This date of this flood in the sandhills southwest of Ralph Thompson’s place southwest of Holyoke is unknown. An inscription on the back of the photo says Ted O’Neal owned the placed and his brother lived there at the time or had just moved off the property. Source: Phillips County Museum
Peekin' into the Past
Five Years Ago
April 4, 2013
Heginbotham Trust has pledged $10,000 toward a remodeling project at Phillips County Court House, dependent on a grant from the Colorado Historical Fund. Commissioners explained at their March 29 meeting that they are applying for a grant of around $92,000 to redo windows and update the chimney, with a cash match from the County of $40,000.
Brittney’s Botanical Buttons has blossomed into quite a business for Brittney Ferguson. It’s been four and a half years since she was left in critical condition after a pickup rollover accident as a backseat passenger in Laramie, Wyoming. The $1 flowers, made out of colorful buttons and wire, are something that she can focus on, intently and carefully picking out just the right combinations for each flower.
Victoria Timm, a 2008 HHS graduate, is finishing up her college basketball career with the University of Northern Colorado Bears. Timm’s 126 games played, 67 of which she started in, ranks as the second highest total in UNC history.
Ten Years Ago
April 3, 2008
Phillips County officially took the first step in erecting the new Phillips County Event Center on March 24 by removing the tin from the sides and roof of the old fairgrounds building.
Bread of Life volunteers gathered at Holyoke Community Church on March 27 to put together food boxes in the way they’ve been accommodating and providing for local families for the last six and a half years. This was the last Bread of Life distribution as it’s now known, as the program is needing a new home and coordinator.
Brittany Krueger has combined her love for photography with web design in her new business, Prairie Photography.
After 34 years of hairstyling at Ardie’s Beauty Barr in Holyoke, Velma Wettstein is hanging up her scissors.
Twenty-Five Years Ago
April 8, 1993
As part of a decision made by the Holyoke City Council last week, City of Holyoke residents will be responsible for disposing of their own grass clippings as of April 9. However, as a convenience to citizens, the City will provide a central collection site with extended hours where people can take their clippings.
Noting that they plan to challenge the action, Phillips County commissioners reported that they received a formal Notice of Violation late last month from the Colorado Health Department’s Air Pollution Control Division regarding the incinerator at the County landfill.
Fifty Years Ago
April 4, 1968
In a special election, a proposal that the Town of Holyoke be permitted to sell a quarter of land known as the “library quarter” was approved by a wide margin. In an unofficial “straw vote,” 361 citizens voted in favor of a proposed dog control program, and 152 voted against it.
Dedication of a 40-foot strip of school-owned land to the Town of Holyoke for use as a street was approved by the School District Re-1J Board of Education at a regular session Tuesday night. The land will permit extension of Reynolds Avenue southward from its present dead-end a half block east of the HHS gym. This strip, along with a strip from Albert Bahler, will make possible the establishment of a north-south street east of the football field and will provide convenient access to the Bahler Addition.
This area was battered by furious winds in a spring storm that swept across the High Plains Tuesday night and yesterday. The storm followed an 11-day period of balmy weather during which high temperatures averaged almost 74 degrees in Holyoke. Yesterday’s high reading here was a wintry 20 degrees, and the cold was amplified by wind that at times gusted to an estimated 60 mph.
The colorful, sensational Southern Belles, “darlings of the hardwood,” will be appearing in Holyoke on April 8. Rated as one of America’s great sports attractions, the famous girl athletes will meet the Holyoke All-Stars in the HHS gym at 8 p.m. on that date.
Kenneth Oltjenbruns, a 1966 graduate of Holyoke High School, has been selected as one of two students who will participate in the first junior year in Mexico program to be offered by the CSU College of Engineering.
Seventy-Five Years Ago
April 8, 1943
Later departure of the Julesburg star route has been proposed by V.A. Klein of the postal department as a means of improvement of mail service out of Holyoke in the afternoon. Under his suggestion, the star route would leave the Holyoke post office at 4:45 each afternoon, giving businessmen and traveling salesmen more than two hours additional for sending orders either east or west.
Vacant lots which have recently been purchased by the Town of Holyoke are available for gardens this summer, it was decided by the town board at its meeting Monday night.
Air raid signals which might be used in case of an air raid test or in connection with the April war bond drive were discussed at the meeting of the Holyoke Defense Council on Wednesday night. In case there is time, yellow and blue signals will precede the red signal, which is the one ordinarily used for a complete blackout signal at night. The yellow signal is not audible but will be relayed to the air raid wardens as a warning to be on the alert. The blue signal is a warning that an air raid is imminent.