Starting out Warm

It's really Wednesday morning and

It's Recyclables Day!

36.3 degrees at 6:30

The WKTV Weather Forecast as of Tuesday afternoon:

"*Winter Weather Advisory for Herkimer, Hamilton, Fulton and Montgomery Counties*

Rain develops after midnight tonight, mixing with freezing rain or sleet north and east of Utica. Some icy spots are possible for a time early Wednesday , but any mixed precipitation is expected to change to plain rain by midmorning.

Occasional showers are expected during the day Wednesday as temperatures climb above 40.

Dry weather returns Thursday. A surge of warmer weather will bring high temperatures close to 50 on Thursday, and well into the 50s on Friday. Significant amounts of melting snow will continue all across the area throughout the week."

ELECTION RESULTS


I've searched YNN, The O-D, WKTV

but can only find results for

ORISKANY FALLS:

Two village trustee seats:

Collin Idzi, R: 59 votes.
(incumbent) Brian Bell, R: 46 votes.
(incumbent) Sheila Johnson, i: 44 votes.

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I think voters in the Village of Waterville will be able to guess the results, since none of the incumbents were being contested!

Mayor: Jim Younes

Trustees elected: Thomas McNamara and Bruce Treen.



I stopped at Municipal Hall yesterday afternoon around 3:30 and, happening to arrive during a "lull" in voter activity, had a nice long chat with Betty Tanner, Dave O'Brien, Vicky Sabol and Lurena McNamara. We discussed where I got my unusual name, what colleges we and/or our children had attended, the price of gasoline, and covered a fair amount of local history.
(and Yes: I voted. I was voter #12.)



At a little after 4:00 Barb McNamara showed up - voter #13!

You can see what a busy day it was at the polls!

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There was much more actvity, outdoors!



There were lots of walker and runners. I saw several groups of cyclists



............ and got big waves from Sheri and Jenn.

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IN THE MAIL

A nice note and these pictures from Terry Tanner, who had attended Sunday’s program at the Historical Society. She wrote,

'There was a hearty ‘Abe Lincoln’ dinner, an adorable skit ‘1861 at Bissell’s Store’, and the most wonderful barbershop quartet imaginable! There’s also a new 1861 Exhibit for folks to check out if they get a chance."

Visiting Barbershop Quartet

"It was very nice that three of the barbershop quartet had had Mr. Langone as a teacher at Mt. Markham and were so pleased to see him again."



A friendly card game in Bissell's Store

from left: Joe Falk, Lou Langone and Kirk Hudson.

Thank you, Terry!

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(There are 1861 Exhibits and activities all over the country in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the start of the Civil War.)


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Photo from yesterday's blog post.

Coincidentally, W. J. Bissell Sons, a popular gathering place for "locals" - including members of the Loomis Gang - was located on W. Main Street, just about here.



Bissell's Store c. 1880

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TOMORROW IS ST. PATRICK'S DAY


C.J. Fulmer Post #92 American Legion, Waterville.
SATURDAY, MARCH 19TH
4:30 - 7:30 P.M.


Suzette Stephenson Baumgarten's Madison Street doorway.



Her parents' home on E. Bacon Street.



The Strohmeyer residence on Putnam Street.


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PLUS.....


An Annual Treat:



Maple Weekend!

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NEXT WEEK



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As all of you know, there has been an horrendous disaster in Japan.
Many Watervillians are making contributions to various funds or asking WHERE to send their donations.

Are there any LOCAL fundraisers in process or planned?

otherwise......

AMERICAN RED CROSS
UNICEF


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Have a good day, everyone!

The "Ides of March"

It's 23 degrees and sunny at 7:30

Ides of March

The WKTV forecast; "After a chilly start, sunshine will help bring temperatures into the upper 40s. Watch out for ponding on the roadway due to rapidly melting snow.

Increasing clouds later today and tonight as our next storm system arrives. Rain develops after midnight tonight, mixing with snow or sleet north and east of Utica. Any mixing in these areas quickly changes over to plain rain by the morning.

Dry weather returns Thursday. A surge of warmer weather will bring high temperatures close to 50 on Thursday, and well into the 50s on Friday. Significant amounts of melting snow will continue all across the area throughout the week."

VILLAGE ELECTIONS TODAY
March 15, 2011 • 12 noon-9 pm Village Hall, 122 Barton Ave.

