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Who were those kids marching up my driveway?

3 Jun

My daughter looked out the living room window yesterday afternoon and said, “Mom, there are some strange kids coming up the driveway.”

Click on the flyer to make it larger.

Fortunately, I was able to calm any doubts in her mind about their intentions.  A few days ago I received an email from AJ Cobb, my source inside the Webster Marching Band, who told me the band’s semi-annual bottle and can drive is coming up next weekend.  So I hypothesized that these kids were going house-to-house delivering notices about that.

Sure enough, this morning I found a neatly rolled and rubber-banded flyer tucked in my screen door. If you didn’t happen to get one, you can check out the image on the left for details about next weekend’s collection drive (click on it to make it larger).  There was also an envelope wrapped up in there, which residents are encouraged to use to make a cash donation instead (or in addition to) their bottle and can donations. Unfortunately, the envelope in my packet did not survive the overnight rainstorms, and is completely sealed shut.  But I probably can find another one to use in its place.

So start putting aside those bottles and cans for next weekend. And don’t worry too much if strange kids come up YOUR driveway today.

 

 

St. Rita Fiesta returns this weekend

31 May

There are lots of kids’ games and friendly helpers.

St. Rita’s 58th Annual Fiesta returns to West Webster this weekend, beginning Friday evening.  Festivities start at 5 pm, including food, kids’ activities, carnival games,  and country & Western entertainment by Goodness from 6-10 pm. Saturday there’ll be a 4 pm Mass in the church, after which the oldies band Ruby Shooz takes the stage from 5-8 pm. Later in the evening, the classic rock band Main Street East plays from 8-11 pm.

Bake sale volunteers present a sampling of some of the items for sale.

This is always a terrific family event, which also features a book sale, plant sale and baked food sale that’s out of this world.  All of the food and entertainment happens under a huge tent, with plenty of room for eating and dancing.

I understand they’ve added a zip line and a mechanical bull this year for the more adventurous among us.  I’ve always wanted to try a mechanical bull, so you might just find me whoopin’ it up there on Saturday afternoon.

Click here for more details about the Fiesta

Final concert marks the end of an era

30 May

I had another one of those moments last night. One of those “This-is-the-last-time-I’m-going-to-do-this” moments. I find they’re happening pretty frequently now that the youngest of my three kids is close to graduating from Webster Schroeder.

Last night I attended what probably was my last high school concert ever (that is, of course, unless I have some musically talented grandchildren some day). My daughter is a member of the Webster Schroeder Chorale which, along with the school’s wind ensemble and orchestra, performed their final concert of the year last night.  For many of the seniors — like my daughter — that also meant it was the last time they would take to the Schroeder stage.

The Last Concert. My daughter is third from the left, reddish hair and pigtails.

Rosenberry kids have been involved in the Webster schools music scene for more than 13 years, starting at Plank Road North, where my daughter joined her first chorus and my son started to learn the violin. Of course there were concerts and of course we were the proud parents.

As the kids progressed through Spry Middle School and finally to Schroeder, their musical involvement (and the number of concerts) increased. There were select vocal ensembles, a cappella groups, fiddle club, and of course the spring musicals.  We found ourselves in the Schroeder auditorium so often it felt like we had season tickets.

Last night, though, it all finally came to an end. Part of me is happy I’m not going to have to sit through any more concerts (frankly, I love choral pieces but classical strings and jazz aren’t my thing).  But I know that when school starts up again this fall, and I hear the Thomas chorus rehearsing down the hall, I’m going to miss the good ol’ days when my kids were up on those risers.

Plank North community plants tree to remember a young Pioneer

27 May

The spirit of a young Webster boy who succumbed to cancer last autumn will live on for years at Plank Road North Elementary School.

Simon with his good friend Lily in February 2011.

Almost a hundred people gathered in Plank North’s front courtyard Friday afternoon to take part in the dedication of a Bartlett pear tree in memory of Simon Harris, who passed away last October at 11 years of age, after a courageous battle with neuroblastoma. The crowd was filled with family members, neighbors, school friends, karate family friends, and staff members from both Plank North and Spry Middle School.

The sign which now hangs on the tree sums up Simon’s spirit.

