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Jul 22
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St. Paul Woman on Honeymoon Killed in New Hampshire Crash
by Andy Greder – Pioneer Press – July 21, 2013
A newlywed St. Paul woman was killed on her honeymoon during a two-car crash with an apparent drunk driver in New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon, said family and New Hampshire State Police. Lea Fonda, 30, died at a hospital after being a passenger in a Kia Spectra driven by her husband Brian Preiss, also 30 and of St. Paul, police said.
Leah Fonda & Brian Preiss
The two were recently wed and went to the East Coast for their honeymoon, said Preiss’ brother Philip Preiss. The driver of the second car, Matthew Tsopas, drifted over the center line in his Infiniti G35SX and struck Fonda and Preiss. Preiss was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital with serious injuries, police said. Philip Preiss said he didn’t know the extend of his brother’s injuries.
Tsopas fled the crash scene, but was found a short time later, police said. “It appears that speed and driver impairment are factors in this crash, however, the crash still remains under investigation,” police said. Tsopas was arrested at the hospital and was charged with negligent homicide, felony driving under the influence of alcohol and felony conduct after an accident.
Hit-and-Run Claims Bride – Groom in Hospital after New Hampshire Crash
by Jack Encarnacao – Boston Herald – July 22, 2013
A heartbroken Minnesota groom is in intensive care in a Boston hospital in the wake of the senseless New Hampshire drunken hit-and-run that stole the life of his new bride, authorities and relatives said yesterday. “The two of them spent 10 years getting together,” said Jonnie Kunce, mother of bride Leah Fonda, “and they got to have eight days of being married.”
On Saturday at about 4:27 p.m., Brian Preiss, 30, of St. Paul, Minn., and his bride of one week, Leah Fonda, 30, longtime lovebirds and both Mall of America amusement park workers, were on their way to Niagara Falls when a car careened into their lane and struck them “in a near head-on fashion” on Route 4 in Rollinsford, said New Hampshire state police.
The driver, Matthew Tsopas, a 43-year-old man from Somersworth, N.H., then fled the scene. “He just left Brian and Leah to die,” Preiss’ uncle Chuck Czech said. “What kind of character does that?” Tsopas was eventually arrested and charged with negligent homicide, felony driving under the influence of alcohol and felony conduct after an accident. Fonda and Preiss were rushed to Wentworth Douglas Hospital in Dover, N.H., where she died. Preiss was then transported to Massachusetts General Hospital.
Preiss and Fonda were engaged in the fall and married July 12 in Bloomington, Minn., the culmination of a decade-long flirtation the two had at the amusement park where they both worked. “The wedding was wonderful,” said Kunce, Fonda’s aunt, who adopted her when she was a sophomore in high school. “It was small and elegant and perfect, just perfect. She was so beautiful.”
Kunce said Preiss, who took regular road trips, suggested a 17-day tour of New England for the couple’s honeymoon. “Leah had not traveled much, and it was something that he had set up and he had wanted to show her,” Kunce said of Preiss. “She had kind of an itinerary set up.” Czech said the couple had planned to spend the bulk of their time in Boston. Yesterday, Preiss, who Czech said suffered serious head injuries and internal bleeding, was listed in good condition at MGH.
After he was located by police, Tsopas was transported to a New Hampshire hospital for treatment before he was arrested and charged. “It’s just unbelievable to me that he could do so much damage and be able to walk away,” Kunce said. “There is no reason for people to drink and drive.”
Somersworth Man Charged with Negligent Homicide Following Rollinsford Fatal
Union Leader – July 21, 2013
ROLLINSFORD – A Somersworth man was charged with negligent homicide, felony driving under the influence and conduct after an accident following a fatal near head on collision on Route 4 Saturday afternoon.
According to New Hampshire State Police, Matthew Tsopas, 43, of Somersworth was traveling west on Route 4 in the area of Old Mill Road about 4:27 p.m. when the 2008 Infinity G35sx he was operating drifted into the oncoming lane. The Infinity struck a 2008 Kia Spectra headed west operated by Brian Preiss, 30, of Saint Paul, Minn. Also in the Preiss vehicle was Leah Fonda, 30, of Saint Paul.
