Summaries of local news stories from the pages of the Intelligencer Journal and Lancaster New Era appear in this space each Monday. They are researched and compiled by staff member Tim Buckwalter. Full versions are available on microfilm at Lancaster Public Library, 125 N. Duke St.

25 years ago

AIRPORT PLAN: Lancaster Airport officials were drafting a $19.8 million, 20-year expansion plan that focused on enhancing the airport's role as a commuter or feeder facility. It called for 45 projects, including a new general aviation area north of the runways, lengthening both runways and expanding the terminal building. In drafting the new plan, officials discarded a 1977 plan that they described as more fantasy than fact. That plan, which forecast massive growth, called for enlarging the local airport into a hub facility. The 1980s had brought only modest gains for the airport. (July 17, 1985)

REAGAN'S SURGEON: Navy Capt. Dale W. Oller, a Lancaster County native and head of surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital, successfully removed a cancerous tumor from President Ronald Reagan's colon. "It was a great responsibility — and an honor," Oller, a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, said in a later interview. The president recovered. (July 13 and 14, Aug. 16, 1985)

MOLE POPULATION: An increase in the mole population was reported by many observers in Lancaster County. The moles' tunneling was causing brown grass and wilted flowers. A local farm agent speculated that the population increase could be related to a rise in the number of Japanese beetle grubs that moles liked to eat. (July 18, 1985)

50 years ago

BACKING JFK: Democratic National Convention delegates from Lancaster and Chester counties voted 3-1 for John F. Kennedy as the Massachusetts senator won the Democratic nomination for president in Los Angeles. One local delegate voted for Adlai Stevenson II. Convention delegate and Kennedy supporter George C. Winterling of Lancaster said of the nominee: "He is gifted with rare intelligence and has a comprehensive picture of the foreign and domestic situation which I am sure will be resolved to the satisfaction of all Americans. Mr. Kennedy is a wise choice, and I am justifiably proud of having had the opportunity of voting for him." (July 14, 1960)

POOL SEGREGATION: Two black residents of Lancaster asked Lancaster County Court to issue an injunction against alleged racial discrimination at the Rocky Springs Park swimming pool. (July 15, 1960) (Note: The court eventually ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, but the pool closed in 1966 without ever being integrated.)

GOLF DEAN DIES: Arthur B. "Abe" Thorn, dean of Lancaster County's golf professionals, died at age 68. A professional at Lancaster Country Club for 26 years, Thorn was one of the most popular golfers ever to grace the local scene. (July 18, 1960)

75 years ago

BEETLE PATROL: Boys and girls attending the Buchanan Park Playground program were offered prizes for collecting Japanese beetles. One industrious boy collected an entire pint of beetles before noon on the first day. (July 13 and 15, 1935)

TROLLEY PANIC: Three separate investigations were launched into the death of a 6-year-old boy and the injury of six girls when a shower of sparks from a trolley control box threw 20 passengers into panic on an open trolley car on Chestnut Street, between Charlotte Street and Lancaster Avenue, on a Sunday afternoon. Authorities said the boy was killed and the girls injured when they jumped blindly or were pushed from the car as the crowd fought to reach safety. The boy landed on his head and died of a fractured skull. The trolley had been bound for Maple Grove Park. (July 15, 1935)

SAFE ROBBERS: Nighttime robbers used nitroglycerin to blow open a safe at the office of Manheim Milling Co. on South Pitt Street in the borough. They escaped with $19 in cash. It was the area's fourth safe robbery in 12 days. (July 18, 1935)

100 years ago

MOVIE BAN: Lancaster Mayor Frank McClain banned the showing of motion pictures depicting "pocket picking, burglary, safe cracking, highway robbery and murderous assaults." As justification, McClain cited the recent holdup of a Pittsburgh streetcar and the fatal wounding of a police lieutenant who tried to stop the robbery. McClain noted that after their arrests, the suspects said they had been inspired by a Western train robbery in a Pittsburgh moving-picture show the afternoon before. (July 12, 1910)

TRAIN CRASH: Two Pennsylvania Railroad employees were killed and two others injured when their train left the tracks on Baker's curve, east of Marietta. The crew members were taking an engine and tender from Harrisburg to Columbia, where they were to pick up a trainload of National Guardsmen and transport them to Philadelphia. Various reports from Marietta estimated the engine's speed at 50 mph to 80 mph as it passed through that town. (July 18, 1910)