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A tale of two farm markets

9 Jun

Vendors at the village market tucked their tents amid the parked cars.

Webster’s two farm markets officially opened for the summer this morning, despite the rain. Being that this is the first time (in my memory, anyway) that Webster has had TWO markets, I was curious about how they’d be set up and what the crowds would be like.

This was one of the nicer stands, real farm-market-ish.

For those not in the loop, this summer the Joe Obbie Farm market, which had been in the village for years, most recently in the community parking lot behind the fire station on South Ave., decided to move to the Towne Center parking lot, near the gazebo.  The village, in turn, has organized a second farm market, with vendors setting up in parking spaces along both West and East Main.

The Joe Obbie set up at Towne Center was much more organized.

I swung by the village first this morning. The rains had stopped by the time I got there, and the sun was out, but still there weren’t many people on the street.  Part of the problem was there weren’t many vendors on the street.  I visited briefly with Mayor Peter Elder, who was out and about, who told me that the morning rains prohibited many vendors from setting up shop. So there were only ten vendors situated sporadically along Main Street, making them a little difficult to pick out among the parked cars. Some of them really didn’t have a great selection of products, either, so the whole thing seemed a bit anemic.  But I think we can chalk that up in part to its being a brand new event, still finding its legs.

The Joe Obbie Farmer’s Market in contrast, was big and bountiful and crowded. There were more than two dozen vendors, all gathered together with their large tents, drawing nearby shoppers with a carnival-like atmosphere. As I walked around I heard the vendors talking about the morning’s rainstorms, but they didn’t seem to have permanently dampened the event. It was clear the market was thoroughly enjoying its new roomier location, which allows more vendors than I’ve ever seen before (especially this early in the year) and gives everyone more room to spread out. Plus the Girl Scouts had set up a kids’ area in the gazebo.

Girl Scout troop 60367 created this fun area for kids, where they coul dmake crafts while their parents shopped.

The Joe Obbie market has years of organization behind it, so no surprise it’s bigger and better right now.  I look forward to seeing how the new village market grows and matures. We’ll check back in a few more weeks…perhaps when the weather is better.

Webster mailbag

6 Jun

Lots of neat stuff coming across my computer screen these days, starting with these three don’t-miss events this weekend:

Webster Museum’s Annual Barn Sale takes place today through Saturday 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. 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.

* * *

Webster’s TWO farm markets open for business this 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, stretching down both East and West Main. I think they’ll be setting up in the parking spaces, so please drive carefully when you make your way through the village this Saturday.

Both markets open at 8 am.

* * *

The Webster Marching Band holds its semi-annual Bottle and Can Drive this Saturday from 9:30 am to 4 pm. Simply collect all your returnables, stick them in a garbage bag and put them out by the curb. If they happen to miss you, you can call to arrange a pickup. Click on the flyer to the right for more details.

* * *

Now, in true mailbag fashion, here are some odds and ends that people have emailed me recently:

My friend Jamie Buss sends me this shout-out to the students at Klem South Elementary:

Just wanted to brag about the kids at Klem South a little.  I ran a fundraiser at school for the Dream Factory, called Dollars for Dreams, in which kids donated their spare change for a two-week period.  Each class had their own milk jug to fill and we made a friendly contest out of it.  The top fundraising class from each grade would get to pick a theme-day of their choice (hat day, toy day, silly clothes day, etc.).  The fundraiser ran the last two weeks in May and the kids raised a grand total of $862.83 (one 3rd grade class raised over $120 alone)!  This is enough money for a dream recipient’s family (of five) to stay at a resort in Orlando, FL for an entire week, which would include mini golf, horseback riding, swimming, all the ice cream they can eat, PLUS tickets to the Disney theme parks, Sea World and Universal Studios AND spending money for their trip.  A little effort goes a LONG way in this case!

Great job, kids!!!

Congratulations to Rising Earth Massage Therapy as the Webster Chamber’s Business of the Month for June 2012. The Chamber recognizes Webster businesses that demonstrate outstanding community service as well as their exemplary business character and reputation. Rising Earth Massage Therapy is located at 1130 Crosspointe Lane Suite 2B in the Ridgewood Office Park.

And by the way, today’s the second day of Webster’s Community Blood drive, the one where they give you coupons from local businesses just for showing up. I got denied today because of low iron, but I got my coupons anyway (I love these people), and sure enough, there are three coupons for free ice cream alone  (and the Bruster’s coupon is for  FREE PINT).

Today’s drive is at the West Webster Fire Hall from noon to 7 pm. Please donate and help save lives.

email me at missyblog@gmail.com

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Readers’ photos from Webster’s Memorial Day parade

29 May

Many thanks to Patty Homeier and Joyce Annis for answering my call for photos of Webster’s Memorial Day parade and ceremony. Whether they knew it or not, the two ladies acted as a team; Joyce sent photos from the parade, and Patty, who marched in the parade with the Girl Scouts, sent some of the ensuing ceremony. So the whole event was covered.

I am pleased to post their photos here, beginning with my favorite. (Actually, this one could be an award winner in a photography contest.) 

