Pend Oreille County Centennial 1980s

7A | The county chronicles of 1980-1989

THE VOICE OF PEND OREILLE COUNT Y SINCE 1901

A Monthly Publication of The Miner Celebrating 100 years of Pend Oreille County

1980s were the best of times, worst of times

Decade of newsprint mill; high unemployment

By Fred Willenbrock Of The Miner

T

he 1980s was a decade of great advances and great disappointments. Like the national scene, the economy in Pend Oreille County rolled from good to bad to good. The absence of a major war didn’t mean that violence and hardship were a thing of the past as well; acts of inhumanity against man shot through the headlines from Newport to New York City.

Men’s hair was still long and music loud, but the 60s and 70s youth were taking jobs, settling down and creating families.

Miner Publisher Jim Hubbart summed up the early 80s in a front-page review of the year story. “A lot of yapping and snapping” was the headline. He was referring to the “continued economic recession and its accompanying uncertainty and discontent.” He also was referring to the local government investigations and the first recall in the county’s 71-year history.

Dogfights were common in the county courthouse in the 1980s and they often made headlines in The Miner. The

friction between sheriff Tony Bamonte and the rest of the judicial system and government officials was weekly. But there were some people focused on one thing: improving the sick economy. During the 80s they were proactive and often only the surface work and accomplishments were in the newspaper.

Small stories began appearing about a possible pulp and paper mill in the county. This small story that many ignored like all the other tall tales – remember, the timber-based economy was in the ditch – would grow to the biggest event since Box Canyon Dam was built. But more on that later.

Budget cuts were headlines for all governments. The Newport School District cut sports programs and citizens stepped up to fund them. There may not be jobs but the kids will play.

Long time advocate of Pend Oreille County, Congressman Tom Foley, who was then majority whip in the House, came to the county regularly to listen to problems. Behind the scenes his soft spot for the county’s long running economic woes and his growing power were critical to future successes in the 80s.

Safeway announced they will build a super store. They know people will always need to eat.

MINER PHOTO|FILE

Miner publisher Fred Willenbrock accepts the first roll of newsprint from Ponderay Newsprint manager Bill Meany. Willenbrock loaded the newsprint in the company van, drove it to the press and had The Newport Miner printed on it that week.

Keytronic, the computer keyboard maker, was being wooed by local leaders in early the 1980s. The first site was in Cusick. A young Arlin Beehler came to Newport for Keytronic owner Lou Zerkle and built a plant, but it closed its doors before the close of the decade, having employed up to 600.

The ups and downs continued through the early 80s with

locally owned Pend Oreille Bank opening and Chevrolet closing.

The Albeni sawmill announced its closure in the early 80s. In 1982, Louisiana-Pacific Corp. put its idle sawmill in Ione up for sale. It was bought by Vaagen Brothers Lumber Co. of Colville a year later, but like Keytronics, it closed before it saw the 1990s.

Later in the decade, a strike at DAW Forest Products sawmill at Albeni Falls had company officials fly into the mill in a big orange helicopter, negotiate, and fly away in dust storm.

Union leaders headed to The Miner office to tell their story.

After 56 days the strike ended.

Pend Oreille Mine was poised to open and Lafarge bought Lehigh Portland Cement plant in Metaline Falls.

Mt. Linton hospital was closed in Metaline Falls. Newport Community Hospital was in the news as well. It struggled

MINER PHOTO|FILE

The Ironworkers Union held a ceremony Feb. 11, 1989, as the last steel beam was placed on the structure that would become the Ponderay Newsprint plant. The pine tree symbolized growth, and the flag symbolized the country and the people.

financially and the local doctors decided not to run the emergency room. Behind the scenes the economic develop folks began to get involved realizing without a hospital and doctors everything stops.

As the leaders struggled to gain traction to drag the sick economy out many bizarre ideas surfaced. A front-page headline declares rich clay discovered in mid-county and the get-rich-quick ideas sprouted. The claim: clay worth

$19 million.

The Kalispel Tribe proposed expanding the reservation by more 8,000 acres to develop recreational uses for everyone and the county commissioners jumped up with questions. The Kalispels supported the local economy through the late 1980s as aluminum boats were made by a company at the Kalispel industrial.

Funds were wrestled by

SEE CENTENNIAL, 9A

MINER PHOTO|FILE

MINER PHOTO|FILE

This photograph appeared in The Newport Miner January 1989. The crew of C.E. Kramer Crane and Construction were taking apart the old Oldtown Interstate Bridge. The metal structure had been hit by log and chip trucks because of its low clearance. The new bridge started in this picture would not need the overhead structure. Later the old pilings were blown up.

