25 YEARS AGO — 1984
  As expected, the Plattsburgh Common Council votes to extend the Oct. 1 payment owed the city by Plattsburgh Pioneers hockey club owner Dr. Denis Methot. He will have until 5 p.m. Oct. 30 to pay up.

  Franklin County will use $300,000 of its contingency fund to raise $800,000 in unplanned welfare costs. The expense will leave the county with between $25,000 and $40,000 for emergencies during the remainder of 1984.

  A committee of the Essex County Board of Supervisors wants the emergency telephones back on the Adirondack Northway. The Finance and Administration Committee votes to request that Gov. Mario Cuomo and other state officials reactivate the phones, which the state disconnected three years ago to save money.

  The Adirondack Park Agency adheres to a "when in doubt, don't" policy when it denies a permit for New York State Electric & Gas to chemically treat utility poles near wetlands.

50 YEARS AGO — 1959
  A jury is seated in the first-degree murder trial of Air Force Staff Sgt. Ernest E. Dixon. The process took more than two weeks, required the attendance of 1,050 men and women and cost Clinton County almost $10,000. He is accused of killing his wife.

  Three prisoners who escaped from Essex County Jail are tracked down nine hours later in Westport. The escapees are Vernon Donald Dunbar, 19, of Brooklyn; Wallace LaFlame, 19, of Brandon, Vt.; and Roger Prudenzano, 16, of Port Henry.

  The Beekmantown School District may obtain emergency funds from the state if taxpayers approve construction of a new school on Cumberland Head. The board plans to ask voters to OK plans for a 21-room elementary school to house 600 students.

  A parakeet is credited with saving the lives of an elderly couple in Schroon Lake. The wild twittering of a parakeet in the Welch home, adjacent to the burning home of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Seeley, awakened the Welches. They, in turn, ran to awaken the Seeleys, who escaped the flames.

75 YEARS AGO — 1934
  Construction of permanent quarters for the Civilian Conservation Corps at the state campground adjoining Plattsburgh Municipal Beach have started. The quarters will house a company of World War veterans, who will arrive here from Vermont shortly after Dec. 1.

  Fire, believed to have been caused by defective wiring in an electric refrigerator, guts Kenzie Buck's diner in Dannemora, causing damage estimated at between $1,500 and $2,000.

  Charles Olshewsky, 36, a driller employed at Chateaugay Ore and Iron Co. at Lyon Mountain, is critically injured in an explosion at the mine. The blast occurred when his drill hit a small piece of explosive in a missed hole on the seventh level. He dies shortly thereafter.

  The cornerstone of the new Malone Post Office is laid with elaborate ceremonies. An open house will commemorate the opening of the Post Office upon its completion.

100 YEARS AGO — 1909
  The water in the Schroon River is far below the low-water mark, and the industries are nearly crippled. The electric light plant has supplemented its power with a gasoline engine, and even the village is poorly lighted, kerosene lamps being used in every home and business.

  St. Lawrence County has more hunters than any other county in the state, and Essex stands next in the number of licenses issued. Essex has a population of only 32,000, and nearly one in 10 of them holds a hunter's license.

  Mountain peaks on both the Vermont and New York side are white with snow. Mount Mansfield first showed its white blanket by last Saturday, and the Old World saying is that winter is now due in six weeks. The snow appeared on the mountain this fall about two weeks later than usual.

  The Mineville Light, Heat and Power Co. of Mineville is incorporated with the secretary of state to operate in the towns of Moriah, North Hudson, Elizabethtown and Westport.

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