“Tsopas fled the scene but was located a short time later and transported to Wentworth Douglas Hospital in Dover,” said state police. Fonda and Preiss also were taken to Wentworth Douglas where Fonda succumbed to her injuries shortly after arrival. Preiss was transportated to Massachusetts General Hospital with serious injuries.
“It appears that speed and driver impairment are factors in this crash however the crash still remains under investigation,” state police said. “Tsopas was arrested at the hosptial and charged with negligent homicide, felony driving under the Influence of alcohol and felony conduct after an accident. ”
Anyone with information regarding the crash may contact Trooper Christopher Storm at 603-223-8490 or email at Christopher.Storm@dos.nh.gov.
HONEYMOON CRASH: Drunk driver took away ‘one-of-a kind soul’
Posted: Jul 24, 2013 1:50 PM EST posted by Mike Durkin
ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) -The family of Leah Fonda Preiss, the St. Paul woman killed in a crash with a drunk driver on a honeymoon road trip through New England, released the following statement Wednesday:
STATEMENT
We are absolutely devastated and heartbroken over the death of Leah and serious injury to Brian at the hands of an irresponsible driver. We all are left with a gaping hole in our lives, and there are no words to describe our sudden loss of an amazing woman. She was a woman who dearly cherished her family and friends, an aunt who treated her like a daughter, a sister who shared in many adventures, a sister in law who became a sister, and her dearly cherished nephews. She was a woman who fell madly in love with a man she had known for many years just as a friend. She was a kind loving person who had a quiet strength about her and would do just about anything to help someone. Leah is a one-of-a-kind soul who will be deeply missed.
It is especially tragic that Leah’s death comes a week after her wedding and a little more than a week before her 31st birthday at the hands of someone who acted carelessly and irresponsibly by drinking and driving. There are no words for our anger and disappointment at the driver’s decision to do so. It was at his hands that our beloved Leah was taken away from us and the life she had dreamed of for so long. It is unfathomable that within in a week Leah and Brian had both the best and worst days of their lives. There is no sense to this that we can see, but we hope that this is an eye opening event for many about the consequences of drinking and driving and that they will chose to act responsibly. During this very difficult time we would greatly appreciate that you respect our need for privacy. Thank you.
The family of Leah Fonda Preiss
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Leah Fonda Preiss Memorial Fund
c/o Wells Fargo Bank
809 10th Avenue North
Sartell, MN 56377
Contributions to the Leah Fonda Preiss Memorial Fund can also be made at any Wells Fargo Bank Branch.
THE CRASH
Near Head-On Collision
Accident Scene, Route 4, Rollinsford, NH
New Hampshire State Trooper Christopher Storm said 43-year-old Matthew Tsopas was driving west on Route 4 in Rollinsford, N.H. when his car drifted all the way into the eastbound lane and struck the car driven by the newlyweds.
Tsopas fled the scene but was located a short time later and brought to the hospital, where he was charged with negligent homicide, felony DUI and felony conduct after an accident.
Fonda, 30, died in the crash. Preiss, 30, was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is recovering from internal injuries and facial cuts with family by his side. He was in surgery Wednesday and his condition has been upgraded to good. The family hopes to have him home next week.
THE WEDDING
Fonda and Preiss, both Mall of America amusement park employees, were married during an intimate ceremony on July 12 in Bloomington. They were one week and one day into their honeymoon when the crash occurred. Just before the crash, the couple called Preiss’ parents to let them know they were on their way to Niagara Falls.
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Jan 26
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Fonda may study dissolution, mayor says
January 17, 2013 by Arthur Cleveland, The Leader Herald
Village of Fonda, founded in 1850
FONDA, NY – The village may form a committee to look into consolidating more services with the town of Mohawk and possibly dissolving the village. Mayor William Peeler said at a village meeting Monday he is open to the possibility of replacing village services with town services.
