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A shot from the Main Street Farmer’s Market in June

This being Saturday, I thought it might be a good time to revisit the state of the Main Street Farmer’s Market, which is trying to get a foothold in the village every Saturday morning.

The Main Street market was established, of course, to counter the decision by the Joe Obbie Farm Market to move from the community parking lot behind the fire hall to the Target Plaza.  The decision was a good one for them, judging by the number of vendors it attracts and the crowds of people who visit every weekend.

In contrast, the new Main Street Farmer’s Market has been, well, unimpressive.

On a good day there might be seven or eight vendors on the street.  But too often there are only four or five, and for a while they were so spread out it was hard to find them.  At least now all of the vendors have been clustered along West Main Street, so it looks a little bit better.

Granted, encouraging market growth is a Catch-22: it’s hard to attract new vendors when no one comes to buy your products, and no one wants to come to town if there are no vendors.  And it’s not like the village isn’t trying. I’ve seen cents-off coupons distributed to encourage new customers, and there are lots of special events coming up to draw families to town during the market.  So, little by little, those efforts might begin to turn things around.

In the meantime, there are still concerns about the safety of having vendor stalls along busy Main Street. No matter how many signs you put up, cars will continue to drive at unsafe speeds through the village.  That’s a concern which can only get worse as the farm market becomes more popular, and there’s little chance the market will be moved back off the street to a parking lot again. BID leaders like the idea of residents seeing a busy village, where there’s always something going on.

Unfortunately, right now the Main Street market isn’t quite pulling its weight in that regard. But it’s still early, and I hope things eventually improve, because the market is a good thing for the village. (And please slow down as you drive through!)

The Main Street Farmer’s Market is open from 8 to 12:30 every Saturday morning through October 13.  Upcoming special events include:

August 11: Dig Safely Day – Can Ya Dig it??

Stop by the Village Hall from 9 to noon to check out some of the village’s excavating equipment. Children are invited to pose for photos. There will also be balloons and tattoos.

August 18: Cooking Demo with Jim & Jeannean LaMonica

Jim & Jeannean from Uncle Jim’s Donuts & LaMonica’s Pizza are still cookin’ after all these years. They’ll hold a demo featuring the delicious seasonal vegetables from our area.

September 1: Storytime with the Mayor

Village Mayor Peter Elder will be at Yesterday’s Muse Bookstore at 11 am to read a story to children.

September 8: Lacrosse Clinic

Tom Spoonhower of Metro Sports will hold a Lacrosse Clinic, teaching tips and tricks for players of all ages.

Also, every week the Village Band will be on hand to provide music, and the Webster High School Marching Band will hold a bottle and  can drive every Saturday.

Click here to go to the village website for more details.

Hikers have something to celebrate this evening.

The much-anticipated extension of the Hojack Trail will officially open to the public this evening (Wednesday July 25) with a ribbon-cutting at 7:30 pm,  where the trail crosses Route 250 (South Ave.).

The Hojack Line itself has always passed through the village, of course. But what’s new and wonderful is that the old railroad tracks have been removed in the section from Holt Road east to Xerox, making an already great trail even better.

The project has been in the planning stages for years. Its completion is a result of outstanding cooperation between the Town and Village of Webster highway departments to remove the tracks, prepare the railroad bed for a walking trail and leveling the crossings for automobile traffic. Original plans were to have the new extension ready by July 31.  And look at this — they did it.  So there’s still plenty of time to try it out and hike it this summer and fall.

Many thanks to Webster town and village officials who helped make this happen.  It’s a valuable addition to Webster’s already exceptional trail system, thanks in large part to the volunteers of the Friends of Webster Trails.

If you don’t know the history of the Hojack Line, I recommend you click here to read a very informational piece on the Friends’ website.

Not much to say about yesterday’s Fireman’s Parade. As always it was a great event, and the Webster community came out in force. One report I heard was that chairs were being set up along Main Street even before 7 am.  One of the marchers told me the crowds were bigger than she had ever seen before, 4 and 5 deep all along the route.

I took tons of photos, of course (actually, only about 200) and have posted a few of my favorites here. The rest can be seen by clicking here or on one of the photos.  I didn’t get a photo of everything in the parade (there were SO many fire trucks!) but I did try to capture the highlights. And you’ll notice that small children are some of my favorite subjects.

The Fireman’s Carnival continues tonight and tomorrow, culminating with fireworks at midnight. Click here  for details.

Thousands were already on hand when the festival began, and more kept arriving all evening.

If you didn’t make it into the village of Webster last night for the Jazz Festival, you missed a wonderful evening filled with great music, great food, good friends and incredibly good weather.

Mother Nature threatened all day to make the evening a wet one, but by the time the music really started to groove, the rain clouds had parted and blue skies prevailed.  It wasn’t even that hot or muggy.  By 5:30, when the Bill Tiberio Band hit the downbeat at the Four Corners stage, hundreds of people had already settled into their lawn chairs or on blankets, or had staked out the handful of cabaret-style tables in the middle of West Main.

As the weather continued to get even better, people kept arriving and the crowds kept getting bigger.  At around 7:00 everyone turned their quad chairs around to face the Corning Park stage, where jazz fest regulars Paradigm Shift performed a set.  Then at 8:30, pianist Lao Tizer wowed the crowd with his take on contemporary jazz. I even liked his stuff, and jazz normally bores me to tears.

