25 Years Ago: Cromwell High School senior Michael J. McCorkle was awarded a $2,000 National Merit Scholarship.

25 Years Ago: From a pool of 33 applicants, Katharine R. Bishop was chosen to assume principalship of Teresa A. Mulvey and Daisy Ingraham elementary schools in Westbrook.

25 Years Ago: The Middlefield Board of Finance unveiled its preliminary budget proposal totaling $4,263,947, which could've potentially boosted the municipal tax rate 3.076 mills to 31.08 mills if adopted.
25 Years Ago: A unanimous conclusion of suggesting that Cromwell build an indoor swimming pool at the middle school, came about after the Swimming Pool Study Committee considered possible sites in town and visited others communities that had municipal pools.

25 Years Ago: Live broadcasts of school board meetings was not allowed by the Old Saybrook Board of Education unless it received a written request for such broadcast at least three days before the meeting. The three-day notice requirement did not apply to taped recordings of school board meetings by television, radio or other news media reporters, and it did not grow out of any particular incident involving coverage of meetings, members said.
25 Years Ago: A state police investigation into an accident on Route 17 in Durham that claimed the life of a 14-year-old Clinton boy was completed.

25 Years Ago: Cromwell Board of Finance cut $70,137 from the proposed $1.7 million school budget and chastised school officials for their handling of the year’s projected deficit.
25 Years Ago: East Hampton Board of Finance took the bull by the horns and went to the aid of local taxpayers as it cut a proposed mill rate increase of 7.11 mills to one of 1.98 mills in the budget for 1987-88.

25 Years Ago: The Old Saybrook Democratic Town Committee passed a unanimous resolution which refused to accept the resignation of Donald R. Chapman as chairman and member.

25 Years Ago: The Durham Volunteer Fire Department shopped for a new 2,000 gallon tank truck following a public meeting.

25 Years Ago: Taxes for the Cromwell Fire District had a possibility of going up 1.09 mills, if the annual town meeting approved the proposed budget for fiscal year 1987-88.

25 Years Ago: The face of change was seen in the Durham budget proposal brought before the townspeople at a public hearing. The positions of tax collector and town clerk, once regarded as “nice little part-time jobs” required a great deal of professionalism to deal with a growing list of responsibilities assigned by national, state and local statutory requirements—and salaries to match.

25 Years Ago: An Old Saybrook homeowner said he couldn’t say enough good things about his neighbors and members of the fire department who pitched in to help save his seven-room cape from complete destruction.

25 Years Ago: Cromwell’s superintendent put a freeze on all but emergency spending, but he didn’t expect that would do much to improve the $90,000 deficit anticipated for the upcoming year.

25 Years Ago: An 18-year-old Middletown woman, who police said was murdered, was apparently beaten to death, according to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office. A spokesperson said the report did not state what type of weapon might have been used or at precisely what time Michelle King of 1136 Randolph Road died of her injuries.
25 Years Ago: Deep River resident Virginia Buracchi held a high position with the Connecticut chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and her husband Oscar worked at Pratt & Whitney as an engineer. Instead of retiring into a nice, quiet retirement after dedicating years to work and raising four children, they spent at least one evening a week kicking up their heels to disco and the once popular Peabody.

25 Years Ago: Portland Board of Selectmen put $12,000 in the 1987-88 proposed budget to hire a full-time town planner six months into the year.
25 Years Ago: The most vocal majority of a 100-member audience at a public hearing urged the Old Saybrook Board of Finance to restore some of the nearly$204,000 in cuts it targeted in education spending for the following fiscal year.

25 Years Ago: The Continuing School Building Committee had to go out to bid again on a project to bring three of Clinton’s schools into compliance with the state fire code because one bid received $1.3 million over estimate.
25 Years Ago: Clinton’s town engineer recommended that the Board of Selectmen revoke a local commercial trash hauler’s permit permanently.

25 Years Ago: Whisper Winds, Middlefield’s largest subdivision, was ravaged by the weather. Melting snow and rain washed the tons of soil down a slope where it threatened a wetland area despite erosion and siltation precautions taken by the developer.

25 Years Ago: The Killingworth Planning and Zoning Commission denied a proposed 13-lot Madison Associates resubdivision on Chestnut Hill Road.

25 Years Ago: A treatment center for adults at Elmcrest Psychiatric Institute in Portland planned to lead to a new program for chemically dependent youths.

25 Years Ago: The Old Saybrook Police Commission scheduled a special meeting to discuss a controversial case that involved Susan Marland, who was arrested for breach of peace and who complained to state justice officials that her civil rights were violated while in police custody. The U.S. Department of Justice ruled that there were no grounds to prosecute the town’s police for their conduct during the arrest.

25 Years Ago: In September 1985, Hurricane Gloria swept through its walls and caused the south end and part of the roof to collapse. But a year and a half later, the old barn on Route 145 received most of its exterior facelift and appeared almost as it did when Dr. Arthur Scheld’s father brought it in 1906. Scheld was a local veterinarian who built the Clinton Veterinary Hospital just behind the barn on his property in 1965.

25 Years Ago: The Regional District 17 Board of Education planned to present a proposed $11,188,620 district education budget for 1987-88 at the annual budget hearing at the Haddam-Killingworth High School auditorium.

25 Years Ago: Cromwell’s Planning and Zoning Commission considered regulations to clarify which day care operations required local approvals.

25 Years Ago: The fate of Leonard Lieberman’s plans to construct a life care facility in Chester tailored for the elderly was yet to be decided. After a continuation of a public hearing, the Planning and Zoning Commission postponed making a decision on the application for a special exception.

25 Years Ago: Clinton school officials said they expected several construction bids for the project which planned to bring three of the town’s schools into compliance with the state fire code.
25 Years Ago: The sale of the Shoreline Washed Sand and Stone Inc. property on Green Hill Road highlighted a busy March for property transfers in Killingworth.