Kopelman, the man who convinced the town of 350 people to change its name to half.com for year. He won out over 45 other bids.

Kopelman, who founded half.com, could obviously afford the memento. He sold his company to eBay in mid 2000 for some $350 million, according to an Associated Press report published in The Argus Observer on Monday, Sept. 24, 2007.

In exchange for changing its identity to “half.com Oregon, America’s first Dot.com city” on Jan. 19, 2000, the town received $100,000 in cash and school computers. And it found itself on NBC’s Today show the day of the changeover.

The town’s two signs from that year lasted well beyond the deal, and beyond the dot com bust, but were finally taken down so that one could be placed in the town museum and the other sold on eBay. According to the Associated Press, Halfway Mayor Gordon Kaesemeyer, allowed that townsfolk “would have been tickled” if the auction had brought in an extra $50 for the town coffers.

For the full Associated Press account, follow our link to the local pages of Monday’s Argus Observer