28 YEARS AGO — 1997
• An aviation company will add a trickle of new jobs to the flood taken when the Air Force left in 1995. Univair recently signed a 10-year lease with the Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corp. The start-up company plans to hire 12 people before the end of this year and could have a payroll of 75 within three years. Univair repairs and rebuilds industrial turbines and jet engines. The equipped facility and the qualified workforce made the area attractive, according to President Sylvain Lemaire. To build a similar facility, the corporation would have to pay a minimum of $1 million, Lemaire said. When the military left, many skilled workers remained in the area. “Plattsburgh offers a great facility and great people who are already qualified by the Federal Aviation Administration,” said Jeanne-Pierre Dufour, a consultant to the company. Technicians hired by the company will earn between $30,000 and $40,000.
• Officially opening today, the annual Saranac Lake winter fest, marking 100 years, is the oldest in the United States. It also is the only one celebrated by Doonesbury characters, drawn and donated by native Garry Trudeau. Zonker, who must be close to catching the mid-century mark himself, snowboards across this year’s pin, proclaiming “Surfing the Century” as the theme. Hockey and basketball will begin this morning, with the day’s main event, the crowning of a king and queen, at 7:30 p.m. A new parade, just for children, will be held on the last day of the celebration, to give kids an opportunity to take the spotlight all for themselves as part of a Main Street festival. Other activities during the week include ecumenical services, presentations by Pendragon Theatre, a piano concert by Radoslav Lorkovic, a bevy of knock-kneed, hairy-legged “lovelies” attempting to dance at next Friday’s talent revue and the annual “storming” of the ice castle with fireworks as the closing event.
50 YEARS AGO — 1975
• Two Air Force FB 111, fighter bombers assigned to Plattsburgh Air Force Base collided and crashed near here late Monday night. The crews of both planes, survived the crash, the Air Force said, and Vermont State Police utilizing snowmobiles were searching for the four men into the early hours this morning. The collision occurred about 10:30 p.m. Monday over Magic Mountain ski area located on Glebe Mountain, near the Twin Maple Grocery Store in Windham, Vt. The wreckage landed in two parts, one on Magic Mountain and the other in the Londonderry Valley. Plattsburgh Air Force Base officials termed the flights of the two aircraft routine and declined to comment on what the plane was carrying. One bystander who saw the crash described it as a “flash of white light in the sky,” He said he saw the wreckage go down on the opposite side of Magic Mountain from where he was standing. He could see the outline of the mountain when it struck the ground. Residents of South Londonderry reported that flaming wreckage crashed to the ground, in one case striking a residence with a woman and four children in it. The husband and another child had left a section of the house only moments before the flaming wreckage crashed into it.
• It was about midway through Thursday’s meeting of the Plattsburgh Common Council when Mayor Roland St. Pierre got to the key item: “At this time I’d like to hand down the appointment of Detective Lt. Herbert O. Carpenter as city police chief with an eight-week probationary period.” Thus, at 8:15 p.m. the suspense was broken, that had been mounting since last June 1, when then-Chief Bernard Coryer retired.
75 YEARS AGO — 1950
• A former student at Plattsburgh and Potsdam State Teachers Colleges is now a cover girl appearing in the February issue of the Ladies Home Journal, under the caption of Undiscovered American Beauties.” She is Mrs. Helen Neumann Ryan. The discovery of the picture was made by Mrs. Mildred Brownell, housemother at the dormitory, where Mrs. Ryan, then Helen Neummon, resided while a student at Potsdam State Teachers College. She and her husband, Thomas Ryan, live in Albany, where he is studying law under the G.I. Bill. Helen keeps house and works in the laboratories of the New York State health department.
• Radio station WIRY, mutual outlet for Northern New York, went on the air yesterday in a five-hour dedicatory program. Unestimated scores of persons jammed the station’s studios at Radio Park at the Junction of Broad and Cornella streets. They were headed by Mayor John J. Tyrell and members of the Common Council. The Mayor expressed gratification at the station’s inauguration, and voiced hopes for its success. They were sentiments that were liberally sounded by others during the evening broadcast. How many hundreds were listening to the varied program over their own radios could not be estimated, but it probably was an impressive number. Well-wishers unable to be present overflowed offices and, corridors at the station with floral tributes. There were scores of congratulatory telegrams, and probably as many telephone calls.
100 YEARS AGO — 1925
• There’s an old saying about “hanging onto a dollar.” Ernest Stoughton of 84 Broad Street has one which is 101 years old. As far as is known, it is the oldest piece of currency in existence which was issued by a Plattsburgh bank. The dimensions of the much-worn piece of paper are 3 1/4 by 6 ¾ inches. At the masthead is the billowy figure of a woman.
• Maddened by a sudden banging at his heels, a runaway horse spread terror among churchgoers yesterday morning. Frightened further when workers on Margaret Street attempted to stop him, the wild-eyed beast dunked onto the sidewalk and knocked down Mrs. Wilfred D. Crete of 9 South Catherine Street near the Star store. Friends picked up Mrs. Crete and rushed her to the Champlain Valley hospital, where she was found to have sustained a fracture of the tenth rib on the left side and a contusion of the hip.
— Compiled by Night Editor Ben Rowe