The Fonda Blog

Fonda may study dissolution, mayor says

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

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.

written by admin \\ tags: Events, Government, Village of Fonda

Shirley Fonda sits cross-legged on the floor in her Park Forest home and cradles Bob in her arms. Bob is about 8. He was born on a Bellefonte sidewalk. A boy brought him to Fonda soon after, still glistening. “So I’ve raised this one since birth, literally,” Fonda says. “He’s not doing well, unfortunately.” She tries to feed Bob, but he’s not receptive. After a while, she stops.

Shirley Fonda feeds one of her cats by hand at her State College home on Friday, January 4, 2013. Photo by Christopher Weddle, CDT.

These days, she would like to quit entirely. As much as she loves cats, she wants out of the rescue business. Fonda has taken in and found homes for stray or deserted cats for 14 years through her nonprofit operation, Fonda’s Foundlings. She has adopted cats from displaced trailer park residents whose new residences wouldn’t allow them. Her success stories number almost 1,500. Cats still fill her house. They sleep on chairs, sofas and window sills, and dart to and fro. Rooms have become colonies with cages and cat trees. Seven cats belong to her, but the rest are waiting for new owners.

Fonda’s weary of waiting. “It would just be nice to have a house again,” she says. She’s 77 and tired. Tired of spending hours daily feeding her residents. Tired of kittens from pets not neutered or spayed. Tired of cats abandoned to their fates. At this stage in her life, she would like to travel again. She and her husband Tom have been all over the world, exotic places like Borneo, and they have shelves of art and other curios to prove it.

She has a doctorate in geology, a master’s degree in zoology and research on marine biology waiting for her to resume. A cellist and classical pianist, she wants to perform with a local symphony and accompany Penn State music students like she once did. “There’s just no time for me to do any of that,” she says. She was trying to retire. For the past two years, she had stopped accepting adult cats, just kittens that she can easily sell to help offset her expenses. Cats kept going to homes, and her menagerie shrank to 40.

But like Michael Corleone, just when she thought she was out, she got pulled back in. Last August, she learned of a State College property overrun by strays. A woman had been feeding the area’s cats, then moved, leaving at least 62 behind. Eleven, including two with litters, were found inside the empty home. Neighborhood residents called Fonda. As a child, she brought home injured animals. As a local wildlife rehabilitation specialist for 25 years, she routinely nursed creatures to health. She couldn’t turn her back on suffering. “They had been there for two weeks and they were starving,” she says. Her shelter population swelled, but because most of the new arrivals were young and friendly, Fonda felt confident she could find homes for them.

Centre County PAWS, the Hundred Cat Foundation and Metzger Animal Hospital assisted her with a clinic to spay, neuter and attend to medical needs. Many young ones still didn’t survive. Since then, about two dozen have been adopted. She’s down to 20 mouths from the summer batch. Retirement draws nearer, but to get there, she needs help. Vet bills, food and litter for last year’s influx have cost the Fondas about $4,000. Weekly non-medical expenses exceed $100. Donations cover only so much, and they always could use more.

Most of all, Shirley Fonda needs caring cat-lovers — like the priest who once showed up and asked for her least-desirable orphan — to take her playful, gentle wards off her hands. Only then will she see more lands, play more concertos or possibly publish her research — if she can resist her own tenderhearted impulses. Call her at 238-4758 or search on petfinder.com if you’re interested in one of the files in Fonda’s thick black notebook. She’s waiting.

Adopt a Cat in State College, PA

We have been rescuing homeless cats and kittens in the central Pennsylvania region for 10 years and were involved in three major rescues in 2005. In January thirteen feral cats were trapped at the Toftrees Resort when management wanted the colony removed. In February 121 cats were rescued over a 6 week period from a home in Spring Mills and in May 59 cats were rescued from a home in only one week.

Nimbus is a gorgeous long hair tortie. She was found with her sister “Cirrus” and Mom “Skye” in a trailer park that was demolished. Nimbus loves loves to be petted. Her sister would be happy if you would adopt them together.

To date Fonda’s Foundlings have rescued 810 cats and kittens, most have been placed in loving homes. The kittens and cats that are available are quite friendly and ready to go to their forever home. All adults have been spayed/neutered, vaccinated, combo tested, and wormed. Fonda’s Foundlings will be at PETCO in State College, PA every SATURDAY afternoon and evening! Please stop by and show your support! If you can’t adopt, please donate!

No, they’re not little Nittany Lions… they’re Fonda’s foundlings!

