10 years ago — May 2, 1980

As reported in the Bangor Daily News

The making over of French Island into what is hoped to be an attractive residential area in the middle of the Penobscot River in Old Town is scheduled to begin in earnest this summer with the aid of a $1.2 million federal grant.

The Hermon Town Council met Wednesday to review the 1980-81 school budget, but declined to accept or reject it until a later date when action is taken on the town budget as a whole. The balanced school budget calls for expenditures totaling $1,758,771.

25 years ago — May 2, 1965

Smoke fanned by high winds hampered firemen from four towns and Dow Air Force Base in fighting a blaze that destroyed the old Page Farm on the Coldbrook Road in Hermon on Sunday. A grandmother, with six grandchildren, five puppies and a horse, escaped safely. Two families were left homeless, and a neighbor’s house and a church across the road were damaged.

Sixteen Husson College students, the majority of them a few pounds lighter and many blisters heavier, trooped wearily into Bangor Sunday evening to cap a marathon, 180-mile basketball dribble from Kittery to Bangor. The journey was aimed at publicizing the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library fund.

50 years ago — May 2, 1940

An expected legislative attempt to force State Treasurer Belmont Smith of Bangor to vacate office as a result of Maine’s current financial tangle was seen as the springboard by which the Legislature, when it meets in special session, would launch its sweeping investigation of the state’s ailing financial structure.

A freak combination of unusual circumstances united to creat considerable excitement Wednesday noon at the Hathorn filling station on Washington Street when a motorist, believing that his gasoline tank had been filled, drove away before attendants could remove the hose from the tank opening. The tank crashed to the ground and burst into flames as the long hose was towed away by the motorist.