Tag Archives: town of webster

Webster community mailbag

3 Nov

I’m going to start today with a few notes from the Webster Recreation Center, which has two fun events coming up this weekend.

The first is Friday Nov. 5, when Webster Parks and Recreation celebrates its 10th anniversary on Chiyoda Drive. The Rec Center officially opened on Oct. 1, 2011 in a newly renovated building which was formerly the Xerox Recreation Center. Its previous home was the much smaller Ridgecrest facility on Ebner Drive.

It was a great move for the Rec Center and for the Town, as the new facility offered a LOT more space indoors and outdoors for programs and community events. In the years since the move, the Town of Webster has taken full advantage of the property, adding an ice rink, the First Responders Playground and great community events like the Mud Run and recent Pumpkins on Parade. And, of course, a huge variety of fitness classes inside the facility.

The entire community is invited to a grand, all-day birthday party on Friday to help celebrate. And I mean ALL DAY, like from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. There are free fitness classes, a dance party, carnival games, a community group fair, bounce house, and much more. Click here to see the whole schedule.

The Webster Recreation Center is located at 1350 Chiyoda Dr., off of Phillips Rd.

It’s not part of the anniversary celebration, but the Rec Center is also hosting a family scavenger hunt on Saturday Nov. 6 at Four Mile Creek Preserve, at the corner of Phillips Rd. and Lake Rd.

Sign in between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and then look for clues around the park. Each participant will receive a scavenger hunt answer key, which can be turned in at the end for a fun prize.

Three skills levels will be offered for children ages 2 to 12. Cost is $5 per child; please register ahead of time by clicking here (look for program #301205) and you can pay at the event. All proceeds will benefit the Friends of Webster Trails to support the maintenance and improvement of our awesome Webster trail system.

Get your museum trees soon!

The Webster Museum has started taking reservations from individuals and organizations who want to decorate one of their miniature Christmas trees for this year’s Festival of Trees, and word is the trees are going fast.

If you’re interested in participating, don’t delay in making your reservation. Call Kathy at (585) 313-3709 and leave a message with your name and phone number. Calls will be returned in the order they are received.

Please be prepared to supply the following information when you get a call back:

  • caller’s name, email and phone
  • decorator’s name, email and phone
  • any special requests (like location or lighting)

In the meantime, stop by and see the museum’s new exhibit honoring our veterans, and some of poetry written in war time. The museum is located at 18 Lapham Park in the Village of Webster, and is open from 2 to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Hot Cocoa Hike

The Friends of Webster Trails will host their annual Hot Cocoa Hike this Saturday Nov. 6, beginning at 7 p.m.

This year’s hike will take place at Whiting Rd. Nature Preserve, located on Whiting Rd. north of Shoemaker. Arrive anytime bewteen 7 and 8 p.m. and hike your way to some free hot chocolate. This is not a guided event, but the whole path is lighted and will be easy to follow.

Click here to get more details and to register. There’s no charge but the Friends would like to know how many people to expect.

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And while we’re talking about the Friends, I’d like to extend a personal thank you to those blog readers who recently joined the Friends of Webster Trails as new members. (You know who you are.)

As a frequent trail user myself, I’m a huge fan of what this all-volunteer organization does to maintain and build new trails in Webster. As such, I frequently write about them in my blog.

Apparently, after my most recent Friends of Webster Trails blog, in which I once again encouraged everyone to become members, several of my wonderful readers actually did so. Last week I got an email from Denise Bilsback, the Friends’ membership chair, who told me that they had an uptick of new members in October, and nine of them cited my blog as one of their reasons.

So thank you for helping me know that my blog is making a difference. But even more than that, thank you for supporting the Friends of Webster Trails.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

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Webster community mailbag

27 Oct

Halloween is just a few days away, which means that Christmas is just around the corner. The Webster Museum is getting ready.

The Museum recently announced that their Festival of Trees will return this year in person. Last year’s virtual, photographic festival was okay, but it just wasn’t the same as being able to stroll through the museum and see all of the creatively decorated contestants up close and personal.

