SOMETHING TO CHEER ABOUT!

IT'S OFFICIAL!

The Waterville Central School Marching Band will perform the National Anthem at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio, at the opening of the July 5th game between the Cleveland Indians and the NEW YORK YANKEES!

(Details to follow!)

Graduation Day!

If you could have seen - or perhaps you did! - the hundreds of cars at the high school, filling every parkinglot and lining the roadway all the way to Madison Street, you'd understand why the rest of the village seemed to have been abandoned. A few lawnmowers were in use; here and there a four-footed friend had his person out for a walk on a leash, and there were only eight cars in the Foodking parkinglot.



At the Fire House, an engine was being polished;




a few youngsters came careening up to the new bike rack at the library and raced inside,










and a thoughtful lady deadheaded bloom on one of the Garden Club "tubs."















Outside the village, everything was equally quiet save for a family of Canada Geese who were excitedly exploring the field across Madison Street from their home on the pond behind Scott Moon's.

It's sunny, but hazy and, obviously, we're feeling lazy! There are a number of productive activities that could be undertaken but - on the other hand - it's Saturday! And isn't "lazy" what Saturdays are all about?

homeinthehuddle@aol.com

Friday wrap-up

Some of the final pieces of curbing were set in place on Madison Street and, although it's really hard to tell what's going on because of traffic constraints, it appeared that concrete was being poured into the curbing ditches. (I'm sure that there's a more-correct name for them, but "ditches" seems to work!)




On Sanger Avenue, where scraping and grading continued and more adjustments were made to driveway ramps (another non-technical but descriptive word) residents were getting tired of the noise and dust and lack of reliable driveway access. At least the row of stakes that had been placed in the center of the road this morning have been removed and drivers can now make very wide turns in hope of creeping safely over the curbstones without hearing any screams from the undercarriages of their vehicles.







One-lane traffic slowed, dust billowed, it was hot. But many, many motorists have said that at times when they were the most frustrated the smiles of the flag girls made them feel better!












And out at Dairy Creme, there were smiles everywhere! At least two schoolbus drivers took their young passengers for an annual, last-day-of-school treat!


Email: homeinthehuddle@aol.com

Ooops!

That was a close one! In the process of learning how to "link" to Gary Tuttle's new website, I managed to completely erase-demolish-permanently destroy the previous posting. It looked just like this one, I think, but was called - reasonably enough, "Friday Morning."

67 F. and the AccuWeather forecast calls for a cloudy morning; variably cloudy this afternoon with a thunderstorm possible, and partly cloudy tonight with thunderstorms possible.

The mixed precipitation that WKTV had forecast yesterday morning never developed and, by mid-afternoon lawns had dried and I could hear lawnmowers humming in all directions!


Gary Tuttle has sent the URL for a website that he's created: "No Power Line" In it, he follows the Railway line right through our area, stopping frequently to photograph buildings that would be impacted by the proposed power line. I found it very interesting and think that many others will, too! (If the "link" doesn't work, try this: http://www.nopowerline.com/index.html.)
Select the viewpoint (thumbtack) that you want to see, go to the upper right- or left-hand corner of the page and click on the matching "section," and then pick out precise photo locations! Thank you, Gary!

And here's another original "creation" -- Mr. Philip Eastman's 2-D rendering of the proposed Memorial Bandstand.



Last Saturday, the Bandstand's original "designers," Park-view property owners and members of the Parks Commission had a chance to see a 3-D display that Philip had created: unfortunately, we don't have the technology to insert that here, so give you the next best view! This was shown to the members of the Waterville Historical Society on Wednesday evening and received enthusiastic applause.

The final plans for the structure were prepared by T. Karram Design & Construction Consultants of Waterville from sketches submitted by the following "designers:" Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Falk, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Sambora, Ms. Susannah Quayle, Mr. Donald Brown, Ms. Jennifer Dobmeier Dapson, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Youngs, Mr. Louis Langone, Ms. Jean B. Davis and Ms. Wendy Sexton along with committee members Mabel Bushee, Dale Meszler and Philippa Brown.

