LOOKING BACK: August 16, 2017

Posted

80 years ago this week (1937)

The Port Townsend Elks team beats Shelton 4-3, but loses 14-1 to Aberdeen in the Southwest Washington District Baseball

Tournament. Team members include Sofie, McLarney, Moar, Enos, Benedetto, Sehr, Slettedahl, Zaccardo, Eastman, Davis, Brooling, Grasser, Richards and Roff.

60 years ago this week (1957)

“Rod Cameron, popular star of the City Detective television show, browsed around a number of Port Townsend places of business

Monday and was recognized by a few sharp-eyed TV fans.”

County Fair week means “festival values,” according to advertisers in The Leader. The fair includes a logging show with contests for bucking, axe chopping, truck driving, log rolling and Caterpillar operation. Other games at the fair include the bear walk, somersault and a tractor-driving contest. Also featured are a cable-splicing demonstration, a dog show and a local talent contest.

10 years ago (2007)

It’s done. For a company that produces millions of tons of

paper each year, a single sheet of white bond paper that now bears the signature of U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Samuel J. Steiner says the most about the future of the Port Townsend Paper Corp. On Tuesday, Aug. 14, after a 50-minute hearing in Seattle, Steiner signed the reorganization plan that turns PT Paper into a new company. The pulp and paper mill will formally emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Aug. 27, but the Tuesday ruling was the milestone. Chief Executive Officer John Begley said he was relieved with the agreement that retains the 320 family-wage jobs in Jefferson County, representing an annual payroll of $24 million. The company estimates its total economic impact in Western Washington at $150 million, and it employs another 470 people.

A petition calling for a return to the “strong mayor” form of government in Port Townsend won’t be on the Nov. 6 ballot after all. The City Council held a special meeting Aug. 13 to discuss concerns with how the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office handled the petition, which was circulated by former council member Allen Frank and Dogs-A-Foot proprietor John Sheehan. With Geoff Masci absent and excused, the council voted 6-0 to rescind the Aug. 4 resolution that placed the petition on the ballot. The council took the measure off the ballot based on an analysis by a consulting attorney, Steve DiJulio, and City Attorney John Watts.

(These “Looking Back” news items are gathered from The Leader newspapers on file at the Jefferson County Historical Society Museum and Research Center.)