Twenty years ago — 1999

The acquisition of Conrail by the CSX and Norfolk Southern railroad companies looks to increase train traffic in the local area. Expected traffic increases could rattle windows, block highways and interrupt sleep for people living near the railroad tracks. Businesses, however, could benefit from the increased traffic and rail competition. Safety remains a huge concern, involving the tracks through Dunkirk’s Fourth Ward and the Sunset and Hanover Bay railroad crossings.

Thirty years ago — 1989

A meeting of all employees of CPS Inc. is being called today to inform them of sharp cutbacks in the company’s operations in Dunkirk. Among them is a reduction in force over the next several months which could run to more than 20 percent of the present payroll of about 214 people. The cutbacks may in part be the result of the purchase of CPS’s parent company, Greater Buffalo Press Inc. by Sullivan Graphics Inc. of Greenwich, Conn., and Nashville, Tenn. The cutbacks are also in part the result of the heavy debt — said to be upwards of $350 million — that Sullivan Graphics assumed in order to buy Greater Buffalo Press (which in Dunkirk also includes Great Lakes Printing) from the Koessler family last April.

Forty years ago — 1979

Funeral services were held recently for former Dunkirk High School Athletic Director Angelo J. Pagano of 32 Albany Ave., Dunkirk who died June 24 at Erie County Medical Center. He was 71. A retired teacher in the Dunkirk Public School System, Mr. Pagano was supervisor of physical education and athletic director at both Dunkirk High and the Industrial High School. He served as a coach at Dunkirk High School and as a basketball and football coach at Industrial High for many years.

Fifty years ago — 1969

Neal Rzepkowski of Dunkirk, an American Field Service student in France, has written a letter to the Dunkirk High School faculty and staff noting the closing of another school year and his impending return to Dunkirk. “For the first time I saw American through the eyes of another country and nationality,” he wrote. “The most interesting element of France is her people,” he continued. “This year was an education no school could give … the education of experience.”