It was their original assignment to design a bandstand that would look as if it had been built in the late 1800s, during Waterville's golden age as "Hop Capital of the World," but that could be constructed of contemporary materials that would be far more resistant to damage and need much less upkeep than wood. It is the Committee's intent to initiate a major Fund-raising campaign in the Autumn - once the two-year, $5,000,000.00 Highway Reconstruction Project is finished - and see the structure built next Summer in celebration of the completion of this major "stepping-stone" in Waterville's history.

--

Elsewhere.....

The grounds at the high school are immaculately trimmed and groomed, all in readiness for Commencement Exercises on Saturday.




Landscaping has begun at the new Waterville Public Library;



preparations are under way for the installation of several new pieces of children's playground equipment at Babbott Field,

it looks as if all of the curbing installation on Sanger Avenue will have been completed by the weekend, and



TIOGA seems to be filling in the last of the basement hatchways along N. Main St. so that PERHAPS that portion of sidewalk can be paved fairly soon.


While you're enjoying the smooth ride, look for the roses blooming right next to the sidewalk where Main Street crosses Big Creek!

Thursday morning

NEWS Channel 2 Forecast:
Today: 66 F. Hazy sun and humid with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Thunderstorms may contain gusty winds, heavy downpours and small hail. High in the mid 80's.

Just a small shower, early - barely a sprinkling, but enough to keep the dust down out on Sanger Avenue.



There's almost no activity in the middle of the village and it is so pleasant to be able - after so long - to drive along Main Street with nary a bump except for small "lips" where new pavement meets old. The entrance and exit at Green Acres are just as clear - no more need to take round-about detours or follow the "scenic route" to get to the Post Office!

Out on Sanger Avenue, however, it's a different story: the southbound lane is currently closed, with curbing installation having nearly reached Dairy Creme and pre-paving prep-work, smoothing and rolling, in progress. (If they work so hard to get it smooth, today, what shape with that base be in by Monday?)




- and will all of the temporary driveway "ramps" hold up?




(to be continued.)

Homeinthehuddle@aol.com

They said "Thank You!"

Up until noontime there were hardly any of the familiar red TIOGA trucks or orange-hatted crew members to be seen, anywhere on Main Street, but at 12:00 on the dot they all converged at the Presbyterian Church where, in the basement, the parishioners of the Southgate Ministries served all the construction workers and the Village crew, as well, a barbequed chicken dinner complete with baked beans, macaroni salad and home-made brownies for dessert --- all to say "Thank You!" for all the work they're doing for Waterville.

Nancy Ayala, Sharon Smith and Connie Ayala serve up Aladio's famous barbequed chicken 'n fixing's to Tioga and Village crew.



Dan Kentile, D.O.T. Engineer in Charge, said that it was the first time that anyone had done such a fine thing for all of them and that, from now on, in other communties, he'll be saying, "Well, now - in WATERVILLE they gave us a great chicken barbeque!" Let them try to top that!

Wednesday, 10:00 A.M.

Main Street was empty - and quiet! Just a flurry of activity in the stretch between the Barton Medical Center and the former Agway gas station lot where pavers are being laid and, for some unknown reason, a bit of the brand new "black top" right next to the curbing was being removed.

Further out on Sanger Avenue, driveway "ramps" are being created and both lanes of the highway appear to be receiving a scraping and smoothing - possibly in preparation for application of paving material.
(to be continued.)
Email: Homeinthehuddle@aol.com

It's SUMMER!

NEWS Channel 2 Forecast for WEDNESDAY.
Today: Plenty of sun. High 80.
Tonight: Increasing clouds with thunderstorms after midnight. Low in the low 60.

Is this a Traffic Forecast for this afternoon?




At a few minutes past four o'clock, yesterday, southbound traffic was backed up from the "Times" office to the "Schoolhouse" apartments. Northbound traffic on Sanger Avenue was in an equally frustrating holding pattern.