Here are the details:

  • Families, individuals, Scout troops, classrooms, clubs, organizations, ALL are invited to decorate a miniature Christmas tree using a family-friendly theme.
  • The trees are provided by the museum.
  • Decorating takes place after Thanksgiving and voting begins during White Christmas in the Village on Dec. 4.
  • Trees will be registered to callers starting at noon on November 1. Please call Kathy at 313-3709 and leave a message with your name and phone number so your call can be returned. Call early as number of trees is limited. Please be prepared to supply: caller’s name, email and phone number; decorator’s name, email and phone number; any special needs (location, lights, etc.) You’ll receive a follow-up email about dates/times to decorate.

The Webster Central School District has announced that Interim Superintendent of Schools Brian Neenan has accepted the position as Webster CSD’s new superintendent of schools. The board of education will officially approve the appointment at its Tuesday, Nov. 2 meeting. 

Neenan served as interim superintendent of schools since April 30, 2021. Prior to that appointment, Neenan worked in a dual role as WCSD’s deputy superintendent (2015-2021) and assistant superintendent for instruction (2013-2021). He began his career in Webster as principal of Willink Middle School (2009-2013). Before coming to Webster, he served as an assistant principal at Victor CSD’s junior high school for four years.  

The Webster Recreation Center is hosting a Halloween-themed fitness event this Saturday morning, and everyone is invited regardless of fitness level or Rec Center membership.

The HIGH Fitness class will run from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., and participants are encouraged to wear costumes (although they’re not required). There will be drawings for prizes at the end of the class.

HIGH Fitness is a modern-day choreographed aerobics class that combines cardio peaks, toning tracks, and popular music. Athletic shoes are required and all fitness levels are welcome. The Webster Recreation Center is the only facility in Wester New York that currently offers HIGH Fitness.

No registration is required and Rec Center members and non-members are all welcome.  The Webster Recreation Center is located at 1350 Chiyoda Dr., off of Phillips Rd.

This news also from the Webster Museum about their current exhibit, which is being held in conjunction with the Webster Public Library.

Webster Museum’s Exhibit Committee has curated an exhibit called “Living off the Land.” Artifacts from the museum’s extensive collections, many of them donated by Webster residents, are on display both in the museum’s display case at the Webster Library and at the Webster Museum. The exhibit tells the story of folks who settled here and the items they brought, made or invented in order to make a life for themselves and their families.

The Webster Museum, 18 Lapham Park in the village, is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 2 to 4:30 pm.

And as long as we’re talking about the library, I just got word about three great adult programs coming up soon.

  • Thursday Nov. 4, 7 to 8 p.m. — Discovering Your Roots: an introduction to genealogy and planning a geneaology vacation.
  • Wednesday Nov. 10, noon: Medicare 101, an introduction and update to the federally administered health insurance program
  • Wednesday Nov. 10, 7 to 8 p.m. — Dream Cakes Cookie Decorating: learn some decorating tips and tricks and amaze your friends and family

Pre-registration is required and there is a $10 charge for the cookie decorating class. Click on the images below for more information.

Finally, a few newsy notes from our neighbor to the south.

Annual Arts and Craft Fair at Penfield Community Center

The Daytime Education at Recreation (DEAR) program at Penfield Recreation will be hosting its second annual Arts and Craft Fair on Saturday Nov. 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Penfield Community Center, 1985 Baird Rd.

This event will showcase 53 vendors from around Monroe County selling their hand-crafted wares. Admission is free and is open to the public. Masks are required for this indoor event. Refreshments will be available.

This event is a fundraiser to support the DEAR program at Penfield Recreation, which provides free life-long learning opportunities to seniors in our community.

For more information call Penfield Recreation at (585) 340-8655, option 0.

Penfield Ecumenical Food Shelf needs turkeys

Once again this year, the Penfield Ecumenical Food Shelf will be collecting frozen turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

Food Shelf staff are especially requesting turkeys from 8 to 14 lbs., which are the best sizes for their families in need.

