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May 08
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Souderton preps for Battle of the Bands
The Reporter – May 8, 2009
Get ready for the Big Red Band to host another Battle.
2008 Fox 29 - Phillies World Series Celebration - Citizens Bank Park
That’s right, the Big Red Band Boosters of the Souderton Area School District sponsor a “Battle of the Bands” this Saturday.
“We’re having five acts play from the high school, and one special guest: a professional band from Lancaster called ‘Kingsfoil’,” said band coach Matt Fonda, who’s also a guitarist for The Classic.
The five local bands are called Armory Infirmary, Killing Helen, Mary Rush, Mac’s No. 13, and End_Scene.exe.
Each band will feature at least one member currently enrolled at Souderton Area High School, and each will perform for approximately 20 minutes, Fonda said.
The doors to the Souderton Area High School’s auditorium will open at 6:30 p.m. for the Battle, and music provided by the five amateur bands will begin at 7 p.m.
“All of the proceeds will either go towards the rewards: there’s a $50 prize for the first place band and $25 for the second and third, and the rest is going towards the music program,” Fonda said.
Tickets are $5 each and refreshments will be available for purchase.
For more information on the Big Red Band Boosters, visit http://www.soudertonbigred.org
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May 04
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State to stick with Fonda bridge plans
Route 30A span won’t wait for bypass study
Daily Gazette – May 4, 2009
Fonda, NY – New York State Department of Transportation officials say they will go forward with plans to replace and expand the Route 30A bridge in Fonda regardless of whether the federal government conducts a feasibility study for a bypass highway connecting Thruway Exit 28 to Route 30A in Johnstown. Initially, the DOT had intended to build a replacement span on the west side of the existing Route 30A bridge in 2010, but after public outcry the plan was shifted to be built on the eastern side. The project is scheduled to start in 2011 and will cost an estimated $5.75 million, which would include alterations at the intersection of Route 5 to make it more suitable for heavy truck traffic.
Stephan Zywiak, left, of the New York State Department of Transportation discusses the plan to replace the Route 30A bridge with Fonda Mayor Kim Flander Thursday night. The DOT conducted a special meeting with residents who could possibly be affected by the project.
“The Route 30A bridge needs to be replaced. It’s a vital enough link that we would not let it deteriorate to the point where it would have to be closed,” DOT Region 2 public information officer Alice Romanych said. “[A Fonda bypass highway] would be a 12- to 15-year project … and the bottom line is we really can’t afford to wait until that feasibility study is completed before we replace the bridge.”
U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said he’s been in contact with officials in both Fulton and Montgomery counties who want him to fight for a $2.4 million engineering and feasibility study for a bypass highway in the next federal transportation bill. Tonko said he’s ready to fight for the study because he believes a bypass highway could cut down on truck traffic and pollution in Fonda. “The feasibility study would provide for a thoughtful, analytical, steady process that gets the traffic from Exit 28 up to the Johnstown Industrial Park by circumventing the village of Fonda,” Tonko said. Supervisors in Fulton and Montgomery counties are poised to formally request the federal government provide 80 percent of the cost for the study, with the counties putting up a combined $480,000.
Fonda Mayor Kim Flander said she was surprised to hear the two county governments were lobbying for a feasibility study to build a highway bypass. She said state DOT officials told her in 2008 that constructing a bypass was not a feasible option as an alternative to replacing the Route 30A bridge. She said she supports the federal government feasibility study but wonders what the point would be after the state takes land from village residents to expand the bridge.
The bridge expansion will likely result in the state forcing the relocation of several Fonda businesses, including Antoinette’s Cafe at the eastern corner of routes 5 and 30A and Mike’s Pizza. “A year ago we talked to the state and asked them about a bypass. We were told a study was already done and based on that study it wasn’t cost effective to do the bypass,” Flander said. “If they’re going to conduct this study while they’re doing construction, I can’t comprehend why they are doing both.”
Romanych said replacing the Route 30A bridge is expected to result in the state purchasing slices of 10 properties and four entire parcels. She said the state hasn’t determined the cost of that part of the project. She said no formal study was done on the cost of building a Fonda bypass highway, but rough estimates indicate it would cost at least $35 million to $45 million.
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Apr 30
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Housing out as use for old Fonda site
St Albans Messenger – April 30, 2009
City eyes incubator space development
St. Albans City, VT – The vacant Fonda/Solo paper products plant on Lower Newton Street is no longer destined to become a housing project.
An amicable split between the City of St. Albans and South Burlington developer Yandow-Dousevicz transpired in late winter, after Yandow-Dousevicz realized environmental clean-up costs would exceed what it wanted to invest in the property, said Dominic Cloud, city manager. The city then sought the flexibility to pursue a different use of the building to recover those costs. The city purchased the building for $300,000 and was working with Yandow-Dousevicz to build a 100-unit senior housing complex at Solo.