At the village meeting, resident John Maher asked about whether the village government would look into dissolving itself. Peeler said a committee may look into the benefits of dissolving the village. “If you can get the [Mohawk] Town Board to cooperate with that, I’ll be the first one to sign,” said Peeler. “Slowly but surely, what we’re trying to do is consolidate everything to the point where the village is no longer in existence.” After the meeting, Peeler said, “Ultimately, I’m all for whatever consolidation we can make. If it makes sense and it’s a duplication of services, why not?”
Ultimately, Peeler said, the dissolution of the village would be up to the residents. He said it could be difficult to push for dissolution of the village. He cited possible opposition from officials in county or town government. Trustee Thomas Healey said dissolution could be hampered by the fact the village shares its water with Fultonville, Mohawk and Glen. Trustee Walter Boyd said he would approve of exploring the possibility of dissolving the village if it could result in significant savings.
Fonda Courthouse, built in 1835
“Every one of us here are village residents, and there’s no way to pay for duplication of services,” said Boyd. Mohawk Supervisor Greg Rajkowski said that, to his knowledge, the village never had discussed dissolution before, but consolidation of services has been brought up. “They’ve [village officials] approached us with three different consolidation efforts,” Rajkowski said, saying that generally town officials have approved of consolidation, except for a request to plow village roads.
Rajkowski said if a merger between the village and town were to occur, certain issues would need to be worked out, such as what to do with the village water services. “We, as the town, do not have a separate sewer and water district,” he said. Rajkowski said if the village were to attempt dissolution, the village and the town would have to work together on it.
According to the New York State Department of State, communities considering consolidation may be eligible for a Local Government Efficiency grant to help with studying the feasibility of consolidation or to help with the consolidation itself. The state also has documents available to help towns and villages in mergers.
Arthur Cleveland covers Montgomery County news. He can be reached at montco@leaderherald.com
Fonda officials should consider services
January 20, 2013, The Leader HeraldIn recent months, the village of Fonda Board of Trustees led by Mayor William Peeler has been in negotiations with the town of Mohawk Board of Fire Commissioners looking for ways to cut operating costs in Fonda. At an initial savings of about $15,000 a year, a deal to get rid of the village fire department and have the town provide fire coverage looks great on paper.
However, the village fire department has become a local staple, taking the lead on numerous local activities. The Fonda Volunteer Fire Department helps to organize and participate in several local events, such as the annual Fonda-Fultonville Memorial Day parade, the Fonda Halloween Children’s Parade and Open House, and the annual Montgomery County Youth Day. The department also provides safe off-street parking across from the Fonda Speedway for the weekly races, as well as the Fonda Fair.
Without the firemen providing the parking services, there will not be safe off-street parking other than the limited space within the fairgrounds. This will be especially important during fair time when thousands of cars can utilize the parking service. The Fonda department also has one of the only fire department chaplains within the county, who is able to provide an array of services to the community.
Soon, the doors will close, the equipment will be sold and the community will be at a great loss with no local support to turn to. It saddens me to think the current administration only thinks in dollars and cents, and cannot look at the services provided that you can’t put a monetary value on.
John Maher, Fonda Volunteer Fire Department
Closing on March 14
Fonda Fire Department closing
Published: 2/12
A sign hanging on a fence in Fonda that reads: “FONDA FIRE DEPARTMENT NEEDS YOU”, but after Monday’s Village Board of Trustee meeting, it really serves no purpose. The Board voted 3 to 1 to completely dissolve the 139 year old volunteer fire department.
“That’s very disappointing they decided not to keep it,” said resident Maria Abraham who feels local home owners are being squeezed. “This is just another sign of that squeeze.”
Avoiding the squeeze on tax payers is what Mayor Bill Peeler says the Board is trying to do. The mayor explained it’s become costly for the Village to maintain the department with its aging equipment. “For the future betterment as well as the current betterment of our situation in fire protection it was better to dissolve the fire department and move on with a contract with our fire district”
The “district fire department” is the Mohawk Fire District. It’s fire house sits just on the edge of the Village. The mayor says Fonda’s 785 residents should see little difference in first responder arrival time — it’s just that the first responders won’t be the same. Fonda Fire Chief Donald Wagoner wishes he and the other volunteers had been consulted before the Trustees decided to go through with a new contract. “We’ve protected the Village this long. We’ve done the best we can and we’re all kind of disgruntled and upset,” said Wagoner, a fire volunteer of 29 years.
