25 YEARS AGO — 1984 As the smoke from the Jay highway garage clears — due to a blaze that destroyed a town building and highway equipment worth almost $1 million — highway superintendents in nearby towns rush to Jay's aid. The fire was electrical in origin.
A $200,000 check from KeyBank is received by City of Plattsburgh officials. It represents the money guaranteed in the letter of credit supplied by Plattsburgh Pioneers hockey team owner Dr. Denis Methot.
Kenneth Wheeler, Essex County highway superintendent, blisters the Adirondack Park Agency in a recent letter for its unyielding stand that his department needs a permit to continue a 40-year practice of spraying federally approved weed- and brush-killing chemicals along roadsides.
The Board of Cooperative Educational Services votes unanimously not to close Mineville BOCES center. Instead the board decides to rent or lease space at the center to offset the cost of declining enrollment in the entire BOCES system.
50 YEARS AGO — 1959 Former Air Force Sgt. Ernest Dixon is sentenced to the maximum of 10 to 20 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter. Dixon, 35, was found guilty of killing his wife, Audrey Vivian Dixon, 33, Feb. 28.
A portion of the Northway just north of Plattsburgh is opened to traffic, and the Beekmantown Road at Halsey's Corners has been barricaded. The section opened for traffic runs from a point on the Beekmantown Road northeastward to Boynton Avenue at a point opposite Oak Street.
By almost a 3-1 margin AuSable Forks Central School District voters reject a $570,000 school-bond issue. The proposition was almost identical to that which was rejected for the new 14-room elementary school July 23.
The State Department of Audit and Control approves the proposed Cumberland Head Fire District. The next step in the district formation will be the appointment of a board of fire commissioners by the Plattsburgh Town Board.
75 YEARS AGO — 1934 Thomas Showers, 27, a former Civilian Conservation Corps worker, is on trial for his life in Franklin County Court. He is accused of killing Cleo Tellstone, 14, of Bloomingdale and formerly of Plattsburgh on June 23.
A state TERA report shows 1,300 persons in Essex County were provided with relief during the year ending Sept. 1. More than $474,871 was spent on relief in the county during the same period.
Working in two, 24-hour-a-week shifts, 85 men are employed in rushing work at the Setting Pole rapids dam on the Raquette River near Tupper Lake before the cold weather sets in.
An extensive educational program is launched at Civilian Conservation Corps Camp 63 near Lake Placid. Classes and lectures are being held daily in a variety of selected subjects, allowing educational advance to those who desire it.
100 YEARS AGO — 1909 An engineer concludes the City of Plattsburgh should build a new dam on Mead Brook upstream from the present dam. He says this would supply the city with 17 percent more water.
Fred Pennington is awarded the contract for the completion of the interior of the new St. John's Rectory in Plattsburgh, which under the terms of the contract must be completed by Jan. 15.
Edward Leonard, a yard brakeman employed by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, is painfully injured, the tender of a switch engine passing over one of his feet and crushing the toes. The accident happened at Bluff Point.
Up in Saranac Lake the pulpit of the Methodist Church is now connected with the homes of the sick who are unable to attend the service, and several people are regularly hearing the Sunday sermon over the telephone by using a head receiver connected to a transmitter on the pulpit.
— Compiled by Contributing Writer Sue Botsford, who can be reached at 834-7201 or botsford@westelcom.com