Solo Paper - Fonda Group - St. Albans, VT
Yandow-Dousevicz is also responsible for the Hawk’s Nest, a senior residential facility in St. Albans Town, at the intersection of Route 104 and Route 36. “Yandow-Dousevicz continues to be interested in congregate housing in the city, and we continue to be interested in assisting them,” Cloud said. “Just not on that site.”
In mid-January, a state health department health official said it was “reasonable to conclude” that past workers of Fonda and Solo had some risk of chemical exposure to chemical contaminants. Tests conducted through the Northwest Regional Planning Commission’s brownfields program have revealed contaminants in groundwater, soil and concrete in the main building. Specifically, the site has elevated levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and TCE (trichloroethene). The manufacture of PCBs was stopped in the U.S. in 1977 because of evidence they accumulate in the environment and can cause harmful effects.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the ink used at Fonda, a leading U.S. food container company, contained PCBs, potentially toxic environmental compounds, and was spilled on the concrete floor, leaving it contaminated.
Cloud has said environmental mitigation could cost anywhere from $900,000 to $1.5 million. The city awaits word on a $400,000 grant application to the Environmental Protection Agency for cleanup at Solo. The city has subdivided the property into two parcels and, with approval, will split the EPA grant between the two sites.
Cloud called Solo “a viable development site located in a designated growth center, with rail siding.” The city could either sell the property as part of a redevelopment effort or lease it as business incubator space and use the revenue to bolster other economic development projects in the city, Cloud said.
Tim Smith, of the Franklin County Industrial Development Corporation, said at an industrial event in St. Albans last week that the region is short on incubator space. Neighbors of the Solo plant were worried about water runoff from the site. The city met with those neighbors in March and assuaged their fears. “We haven’t heard any concerns from the neighbors since that meeting,” Cloud said.
The Solo Cup Company closed the former Fonda Container plant in late 2005, displacing all 168 employees. The paper-products company was among the oldest and continuously run commercial operations in the city. Among its many products were cups and plates once used at large sports ballparks and stadiums.
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Apr 27
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Fonda couple leaves strong legacy
Gazette Reporter, April 27, 2008
Wemples set up scholarshipsFonda, NY – This year’s high school graduation at the Fonda-Fultonville school district will mark the start of a unique legacy left by a village couple known for hard work and community service. About a dozen students unlikely to afford college on their will have opportunity to continue their studies with free tuition with a new scholarship named after its donors, William Barent Wemple and Elizabeth Ashley Burton Wemple. School officials have said the gift of $1.83 million is remarkable in its size alone.
W. Barent Wemple and Ashley Burton Wemple left a $1.8 million bequest for scholarships for Fonda-Fultonville school graduates. Copy photograph from his obituary dated Aug. 24,1978 from the Mohawk Valley Democrat.
The Wemples stipulated in their will that the scholarship would be active once their heirs were dead; school officials learned about it last fall following the death of the Wemples’ son, Frank Wemple, in 2006. But some who knew the prominent, upper-class family are not surprised that the donation, spelled out in the Wemples’ last will and testament, went unheralded for more than 30 years. “Today , people seem to be more interested in saying they did something,” said Rose Aversa, who grew up next door to the Wemples on Montgomery Terrace in Fonda. “The old way was you don’t talk about what you do. You just do it.”
Aversa, now 79, was one of many in the community who witnessed the generosity of Elizabeth Ashley Burton Wemple and the work ethic of her husband, W. Barent Wemple. She said W. Barent Wemple spent much of his time working, while his wife arranged household affairs and was constantly involved in community service work. Many of Ashley Wemple’s acts went unnoticed, Aversa said, except the fact that she allowed all the neighborhood children to play in their yard on Montgomery Terrace. “She was really gracious,” Aversa said.
community leaderAccording to his obituary, W. Barent Wemple, born on Nov. 30, 1895, was a descendant of one the earliest Dutch families in the Mohawk Valley. His ancestor Jan B. Wemple, who arrived in America in 1640, was one of 15 founders of Schenectady. His name is among those found on the bronze tablet in the First Dutch Reformed Church in Schenectady’s Stockade. W. Barent Wemple went to school at the Albany Boys Academy, lived in New York City, and moved to Fonda when his father, William Barent Wemple, bought the Fonda-based Mohawk Valley Democrat newspaper.
W. Barent Wemple graduated in the Fonda High School class of 1913, went to Union College and graduated in 1917, according to his obituary, published in the Mohawk Valley Democrat, the paper he ultimately took over as its publisher. He served as secretary of the Mohawk-Glen Development Corp., which succeeded in getting the Keymark Corp. to locate in the village. Keymark, which manufactures extruded aluminum products, remains in Fonda today and is one of Montgomery County’s largest employers.
