100 years ago, 1917
“The problem now is whether the establishment of a permanent coal yard is worth while,” said Mayor Brann, Friday. The mayor was busy at the street commissioner’s office where he has put in his time since Monday, when the first deliveries of municipal coal in Lewiston were made. Thru some false impression the price of coal does not seem quite clear to the public. This probably arose thru a misunderstanding of the term, “on the cars.” Mayor Brann’s attention was called to criticisms of the coal yard because coal may have been sold to so-called wealthy citizens of Lewiston. The mayor said that he was too busy to enter into any detailed explanation but did not think the yard could be fairly criticized from such an angle.

50 years ago, 1967
Employees of the Pioneer Plastics Corp. in Auburn have been granted wage increases, and company officials say that another general wage increase has been scheduled for later this year. James a Ramsey, general manager of the large Auburn firm, said: “Wage rate increases have been granted the majority of the 320 production employees following a job evaluation program.” “This was the third major wage hike for employees since the company moved here from Sanford,” Ramsey stated.

25 years ago, 1992
Lewiston Mayor James Howaniec, in kicking off his second term in office, said he wants property taxes to stay where they are for another year. “Because of continuing economic uncertainties, and because raising taxes is the worst thing that government can do during a recession, I will be calling upon the council and school board to produce a budget in fiscal year ’92-’93 which results in a zero percent tax increase for local residents,” Howaniec told a crowd of 250 assembled for inaugural ceremonies Monday evening at the Multi-Purpose Center.

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