The cause seemed - 'tho it IS hard to tell exactly what's going on because once you have a chance to move, you still have to keep watching for red flags indicating lane changes or "Stop!" - to stem from the number of pieces of paving equipment all doing what they're supposed to do to effect the application and smoothing of asphalt. The trouble was, they were doing that 1., at the top of Buell Avenue, 2. on White Street, 3. and along both north and southbound parking lanes on Main Street! It all would have been fun to watch from a stationary position. I think that I'll take my camera to the front windows of Totally-U and Mac's Diner, today!

Around Town - Tuesday afternoon

Curbing installation is moving southward at a good pace, today, and it appears that as far south as the Lew residence people may have "driveways" by evening although the Meszler family may not be as fortunate.



Back on the East side of the Village, Nancy Eastman, the sexton of St. Bernard's Catholic Church, was making repairs to the front steps of the building.







On West Bacon Street, Joe Burnett and friend are giving the former Jannone house a complete facelift,





and on Stafford Avenue, someone is doing a wonderful job of painting the intricate Victorian "gingerbread" on this house a very pretty "robin's egg blue."

Social Notes

Mrs. Jim Crandall (Sylvia, to most of us) was in Foodking, yesterday, happily describing the latest of the Langone-Crandall family weddings as "just beautiful" and the reception as "elegant!" On June 3rd, "Roc" and Crystal's son, Ryan, was married at Hart's Hill Inn in Utica and, this past weekend, their daughter, Mary, was married in New Jersey! Lou and Shirlee Langone and many members of their family were there, as well.

Mr. John Peterson wrote that he and Elaine had returned from a trip to North Carolina to attend the wedding of their son, John, whose bride, Rina, is a native of Indonesia. The ceremony had taken place in an old Baptist church and guests had come from as far away as Brisbane, Australia, and Bali as well as from Sydney and Chatauqua, New York. The Peterson's son Dan, who lives 35 miles no on the edge of Jacksonville, N.C. left last week for four months’ work in Bahrain with the civilian defense contractor by whom he is employed. The senior Petersons enjoyed the entire trip despite the fact that John fell (we don’t know how!) and broke his wrist just before the wedding! His pride, he says, hurt as badly as did the break!

We take this opportunity to convey Belated Best Wishes to Mrs. Richmond! Her birthday always falls at about the same time as the Annual Women’s Club Tea, which took place on the 3rd. That event was, of course, a perfectly delightful occasion which was attended by many and missed only by those foolish enough to be away on a vacation or unfortunately incapacitated by illness.

Mrs. Bancroft of Sanger Avenue also celebrated her birthday, recently, (#50, we’re told) in a manner which SHE, certainly, was not expecting. Her daughter, Stephanie, is credited with some delightfully devious and very complex planning and the sixty or so friends and relatives - who were all in cahoots with her - must be applauded for their unexpected ability to really keep a secret so that the Birthday Party in the parish hall of Grace Episcopal Church really was an absolute, total and completely successful "Surprise!"

A NEWS NOTE: Of Interest to many.
The Marshall Township Board of Appeals meeting to discuss a variance for MKG to run motosports racing will take place tonight. The basic item is "noise" - and we suspect that it will begin when the meeting starts at 7:00.

"Waterville...Under Construction"

That's the big, front-page headline of today's Utica Observer-Dispatch,
And there's a long article to go with it!

60 degrees F. at 6:00 A.M. and Today's NEWS Channel 2 Forecast calls for: Sun and clouds with a shower or two possible, especially around midday. High in the mid 70's. Tonight: Mostly clear. Low 50-55. (Lovely!)

Highway work should be able to proceed, uninterrupted, today. Curbing installation on Madison Street and Park Place seems nearly finished. Residents whose driveways have been steel bridges over the curbing ditch will be enormously pleased to have real pavement there, again. Similarly, some property-owners out on Sanger Avenue have been waiting for several days for their curbing ditch to be filled in: 'tho politely warned in advance by TIOGA that they would need to park their vehicles in across-the-road neighbors' driveways, little consideration was given as to exactly how they, themselves, should cross the ditch to reach said vehicles! Surely a plank or two, here or there, would be helpful?