As of March 14, the Village of Fonda Fire Department will close it’s doors and the Mohawk Fire District will take effect.
Fonda-Fultonville officials look for help to get more aid
February 12, 2013 by Arthur Cleveland, The Leader Herald
Fonda-Fultonville Central School District traces its roots to the late 1700s, when students in both communities were educated in small, privately owned buildings. Around 1800, two formal school districts were formed, and for the next 150 years, Fonda and Fultonville operated those districts separately. In 1954, the two districts merged.
Fonda – Officials from the Fonda-Fultonville Central School District are scheduled to meet today with state Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk to get her help in securing more state aid for the school. “We just need more money from the state,” said interim Superintendent Ray Colucciello. “There’s just no other way around it.”
Similar lobbying with Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara met with some success. Santabarbara wrote a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo regarding the importance of state aid and mentioned the district’s recent budget difficulties. At the end of January, the Fonda-Fultonville school board laid off a business education teacher and the school psychologist as part of a plan to deal with a $500,000 mid-year budget shortfall.
Under Cuomo’s executive budget released in January, Fonda-Fultonville’s aid stands to increase roughly $611,000. However, district Treasurer Carey Shultz said even if legislators adopt Cuomo’s proposal without change, it may not help enough. Shultz said he plans to ask Tkaczyk to get the district an additional $400,000 to try and stabilize the budget for the 2013-14 school year.
Colucciello and Shultz said that is possible if the state abolishes the competitive grant funding portion of Cuomo’s proposal and instead rolls the funds into overall aid. Cuomo, who requested $800 million for state aid usage, wants $250 million to go toward rewarding districts for academic performance and management efficiency.
Since 2010, state aid to the district has been reduced by almost $6 million due to Gap Elimination Adjustment. Costs for pensions and health insurance benefits also increased more than $2 million. “Having those kind of funds ripped out of the budget makes it impossible to stabilize it,” Shultz said, noting the school’s staff has been reduced by 16.5 percent in that three-year time frame, and 25 percent in the last five years.
“The state is supposed to be an equal partner in education, 50-50,” Colucciello said. “The state now pays for about 39 percent, and the rest is on the backs of the local taxpayers.” Colucciello said he is “cautiously optimistic.” “In my experience, the governor proposes and the Legislature disposes,” he said. The 2013-14 budget is still in the works, with members of the board waiting on the final numbers before completing it.
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Jan 29
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City’s junk becomes a cautionary artistic vision
By Victoria Dalkey, Bee Art Correspondent, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012
Gioia Fonda’s drawings begin as photos of street debris.
You would expect an exhibition at a college gallery to be educational. Gioia Fonda‘s show at the James Kaneko Gallery on the American River College campus is that in spades. Fonda documents every step of the labor-intensive process by which she creates her masterful drawings of piles of junk. This body of work, one of which won the best of show award at last year’s State Fair art show, is a poignant comment on a sad aspect of the economic downturn our city has been experiencing.
She begins with color photos of trash piled up on the street in front of houses in her neighborhood. “Most of the piles,” she writes, “seem to occur when an address has experienced an eviction, a foreclosure or sometimes a death: always some kind of transition.” Like canaries in coal mines, they are harbingers of worse things to come. For Fonda, they represent “not only a reflection of the lending crisis but also a comment on our rampant consumerism and the utter disposability of what we produce and what we buy.”
Gioia Fonda stands in front of her winning state fair art piece, “Pile, With Soccer Ball.” The acrylic on canvas art piece placed first in the 2011 California State Fair and is currently displayed in the Kondos Gallery. Tony Wallin wallintony@yahoo.com
That is scarcely a new idea, but Fonda treats it with a mixture of sadness and a formal integrity that lends the piles a kind of monumental grace. The giant pile with a soccer ball, a potted plant, an old bike and a wheelbarrow that was shown in the State Fair exhibition is on view here and is even more imposing in the smaller Kaneko gallery.