Drop off for Thanksgiving will be Saturday morning Nov. 20 between 7:30 and 8:30am at the Food Shelf, 1618 Jackson Rd. Drop off for Christmas will be Saturday Dec. 18 from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., also at the Food Shelf. If other arrangements are needed for dropoff, email penfieldfoodshelf@gmail.com.

Turkeys will soon be on sale at local grocery stores, so this would be a great time to pick up an extra one and help those in our community who have been hit especially hard by the pandemic. The Food Shelf’s family numbers have increased quite a bit this year, as you can imagine; they’re planning on providing 225 families with dinner for each holiday.

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Second annual Pumpkins on Parade a spooky fun time

24 Oct

The Webster Recreation Center hosted its second annual Pumpkins on Parade Saturday the 23rd, and it was even bigger and better than last year.

For more than an hour and a half after dark, thousands of people strolled along the mile-long Chiyoda Trail winding behind the Rec Center, which was lined with hundreds of extremely creative, illuminated jack-o-lanterns. The designs ran the gamut from traditional and whimsical to spooky and just plain weird. I saw Olaf and Ernie, the Lego man, spiders, ghosts, unicorns, and lots of toothy grins. For added enjoyment, two of the homeowners whose houses back up to the Rec Center property were playing spooky music for the families that strolled by.

This year the Rec Center also created a separate, much shorter path for seniors and small children, which wrapped around the back of the Rec Center for about 200 yards.

Recreation Director Chris Bilow estimated that about 500 pumpkins had been placed along the two paths, about 100 more than last year. They included 200 or so created by community members, which is also more than they received last year.

That was a pleasant surprise, Bilow added, because by Saturday morning they still hadn’t received too many. “I was a little concerned,” he said. “But then today they started (dropping off) around 11:30 and it was a solid line of cars.”

Like last year, at the end of the pumpkin parade everyone was treated to donuts and cider, served in the Rec Center’s expansive playing fields.

Pumpkins on Parade 2020 was designed as a Covid-friendly outdoor event for families itching for SOMETHING to get them out of the house at the height of the pandemic. After this year’s success, it’s clear the event has already become tremendously popular, pandemic or not, and I’m sure I’m not the only one hoping that the Webster Recreation Center brings it back every year.

Click here to see many more photos from the evening, including many especially cool jack-o-lanterns.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

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Another sign, another mystery

23 Oct

I had another mini-mystery on my hands a few days ago. But unlike the mystery I tackled back in September — the origin of the James Carnevale Bike Trail signs — this quest was joined and solved within just a few hours.

It concerns an historical marker placed in front of a stately home at 757 Holt Rd. which recognizes the home as the birthplace of Dr. Luther Emmett Holt, a prominent doctor and author.

Last Sunday I got an email from B. Benson about that sign, who wrote,

During the weeks of summer, every time I passed the Dr. Holt house on Holt Rd., I thought about repainting the faded words and colors of the historical marker located on the property. It is an important piece of the medical history and of Webster. Dr Holt was an important player in the discovery of milk-related illnesses and other diseases in children.

Driving past again this week, I saw an older man in gray trousers, white shirt, paintbrush in hand doing what needed to be done: repainting the sign, dark blue background, and yellow lettering. It looked awesome when it was finished. I would like to thank him for preserving and educating others on Dr. Holt since it now can be clearly read.

I suspected my contacts at the Webster Museum might know something about it, so I forwarded the email to Kathy Taddeo, a museum volunteer and someone on whom I’ve come to rely for all things Museum. She, in turn, beat the bushes by forwarding the email to all of her Museum contacts, volunteer and otherwise.

Just three hours later, Kathy got an email from Town Councilman Barry Deane, who wrote:

I have been dealing with this effort for months. A gentleman inquired as to if he could rehab this sign. It was weeks of communications with Monroe County, some research, and acquiring a permit to do the work. We stayed diligent and finally were able to get the permit and the coloring.

After a few more emails, I tracked down that gentleman, and we met for a very nice conversation at — appropriately — the Webster Museum.

He is Webster resident Charlie Fallon, who explained how the project came to pass.

