Remember When?

40 YEARS AGO • OCTOBER 5, 1978

CABLE TV SYSTEM HAS LITTLE SUPPORT

Members of the City Council displayed little enthusiasm Monday night to involve the town in a TV cable system which would require a monthly payment of approximately $7.50 from each subscriber.

Mrs. Ermel Hanson asked the council to take some action to make more parking spaces available on Main St. She explained that some women provide transportation for elderly citizens so that the latter can shop and accomplish other business errands. Many of the senior citizens can not walk long distances so it is imperative that the cars park close to the business they wish to visit.

City Supt. Sterling Larsen noted that the city crew Monday began razing the old county shop behind Gambles. The site on which the shop building is located is to be turned into a city parking lot with local merchants renting spaces to help pay the city’s cost of purchasing the land from Sanders County for $10,500. The county shop site will provide 26 additional parking spaces.

Margelin asked Town Marshall Harry Petersen to enforce the three-hour parking rule on the south side of Main St. It was noted that some motorists leave their vehicles parked on Main St. all day while they ride to work in the woods with someone else.

Councilman Jack Basham commented, “I think the first thing we should do is to start marking tires and get those vehicles off the street when they exceed the three-hour parking limit.”

It was noted that parking in front of the Courthouse is limited to one hour.

Housing developer and real estate broker Dave Bennett offered to provide benches free to the city for use where the councilmen desired. It was suggested that benches would be welcome at the swimming pool, tennis courts and Memorial Rose Garden. Bennett said he would want to include an advertising message on the benches.

Contractor Nolan Parker reported that construction on the pool bathhouse is almost complete with just “a few little things still to be done.”

The council voted unanimously to order preparation of a resolution to oppose legislation being proposed for the 1979 Legislative Session by the County Commissioners Assn. to take the liquor and beer taxes presently returned to cities and allocate them to counties. Margelin noted that Thompson Falls last year received $4,927 in liquor taxes and $3,938 in beer tax revenue.

Larsen advised the council he would like to use a part of the lumber and building materials salvaged from the county shop to construct a roof over the city’s supply of sand used for sanding streets in winter. He said other salvage material could be used to build a second fire station.

Marshall Petersen reported he answered 47 calls in September, conducted 11 investigations, made two felony arrests, cleared four cases, made three miscellaneous arrests and answered four accident calls.

THOMPSON PASS ROUTE EYED BY NEW PIPELINE

The Murray-Thompson Pass-Thompson Falls route for the proposed Northern Tier Pipeline appears with increasing certainty to be the choice for the Alaskan crude oil carrier if the pipeline is built from the West Coast to Clearbrook, Minn.

Northern Tier Pipeline Co. proposes to construct a 1,557-mile crude oil underground pipeline across the Northwest states to transport crude oil from Alaska. The line would originate at a deep water port and storage facility near Port Angeles, Wa.

Currently a surplus of crude oil on the west coast exists because refineries there cannot handle the 1.2 million barrels per day of oil arriving from Alaska.

Following the oil crisis, the Canadian government announced it would discontinue crude oil exports to this country by 1982. This will create a major problem for Montana refineries to obtain an alternate supply of crude oil.