25 YEARS AGO — 1984
  A Beekmantown farmer clearing his Stafford Drive field of cornstalks discovers a badly decomposed body which police suspect might be that of Dawn Svocak, 20, a Plattsburgh woman missing since Aug. 17. She is later identified, and police suspect she died from a blow to the head, calling it murder.

  Due to a recommendation by the Federal Election Commission, residents of Plattsburgh Air Force Base who live in on-base housing or barracks will now be allowed to vote in local elections. Those who do so must change their residency to New York and pay taxes and fees here.

  Joseph Rota, chairman of the Washington County Board of Supervisors, comes to Elizabethtown seeking support for the resource recovery plant that is planned for Hudson Falls. If the plant is built and Essex County joined the project, the consolidated landfill at Lewis would not be necessary.

  A bankruptcy-court judge revokes his previous approval of a plan involving the $35 million purchase of the John R. Swaim properties in Virginia and Lake Placid.

50 YEARS AGO — 1959
  One man is killed and four survive when a Conservation Department plane crashes and burns on a remote mountainside in the Adirondacks. The plane had been stocking fish in isolated mountain lakes when it crashed near the top of McNaughton Mountain west of Mount Marcy.

  A repaired Eastern Airlines Martin 404, which crashed at Plattsburgh Air Force Base last week, leaves for Miami. The 29 passengers and three crew all escaped injury.

  Residents of Shoreham, Vt., are seeking Vermont Health Department reports on pollution of air and water before further action on a petition to stop odors from the Ticonderoga International Paper Co. mill.

  The Clinton County Board of Supervisors pockets a request from the state that the Sheriff's Department assume boat patrol duties on county lakes. The supervisors felt the idea would prove too costly.

75 YEARS AGO — 1934
  The three-story building occupied by the Ticonderoga Lodge of Elks 1494 is badly damaged by fire. The blaze started in the restaurant on the first floor. The restaurant was wrecked and the second floor used by the Elks as club rooms were badly damaged. Damage was estimated at $20,000.

  Since the official opening of the Pal Balde Co.'s plant in Plattsburgh it has completed the installation of all its automatic machinery and has produced 500,000 razor blades a week for the past two months with a staff of 46 employees, mostly local.

  After 18 hours of continuous labor, workmen finish pouring the cement forms on the main foundation of Malone's new Post Office.

  One hundred eleven operations were performed at Alice Hyde Hospital in Malone during August with 50 patients daily registered at the institution.

100 YEARS AGO — 1909
  The Village of St. Regis Falls sustains the loss of one of its principal industries when Cascade Chair Co.'s factory as well as the St. Regis Lighting Co.'s electric lighting plant are destroyed by fire.

  One woman is killed and two men badly hurt in a wreck on the Lake Champlain and Moriah Railroad. A train of iron cars from Mineville runs into a passenger car which was standing on a siding at Port Henry, a misplaced switch was given as the probable cause of the accident.

  Water consumers are requested to avoid waste in any way whatever as the supply in the Plattsburgh reservoir is getting low. The strictest economy in the use of water should be practiced until the hopes for fall rain comes.

  The 2nd Battalion of the 5th Infantry at Plattsburgh Barracks returns from a three-day practice march during which they established their camp at Schuyler Falls.

— Compiled by Contributing Writer Sue Botsford, who can be reached at 834-7201 or botsford@westelcom.com