When he was 41, W. Barent Wemple became a director of the former National Mohawk River Bank of Fonda and later, its president. The bank merged with Central National Bank of Canajoharie, where he served as a director, and chairman of its building committee, according to his obituary. He was a director of the former FJ & G Railroad and of the Fulton County Coal and Oil Co. He served as a trustee of the village of Fonda and a member of the former Fonda Planning Board. He was a member of the board of education and a member of the first Montgomery County Economic Development Committee.
She was born on the former McNab homestead on North McNab Avenue and West Fulton Street. That land was later donated to the city of Gloversville by her parents which now serves as the site of the McNab Elementary School, according to her obituary.
Ashley Burton Wemple studied in Gloversville schools and went to high school at The Willard School in Berlin, Germany, later studying at Smith College in Massachusetts and then at the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing, where she became a registered nurse.
Ashley Burton Wemple was a member of the Nathan Littauer Hospital’s board of trustees, commissioner of the Girl Scouts of Fulton County, president of the Alliance Francaise and the Every Monday Club of Gloversville, according to her obituary. Her activities, described as “innumerable” after she died, included membership on the boards of education of the Fonda School and later of the Fonda-Fultonville school districts once they consolidated. Her memberships included the PTA, the Caughnawaga Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Century Club of Amsterdam, and the Antlers Country Club. Ashley Burton Wemple also served as a trustee and secretary-treasurer of the Frothingham Free Library and as a member of the Mohawk Valley Library Association, according to her obituary.
married in 1930Elizabeth Ashley Burton and W. Barent Wemple were married on July 26, 1930. They had two children; one, William Jr., was struck and killed at age 8 by a sand truck on Park Street in the village. He was on the way to third grade at the Fonda Elementary School, according to genealogical materials. Their son Frank, was born on Oct. 12, 1935, and attended Bard College and Columbia University. He worked with his father at the newspaper, according to his 2006 obituary.
Elizabeth Ashley Burton Wemple died at age 69 in November of 1964, 14 years before her husband, who died in August of 1978 at age 82. Rose Aversa, who still lives in the home next door to the former Wemple home, said she recalls W. Barent Wemple living alone after his wife’s death. “After she died, he didn’t do much. He gave up the paper and he just kind of walked,” Aversa said. “He kept to himself. In fact, he kept the light on at night he just kind of withdrew to himself.”
Though gone for decades, the Burtons will be memorialized through their gift to students, which, though surprising to residents when announced, doesn’t surprise people who knew them. The Fonda-Fultonville School District expects to distribute about 12 scholarships of $7,000, the cost of tuition at Fulton-Montgomery Community College. The family left a request that the scholarships be distributed equally among males and females and based on student financial need. The fund itself requires that at least 5 percent of its value go to Fonda-Fultonville graduates pursuing higher education and, depending on its management, could endure for decades, officials said.
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Mar 21
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Dance troupe proud of national honor
The St. Augustine Record, by Kati Bexley, Saturday, March 21, 2009
For Cori Ottenstein, 17, being part of Bartram Trail High School’s dance team on March 8, the day the team won the National Dance Alliance National Championships in Orlando, was one of the best days of her life.
Members of the Bartram High School dance team practice a routine at the school on Thursday, March 19, 2009.
Bartram Trail beat out 400 other schools across the country to win its second consecutive title. The school’s coach, Patty Adams, has spent several years building up the school’s unstoppable reputation across the state. And it’s paying off. Several girls are going on to dance for colleges, and some are auditioning for the Jacksonville Jaguars “The Roar” dancers. (…)
Like Ottenstein, dance team members say the sport has taught them life lessons. Team Captain Brittiany Fonda, 19, and team officer, Kayla Harris, 18, say it’s shown them the hard work and determination it takes to obtain a goal.
Both of the girls are trying out for the Jaguars “The Roar” and are in the final round of auditions. “I will just work really hard this year to improve and try out again next year,” Fonda said. “You can never give up.”
Svedlund said Adams taught them the dance team “isn’t really about dance.” She’s trying out for the dance team at Georgia Tech, where she will attend next year. She said Adams pushes them to bring in an A or B average, and Svedlund is ranked 29th in her class. “She taught us it doesn’t matter at the end of the day whether you win or lose,” she said. “As long as you’ve given your best, you can never let excuses get in your way.”
Adams said even if her team hadn’t taken the national championship, they won her over after their performance.”They came off the stage and said, ‘We can go home right now because we know we did our best. We did everything we could,'” she said. “The lessons of hard work they learned was the real prize for me.”