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Too close for comfort

2 Dec

Barbara Cotie, one-woman crime spree

Wow. Have you been following the story about the one-woman crazy show that’s been playing out in our neighborhood recently?  It’s the one where this woman has been working her way through our fair town, holding up Ridge Road businesses at gunpoint.

The good news is, after holding up Mark’s Pizzeria on East Main Street and Pizza Hut on Empire Blvd., and trying to shake down an employee of Kittleberger’s Florist on North Avenue, she has been apprehended. (Read the full story here.) She is 56-year old Barbara Cotie, of Webster.

It’s pretty scary to hear that such things are happening so close to home. My daughter works at a Ridge Road business, and it unnerves me to think that this lady could just have easily pointed a long gun at my daughter.  I have become friends with so many of Webster’s small business owners, and it unnerves me to think of someone pointing a gun at them.

Kudos to the Webster Police Department and Sheriff’s Department for their quick work on this one.

 

The end of an era.

22 Aug

The way it was.

It was a sad day along Empire Blvd. today. The Lipinski sign, which has stood tall and proud at the corner of Terrel Drive for more years than I can remember, finally came down.

It was more than four years ago that the corner hardware store closed its doors and the property’s new owners completely gutted the old building, turning it into the gingerbread-house-like strip plaza that it is now.  Several new tenants have moved in over the years (and one came and left), but through it all the sign has stood tall, almost in defiance of the redevelopment.

I had heard from a friend that this day would soon be coming, but secretly I hoped it never would. I always enjoyed seeing the Lipinski Bros. sign every time I passed by. To me it was a sign of simpler times, of family-owned businesses where the owners knew your name and greeted you personally every time you walked in.

So I guess this is a final good-bye to Lipinski Bros., our old friends. We will miss you.

The scene today at what I will forever and always refer to as “Lipinski’s Corner.”

This was a sad sight.

Sandbar Park: A corner of Webster I’d never seen

9 Aug

I checked off one more item from my Webster Bucket List recently. Despite having lived in Webster for almost 16 years, I had never — before this week — visited Sandbar Park up on the lake.

I had never actually heard about Sandbar Park until someone submitted it to my bucket list, and even then it’s taken me a year to actually go up and check it out. I was pleasantly surprised.

Sandbar Park (for the benefit of those of you who have also never been there) is a grassy, tree-lined strip of land on the north side of Lake Road, directly across from the Bay Side Pub. It’s a Town of Webster park, perhaps 250 yards long, and dotted with picnic tables and grills. The shoreline is very rocky, and there’s no swimming, but it’s pretty easy to climb down the large rocks to get closer to the lake.

This would be a very pleasant place for lunch. But I understand the park’s real draw is the vantage point it offers for some spectacular sunsets.  As one website described it,

The vantage point offered from this park, angled slightly toward the west, positions the setting sun further out over water compared to the lakeside parks west of here. Although Webster Beach Park, just down the road to the east, generally serves up better sunset viewing, Sandbar Park is special in that it is relatively unknown, offering a more intimate setting, and doesn’t have the foul odor the cove at Webster Beach seems to collect. (nyfalls.com)

I have a feeling this will not be the last time I spend some time at Sandbar Park.

There’s even history here!

 

Village of Webster works to reclaim Main Street cemetery

22 May

A nice article in the Democrat and Chronicle a few days ago shed some light on a little-known piece of Webster history:  hidden along a busy stretch of East Main Street lies a pioneer cemetery.

You can see the parking lot the neighboring homeowners installed over the cemetery in this image from Google Maps.

It’s known as the Robb Cemetery, and the article does a good job of tracing its history, which stretches back as far as the early 1800s.  It’s even possible, the article says, that there are people buried there who fought in the Revolutionary War.

But what the article doesn’t tell us is exactly where the cemetery is.  That would be between 242 and 256 East Main Street, spitting distance from the gas station on the corner of Phillips Road.  And while it does mention that the property is abandoned — meaning no one has title to it — the neighboring homeowners decided a while ago to simply lay claim to it and pave it over for a parking lot.

I am very pleased to see the village taking steps to reclaim the land, remove the parking lot, and give those buried there the respect they deserve.

Read the D&C article about the Robb Cemetery here.

 

They’re baaaack!

21 May

Some of the almost 30 flyers we found littering the neighborhood last time this company came through.

Apparently the littering run one local driveway sealer company made through our neighborhood last month wasn’t profitable enough.

The same company which littered our neighborhood with almost 30 marketing flyers in early April was back at it again this week. When my husband and I took our 1-1/2 mile walk Friday night after dinner, I counted seven flyers in yards and drainage ditches, which had escaped the confines of the newspaper boxes where they were stuffed.

The same company. The same litter.  You have to wonder, if they’re so sloppy about distributing their flyers, what does that say about the quality of their work?

*Update*

Funny thing about the two flyers we received in our newspaper box. The one we got a month ago quoted a price of $65. The one we got two days ago quoted $119. Did my driveway double in length in that time? Did they lowball us last time or are they trying to gouge us this time?

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