80 Years Ago
May 24, 1939
An inmate of the Lennox and Addington County Gaol was sentenced to five years in Portsmouth Penitentiary for assaulting the gaol warden.
The warden received severe head wounds after being attacked by an inmate wielding a steel rod. The inmate offered no defense in court, though witnesses said the attack was unprovoked. The warden was expected to be away for quite some time before he would return to work.
– Napanee resident Robert Hanna, a member of the Canadian Corps Pipe Band in Kingston, was presented with a long service medal.
– The tender system for awarding contracts for the delivery of rural mail in Canada was condemned by a number of members in the House of Commons, including George J. Tustin, MPP for Prince Edward-Lennox. He claimed there was unfair discrimination against small towns. In cities he said mail was delivered two or three times a day while county farmers had mail delivered just once a day to their door.
– A fire destroyed the Forest Mills home of Bob Leavers. A WWI veteran, Leavers was said to have lost war medals which he had worn the day before at the church parade for veterans in Napanee.
30 Years Ago
May 24, 1989
An explosion in Hay Bay’s Pickerel Park left a Dunsford, Ont. man with second degree burns to 25 per cent of his body.
Several neighbouring campers used fire extinguishers to help put out the flames until Bath firefighters were able to arrive on the scene. The man was taken to Lennox and Addington County General Hospital and transferred to Kingston’s Hotel Dieu Hospital when stable.
A propane leak within the camper was believed to be the cause of the explosion.
– The Ministry of the Environment was waiting for the green-light to begin a cleanup of contaminated soil around the Napanee Mall.
The directive for the clean-up stemmed from a May 10, 1989 inquest following the death of a Napanee sewer worker who died after inhaling gasoline fumes.
– The Prince Charles School in Napanee celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Premier Leslie Frost was on hand for the opening 40 years prior, which was attended by over 1,000 residents.
– An auditor’s report showed Napanee’s council was in the black.
After taking total revenues and expenditures into consideration, Napanee showed a surplus of $200,766 for the previous year of 1988. The previous year there had been a deficit of $17,518.