IT’S TODAY: Many important municipal elections on are on the
ballot today for the Pennsylvania primary, so make sure you stop at
the polls. Don’t forget to cast your ballot, too, for the school
referendum which asks residents if they prefer a shift of some
property tax to an income tax.
For many voters, the referendum will mean a decision on whether
to take money from our front pocket or our back pocket. Big winners
would be senior citizens on a fixed income, and clear losers would
be renters who would pay more of an income tax without gaining the
break promised to property owners.
SPRING THINGS: Our final list today of “spring things” – a
listing of occurrences in Bradford in the spring months – published
recently in the Bradford Landmark Society newsletter:
* April 24, 1899: William D. Burdick killed by nitroglycerine
explosion in Rutherford Hollow. His head found the next day.
* April 26, 1897: City lot on the corner of Congress and Corydon
deeded to the school district for library purposes.
* May 2, 1895: Bicycle Club is reorganized; new officers and new
name, Central Cycle Club of Bradford.
* June 30, 1962: Kinzua Post Office closes today permanently –
an early casualty of the nearby Kinzua Dam being constructed.
* May 24, 1962: Dr. E.H. McCleery, noted for his Kane Lobo
wolves, dies at 94.
* April 29, 1962: More than 900 people attend the dedication of
the new $1,630,000 Floyd C. Fretz Junior High School, the first
school constructed in Bradford in 27 years.
* April 22, 1962: Corning Glass Works in Bradford produces the
world’s largest piece of fused silica for a new telescope at the
U.S. Naval Observatory.
* April 10, 1969: Dr. T. Edward Hanley dies, age 75, oil
executive, art and book collector, at Bradford Hospital.
* April 20, 1896: P.L. Webster has deeded to the City of
Bradford a plot of ground in Oak Hill Cemetery, in trust, as a
burial place for the old soldiers of the city.
* March 19, 1966: Bradford Milling Co. building demolished for
site of new Holiday Inn.
RICH’S STORE: And while we’re reminiscing, one reader has asked
if anyone remembers a Rich’s Department Store near the head of Main
Street that would have been there in the early 1930s.
“I remember it as a very young child,” she writes.
