Looking back...

10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO

YEARS AGO

100 YEARS AGO....

Rockdale area farmers were invited to attend a mass meeting in the City Hall on to hear plans of the “United Cotton Growers’ Association.”

Lola Greer of Cameron was awarded the Daughters of American Revolution scholarship for the University of Texas. The scholarship was awarded on the basis of health, scholarship and interest in worthy student affairs,

Manager R.L. Long of the Dixie Theater returned from Dallas where he had been to arrange for some new screen programs. He announced having closed contracts for some of the very latest and highest-class Cecil de Mille and Sup-Production features, among the number of titles: “Male and Female,” “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “Huckleberry Finn.”

FORTY YEARS AGO ...

Robert Earl Luckey, a Rockdale native who returned home town in June after a distinguished career in psychology and education, was named Rockdale city manager.

Funeral services for Charlie Martin, 52, superintendent of the Milano School District, first Milano mayor and former basketball coach and administrator at Rockdale, were held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Phillips & Luckey Funeral Home chapel. Burial was in Milano Cemetery.

Following widespread taxpayer unrest including another protest meeting held Monday, the Milam County Central Tax Appraisal Board’s president announced he favored keeping Associated Tax Services appraisers on the job until “all errors and inequities are eliminated.”

The Rockdale City Council heard a Linwood Acres resident request council aid in combating “oft-repeated acts of vandalism” in the subdivision, adding that he and other homeowners in the area were prepared to “file civil suits against the persons responsible.”

TWENTY YEARS AGO ...

Rockdale Hospital District set a 48-cent tax rate Monday, for property owners within the Rockdale city limits, in a meeting that produced some of the best news yet for the financially-beleaguered Richards Memorial Hospital.

A thunderstorm rumbled across Rockdale, bringing up to 1.5 inches of rain and a power outage of up to four hours.

Rockdale taxpayers enjoyed a year of extra-low municipal taxes, but council members proposed to raise the rate 8.5 cents to 55.9 cents per $100 evaluation. The new rate would rise from the current 47.4 cents as the city has incurred more debt.

Milam County’s proposed $7,165,838.63 budget for fiscal 2001 contained raises totaling $30,187.81 for 19 elected officials.

A public hearing on the new budget was set for the Milam County Commissioners Courtroom, located in the courthouse annex.

TEN YEARS AGO ...

City Council members voted to ban synthetic marijuana, an increasingly popular substance in current drug culture and one that had already appeared in town, according to Police Chief Thomas Harris.

Milam County commissioners have provided written responses to 19 questions asked by “concerned citizens,” many of whom filled the commissioners courtroom for the second of two public hearings.

The responses were to a series of questions submitted by a frequent critic at the public hearing but saved his comments for the regular session which followed. He urged next year’s independent auditor to search for “fraud, waste and possible theft” in county government.

With recent tragedies involving Rockdale students. local residents had taken an interest in an upcoming “Out of Darkness” community walk sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

City Manager Keven Knauf told the city council, and an audience which included six members of the Chamber of Commerce board, he estimated the Sept. 4-5 Nocturnal Fest at Apache Pass benefited the Rockdale economy by about $200,000.