Woman Opens Home to Stray Cats

Seventy-three-year old State College resident Shirley Fonda said her house is too full of cats for Penn State students to continue treating their pets poorly.   Fonda spends her waking hours feeding and caring for the 75 abandoned and stray cats she houses in her Park Forest home — cats she said she’s taken in as a result of some students abandoning their pets during winter and summer breaks.   “A good number of them are from students just dumping them off,” Fonda said. “I’d say I’ve reached my limits. I can’t afford it anymore. I paid over $9,000 in medical expenses [for the cats] last year.”

Shirley Fonda, 73, of State College, houses 75 stray cats in her apartment. Fonda said many of them are abandoned by students.

Cheryl Sharer, a full-time employee at the Pennsylvania SPCA Centre Hall Adoption Center, said the shelter has a constant problem with abandoned animals — especially after Penn State students head home for the holidays and leave their pets behind.  “Part of the problem is from students,” Sharer said. “We always get very busy around Christmas time and the first month of summer.” Sharer said she blames the problem on all Centre County residents, but the shelter is busiest around the time when Penn State students are leaving the area.

Donna Herrmann, of the The Hundred Cat Foundation, Inc., said her facility spayed or neutered about 600 cats this year alone. They experience an increased number of calls every spring, when unspayed female cats are abandoned during winter break begin to give birth.   “There is a huge feral cat population in State College, and some is definitely from students,” Herrmann said.

Fonda said she receives cats from people who can no longer take care of them and abandoned cats living in colonies. The cat colonies can contain upwards of 50 cats and center around student apartments and houses. “I’ve done rescues in Vairo Village, by the Toftrees Resort and Briarwood Apartments,” Fonda said. Briarwood Apartments is one of the few apartment complexes for students that allows pets, she said. Six rooms of Fonda’s house function as homes for her cats, which she is constantly trying to find owners for.

Penn State student Katie Fields lives in a Nittany Garden apartment on Waupelani Drive that allows pets and kept a cat earlier this year. But she said she quickly learned of how tough taking care of a pet can be. “I only had the cat for four or five days before I gave it back to the original owner,” Fields (senior-art education) said. “Financially, I couldn’t do it.” To students who do take on the responsibility of a cat, Fonda strongly recommends getting it spayed or neutered, and vaccinated.   “Students don’t realize it, but shelters can help you with medical expenses,” she said. “If you get a pet, be responsible.”

written by admin \\ tags: Pennsylvania, Pets, Special Interest

Starting from Scratch

September 13, 2012 By Kelly Dyer

Today, at the venerable age of 90, Professor Emeritus Dr. Bob Fonda cheerfully admits that he has seen many milestones over the years at Minnesota State Mankato. One of those would most certainly be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Dental Hygiene Program, which Fonda started almost single-handedly in 1969.

Dr. Robert Fonda will be at the Department of Dental Hygiene’s 40th Anniversary Reunion on Saturday, September 29 in the Centennial Student Union Ballroom.

Although the program has turned out countless well-qualified dental hygiene graduates over the past four decades, it got off to what Fonda characterizes as something of a “rough start.”  That may be a bit of an understatement.

The genesis of the program came about like this:

After spending four years in the Navy, Fonda practiced dentistry for 23 years in the small town of Rockwell City, Iowa. Unfortunately, spending that many years hunching over patients as he worked contributed to significant back problems, and in 1969, Fonda began to think about finding a new job in the dental field.

At about that same time, Minnesota State Mankato was investigating the possibility of starting a professional two-year dental hygiene program. Fonda met with college administrators and was offered a job. He accepted and agreed to come to campus to start putting the program together late in 1969.

What Fonda discovered once he arrived on campus was nothing. No books had been ordered. He didn’t have a classroom, a secretary or even a telephone. The college lacked a physical clinic in which students could receive practical instruction, and in fact, there wasn’t even a curriculum outline for the classes that were scheduled to begin the following spring.

Asked now if he realized what he was getting himself into all those years ago, Fonda chuckles. “No, not really,” he says. “I thought I knew but as in many cases, after you get there and sign the contracts and so on, you discover that there are other things that you are going to have to do…that weren’t maybe exactly the way you want to have them, but you just take the ball and run.”

The history of the Dental Hygiene Program — and Dr. Fonda’s role in it — is documented in a new book from the department.

Fonda rolled up his sleeves and got to work. The first order of business was to design a program and curriculum that would meet the accreditation standards of the American Dental Association. He spent countless hours doing that. He also began to interview and hire professional staff who could then teach to those standards.

