Local farm owners win planners’ okay to host various agri-tourism events in coming months and years

by Dan McClelland

A host of agriculturally-oriented festivals and other events are on the horizon for the community at a new agri-tourism business on the outskirts of the village, following approval of the plan and the issuance of a special use permit by the members of the village and town planning board Wednesday.

An overview of the plans for the McClelland Family’s 100-acre farm at 107 Old Wawbeek Road just behind Sunmount Developmental Center came during a presentation from one of the co-owners, Andrew McClelland.

“We’re proposing land use for agri-tourism purposes, the co-owner of Stacked Graphics began that evening. “We intend to do a pumpkin festival this fall,” with the results of our pumpkin harvest this year.

The public will be invited to join us in these events. Some of the events will include maple syrup festivals in the spring and wild flower events in the late summer and fall.

In addition to the sale of the agricultural products grown there some of the future events may include other vendors.

The McClelland family here purchased the farm, which is now mostly wooded, from Dan and Chiprle in the summer of 2021 and did extensive renovations to their century-old farm house that next winter. The purpose was to create an agri-tourism opportunity in Tupper Lake- by blending agriculture with family fun on the farm.

Agri-tourism is defined as the creation of a commercial enterprise that links production of agricultural products with tourism, bringing people here to enjoy the attractions and the entire community.

The house, once the renovations were completed early last July, saw brisk short-term rental trade all last summer and fall. More bookings have been made for coming months.

On the property, besides the main house, is situated a large barn, where a number of restoration projects have been underway since winter, and the stables building, which too will be rebuilt in the future.

This past year the McClellands have demolished several dilapidated out buildings including a three-side 30 foot high hay barn, built in 1975 by Mr. Mecklenburg and Kevin Baker, a chicken coop, a goose house and an open-sided animal pen. Several of those buildings may be replaced in the future.

Mr. McClelland told the planners Wednesday that a new driveway is planned off Old Wawbeek Road and it will run directly behind the barn up onto a ten-acre pasture behind the farm house where many of the events will be staged.

Dan McClelland and Highway Chief Bill Dechene met recently to plan the entrance of the new driveway off the town road.

“It’s a great location right on the corner before the barn- as it boasts great visibility in both directions,” the elder McClelland told the planners Wednesday.

“The large barn- believed to be the only full-size hay barn left in the community from the days when it boasted a dozen or so farms- will block from view the driveway and its use from the guests in the main house to or from any event,” he added.

Andrew McClelland presented the planning board members with a sketch of the new driveway proposed behind the barn and its two-car wide entrance off the town road.

The perimeter of the large open pasture has space for a large parking area that is out of sight from passing motorists on Old Wawbeek Road.

The second driveway to the stables will never be used by visitors, as a courtesy to neighbors there, he explained.

At events we will have tents set up on the pasture “in order to create a retail or festival atmosphere.

He said the new parking planned around the big field will also eliminate the need for anyone to ever have to park on the often busy Old Wawbeek Road.

The new grass or graveled parking area will be built large enough to accommodate all the visitors, he noted.

He said the new drive will keep event visitors away from the vacationers who may be renting the farm house on event day.

This past spring Andrew and Faith, with a big help from Faith’s uncle, Fran Jessie, tapped over 300 maple trees on the farm. Boiling down the sap over a two-week period produced over 30 gallons of McClelland Family Farm syrup. More taps and more gallons of syrup are planned for next year.

“Next spring we hope to have the infrastructure in place to tap hundreds of more trees.”

Most of the tree taps were made this year on the 50 acres the McClellands own south of the National Grid power line to the village substation on McLaughlin Ave. A timber study performed by the Pekin Branch Forestry firm in 2017 found the 50 acres north of the line has many stands of maple and enough to produce enough taps “to support a viable sugaring operation for years,” according to the younger McClelland. The study also estimated the worth of the standing hardwood timber at $50,000.

“We may also do a maple week next year in collaboration with the harvest- with special events like are done all across the region, Andrew told the planners.

Included in those events may be food sales, music, vendors and most importantly maple sales- to generate agri-tourism income during a normally slow rental season, he noted.

There were no comments from the public during that evening’s hearing.

Planner Paul O’Leary said he received one call from a neighbor after the legal notice of the hearing was published in recent weeks. “They were just inquiring about the kind of events that would be planned there”- but didn’t have a position on the plan either way.

According to a packet of information furnished to the planning volunteers before the meeting last week, it was noted that pumpkins from the new pumpkin patch would be sold there each fall, perhaps from a roadside stand at first.

The family’s goal is to eventually grow between 2,000 and 3,000 pumpkins a year.

In the fall too, when the rentals drop off, the farm house will become the headquarters of the pumpkin sales and the sale of other fall products. That retail operation is expected to go hand in hand with various fall events in the years to come.

Following that theme, according to the McClellands’ long range plan, would be for the farm house/store to transform into holiday mode with holiday goods for sale. They also plan to decorate the grounds around the farm house in holiday décor such as wreaths and kissing balls, plus may sell Christmas trees harvested from the forests of the farm.

“Some of these events will also feature music and food- producing a real festive flavor,” Andrew said.

Because the property is not serviced by either village-provided water or sewer, port-a-jons and portable hand-washing stations will be set up at each event.

Eventually, the family hopes to rent the property for special events like wedding and family gatherings.

Another possible event in the plans of the family members is a flower festival, where patrons may be able to pick their own wild flowers and other flowers grown there each summer.

The farm was originally in the Quesnel family- as two separate 50-acre parcels, but was later purchased by Dan Mecklenburg, who dramatically renovated and expanded the size of the farm house. Dan originally dug the original house’s basement by hand, before adding a major addition, which included among other things a large central stone chimney and solarium.

