You almost have to feel sorry for some criminals. The September column recalled burglars wrestling the safe out of Steck’s bakery in 1933 and finding it empty.
Let’s hope they weren’t the same criminals who in October of 1948 broke the lock of the Brookville Lumber Company’s safe and broke into Finfrock Coal. The safe was empty, and there was only $10 in the coal company office.
Two weeks earlier burglars tried to steal the Brookville-Randolph game receipts from the Brookville Superintendent’s office, only to find the money wasn’t kept there.
Also in 1948, the Post Office warned that vandals tearing down rural mailboxes for Halloween would be prosecuted for a postal offense. (In 1998 local churches offered alternatives to Halloween.).
In 1933, the state’s liquidation of the Building and Loan ended local debate on the question but there were later debates.
At a public meeting In October 1998, many questioned the legality of a proposal to provide a school chaplain, although Lee Behnken said the person would provide “support and advice” but would not preach religion.
The school board also compromised on its “no-cut” athletic policy, stipulating the number of students but not requiring specific playing times.
The same year, many local people opposed a proposal to run I-675 through the western part of the county, since it would take 25 percent of Perry Township land, including three cemeteries.
Improvements occurred. In 1948, there were public meetings to explain the plan for the 1/2-mill fire levy. The Brookville Star supported the levy, citing a case when the fire department couldn’t find a fire reported only as “one mile west of town on Westbrook Road” and saying the department might be going to homes whose owners were not members of the fire association while members’ properties might be burning.
In 2022, an outage by Frontier destroyed telephone service to the schools for a day, and the board planned to upgrade the phone service.
Some improvements foreshadowed the future. Even before the postwar baby boom, in 1933 increased enrollment caused the board of education to purchase several dozen chairs to end the transferal of chairs between the cafeteria and recitation rooms.
In 1998, remote learning came to the school, when officials arranged a computer hookup for two students unable to attend school for health reasons.
In 2022, the city applied for a grant to install a charging station for electrical vehicles at the city garage on Arlington Road.
There were local accomplishments. In 1973, the Spitler House gained listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and the village approved the C. Mosier Industrial project.
Individuals made news. A. B. Boomershine, who owned the Star for 45 years until 1951, died in 1973. In 1998 Road and Cemetery Superintendent Bill Blumenstock of Clay Township won the Southwest Ohio Snowplow Rodeo.
And in 2022, Phillipsburg honored Firefighters/EMTs McCall Milby and Chris Ware after they delivered a baby in their medic unit.
