Fast away the old year passes; hail the new, ye lads and lasses. As we look ahead to a new year, we look back at the year we’re finishing. Concentrating just on Steuben County, here’s my list of what future historians might want to know about.

Jan. 17-Feb. 7 Alana Smith-Brown of Corning is a contestant on the TBS television reality competition series, King of the Nerds. She finished eighth in a field of twelve.

Jan. 24 Painted Post voters reject a proposal to dissolve the village.

Jan. 26 This weekend the Keuka Maid dinner boat (long unused) is dismantled and removed from Hammondsport to Canandaigua.

Jan. 28 Hornell Post Office is renamed for Lance Corporal Zachary D. Smith, killed in action January 24, 2010 in Afghanistan.

Feb. Hammondsport Central School Board of Education accepts a $302,000 bid from Robert Lack of Long Rock LLC for purchase of the 1935 Glenn H. Curtiss Memorial School.

Feb. 25 Steuben County legislature asks the state to repeal the new SAFE gun control law, passed in the aftermath of the December 2012 Sandy Hook School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

Mar. 12 Christian Harris, analyst with NYS Department of Labor, says Chemung-Steuben-Schuyler unemployment rate is 11.2 % — highest since at least 1990. Closure of the Sikorsky Hawk Works in Big Flats, and layoffs at Corning Incorporated, account for many of the local losses.

May 12 A Florida woman fakes an asthma attack so as to be taken to Ira Davenport Hospital in Bath. There she takes advantage of the setting to report that she has been kidnapped and held in sex slavery in Naples, and escapes from her captor. F.B.I. arrests alleged assailant Brandon Todd in July.

May 30 Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post finishes third in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

July James “Deacon” White of Caton is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

July 11 Governor Andrew Cuomo announces results of a state-commissioned study on tourism’s economic impact. Overall 2012 state tourism spending rose 6.2% but the 14-county Finger Lakes region rose only 2%. Steuben County was at the bottom of the region, with a loss of 0.1%.

July 22 David Lee Simpson of Bath is arrested for using Twitter to threaten two television news anchors over their coverage of the Jodi Arias murder trial in Arizona. When arrested he had several weapons and a news clipping about the mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Simpson was indicted July 18 in Arizona. He later stated that he had discarded pipe bombs in a stream near Athens, Pa.

July 27 A tornado touches down in Troupsburg.

July 28 Pleasant Valley Mennonite Church holds its last regular Sunday service. Declining membership leads to the ministry’s being closed.

August Leeann Perkowski of Wayland is named National American Miss New York Pre-Teen.

October The Carder World War I memorial again placed on public view, in the Corning City Hall.

Oct. 29 Recall of Kraft and Polly-O string cheese stops production and lays off 75 workers at Polly-O plant in Campbell.

Nov. 5 Voters approve a proposition to restructure county government — notably, moving from a county administrator to a county manager.

November Frank Burnside of Bath (1888-1935) is inducted into the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame.

November New transportation center opens in Corning.

Nov. 18 Death of Dick Peer, author of the long-running column “Peering Into the Past,” covering area history. Born Corning 1925. Graduate of Campbell Central School 1943. City Editor of the Corning Leader 1961-1972. Managing Editor 1972-1987. Steuben County Hall of Fame 2004.

December Philips closes its plant in Bath.

And in the year’s sunset, we look back on those who’ve left us. This is always challenging, because inevitably you leave people out. But in addition to Dick Peer, we also remember:
*Lee Schwoerer, Curtiss Museum restoration workshop supporter
*Bud (Marcel) Rouin, who painted murals in the Cohocton Farm Museum
*Jack Kinney, publisher of the Steuben Courier and director of the Bath Chamber of Commerce
*Howard Armstrong, pastor of North Urbana Chapel
*Marcia Meade Coon, trustee of Curtiss Museum, officer of Mercury Corporation
*Janice White, Curtiss Museum volunteer
*Hope Hereford, reporter and writer of the Keuka Lake area. Hope attended the four-room Pleasant Valley School, as well as the central school in Hammondsport. As a small child she attended the 1930 interment of Glenn Curtiss… perhaps the last person living to have done so. To Hope, and to each of the others — safe journey.