28 YEARS AGO — 1996
• Karen Browne worked at Lake Country Supermarket a year ago when the Plattsburgh Plaza grocery store had its grand opening. “The opening was fantastic,” she recalled Tuesday afternoon. “We had huge crowds. It made me think we were gonna be here forever.” That hope was dashed this week as the 16 or so employees at Lake Country learned the store will be closing around July 3. Owners blamed the closure on increased competition and a continued lack of Canadian shoppers. “I was surprised, but not shocked,” Browne said of the closing. She was recently promoted to front-end manager at Lake Country. “I knew what kind of business the store was doing. We just didn’t have the number of customers coming in we needed.” Lake Country, which moved into the building vacated when Grand Union moved to Consumer Square, did have a large number of regular customers. “There were a lot of dedicated local customers,” Browne said. “A lot of them came in for the deli. They ate their lunch and suppers here. A lot of our customers were senior citizens.” I was so mad when Grand Union closed, and the senior citizens didn’t have a store close by. This store filled the gap for many of them. Now I wonder what they’re going to do.” One senior citizen drove a battery-operated cart from his home near the fire station on Cornelia Street to shop at Lake Country, Browne pointed out. She’s angered at the inconvenience the closing will have on people like him.
• North Country Community College President Gail Rogers Rice was smiling Wednesday: she had a new Ticonderoga campus. Ever since the college had its space in the Ticonderoga Community Building cut back so town offices could move in, it has searched for a new campus. It found one in a plan by PRIDE of Ticonderoga to buy the Charboneau Building on Montcalm Street, renovate it and lease it to the college for classrooms and offices. “We’re very, very excited,” Rice said. “We have literally participated in the design for the facility. The principal thing for us has always been good instructional space.” Rice held up plans that depict a 3,000-square-foot campus, with classrooms and offices branching off a corridor running the length of the building. The new campus will be ready in October.
50 YEARS AGO — 1974
• Automobiles, but not airplanes, are likely to take a back seat if and when passenger trains begin rumbling through Clinton County, according to the local airport manager. John Nolan said Monday that the people who ride on airplanes do so for speed, primarily, and the presence of rail passenger service isn’t going to cut into that market. Besides, Nolan noted, planes and trains co-existed peacefully for years in the North Country. That was before Delaware & Hudson began counting its empty cars and decided to cash in its passenger chips. Airline service at the Clinton County Airport, Nolan said, is doing as well as can be expected. He said the people who run Allegheny Commuter (the only air service in and out of Plattsburgh now) consider that airport the hub of its operation. That isn’t likely to change. Amtrak decided to take its passenger cars out of mothballs, Nolan believes. “I anticipate we can all live together,” he said. “The private car has been de-emphasized as a means of travel by the government because of the energy problem. It’s probably the least efficient means of travel. It’s a lot less efficient for everybody to drive a car than for them to all travel by the same means. If anything, you might see fewer cars on the road.” On the other hand, Nolan isn’t predicting instant success for the new railroad venture, even if the trains are put back on the tracks. “I don’t see how the railroad can stay if it gets no better support than the people have shown for the airline.”
• The Ticonderoga Bicentennial Committee is reaching for authenticity for a planned reenactment of a Revolutionary War capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. The 200th anniversary of that event is May 10 of next year. The committee intends to run through the battle again this time with direct descendants of the Green Mountain Boys. They even plan to import a platoon or two of British soldiers. The Ticonderoga group has already received assurances from more than 33 direct descendants that they will take part. But as committee co-chairman Edmund Morette explains: Descendants of one member haven’t shown much enthusiasm for the part. His name was Benedict Arnold.
75 YEARS AGO — 1949
• The PHS Class of ‘99 sends greetings to the class of 1949. Tomorrow morning, at the annual commencement exercises of Plattsburgh High School, the president of the Class of 1949 will receive, in the name of the class, a memento from the Class of 1899, which this year is noting its golden anniversary. The memento will be in the form of a copy of the program of the 25th annual commencement, which was held in the Plattsburgh Theatre on June 22, 1899. It was autographed by all but two members of the class of a half-century ago. Whereabouts of the two missing ones are unknown. The memento was prepared through the efforts of Charles L. Williams, formerly of Plattsburgh, now residing in Glens Falls, who, in a letter to Superintendent of Schools Carl G. Sorensen and PHS Principal E.A. Merritt, asked them to express to “our good friends and teachers, the Misses Barker, a hope and trust that they will share with us in this gesture and be willing to act as our representatives at the presentation.”
• The New York State Regents examinations, taken last week by 760,000 high school seniors in the state, were under attack yesterday as “educational straitjackets,” “cruel” and “unnecessary.” One statement made by the United Parents Association said the tests needlessly duplicate regular school examinations and should be abolished. The association said the examinations were a waste of the “children’s time and energies and of the taxpayers’ money.” Examinations in plane and solid geometry, said several mathematics teachers, contained questions which were “stupid and asinine.” The teachers declined use of their names for professional reasons.
100 YEARS AGO — 1924
• Clever sleuthing by Plattsburgh police officers yesterday brought about the arṛest of the man believed responsible for a score of chicken roost robberies about the county over the last two months. Oril Senecal, 21, of Boynton Avenue, pleaded guilty before Acting City Judge B. Loyal O’Connell to the charge of petit larceny in stealing 15 chickens from John Cooper of 96 Miller Street. He was sentenced to six months in the Albany penitentiary and ordered to pay a fine of $50 or serve 50 days in the Clinton County Jail follow- ing the penitentiary sentence. The police have evidence implicating half a dozen others in a chicken stealing ring and their arrests in the near future are expected. Senecal denied taking part in any other chicken thefts than the one to which he pleaded guilty.
• The number of participants in the Inez Milholland Memorial Masque has exceeded its goal of 1,400. The general costume chairman, Mrs. C. R. Payne of Wadhams and her assistant, Mrs. Arthur Pattison of Westport, have organized committees in the surrounding communities. Each community will make the necessary costumes for its chairman.
— Compiled by Night Editor Ben Rowe