Enjoy these snapshots of articles written in past issues of the Nisqually Valley News from 45, 35, 25 and 15 years ago, respectively.
A Look Back at This Week,
45 Years Ago
- A former patient and therapist in the Western State Hospital sex offender program was killed between Roy and McKenna by a Fort Lewis soldier. The soldier was abducted in a van to the remote area where he was beaten and told he would end up like a mutilated corpse lying beside him. The soldier, Private Tovio Redditt, 22, overpowered his abductor and killed him with his own weapon.
- Gerald Schmidtke of the Yelm Prairie Kiwanis Club presented Steve Kreitel, Yelm High School senior and president of the high school band, with proceeds from the club’s aluminum collecting project for the band’s first new uniform.
- Dairymen in Dairy Herd Improvement Association-tested herds in Pierce County ranked first in average milk production in the state of Washington for 1978. The 16,850 pounds of milk average per cow was well over the 15,707 pounds average of the state.
- Darlene Iverson, Yelm High School junior, told Yelm Prairie Kiwanis Club members of her candidacy for Miss U.S. Teen queen. Iverson said that she was the only candidate from Washington to be selected for the pageant in 10 years.
A Look Back at This Week,
35 Years Ago
- Two days after Seattle Metropolitan council members toured the proposed Bald Hills sludge site, more than 70 Yelm area residents and anti-sludge protestors traveled to Seattle to attend the bi-monthly Metro council meeting on May 4, 1989.
- Yelm Police Officer James Swenson became a full-time patrolman on April 15, 1989, having served the area part time since September 1988. Swenson said he does police work because “I feel there is a need for it. I get personal gratification from it.”
- Yelm firemen and police worked with county sheriff’s office personnel to rescue nine individuals from the Nisqually River. The Tacoma residents had launched three rafts at McKenna for a float to the tank crossing, but the three crafts became separated with all aboard being dumped into the river. All were cold but not injured.
- Yelm educators Billie Needham and Sharon Welsh were honored at the state Capitol by state legislators Karen Fraser and Marilyn Rasmussen. Needham was presented the Christa McAuliffe Award in the high school division as a teacher at the Yelm Extension School, while Welsh won a Washington Award for Excellence in the elementary division for her work as principal at Southworth Elementary.
A Look Back at This Week,
25 Years Ago
- A drive-by shooting left a Yelm-area home riddled with bullets, but no injuries were reported. Four people were sleeping in a home located in the 10300 block of Bridge Road Southeast at about 12:20 a.m. when approximately half a dozen bullets were fired. Several went through a living room window and bedroom wall, another broke a window of a nearby car.
- In a move that shocked prosecutors, Landra White showed up for a pre-trial conference in Thurston County Superior Court to answer animal cruelty charges that were leveled against her and her husband, Bill. Nearly 300 rabbits were found decomposed in their cages at a farm, which law enforcement believed were allegedly left to starve to death by the Whites.
- A Yelm man was killed when his car went off the Grand Mound Highway between Grand Mound and Tenino east of Tilley Road. Jacob Hoheisel, 19, was headed east when the car left the roadway, plunged into a ditch and rolled over.
- Laughter turned to stunned silence as the Rainier Drama Club worked with local rescue workers to enact a shockingly realistic mock accident at the Rainier High School stadium. Students acted out a scenario in which one driver refused to relinquish the wheel, despite the fact he had been smoking marijuana. As a result, his car swerved into oncoming traffic, “killing” one passenger in another vehicle.
A Look Back at This Week,
15 Years Ago
- After eight years of vying for funding for a railroad connection, the City of Yelm finally saw progress. The Washington State Transportation budget included $525,000 for a railroad connection between the Yelm Prairie Rail Line and Tacoma Rail.
- Rainier councilman and Mayor Pro-Tem Randy Schleis said he would run for mayor. Schleis was the only candidate who had made their intentions known.
- The City of Rainier officially received its nearly $1.1 million loan from the USDA for its water tower project on April 28, 2009.
- Tipsoo Loop homeowners were concerned about trashy properties in their neighborhood violating the City of Rainier’s nuisance ordinance. For several months, they flooded Rainier council meetings to express concerns about the lack of progress in cleaning up the messes.
