Monday

Garbage Day!

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BIG TRASH, tomorrow.

It's 31.8 degrees; breezy, but no precipitation.

• Today: A brief period of freezing rain or drizzle possible through mid-morning. Partial clearing and warming up late this morning and this afternoon. High: 49

• Tonight: Dry this evening. Wet snow and rain by late tonight with snow accumulations around one inch possible on hilltops by morning. Low: 34
• Tuesday: Wet snow and rain early tapering to just some scattered showers of rain and snow during the day. A more significant period of rain, sleet and freezing rain late in the day and at night. High: 38, Low: 30
• Wednesday: Rain changing to snow and then tapering to flurries. High: 34, Low: 22

VILLAGE BOARD MEETING
7:00 p.m. at Municipal Hall.

I just yesterday heard something that pleased me a great deal and would have made Dick cheer: the Village Fathers have met with a Mr. David Carlson from Cooperstown. He's a consultant and planner who develops "Comprehensive (formerly called Master) Plans" and who has also acquired a great number of "small cities" grants for communities like Little Falls and Herkimer. In one respect, there's limited need for a "master plan" for Waterville because there's a limited amount of area within the municipalty in need of planning! But ....... when it comes to applying for state or federal funding for things like facade grants or parks improvements, the first thing they ask you is: "Do you have an approved Comprehensive Plan in place?" A Master Plan was developed back in the 1960s, but it was never adopted and one of the reasons that it has never been updated or revised is that good consultants - like Mr. Carlson - are costly! But the payback, in terms of funding that will then be available to the Village, makes the price worth it. (When I began typing, I didn't intend using this space as a personal "soap box," but I feel so strongly about this subject that I seem to have done just that and, without apology, may even do so again!)

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Today is the birthday of Alexander Graham Bell - scientist and inventor - who lived between 1947 and 1922. What would he have thought if he could have been with two travelers, this weekend, as their day's routes were followed and mapped by satellites high in the sky!

Dave Bocko had parked his car at the end of White Street, clipped on his X-C skiis, turned on his handheld GPS unit and headed uphill.

I was in my car, parked at Nice 'n Easy in Sangerfield and enjoying a French Vanilla Cappucino when I noticed that my navigational screen showed not only my location but also a place I'd never heard of: Hobin Corners! I tapped where it said "Hobin Corners" and then "Go!" and a pleasant, feminine voice began to give me instructions to reach that location.

Ten minutes later, here we are!


I decided to follow Donley Road, passing a small gravestone, and continuing on for a few miles, to the crest of the ridgeline when a grand view o the East was spread before me.


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Meanwhile, Dave Bocko had reached the turn-off to the old reservoir and stopped to take pictures of the Westward view.


He followed the edge of the reservoir - now empty - and aimed to the northeast ......

......... zig-zagging back and forth across a steep hillside..


and through deep woods 'til he reached the summit.


(What - we both wonder - are these posts?)

View from the top.

I'd followed Donley Road all the way to Mapledale Road and then Route 8 into Bridgewater.
I can never go past this building without remembering the many times that we stopped there at "Carl's" for soft-serve ice cream!

And now I see "Sigby Corners" - I didn't know where that was, so decided to once again follow the blue line.

I was told to drive West - past the historic Pleasant Valley Grange which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 -

turn Southwest onto Center Road,


and then make a left-hand turn on to Quarterline Road....

.... and this is it? Sigby Corners? Mrs. Davis and I did some fine bottle-digging and apple-picking in this vicinity, once upon a time - courtesy of the Sigby family, perhaps!

I came home by way of Bailey Road, stopping to admire what I presume to have been the Bailey Homestead and wondering if they were related to Azubah Rogers Bailey and her son, Vine, who walked here from Connecticut in the late 1700s and built their home at "Bailey Lake," in Stockwell.

One last picture.

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And great thanks to Dave and Connie Bocko for sharing Dave's photos of his trek up Tassel Hill which, speaking of place names, is said to have been named for an early settler, a Dutchman by the name of VanTassell!

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Have a Great Day!