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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
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May 30
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A moment in history…
Fonda, NY Train Wreck
“The wreck occurred on July 18, 1947 at Fonda, NY. My grandfather was the engineer operating engine number 2775, an L2a Mohawk I believe. He was the only one injured. It tied up all four tracks of the mainline for quite some time. He said the tower man switched his train into the back end of a work train sitting on a siding. He also said they never saw the tower man again after the wreck.” Don Relyea, May 2010
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Also shown at Railroads of Madison County
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May 30
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A moment in history…
Hotel Roy Burned
Fonda Landmark Destroyed – Night Porter Injured While Escaping
Hotel Roy Fire - Fonda, NY - 1909
Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, 26 Jan 1909
Fonda, NY – Jan 26 — The most disastrous fire that has visited this village since 1899 was discovered about 2 p.m. yesterday in Hotel Roy. The fire was first discovered by Miss Agnes Miller, an employee of the hotel, and before she could give the alarm, the entire building was filled with smoke. The fire is thought to have originated in the laundry, which was located in the cellar of the hotel. The Fire department was called out and shortly afterwards word was sent to Fultonville for assistance, and the firemen from that village – were soon on hand to give their help. The firemen worked faithfully, but all their work only seemed to help the blaze, and at 1 o’clock the entire structure was a roaring furnace.
When it was seen that the hotel could not be saved, streams of water were turned on the buildings on the opposite side of the street and they prevented the fire from spreading.
Shortly after the fire was discovered, John McMaster, who was the night porter in the hotel, and who was asleep in his room on the third story, on the west side of the hotel, was awakened and being unable to enter the all, opened the window and hung by his hands on the window ledge for several minutes, when the bricks became so warm that he lost his hold and fell to a roof below. He received a bad gash across his forehead, a badly burned arm and a broken hip. He was taken to Amsterdam hospital on the 4:52 train. Hotel Roy was erected by John V. Borst in 1836, and was one of the old land marks of the village. In 1892 Wells and Ward Streeter of Gloversville purchased the hotel of the late Jacob Snell and have since conducted the same. The building was destroyed and the loss is estimated at about $40,000 with an insurance of $25,000.
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Feb 10
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Fonda Begins Neighborhood Watch
February 9, 2010 By Amanda Whistle, The Leader-HeraldFonda, NY – The village is a relatively safe place, according to Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Krug. Krug and village neighborhood watch coordinator Mark Scott want to keep it that way. The two organizers hosted the first neighborhood watch meeting in the village Monday night at the village firehouse on Route 5. Both said the neighborhood watch group is important because it gives citizens the tools to be the eyes and ears of law enforcement, brings the community together and engages youths.
Paul Krug, right, Montgomery County sheriff’s deputy and law enforcement liaison for the Fonda neighborhood watch, answers questions while coordinator Mark Scott, left, and his wife, Susan Scott, look on at the first Neighborhood Watch meeting in the village Monday at the Fonda firehouse.
“It’s not a group of vigilantes,” said Krug, the law enforcement liaison for neighborhood watch groups in the county. Krug said the group will host programs that will teach residents about “target hardening,” or how to make their homes less of a target for crime, CPR classes, and what to look for if one witnesses a crime. In the summer, the group would like to have barbecues and start opening up the meetings to be social gatherings as well as educational.
Scott said he’s seen the people in the community become less involved and said the village used to be friendlier. “I’d love to see it go back to a community,” Scott said. “I walk every day and there isn’t a person I don’t know and it should be like that [for everyone.]” Krug, who recently moved to the area, said the group can be used to welcome new residents.
“It’s networking with your neighbors,” Krug said. “It gives you an opportunity to meet more people.” “In general, we don’t have a high crime rate,” said village resident David Stone, who was at the meeting. “When I lived on Long Island, you go out and half the time you don’t know what you’re going to find.” “It’s the stupid little things that do happen here,” Scott said.
Interim village Volunteer Fire Department Chief Donald Wagoner attended the meeting and said he hopes the group can get more people in the village involved. Though the first group meeting didn’t garner much of a turnout, Krug and Scott said they understand people are busy and some are working two jobs to make ends meet. “When it’s something you care about, you can find the time,” said Susan Scott, Mark Scott’s wife. The volunteer fire department hasn’t been able to keep a lot of volunteers over the past decade, having gone from 45 volunteers in the 1990s to about a dozen today.
“The problem with the community is that people are so busy and they don’t want to [commit,]” Wagoner said. “This is one of the safest places and we want to keep it that way,” Susan Scott said. The village will hold monthly neighborhood watch meetings every second Monday of the month at 7 p.m. in the village firehouse.
Amanda Whistle covers Montgomery County. She can be reached at montco@leaderherald.com.
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Jan 28
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Crocodiles move into luxury lagoon
Thursday, January 28, 2010 © The Cairns PostCROCODILES are lurking in the man-made lagoon at a luxury estate at Trinity Beach, posing dangers for pets, children and the area’s wildlife, residents claim. Residents of the gated community within the Blue Lagoon Resort say at least two crocs have been seen in the estate’s 2ha lagoon.
Danger: Chelsea and Lachlan Fonda at the entrance to Trinity Beach’s Blue Water Lagoon where crocodiles have been sighted swimming.
In 2005 developer John Murphy built a croc-proof fence across a spillway at the northern side of the lagoon after reports of sightings. Resident Justin Littlefield yesterday said the fence was failing to stop salties from entering. “The fence until last week had a pipe protruding through into the Coral Sea to pump salt water into the lagoon to control algae growth; now the fence has a hole as the pump and piping has been removed,” he said. “I observed with other residents a crocodile about 1.5m in length cruising the lagoon on Sunday.
“Other residents report the croc ate a duck swimming in the lagoon. I’m waiting for a little dog to get monstered.” Resident Charlie Fonda said he saw a croc’s head, more than 60cm long, peering above the lagoon’s surface while walking through the estate with his son Lachlan last week. “I have to remind the kids to not go too close to the lagoon,” he said.
Speaking to The Cairns Post while on holiday in the Philippines yesterday, Mr Murphy said he had not heard of any recent sightings but didn’t rule out the possibility. “Anywhere in Cairns close to water is prone to crocodiles, it’s quite possible something could get in there,” he said.
“If there have been reports of sightings the EPA will get called to do a search and will relocate the animal but it’s the first I’ve heard about it.” Mr Littlefield said a croc-warning sign had recently been erected at the entry into Trinity Beach.