71 years ago, 1948: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Commerce Department appropriations bill that included $10,425 for an airport in Milford. The bill then had to go to the U.S. Senate.

The Latchis Theatre in Milford was showing “Cass Timberlane” with Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner, and Zachary Scott.

Amherst Town Meeting voters approved $300 for the erection of street signs in town but it was likely the work would not be done until a hearing was held to give names to streets.

More than 1,100 chicks were killed when a fire destroyed the brooder house of the Old Pettingill Home in South Lyndeborough. The fire was caused by an overheated brooder stove.

30 years ago, 1989

In an editorial about local candidates who bemoan the problem of high property taxes yet propose no solutions, Editor William B. Rotch wrote, “To say, as candidates are prone to do, ‘We’ve got to do something to ease the burden of taxation, especially on our elderly,’ without saying how this might be done is of no help at all.”

Nine days after they sliced raises for town hall employees from an average of 6.9 ercent to 6.3, the Amherst selectmen reversed their position, unanimously restoring the cuts, citing a corresponding drop in morale among those employees.

Stonyfield Farm, Inc., the yogurt manufacturer that was moving its operation from Wilton to Londonderry, announced that it was beginning production of a low-fat yogurt in addition to its standard cream-on-top whole milk product.

20 years ago, 1999

Milford voters approved a new 700-student elementary school for the Brox Property off Whitten Road. In Amherst, though, a plan for an addition to the middle school failed to get the two-thirds majority it needed with 1,810 yes votes to 1,157 no.

As part of the Read Across American program, newscaster Jennifer Martin of WMUR-TV read to Micheleen Bagley’s third graders in Milford. Martin had attended school in Milford, even going to fifth grade in what had become Bagley’s classroom.

Andrew Shepard, competing for Gymnastics Village of Amherst, placed first in the parallel bars, valut, and all-around in the Sterling Academy of Gymnastics Invitational in Sterling, Mass.

15 years ago, 2004

Lyndeborough police were combing through old department files in an effort to determine exactly how Mary Gage could have been abused by her husband, Peter, and son, Lyman, for decades without police, or anyone else, trying to stop it.

Milford voters finally approved a new police station, supporting a plan to build on the site of the Garden Street School which, in an odd coincidence, had been destroyed by fire the day before the vote.

Jay Dinkel and George Infanti were elected to the Amherst Board of Selectmen. In Wilton, long-time Selectman Stuart Draper lost to Daniel Donovan, 713-254.

The Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative boys basketball team fell to Profile in the Class S championships, 50-40. It was only the second time in the school’s history that the team had made the finals.