1980

• Failed U.S. recue attempt to save hostages in Tehran • John Lennon assassinated • Mount St. Helens erupts • Rubik’s Cube becomes popular • Ted Turner establishes CNN • Who Shot JR? is talked about heavily from the TV show “Dallas”

1981

• Assassination attempt on the pope • Assassination attempt on President Reagan • Sandra Day O’Connor becomes first woman appointed to U.S. Supreme Court • Millions watch royal wedding of Prince Charles and Diane Spencer on T.V. • New plague identified at AIDS • Personal computers introduced by IBM • MTV is launched

1982

• “E.T.” released • Falkland Islands invaded by Argentina • Michael Jackson releases “Thriller” • The Tylenol scare erupts when seven die after taking poisoned medicine • Liposuction is introduced

1983

• Cabbage Patch kids are popular • U.S. embassy in Beirut bombed • “Just Say No” is the new tool to combat drug use • Final episode of M*A*S*H airs

1984

• “The Cosby Show” premiers • Stonewashed jeans are introduced • First megabit chip is made at Bell Labs

• Gymnast Mary Lou Retton wins two golds, two silvers, two bronzes • Run-D.M.C. have first gold rap album • Apple releases Macintosh personal computer

1985

• Hole in the ozone layer, first detected in 1977, now indisputable • Mikhail Gorbachev calls for Glasnost and Perestroika • Wreck of the Titanic found • Nintendo video game system introduced

1986

• Challenger space shuttle explodes • Chernobyl nuclear disaster • Iran Contra scandal unfolds • U.S. bombs Libya • U.S.S.R. launches Mir space station

Jim and Sheri Hubbart were co-publishers of The Miner until September 1986, after nine years.

They sold the business to Fred and Susan Willenbrock.

1987

• DNA first used to convict criminals • New York Stock Exchange suffers 22 percent drop on Black Monday • Baby Jessica falls down a well and is later rescued • “Les Miserables” wins eight Tony Awards

1988

• Pan Am Flight 103 is bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland • U.S. shoots down Iranian airliner • CDs outsell vinyl for the first time • Prozac is introduced as an antidepressant • Fire breaks out in Yellowstone

1989

• Berlin Wall falls • Exxon Valdez spills millions of gallons of oil on the coastline • Students massacred in China’s Tiananmen Square

Centennial Events

FRIDAY, OCT. 7

SATURDAY, OCT. 15

‘Exit the Body’ Murder Mystery: 6:30 p.m. - Circle Moon Theater

North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club Train Rides: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. - Ione ‘Exit the Body’ Murder Mystery: 6:30 p.m. - Circle Moon Theater ‘My Big Fat Greek Murder’: 6:30 p.m. - Cutter Theatre, Metaline Falls Hay Days: Ione City Park

SATURDAY, OCT. 8

North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club Train Rides: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. - Ione ‘Exit the Body’ Murder Mystery: 6:30 p.m. - Circle Moon Theater

SUNDAY, OCT. 9

North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club Train Rides: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. - Ione

FRIDAY, OCT. 14

‘Exit the Body’ Murder Mystery: 6:30 p.m. - Circle Moon Theater ‘My Big Fat Greek Murder’: 6:30 p.m. - Cutter Theatre, Metaline Falls

SUNDAY, OCT. 16

North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club Train Rides: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. - Ione Soul Street Dance Co.: 2 p.m. Cutter Theatre, Metaline Falls

FRIDAY, OCT. 21

‘Exit the Body’ Murder Mystery: 6:30 p.m. - Circle Moon Theater

SEE EVENTS, 9A

CENTENNIAL | FROM PAGE 7A local leaders from Idaho and Washington to rebuild the aging Oldtown Bridge.

Without a new bridge trucks were probably not going to use the 14 foot, 5 inch vertical clearance steel dinosaur any longer. That would mean no chip trucks for the paper mill, if it was ever to be built.

In another public works effort, Newport built its current library in 1984.

The economic roller coaster ride started going up in the mid-1980s.

Hubbart had been hospitalized a year earlier with a heart attack and as he put it in his final editorial: “You got to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.

When Fred and Susan Willenbrock, both 34, arrived in Newport to take the reins of The Newport Miner, they didn’t know they were in a low point or high point. The couple from Seattle was about to own their first newspaper.

Around them, Keytronic was selling their building, the paper mill was on hold, Albeni sawmill was on strike, federal agents were still chasing white supremacists around and unemployment was in double digits.

Willenbrock wrote: “Several have let us know that some tough economic storms have hit. One of the first men I met was leaving town.”

As the new publisher, Willenbrock inherited a seat at the “Taco Club,” later Pro Pend Oreille from the Hubbarts. It was a group started and funded by a few business people to fill the Keytronic building. They met at the Hubbarts’ home and had tacos. Some of them, like the Hubbarts, had been instrumental in the early days of the paper mill promotion – a lot of tacos earlier.

