DAYS GONE BY
100 Years Ago, 1923: Chester Island, haven of river canoeists, swimmers, aquatic baseball players, and also a good place to loll away an afternoon in the warm sun, had its official 1923opening yesterday. The sandy beach at the upper tip, fronting the Pennsylvania shore, was early dotted with canoe parties and as mid-day arrived, and the afternoon wore on, there were frequent arrivals. A regulation baseball game, played under Chester Island rules, was a stellar attraction. Uniforms consist of bathing suits and other defections in the regulations of the major leagues can easily be noted, but the same amount of fun, and perhaps more, is on tap at this particular “diamond.”
75 Years Ago, 1948: There’s a great deal of excitement in Ogden today. The big event will be the community’s party for Charles F. Burns, wounded veteran, who recently was discharged after more than three years’ hospitalization and still is confined to a wheelchair. The generous Ogden residents are giving young Burns a house-furnishing shower tonight for his soon-to-be completed home in Green Ridge. The festivities will get underway at 8p.m. in the Ogden Firehouse, with young and old on hand.
50 Years Ago, 1973: As a project for a World Cultures class at the Christian Academy in Brookhaven, 13 11th graders left Sunday for Iceland. Mrs. Judy Mollenkof, teacher at the school, and her husband, Peter, accompanied the group which departed from New York on Icelandic Airlines. Money for the four-day trip was raised through garage sales, fund-raising events, and dinners.
25 Years Ago, 1998: Amid heated debate last night, the Garnet Valley School Board approved the final 1998-99 budget, which calls for a tax rate of 580.2 mills in Concord and Chester Heights, 13.8more than this year’s, and 590.8 in Bethel, or 13.5 mills more. Board member Raymond Spykerman said the board had too little time to review it and called for waiting until next month. He termed some costs “”inconsistent” with allocations, questioned the number of new teachers and aides, and called for annual bus budgets in lieu of a five-year capital plan.
10 Years Ago, 2013: School taxes will increase about 3 percent for homeowners in the Penn-Delco School District. The millage rate will be set at 25.276 mills, up 0.727 mills from last year. “We remain well below the county average as far as the millage rate goes,” said board member and district treasurer John O’Donnell. He added that the biggest cost driver in the budget remains the state retirement pension program, which has increased 30 percent in the last few years.