Surrounding it are other drawings, among them “Watering Can,” a triangular pile of trash in which a watering can plays a small but significant role. A trio of drawings on the wall across from it features tangles of netting, worn tires, plastic jugs, and a stuffed toy. These are not only commentaries on our throwaway culture but strong abstractions reminiscent at times of Bauhaus Constructivism.
As interesting as the finished drawings are, a series of works that demonstrate how Fonda arrives at her destinations. She begins with the color photos, then isolates the shapes of the objects in the piles, draws them on paper and cuts them out. These cuttings she piles up and arranges into collages from which she then makes Xerox prints. It’s a lengthy, exacting and time-consuming process, but it pays off with drawings that are both moving and formally elegant.
Accompanying Fonda’s works at the campus gallery is a series of mostly small bronze and ceramic sculptures by Garr Ugalde. Their imagery is both innocent and menacing. Combining childhood toys with instruments of war, they comment on “how quickly the world engages its children in war.” “Beehive Rocker” places a child on a crude rocking horse surrounded by alphabet blocks. A beehive placed over the child’s head adds a surreal note of danger. “Pecker” combines grenades and bird skulls. “Night Mother” gives us a pregnant woman with a birdhouse on her head.
Children’s toys and the use of bird imagery, Ugalde writes, “speak to the ideal of freedom, innocence, and the safety of home.” Though superficially, he notes, they seem to be innocuous, lurking among them are instruments of destruction, many derived from war toys. Ugalde’s small works made of bronze are intricate and imbued with a dark humor that turns disturbing as you note the details in them. A larger piece made of ceramic is blunter. Titled “I Used To Carry a Big Stick, Two,” it gives us a pit bull with a grenade in its mouth sitting on a block covered with an American flag. Small texts cite places in which confrontations have occurred, among them Wounded Knee, Guantánamo and Havana. Ugalde’s work is a nice complement to Fonda’s and the two visions result in a show that is both moving and thought-provoking. Curator Ramsey Harris has done a great job of installing the show.
GIOIA FONDA: THE PILE SERIES
GARR UGALDE: WAR STORIES
What: Gioia Fonda lends a monumental grace to piles of refuse that she sees as “a comment on our rampant consumerism and the utter disposability of what we produce and what we buy.” A complementary exhibit of small bronze and ceramic sculptures comes from Garr Ugalde. His imagery is both innocent and menacing, a comment on “how quickly the world engages its children in war.”
Where: James Kaneko Gallery, Room 503, American River College, 4700 College Oak Drive, Sacramento
When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays, or by appointment, through Feb. 8
Cost: Free
Contact: (916) 484-8399
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
Also see: Art instructor, Gioia Fonda wins State Fair competition
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Sep 11
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Fondas celebrate 50th wedding anniversary
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Bruce and Yoshiko Fonda of Radcliff will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary June 1, 2011. They were married June 1, 1961, in Okinawa. Mr. Fonda is a retired Sgt. Maj. from the U.S. Army and retired from service as a loan officer at Fort Knox Federal Credit Union. Mrs. Fonda is very active in a bowling league and Soka Gakai International. They have two children, 13 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Mr. and Mrs. Fonda then
Mr. and Mrs. Fonda now
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Sep 11
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Floodwaters can’t stop Fonda Fair
Spirited effort to clear damage preserves 170-year-old tradition
By Carol DeMare, Staff Writer – Friday, September 2, 2011
FONDA — For 170 years, the Fonda Fair has gone on as scheduled, attracting those from the surrounding farm communities as well as outsiders who come for the food, the rides, the entertainment and even the monster trucks. This year, Tropical Storm Irene and the Mohawk River got in the way, delaying the opening by two days. But even the onslaught of floodwaters couldn’t make this popular fair a wash-out. Fair-goers and exhibitors alike — all of them fair lovers, of course — came to the rescue. They cleaned the 60-plus acres of the Montgomery County fairgrounds over more than two days, doing what amounted to grunt work.