Pro Pend Oreille morphed into a real organization although without funding.

They became part of the economic development scene, pushing further the paper mill plans.

Tourism promotion was taken on during this time by proponents of the “City of Flags” theme for Newport.

Flags were originally flown from countries that visitors to town were from. The Miner joined the plan by taking front-page pictures of the visitors with their flag.

Sweden, Japan and even a general from Russia are now in The Miner archives.

Willenbrock chaired a group to upgrade the Newport Plaza, which at the time was a gravel drainage area near the museum.

In 1989, County library director Dave Remington organized a grand state centennial celebration ending in a train ride. The Miner produced a centennial publication.

A chip mill was started at Usk, where it still operates.

Sheriff Bamonte said he discovered the murderer of the Newport marshal who died 54 years earlier. It leads to a book and national publicity for the sheriff.

In 1982, voters recalled county commissioner Elmer Armstrong in a special election. The charges stemmed from his creation of the county personnel department, including funding it. But a group suspicious of any government control was behind the recall.

The recall marked a decade of bickering between county officials and certain groups.

Armstrong’s north county district residents talked of seceding from the county.

The non-native plant in a small part of the Pend Oreille River – locals were calling it milfoil weed – was about to be studied. The first milfoilcaused drowning claimed a 47-year-old woman in Metaline Falls.

The darkest days of anti government extremism in the 80s began to unfold in The Miner front pages and editorial pages. It started as a small story on the front page: “Aryan counterfeiter spotted near Metaline Falls.”

Near Christmas in 1984,

the violent movement of white supremacists became solidly anchored in the history of north Pend Oreille County.

“Robert Mathews, from Metaline Falls, died in a fiery assault by a brigade of FBI agents after a 34-hour siege on Whidbey Island. He died in the flames as a fugitive outlaw, suspected bank robber and selfstyled defender of the white race,” Miner publisher James Hubbart wrote.

Mathews, 31, was the leader of The Order, the militant arm of the Aryan Nations. He had come to Metaline Falls from Arizona 11 years before.

“It is only logical to assume that my days on this planet are rapidly drawing to a close,” Mathews declared in a letter to The Miner. He went on declaring he wasn’t going into hiding and the FBI would know what it was like to be the hunted.

Economic-wise, Hubbart summed it up by writing 1984 was a turning point: “For a change, the year brought more good news than bad.”

A Canadian paper company

had joined five U.S. newspaper publishers to build a mill on a green field near Usk. The work of local proponents was becoming fruitful. Terry Brown, secretary of Great Lakes Forest Products, Ltd., of Thunder Bay, Ontario, was in Newport with James McClatchy, board chairman of McClatchy Newspapers, Inc. McClatchy told The Miner they chose Pend Oreille because of low cost power and available raw materials – wood chips from the many mills at the time.

It couldn’t come soon enough as two sawmills announced closure. The unemployment rate reached 25 percent. Many residents were looking forward to the 600 jobs and $40 million to be spent during construction.

“As soon as someone gets the shovels out, I’ll be there,” Rep. Tom Foley told The Miner from Washington D.C. in 1986.

Thursday Oct. 1, 1987, was a day many people have waited for: “Shovel bites first mill dirt,” was the headline.

Ground breaking for Ponderay Newsprint Mill was the story.

Gov. Booth Gardner flew into

Ione Airport for the event. A special section was printed for the newspaper and handed out at the event. It included the history and how to make newsprint.

The Ponderay story held the front page for the next few years. Jim McNally was among the key behind-thescenes players. He negotiated a power sales contract between the PUD and Ponderay that was essential for both. McNally often was involved in efforts to improve the economy, speaking of it until his death.

Co-publishers Jim and Sheri Hubbart were also among the

Events | FROM PAGE 7A ‘My Big Fat Greek Murder’: 6:30 p.m. - Cutter Theatre, Metaline Falls

SATURDAY, OCT. 22

North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club Train Rides: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. - Ione ‘Exit the Body’ Murder Mystery: 6:30 p.m. - Circle Moon Theater ‘My Big Fat Greek Murder’: 6:30

shakers and movers in the effort to bring Ponderay.

One of the first signs of growth from the newsprint mill was a new housing development – the first in decades. Quail Ridge Estates was proposed in Newport. Who would have thought? Headlines were then: “Construction boom and strong timber industry hit in 1989.”

In November, Ponderay began to make paper. By December, the bugs were out and The Miner received the first roll of newsprint and prints that week’s edition on it.

The county would never be the same.

p.m. - Cutter Theatre, Metaline Falls

SUNDAY, OCT. 23

North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club Train Rides: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. - Ione ‘My Big Fat Greek Murder’: 2 p.m. - Cutter Theatre, Metaline Falls

MONDAY, OCT. 31

Trick-or-Treat in Downtown Newport