Peekin’ into the past

Five Years Ago
Feb. 5, 2015

Melissa Memorial Hospital’s new ambulance was delivered Monday morning, Feb. 2. It was manufactured by and purchased from American Emergency Vehicles in Jefferson, North Carolina. The new “bus” is white with a purple stripe around the middle of the body, similar to the previous one the hospital has been using.

Golf Digest has once again recognized Ballyneal Golf Club southeast of Holyoke as one of the best places to play golf in the country. The club moved up 24 slots this year from last year’s No. 78 ranking among America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses.

Melissa Memorial Hospital administrator John Ayoub was recently named to the 2015 edition of Becker’s Hospital Review’s list of “50 rural hospital CEOs to know.”

Colorado’s statewide average fuel prices haven’t changed in the past few weeks, but Holyoke prices sure have. Local prices have fallen another 26 cents to $1.94 for a gallon of unleaded-plus gasoline, just a few cents above the state average of $1.90.

Ten Years Ago
Feb. 4, 2010

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently notified Phillips County commissioners that they are one of six recipients of the Community Renewable Energy Deployment Grant. The award is $2.5 million.

Phillips County Event Center at the fairgrounds was a popular place Tuesday evening, Jan. 26, as a nice-sized crowd enjoyed tours of Dragon’s Wagon Preschool, Phillips County Family Education Services and CSU Cooperative Extension offices in the newly opened facilities.

Twenty-Five Years Ago
Feb. 9, 1995

Leon Atkins Motors has scheduled a grand opening for Feb. 16 at its new store on the east edge of Holyoke.

Jeanne Howes, superintendent of Holyoke School District Re-1J, submitted her resignation to the Board of Education at its Feb. 7 meeting, with the action being effective June 30.

Specializing in complete fast-drying carpet and upholstery cleaning service, Russ and Jennifer Brown have opened a new business, Advance Cleaning Concepts. Effective Jan. 24, the local couple purchased the business franchise from former Haxtunite Jim Switzer.

The fifth and sixth grade classes of Venango Elementary School have started a recycling center for the community of Venango.

Fifty Years Ago
Feb. 5, 1970

The outstanding community betterment efforts of Venango have won a Distinguished Achievement Award in the 1969 National Clean-Up Contest in which the city competed with others of under 25,000 population from across the country. The contest, which is sponsored annually by the National Clean-Up-Paint-Up-Fix-Up Bureau, is the oldest and largest such competition in the United States.

January weather in Phillips County was mild and very dry. Average high for January was 44, and lows averaged 12 above. Precipitation amounted to only 0.19 inch for the month.

Seventy-Five Years Ago
Feb. 8, 1945

Twenty-five years of steady growth and increased service to its patrons are achievements which the Holyoke Cooperative Association will observe in its annual meeting Feb. 15 in the American Legion Hall here. A special feature of the afternoon program will be a guessing contest as to the total bank deposit of the organization in 1944; a war bond and stamps being prizes offered.

The fast pace the wars in both Europe and the Pacific took the past week overshadowed one of our usual peacetime customs — that of speculating on the groundhog and his shadow.