I’m staying with a friend (nearby). We do a lot of walking. When we walk in that direction I would think, “this sign is in tremendous disrepair compared to the other county signs.” So I did some research on Emmett Holt and he seemed like a pretty interesting guy.

His next step was to get in touch with the town, and Councilman Deane became his contact on the project. Deane consulted with Webster Town Historian Lynn Barton to nail down what the exact colors should be, and secured the proper permissions from the county. Then, once he gave the green light, Charlie said, “I could just go ahead and do the work.”

For about three weeks, Charlie worked a little bit almost every day on the project. Most of that time was spent on prep work, he said. The sign needed a lot of sanding to get rid of years of rust and grime. As he worked, several people stopped to admire his progress and thank him for his efforts.

When you talk to Charlie, though, you get the sense that to him, it was no big deal. It was just something that needed to be done, like his work with Foodlink and other worthy causes.

“I’m not the most ‘volunteerist’ guy,” he claimed, “but I like to do stuff. I like to be useful.”

“It was just a pleasant project to do.”

The Democrat and Chronicle published an article about Dr. Holt several years ago. If you’d like to read more about him and the difference he made in saving childen’s lives, click here.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

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Webster community mailbag

19 Oct

Get your flu shot HERE! TODAY!

The Webster Public Library is hosting a flu shot clinic TODAY, Tuesday Oct. 19 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the library, 980 Ridge Rd. All vaccinations will be administered by a registered nurse, and no appointment is necessary. Please remember to bring your insurance card!

Registration is not necessary.

Pumpkins on Parade is this weekend!

The Webster Recreation Center’s second annual Pumpkins on Parade is this Saturday night.

This is an amazing, family-friendly Halloween-time event, when the Chiyoda Trail is lined with creative, scary, and downright funny Jack-o-lanterns. Community members and businesses are invited — no, encouraged — to carve up some pumpkins, and then bring the family that evening after dark to look for them along the mile-long trail which winds around the Rec Center. Afterwards, everyone gets free donuts and cider.

Community members are invited to come and walk the trail from 7 to 8:30 p.m. This year there’s also a shortened path option for seniors and small children.

There’s still time to carve a pumpkin (or several pumpkins) for the trail. The more the merrier! Drop your finished creations off at the Rec Center Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. or Saturday between noon and 2 p.m. For every pumpkin you deliver, you get a raffle ticket for a chance to win a fun prize.

The Rec Center is at 1350 Chiyoda Drive (right off of Phillips Rd.).

UPK-5 Parent-Teacher Conferences to Span Four Days

A reminder to parents that Webster’s UPK to grade 5 students will have parent-teacher conferences this week and next.

All seven elementary schools will host conferences over four days: Thursday Oct. 21, Friday Oct. 22, Thursday Oct. 28 and Friday Oct. 29. This means a half-day schedule for UPK-5 students. Students in grades 6-12 have their normal, full-day schedule.

Elementary parents/guardians, please watch your school newsletters for the bus schedules. UPK families, individual schedules will be communicated by your child’s teacher.

Got drugs?

It’s time to clean out your medicine cabinet and get rid of all of those expired and unused pharmaceuticals that have been hanging around for years. You especially want to do this if you still have children at home; the statistics about children abusing prescription drugs and overdosing are frightening, and much of that is happening because they can often easily find these drugs in their own bathrooms.

WHEN, the Webster Health and Education Network, is joining forces with the Webster Police Dept. to sponsor an event this weekend to make it easy for you to clean out your cabinets. It’s the Fall Drug Drop-off on Saturday Oct. 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Webster Wastewater Treatment Facility, 226 Phillips Rd.

Please note that needles, sharps, syringes, and biohazards CANNOT be accepted; only pills, liquids, and ointments. No appointment is necessary. Registration is not required, but it will allow the organizers to email you a reminder in advance of the event.

To sign up, click here.

And remember, there’s a pharmaceutical drop-box at Town Hall, 1000 Ridge Rd., just inside the doors to the police station, where you can drop off your unused pharmaceuticals any weekday during regular business hours.   

Visit the Village Quilt Shoppe yet?

