25 YEARS AGO —1998
• Clinton Community College students and faculty are expected to move into the yet-unfinished Science and Technology Building next month. The news was received Monday when a state inspector determined the building appears safe enough to open by Jan. 19, the start of the spring semester. The final word on whether the college will be allowed to occupy all 14 classrooms and eight laboratories will come once all inspection documentation is received by the state, College Director of Operations William Amyot said. “I’m very optimistic,” he said. The safety inspection came only three days before the college’s temporary certificate of occupancy for three classrooms and two laboratories was to expire. But problems persist in the $10 million, 45,000-square-foot building, which was supposed to be finished seven months ago.
• She was worried for a while, but Willsboro Supervisor Teresa Sayward will get a second term as leader of the Essex County Board of Supervisors. “You never know about these things,” Sayward said Monday after a closed-door Republican caucus had just given her the consensus. “There was no dissension.” Most members of her board believe Sayward, who was elected Willsboro town supervisor in 1992, has done exemplary work in her first year as chairwoman. “We were behind her, no problem,” said Supervisor Michael Connery (R-Ticonderoga).
50 YEARS AGO —1973
• Mayor Roland St. Pierre, in a press conference Friday at City Hall, indicated he intends to fulfill his promise of a full, two-year term as mayor of the city of Plattsburgh. But he left the door open for a possible bid for higher office in November 1974. “At this juncture in my own personal career, my intent is to continue serving the people of Plattsburgh for the next two years,” he said. “It does not mean that I would not leave options open should it be proven, positively proven, that I might better benefit the area in another capacity. Should that be, I would reconsider my actual position.” The mayor said he had called the press conference to dispel speculation surrounding his recent announcement of his return to the Democrat party. He was reelected as a Republican last November. “I feel that I must state emphatically that this is a personal decision and that no segment of either major political party was consulted prior to the announcement,” he said.
• The Clinton County Youth Bureau has declined to either grant or deny support for a teen center in the city for the last month and a half while it has waited for a report on the center from bureau member Robert Griffin. That report will say that the center will fail because it won’t be adequately supervised. Griffin told the Press-Republican Friday that without proper supervision, such a center would deteriorate into the same type of facility as the erstwhile White House on Oak Street. At the White House, which closed last year, teenagers weren’t supervised properly, which resulted in problems for the police department, Griffin said. A police official, whom Griffin preferred not to mention, told him that “there were more teenagers at the police station day in, day out because of trouble caused there (at the White House) than there have been since it closed.” “I’m not against a youth center as long as there is adequate supervision,” he emphasized. “But the teenagers don’t want to be supervised like that.” What they want, Griffin said, is to have someone at the facility who doesn’t tell them what to do. The center has been suggested by staff members of the Plattsburgh Community Crisis Center as a place where teenagers can gather. Backers of the center have enlisted the support of a number of organizations, including the city Police Benevolent Association (PBA). They have asked the youth bureau to lend its support. Asked if he thought it was contradictory that the PBA had so much trouble from the White House yet has volunteered its support for the projected teen center, Griffin said, “I don’t know. Maybe they don’t know what they’re getting into. I just don’t know what their reasons are.” Griffin, who manages Kinney Shoe Co. which is located on the floor below the crisis center, said some of the teenagers who spend time in the crisis center have heckled his customers and generally acted unruly.
75 YEARS AGO —1948
• Clinton County residents who have yet to answer their 1948 Christmas Seal letters were asked to do so as soon as possible in an appeal made yesterday by Mrs. Mary R. Gordon, Executive Secretary of the Clinton County Tuberculosis and Public Health Association. “A number of people who received Christmas Seals in their mail on Nov. 22 have forgotten to make their returns thus far,” she said. “Since we understand that in the rush of other Christmas preparations they may have overlooked the Seals, we are asking that returns be made at the earliest possible date.” Mrs. Gordon pointed out that many people discarded the Association’s envelope bearing the name and address on the back and sent in returns for Seals without a name. These people may receive a Seal Sale reminder in the near future, since the office of the Association has no way of knowing who these contributors are.
• The Clinton Diner, a well-known establishment on Clinton Street, is open under new management today following the sale late last week of the restaurant to Mr. and Mrs. George Ragatz by his mother, Mrs. Ida Ragatz. The name of the restaurant will remain the same, Mr. Ragatz announced, and the weekend was spent in cleaning operations. Mr. and Mrs. Ragatz, the former Sylvia Spiegel, will actively operate the diner. The business was founded some 27 years ago by George’s father, the late William B. (Bill) Ragatz, and the present diner has been in the same location for the past 14 years. Mr. Ragatz, who has been employed by the hotel and restaurant division of Standard Brands for the past four years, is a graduate of Williams College. He graduated from Plattsburgh High School before entering college. His wife is a graduate of Albany Business College and attended Plattsburgh State Teachers College for one year, studying home economics. The staff of the Clinton Diner will remain the same, Mr. Ragatz announced, and the restaurant will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. for the present.
100 YEARS AGO —1923
• A man who refused to give his name was arrested by Patrolman Charles Hebarge of the D&H Railroad Police Department Saturday at midnight at South Junction after it is claimed by the police that he had attempted wild west tactics in a Pullman coach on the way to New York. He was taken off the train at South Junction and brought to Plattsburgh where he was locked up in the city jail. The police claim that the man was causing a disturbance. It is charged that, among other things, he broke a window in the Pullman coach and also that when walking through the car, displayed a revolver which was later taken from him. It was charged that he was under the influence of alcohol.
• The screen version of Major Charles G. Norris’ novel, “Brass,” with Monte Blue portraying the role of Philip Baldwin, comes to the Clinton Theatre Monday and Tuesday. This is the story which is enjoying uninterrupted vogue by its realistic treatment of marriage and divorce. The picture is said to retain the vividness characteristic of the novel. The setting of the story is in sunny California, first in a prosperous rural community, then shifting to bustling San Francisco, where most of the action passes. The queer domestic life of young married Baldwins is the theme around which the story spins. Philip is too busy storming the gates of fortune during the day that he longs for the home of evenings, while his wife, Marjorie, a piquant little girl, doesn’t see why having a baby should keep her away from cigarettes, gay boon companions, and a generally good time. They get divorced; each goes separate ways, falling in love but in the end feeling the gap in their lives.
— Compiled by Night Editor Ben Rowe