On Thursday, as he drove around the property in a golf cart, past the numerous amusement park rides, the cotton candy stands, the barns with the livestock and horses, the junk cars that the monster trucks would go to work on, the huge arena where Kellie Pickler will perform Saturday night, no one could be prouder of how it all came together than fair president Richard Kennedy. Officially, the gates opened Thursday at 5 p.m., and the fair will run through Monday. The seven-day event originally was scheduled to open Tuesday.
Kendall Kennedy of Fort Plain, 11, stays with her holstein Tish in the 4-H Cattle barn at the Montgomery County Agricultural Society's Fonda Fair just a few hours before the 5 pm start of the annual fair on Thursday Sept. 1, 2011, in Fonda, NY. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union)
This year’s fair theme is “American Made, American Pride,” Kennedy said. “And the pride is showing through,” added the owner of a horse and dairy farm in Fort Plain. Hundreds of volunteers, some from as far as Lake George, converged on the fairgrounds Tuesday morning.
The Mohawk runs alongside the fairgrounds and Fonda Speedway, which are adjacent to each other — actually, the fairgrounds owns the speedway and leases it out. On Sunday, the river, fueled by water from the Schoharie Creek, overflowed its banks and Kennedy was taken in a sheriff’s boat to assess the damage. That was at 7 a.m. and by noon that day, the water was down by 2 feet.
As soon as the locks opened, the water dramatically receded and by Tuesday morning, it was 90 percent dry, Kennedy said. The Cook family of Bleecker, Fulton County, had smiles Thursday as they walked around a clean fairgrounds, not far from their stables where they will show eight of their 12 horses from their “hobby farm.” Ron “Chip” Cook, 44, and his wife, Becky, 41, along with children David, 11 and Bethany, 18, were all involved in the cleanup. Three other daughters, Abigail, 15, Moriah, 14, and Sarah, 12, also deserve credit, their mother said.
Everyone shoveled out stalls, pressure-washed the walls and disinfected everything, the parents said. The kids — all are members of the 4-H — cleaned and painted the poultry barn where they will exhibit their rabbits. “This has been our family vacation for years,” the father said. “We look forward to it.” “It’s an agricultural fair,” he said. “It’s all family down here, not blood-related but family.” In years past, some 70,000 to 80,000 turned out over the seven days of the fair, Kennedy said.
The flood ruined equipment in the four concession stands at the speedway, concession manager Randy Yurkewecz said. At 6 foot 2, he was removing food from freezers as the water rose to his chest and he was told to get out. The 49-year-old Yurkewecz said a flood in 2006 also destroyed equipment in the concession stands, but the track still stands, and the resilience of the speedway workers will come through again. There will be races Sept. 17 and the 24, Yurkewecz said.
Kennedy, who also is a territory manager/equine nutritional consultant for Cargill Animal Nutrition, is in his 11th year on the fair’s board and sixth year as president. He was around for the 2006 flood as well. This time, he told the eight to 10 superintendents of the fair to get the word out a massive cleanup would begin at 8 a.m. Tuesday and he needed volunteers. The local newspapers and radio stations also put out the word.
By 8 a.m. 100 to 150 volunteers had showed up, including the Mohawk Fire Department with a pumper truck and high-pressure wash for the buildings. “It took them 12 hours and it would have taken us two weeks,” Kennedy said. “The volunteers shoveled and swept and carried tables and chairs out of buildings.”
Students showed up to work, he said, including the great-grandchildren of Mike Scott, who was a fair director and dairy farm and the legend for whom Scott Hall is named. Eileen Douglas, 68, a dairy farmer from Fort Plain organized the clean-up and then the setting up of exhibits at the Agricultural Awareness Building. Her 12-year-old granddaughter Alexis Douglas was helping set up Thursday.
“I sincerely believe the public needs to know where their food comes from … and that it’s safe,” said Douglas, who’s been exhibiting at the fair for 40 years. “Agriculture puts the roof over your head, the food on your table and the clothing on your back.” Her daughter, Sandy Douglas, 48, also of Fort Plain, helped with the cleaning. As soon as Route 5S was open for travel, “we were here,” she said. Her first reaction to the mess left by the flood waters was, “It was overwhelming.”
Reach Carol DeMare at 454-5431 or cdemare@timesunion.com