One-2 year Democrat Trustee Seat open: Nominated:
Thomas McNamara (unopposed)
One-2 year Republican Trustee Seat open: Bruce Treen (unopposed)
One-2 year Mayor open: James Younes (unopposed)

In Oriskany Falls
Mayor: (incumbent) John Misiaszek III, R.
Two trustee seats: (incumbent) Sheila Johnson, i; (incumbent)
Brian Bell, R; Collin Idzi, R.

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NOTEWORTHY

This event was brought to my attention by Library Director Jeff Reynolds, who wrote:

"This is an important gesture, I think. The WW1 centennial is coming up in three years and I fear that not many of our younger generation are all that familiar with the Great War-- that was to end all wars! "Who knows only his own generation remains always a child." (the motto over the front door of Norlin Library, at my alma mater, the University of Colorado)."

"Arlington Fuleral Planned for Last American "Doughboy," Frank Buckles

"Oneida County Honors Last WWI Soldier"

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"Deansboro Artist Shines at National Dog Art Show."

visit Monica Acee's website.

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SPECIAL REQUEST

from Lee Pavlot

"The Waterville Little League Girls’ Softball is looking for a manager/coach for one of the teams. If anyone is interested or knows of a person who might be interested in working as a manager/coach for the girls, please contact Lee Pavlot at lpavlot@twcny.rr.com or at 841-4298."

"Thank you"

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To some folks, and at other times of the year, this would be a discouragingly dull scene, but to me it's wonderful: bare fields and mud! Spring!



It won't be long.



At around 6:30 last evening Main Street was very quiet ......



..... but it was comparatively warm and, best of all, it was still light out!



Opening soon!



There's something happening at the former Purrfect-10 on W. Main Street, too.


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COMING EVENTS


SPECIAL SERIES

Beginning this week through Lent at Grace Church:

TUESDAYS IN LENT
March 15th through April 12th
10 am - Parish Hall
KNITTING INTO THE MYSTERY
Prayer Shawl Ministry
Bring 3 - 6 oz. Skeins of Yarn, 185 yds. each
and
Knitting Needles, size 13 or size 11


WEDNESDAYS
11 am - Chapel (Babbott Ave. entrance)
HEALING/HOLY EUCHARIST

THURSDAYS IN LENT
March 17th through April 14th
7 - 8:30 pm (Parish Hall)
EXPLORING AN ADULT FAITH
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CHRISTIAN
presented by The Rev'd. Johanna Marcure

All are welcome


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NEXT WEEK'S BIG EVENT


Three big performances!

at 7:30

Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night

TICKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE
at the WCS Business office. Contact Linda Hughes at 841-3912.

Photographs are ONLY allowed at Dress Rehearsal!
Wednesday at 7:30.

FOR THE RECORD

Gas remains at $3.69/9
however, I found this, for comparison:

May 19, 2008

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"He who knows only his own generation [i.e., one without a knowledge of history] remains forever a child."

That quotation, included in Jeff Reynold's note, intrigued me; Google had the answer:

It was written by Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists, born in Arpinum, Italy, January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC.

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Have a great day, everyone!

Daylight Savings Time and It's Dark Out!

(Click for "mouse-eye" view, and then keep reading!)

It's Garbage Day!

29 degrees and gray at 7:30

From WKTV: "A flood warning continues for the Mohawk River.

Another cloudy, cool day across Central New York with a few flurries this morning. Some peaks of sunshine later today, with highs in the 30s.

Decreasing clouds tonight as high pressure takes control. Temperatures will fall into the teens to single digits.

Sunshine Tuesday, with much warmer weather. Highs will climb well into the 40s. Some rain showers on Wednesday, with drier weather returning on Thursday. A significant warm up is in the forecasted for later this week with the potential for temperatures to reach the 50s."

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JUST IN - JODY HILDRETH'S PHOTOGRAPHS

" I was driving with my girls through Clinton when I saw something along the road. My many years of picking up road kill for our school's nature museum has honed my eyesight to spot avian creatures on asphalt. I quicly stopped and turned around. Aubrey asked "What are you doing, Dad?". I said I saw something that didn't look right. When we drove by it, she said it looked like a can. We did another U turn and came drove right up to a Northern Saw-whet Owl. It was sitting on the white line on the right side of the road. It was obviously in shock - not moving, and it let me pick it up without any problems. Tessa emptied her cloth bag and we put the little owl in there. (Birds immediately calm down when in a darkened space). When we arrived home we took him out and he was already doing better. He was able to fly, but not land perfectly, and his left eye seemed like it had something wrong - it just moved a bit differently than the other eye.