If not, here’s a great excuse to do so.

The Village Quilt Shoppe, 21 E. Main St. in the Village of Webster, has announced they’ll be hosting their Holiday Open House on Friday Nov. 12. They’ll be demonstrating how to craft a quick and easy holiday ornament, will have their famous Hot Chocolate Bar set up, and have cookies and gift ideas for all.

The Open House will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the demo will take place on the hour, every hour.

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Town and village leaf collections begin soon

15 Oct

There are so many things to love about living in Webster. Two years ago, just months after moving into our new house in the village, I wrote an entire blog about one of the best of those things: I DON’T HAVE TO BAG ANY LEAVES.

You see, I moved into Webster from Penfield, where they still require residents to bag their leaves and leave them for the waste haulers. Given that there were a LOT of trees on my property, that meant hours and hours with a rake every weekend during the fall. So I love that the Village will pick up our leaves, and I just have to rake them to the curtb. It’s so much easier!

Here are the details about both Village and Town leaf collection services, taken from their websites:

Webster Village

This service begins when the autumn leaves begin to accumulate on the ground and will be on a daily basis until the beginning of December, or until the first heavy snowfall, whichever comes first. The Public Works Department will traverse each Village street once a week to remove leaves from the curb. To help make leaf pickup easier for yourself and our DPW staff, we request you follow some simple guidelines:

-Do not place brush, rocks, pumpkins, wood, plastic, or other foreign material with your leaves
-Do not bag your leaves for Village curbside pickup
-Do not place leaves in roadway, or on top of drainage structures, concrete, in gutters, or drainage ditches

The village also provides brush removal every month. For more details about that, visit the Village of Webster website.

Town of Webster

We start on the west side of town heading east and will make as many passes through town as possible during the leaf pick-up operation, weather permitting. There is no set schedule for particular streets throughout the town. Leaf season typically runs six weeks and start and finish dates vary based on actual leaf drop.

Please be patient with us during this process, as leaves do not all fall at once, and we never know what to expect for our weather conditions.
– Make sure leaves are on the edge of the road and not in the road or gutter
– Rake only leaves (and not twigs or branches) to the road’s edge
– Placing leaves in the road or gutter significantly slows down the entire operation. It is against the law to place leaves or any debris in the road.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

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First mud, now pumpkins!

24 Sep

Did you get a chance to roll around in the mud with your kids at the Mud Run last weekend at the Rec Center?

I wasn’t able to be there, but judging from the photos I’m seeing on the Webster Recreation Center Facebook page (like those below), it was a huge success. Fitness Coordinator Jay Verna confirmed that when he wrote,

Saturday was AWESOME!  We had 243 total registered and kids and families loved it so much they went through it multiple times!  We have ideas on how to make it even better for 2022 but overall, we are really happy with how thing turned out. 

If you also want to see a short fun video from the day, click here.

Fresh from their success at the Mud Run, Rec Center staffers have turned their attention to this year’s Second Annual Pumpkins on Parade, scheduled for Saturday Oct. 23.

This is an amazing, family-friendly Halloween-time event, when the Chioya Trail is lined with creative, scary, and downright funny Jack-o-lanterns. Community members and businesses are invited — no, encouraged — to carve up some pumpkins, and then bring the family that evening after dark to look for them along the mile-long trail which winds around the Rec Center. Afterwards, everyone gets free donuts and cider.

Last year’s first-ever event drew a lot of Jack-o-lanterns from the community, but the Rec Center staff had to create a bunch of their own to make sure there were plenty for the trail. This year, I’m sure they’re hoping to get A LOT MORE community submissions.

Local businesses especially are encouraged to join the fun and carve a pumpkin — or two, or five. Rec Center staff members promise that your business’ name will be posted right next to them, which is a great way to get some free promotion. And if this year’s event is as popular as last year’s was (it drew about 1,500 people), that’s some pretty great free promotion.

