Each week, the Gazette looks back on stories from the past. Here is what happened this week, by year…

1938

-The federal government advised mariners it was planning two firing ranges in the vicinity of Point Petre. The firing would be over Lake Ontario with ranges of up to 14,000 yards. Adequate safety precautions were to be used, including a halt on firing when vessels were nearby.

– After preliminary evidence was heard in a Kingston courtroom, Cherry Valley resident Henry Deline was committed to stand trial on a manslaughter charge after fatally striking fellow Cherry Valley resident S. P. Dodds Sr. with his car on July 2.

– The winner for most points in agricultural competitions at the Sophiasbugh fall fair would be the John Harrington Eckardt Trophy, a four-piece silver tea service.

1948

– The council managing the Picton Community Centre voted to close the facility when faced with the realization they’d need to find considerable grant funding to keep operating. Director Reg Fox resigned.

– A stack of new hay caught fire, levelling Harold McKenna’s newly roofed barn at Black River. Hundreds of people, including a fire brigade from Royal Canadian School of Artillery, were on hand to prevent the flames from spreading to other buildings.

– After 65 years of stamp collecting, Picton native J. Sherman Fox sold his collection to a dealer in Edmonton. It had almost every stamp from Canada and Newfoundland since 1851 and was considered the most valuable collection in Western Canada.

1978

– The Gazette’s publisher, J. Earl Morrison, suffered a fatal heart attack at age 56. A Brockville native, Morrison came to the Quinte area as a reporter at the Gazette. He later edited the Deseronto Post before buying the Napanee Beaver in 1953. Morrison had served as president of the Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association in 1973.

– Hillier Township council ordered fisherman Ellery Keller to remove a hut he’d been using for 20 years so the land could become a public park. Keller was concerned the move would negatively affect his livelihood and those of other fishermen in the area.

– Each municipality in the county was to share in a $2,000 deficit incurred to run the baseball diamond at the Picton fairgrounds.

1998

– Wellington resident Paul Greer had been growing three prized pumpkins with his four-year-old son Brady in hopes of winning a prize at Pumpkinfest. They were devastated to see vandals had cut the stems off each of the potential giants and had also spray painted graffiti on their backhoe.

– Carrying Place man Ian Carswell qualified to run the 5,000-metre race for Canada at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Carswell, the third-ranked Canadian qualifying, hoped to reach the final and finish in the top 10.

– Environment Canada confirmed a low-level tornado was spotted moving from Presqu’ile Park toward Sandbanks, but no associated property damage was reported.