Today we will again be mining the depths of the Julia Frank scrapbooks from the 1970s when Julia was a summer intern at the Enterprise and later at the Lake Placid News.

The following excerpts are from the Enterprise of July 1970:

Julia wrote:

“People looking for jobs in the Tri-Lakes may have a hard time this summer, according to the State Employment Office. “This week, the beginning of the tourist season, is when most employers finish their summer hiring. Because of the increase in the minimum wage, from $1.60 and hour to $1.85 most are taking on just a small staff of regulars.

“Although the $.25 increase only means paying $10 more for a 40 hour week, the employment office feels that even such a small hike may deter resort employers, who must earn a year’s income in the three to five month season.

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Vietnam death toll

“SAIGNON (AP) — The U.S. Command announced today that 77 Americans were killed in action in Vietnam last week, 11 more than the week before. It said the number of American combat dead in the past four weeks-276- was the lowest in four weeks.

“Another 510 Americans were wounded in action last week, 109 less than the week before. This brought the total U.S. wounded for the June 28 to July 25 period to 2,321.”

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Franklin County residents not the poorest

Evelyn Outcalt had this to say:

“Although they may not have been aware of it, sometime during 1967, the residents of Franklin County stopped being the poorest in the state, and in an exchange in rank with St. Lawrence County citizens, became next to the poorest.

“They probably did not know about their exchange in status because the State Department of Commerce publishes the official figures on per capita income two years after the individual has spent the money and the final revised figures a year after that.

“Per capita income in Franklin County for the years 1966, 1967 and 1968 was: $1,928, $2,151 and $2,360.”

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Mayor Sparks wants action

“With all the state and federal regulations pertaining to ‘parks’ are we ever going to get ANY road? — wrote Mayor John Sparks of Tupper Lake, to Assemblyman Glenn Harris, July 1, referring to the building of state Routes 3/30, the road from Saranac Lake to Tupper Lake.

“This project has been in the works, experiencing one delay after another for over two years, the most recent being the absence of approval of the Department of Transportation in Washington.

“Then July 13, there was a car accident on state Route 30 in which two young Boy Scouts were killed, Mayor Sparks wrote again. His letters along with duplicated news articles pertaining to the road and the accidents, have been forwarded by Assemblyman Harris to the Commissioner of the New York Department of Transportation, T.W. Parker; John Volpe, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation; Congressman Robert McEwen, the Governor’s Secretary, Alton Marshall and other officials.”

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Dress factory closes in Saranac Lake

“The North Country Saranac Lake Inc. — better known as the Dress Factory — closed today [July 23, 1970] and its 25 to 30 employees have been offered work in the company’s Tupper Lake plant.

“Norman Halprin, an official of the Helen Whiting , Inc., of which North Country is a subsidiary, said the reasons are that business in general is bad and the inability to produce enough in Saranac Lake with the help available to offset costs.

“He added that the plant would reopen if he could get a total of 65-70 women who would work steadily and that he could use up to 120 women. The main operation here has been sewing.

“The factory here was sponsored by the Saranac Lake Development Corp., and Mr. Halprin said the company intended to pay back 100 per cent any obligations to anyone who ever put a dollar in the business.

“He stressed that if he could get enough help to turn out 1,500 hundred dresses a week he would re-open and bring back those now working in Tupper Lake. This would require about 40 new operators.

“The girls who worked in Saranac Lake ‘were all champions,’ Halprin said, and were paid $2 per hour with paid hospitalization and vacation time.

“The plant opened here in 1961 in what is now The Store [a dance hall located on Bloomingdale Avenue]. In 1963 while employing about 100 it was moved to the former shoe factory building on Broadway.” [Now the location of Kinney Drugs.]

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Bloomingdale firemen avert tragedy

“As a truck load of crushed cars was being hauled from the Car Crush to market yesterday by the George Moore Trucking Company, the topmost car which, unknown to the driver had been smouldering from the use of the acetylene torch, burst into flame. The call came at 4:30 p.m. when the truck was about 6 miles out of Bloomingdale on Route 3 and ten men from the Bloomingdale Fire department sprang into action.

“According to the men, the fire was quickly extinguished, but it could have been tragic if the fire had been allowed to spread to the cab and engine.

“As much as the fire was easily extinguished, the members of the Bloomingdale Fire Department, who are in the midst of a fund drive for the purchase of a 1,000-gallon pumper truck, said they were glad to come to the rescue of so highly a publicized item as the Car Crush fire.

“Speaking for his associates on the fund-raising drive, Jacques DeMattos, Jr., said the $765 has been added to the $7,500 which the fund contained when the 1970 drive was launched this spring. He and James Cronin, Greg Hayes, Harry Starkey, George Morency and Steve Burrell have visited homes and camps, at the end of their work days, in about half of the large territory their department protects and hope to cover it all by the end of the summer. The department needs $21,735 to buy and house the new pumper.”