75 Years Ago – July 17, 1947
Presque Isle candidate — Lovely Betty Green represented Presque Isle as a candidate for Maine Potato Blossom Queen at the annual Potato Blossom Festival in Caribou.
New recreation program opened at Fairview Acres — The Fairview Acres recreation program, interrupted for two days because of the fire in the administration building Monday night, reopened under the direction of Miss Marjorie Glidden of the Gouldville School faculty. A group of volunteers cleaned the recreation room in preparation for the reopening of the supervised play program for the children of the Fairview area. The recreation project opened Monday morning when a large group of youngsters enjoyed stories and games in the recreation room and later played on the slides, teeters and swings in the playground. The program, for children from 4 years up, opened at 8:30 a.m. and continued until 11:30. The children were accompanied to and from the recreation center by their mothers.
50 Years Ago – July 19, 1972
Wright appointed to assist the farmers — The Presque Isle Farmers Home Administration office announced the appointment of Dana C. Wright as assistant county supervisor effective July 10. Wright graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in June 1972, where he majored in agricultural resources and economics. He was married to the former Nancy L. Dow of Houlton. They resided in Littleton. He previously received student training in the Houlton FHA office. He planned to further his FHA training as a full-time assistant county supervisor. As an assistant county supervisor, his job was aiding rural families with financial help and supervision both for housing and farm related loans.
Lester Kelso retired — Presque Isle’s famous bowler and sports enthusiast took another award Friday, July 7, as the engineering department at Maine Public Service Company honored Lester Kelso with a new gold watch on his retirement. Eighty-five-year-old Kelso had worked on a part-time purchasing right of way for Maine Public Service during the previous few years. Kelso also received a company photo album depicting the firm’s activities.
25 Years Ago – July 16, 1997
Finalists — Cunningham Middle School’s Brock Griffin defeated Josh Cyr of Caribou, 8-1, to win the Aroostook County Middle School tennis title in boys singles held in Presque Isle; and the duo of Jacob Bowler and Jonathan Cole of Cunningham Middle School downed Chris Louten and Ryan Lockhart, also of Cunningham, in the boys doubles finals of the Aroostook County Middle School Tennis Championships.
Plissey received honorary award — Edwin S. Plissey, potato marketing specialist with University of Maine Cooperative Extension, was awarded an honorary life membership in the Potato Association of America at the group’s annual meeting in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in August. Only one or two such awards were made by the international association each year. Plissey began his career with Extension in 1960 when he worked as an area potato specialist in northern Aroostook County. Since then, he advised producers throughout Maine and the United States.
Out in front — Presque Isle teenagers Chris Waugh, Mike Waugh and Matt Bagley were the pace setters at Saturday’s Mustard Mile, held in Caribou. Mike Waugh was the winner in a time of 4:47, while Chris was four seconds back and Bagley another eight seconds back.
