115 years ago
All main street’s business owners took part in a combined effort to rid the street and storefronts of gravel, sand and trash. The unified front collected more than 500 pounds of debris and restored Susanville’s well-known reputation of being one of the prettiest towns in the mountains.

65 years ago
The U.S. Army and Navy called on more than 50 men from Susanville and Westwood to report to recruitment stations in Reno for physical examinations. After basic training, it was expected that they would soon be activated for duty in World War II.

40 years ago
Fred Abbay, of Susanville, stepped down as chairman of the Trade Advisory Council of the California Conservation Center; Abbay served four years in the position before being replaced by “Dutch” Hersberg, of Chico.

30 years ago
Susanville and Bank of America signed a $1.5 million loan agreement to provide housing and property rehabilitation opportunities for low-income families. Bank of America matched a $750,000 block grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The pooled funds were used to create 15-year low interest property loans for eligible homeowners in the Memorial Park area.

25 years ago
The Board of Supervisors approved the 1987-1988 budget which totaled near $21 million. The majority of the supervisors and city officials praised interim county Administrative Officer Stan Greene for preparing a well-packaged budget, as well as his efforts toward suggesting future budget guidelines to make the meeting less complicated.

20 years ago
It will cost close to $5.5 million to develop the infrastructure for a proposed ski resort on Dyer Mountain.
That was the bottom-line number contained in a recently released study on the Preliminary Infrastructure Investigation prepared by Sno-engineering, Inc., in association with the engineering group of Rolls, Anderson and Rolls.
The purpose of the study was “to focus on the feasibility of providing transportation access and utility services specifically to the resort suite.”

Five years ago
“It was extremely unprofessional of the grand jury to put out a report and not give us a copy and not to talk to anyone on the board.”
Those were the kindest comments from Lassen Union High School Board Member Mark Nareau at the Tuesday, Aug. 9 meeting in regards to the 2004-2005 grand jury report.

Last year
Thanks to efforts from multiple local and state fire agencies, the fire that burned on Sunday, Aug. 15 near Sunnyside Road in Janesville didn’t scorch any homes that had been in the fire’s path.

CalFire Prevention Specialist Leah Sandberg said the fire came close to a few homes, but firefighters from several agencies were able to work together to protect the homes and create a perimeter to turn the fire away.

“It was a joint structure protection effort,” Sandberg said. “It took firefighters and equipment from multiple groups to protect the few structures threatened.”

CalFire’s investigation of the fire turned up it was in fact caused by a lightning strike. Due to the heat, the winds and the dry fuels near the strike point, the fire spread extremely fast.