The Bill Tiberio Band opened the show.

On a side note….

I spent most of the evening (when I wasn’t wandering around taking photos) at Barry’s Old School Irish, which has become a second home of sorts for my family.  I was reminded how last year when I was at the Jazz Festival I also spent most of my evening on that corner.  At that time, though, there was only a sign announcing that Barry’s would be “coming soon.”  In the blog I wrote a few days later, I remarked:

Barry’s calls itself an “old school Irish pub, cafe and bakery,” whatever that means. My husband is Irish and he’s never heard of such a thing.  And he went to an old school, complete with nuns wielding hand-smacking rulers.

When Barry’s finally did open up its doors, we sure didn’t get any ruler-smacking nuns. But we did get a bunch of new friends, which helped make this year’s Jazz Fest even better that last year’s.  And I didn’t think that was possible.

Jazz Festival headliner Lao Tizer (center) was a crowd favorite.

The waitresses who worked the crowd were an inspired idea. They brought tons of business to the village restaurants.

These t-shirts were another great addition this year. I’m sorry I forgot to purchase one before I left.

As the sun set the music got cooler…

… and the dancers came out.

I hope this recent string of good weather keeps up for a few more days, because the Jazz Fest rolls back into town this Saturday.

This year’s featured entertainers include The Bill Tiberio Band, Paradigm Shift and contemporary jazz keyboardist Lao Tizer. You can click here for more details about the evening’s events, but here are the basics:

Everything happens on West Main Street in the village, where the street will be cordoned off, two stages set up, and there’ll be plenty of room to set up chairs and blankets for the evening. You can start setting up at 4:15, and the music begins at 5:30. Admission is free.

Here’s the schedule:

• 5:30 pm: The Bill Tiberio Band on the East Stage (near the four corners)
• 6:50 pm: Paradigm Shift on the West Stage (near Corning Park)
• 8:30 pm: Lao Tizer plays two sets on the East Stage

Bring your own picnic fixings and beverages or you can buy something from one of many food vendors set up along the street.

Aside from a possible thunderstorm, the weather looks like it might cooperate. But if not, the rain plan is for Bill Tiberio to play at The Coach Sports Bar (23 West Main St.), Paradigm Shift at Hatter’s Pub (5 West Main St.), and Lao Tizer at The Coach.

This is always a wonderful event, and the whole town seems to come out for it. It’s a great chance to meet up with family and friends on a beautiful summer evening.

Today’s version of the mailbag is more like the way I always meant it to be; not just a calendar of events, but odds and ends of different comments, events and photos that have recently come across my computer screen.

In that spirit, I’d like to start with a photo I received yesterday from Jen Calus, the PR person for the Webster School District. She sent along with this explanation:

Elementary students throughout the Webster School District celebrated Flag Day on June 14. The students at Klem Road North sang a variety of patriotic songs for family and friends assembled by their flagpole. In this photo, kindergartners belt out “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”

The photo was so cute I just had to post it:

 A rather unusual event will be taking place in Webster village Saturday afternoon. It’s a free fiddle workshop hosted by Barry’s Old School Irish’s house band, Barry’s Crossing.  The workshop is designed for advanced beginners and intermediate players, but fiddlers of all ages and skills levels are welcome.  Spectators are encouraged, and everyone is invited to hang around after the workshop for a short fiddle set by Sarah and Sean of Barry’s Crossing.

The half-hour workshop will begin at 3 pm at Barry’s Old School Irish, 2 West Main Street, Webster. There is no charge.

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This news about a very nice event hosted by some of our high school kids, also comes from my colleague Jen Calus:

For the second year in a row, the Webster Thomas High School cross country team will hold a 12-hour relay to raise funds for Reece’s Rainbow, an organization that helps facilitate international adoptions of children with Down Syndrome. The event will be held at the Webster Thomas track tomorrow, Saturday June 23, from 9 am to 9 pm.  Last year the team raised more than $2700.  To find out more about the event and how to donate to this great cause, click on the photo of Ashlyn on the left.

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Important reminder: This is the first weekend that the NYS DOT has chosen to close half of the Irondequoit Bay Bridge.

All westbound lanes of the Irondequoit Bay Bridge will be closed beginning tonight (Friday June 22) at 8 pm, and will not reopen until early Monday morning.

This is going to cause major headaches, especially since both high school graduations will be taking place Saturday morning at RIT. So if you have anyone coming into town for those, make sure to advise them to avoid 104 West. Or Empire Blvd., for that matter. I recommend everyone head south to 286 and 441 and get on 590 well south of the city.

Several days ago Mayor Peter Elder was kind enough to drop me an email about last week’s Village Band Concert. It made me think that in my recent blogs about this summer’s village events. I totally forgot to mention this wonderful musical treasure we have here in Webster.

The Village Band plays six more times this summer — just about every other Thursday night — in the Gerald R. Barrett Bandshell at Harmony Park, at the corner of Phillips Road and Foster Drive, just south of Ridge Road.

The band played a selection of pieces in honor of Flag Day. They also flew a special flag which was flown on several missions

Mayor Elder introduces the band.

(including in Korea), donated by a village resident.  In these photos from the event, you’ll also see one of Elder rededicating a new plaque in honor of former band director Gerald Barrett. The original one was defaced by vandals a few years ago.

The band’s next concert is Thursday June 28, starting at 7 pm.   Click here to see the entire schedule.

Dedicating the new plaque.