Step back in time features news items from The Daily Star 25 and 50 years ago.
25 years ago
Feb. 2, 1987
The first tremor hit Westford last summer when Gilbert DiLucia bought 292 acres for a 47-unit housing development. Local officials worried about the impact on the rural town of 652 people.
The worrying intensified a few months later when DeCom Medical Waste Systems Inc. of Canada hauled an incinerator to the Burton property on Pearsall Road and proposed to burn infectious hospital wastes.
The incinerator project has since been called off.
But the fear lingers for local people concerned about what can happen to a community without the protection of local land-use laws. With Westford having no local laws or zoning regulations to stop DeCom, townspeople had to pin their hopes on a state environmental review.
In Westford, an unofficial planning board has been formed to begin looking into ways to protect the town against future DeComs. In February the town board is expected to make the planning board official.
50 years ago
Feb. 2, 1962
Bob Conger, the national president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce will visit Oneonta, Tuesday, February 6, and speak before a host of officials at 7 p.m. at the Elks Club.
This will be the first time a national Jaycee president has visited Oneonta.
Sidney Levine, Oneonta Chamber of Commerce president, will extend the official city greeting to those attending the dinner.
Members of the Common Council and the Oneonta Chamber of Commerce have been invited to attend.
The organization was founded around 40 years ago and has now grown to about 4,000 chapters, with a total membership of about 200,000 members.
