THE TIME MACHINE

From past files of The Star News

10 YEARS AGO

February 2, 2011

Taylor county municipalities are receiving their shares of a $9.3 million “privilege” highway tax allotment on motor vehicles, plus a share of the $817,103 supplement fund, both distributed by the state division of highways.

A total of $38,587 from the privilege tax allotment is being distributed, plus $3,209 in supplemental allowance to the city of Medford, the four villages and 22 towns in Taylor county. These are the final portions of more than $55 million in state highway funds returned to the local municipal units during the year. In addition, $21.4 million in aids have been distributed to the 72 counties.

Four weeks after being turned down for a variance request to install a new sign at their Hwy 13 shopping center, Medford Cooperative General Manager Chip Courtney was back before the city talking about signs.

Members of the planning commission Monday night started the process to change the 20-year-old city sign rule to give city businesses more flexibility for signs along the Hwy 13 and Hwy 64 corridors. Commission members approved sending a proposed change in the zoning rules to a public hearing scheduled for early March.

The city’s current sign ordinance was passed in 1991 and limits freestanding signs to 200 square feet in size and 20 feet tall in other portions of the city and 30 feet tall along the Hwy 13 corridor.

25 YEARS AGO

February 7, 1996

Although final grades are not yet in, Taylor County residents get a “B” in recycling, Community Development Agent Arlen Albrecht said this week.

Albrecht hastened to add, however, that there is still much room for improvement. “The county as a whole is doing a good job of recycling, but we are definitely behind in newsprint, he said.

According to Albrecht, all residents in the Taylor County Recycling Authority recently received a “report card” showing how well their municipality is doing toward meeting goals set by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) six years ago. For rural areas (under 5,000 population, which includes the City of Medford), those goals include collecting 83.7 pounds of recyclables per person per year.

50 YEARS AGO

February 4, 1971

75 YEARS AGO

January 31, 1946

A fire which broke out about 6:30 Sunday evening completely destroyed the three-room Norman Fiedler farm home in the town of Browning. The Fiedlers household furnishings and clothing also were lost in the blaze.

The fire started while Fiedler and his wife were in the barn doing their evening’s chores. Fiedler said he could not imagine how the fire could have started since the stove was opposite the side of the house where the fire appeared to have started.

100 YEARS AGO

February 2, 1921

Dr. Holliday, of the town of Little Black, who is nearing his ninety first birth anniversary, was one of our callers yesterday. He is a remarkable old gentleman and is “young” and spry as many men thirty years younger. We asked him what he attributed his remarkable health to and this is what he said. First I am temperate in all things. Have vegetable diet, use little meat and pork not at all. Neither liquor nor tobacco. I believe in fresh air and sleep with my window open and I do not let some one else exercise for me. Even now he saws his own wood daily with a single cross cut saw.

Remember When — 2002

125 YEARS AGO

February 1, 1896

Chicago, Jan. 26—Prof. Roentgen, the German who has recently made the already famous photographic discovery of taking pictures through the human flesh, has apparently formidable rivals in two young men of Chicago who bid fair to eclipse the most remarkable achievements of the noted Bavarian. No silhouette pictures made by hours of exposure in dark rooms and showing at the best but the bare outlines are good enough for these young camera experts, but sharp, clear cut views made by sunlight through wood, leather or flesh are the results which they show in support of their assertions.