Aug 25

Big plans in Fonda’s future

The Leader-Herald – August 25, 2017 – Kerry Minor, Reporter, kminor@leaderherald.com

Shown are conceptual plans for the future of Fonda. (The Leader-Herald/Kerry Minor)

Fonda – The village is planning a new comprehensive plan to plot out what the future of the village might look like. During Tuesday’s unveiling for the new Nathan Littauer Primary Care center, village mayor Bill Peeler discussed the plan, and how the new facility fits into it.

Peeler said the comprehensive plan will serve as a map of the wants of the community. He said the goal is to make sure village residents are getting what they want and not just what village officials preserve them as wanting. “We have a lot of ideas, but we want to make sure that is the vision that our people have,” Peeler said.

Peeler said the village has involved both communities and businesses both in and out of the village in the comprehensive plan. He said a draft plan has been created. Peeler said he is asking residents to let village officials know what they want to see and why they have chosen to live here. “This will go out to the public for approval and changes, amendments and the like, because we want to make sure what ever we are shaping is exactly what folks in our community want to have,” Peeler said.

Primary considerations for the plan is infrastructure and its impact on development. “We cannot have facilities like [Nathan Littauer Primary Care] if we cannot provide them proper services,” Peeler said.

Village Mayor Bill Peeler speaks during the event. (The Leader-Herald/Kerry Minor)

Peeler said recreational facilities are also part of it, along with historical preservation. Residential improvements to the older inventory of homes and creating new housing are touched upon in the plan. Economical development, disaster mitigation and fiscal planning are all a part of the plan. Peeler said the village is also looking at shared services, including meeting with the village of Fultonville. “A river does not separate us, it’s just a river. We are Fonda-Fultonville. We will always be Fonda-Fultonville,” Peeler said. “We want to work with our neighboring communities to keep improving not just our community, but their communities as well.”

Peeler said the village will look into creating a zoning plan. He said Fonda is one of only two communities in Montgomery County without zoning. “That is going to be vital to us getting grant funding,” Peeler said. The plans are not just economic however, Peeler said the village is looking to bring entertainment to the village park with a stage for concerts and other events and creating a campground facility.

Peeler said the county’s plan to move out of the Park Street Office Building and DPW facility will help the village with its waterfront vision. Peeler said the Park Street Building could be turned into condominiums and the DPW facility could be turned into an entrance to the campground. “The goal of our efforts is to make our community a place where we can enjoy our rural culture while seizing economic opportunities. A place you would want to come to visit and live,” he said.

Links: Webpage, Facebook

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Jan 26

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 Herald

In 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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Aug 31

At The Railyard: Fonda Johnstown & Gloversville Review

Post by trmania on Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:13 pm

…when the sewing machine came into popularity in the middle of the 19th century, it caused a boom in textile production. In Gloversville, New York, the main product of the textile industries was fine leather gloves. 20 years later, there were 116 glove and mitten manufacturers, and the Fonda Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad was constructed to haul their products out to market. What would it be like to experience the railroad 80 years later, in a simulator? We’ll find out in this review…at the railyard!

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LINKS
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Official “At The Railyard” website:
http://www.attherailyard.com/

Have your own opinions about this route? Share them here:
http://www.attherailyard.com/apps/forum … e-railroad

Fonda Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad by Paul Charland:
http://www.trainsim.com/file.php?cm=SEA … fjg_v1.zip

FJ&G Historical Information and Photos:
http://www.fjgrr.org/FJGRR.ORG.html

Nick

Other links:
CSX & Amtrak Trains in Fonda, NY

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Jan 21

Passions Grow Over First Native American Saint

By Sebastian Smith (AFP) – January 17, 2012

FONDA, New York — Gazing down a frozen New York field, the statue of a Mohawk girl about to become the first Native American saint exudes calm. Yet the real Kateri Tekakwitha had a brutal existence — and ghosts from her dramatic life still haunt these hills.  The 17th-century figure will make history when the Vatican canonizes her later this year, although the joy among America’s indigenous tribes will be mixed with some painful historical memories.

Kateri Tekakwitha will become the first Native American saint in the Catholic church (AFP/File, Stan Honda)

No other “Indian”, as the original inhabitants of the United States and Canada are widely, but wrongly, called, has made sainthood. Following centuries of being dispossessed, caricatured, or ignored, Native Americans will soon have the unusual experience of appearing in a positive light.  Mark Steed, the Franciscan friar heading the Kateri Shrine on the banks of the Mohawk River, said that after more than 30 years of working among Native Americans, he is happy to see them win this boost.  “They were put down, bypassed,” Friar Mark, a soft-spoken but steely tough 71-year-old, said. “So I think when you have a repressed people, any star in their crown is a plus.”

