Peekin' into the Past

Five Years Ago
June 30, 2016

Last Tuesday, June 21, District Court Judge Douglas R. Vannoy ruled in favor of the city of Holyoke on all counts in a complicated lawsuit filed last July by Rupert and Claire O’Neal. At the core of the dispute is the property on which the city drainage pit is located at the intersection of Johnson Street and U.S. Highway 385. It represents approximately a three-acre storm water drainage pond.

The idea of developing a city recreation department moved one step closer to becoming a reality when Holyoke City Council agreed to put a lodging tax question on the ballot at the June 21 city council meeting. In November, voters will get to decide whether or not a 2.5% lodging tax will be implemented on those leasing or renting rooms within the city of Holyoke.

As construction wraps up on the west addition to Melissa Memorial Hospital, Amy Kleve, PharmD, is now on board to help the hospital in its new retail pharmacy venture.

Ten Years Ago
June 30, 2011

Ballyneal Golf Club member Jim Colton golfed 155 holes on June 22 — far surpassing his goal of 108 — to raise money for the health care of Ben Cox, a Ballyneal caddie who was paralyzed from the chest down after a downhill skiing accident in March. Colton collected lump-sum and per-hole pledges and had raised more than $77,000 as of early this week.

Three members of Holyoke Volunteer Fire Department came together to earn a three-man state championship at the 94th annual Colorado Firefighters Association convention June 23-26 in Buena Vista. The team consisting of Josh Whittaker, Lance Williams and Adam Wirges broke a state record in the modified stationary apparatus event.

Construction will hopefully begin sometime this year on a second 18-hole course at Ballyneal Golf and Hunt Club south of Holyoke. The property for the new course sits to the southeast and south of the existing 18.

Holyoke School District is now home to its very own wiki site — designed to connect teachers with resources and a network system.

Twenty-Five Years Ago
July 4, 1996

Centennial Mental Health Center has found a new home in the south section of the former Lions Den at 109 N. Campbell Ave. The center’s former office, located at Sunset View, was too small to meet the center’s needs. They moved into the Lions Den building on June 17.

To assist officers in crime prevention, the Holyoke Police Department has organized a neighborhood watch program. The program has around 10 residents so far who have volunteered to be neighborhood captains.

On June 25, Phillips County officers confiscated a total of 333 marijuana plants northeast and southeast of Holyoke. The plants were destroyed in the county incinerator. The marijuana was apparently planted at one time and had then been growing wild.

Fifty Years Ago
July 1, 1971

Retail sales in Phillips County during the first three months of 1971 increased 20 percent over the same period in 1970, an increase of $860,000. Total retail sales in Holyoke during the first quarter of 1971 were down 4.2 percent, a decrease of $87,000.

Soon we may be reading newspapers and magazines made of plastics. Japanese scientists have come up with a film, pressed from polystyrene, which is only one-tenth as thick as regular paper and will not tear when run through a printing process.

Seventy-Five Years Ago
July 4, 1946

The new eight-cabin auto court or cabin camp which Harry Brinkema and Wilty Poos have been building the past few months on the north side of No. 6 highway four blocks east of Interocean (Main) Ave. has been nearly completed in every detail except planting of the grounds. Mr. and Mrs. Dave Lounsberry are in charge. The cabins are strictly modern and equipped with automatic hot water heaters. Electric lights on the outside welcome motorists at night.

Substitution of buses or trackless trolleys for street cars is being undertaken or considered in an increasing number of U.S. cities to speed traffic flow and reduce noise, the American Municipal Association disclosed today. Increased traffic congestion plus removal of wartime manufacturing restrictions is giving impetus to substitution of buses and trolley coaches for street cars.

Results of the atomic bomb test on Sunday was not conducted in a way that maximum destruction of ships could result, according to some scientists and observers. The bomb was exploded too high to bring about the water pressure necessary for destruction of ship hulls. As it is, the damage atomic bombs may do to battleships in an atomic war remains undetermined. The American people are expected to patiently wait and willingly stand by and pay the price of another several-million-dollar experiment six months or a year hence.