100 YEARS AGO...
In regular meeting of the commissioners court of Milam County, $8,000 of jail bonds and $15,000 courthouse bonds were redeemed and canceled by the court. They represented the last indebtedness against the jail and courthouse.
Cameron compress fire damage was not as extensive as it was first thought to be. The average loss by farmers was about one bale in five on the press.
The recently-organized East and West Highway Association met in Rockdale to discuss ways to get the great National Bankhead Highway to pass through Rockdale and Milam County.
W.D. Turner, Rockdale’s hog buyer and hog-raising booster, told The Reporter that he paid $7,363.03 for county farmers for hogs. He bought 302 head and paid 13 cents a pound.
FORTY YEAR AGO...
Texam Construction Co. of Temple was the low bidder to construct Rockdale’s new 3,600-square-foot community center that was funded from the estate of Dr. George Patter son and the two-week fund drive to raise share of the project.
Highlighted by a youth stock show which topped $40,000 and set a gross sales record for the for the fourth straight year, the 1980 Rockdale Fair survived a Saturday afternoon downpour and was deemed a success for the fifth year by Fair Association officials.
Rockdale’s gleaming “new” colonial style city library—the Lucy Hill Patterson Library— was rededicated and citizens who turned out for the ceremony and open house praised the new facility.
Milam County’s “tax revolt” has generated a couple of contested commissioners races for the Nov. 4 election as three men who oppose the recent property reappraisal have filed as write in candidates
TWENTY YEARS AGO...
It was sure to be a golden time at the silver anniversary of the Rockdale Fair. With top notch Nashville talent, rodeo and pageants among the entertainment choices, organizers were hoping to bring about 18,000 people to Fair Park Thursday through Saturday.
Rockdale ISD school trustees were being “neighborly” to Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations. Board members decided to assume intervenor status on behalf of Rockdale Operations in an unsuitability petition, filed by the Neighbors for Neighbors group, seeking to halt the company’s mining plans in Bastrop and Lee counties. Alcoa said the proposed Three Oak Mine will assure the continued operation of its Rockdale plant for at least 40 years.
Rockdale High School students are looking for veterans of the Korean War. Korean veterans were to be honored at the school’s annual Veteran’s Day assembly set for Nov. 9 in the RHS auditorium.
Rockdale police had a message for bicycle owners after a series of bike thefts in the city. Don’t leave bikes outside at night and keep them locked up if at all possible. The most recent incident was Thursday when police stopped four juveniles who all admitted they were riding stolen bikes.
TEN YEARS AGO...
The biggest sale and the second biggest crowd. Those were among the many highlights of the 35th annual Rockdale Fair which wrapped up Saturday night with a whopper of a livestock sale to benefit Milam County FFA and 4-H youth.
Alcoa signed a letter of intent as the first step in a process to sell just over 11,000 acres of Rockdale Operations to a “green” development group. Velocita Holdings is a Florida group which acts as a middle man in developing green energy.
Thursday was set to be the biggest day for the historic Camino Real trail near Rockdale in 250 years. An exhibit in the city library was unveiled that featured scenes from along the trail.
Warren Matous, chief of the Rockdale Fire Department for the past three years, stepped down from the position the previous week. He told The Reporter he got a new job that would have him away from the city a good deal of the time.
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