This Week in Odessa History

100 years ago

From The Odessa Record

February 16, 1918

Five bridges are swept out. Ice from Sylvan Lake carries everything with it: Six o’clock Friday evening found the waters of Crab Creek still raising and practically all of the workers who had been fighting the high water water worn out, so work was discontinued on the ice gorge east of the west city bridge. By this time the water was so high that councilman Reiman sent down a saddle horse to get out the men working there who were not equipped with hip waders.

For a while, only occasional chunks of ice were seen floating in the creek and some expressed hope that the worst was over, but after a few hours the channel again filled with chunks resembling small icebergs, the size of which eclipsed anything by far that had come before, some of them covering as much surface as a good sized house, which in the swift current moved with such force that there was little surprise when one of these struck the Fourth street wagon bridge and it went out with a crash. The foot bridges at Fifth and Third streets, the south bent of the Third street wagon bridge and the canal bridge followed in turn and when morning came it was found that, with the exception of the new steel bridge, only one wagon bridge still remained, the west end city bridge and before that was a jam of ice which backed over the entire flat at the lower end of town and caused a stream that resembled a main channel to flow down Second avenue.

75 years ago

From The Odessa Record

February 10, 1941

The secret marriage of Miss Anona Wilson and Edward Heimbigner at Vancouver, Wash. was announced here during the week end, when Mrs. Heimbigner resigned the position as grade school teacher she held for several years. Mr. Heimbigner is owner of the Heimbigner dairy.

Jacob Suchland is supervising the trimming of trees at the city park, getting in readiness for opening to the public when spring breaks. The city recently purchased a pump which will be used to pump the water from the swimming pool onto the park lawns.

The first work done toward the REA (Rural Electrification Administration) lines for Lincoln county will be started in the Odessa area, it was announced this week.

50 years ago

From The Odessa Record

February 17, 1966

The recently completed Memorial Convalescent Center, an addition to the Memorial Hospital in Odessa, was a busy place Sunday afternoon as residents of the area stopped in for a visit during the open house. The 10-bed, 5,500-square-foot nursing home addition was completed by the contractor, Hazen and Clark, Inc. of Spokane, in December. Empire Electric of Odessa handled the electrical installations. The $115,000 addition was financed by a bequest to the hospital district from the estate of the late William M. Nevins, former superior court judge and local attorney.

Determination, hustle and heads-up basketball were the keys to success Saturday night as Odessa won a spot in the Northeast district tournament by beating Grand Coulee 56-46 in a playoff game at Wilbur. Steve Lightbody was the big wheel in the Odessa scoring machine with 21 points, and Jon Heimbigner had 14 points. Friday night Odessa had little trouble in downing Almira 64 to 37. All 10 players were in the scoring column. Wes Witt led the scoring with 16 points.

25 years ago

From The Odessa Record

February 21, 1991

Lenn Barney was named Odessa Memorial Hospital’s employee of the quarter. Nomination letters cited Barney for his dedication to work, finding solutions with the cost factor always his first concern, for never losing his cool, treating everyone with concern and respect, for always being willing to do whatever is asked of him, for using resourcefulness as well as being dependable and for performing his job with the utmost responsibility.

10 years ago

From The Odessa Record

February 16, 2006

Odessa High School juniors Casey Winfrey, Cassandra McClure and Sarah Greenwalt were scheduled to compete for the title of Miss Odessa at the Miss Odessa Scholarship Program to be held in the school multipurpose room.