Several speakers, led by Simon’s dad Andrew Harris, spoke of Simon’s courage and the difference he made in the lives of everyone around him. Patti Pawluk, whom Simon had as a teacher in second and third grade, remembered Simon’s irrepressible spirit. “Simon always had a huge smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye,” she said. “When I think of Simon, I think of sunshine.” The tree is located immediately outside Pawluk’s classroom window, where she and her students will be able to see its white flowers bloom every spring.

Simon’s dad Andrew Harris speaks at the dedication ceremony.

In a particularly moving part of the ceremony, Andrew invited Simon’s little brother Manny up to be the first to shovel soil onto the base of the new tree. Manny, Andrew explained, never complained throughout the entire ordeal of Simon’s illness, no matter what happened or what needed to be done. After that, family members and friends were invited to also pick up a shovel and help “plant” the tree.

Finally, after a rousing cheer of “Simon! Simon! Simon!” led by Andrew and enthusiastically joined by the entire crowd, dozens of multicolored balloons were released and raced toward the sky.

Abby and Ryan Smith show the special balloons which were released.

As he watched the balloons disappear into the distance, Andrew said, “I’m sure Simon’s smiling from heaven.”

Click on any of the photos to see a gallery of several more.

And they’re off!

Ridgecrest spray park out of commission … for now

24 May

The blistering heat of summer is right around the corner (we’re even getting a tiny taste of it this week), but Webster residents will have to wait until at least early July to cool off at the Ridgecrest Water Spray Park on Ebner Drive.

The Ridgecrest Spray Park is a summer oasis for kids.

The facility, which is especially popular with families who have small children, will be closed at least through the first week of July due to an electrical issue which arose in conjunction with the recent sale of the old Webster Rec building.

Parks and Recreation Commissioner Mark Yeager explained in an email yesterday,

When the building was sold we lost our electricity for the parking lot and spray park. We are working with RG&E to run a new electric line to the box lacrosse building. Once that is completed we will be back in business. We just received the quote from RG&E to set a new pole and run the line to the building. (Then) our electrician will come in and connect the spray park and parking lot lights.

So when will the park reopen? That pretty much depends on RG&E’s availability and how soon they can get the work done.  The town is hoping it’ll happen in early July.

My question is, who has sit on the spray whale every afternoon between noon and 3 pm and wait for the electric guy?

Thursday Webster Mailbag

24 May

Here are some events taking place around town in the next few days and weeks:

CDS Monarch Life Transitions Center on Hard Road will host its Monarch Ball on Friday May 25. Entertainment will be provided by DJ Delight, and refreshments will be available. The event runs from 6:30-8:30 pm, and the cost is $5.  Attendees are encouraged to dress to impress and get their picture taken to remember the evening.

CDS is located at 860 Hard Road. Please RSVP to Summer at 347-1661 or Svanscott@cdsunistel.org.

 ***

Webster’s Memorial Day Parade steps off from Spry Middle School at 9:30 am on Monday May 25. It will wind down South Avenue to Main, then down West Main to the Webster Cemetery, where ceremonies will begin around 9:50.

This is always a very nice parade and a very moving ceremony, so bring the whole family, set up some quad chairs, wave some flags and help honor our  veterans.

Webster’s annual Relay For Life takes place Saturday to Sunday June 2 to 3 at the Webster Thomas High School track.

I know the village of Webster always fields a team for this terrific event (the “Village Idiots”) and have heard about several teams from the school district, including the Webster Schroeder Warriors, Thomas Key Club, SparX, Board of Education, State Road Eagles, and the WCSD Transportation Department.

Even if you’re not part of a team this year, please consider coming out to enjoy all the action and show your support.  Stop by after dark if you can; the sight of hundreds of luminaria lining the track is truly inspiring.

* * *

The Webster Central School District will present an informational community workshop on emerging drug trends on Monday, June 4. The workshop will focus particularly on marijuana, synthetic marijuana, and bath salts. National and local data on youth substance abuse will also be shared.  Jennifer Faringer, director of the DePaul National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of Rochester, will be the featured speaker.

The hour-long program will be held at Webster Thomas High School, 800 Five Mile Line Road, beginning at 7 pm.

Mark your calendars now for THE BEST BLOOD DONATION DRIVE EVER, June 6 and 7.  This is the community drive where all sorts of local businesses come together to provide donors packets of coupons for FREE STUFF, including at least three separate ice cream cones (I know. I counted.).

The drives will be held Wednesday, June 6 from noon to 7 pm at St. Paul’s Church, 783 Hard Road, and Thursday, June 7from noon to 7 pm at the West Webster Fire Hall, 1051 Gravel Road.

