Headlines through the years

By Times staff report

© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 4, 2001

A look back at the events, people and places that made North Pinellas the unique place that it is. The information is compiled from past editions of the St. Petersburg Times.

Civil Defense plans for county explained

CLEARWATER -- Civil Defense committees meeting here last night were shown how the ground observer system will operate in cooperation with filter centers at Jacksonville and Miami by Defense Director Steven Van Norden.

The county has been divided up on a grid system into five sections with a possible sixth to be divided between Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

Stations in each section when they go into full operation will be manned 24 hours a day with between 40 and 50 persons. In the meantime, they will be operated by the Central Air Command.

Oct. 15, 1948

Citrus cutting machine in works

CLEARWATER -- A market for culled grapefruit from packing houses and below standard fruit on the tree may be found if the cutting machine developed by Seminole grower Ernest Cobb is perfected.

The machine, the product of the ideas of both Cobb and Charles Walker of the Rotary Juice Press, is the only machine of its kind in Florida. Once it's perfected, it stands to open a new field in the fattening of cattle for beef marketing, said John Henry Logan, county agricultural agent.

Too much waste has been experienced in the past with the dumping of whole fruit in the field for cattle to graze on. With this machine in operation, only enough fruit will be cut to feed the livestock and the waste will be eliminated.

Nov. 7, 1951

Dunedin merchants vote on traffic plan

DUNEDIN -- Traffic hazards on Main Street will be alleviated on this narrow thoroughfare to some extent by the decision at the Merchants Association meeting Monday night to have parallel parking zones on the south side of the street widened and placed at a less defined angle.

The majority of the merchants agreed that horizontal parking in effect on the north side of Main Street is not feasible on the south side, where most businesses are located.

Oct. 25, 1974

Tarpon police leaflets urge talks

TARPON SPRINGS -- Irked by delays in the start of labor contract negotiations, Tarpon Springs policemen who are members of the Pinellas County Police Benevolent Association (PBA) have begun passing out leaflets urging citizens to help in getting talks started.

Assistant City Manager Charles Barnes said that the talks have been delayed until after they finish talking with the firefighters. The city has been negotiating with the firemen since last month.

The leaflet that PBA members began passing out Thursday claims that the police have tried talking with City Manager Earl Andersen about low pay and poor working conditions since May, to no avail.

"Mr. Andersen and members of the City Commission have stalled, stalled, stalled," the leaflet proclaims.

-- Julie Church compiles the history column. She can be reached at (727) 445-4229 or church@sptimes.com.

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