10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO
100 YEARS AGO....
It was a big day for Rock-dale. Milam County commissioners okayed sale of $143,499 in road repair bonds, approved in a 1917 election, all to use on roads in the Rockdale area. “Good Roads Will Be Finished In Time for Fall Trade,” was a Reporter headline deck.
D. L. Vesey of New Baden, who had relatives in Rock-dale, was killed when struck by an International & Great Northern passenger train after flagging down the train in that Robertson County town for a mail stop.
Prohibition had come to Texas. An Anheuser-Busch spokesman said the company was converting its Dallas storage facility “probably” into an ice cream plant. Its former Galveston facility was already producing soft drinks.
The new Rockdale Chamber of Commerce met with the Cameron Commercial club. Reporter Publisher John Esten Cooke: “The best of good feeling prevailed. Not only was the hatchet buried, the ‘hammer’ was thrown away.”
FORTY YEARS AGO....
The bond issue project was underway in the Rockdale ISD as a nearly 12,000-square-foot slab was poured for an 11-classroom addition to the elementary school. The project also included a new junior-high.
Rockdale native Jack Kyle, assistant director of business for the Texas Dept. of Corrections was to be featured speaker for the annual Rockdale Chamber of Commerce Banquet.
After eight property owners in the area signed a petition opposing the sale, a recommended zoning change of two Ackerman Street lots from residential to commercial was to be discussed in a public hearing. Southwestern Bell had sought the change for expansion plans.
TWENTY YEARS AGO....
Brookshire Bros officials announced the company would begin constructing a new super market in Rock-dale within six weeks to replace the facility destroyed in a 1998 fire.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) was to unveil two alternates for a US 79 loop around Rockdale, one northern, one southern, on April 22.
City council members approved hiring an architect to draw plans for expanding the Lucy Hill Patterson Memorial Library into the adjacent Vogel Building.
It was the closest one yet but Terry Pope’s Rockdale Tiger track team won their eighth consecutive Rock-dale Relays, out-scoring Taylor 96-92.
TEN YEARS AGO....
Fire departments from Rockdale and Alcoa battled a blaze near the dryers of the former Sandow Power Plant Units 1, 2 and 3, which were being dismantled.
Texas Public School Week in Rockdale had something special to celebrate. An open house was scheduled in Rockdale Junior-High School’s brand new wing. The new wing was part of a bond issue which was also to provide a new intermediate school and expansion-renovation of the high school.
Spurger knocked defending Class A state basketball champion Thorndale from the playoffs with a 58-51 regional victory.
The result wasn’t any better for the No. 1-ranked Thorndale Lady Bulldogs as Normangee denied THS a state tourney berth, defeating Thorndale 35-34 in the regional finals.
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