I’ll be blogging about this again with more details as the date nears, but check out this poster for now, and start sketching some ideas. If you’d like to read more about last year’s parade, and see some of the creative submissions, click here for the follow-up blog I wrote.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page

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Webster Museum excitement, and other mailbag news

17 Sep

The Village of Webster’s latest turn on the local television news stations leads today’s mailbag.

Spectrum News recently got wind that the Webster Museum has just reopened, and reporter Wendy Mills visited several days ago to find out more. She met with Museum president Tom Pellett, from whom she got a thorough tour of the facility and a great interview.

The piece aired earlier this week on Spectrum, but has also been posted to the website, You can click here to see it.

And since we’re talking about the Webster Museum, now’s a great time to remind everyone that the museum’s annual Barn Sale is taking place this weekend, Friday and Saturday Sept. 17 and 18, at 394 Phillips Rd.

This really cool sale features vintage farm goods and furniture, toys, books, holiday goods, household goods, jewelry, glassware and more. You’re sure to find something to love.

The sale will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days, and everything is half price on Saturday — or you can fill a bag for $5. This is the museum’s biggest operating expense fundraiser, so stop on by, find a treasure, and help them out.

A few notes from the Town of Webster:

  • The Town’s spray parks are now closed for the season. We can hope that summer is not quite over yet, but even if it hits 90 again, the kids can’t cool off at the spray parks until next year.
  • If you’re tired of putting up with abandoned homes in your area, the Town of Webster has given you some recourse to get them taken care of. If you suspect a home in your neighborhood has been abandoned, you can report it to the Town using a link found at this website. The site will also give you more information on what actually contitutes an abandoned home.
  • The section of Lake Rd. between Shipbuilder’s Creek and Stoney Creek Run is now open again after completion of a three-month construction project. You can check the status of upcoming construction projects and road closures on the Town of Webster website.

Looking ahead to October, Rochester Challenger Miracle Field will host an Art Exhibit on Oct. 1 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 2 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at CDS Life Transitions, 860 Hard Rd. in Webster. This will be a silent auction featuring artwork created by local artists with physical and developmental challenges.

The Pride of Webster, Webster Marching Band will hold its 35th annual Autumn Fanfare on Saturday Oct. 9 from 5 to 9 p.m. This is always a spectacular display of talent from several schools in the Greater Rochester area, and if you haven’t seen one of these shows before, you should attend this year. The theme is “Unbroken,” which should conjure up all sorts of special props and effects. More info to come as the date gets closer.

Also that same evening, the Village of Webster will host its third Family Game Night and Beer Garden on West Main St. More to come about this as well, but if you can’t make it to the Autumn Fanfare, put this on your calendars.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

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A Webster bike route mystery solved (mostly)

10 Sep

Sometimes the most interesting journey can begin with a simple question.

The journey I want to tell you about today began for me in July, when I’d stopped by the Webster Museum. I noticed a blue and yellow metal sign in the exhibit right inside the front door, next to the tall antique bike. It read, “James W. Carnevale Bike Route.”

I asked one of the Museum Ladies, “Who’s James W. Carnevale?” She thought for a second, then responded, “I don’t know.”

Thus began my quest. I knew I had to find out who Carnevale was, why a bike route was named after him, and where that bike route was. It’s been a journey that’s stretched over two months and involved almost a dozen other inquisitve folks who helped me along the way by poking into genealogical records, tracking down old newspapers, and asking around to those who might have known Carnevale.

I started by doing some quick internet research on my own, with little success. At the suggestion of the Museum Ladies, I reached out to the Webster Public Library to see if their research professionals could do a little digging.

With help from the NYS Historic Newspaper Database, in no time, my friends over there — Laureen Anthony-Palmer, Doreen Dailey and Sarah Hodges — had unlocked all sorts of articles and photos. We learned that:

  • Carnevale was born in April 30, 1930 and died suddenly in Syracuse on Jan. 22, 1977
  • he graduated in 1950 from RIT
  • he enlisted in the Army in 1951, served in Korea as an intelligence officer, and was awarded the bronze star for his work in photography
  • he worked as an engineer at Kodak
  • he served as Webster’s Recreation Commissioner and was an active member of the town’s Democratic Party
  • he’s buried at Webster Union Cemetery

Perhaps the most interesting photo we found was one from Nov. 5, 1986, which appears to show the Town of Webster presenting Carnevale’s widow Nancy with the exact Bike Route sign which now hangs in the museum. The caption mentions that the new signs would replace ones on the “established bike route.”

