(Again, this review only covers 90 years because the bound edition of the1924 Brookville Star is too delicate to tolerate handling.)
February 1934 opened with the Brookville Star reporting that scarlet fever was increasing in Montgomery County. Fortunately, that seemed to be about the only health news that month.
Considering the shortness of the month, schools made plenty of news over the years.
In 1934, the Brookville Board of Education filed a case against the Brookville National Bank. Six months before the bank holiday (when the government closed all banks in March 1933 to examine their soundness), the school presented a check for more than $10,000. The bank returned the cancelled check but never paid.
In 1974 students got more choices at lunch when the high school allowed some a la carte items.
In 1999, the county discovered the school’s tax distribution had not decreased after a recently retired bond issue, and the county wanted its money back.
The high school received the Ohio High School Organization sportsmanship award, but in a sign of the times, the high school also held a mock shooting drill. And in 2023 Brookville schools received a state grant to upgrade safety and security.
The paper covered other schools as well. In 2023 the Northmont board’s plans to close Englewood Elementary School packed the school board meeting; the board deferred the decision until May. The Northmont High School Academic Challenge Team came in first in the National History Bee and Bowl.
February was an active month for government. In 1934, Dayton Power & Light Company gave Phillipsburg a reduction in natural gas rates, and stock subscriptions were being taken for the new national bank.
In 1949 the Phillipsburg Rotary discussed “socialized medicine.” Participants argued more doctors would prevent the need and “spiritual consultation might cure a large part of the chronic inhabitants of the doctors [sic] offices.”
More immediate health concerns occupied the Brookville council, when residents complained inadequate sewers in the Hubler plat caused water and sewage to back up into nearby basements.
In 1974, the Newfields Development Corporation filed a suit claiming Perry Township Zoning did not hold a fair hearing.
In 2023, Brookville residents learned their trash and sewer rates were set to increase with the March billing. Council discussed the zoning of 59 acres of land annexed at the corner of Upper Lewisburg-Salem and Brookville-Phillipsburg roads.
Despite the usual winter blues, citizens were active. In 1949 local churches cooperated in scheduling mid-week Lenten services, an action the paper said indicated the “spiritual temperature of the community.”
In 1974. firemen rescued a dog that had fallen through ice on a pond, and the paper warned that it could easily have been a child. As the deadline for saving the Spitler House approached, the historical society said if the goal was not met the money would fund a museum elsewhere and those who donated only to save the house could get a refund.
Looking forward to spring, the city scheduled the park cleanup for March 25 and the park board invited plans to protect items stored inside the former BMX building in Golden Gate Park.
The paper looked further back in 1949, when it carried J. W. Betz’s account of his experience as a railway postal clerk for 38 years until December of 1948. He reminisced about the 1913 flood, a flood in Pittsburgh in 1936, a snowstorm that stranded a train near W. Sonora, and two train wrecks.
