Bound Volumes, Hometown History

March 12, 2026

110 YEARS AGO

The Price of Gasoline—With the price of gasoline advanced within the week and now retailing at 28 cents in this city the subject is becoming one of much interest to both present and prospective users of cars and the one question heard is, “What will be the price in midsummer?” Dealers quite uniformly are at sea and declare that they are unable to learn anything about the future price. The only assurance they can secure is that their needs will be supplied—provided always they are regular patrons of either the Standard or the Tiona companies, the only two companies doing business in this section. The companies are unwilling and have been for some time to give a price for even ten days ahead. The user of 300 or 400 gallons of gas may pay say ten cents more per gallon than he paid during the past five years on the average. Most of them are getting more miles on the gallon, and even if not so, the increased cost will be only $30 or $40 for the season.

March 1916

90 YEARS AGO

Robert Edmond Jones, film director, predicted today that within 20 years a combination of television and three-dimension photography will revolutionize not only entertainment, but commercial operations and scientific study as well. Looking ahead to 1956 he said he foresees: Movie stars performing right in the living rooms of millions of American homes; Department stores featuring the equivalent of “Kinetoscope peep shows” in lieu of mannequins to exhibit new fashions shown thousands of miles away; and physicians sitting in their offices watching major operations being performed in other countries. “It will be done by a combination of television and three-dimensional movies,” Jones said. “And, if it sounds fabulous, I can only say that it will be developed more easily and more quickly than were the airplane and the submarine.”

March 1936

50 YEARS AGO

Oneonta schools face drastic cuts in personnel, academic programs and services for 1976-1977, School Superintendent Dr. Frederick Bardsley told more than 50 people at the Greater Plains PTO meeting last night. A reduction of $1,012,048 in next year’s budget will be required because the Oneonta School District can no longer exclude pensions, social security, health insurance and some other items when computing taxes under the constitutional tax limit. Oneonta has been excluding such costs for more than six years under emergency legislation. But an amendment to the state constitution to allow the exclusions to be continued was defeated at the polls last fall. Also, based on the proposed state budget, the district can expect $100,000 less in state aid than had been anticipated this year, Dr. Bardsley reported. Since the school district is already at its constitutional tax limit of 1.50 percent on the five-year average full valuation of taxable real estate, total revenue from taxes cannot be increased substantially without a referendum.

March 1976

30 YEARS AGO

The games, festivities and a talent show are on for downtown Main Street in Oneonta on Saturday. Previously advertised as downtown’s first Main Street Winterfest, the program has been rescheduled from two weeks ago after rainy weather predominated. Now the event is a “go,” snow or not—and could be subtitled “Pre-Spring, Main Street Fling,” according to Mark Drnek, event coordinator. Main Street downtown will be closed to traffic from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. A charity softball tournament is planned for Neahwa Park and a talent show for local residents is being organized by the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts.

March 1996