* * *

Webster Museum’s Annual Barn Sale takes place Thursday-Saturday June 7, 8 and 9, from 9 am to 4 pm. This sale is so big the museum can’t fit everything, so it will be held at 394 Phillips Road, one of Webster’s most beautiful and historic properties.

The sale features art work, books, fancy dishes, dolls, tools, comics, and pottery. There will be items for collectors, and kids of all ages. Donations are welcome and can be dropped off at the barn by June 5. (Please keep in mind the museum cannot accept clothing, large furniture, appliances, TVs, or computers.)

Garage sale patrons can also take a tour of the Victorian home (built in 1856) for a $5 donation.  All money raised from the sale and tours raised supports the museum’s education programs, speakers’ programs, and the Historic Homes Project.

* * *

And finally, don’t forget that Webster’s TWO farm markets open for business on Saturday June 9. The Joe Obbie Market will be moving to Webster Towne Plaza (where Target is) and set up near the gazebo. Plus, Main Street in the village will host a brand new market on the same day.

Hope you want a lot of veggies.

TWO markets to market in Webster this summer

14 May

You may remember a blog I posted last week about how this summer’s village farm market will be located on Main Street instead of the parking lot behind the fire hall. When I wrote that blog, I assumed that the Joe Obbie Farm Market which we have enjoyed for years was simply moving its location, perhaps to get better exposure. I have since found out that I was only half right.

The Joe Obbie Farm Market is indeed moving this year, but it’s going outside the village, to Webster Towne Plaza on Holt Road (the Target plaza). The new location will offer a lot more space and better parking. It will open for business on Saturday June 9 and run from 9 am to 12:30 pm every Saturday.

The village has answered that move by establishing a second, totally separate, farm market, which will set up on Main Street from 8 am to 12:30 pm every Saturday, also beginning June 9.

So now Webster has two farm markets. It will be interesting to see if there’s enough business – and vendors — to support both markets. I like the idea of having a market right on Main Street, which will draw more people into the village, but I wonder what the parking will be like, given that the vendors will be setting up in the parking spaces.

Stay tuned.

Annual school budget vote is Tuesday

13 May

I’d be willing to bet that’s not news to you. It seems you can’t turn around lately without seeing a sign advertising the school budget vote. You’ve seen it in school newsletters, in the local papers, and every Webster School District household received a slick brochure in the mail.

But just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, here’s what you’ve missed:

The annual school budget vote and Board of Education election will be held on Tuesday, May 15. Polls will be open between 6 am and 9 pm in the Webster Schroeder High School gymnasium, 875 Ridge Road.

The 2012-13 budget proposal of $143,574,945 reflects a 2.13% increase over the current spending plan and continues to fund a comprehensive academic program for WCSD’s nearly 9,000 K-12 students.

Tax rates are estimated to increase by approximately 1.92%. For a Webster home that is assessed at $150,000 and has the Basic STAR exemption, property taxes would increase by $54 a year, or $4.50 a month. This increase is based on estimated assessed values and 2011-12 equalization rates. Final tax rates will be set in August and are subject to change pending final assessments and 2012-13 equalization rates. WCSD’s tax levy increase of 2.67% is below the 2.76% allowable tax levy limit. Property tax limits are based on a state approved 8-step formula with results that vary from district to district.

In addition to the budget, a school bus proposition of $1,220,000 will go before voters to purchase ten 65-passenger buses and three 29-passenger buses.

Voters will also see two candidates for two board of education seats on the ballot: Frederick “Fritz” Killian and Suzanne Casey. Killian was appointed to the board in February to replace Chris Inzinga, who resigned suddenly. Casey’s been a board member for 15 years.

You’ll find a lot more detail about the budget and the school board candidates on the Webster School District website. Or you can go straight to a .pdf of the slick brochure by clicking here.

 

Water, water everywhere, but can you drink it?

6 May

Click on the photo to read the D&C article

If you still get the Sunday print edition of the Democrat and Chronicle, I’m sure you saw the big front-page article about the controversy in Webster over its water distribution system. If you didn’t see it, click here for the online version, which also contains some video statements from Mayor Elder and Webster resident John Cahill.

Reporter Steve Orr did a nice job telling both sides of the issue. But I did wonder why the only person he quoted still “loyal to the village supply” was Jake Swingly, former mayor and current public works superintendent (i.e., in charge of the village’s water services).

