From the front page of The Adirondack Arrow on January 28, 1932:

EMERGENCY RELIEF

Complying with the requirements of the State Temporary Work Relief Committees who are administering the $20,000,000 Temporary Work Relief Measure, the Town of Webb has its machinery in motion for handling their share of this fund. The Town which takes up this relief measure must first submit their proposals to the Local Emergency Work Bureau at Ilion with Earl J. Timble, chairman. When approved by this committee it is forwarded to the State Board of Emergency Relief at Albany for their approval. In the Town of Webb there are two propositions which call for an outlay of $4,700 and are known as project No. 1, which provides for the clearing of 2,100 feet of highway known as the “Joy Springs Highway” and from this the timber will be felled and cut into stove wood, the stumps removed, the grading done and a corrugated culvert, a concrete culvert and a small plank bridge built at an estimated expense of $4,000. Project 2 is known as the Safford Lake-Clear Pond highway at Lotus. This is the extension of the Rondaxe Road to Clearwater and provides for the rough grading and two small bridges at an estimated expense of $700. Both of these projects have been duly approved by both the Ilion and Albany offices and at the meeting of the Town Board on last Friday a resolution was adopted appropriating the necessary funds for these two projects and appointing the Local Emergency Relief Work Bureau to consist of Maurice Callahan, John A. Given and Louis N. Sperry with Florence A. Wright, Town Welfare Officer Ex-Officio. The same resolution provides for the Welfare Officer to take a census of the unemployed of the Town. It will be the work of the committee to arrange for registration days when the unemployed may register for work and to see that the work, which will be done under the direction of the Town Superintendent of Highways, is equally distributed among those needing work.

NED BALL

It is with the keenest regret that it becomes our work of recording the passing of one of our Central Adirondack boys. Ned Ball, the son of John Edward and Clara Ball, passed on early last Thursday morning at St. Elizabeth’s hospital, Utica, after a brave fight to save his life had been made. For some time he had had attacks of appendicitis but always recovered  from same and on Jan. 7, he underwent an operation for the removal of the troublesome member, his condition did not improve as had been hoped and on last week Wednesday a second operation was undergone and at the time of the Arrow going to press last week Wednesday noon, it was thought he would recover but later he weakened and at three o’clock Thursday morning his spirit took its flight and the sad news of his death became known to his dear ones and many friends. Ned was 26 years old last October and those 26 years a resident of Old Forge. A sunny disposition and a faculty for making and retaining friends made him one of the possible few of whom everyone had nothing but nice things to say and only time can obliterate the sorrow of his loved ones and the community as a whole. He was educated in the Town of Webb Schools and at one time followed the footsteps of his father, who passed away at the old home on the South Shore of Old Forge Lake in 1927, as an experienced and capable guide for hunters and fishermen. Later he was in the employ of Marks & Wilcox and the past season was employed at Army’s Old Forge Garage and during the past summer had charge of the filling station on lower Main Street.  Five years ago he was married to Jeanette Millar (cq) and she with his three brothers, William and Harry, Old Forge, and Edwin, Fairview, N. J., and four sisters, Mrs. Mary Gudbrodt, Rochester; Mrs. Florence Mykel, Old Forge, Mrs. Unese (cq) Williams, Mohawk, and Mrs. Helen Stevens, Rome, are left to mourn the loss of a devoted and affectionate husband and brother. The funeral was held at the Niccolls Memorial Church on last Sunday afternoon at 2 o’clock, the beautiful and impressive burial service of the Masonic Lodge being used, directed by the W. M. E. Albert Brussel, while nearly 100 of his brother Masons attended in a body, thus showing their love for the brother and their sympathy for the bereaved. The members of the Old Forge Fire Department also showed their esteem and sympathy by attending in a body. Frank A. Reed, pastor of Niccolls Memorial Church and Chaplain of the North Woods Lodge, joined with the Masons in the services at the church and cemetery.

Ray Carr of Old Forge kept a bundle of issues of Old Forge’s first

newspaper, The Adirondack Arrow (a weekly), that he found in the attic

of a house he bought on Main Street Old Forge 48 years ago. The papers

date from the 1930s when the economic climate was not unlike today. He

had this idea to share them with readers of the Adirondack Express

through this History & Heritage column, defined his concept,

organized the old issues and pinpointed articles he thought would be of

special interest to readers. So in the weeks ahead, thanks to Ray Carr,

readers will go back in time and see what was news some 80 years ago on

the Fulton Chain of Lakes during The Great Depression.