28 YEARS AGO — 1997
• The Franklin County Tourism Department is online. Complementing its television and print campaigns to “make the sale” of Franklin County to travelers, the Internet site is the latest tool to increase tourism. Franklin County Tourism Director Neil Seymour and Cindy Short of the advertising agency assisting the county demonstrated the site and showed TV ads and new publications to the Board of Legislators at a special meeting Thursday. The net site is resulting in increased requests for information. Short said about 100 people access the site each day. Potential tourists can email the office, get more information and book their stay online.
• Officials at CVPH Medical Center believe no one was exposed to tuberculosis during medical procedures conducted at the hospital between November 1996 and January 1997. Earlier this year, it was feared that as many as 37 people who had undergone a procedure called a bronchoscopy had been exposed to the bacteria which causes TB. However, after extensive review by the hospital and the state Health Department, officials feel the possibility those patients were infected is unlikely. “We don’t have any evidence that exposure had occurred,” said Dr. Wouter Rietsema, an infection-control specialist at the hospital.
50 YEARS AGO — 1975
• AuSable Point State Park beach is one of two in New York State included in a Family Circle magazine article “50 Little-Known Great Beaches.” The article by Jean Anderson appeared in July’s issue of Family Circle. AuSable Point and Sunken Forest on Fire Island are the two New York State beaches included under the subhead “Middle Atlantic.” Concerning AuSable Point, the article says: “AuSable Point State Park, Lake Champlain — Strangely, one of New York’s great ocean beaches can be found deep in the Adirondacks on the shores of Lake Champlain. It is AuSable Point, about 10 miles south of Plattsburgh just east of Route 9. The beach is wide and sandy as is the lake bottom, and it sweeps some two miles along the north shore of AuSable Point. The waters are cool but clear and, for picnicking, there’s a mixed forest behind the beach. There are also changing rooms, a snack stand and lifeguards on duty.”
• July 4th brought a crowd of about 10,000 people here to take part in the Rouses Point Firemen’s annual Independence Day Celebrations. The festivities started off with a parade featuring bands, marching units, floats and fire departments from New York, Vermont and Canada. Award winners in the parade spanned several categories. They included the adult marching unit winners: first place, Rouses Point Montgomery Rifles; second place, Post 20 Plattsburgh American Legion; third place, American Legion Post 912, Rouses Point. Junior marching unit winners were: Rouses Point Boy Scouts; second place, Champlain Boy Scouts; third place, Rouses Point Raiders. The adult band winners were: Les Metropolitans; second place, Golden Stars; third place, the Clinton County Strawhatters.
75 YEARS AGO — 1950
• A smoldering blaze in a supporting timber of the grandstand on the old fairgrounds last evening brought the Plattsburgh Fire Department to the scene where thousands of persons were gathered to witness last night’s fireworks display staged by the Plattsburgh Athletic Association Inc. There was little excitement and no panic when the blaze was discovered. A few persons in the immediate vicinity of the timber were moved from their seats. Firemen extinguished the small fire in a matter of moments with a line from the pumper truck’s booster tank. The program went off as scheduled, and, according to one of the firemen who was standing by, part of the fireworks display pictured a fire truck speeding to a blaze and putting out a fire.
• An estimated 20,000 Canadian visitors were on their way home last night after celebrating Dominion Day in this area, shopping and taking advantage of the New York State campsite and the municipal bathing beach on Cumberland Head Road. Plattsburgh’s streets were crowded Saturday afternoon with shoppers and with those who were only window shopping. Traffic was at a standstill many times during the day, and traffic lights at the corner of Margaret and Bridge Streets and the corner of Margaret and Cornelia Streets were manually operated in an effort to control the flow of vehicles. Police at the two corners were on continuous duty from eight o’clock in the morning until ten o’clock Saturday night. U.S. Customs Offices at Champlain reported an estimated 2,700 southbound cars crossed the border Saturday and about 2,500 yesterday. This would mean about 20,800 Canadians, as the Customs reckon an average of four persons per car.
100 YEARS AGO — 1925
• That the Champlain Bridge project is fast finding favor is shown by the suggestion of the naming of the structure, should it become a reality. This was disclosed today by Senator M. Y. Ferris, chairman of the New York Commission, when he made public that John A. Stewart, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the George Washington-Sulave Institution at New York City, had offered the suggestion of naming the project the “George Washington Bicentennial Bridge,” in memory of George Washington, the first President of the United States. Senator Ferris stated that the suggestion would be placed before the New York-Vermont Commission at the proper time. The national government, as well as many states of the Union, are to commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of George Washington in 1931–32, and it was thought that the naming of this inter-state bridge might fit in as a part of the celebration at that time.
• Plattsburgh’s strongmen are challenged by a slip of a girl, who weighs but ninety pounds on the scales, to lift her off the ground. Jean Corelli astounded the audience at the New Strand Theater yesterday afternoon and evening by her remarkable performance. Three men, one of them a reporter, went on the stage. Each in turn went through the same experience. The first time they tried to lift her the task was easy. She gradually put on weight or flexed her muscles in such a way that it was impossible to raise her off the ground. Another of her stunts was to be lifted up in the air. She then became so heavy that it was impossible to hold her, whereas a moment before she was like a feather. Allan Corelli, her husband, demonstrated the same remarkable resistance to being lifted. Four men strained and tugged and found it impossible to raise him from the floor. This afternoon at five o’clock, Allan and Jean Corelli will call first at the police and then at the fire station. Any huskies on either force who want to test out their strength will be given an opportunity. Tomorrow afternoon at one o’clock, Allan Corelli will demonstrate his remarkable powers in front of the Strand Theatre. Mounted on the running board of a handsome new Buick coach, furnished by Todd Buck Co., he will defy any three of Plattsburgh’s huskiest workers to raise him an inch — and he tips the scales at only 120 pounds.