Basically, the issue is this: Webster Village’s water supply is drawn from wells tapping into the Irondogenesee aquifer that lies below Irondequoit Bay and Irondequoit Creek. Webster is the last village in Monroe County to provide its own water supply, a fact which appears to be a source of pride for village officials. However, the water is very hard, and residents have been complaining about it for years. Orr writes,

But increasingly, consumers find village water unappealing. It’s free of chemical and bacterial contamination, but is so loaded with minerals that it clogs appliances, stains plumbing and is too salty for some to safely drink. Many village residents spend hundreds of dollars a year on home filters, softeners and purifiers to make their water usable.

So for a while now the village has been looking at the issue and has proposed spending $4.5 million to build a new reverse osmosis water filtration plant, which (according to the article) might be put up for a referendum vote as early as July.

Opponents to that idea have been coming out in force, making public statements at the Village Board meetings, sending out emails and handing out fliers to anyone who would listen.  The better option, they say, is to finally ditch the well-water system and hook up with the Monroe County Water Authority.

The issue will come to a head this week. On Monday evening at 7 pm, the opposition group which calls itself Webster Village Residents for Monroe County Water will hold a community forum at the Webster Public Library at 7 pm.  On Thursday night the Village Board will continue its discussion at its regular meeting at 7:30 pm at the Webster Community Meeting Hall, 29 South Ave.

If you have comments on this issue, please feel free to email me at missyblog@gmail.com.


Free children’s vision screening tops weekend events

2 May

Another busy weekend coming up in Websterland, with some very worthwhile events worth your consideration:

In celebration of Healthy Vision Month in May, ABVI and Goodwill will be hosting a FREE Early Vision Screening for children ages 6 months to 5 years on Saturday May 5. The screening will  provide a quick assessment of a young child’s eyes, making it easy for parents to identify potential vision issues and get them corrected before irreversible damage is done.

The statistics are startling: one in every four children in our community between the ages of 6 months and 5 years have an undiagnosed vision issue that will adversely impact their ability to learn and could potentially lead to blindness. Those numbers can be reduced significantly if parents simply had their children’s vision tested regularly –and what a great opportunity this is to do that.

The free screening event will take place from 10 to 2 pm at the Webster Goodwill Store (in the Ridge Road plaza across from Towne Center).

Some of the Friends having fun in the dirt at last month’s workday.

When you were a kid, did you like to play in the dirt?  The Friends of Webster Trails asks, why’d you stop? There are still plenty of opportunities to dig and get dirty at the group’s monthly workdays, a time when the Friends get together to maintain Webster’s awesome trail system.

This Saturday is the next scheduled workday, at the Whiting Road Nature Preserve. Plans are to to fix the wet and muddy trouble spots on the Blue trail and across the street leading into Webster Park. There’ll be plenty of stone-shoveling, wheelbarrow-pushing and trench digging to go around.

New workers are always welcome. Meet in the Whiting Road Nature Preserve parking lot parking lot Saturday morning at 9:00 AM. Wear gloves, bring drinking water and dress for the weather. (P.S. Don’t wear your Sunday best.) If you’ve got some loppers, shovels, mattocks and maybe even an extra wheelbarrow laying around, you could bring those, too.

* * *

Don’t forget about the performance by the University of Rochester YellowJackets this Saturday afternoon at 4 pm, sponsored by the Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church is located at 131 West Main Street in the Village.

The YellowJackets are a fourteen-member vocal ensemble that sings a cappella arrangements of popular songs. They have performed and traveled both domestically and abroad. They were also contestants on season three of the nationally televised Sing Off. There is no admission charge for the event, however, a free will offering will be given. The group will also give a presentation on their recent humanitarian trip to Kenya.

There is no cost for the presentation but a free-will offering will be accepted.

There’s been a lot of chatter around town lately about the state of the village water system. As the village considers options to improve the system through reverse osmosis or changing over to MCWA water — or doing nothing — pro and con arguments are being hurled from all sides. Most recently I’ve heard talk that there are actually dangerous chemicals in the local water supply.

On Monday May 7, a group called Webster Village Residents for MCWA will be holding a public meeting beginning at 7 pm at the Webster Public Library to argue their side of the issue and to kick off something they’re calling their “Blue Ribbons for County Water Campaign.”  You can check out their Facebook page here for more information.

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