80 Years Ago
January 3, 1940
Napanee’s new 1940 council got into action in record time to put through eight bylaws. Former mayors W.G. Paul, W.T. Waller, and A. MacGregor spoke at the end of the meeting to congratulate the council on the business-like manner the proceedings had been carried through.
-With power service to Amherst Island interrupted, an airplane had to be secured to carry John Hayes of the Napanee Hydro to the island to repair the lines.
Ice had formed around the bay between the island and the mainland that wasn’t sufficiently thick thick to carry a car or sleigh, so a plane from Kingston was engaged to make the trip.
-A record low temperature was set in Napanee when the mercury dipped to -26. By noon the next day it had climbed all the way to 10 degrees above zero.
30 Years Ago
January 3, 1990
Nightly OPP RIDE checks appeared to be having their desired effect in the Napanee area. Over the Christmas weekend of 1989, despite nightly RIDE checks, no impaired driving charges were laid.
Sgt. Jim Cosgrove noted that attitudes appeared to be changing around drinking and driving following an increase to the penalties and fines attributed with those offenses.
-Deseronto residents couldn’t have picked a worse time to experience a power outage, when one came in the middle of a record cold snap.
Forecasters for the season were predicting temperatures to be among the coldest ever recorded for southern Ontario throughout January 1990.
The temperature during the Dec. 27 power outages was listed as -30.5, beating out the previous record of -28.3, set in 1925.
-After spending more than $189,000 to refurbish Napanee’s VIA station, vandalism at the building resulted in its closure just three days after its official re-opening.
Ticket holders would now be required to wait outside for trains in the cold.
Jim Madden, who was expected to lease the station from the town for $400 per month plus heating, said it wasn’t worth it to operate the station if vandals were just going to keep coming in and destroying the facilities.
-The North Fred Kings, joined by coach Terry Gray, were honoured at North Fred following their silver medal finish at the Canadian championships held in New Brunswick the previous summer.