Remember When for the week of 4/11/17

120 years ago
Two masked men entered the Susanville
Post Office and at gunpoint forced the
postmaster to hand over more than $1,200 in
cash. The robbers escaped.
70 years ago
The Susanville Chamber of Commerce
forwarded a letter to the War Production
Board in San Francisco, requesting Southern
Lassen County be designated as a housing
area for Herlong defense workers. The
Chamber complained the city did not have
enough available housing to accompany the
large influx of defense and timber workers.
35 years ago
Plumas and Lassen counties were hit with
the worst snowstorm of the year. Susanville
received 16 inches, while Westwood and
Chester were dumped with six feet. County
roads were buried with six feet. County roads
were closed, and the local Highway Patrol
was swamped with reports of several
accidents.
30 years ago
During the week of April 20, 14 Lassen
County schools will be planting trees in
honor of National Arbor Day. The Lassen
National Forest provided giant sequoia, pine
and fir seedlings along with bicentennial
plaques.
On Arbor Day itself, a flag raising and tree
planting ceremony will be held at the
Roosevelt Pool.
25 years ago
When the Lassen County Board of
Supervisors passed its “doomsday budget”
last fall, County Administrative Officer Bill
Bixby predicted the county would run out of
money and shut down in April.
Well, April is here and so is the county.
Bixby said the county will likely make it to
the end of the fiscal year due to a one-time
$450,000 rebate from the Public Employment
Retirement System.
Yet, that isn’t even half of the county’s $1.2
million budget shortfall from the current
fiscal year.
15 years ago
The Lassen Municipal Utility District’s
Advisory Committee drafted a letter asking
the utility district to disband the group.
The committee, created by the LMUD Board
of Directors, wants to avoid the restriction of
California’s Open Meeting Law, commonly
known as the Ralph M. Brown Act, and
operates as an independent citizens’ group.
Committee members want to be free to offer
any suggestions they deem appropriate and
not to be viewed as a public relations arm of
the publicly owned utility district.
10 years ago
Master Sgt. Scott McCullough received a
bronze star for valor in combat, a
distinguished Marine Corps service medal
and an American flag for his 21 years of
service in the Marines.
He was presented with the awards during a
ceremony at the Veterans Memorial Hall
April 5. McCullough retired from the Marines in
June 2005.
He served as a military policeman at Camp
Pendelton and in 2002 went to the military
police company in Minneapolis, Minn., and
worked with the reserves.
He served two tours in Iraq.
Five years ago
While Lassen County is still looking for
ways to fund its pool project, the city of
Susanville may have found a funding source
for its proposed Sierra Park Sports Complex.
City administrator and finance director
Robert Porfiri said based on the guidelines of
California’s Proposition 84, the athletic field
project he originally proposed to the
Susanville City Council in March meets all
the requirements necessary to apply for the
highly competitive grant.
Porfiri presented his plan for meeting the
July 1 grant application deadline to the
Susanville City Council at its April 6 meeting.
The presentation also highlighted what
Porfiri considered a vastly improved design
for the proposed Sierra Park Sports Complex
Porfiri has been working on. Porfiri said the
project has received a lot of input from the
community, and as such has evolved into a
project with five soccer fields and picnic
benches into an all-encompassing park and
sports complex, complete with a paved trail
system, outdoor amphitheater, beach
volleyball pits, basketball courts and more.
Last year
The Plumas County Sheriff hoped a rusted
hammer and a long-forgotten phone call will
help solve the 35-year-old Keddie murders
case.
Days after a March 16 Feather Publishing
story reported that investigators were
making progress on the infamous quadruple
homicide case, the sheriff ’s Keddie hotline
phone (283-6360) started ringing.
“After the story, all hell broke loose,” said
sheriff ’s special investigator Mike Gamberg.
“I started getting calls here, and the Internet
website (Keddie28.com) was inundated.”
Sheriff Greg Hagwood and Gamberg have
credited the Internet forum for “providing
valuable information” about the case.
One of the hotline calls came from the
Internet forum’s manager. He told Gamberg
someone on the website reported finding an
old rusty hammer while using a metal
detector near the scene of the murders.