We snapped some photos and studied the little guy. He made a few more flights around the house and showed us that he was able to fly and, most importantly, land well. We took him outside and let him go. He immediately took off into the darkness. Hope he is doing well tonight. While some of these birds migrate through our area, many are permanent residents. Whichever this one is, I am sure it will be able to readjust to its new surroundings."

Northern Saw-whet owl



Owl and friends!

Tessa, Jody and Aubrey Hildreth

Free!

(Last two photographs by Kelly Hildreth.)

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George D. Bracket, III

1949 - 2011

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IN THE NEWS

"Decline of Farms has Ripple Effect" - the Observer-Dispatch.

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Dave and Pam Williams

2011 Madison County SWCD Conservation Farm of the Year

"The Madison County Soil and Water Conservation District welcomes all area farmers, friends and conservation enthusiasts to a complimentary luncheon in celebration of Endless Trails Farm, LLC owned by David and Pam Williams for being awarded the prestigious 2011 Conservation Farm of the Year for Madison County. This special day will take place on Thursday March 24th from 11am to 2pm at the White Eagle Conference Center in Hamilton, N.Y. which will highlight local grass-fed meat from Sunnybrook Farm, owned by Dan and Melissa Williams.

To join us for the luncheon to honor the Williams Family, please call the Madison Co. SWCD office at (315) 824-9849 to secure your reservation."

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OUT AND AROUND



More and more wildlife are taking to open spaces. Here, deer and turkeys share the buffet in a corn field next to Bogan Road.

While residents up toward Clinton tend to use old-fashioned sap buckets,
scores of maples around Paris Station have been tapped and have
long, blue "intravenous tubes" attached, leading to large collection containers.

Although CLOSED signs were still in place, yesterday, and there was no longer any water flowing across Loomis Road, the boat launch area in Hubbardsville, on Wickwire Road, was flooded.......

........... and the Sangerfield River, below the "orange bridge," would have given a paddler too swift a ride! (I know: it's not orange, anymore, but everyone still calls it that!)

At Kling's Mills!

A bit of High Water History

When the very first settlers came to Sangerfield, in March of 1792, there was plenty of snow still left on the ground. It was cold, too, and the three couples - the Hales, Gurneys and Phelpses - all went to live in the only house available - a one-room cabin owned by Mr. Phelps and located - according to historian Pomroy Jones, 1851 - "about twenty rods south-easterly from the present residence of Jesse O. Mills, and about one mile in the same direction from the "Centre".

The Jesse O. Mills residence that Jones refers to is now the home of Jody and Brian Barnes, on Beaver Creek Road.

This is probably about where the Phelps cabin was located, about twenty rods - or 330 feet - from Jody and Brian's home. "Beaver Creek" is in the background.

"In the month of April (or during a thaw such as we've had in the past several days) when the heavy body of snow on the ground began to melt, their proximity to the creek became a source of considerable annoyance. After a very warm day and night, for the season, upon awaking in the morning they found a portion of the creek had formed a current directly through the house. A sort of cellar had been dug, large enough for present purposes, under the floor in the centre of the room, of which the water had taken possession, and the pork barrel was merrily waltzing in the eddy. The women remained in bed while the men waded out and cut large logs, on which to make a fire. During the remainder of the day, and until the water subsided, the women performed all their house work while upon their beds."

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IN THE MAIL

For all of you Loomis Gang fans:

this link to a story about

"Grove Loomis: His New Horse and Buggy"

from the Madison County Courier.


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FOR THE RECORD

My Thanks to the many blog readers who Emailed and phoned to wished me well, before my cataract surgery last Wednesday, and who have now welcomed me (and the blog!) back, again!

(Someone left me a completely unmarked "tupperware" container of extraordinarily delicious tuna-noodle casserole: who was it??)


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This special "Thank You" to many of you

was in my mail

from Ione Barney.

"I just read Mark (Masca's) request for neighbors in Waterville to remember each other during this winter weather and I just have to share how grateful we are to live in Waterville and the wonderful way people do care about each other ...my Dave had to be rushed to ER January 29th and had to have gallbladder surgery which caused Pancreatitis , he was in there for a week and we had a storm and I and my granddaughter and I were struggling to get the end of my driveway open to go to hospital and our neighbor Roger stopped and cleaned it out with his plow and when he heard Dave was in hospital has kept it clean for us...Dave is still trying to get well and the Dr said 3-4 months ...so of course when that big storm and all that snow came I was over whelmed ..I have been shoveling around steps and path to bird feeder, but this was more than I could do !! our good Samaritan Roger cleaned out our driveway and a neighbor on Sanger Ave Jeff called to see if we needed him to come shovel, and when I was at Morgans buying 40 lb bags of salt for our softener and Tom heard about Dave he delivered the salt for me right here to the house ..I can not lift those bags ! So i must tell you Waterville takes care of their people in need when they know there is a need !!! We are so glad we live here and so grateful for all the help...when I went to get my hair done at Karens she knew about Dave and said Louie had come over to do our driveway, but it had been done and if we ever needed him just call !!! AMAZING PEOPLE !!!! and a BIG THANK YOU TO THEM ALL :):)
Ione and Dave Barney"

