Bound Volumes

September 21, 2023

85 YEARS AGO
Application for a WPA Project for the improvement of Doubleday Field was authorized at the regular meeting of the Village Board of Trustees. Mayor Theodore R. Lettis executed the necessary papers. The application provides both for the work incident to the enlargement of the field through the purchase of additional property made possible through the generosity of Mr. Stephen C. Clark, and the erection of a new grandstand according to plans recently approved by the Board. Work will be commenced upon the enlargement project by the village force at once, without awaiting the approval of the project by the WPA. The total cost of the project will be about $23,000 of which the village will pay about $6,000 to $8,000 with the state and federal governments paying the balance.

September 21, 1938

60 YEARS AGO
The village’s Board of Zoning Appeals Monday night unanimously disapproved an application submitted by the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital for permission to convert into a parking lot a vacant site east of Bassett Hall on Beaver Street. The action followed a public meeting earlier that evening. Dr. James Bordley III, Bassett Hospital Director, appealed for a favorable ruling on the application. A number of persons spoke briefly in opposition. Voting against the application were former Mayors Alva C. Welch and Ross J. Young, Planning Commission Chair Frederick L. Rath, Jr., and Harry N. Shepherd, four of the five members of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

September 18, 1963

20 YEARS AGO
A strong, healthy and vibrant red-tailed hawk was released into the wild on Wednesday, September 17, one month after being rescued by a concerned high school student. Tom Krietsch, a tenth-grader at Richfield Springs Central School noticed the bird on the afternoon of August 15th as he was driving by the Little Lake access point with his friend Alan Stokes. “When I saw it, it flew up into the air, and then collapsed to the ground. I knew something was wrong and that I should do something.” Krietsch was able to secure the hawk by covering its head with his shirt. “Once I put the shirt over its head, it seemed like it fell asleep.” Krietsch and Stokes drove the bird to Exeter Veterinary Clinic. The Clinic passed the female hawk onto Bonnie Folnsbee of Adirondack Foothills Wildlife Care at Poland, New York. As Folnsbee was preparing to x-ray the bird, it coughed up a chunk of animal bone that had lodged in its throat. The hawk was released by Folsbee where it was found. “It is very important to release rehabilitated hawks where they are found because they are very territorial,” explained Folnsbee, who, along with her husband Wesley, nursed the bird back to health.

September 19, 2003