Contract for GRDA Power signed by Mayor Hawkins

25 Years Ago

—Industrial officials like the idea of the proposed expansion of the Carl Albert State College (CASC) Sequoyah County campus in Sallisaw.

The proposed full-service college means close-to-work training for industry employees and skilled labor.

Sallisaw voters will vote on a half-cent sales tax for the expansion Tuesday. The Tax, if approved, will have a sunset clause which removes the tax when $1,775,000 is raised to pay for the expansion. Based on past sales tax figures, it is expected the tax will be cancelled within three years and 10 months.

50 Years Ago

—Mrs. Christine Brown, a former Sequoyah County resident, is fast becoming an accomplished poet and song writer.

Her husband, Joe, was born in Vian. They now live in Hughson, Calif. She was employed for a time as a nurse’s aide with the Sequoyah Memorial Hospital in Sallisaw.

In April she received a certificate award from the Clover International Poetry Competition in Washington, D.C., for her work entitled “A Special Flower.” This poem, along with 19 others by her, will be complied into an anthology and published by the organization.

75 Years Ago

—Sallisaw’s long struggle for additional electric power moved one step nearer success last Monday morning when Mayor T.M. Hawkins and City Manager Fred Johnston signed a contract granting G.R.D.A. a twenty-year franchise. Sallisawians gave them this authority when they voted overwhelmingly on Nov. 28 in favor of the franchise.

The signing of the contract brings to Sallisaw a new era in the realm of industrial possibility as it makes available a plentiful supply of electric energy. On the otherhand, it brings to a close one of the City’s most cherished traditions, “We generate our own power.” However, for the past few years it has been necessary to buy additional power from O.G. and E. to operate one of our major industries.

100 Years Ago

—The Red Ball Drug Store is the very latest business house to open its doors to Sallisaw residents, the store having opened for business last Friday in the Whitsett Building just west of Herring’s Hardware Store, with Bill Jones in charge as its new manager.

The stock and fixtures were moved here about the middle of November, having been purchased in Kansas during the fall months and those who have visited the store and viewed the fixtures pronounce them second to none in this part of Oklahoma. The fountain is unquestionably the most pretentious ever to have been installed here.

The store owners staged an interesting contest last week in quest of a name and slogan for the store. Monty Harrison and Jack Agent both submitted the winning name “The Red Ball Drug Store,” with Leon Holder winning the prize for the best slogan “Through Service We Grow.” Manuel Price of Dwight Mission submitted the second prize winning name “The Satisfactory Drug Store” with Ed McGowan of Route four winning the second prize for the slogan, his being “On the Way to Everywhere.”

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