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SPECIAL EVENTS


AT THE LIBRARY
315 841 4651

Internet Basics * Tuesday, March 15th
6pm | Sign Up
Come learn how to browse the internet and set up an email account.
Basic computer knowledge is needed.


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Evening Story Hour * Thursday, March 17th
6:30pm | Ages 2-6 | Sign Up

Animal Sleepover.

Let your stuffed friend spend the night in the library. What silliness will the animals get into in the library at night? Find out when you pick them up the next day.

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St. Patrick's Day Dinner

C.J. Fulmer Post #92 American Legion, Waterville.

SATURDAY, MARCH 19TH

4:30 - 7:30 P.M.

Corned Beef, Cabbage, and all the Fixin's!

$9.00 per person.
Route 20, Waterville. 841-4987

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Have a great Pi Day, everyone!

Remember the PTA Bottle Drive, this morning, and....

.. don't forget to

SPRING AHEAD


TONIGHT!

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33.9 degrees at 7:45, and a bit of light snow fell during the night.

From WKTV: "Rain and snow showers are in the cards for Saturday. A cold front drives through on Sunday, perhaps bringing a few snow squalls.

Cooler, sunny weather on Monday, before a significant warm up is expected by mid next week."

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GOOD NEWS

Jamie Dowd, quoted in an article in this morning's Observer-Dispatch:

At roughly 10 a.m. Friday, Oriskany Falls native Jamie Dowd was in the unenviable position of driving toward a 3½ -mile tunnel connecting San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.

“They didn’t issue any stops on it, and it’s kind of discretionary, but do you really want to be under water with a possible tsunami coming?” Dowd said during a telephone interview.

Though disruption in the Bay Area was minimal, Dowd said residents were taking caution. People there are used to the earthquakes, but they’re also leery about the onset of a major disaster, he said.

“Everybody panics,” he said. “Watching the news makes you do so. I’ve lived in California for 10 years, at least through a couple earthquakes. The big one’s going to hit sometime.”

“They’re saying ‘don’t panic, follow instructions,” Dowd said. “And then every once in a while, they’ll say, ‘This is crazy. There is no historical data on how to operate if we did have something catastrophic.’ There are two bridges and one road to get out of the fourth largest city in the country.”

Dowd, 32, went to Waterville High School and in 2002, he moved to California, where he works in the biopharmaceuticals industry, doing sales and recruiting."

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From Peter Bocko, in Tokyo:

"Yes, we (my wife Andrea & I) are fine. It was quite a shake. You get used to the tremors here, but this was something else in its intensity and duration. I was in my office building corner office and at the worst could not stand up. We are surrounded by 40-50 storey buildings and the amount they were swaying from my window was absolutely surreal. The ANA InterContinental hotel was in a twisting mode. Generally people in the office were tense, but very calm. I was issued a hard (hat) when I first moved to Tokyo and put it on. Heavy aftershocks continued for hours. I have not seen any physical damage here in Central Tokyo excepts some popped ceilng tiles in the office and lamps in my apartment were knocked over (and precious smuggled 150 3-way bulbs broken). Of course the city is a mess transportation wise, most trains are not running and most flights are canceled." A graduate of WCS, Peter Bocko joined Corning in 1979 and was appointed Chief Technology Officer - Japan in October 2007.

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As many people have remarked,

"It's that sort of disaster that reminds us how small our problems are!"

Part of ending Winter and starting Spring is "flooding" .............

Loomis Road is closed and the Route 12 Underpass is creating a real slow-down as drivers crawl through the pond, there, not really knowing how deep it is.

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ELSEWHERE, ON HIGHER GROUND

"Maggie" set a rapid pace for Lou and Karen .........

........... and the coaches sported Springtime running gear.

Deer ventured from woods next to Fuess Cleary Road to enjoy munching on something (nearly) green.

Two by two by two, Canada Geese strolled along rows of corn stubble next to Osborn Avenue ........

................ and more geese paddled companionably on a nearby pond with a pair of mallard ducks.

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FOR THE RECORD

Have a good weekend, everyone!