Blast from the past

June 28, 2006

Week of June 25, 1956

County housewives generally were mighty pleased when a modern-type garbage collecting vehicle made its appearance at their homes yesterday.

One Halfway homemaker who lives on Dogwood Drive phoned the newspaper with the good news. "A Mr. Smith (Arthur F. Smith) collects our garbage and he showed up this morning with a new, modern truck that keeps the garbage from falling off in the street," she informed us.

The County Roads Department is using all the cinders from the coal-burning boilers of the Municipal Electric Light Plant. The cinders are obtained free from the city and are applied to dirt roads in the county system. Roads Supervisor Eugene Geary said the department picks up between five and ten truck loads of cinders daily at the light plant.

Smithsburg officials are faced with the problem of repairing the community's water tank or erecting a new one, Mayor Stanley Hauver said today. The present tank has sprung leaks near its top which have cut its 75,000- gallon capacity by about one-third he said.

Town officials disclosed that repairs to the present tank would cost approximately $3,500, while a new one would cost $30,000. No decision has yet been reached.

Week of June 25, 1981

The dates for this summer's version of the Great Hagerstown Fair have been set tentatively for Aug. 18 to 23.

Under new sponsorship for the first time in more than a century, this year's fair promises to be a smaller-scale, family-oriented event that will cost less to see. The Washington County Agricultural Organization recently took over the reins from the former sponsor.

The big trucks loaded with coal that rumble through town several times each weekday have Williamsport homeowners at their wits end because they can't get ahead of the dust and oily film that plagues them.

The mayor and council, which recently purchased a new street sweeper, have ordered the area closest to the R. Paul Smith power plant to be cleaned every day.

The town asked Potomac Edison to pay for half the $45,000 price of a new sweeper. The power company agreed.

It's 14 feet high, 13 feet wide and 24 feet long. It's an over the wing cabin section for a Boeing 757 jetliner and the unveiling of the first big Boeing section produced under a new Fairchild contract will take place Wednesday at 1 p.m. at the airport.

- Compiled by Jean Baraclough

|

|

|