Each week, the Gazette looks back on stories from the past. Here is what happened this week, by year…
1928
– Children at Picton public schools collected 136 dozen eggs to send to the Richmond Hill Orphanage for Easter. A representative from the orphanage said they have 150 children to provide for and they can’t offer eggs for breakfasts as often as they’d like without donations.
– A spread rail caused delays for train passengers coming into Picton on Good Friday for the holiday weekend. The train was backed into Bloomfield station and a majority of visitors on the train took taxis for the final stretch of their journey.
– Ontario highways minister George Henry indicated the government was ready to offer additional funding to municipalities to maintain provincial highways.
1948
– The campaign to renovate Athol Town Hall as a community centre received some support from high places. World championship figure skater Barbara Ann Scott and 12 members of the Stanley Cup- champion Toronto Maple Leafs sent autographed photographs to be sold.
– Picton’s Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire voted to send $25 worth of food to Britain monthly. Member Phyllis Mitchell had visited the country and noted post-war rations were still small and fats and sugars were hard to come by.
– A grass fire on the grounds of the landmark Castle Villeneuve spread over several acres but was extinguished by firefighters before it could reach any buildings.
1978
-Picton council agreed to continue dumping garbage at a landfill site near Mt. Olivet Cemetery the Ministry of Environment had ordered closed by the end of the year. The town had secured a deal to ship its garbage to Sidney Township, but the landfill there was facing a revocation of its own licence for reported violations.
– Picton reeve Larry Richardson announced he’d be resigning from council to take a two-year teaching and counselling position at the European headquarters of the Canadian Forces in West Germany.
– The Ontario Municipal Board formally approved a $2-million A&P supermarket development on Main Street after dismissing an appeal from neighbouring residents.
1998
– Prince Edward-Lennox-South Hastings MPP Gary Fox requested an audience with health minister Elizabeth Witmer to stress the importance of Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital remaining a Class B2 hospital and maintaining all its services due to the county’s rural nature.
– County council offered to share in governance of the hospital in an attempt to keep it out of amalgamation with others in the Quinte region. Hospital chair Monty Boultbee indicated he was still hopeful of producing an agreement for independence similar to one in Lennox and Addington.
– The Prince Edward County Novice B Kings swept the Bracebridge Bears to win an OMHA provincial championship.