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Wellsville Revitalization Committee President Candy Bangor
announced Thursday evening that the dedication ceremony planned for the
floodwall murals has been rescheduled. The original date was Saturday,
July 14. The popular local band Route 45 was to provide the entertainment
to wrap up the planned activities. Due to
unforeseen circumstances the band was forced to cancel their engagement for
that evening. At their meeting last night the Revitalization Committee
voted to stay with the Wellsville area band and to reschedule the planned
dedication.
The new date for the dedication ceremony has been
set for Saturday, September 15. The ceremony will begin with dedication
of the floodwall murals at the Pete Amato Boardwalk at 6:30 PM. Activities
will then move to Wellsville's SOI Lodge with a cocktail hour scheduled to
begin at 7:30 PM. At 9 PM the Route 45
band will take the stage.
The floodwall murals project was the brain child
of former Mayor Joe Surace. The idea was
born after seeing something similar while visiting New Orleans. Thinking of
Wellsville’s floodwalls the Wellsville Revitalization Committee was formed in
2004. The goal was to hopefully attract
visitors to the village that would support village businesses. The new committee commissioned artist Gina
Hampson of Gina’s Burning Brush to begin painting the subscribed murals. What were once just drab concrete walls has
now been transformed into beautiful works of art depicting many historical
scenes of Wellsville’s past. Hampson has been the only artist working on the
murals. Other than maintaining them the
project is nearly completed after eight years of dedicated effort. It’s mission accomplished for the committee
on this project.
We’ll have more on the dedication ceremony as
time draws near. Bangor asks that anyone
who purchased tickets for the July date to contact their seller. Pictured here are one of the first to be
painted. It shows Abe Lincoln speaking
to Wellsville residents while enroute to Washington for his inauguration.
4 comments:
Smart move to change the date, Route 45 band is excellent and always brings a good crowd. Good luck with your plans !
Thanks for the post Nib. Just to clarify...the murals were not the brain child of former mayor Joe Surace. The committee brought the idea to him and he loved it. he did say they reminded him of murals in N.O. I know because i was there in his office when we asked him about it. The person who actually brought the idea up first to the committee was the late John Gates. The committee did some research on the murals in Portsmith, ohio, decided to go with it and approached the mayor. The mayor was very supportive and sought permission from the Corp of Engineers. If he had not been so enthused and supportive, it never would have happened. In the long run, it does not matter whose idea it was..I feel sure that lots of people thought about doing something like that. Beleive me, we had many people tell us it had been they're idea. It does not matter, but it seems right just to set the record straight and to give John credit where credit is due because he was once a vital, energetic and passionate man who really loved Wellsville and would be so proud to see the wall finished if he was still with us.
Dedication at the Flood Wall is at 6:30 pm.
Yes Surace did love to boast about the floodwall, but many were aware that is was not his idea.
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