70 Years Ago
December 22, 1948
– The Napanee Lions Club’s annual Christmas meeting offered an opportunity to present a brand-new car to Capt. Rea, the officer in charge of the local Salvation Army. Members of the club, their friends, and other well-wishers purchased the vehicle to replace one that had been badly damaged in a recent accident. Member Henry Moore organized the collection.
– The Gibbard Furniture Shops Ltd. announced that every employee would receive a Christmas bonus and male employees would receive five-per-cent annual wage increases. General manager D.S. Roffey said the company’s sales were the highest they’d ever been in 1948, but costs were rising similarly with materials alone being 15 per cent higher than in 1947, Roffey encouraged his employees to limit wasted materials to see the company’s savings shared with them.
– Students at the No. 17 school in Camden offered cleverly made stuffed animals and a pair of knit mittens to the Salvation Army’s Santa Claus Fund to be given to children in need in the community. The work of cutting out, stuffing, and stitching the stuffed animals was done entirely by the pupils.
40 Years Ago
December 20, 1978
– North Fredericksburgh reeve James Cuthill was named the new warden of Lennox and Addington County. Cuthill said the County had to seriously cut its expenditures and contribute to limiting inflation. He indicated the County would still be doing substantial roads work in 1979 and a tax levy for that purpose would be substantially increased. Cuthill was also in favour of creating a county-wide official plan to guide development decisions.
– The Lennox and Addington Board of Education ratified contracts with the Local 1558 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees for two groups of support staff. Custodial, maintenance, and cafeteria employees would receive a seven-per-cent pay increase for 1979. The secretarial, clerical, and technical group reached a 16-month deal. For the first four months, the group would receive an increase of two-and-a-third per cent. Over the next year, that group would receive an additional seven-per-cent salary increase.
– Napanee mourned the loss of a well-known educator as former NDSS principal and schools superintendent Charles Sydney Froud died at age 61. Froud had spent 35 years working in the school system, having started his first position as a mathematics teacher as the Second World War broke out. All Lennox and Addington County schools flew flags at half staff and had moments of silence in his memory.