Wassaic flood; Shopping center plan; poetry in Millerton Elementary; antique tractor pull

The following excerpts from The Millerton News were compiled by Kathleen Spahn and Rhiannon Leo-Jameson of the North East-Millerton Library.

March 8, 1934

‘Wassaic Digging Its way From Under Avalanche of Ice After Disastrous Flood Which Inundated Village Sunday Night’;
Huge Ice Jam Collapses At High Bridge, Superstructure Of Dam Swept Away Inhabitants Driven From Homes
RAILROAD TRACKS, HIGHWAY BURIED
Thirty Mile An Hour Torrent Roars Through Business Section; Workers Surprised, Barely Escape Wall Of Water
The village of Wassaic was slowly digging its way out from under thousands of tons of ice today after a flood and veritable avalanche Sunday night had smashed its way through the business section creating untold havoc and driving inhabitants of the lower lands from their homes and places of business.
Monday morning residents of nearby towns awoke to find Wassaic in the headlines of all leading newspapers. Motorists from all sections of the county poured into the little village to view the wreckage left in the wake of the flood. They found three newsreel photographers and three cameramen from metropolitan papers already on the job.

March 13, 1975

‘Many Citizens Support Shopping Center Plan’;
Citizens voiced heavy support of the shopping center, proposed for the south side of Route 44, just east of the Village of Millerton at the Connecticut State line, at last week’s North East Planning Board meeting.
Village merchants and others questioned the proposal’s assets and directly criticized the intentions of the shopping center developers.
Harold Miller of General Development of Connecticut (GDC) and Architect Vincent Lombardi explained that the proposed 66,000 square foot shopping center would rest on the front 8.7 acres of land and the latter 5.7 acres would be put to a recreational use. Miller informed the public that his firm has already confirmed two tenants, if the rezoning is granted, for the supermarket and the department store. He said be could not divulge the names of the two businesses without their permission. He did admit that one tenant was now located in the area. He said later in the meeting that the department store was not a typical discount store.
Miller said that if all goes smoothly the shopping center could be complete in a year, allowing 7 to 8 months for construction. He said, “there is no question that the shopping center is the meat of the proposal” but that the rest of the land could not be developed for stores because a shopping center that large was not marketable in this area.

March 9, 2000

‘NE Gets New Truck’; NORTH EAST - The Town of North East Highway Department and Supervisor David Sherman were eager this week to show off the latest addition to the town’s mechanical arsenal.
Now sitting at the town highway garage on South Center Street is a spanking-new truck — a 64,000-pound International model 2500 combination sander, plow and dump truck.

‘Poet Coaches Would-be Bards’; WEBUTUCK — There’s a little bit of poet in all of us, or so says writer Jacqueline Sweeney, Webutuck’s sometimes poet-in-residence.
For the third year in a row, Ms. Sweeney spent five days at Millerton Elementary School earlier this month conducting poetry workshops in all the grades.

‘Moss Earns Navy Medal’; MILLERTON - Senior Airman Malcolm G. Moss received the Air Force Achievement Medal from the Department of the Air Force recently.

‘Ag Program Will Try 2nd Tractor Pull’; WEBUTUCK - Hot on the heels of a successful show last fall, organizers plan to put on another antique tractor pull to benefit Webutuck’s agricultural program.
At Monday’s School Board meeting, agriculture teacher Bruce Pecorella and transportation director Bob McGhee outlined plans for another tractor pull modeled after last November’s successful affair, which attracted 97 tractors and some 250 to 300 people.