The young ladies in the photo are Alexa Swift and Theresa Homeier, of Girl Scout Troop 60851.  Patty explained how she got this shot:

“I am one of the Girl Scout leaders and happened to peek up during a prayer to see if the girls were behaving or goofing.  That’s what I saw when I looked up.  AND my camera happened to be on.  I got lucky.”

She also took this photo of Alexa, Theresa and their friend Millie Kearns, who was visiting from Gates:

Here are a few more of Patty’s photos from the ceremony:

Joyce provided these photos from the parade itself:

Thanks again, Patty and Joyce!

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.

Follow updates on Bay Bridge closures through Twitter

18 May

This note came across my email box yesterday, courtesy Webster Chamber of Commerce president Barry Howard:

Many of you may have heard already, or you will be reading about it soon, that a major NYS Department of Transportation project to replace the expansion joints on the Bay Bridge will be taking place over the next few months.

This project will require significant lane reductions and that the bridge be closed periodically, sometimes overnight during the week and at least 4 times this summer for a whole weekend (9:00PM on a Friday until 9:00PM on a Sunday). When the bridge is closed it will be in one direction or the other; either westbound (Webster to Irondequoit) will be closed OR eastbound (Irondequoit to Webster) will be closed. Provisions are being made for emergencies and for some critical emergency traffic.

This project does not allow for a fixed timeline so it is NOT POSSIBLE to tell you what the entire schedule will look like for the next few months – we do not know exactly which days lanes will be closed and /or which nights or weekends the bridge will be closed. The schedule will be driven by work completion and the DOT will provide as much notice as possible for lane reductions and closures.

Because we don’t have a fixed schedule, the Webster Chamber has started a Twitter account for you to follow what is happening on the bridge. The Twitter account is @104Bridge and you can sign up for a twitter account that will notify you via email or text message by going to http://www.twitter.com.

The Chamber will tweet information provided to us from NYS DOT and we will re-tweet on each of the days with affected lane reductions or closures to remind you and keep you informed of bridge plans.

The detour for times when the bridge is closed will be Bay Road and Empire Blvd – to be used during closures in either direction. Westbound traffic will exit at Bay Road and travel south on Bay Road and then west on Empire Blvd to the 590 on ramps. It is already clear that putting that much traffic onto those roads in even smaller peak travel times will result in huge delays and gridlock. It is suggested you avoid the whole area if possible by going further south to roads such as Route 286 or Route 441 before heading westbound.

I will also try to re-tweet announcements when I notice them. But to follow the Bay Bridge update Twitter feed directly, click here.

Webster’s on a wild goose chase

15 May

Baby geese are cute and fuzzy, but eventually grow into messy, aggressive adult geese.

A few days ago, as I was driving along Empire Blvd. near Abbott’s, I almost rear-ended a car which had come to a dead stop in front of me. After letting loose a few … um, highly complimentary … adjectives to describe said driver, I looked more closely and saw why he had stopped.

Two adult Canada geese and half a dozen fuzzy goslings were slowly waddling their way across the busy road.

My near-accident was a perfect illustration of the big problem Webster is having right now with geese. A recent survey of the local geese population counted about 200 resident geese in the area – those are the ones which nest locally and don’t migrate very far. Plus, this spring you can add about 50 new goslings to that number as well.

So basically we now have about 250 geese making their way around town, befouling walkways and ponds with their droppings, damaging lawns, spreading disease, and causing automobile accidents.

The survey identified several areas where the problem is particularly bothersome:

* North Ponds Park
* R.L. Thomas High School
* Willink Middle School
* Calvary Automation (Publisher’s Parkway)
* Mirrorshow Management (corner of Hard Rd. and Publisher’s Parkway)
* Webster Parks and Recreation building
* Empire Park
* Webster Park
* Webster Golf Course
* Webster Schroeder High School

North Ponds Park has a large number of resident geese.

All sorts of eradication strategies have been tried already, with limited success. The Rec Center installed decoy coyotes on their property last August, which scared the geese for a while – and some residents, for that matter. But eventually the geese caught on. More recently, the Mirrorshow Management folks strung fishing wire and tinfoil around their ponds. That worked for about two weeks. So far, nothing seems to be working for very long.

Last week, representatives from the Parks and Recreation Department brought the issue to the Town Board to see what could be done. Several possible solutions were presented, including hiring a border collie to scare away the geese (Brighton has had some success with this), putting stones around ponds (geese like a grassy habitat) and addling the eggs (spraying them with corn oil so they never hatch).

All of these plans would cost the town a lot of money. One idea, however, received a lot of support from the board members: a capture and euthanize program. With the help of strategically placed snow fencing, human sheep dogs herd geese into holding pens from which they’re collected, shipped out of town and euthanized. And the best part? Federal grant money will pay for it.

So right now, that’s the plan. Sometime in the next few months the town will conduct a catch and euthanize program at North Ponds Park. Then, once the local geese population is at a manageable level, the Rec Department will use its bag of tricks — and maybe some budget money from the town — to keep it there.

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.

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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