For many Native Americans, especially among the Mohawk and other Iroquois tribes straddling the US-Canadian border, Kateri’s sainthood was overdue decades ago.  The Vatican needed a certified miracle from the three-centuries-dead tribeswoman and so followers submitted reports of dozens: everything from healing the sick to levitating a man off the ground and appearing herself, hovering in deerskin clothes.  None of these passed muster. But then in 2006 doctors in Seattle confirmed an astonishing event.  Against all medical expectations, an 11-year-old Native American boy fatally ill with a flesh-eating bacteria made a full recovery. His parents had been praying to Kateri.  Although needing another five years, this one convinced the Vatican, and last month Pope Benedict XVI cleared Kateri for canonization.  Her followers may not have a date yet, but they are already excited. “It will be a celebration of first magnitude,” proclaims the January issue of the shrine’s Tekakwitha News.

Friar Mark Steed at the National Kateri Shrine in Fonda (AFP/File, Stan Honda)

Kateri’s life story encompasses the despair and — for some — the hope sown in those tumultuous early years of the white settlers.  According to Jesuit accounts and oral history, Kateri survived a settler-introduced smallpox epidemic at four, but was left orphaned and near-blind. The next calamity was a raid by French settlers and native allies who burned her village to the ground.  Again she survived, spending the next decade in a newly built village across the Mohawk River in the woods near today’s Kateri Shrine. It was here, when she was about 20, that she was baptized and entered the crucial last four years of her life.

Ostracized by her tribe, Kateri — whose native name Tekakwitha translates as “The Clumsy One” — fled to a village of converts in what is now Canada.  Despite being ravaged by illness, she tended to other sick and lived a life of extreme asceticism — including burning herself with hot coals — that attracted admiration from missionaries and converts alike.  Tradition has it that when she died, aged 24, her smallpox-scarred face suddenly cleared.  That story still inspires people around Fonda to gather in the shrine’s open-air chapel in summer, or in the 230-year-old wooden barn housing a chapel where a large painting of Kateri hangs behind the altar.  But intertwined is the dark history of European conquest and the role played by Christian conversions.  Tom Porter, who lives a short drive down the road from the Kateri Shrine, believes Kateri unwittingly contributed to the destruction of her people. “She was used,” he said in a rare interview.

Statue of Kateri Tekakwitha by Joseph-Émile Brunet at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, near Quebec City.

Unlike many modern Mohawks who have either converted or are not interested in any religion, Porter works actively to restore the old beliefs.  He lives with family and a handful of followers on a farm where they grow their own crops, raise cattle and use work horses to plow the earth. A longtime Mohawk acting chief, Porter is immersed in the spiritual ways of his forefathers.  Inviting a reporter to join a huge family meal in the compound’s main house, Porter, whose native name is Sakokwenionkwas, or “He Who Wins”, said the moon, the sun and thunder are more important to the Iroquois than saints or popes.  “Christianity is not a shoe that will ever fit. Not for my feet, or my heart, or my soul,” he said.  A humorous man, Porter carries echoes in his face of the proud, eagle-like features seen in old pictures of tribesmen. But he could not conceal his bitterness.  To him, there is no difference between the spread of Christianity and the cruel policies, including forced assimilation in grim 20th-century government boarding schools, that were used to subjugate Native Americans.

Aged 67, Porter has made sure every one of his five daughters, one son, and 11 grandchildren follows the traditional ways.  He thinks Kateri was probably forced to become a Catholic. “I don’t know if she really was a Christian or not,” he said. “They were in poverty at that time. The Europeans had destroyed everything, people were destitute and starving, and if you wanted to get help of any kind you had to be a Christian.”  Porter conceded that few Mohawk agree with him. He even admitted that some in his extended family are devoted to Kateri.  “It breaks my heart,” he said.  Friar Mark acknowledged that there had been “terrible” sins and was determined to heal the wounds.

In the wooden chapel at the Kateri Shrine, a native blanket covers the altar. Snowshoes and deerskins hang from the rafters, and sacred herbs like tobacco and sage lie drying.  There’s a crucifix, of course, but also a picture of the tree and turtle at the center of the Native American creation legend.  Soon after taking up his position in Fonda a year ago, the tall Canadian friar went to call on Porter. “He was amazed,” Friar Mark recalled.  Since then, the two have met often and while they don’t agree, they listen to one another, an odd couple making peace on the spot where a future saint once lived.  “He’s a friend,” Porter said of Friar Mark. “When I was growing up, there was no one who hated priests and nuns more than I did. But I got over that now. All my enemies — they became my good friends.”

More links: USA Today, About.com, Wikipedia

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Sep 11

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

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