April news familiar over the years

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In 1973, the Sam Boone family was able to build a snowman after a late April snowstorm, but they used daffodil blooms for the eyes.

The New Deal programs were just getting underway in April of 1933, so Brookville still coped with the Great Depression. The Brookville State Bank went into conservatorship.

The county’s property evaluation was cut 20 percent, and the county tax distribution was predicted $1 million less than in 1932. Phillipsburg cut its gas rates from $1 per 100 cubic feet to 50 cents.

Over the years, some events were unusual. In 1933 residents reported a fire at the Boose home. The Booses, rushing home from Arlington, were relieved to find their neighbors saw reflected flames from Russell Peffley’s trash fire across the alley.

The same year the Brookville Star warned that local mail trains would come earlier and “no one else will be to blame if you miss a mail.” Shoppers gained a luxury when a “comfort station” opened in the municipal building.

In 1998, a plane crashed near the Brookville Air Park, the second crash since February.

The Brookville council always made news. In 1948 the council ordered strict traffic enforcement with no warning tickets and rushed a repair project at the sewage disposal plant.

In 1973 Mayor Bill Price abruptly resigned. Council member Terry Fasnacht had complained to DP&L about rate increase and a worker killing time in the village. Council members pointed out Fasnacht was acting as a business owner, but the mayor resigned, citing the lack of support from the council.

His successor, Albert VanInwegen, stirred up controversy by proposing abolishing mayor’s court.

As usual, the phone service brought complaints. One citizen said it took “longer to get a call through to a nearby town than to drive there,” and another said he could call New York with less trouble than Eaton.

In 1998, the school board opposed an additional 1-cent sales tax with half the money earmarked for the schools, saying it didn’t address the school’s funding problem.

But in 1998 Brookville’s water/sewer rates were 43rd in 64 communities.

Occasionally citizens took action. In 1948 Claude Seibel offered his truck to transport from Marietta the 50 street signs the Chamber of Commerce ordered.

In 1973 the Brookville Booster Club reduced its debt on the football stadium, but it still owed $4,350 and participation was dropping.

That same year, the Brookville Historical Society was formed, with its first mission the saving and moving of the Spitler House.

In 1998 the Brookville High School dedicated the Strausburg Auditorium so named because Jack Strausburg donated $100,000 for it in memory of his wife Ruthann.

Brookville was modernizing. In 1933, the Star ran an ad for a self-heating Coleman iron, with a fuel container attached so it heated quickly. By 1948, though, Strawser’s Jewelry advertised electric steam irons.

In 1973 the Ben Franklin Store opened in Brookside Plaza, with an 8-track stereo auto tape player for $28.88, but by 1998 the market had changed, and a local firm purchased the remaining inventory as the store closed.

The library extended its hours in 1973, being open 9:30 to 5:30 on Saturday and 1:30 to 8:30 Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

In 2022, the VFW donated money to the police for body cameras.

A name started to become familiar in the area after 1998, when Ron Fletcher became the Phillipsburg Fire Chief, at 30 the youngest chief in Montgomery County.

Some things never change. The 1922 Clayton Easter Egg hunt took place amid snow flurries.

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