50 YEARS AGO — 1973
• Two members of the Plattsburgh and Clinton County Chamber of Commerce have returned from a northern tier conference convinced that it is time to strike again for a rooftop highway and a new bridge over Lake Champlain. They are Lawrence M. House, the chamber’s bridge expert and a member of the Lake Champlain Bridge Commission, and Robert G. Halliday, executive vice president of the chamber. They attended a conference sponsored by the Black River Economic Development Commission of St. Lawrence County. They reported that six northern counties sent delegates on planning commission members to confer on land use and development. House and Halliday quizzed State Department of Transportation engineers on the chances of early construction of a rooftop highway connecting Interstate 87 (the Adirondack Northway) near Plattsburgh with Interstate 81 near Watertown. They reported that the engineers said they couldn’t plan the highway because the state lacked funds for it and there was no federal appropriation, but they added that the federal funding picture could change on short notice. The rooftop highway would be the western leg of a system connecting northern New York with New England via a bridge that has been proposed between Cumberland Head, N.Y. and Grand Isle, Vt. “A point of interest was that representatives of every county there felt that the rooftop highway was the No. 1 factor in future economic growth and should be given top priority.” Halliday reported. The Clinton County delegates agreed that it is time for villages, cities, towns, development groups, chambers of commerce and interested residents to start a campaign to get the proposed highway funded.
• The new $30,400 grandstand being installed. at the Clinton County fairgrounds here is scheduled for completion by Wednesday. Superintendent of Grounds Ted Perras said only steps and railings remain to be installed. The steelwork and seats have been completed. The construction was held up for a while by bad weather, Perras said. Heavy rain interfered with installation of footings for the structure. The metal parts of the grandstand are rust-colored at present, Perras said. They are made of “weathering steel,” which turns from rust to a blue-green color within a year. The structure will never need painting. But “it doesn’t look that way right now,” Perras added. The board of directors is scheduled to meet tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the fairgrounds office. “The gathering will be devoted to finishing up the last details,” Perras said. “Within another week, we’ve got to be ready.”
• Marijuana use may be leveling off on the American college campus, but beer-drinking is on the rise. This point was made by Michael R. Sonnenreich, executive director of the National Commission of Marijuana and Drug Abuse. His comments came Monday during an interview conducted after he gave the keynote address of the second Annual Drug Awareness Workshop held at Plattsburgh High School. He spoke on “An Overall View of Drug Abuse in American Society.” The solution to the drug abuse problem in America lies in long-term undercover intelligence by law enforcement agencies, Sonnenreich said. Law enforcement agencies should “. . .step wasting time on petty stuff, such as possessors,” he added.
75 YEARS AGO — 1948
• “Twinks,” a seeing-eye dog belonging to Miss Elsie F. Millette of Sailly avenue, is dead. The familiar guide of the blind girl died Tuesday following an illness since May. He was 11 years old. Twinks was acquired by Miss Milliette in January, 1939, from Seeing Eye, Inc., Morristown, N.J. From that time until recently, even during the period of illness, the canine pet was Miss Millette’s “eyes,” a constant and efficient companion. Twinks soon came to know the city virtually as well as a human. The territory most familiar to “Twinks” was the route from the Millette home to the offices of the Clinton County Welfare Department, where Miss Milliette, an efficient typist, is steadily employed. Miss Millette, afflicted since the age of ten years, had a childhood memory of the layout of the city when she acquired “Twinks.” She taught the dog all that she could remember and, grasping directions quickly, the canine pet soon was able to guide his mistress to any place in the city, guarding her against congested traffic, obstructions and other hazards.
• During the past week, pedestrians In Plattsburgh were attracted by the appearance of an invalid in a wheelchair. Some inquired and learned that the invalid was Mrs. Evelyn Opal of Montreal, a victim of multiple sclerosis, a rare disease about which little is known. Mrs. Opal, with her husband, spent the week as guests of Mr. and Mrs. Alphonse Roushia, Jr. of Route 1, and with their daughter, Mrs. Sylvia Maynard, with whom she formed a friendship while both were patients at the Montreal Neurological Institute some years ago. Mrs. Opal, now 32, was stricken with the dreaded disease 13 years ago. During her years as an invalid, she has been deeply interested in the work of the National Multiple-Sclerosis Society, founded in New York some years ago. Last spring. Mrs. Opal was founder of the Montreal chapter of the society, in which a number of specialists from the Montreal Neurological Institute are serving as members of the medical board. The aims of the society are to stimulate and support research by creating funds for that purpose and encouraging public and private contributions.
• President Romulo Gallegos of Venezuela wound up a busy week Saturday by awarding his nation’s Order of the Liberator to the inspector general of the Venezuelan army. Gallegos presented the medal bearing the likeness of Simon Bolivar to Lt. Col. Mario Vargas, former minister of interior of Venezuela, a man who did much to bring democracy to his country. Gallegos arrived in Saranac Lake from New York Saturday morning aboard a US Army transport plane and was greeted at the airport by Mayor Alton B. Anderson and members of the village board. The Venezuelan chief executive was given an escort of National Guardsmen from the airport to the village. Following the medal presentation, he lunched with members of his party at the Lower Saranac Lake estate of Edmund Guggenheim, boating enthusiast and member of the Guggenheim copper family. Gallegos later visited the Trudeau sanatorium before returning to New York.
100 YEARS AGO — 1923
• Some people think “Friday the 13th” is an unlucky day. But you can’t make anyone in Dannemora think that, for that is the date upon which John R. VanArnam’s Minstrels are booked to play in the prison auditorium. Traveling in their own Pullman car, the VanArnam Minstrels, composed of thirty white performers, will be in Dannemora early enough on Friday of this week to give a street parade at noon. In the afternoon a matinee performance will be given in the Prison auditorium for the entertainment of the inmates after the day’s work is done. At night, the entire performance will be repeated, to which the public will be admitted at popular prices. The management of the company is generously contributing a liberal portion of the gross receipts to the Inmates Recreation Fund. There will be a band concert at the prison gate at 7:15. The curtain will rise at 8:15 o’clock, daylight saving time.
• President E. F. Botsford is securing many special attractions at the Plattsburgh Fair in the last week in August. The Canadian government exhibit, which has been prepared for the State Fair at Syracuse, will be one of the attractions. Mr. Ingersoll D. Townsend, owner of the Runymede Apiaries, Essex, N.Y., is planning to come to the Fair with his exhibit this year and hopes to introduce a number of new features which will be of interest. Last year, he had a small space devoted to bee-raising, but this year has doubled his requisition. The speakers of the League of Nations Bureau, a non-partisan association, and the Women’s Pro-League Council of which Mrs. Evangeline B. Johnson of New York is chairman, will have a booth giving out literature on the League of Nations and will also have speakers present, who will give a three-minute address on these subjects from a non-partisan and economic point of view. The SesquiCentennial Exhibition Association, with headquarters at the Waldorf Astoria, will also contribute literature of the coming event.
• Why worry about the high cost of living? David Caplan and Joseph Tuttle, two young men of Plattsburgh returned to this city Wednesday night broke but happy after a two week’s hike to Montreal and other points north. Neither of them spent more than $10 a piece while on their trip. They obtained rides from many motorists and occasionally some good-hearted person offered to give them something to eat when they discovered their funds had suddenly started to shrink alarmingly. While in Quebec they examined the S.S. Arctic, the vessel which will leave for the North Pole on a geographical survey and study of conditions sponsored by the Canadian government. The boys expect to include Germany in their next itinerary, they say.
— Compiled by Night Editor Ben Rowe