Peekin' into the Past

Five Years Ago

Sept. 14, 2017

A specialized classroom for students with significant support needs is new this school year to Holyoke JR/SR High School. Located in the northwest corner of the junior high wing, the experience classroom is designed to address the unique learning needs of students with disabilities who have the most significant support needs. Currently, three students participate in the life skills class in the experience classroom.

Use of credit card machines in the school offices, as well as concessions stands, is being considered by Holyoke School District Re-1J. Budget and finance director Ben Rahe presented information at the Sept. 5 school board meeting.

The Colorado Art Education Association has recognized Christina Martinez, former K-6 art teacher at Holyoke Elementary School, as the recipient of this year’s CAEA Elementary School Art Educator of the Year award.

The city of Holyoke recreation department’s new flag football program has 22 participants.

Holyoke School District has added a fan behavior policy to the activity/athletic handbook this year.

Ten Years Ago

Sept. 13, 2012

Holyoke City Council members voted to purchase four Tasers for Holyoke Police Department during their regular meeting Sept. 4.

A county crew began removing the steps leading up to the west entrance of Phillips County Court House on Sept. 10. County administrator Randy Schafer said they received a State Historical Fund grant to pay for replacing the steps.

Students in Holyoke JR/SR High participated in Challenge Day on Sept. 5-6. The emotional day urges students to open up and connect with each other to make the school a better and more inviting place.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

Sept. 18, 1997

Kristi and Rick Krueger are set to purchase Jan’s Floral & Gift from Mariane and Tim Ortner on Oct. 1. Forget-Me-Not Flowers & Gifts will be the name of the Krueger business, which will be located in the current Jan’s building at 127 S. Interocean Ave. Mariane will be moving the gift lines from her business and will open Dew Drop Inn in Olde Holyoke Square at 221 N. Interocean Ave., with official opening planned for mid-October.

A major change has been made in the plan for the Peerless Center in Holyoke. The existing building will be torn down after all, with demolition anticipated to start Sept. 24. After evaluation by the structural engineer, the recommendation to tear down the front two-story portion of the building was accepted. The plan now is to save brick from the front face of the building and a section of the floor tile from the lobby area and back concession counter.

Close to 700 people took the opportunity Friday to tour Highline Electric’s new facilities at 1300 S. Interocean Ave.

Jeff Cooper began an internship as a youth minister at First Christian Church in May and has now officially began as the church’s youth minister.

To help raise extra money for their school, local students at Holyoke Elementary are involved in a unique program designed by General Mills. It’s called Big G Box Tops for Education.

Fifty Years Ago

Sept. 14, 1972

The 1973 Plymouth Fury sedan is the new driver-education car used for student driver-education at Holyoke High School. The car is used by the high school courtesy of Wells Motors.

Approximately 700 of the 2,332 voters registered in Phillips County turned out to vote in the primary election on Tuesday.

Temperatures averaged below normal for the third consecutive week in Phillips County, and wet fields have caused some delay in dry bean harvest and the harvest of corn for silage. The past week has seen the start of seeding the 1973 winter wheat crop and should be well underway by the first of next week.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

Sept. 18, 1947

Mr. and Mrs. Bert Lewis of Imperial, Nebraska, have purchased the Colver Brothers Funeral Home and plan to take possession sometime this week. The Lewises’ son Edward will work as an apprentice to Ollie Colver, mortician, while Merle, another son, is attending a school for morticians in St. Louis, Missouri. Ollie has purchased his brother Harry’s interest in the hardware store and moved into Harry’s house last week. Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Colver, son of Ollie Colver, moved to Holyoke on Tuesday, where he will be in partnership with his father in the hardware store. The Colver brothers have been in the undertaking business for 39 years.

Employees of the town of Holyoke have started erecting new street signs at each intersection along Interocean Avenue. The new signs have silver lettering on a black background and are of the reflector type which makes them easy to read at night. Two sets of signs are being put at each intersection. The signs on Interocean and Denver are being mounted on the lamp posts, and posts of steel pipe will be erected in the residential part of town. As soon as the work of putting up the signs is completed, new house numbers will be put on the homes and business places in the town.

William F. Perkins, state director of revenue, cleared up some misconceptions about the new Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law. He made it clear that this is not a compulsory insurance act. Massachusetts is the only state in the nation which compels all owners and operators of motor vehicles to carry automobile liability insurance. Thirty-eight states, however, including Colorado, have adopted financial responsibility laws, which only provide that a person who has not established financial responsibility before an accident occurs must meet certain requirements within a stipulated period of time or lose their driving and ownership privileges.