Another clue.

The pieces were coming together, but we still didn’t know where the bike route was and why it was dedicated to James Carnevale. But I was undaunted.

Knowing that Carnevale was a former Recreation Commissioner, I got Webster Recreation Director Chris Bilow on the case. Chris checked with some of the Rec Center’s long-time employees to see if they knew anything about Carnevale, with no luck. BUT, in another email that same day, Chris sent two photos someone had snapped of a James W. Carnevale Bike Route sign which is still standing at the corner of Drumm and Herman roads.

That was exciting news. But the trail seemed to have reached a dead end there (no pun intended).

Until just two weeks ago, when I received an email from museum volunteer and research goddess Cherie Wood, who had the bright idea to consult Esther Dunn’s Webster Through the Years, a comprehensive guide to Webster’s history. Sure enough, Cherie found a huge piece to the puzzle.

The article Cherie found explained that the bike route was originally established in 1968 to, in part, “create additional interest in healthy recreational activity that can be practiced as a family group.” The 14.5-mile route took riders (in general) west from Holt Rd. to Klem, then along Bay, Volk and Dewitt roads, ending at Inspiration Point. There riders would turn around and wind their way back. (An image of the whole article with route details follows this blog.)

While there’s nothing in the article about this being that “established route” referenced in the caption above, I think we can assume so. And perhaps we can also infer that naming the bike route after Carnevale was a way to honor his service to Webster as Recreation Commissioner.

So that’s where we are right now. It’s been fun unraveling the mystery, and I deeply appreciate the help that I got from the library, the museum, and the Rec Center folks in tracking down all these details. I feel like I’ve gotten to know James pretty well; I even visited his grave at Webster Union Cemetery to pay my respects and thank him for his service to the town. (And for providing such a fun mystery.)

If made it all the way to the end of this very long blog, thank you for your interest. And if you happen to know anyone who knows anything about James Carnevale, or if you see one of the signs in your travels (rumor has it there might be one at Klem and Five Mile Line), please snap a photo!

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

A few notes of interest:

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New music festival will benefit ALS awareness

2 Sep

One thing I’ve learned about Webster in the years I’ve lived here is that when someone needs help, this community rallies around them, big time.

OK, make that TWO things: Webster loves its music.

Both of those truths will be on full display on Saturday, Sept. 11 at a brand new music festival called Webster Rocks for ALS Awareness. The event is being held in part to benefit Kacie Jones, a former Coach Sports Bar employee who was diagnosed with ALS two years ago.

The event website explains,

Kacie is a 30-year Rochester/Webster young man who has ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). He is in a fight for his life; a day-to-day battle to do even the simplest of tasks that most of us take for granted. On Saturday, Sept 11, we will come together for Kacie and others struggling to live with and fight ALS. Let’s help Kacie and his family raise awareness for ALS, provide alternative treatments, and bring about a possible cure for this disease.

Funds raised will also benefit Healing ALS, an organization dedicated to supporting awareness, research and care for those suffering from ALS.

The festival will be held on Saturday Sept. 11 beginning at 2 p.m. at the Webster Firemen’s Field on Ridge Rd. Food trucks will be on hand from 3 to 8 p.m., and alcohol sales will be provided by the Coach Sports Bar.

An incredible music line-up starts at 3 p.m., featuring Anthony Blood and Brody Schenk, State Line, Brass Taxi, Dial Up, and M80s. (Check the website for more details about the schedule.)

Tickets are $20 in advance (available from the Coach Sports Bar, 19 W. Main in Webster) and Eventbrite (but they charge fees, so stop by the Coach to save money). They’re still looking for volunteers, too, so ask about that when you’re picking up your tickets.

To read more about Kacie and his brave battle with this disease, check out this great story posted on WHEC-TV in March.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

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