Caribou area From our Files (week of March 13, 2019)

5 years ago

75 Years Ago – Mar. 16, 1944

Tractor driving courses — Miss Margo Leake was in Caribou yesterday enrolling students for tractor driving courses which will be given early in April to any women over the age of 14 who are interested in driving tractors in relief shifts during the spring plowing.  The measure was taken to help farmers during the labor shortage.

Town clean up — The Caribou Budget Committee has recommended the sum of $297,173.37 for the maintenance of the town during the coming year.  One of the aims of the committee has been to keep the budget within $300,000.

50 Years Ago –  Mar. 19, 1969

Its own bus — The town of New Sweden has never had a school bus, but it’s going to have one now.  Not that this little community (population 713 in 1960 census) is anyway backward. Anything but.  The residents have been carting high school students by car, by pickup, by truck, by almost any means, to Caribou for years now.  Finally they decided that they wanted a school bus. At the annual town meeting last year, a request for a school bus was overridden by only about four votes, and only after what some of those attendance said was a “good scrap.”  So a determined group of citizens got up a petition. The gubernatorial vote was tabbed at 223 in New Sweden’s last state election. The school bus faction won its vote 84-40. Residents are hopeful that as early as next fall their students will traveling in a shiny new school bus.

Burglary Representatives of the FBI are working with Caribou police on an investigation of the Tuesday night break into the National Guard headquarters at Carter Memorial Armory in which federal property amounting to more than $2,000 was carried away.  There were no leads at press time. Taken from the supply room was mostly communication equipment, including field telephones and switchboards, a movie projector, tape recorder and miscellaneous other articles.

25 Years Ago – Mar. 16, 1994

New classes Caribou High School students will have the opportunity to take additional Advanced Placement (AP) classes next year, according to Principal David Ouellette.  At a recent Board of Education meeting, consent was given to adding the following AP classes to next year’s curriculum: biology, physics and one AP class of psychology.  Currently, one AP class is offered in calculus.

Recognition dinner The Caribou Chamber of Commerce annual recognition diner “Bit ‘O Luck, Bit ‘O Food, Bit ‘o Music” will be held on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, at 6 p.m. at the Caribou Motor Inn.  According to Chamber President John Weeks, in keeping with their ‘Think Local Campaign’, local Irish entertainment by the Gallagher Brothers will be offered and a melody of songs by the Caribou High School Jazz Choir directed by Vaughn McLaughlin.