100 years ago, 1917
A 20-ton city scale will be installed within 10 days at the Lewiston municipal coal yard, Mayor Brann announced in a statement in which he outlined opposition that he has encountered in trying to maintain the yard. “We have had no complaint from the customers of the city yard,” he said, “and until a morning newspaper published the statement under the glaring headlines of ‘Coal Short Weight from City’s Yard,’ we were unaware of criticism from that source, either as to quality or quantity. Mistakes may happen both ways.”

50 years ago, 1967
In the offices of the Lewiston Traffic Bureau, there’ll soon be a large wall map showing the location of all the traffic signals and parking zones in the city. The map will be helpful to those making out accident reports, especially in determining if there has been a traffic violation, according to the head of the department, Lieutenant Herve Gendreau. He is presently drawing up the map and he said colored pins will be used to designate the stop signs, yield signs and traffic signals in the city. The map will come in various colors, denoting where limited parking zones and no parking zones are located. “This will eliminate our having to look up variances and laws in the books every time we want to know something,” Gendreau noted.

25 years ago, 1992
A training manual for home child care providers will be available soon as volunteers spend much of their days at an empty store-front in the Auburn Plaza collating the document. Representatives from St. Dom’s Key Club, the Ladies Emblem Club. Kiwanis, Rotary, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, National Honor Society and the Workfare program will be taking turns over the next two weeks assembling the manual. The book will be distributed free of charge to more than 1,600 day care providers.

The material in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspellings and errors made at that time may be edited.