100 years ago
May 12, 1926
Formation of a Crawford County Historical Society will be perfected here on the morning of May 20, the day of Pittsburg's golden jubilee, it was agreed during a meeting of the general commission on arrangements last night at the City Hall. All old settlers who are here on that day for the celebration will be solicited to enroll themselves as charter members of the society. Membership in the society will be open to all citizens, but special effort will be made to see that all of the old time residents of the county who are here on that occasion become associated in the society.
Reports on the fruit prospects this year were given by the fruit growers of the county at the meeting of the Crawford County Horticultural Society in the Chamber of Commerce rooms last night. The same general injury from the late freeze was indicated from all points. According to estimates, only about six varieties of peaches will have more than 50 percent crops, with most of the tree fruits, falling below this figure. The cherry yield will only be about 40 percent, apples about the same, and there will be very few plums, the reports show.
An 11-student class in institution management of the Teachers College will go to Kansas City for an inspection trip through several of the large department stores and cafeterias, Mrs. Zoe Wolcott, joint director of the college home economics department who will be in charge of the class on the trip, said today. The class will leave Pittsburg at 3:15 o'clock Thursday afternoon over the Frisco railroad and return here Saturday night, she said.
50 years ago
May 12, 1976
The request of Pittsburg Bicentennial-Centennial, Inc., that North Broadway, between First and Seventh, be blocked off May 22 during centennial celebration activities was denied by the Pittsburg City Commission Tuesday to avoid confusion for the large crowd of people expected to be in the city that day. Commissioner J.D. Haggard told Tom Murry, business manager of Bicentennial-Centennial, that with Kansas State College of Pittsburg conducting its commencement exercises during the morning, the closing of North Broadway would inconvenience the large number of persons expected to attend.
James J. Webber has been appointed as director of community development for the city of Pittsburg, City Manager Marty Stricklan announced Tuesday. Webber, 45, is a 1953 graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso and has a degree in business administration. Since his graduation, Webber has acquired approximately 15 years experience in personnel and operations management and general administration. He also has had training in public information and has two years practical experience in the field, said Stricklan.
A motion prohibiting Monsour Brothers, Inc., 112 N. Elm, from building an addition to their business over an existing city sanitary sewer line was passed by the Pittsburg City Commission Tuesday by a vote of 3-2. The action was the result of Pete Monsour's request last week to vacate an alley between First and Second and Joplin and Elm. Monsour requested that the alley be closed so that his company could expand. The matter was deferred last week because Monsour's planned expansion is over a sanitary sewer.
25 years ago
May 12, 2001
WEST MINERAL - After years of planning and fundraising, and a few months of construction, the new addition to the Big Brutus Museum is complete. Ceremonies were held Friday in the 3,000 square foot exhibition hall, dedicating it to the memory of the miners who toiled in area coal mines. "Many of these folks came over from Europe, not knowing anybody here, not knowing the language, to work in the coal fields of southeast Kansas," said John Battitori, president of the Big Brutus Board of Directors.
GIRARD - Discussion of auditing procedures for local governments usually generates about as much excitement as reading hamburger wrapper at a fast-food restaurant. A newly mandated federal accounting method for local government units, however, has grabbed Crawford County officials’' attention. "I have no idea how much it's going to cost the county to do," County Clerk Kevin Anselmi told county commissioners Friday morning during their regular meeting. "I do know it'll mean a major change in the way governments have done things."
No one was hurt, but employees at Lakeside Elementary School got a shock early Friday morning after heavy rains caused portions of the ceilings in three rooms in the school to collapse. According to Phillis Scorse, assistant principal at Lakeside, at about 6:30 or 7 a.m. Friday, several ceiling tiles in two third-grade classrooms and one special education classroom fell in after they became soaked with water which had fallen from a leak in the school's roof.
