28 YEARS AGO — 1997
• The federal government should make funding for acid‑rain research a priority and not merely a year‑by‑year consideration, according to the Adirondack Park Agency. Already fighting an uphill battle against the devastating effects of acid rain, the Adirondack Park last month was in jeopardy of losing one of its greatest weapons: the acid‑rain monitoring station atop Whiteface Mountain. The station was targeted for closure as part of a U.S. Geological Survey budget proposal that would have cut nearly $1.7 million and reduced the number of survey‑funded monitoring stations across the country from 70 to 10. But thanks in part to a large public outcry, the federal funds for the 1998 fiscal year were restored. Still, APA Acid Rain Researcher Karen Roy told agency commissioners that while the battle may have been won, the war is far from over.
• The Plattsburgh Redevelopment Corp. is getting ready to host the “mother” of all garage sales. PARC has retained the Morrisonville firm of Martin & Sons Auction Sales and Service to sell hundreds of items left behind by the military when Plattsburgh Air Force Base closed in September 1995. The auction, scheduled for May 17, will be held in a 28,000‑square‑foot aircraft hangar near the flightline on the new base. According to William Malott, PARC’s property specialist, many items will be tagged for general sale, while some in large quantities—ski gear and accessories, for example—will be sold in lots. PARC plans to allow public viewing of sale items. The list of sale goods includes autos and vans, tents and camping supplies, canoes and paddleboats, pop‑up and tow‑behind campers, skis, snowboards and snow throwers, lawn mowers, roto‑tillers and log splitters, computers and printers, televisions and VCRs, and a small quantity of furniture. Malott said PARC hopes to generate a minimum $65,000 profit from the sale. All proceeds will be used to support the base‑redevelopment effort. Auction details are still being worked out.
50 YEARS AGO — 1975
• Plattsburgh Town Supervisor Arthur LeFevre will snip a ribbon in two at the entrance to the Pyramid Mall at 9:30 this morning. The act will put this area’s largest merchandising aggregate into official operation. Not all the 45 stores in the giant mall will be able to meet this morning’s deadline, but most of them will. When it’s going full tilt, the mall will employ about 500 people, nearly all local residents. The Big Three opening this morning will be Montgomery Ward, Magrams Department Store and the Barbara Moss women’s clothing store. Several others, including K‑Mart discount store, the Price Chopper supermarket (located outside the mall proper) and many attractive food, clothing and specialty shops, restaurants and two theaters, beat the gun by opening before today’s festivities. A number of merchandising officials will join LeFevre for the ribbon‑cutting ceremony. They include: The particular charm of the new mall is in the restful carpeted mall itself, which connects the shops and stores within the 400,000‑square‑foot building. Here are benches, air‑conditioning, water fountains, plantings, stereo music that convert the shopping chore into a pleasant experience unique to the North Country.
• Beginning next month downtown shoppers will probably be able to park free on city streets, at least for a while. A committee created to recommend to the Plattsburgh Common Council what to do about the parking meters is going to suggest that the meters be temporarily removed beginning May 1. Downtown merchants have pushed all along for the removal of the meters. They feel that the threat of parking tickets will continue to hurt their business since shopping centers offer free parking. And since some Pyramid Mall stores opened two weeks ago that threat has been compounded. One downtown merchant reported that his business is off 50 percent for that period, although he believes business will level off higher than that once the uniqueness of the mall wears off.
75 YEARS AGO — 1950
• Plattsburgh’s first drive‑in theatre on the Morrisonville Road will open for its third season tonight. A new pre‑fabricated steel screen, which replaces the one destroyed in the freak storm of last January, has been erected by John J. Fitzpatrick & Sons and is considered the largest in this area. Extensive renovations have been made to the snack bar to make it more attractive to patrons, and another improvement is a new neon sign board at the entrance to the grounds. This work was done by Francis A. Lagoy, contractor. A new sound system was installed in the projection booth. Due to numerous requests, the theatre is being opened before the entire work program is completed. The theatre will present programs tonight through Monday, but will be closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week. It will reopen again Friday, April 28—one week from today—for a continuous season’s program.
• The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, en route from Montreal to New York City, occupied a private car of the Montreal Limited that passed through this city Wednesday night at 11:39. The couple had no police escort, although guards were placed about the car when the train stopped at Rouses Point for inspection by Customs and Immigration services.
100 YEARS AGO — 1925
• It was bargain day on automobiles at Rouses Point Saturday, when the government disposed of about ten cars seized from bootleggers. One Cadillac touring car sold as low as $6, a Cole roadster sold for less than $100, and the highest price bid was for a Ford coupe, $210.
• Relics of the first water system installed by the village of Plattsburgh four score or more years ago were uncovered yesterday by workmen engaged in digging out a cellar for the new addition to the court house. Huge wooden pipes were dug up and found in good condition. The sections were about eight feet long and a foot through, with a cylindrical hole through the center about two inches in diameter. One end of each section was sharpened to a blunt point, which fitted into the section ahead and formed a rough joint. The days of long ago were brought back in vivid form to a Press reporter by Martin V. B. Turner of 105 Oak Street, a former supervisor and member of the board of public works. Mr. Turner said he had been a resident of Plattsburgh only a matter of some 50 years, but he remembered conditions before that when he used to drop into town for shopping. The village’s original water supply was derived from two springs, according to Mr. Turner. One was located about a mile above the Underwood Mill and the other was near Treadwell’s Mills. From these two sources, water was piped to the village through wooden pipes.
— Compiled by Night Editor Ben Rowe