By KayLynn Roberts-McMurray
Fifty years ago, the city council had quite a list of items on their agenda 
that we thought you might find both interesting and a great reflection of how things used to be in December of 1966.
The city council was faced with several items on their agenda that included a request from bar owners for a equitable licensing arrangement by a request for extra store patrolmen from merchants during the holidays. Local merchants were advised by the council that police patrolmen would be checking stores on a non-scheduled spot check during the day to help keep down shoplifting as well as checking doors after hours as usual.
Members of the White Pine Bar Owners Association through Ray Priest, requested the council to revise the ordinance governing license fees for establishments selling liquor, on the grounds that bars now paid the highest fees, more than grocery stores, drug stores and service stations which also sold liquor.
The City Council was attempting to create recreational facilities for the youth. They were met with considerable frustration though according to councilman, Joaquin Gomez who told the council that the efforts of the city fathers to provide skating rinks as recreational facilities for the youth of the community was with great defeat, largely due to the hands of the youth themselves, who have, and are, misusing the ponds by breaking the ice before it firms up, throwing rocks on the surface and using one are for the terminal of a hillside coasting slide.
And if you were looking to do some Christmas shopping, you could hit Western Auto, one of the local stores that was here back then.
Don’t understand why you can do a story on what the City Council was doing 50 years ago but you can’t write about what the City Council is doing in 2016?
My father bought my first bike from Walkers Western Auto Store. 1947,
Lucille Smith Meyers
Where Sportsworld is now located, I understand it once was the roller skating rink. Why was it taken from the kids and even adults? Why wasn’t another location established for the sporting store?
Because a skating ring made no money, no money no rink.
Sounds like you haven’t been in WP long enough to remember The Standard Market. That property was always meant for retail. I’m sure that there are other (maybe more) appropriate places for children to knock their front teeth out and experience multiple concussions – like the old armory – which served as… wait for it… a roller-skating rink in the early 80’s.
In the meantime, the Sportsworld serves the community in a myriad of other ways, including through tax revenue – which eventually helps… wait for it… the children.
So I think the real question you should be asking is ‘why wasn’t another location established for the roller-skating rink’, as opposed to expecting the property owners to sacrifice a viable retail space for such a (liability prone, injury related) activity.
When one actually experiences running/owning a business or real estate, one often gains the knowledge that reveals such well-intended questions as frankly a bit naïve.