April Fool Thoughts

Well, it's April Fools once again. Normally I would have some fun with this day but last years attempt was not well received by the commenters. So, this year I didn't bother. The ER did dig out a piece done by the late reporter Bob Popp back in 1965. I remember it well because he had me hooked back then right up to the last sentence. For those of you with a sense of humor it's worth a read.

When speaking at the C-of-C luncheon in February Sheriff Stone pledged he would do anything in his power to bring his staffing up to snuff. True to his word he will approach the County Commissioners to get a commitment to cover the cost for the fourth year for a COPS grant he is considering applying for. COPS is an acronym for the DOJ Community Oriented Policing Servicing program. It was revived as part of the federal stimulus package. The grant covers the cost of additional officers for three years with the fourth year being picked up by whatever community gets the grant. For the S.O. it would be the county. It's a good program that I always thought was worth going after & the Sheriff is going after it being realistic by presenting it to the Commissioners. The village is applying for two officers for WPD. Let's see what they do over in Lisbon. We should find out tomorrow. They were suppose to meet today.

While mentioning the WPD, did you see the article in last Sunday's Lifestyles section of the MJ? It was all about a demonstration a salesman presented on stun guns. Stun guns are used to subdue aggressive individuals that are in the process of being arrested. It's a less lethal way that literally stuns the individual long enough to permit the arresting officer to restrain them. WPD is ordering 10 of them for the department. By ordering 10 of them WPD only has to pay $150 for each one saving $349 for each gun. That's a heckuva of a savings. The whole package totals $7,018 which will all be paid for from donations to the department. Out of that amount the company will train one officer to be an instructor for other members on the force. The guns zap an individual with 55,000 volts of electricity. Ed Wilson & Shawn Bloor must have strong, healthy hearts. Neither one of them had to be rushed to the hospital after volunteering to be part of the demonstration. I have to go along with the Chief. I wouldn't have volunteered for that either. If memory serves me correctly I think the donations for this came from the Eagles & Vets Clubs.

Speaking of the Eagles, club President Bob Marcin & member Bill Cataldo presented the village with another check for $14,000 this past Monday. The check will be split up to cover the cost of the new lights at the 18th Street playground and for renovating the area around the Boy With the Boot into a mini park. The mini park will be a nice compliment for the floodwall murals. It is certainly nice that the members of the Eagles share the wealth and make it possible to make improvements for our crash strapped village. They have donated over $21,000 this year to the village. Thanks a million folks. As Clark Race, a DJ years ago on KDKA, used to sign off saying "it's nice to know so many nice people".

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Jim Heaton last Friday. Jim was the owner of Heaton's Tires here in the ville and was one of the nicest fellows I had the priveledge of knowing and dealing with. Jim used to sell Harley Davidsons years ago before he got into the tire business. He was a generous benefactor to many efforts in town over the years too numerous to recall. He'll be sadly missed by the members of the "coffee club" that gather up there on 2nd Street every morning to catch up on the latest news and commentary about current events. My condolences go out to the Heaton, Thirtyacre, McClelland & Burlingame families. Even though he was born nearly 81 years ago in New Waterford Jim was truly a Wellsville Legend. Rest in peace Jim.

How many of you remember that the site of Heaton's Tires use to be Katz's Junkyard way back when? When ever my dad got a new car one of the first things he would do was go there to get a weight on his car. He use to calculate what type of gas milage he would get on that vehicle. He would then budget his money to make sure he had enough for gas to get to & from work. Dad was always sensible with things like that.

Another round of generosity was displayed recently with a list of folks & businesses as long as my arm that made it possible for the Wellsville VFD to make definite plans for a renewed display of fireworks to cap off the annual Homecoming. This use to always be a part of the fireman's carnival but when they started back up last year it just wasn't affordable. It cost $5 grand to put on that display. The Homecoming is scheduled to run May 27 - 30 with the fireworks to begin at 10 P.M. on the 3oth. I remember back in the days when we had a St. Rocco's Festival and the fireman's carnival there seemed to be a sort of competition between the two to see who could have the biggest & best fireworks display. I can't say who did but I've always remembered both were very impressive with some very colorful displays. I'm looking forward to this years.

Another fun event coming up is a joint fund raiser for the Alley Cat Aid Brigade and the Revitalization Committee on the calendar for May 1. It's going to be an old timer's basketball game renewing the rivalry between the Tigers & the Potters. Mayor Joe Surace will be coaching the Tigers & EL Mayor Jim Swogger will be doing the same for the Potters. You can't be younger than 50 to play and they are even planning on having "senior" cheerleaders according to the newspapers. Wellsville Legend Bevo Francis with conduct the tip-off to get the game started. The event is appropriately called "The Old Gray Mayor's Basketball Game". Tip-off is scheduled for 7 P.M. at the high school. I think they are anticipating numerous time outs for the players to get their breath. They have a lot of other events planned. We'll have more on this later on but you better make plans now to get your ticket. Tickets are $5 and they are only printing 1,000 of them according to the papers. Although it wasn't mentioned they will probably welcome any donations of BenGay, Tylenol and Ace bandages. :-) I don't think "political correctness" is going to be much in evidence for this event. I'm just hoping those "old" fools don't need crutches & wheel chairs!

Finally, they will be having the second registration at Hammonds Park this coming Saturday from 1 - 4 P.M for t-ball. So far they have about 25 future all stars signed up. Practice begins around May 1 and games around June 1st.

ole nib