Peekin' into the Past

Five Years Ago
June 7, 2012
    Community leaders from around the state were given the opportunity to more fully understand the challenges facing rural Colorado public schools at “The Rural Education Challenge” forum at the School District 27J Training Center in Brighton May 31. Superintendent Bret Miles, three school board members and five other Holyoke community members made a strong representation for this community at the informative program.
    Dirt work began this past weekend at the site of a new Family Dollar store one block west of the stoplight in Holyoke where the old Baldwin Chevrolet dealership once stood.
    Work has been busy the last few weeks west of Holyoke at the new Seaboard Foods mill site. With the hopes of offering a more centralized mill to their live operations, Seaboard Foods is constructing a $13 million facility 2 miles west of town on a 33-acre site. Construction is expected to take about 13 1/2 months.
    
Ten Years Ago
June 7, 2007
    An opportunity is being offered by Phillips County commissioners and the Event Center Fundraising Committee to local or regional businesses to purchase “naming rights” for the new event center to be built at the Phillips County Fairgrounds.
    Severe weather on May 29 caused substantial damage to several local farmers’ crops south of Holyoke and stretching into Yuma County. Although estimates of losses have yet to be determined, some fields will be claimed as total losses, some farmers are choosing to replant with corn or an alternative crop, and still others are optimistic that fields with only a little damage will pull through and recover in the coming days.
    Operation: Phillips County Cares is promoting support for those actively serving in Iraq and Afghanistan in the United States Armed Forces.
    
Twenty-Five Years Ago
June 11, 1992
    Working toward the implementation of an E911 emergency phone system, the county has assigned specific house number addresses for rural homes. Letters will be sent from the Holyoke Post Office to rural Holyoke residents June 12 to inform patrons of their new addresses.
    Jim Oliphant is serving as the new pastor at First Christian Church in Holyoke.
    Rev. Harold J. Rathjen will be installed Sunday, June 14, as pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran churches of Amherst and Venango, Nebraska.
    A plaque acknowledging the state tournament participation of the 1941-1942 Phillips County High School basketball team was presented to the Holyoke school board by Debbie Crowder. The U.S. was involved in WWII when this team’s victories were being recorded, so little money was available for things like trophies. Now, 50 years later, a plaque will hang in the school to note the team’s achievement.
    
Fifty Years Ago
June 8, 1967
    Holyoke’s summer youth recreation program will open June 12 under the direction of Roger Milner. The program will include girls softball, bowling, golf, tennis, swimming, Little League baseball, Babe Ruth baseball and American Legion junior baseball.
    Saturday, June 10, will be Amherst Day, with special prices being offered at the Amherst Market and Amherst Co-op Lumber and Hardware Co.
    Heavy hail, torrents of rain and strong winds caused extensive damage to crops in Phillips County Sunday night. County Extension agent Darrel Schafer stated that some parts of the county received 4-6 inches of rain Sunday night, most of it falling during a one-hour period.
    
Seventy-Five Years Ago
June 11, 1942
    H.L. Martin, chairman of the Phillips County Agricultural Administration Adjustment Committee, stated this week that the lack of adequate storage facilities will present a problem to many farmers this year. He stated that two-thirds of the storage space in the United States is already filled and emphasized that due to export and transportation difficulties, much of the approaching crops will have to be stored on the farm for several months.
    Glen Stenson Jr. and Albert May, workers at the grasshopper poison bait plant at the Phillips County Fairgrounds, were seriously ill Tuesday night as a result of drinking water which contained arsenic powder. The two drank the water, not knowing that it contained the poison powder. Their conditions were much improved yesterday.
    Henry T. Gassert was named air-raid warden at a meeting of the Holyoke Defense Council at town hall Thursday night of last week, in compliance with the request of the Colorado Council of Defense.