And - in re: the new granite curbing - it's more than just sharp-looking! It IS sharp! Every few days another motorist, no doubt unused to the new configuration of "bulb-outs" or "bump-outs" on Main Street, misjudges distance by an inch or two and discovers either immediately (or, in some instances, an embarrassingly extended period of time later) that they have a very flat tire.

Had the spell of hot weather continued, we had thought of having Ms. Lynn Curtis give a detailed accounting of her recent trip to ALASKA with her friend, "Bodie" McCaffrey, but descriptions of glaciers and ice bergs will no doubt make more refreshing reading on another day. We also expect to hear all about someone else's travels in ICELAND, before the Summer's gone.

Those unable to leave town, at the present time, are encouraged to visit The Home Shoppe, in Green Acres Plaza, where a lovely "Cabin in the Adirondacks" awaits!

You might also be entertained, Wednesday evening, by attending the Waterville Historical Society's program at 7:30. Dick and Flip (Richard and Philippa) Brown have packed their laptop computers with just about ALL of the Society's vintage photographs and a great number of pertinent writings. They have also assembled some NEW old photographs: several pictures of the Sanger Mansion taken in 1950 and contributed by Anne Jasek.


Also new, the photographs contained in a 1908 "Souvenir of Waterville" album that appeared on E-bay a few months ago and started a village-wide search for the "mystery house" - courtesy Mr. and Mrs. Frank Carentz, who live there now. Because it became known that the house had been moved, and knowing that it was a common occurance, the Browns took pictures of a few others that are not where they were built.



Where is this house, now?

AccuWeather was Accu-right: announced by two claps of thunder that did more than merely get our attention, rain began in the early afternoon and has continued for several hours. Not a drenching rain, however - none of the front-lawn wheat fields down toward Sangerfield were damaged nor was curbing installation halted on Madison Street and Park Place - and the temperature has dropped from the eighties to a pleasantly tolerable seventy degrees - quite chilly in comparison to yesterday.

In mentioning that mini heatwave to one of our more senior citizens, this morning, he calmly said that he had played golf later in the afternoon, and enjoyed himself, completely! That either says something about golfers or - more likely - about those who have seen ninety or more summers and are more accepting of any such seasonal discomforts!

It had been the writer's intention to save all Social Notes until after the Wednesday publication of the Waterville Times so as not to scoop the social column contained therein, but - because there really are a great many Watervillians who do not spend day after day looking at orange and white barrels and actually do go traveling to other cities, other states and - even - other countries, that we shall start working news of their recent experiences into this chronicle starting tomorrow morning.

The AccuWeather Forecast: 73 degrees at 6:30 A.M. warming to the high eighties with rain forecast for later in the morning and a high probability of thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening.

The New York State Department of Transportation "forecast:" Town of Sangerfield and Village of Waterville: Reconstruction of Route 12 continues. Mainline paving operations continue within the Village, from Tower Street and proceeding toward the CVS Pharmacy. Traffic may encounter a gravel surface between Madison Street and the CVS Pharmacy as paving progresses. Under drain, curb and block paver installation, and roadside grading for sidewalks and driveways will continue in this area. Intermittent lane closures controlled by flag persons may be encountered throughout the project. Minimal traffic delays.

AND - from the junction of Routes 12 and 20, in Sangerfield, going westward for a quarter-mile or so, work is in progress preparatory to the resurfacing of Route 20 in that area. This is no doubt planned to effect repair of the many potholes beneath the railway overpass. (Thank you!)

ALSO - preparataions are under way at the high school football stadium for the removal of natural turf and installation of "Astroturf." Additional construction, confined to the high school building itself, will start as soon a summer recess begins.



Village Board Meeting at 7:00 this evening.

96.1 in the Shade!

What DO you do when it's this hot?




Well - remembering that one day, just about six months ago when the temperature was 100 degrees colder (or even more!) than today and we all swore that when Summer came we'd never complain - no matter HOW HOT it got - so, we simply smile, slow down, and enjoy it!



