28 YEARS AGO — 1996
• Movie star Demi Moore was in town this week to shoot the opening of a movie at the Mt. Van Hoevenberg-bob and luge runs. But due to what amounted to a cloak of secrecy imposed by the film’s producers, few people were aware of her presence. Olympic Regional Development Authority Spokesman Don Krone said Friday that he had requested a press conference with either Moore or director Ridley Scott. “If anybody wanted publicity that we were having a film shot at one of our facilities, it was me,” he said. The scenes of Moore purportedly hurtling down the runs on a skeleton sled were the first from the movie to be shot. They’re (movie producers and directors) usually pretty secretive about what they are doing in the beginning of a movie,” Krone said. “The script is still in development, and that’s pretty much the way most movies are done.” The movie, scheduled for release in 1997 with a proposed title of “GI Jane,” will be about a woman joining the elite U.S. Navy SEAL team.
• In Keith West’s design technology class, the old excuse “I forgot my pencil” doesn’t wash anymore. Namely because the designs of the projects the students will eventually make in the woodshop are all done on a computer. “These kids are doing things that are taught at the college level,” West said. Each of the eighth-graders at Stafford Middle School is exposed to 20 weeks of design technology, which features the Computer Assistance Design program. In the class, they design, build, test, and evaluate their own projects from the ground up. West says the hands-on experience the computer age offers students is invaluable. “In the old shop classes, they used to build off plans that were already there. Now they get to design their own plans,” West explained. “A lot of kids are job-ready when they are done with this.” The students do learn orthographic and isometric drawing by hand the first five weeks. After that, the computer becomes the main tool until the saws and hammers start humming and banging. “It’s a lot easier doing this on the com-
50 YEARS AGO — 1974
• The YMCA dormitory atop the Y building on Brinkerhoff Street has been closed. The dorm has been a fixture in Plattsburgh since 1908. YMCA General Secretary Robert Anthony explained that the Y board decided to phase out the dorm as of the first of this year because there was not adequate supervision and counseling for the young people who have been staying there. Anthony said what is needed in Plattsburgh is a group foster home and a temporary home for teenagers who for one reason or another are unable to live with their families. He personally throws his support behind the Transitional Housing proposals for Association’s providing that type of home…. Over the years the dorm has provided inexpensive rooms for the traveler, the short-term occupant, and even a permanent resident or two. There are no kitchen facilities in the third-floor quarters. The accommodations consist of a single room with a bed and a chair. The rooms vary in size. One has a sink. Tenants of the rest of the rooms shared a communal bathroom setup. The last price charged for a room was $10 a week. That got you a bed, a shower, and a maid to clean up after you.
• A controversy of sorts may be brewing in City Hall over the future of parking meters in Plattsburgh. There seems to be splinter support for leaving the meters where they are, for removing them, and for increasing the fine for illegal parking. In the meantime, the Common Council has transferred the burden of paying the postage for ticket payments mailed to city court from the city to the violator. That transfer was approved at this week’s council with the contingency that any existing state or local law prohibits such a move. Ward 2 Alderman Michael Haley suggested that the city look into the possibility of establishing one or more depositories around town where residents may drop their tickets and fines without paying the 10-cent postage. But not all the aldermen are sure that the meters should even be retained. And there is some sentiment that a $1 fine isn’t enough of a deterrent to parking illegally. A recent study by a research group at Plattsburgh State University College recommended that if the city retains the meters, it install double-headed ones in place of the one-meter-one-car setup it now has. That would enlarge the individual parking spaces and halve the time and cost of installation, maintenance, and collection. Ward 2 Alderman Gary Dame went a step further at Thursday’s Common Council meeting: he recommends the city consider doing away with the meters altogether. According to the 1974 budget, the city expects to take in $22,000 through the parking meter division, while it spends an estimated $19,330. In 1972 the division brought in $20,175.95 while costing $19,172.32. The division was never intended to be a big moneymaker. Its primary function has been to cause a turnover in parking to increase the revenues of downtown merchants.
75 YEARS AGO — 1949
• Dyed potatoes, sold some time ago to a Clinton County farmer for feeding livestock, have turned up in a grocery store in this area, it was announced yesterday by Ross Sanger, chairman of the Clinton County PMA Committee. This violation was brought to the attention of authorities by an employee of the county office, Sanger said. On Thursday, it was reported to the Syracuse office, which, in turn, assigned Harold O. Nichols, field man for the New York State Production and Marketing Administration Committee, to investigate. Nichols, with the assistance of Philip Conners, county assistant in conservation, made the probe. As a result, information furnished by the grocer who was selling dyed potatoes led the farmer who sold to him, potatoes that were dyed and intended for consumption by livestock and not for public consumption. The farmer, Sanger said, settled by civil compromise, paying back to the government the amount it had invested in potatoes sold to him, and recovering the potatoes he still had in the store. Further criminal action is not expected, Sanger said. Dyed potatoes are produce that was purchased by the government last year out of surplus crops and sprinkled with a purple dye. It’s intended that their sale would be confined to farmers for use as feed for livestock. Sanger pointed out that it is such cases as that described that affect an otherwise sound program. He added that the case in question was the only known violation in the county this year and that periodic checks of stores and trucks will be made as a result of the case and that farmers receiving potatoes for livestock feed also will be checked.
• The birth of a freak calf on the farm of Joseph Manor at Stratton Hill, West Chazy, was related by Mr. Manor yesterday. Besides being born with no tail and only one eye, the rear part of the animal is shaped more like a deer, he said. He described the antics of the calf about the farmyard as more deer-like, and neighbors who saw the animal agreed with Mr. Manor on this odd characteristic. The mother is a purebred Guernsey.
100 YEARS AGO — 1924
• Extensive improvements to the dining room in the New Cumberland Hotel are now underway and are expected to be completed by April 15. The hotel underwent remodeling last fall when a new front was installed and the interior of the lobby changed. E. K. Fenno, who had charge of this work, also has the contract for the latest improvements. The dining room will be given more light through the installation of six new French windows, three on either side of the dining room in place of the windows there at present. There will also be six false or paneled French windows on the other two sides of the room. Looking glasses will be placed in these windows surrounded by panels. On the outside of the panels will be carved posts, giving an artistic effect. Electric light fixtures will be attached to each panel. The seating at the tables in the dining room will also be changed so that tables containing only two and four seats will be used. This is more convenient for most guests as a small party will not now be obliged to be seated with others. This change will necessitate new tables and chairs, all of which have been ordered. The side walls are being torn down and they will be redecorated after installation of the windows and mirrors. New electric fixtures for the ceiling will be installed. Among the other improvements will be a new quartered oak floor.
• Plattsburgh will soon take on the atmosphere of Hollywood with the arrival today of a good share of the cast for the motion picture “Janice Meredith”, which will be filmed here by the Cosmopolitan Productions of New York. It was announced that Harrison Ford, leading man with Miss Marion Davis will arrive today. Miss Davis will travel in two special cars, carrying her secretaries, scenario editors, and other staff members. Mason Hopper, who was director for “The Great White Way”, arrived yesterday and announced some of the principals who will appear who include: Macklyn Arbuckle, who was star in “The Round-up” and who will take the role as father of Janice Meredith; Olin Howland, comedy character, who appeared in “The Wild Flower”; Holbrook Blinn, who starred In “The Bad Man,” will play the character of Cowles; and Mary Yokes who was was a ́leading character in “The Bat,” are already here.
— Compiled by Night Editor Ben Rowe