That done, Fonda turned his attention to another pressing problem: The University had purchased a significant amount of used dental equipment from the Veteran’s Administration in anticipation of the new program. As Fonda inspected that equipment, however, he discovered that much of it was hopelessly outdated, damaged or simply not acceptable for use in modern dentistry. That started another scramble to find better equipment.

In addition, the physical clinic needed to be constructed, and Fonda spent a great deal of time supervising the construction, all while also sorting out the other details that the new classes would entail.  “I had some sleepless nights, let’s put it that way,” he says. “Sometimes I went home at night and just laid there and looked at the ceiling and thought, “Oh my goodness…”

Classes began in 1970 on the lower campus, with Fonda and the other instructors traveling from classroom to classroom carrying their tools and textbooks with them. In spite of all of the confusion of those early days, Fonda says he loved teaching.  “I liked passing on the information that needed to be passed on to students about dentistry and the various aspects of dentistry, and what kind of background would be required so that you would even be able to perform the duties,” he says. “I loved the student contact. I just thoroughly enjoyed that.”

As the program attracted more students, Fonda was also instrumental in finding new ways for the students to interact with the public at large, including working at the Faribault State Hospital, nursing homes, the White Earth Indian Reservation and other areas.

Today, Fonda remains delighted with the progress of the program he fathered. Even though he retired in 1986, he remains fiercely proud of its success.

“It was a pleasure for me,” he says. “I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”

written by admin \\ tags: Achievements, Education, Great Plains

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!

———
LINKS
———

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

written by admin \\ tags: Landmarks, Roads & Railroads, Village of Fonda

Fonda East Village Opens Next Week

By Florence Fabricant – February 13, 2012, 11:49 am

Roberto Santibañez is replicating Fonda, his three-year old Mexican restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in an East Village space.

Roberto Santibañez is replicating Fonda, his three-year old Mexican restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in an East Village space that is about 50 percent larger, with 60 seats and a menu of well-crafted, richly flavored regional dishes, including Yucatean shrimp, a Guajillo-style burger and chicken from the north with Chihuahua cheese. Crowd-pleasers like taquitos, flautas, braised pork in adobo sauce, and enchiladas suizas are also featured.

Mr. Santibañez said that the Manhattan restaurant, which is to open Feb. 21, will have more bar food and brunch dishes.  “In Brooklyn, this is a neighborhood place, a hangout, and I hope it will be the same in Manhattan,” he said. His commute, on the F train, will be an easy one, too, but he is also depending on cooks who have been with him for years.

Fonda Restaurant, 40 Avenue B (Third Street), Manhattan

“For Mexican food, your prep cooks are the most important,” he said. “They’re the ones who mix the moles and pipians and those are not last-minute sauces. They take time.”  He also plans to feature more mezcals at the bar. He serves only two in Brooklyn, but he thinks that his Manhattan clientele might be more interested in trying them

Fonda, 40 Avenue B (Third Street), (212) 677-4069.

New Fond Glory

Urban Daddy – February 17, 2012

Happy early birthday, George Washington.  Now there was a guy who loved spicy guacamole and hibiscus-infused margaritas.  Wait. It may have been wooden teeth and chopping down cherry trees.  Regardless, we’re sure if he were alive today, he’d want you to have these enchiladas.

A Large Concentration of Enchiladas on Avenue B

Meet Fonda, a Mexican restaurant on Avenue B that has everything you’d want out of a Mexican restaurant on Avenue B. Good queso. Authentic mole. And a big wood bar full of powerful tequila elixirs. And it opens Tuesday.  This place comes to the East Village courtesy of Park Slope (yes, the Yucatán Peninsula of West Brooklyn) and a Latin-blooded chef (the former Rosa Mexicano culinary director) who’s all about the three B’s. Braised meats. Bold salsas. And absolutely no mariachi Bands.

Not that you need an excuse to frequent an establishment that serves slow-stewed duck on soft, warm tortillas, but taking a date here would be a nice idea. See about reserving the lone booth in the house. It’s up front in the red-painted dining room and right next to the bar. Which is key, considering what we’re about to tell you.

These guys do margaritas right. Fresh fruits (guava, mango, pineapple), a touch of orange liqueur and a heavy slug of silver tequila.  Just the way G.W. liked it.

More links: Zagat, Gothamist, Homesite, Menu

written by admin \\ tags: Business, Dining, New York