Please note that the writer never takes a photograph without specific permission* nor will a child's name ever be printed unless a parent requests it!

*About the cow. When I asked if I could take her picture, she just flicked her tail at me and kept on posing: I guess that meant "Yes!"

Do feel free to write to The Writer at: homeinthehuddle@aol.com

Thank You.

Father's Day

The day started out at a very pleasant 64 degrees, but is climbing right up toward the 94-degree forecast. Father's Day traditions determine early activities - breakfast out (Mom treats!) followed by the annual
visit to see the Showy Lady-Slippers; not to pick or dig, but just to make sure they're where they've been every year for the past 38, and to smile in amazement either that they ARE there or that we remembered when and where to look, and we take the same pictures of them that we've taken so very many times before.
There was a time, we've been told, that these wild orchids grew in such abundance that a Mr. Humphrey (or Humphreys,) the custodian at the Stafford Avenue School back in the 1950's, always picked two armload bouquets to place on either side of the Eastman Auditorium stage for Graduation Ceremonies.


Right next to the slipper, we see a wild strawberry - bright red - and remember that, for some, Father's Day means going to Savicki's to pick cultivated berries out in the sunny field, getting home in time to wash off dust and berry juice and then go to church. For many, we suspect, this particular 90+degree Father's Day will mean spending the afternoon either out in a boat or cool in a pool!

How Strange!

Saturday was one of the lazy, hazy days of Summer that began with early rain and then simply turned steamy.

It was already hot when we first drove "uptown," at around nine: hot and quiet! Main Street was almost completely deserted! The orange and white barrels and pylons were still in place along the sides of the road, but there was no familiar flagman telling me when it was safe to proceed or pointing me to the lane I should follow; a few cars were already parked behind Mac's Diner, in front of Morgan's Hardware and up near the Post Office. A bicyclist sped past and an elderly man slowly crossed the street. It was almost too static, too quiet. It was almost ... normal!



Daring to proceed without the discipline of weekday prompting, we pulled cautiously onto Main Street, turned right and cruised slowly 'round the Park and back through the center of the village. Two, three cars moving slowly, smoothly, quietly. How strange!



Around the "triangle" and back along Main Street. Is this how it will look three months from now? Add in trees and Victorian lamp posts, a few more cars, bikes and people ----- it's a nice picture!

But before the image of the sleepy little village makes everyone drowsy, here are some of the things that REALLY went on, yesterday! The Memorial Bandstand Committee showed off Toby Karram's plans of the proposed structure to some of the original designers and a numbers of villagers who own property facing the Park - where the bandstand will be built. There were No negative remarks and, rather, enthusiastic approval of the design and applause for Mr. Philip Eastman's 3-D video tour of the building as presented by committee-member Dale Meszler on his high-powered computer. Everyone was also able to look at landscape architect Teresa Lutoborski's proposed plan for the Park showing the location of the Bandstand, the cleverly designed handicap access, and future park plantings and walkways.

At the same time that the Bandstand Committee was meeting inside the Municipal Hall, a continual line of cars circled through the parkinglot aiming for the back of the Fire House where Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts were having what certainly appeared to be a very popular Car Wash and successful Bottle Drive. (Unfortunately, they had closed up shop by the time the meeting was concluded.)

There were ballgames, family picnics and shoppers discovered that they could park all along Main Street. North and Southbound traffic picked up, too; so many vehicles with canoes and kayaks aiming towards The Swamp and those with luggage carriers and bike racks, probably heading for vacations in the Adirondacks.



It was the first time in
many weeks that
the only line of
"bumper-to-bumper traffic"
wasn't IN town -
but out on Brennan Road,
instead.












Out on Route 20, at the American Legion, an all-afternoon and evening Benefit for seven-year-old Miranda Hadlock started at noon. Once again, as at last weekend's benefit for Sheila Pasiak, the generosity of the entire community shone most brightly. Eleanor Martin said it best, one day last week: "Give me a small town, any time!" It's a place where people really care!