• The laundrymen owned the town yesterday. The local laundries were inspected by the visiting members of the association during the day and other places of interest visited. The out-of-town laundrymen pronounce the laundries in these cities as being among the best in New England. Some of them are fully equipped with modern machinery and are able to turn out the best work.

• A new steam heating plant has been placed in the Hook and Ladder house on Park street, Lewiston.

• Work on the new plant of the Penley slaughter house and packing establishment in Auburn will begin this coming spring. The plant will probably be the largest in the State and the most up-to-date.

50 Years Ago, 1955

More Americans are buying now and paying later. Consumer credit, which covers installment buying, charge accounts and personal loans, is heading toward a record high of 30 billion dollars. Is this type of credit getting out of hand? “Nothing to worry about. In fact further expansion of credit would be safe,” says a large group of economists and business men. A smaller faction asserts, “The situation bears watching, especially the upward trend in recent months.”

25 Years Ago, 1980

• Residents of the Twin City area will have no need this month to travel the long and weary miles from Maine to Washington’s Smithsonian Institute, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or the Museum of Modern Art to see good art. The Engine House in Auburn has its upstairs gallery full of a number of excellent works by artists already represented in many of the nation’s top museums.

• A public hearing on a request that the fare charged to ride the public buses throughout the Twin Cities be increased will be held Feb. 20, at the Auburn City Building. This date was set by members of the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee, who agreed last month to up the fare 10 cents, from 40 to 50 cents.