Dan also built the adjacent stables where he and his wife, Chiprle, had their own horses and made space available for the owners of other local horses. Dan built many of the farm’s out buildings.

The Mecklenburgs also kept goats, ducks and sheep at various times.

Between 2018 and 2021, when Dan and Chiprle had the property in contract sale with another party, many of the smaller buildings fell into disrepair.

Last year a new four-season chicken coop building was erected which is now home to two-dozen egg-layers. Some of those eggs are now used or sold at Andrew and Faith’s Spruce and Hemlock bakery.

“It’s a beautiful piece of property, but it needs a lot of love to bring it back to the way it was when Dan was there,” Andrew told the planners.

Paul O’Leary pointed out the language in the local zoning code which details the use of agriculture and its commercial purposes, “so their application fits in that category for what they are proposing.”

Andrew Chary, a member of the planning board, noted that any more buildings there would require building permits from the code enforcement officer, and Mr. McClelland told him that for right now they are concentrating on repairing the existing buildings and have no plans at the moment to erect new ones. Any events held there would use tents and other portable structures, he told the planners.

“Some day we may erect a pavilion on the top of the pasture for agricultural events,” he added.

Dan McClelland said they are working to preserve the framework of the large barn so that some day it may be home to weddings or other events.

Wedding celebrations at farms are growing in popularity, he noted.

His son said most events they plan to stage would be one-day ones. Several might extend to several days or a week at the most.

Mr. Chary asked about their capacity for parking and Andrew McClelland didn’t know, but he said the area that rings the top of pasture is many acres in size.

“We don’t really know at this point how many people we will get to our events at any one time- so we thought we’d open up a reasonably-sized area there for parking, and then expand parking as needed.”

“We want to keep all parking off Old Wawbeek Road and away from our neighbors.”

The closest neighbors are Darcy and David Turcotte, who live opposite the driveway to the stables. “Out of respect for their privacy, we want to keep our parking and our activities as far away as we can from their property.”

Asked by Chairman Shawn Stuart their opinions on the project, Board Member Jim Merrihew said he liked the design of the parking area away from Old Wawbeek Road and up in the pasture. “As you know, I believe the best parking lot is the one that is very hard to see.”

“Most of our parking area you can’t see from the road,” the younger McClelland told him, to which Mr. Merrihew replied: “That’s a huge plus for me.”

The design of the driveway entrance will permit two vehicles to exit or enter off the town road at the same time at a width of about 30 feet. The McClellands have agreed to furnish 20 feet of the culvert to supplement the town highway department’s 11-foot section. “We want to make it very easy and very safe for people to access our new driveway.”

“I love the business idea of the farm. It’s excellent,” Mr. Merrihew told the applicants. “It’s very novel for around here.”

Mr. Merrihew asked about the acreage in the back of the 100-acre tract and the two men said it was heavily wooded and would eventually become part of their sugaring operation.

Trails will eventually be cut there for hikers and skiers to enjoy the forests, they said.

“I think you are going to see huge success,” Mr. Merrihew told them. “I think you are going to be surprised at the turn-outs at your events and the interest people will have!”

“I love the idea of what you are proposing!”

Jan Yaworski, another member of the board, liked the two-lane entrance plan. “I love your whole idea...I love the idea of a pumpkin patch!” she told them. “-And I love the idea of your holiday events!”

Mr. Stuart wondered about their plans for signage and was told there would be some- perhaps even temporary and erected before each event. “We don’t want visitors going in our circular driveway to the house and bothering people staying there,” Andrew told him.

Any exterior lighting on the pasture would be probably temporary and always downward-pointing, in keeping with the community’s dark skies policies.

Mr. Stuart asked about possibilities for overnight camping, and the two men explained it would be in the distant future, if ever. Before that could happen, however, a substantial well and septic system would have to be installed, and winterized bathroom building would have to be built on the pasture, they said.

The vote on granting the special use permit, on a motion by Doug Bencze and Jan Yaworksi, was unanimous.

Saturday Andrew and Faith, with help from Mary Jo and Lee Wells, spread thousands of square feet of heavy black plastic across what was previously a four-acre paddock for horses.

It’s a non-cultivation way to grow a garden, without having to till up the soil.

John and Patty Gillis have been using the method to grow their large multiple-vegetable garden at Moody for years. They put Andrew and Faith onto it.

Once all the sod has been deprived of moisture and sunlight for over a month by the thick black tarp of plastic, strips of garden fabric are placed down and those strips are seeded or planted with young seedlings.

Proponents of the modern practice argue that conventional cultivation with tillers turns up the soil, but in doing so disturb its environment, killing many of the microbes which promote plant growth.

Information about activities at McClelland Family Farm can be found at mcclellandfamilyfarm@

gmail.com.

Former and convicted drug dealer warns: Drugs are killing Tupper Lake

Editor’s note: the following letter is an open letter to local, county, state and federal lawmakers as a plea for help for our community in light of what many know is a huge drug problem here. The letter was written by Tupper Lake’s Michael Delair, an admitted and convicted drug dealer and recovered drug user. In our opinion it is perhaps the most courageous statement we’ve ever been asked to publish in our nearly 50 years here.

Dear all local, county, state and federal elected leaders:

I live in Tupper Lake I am writing you in regards to the epidemic of drugs that has taken over our community and the necessity to help adequately fund our village police department, rid our town of drugs and crime and most importantly save lives.

First off let me tell you about myself. I am 49 years of age, and led a life of drugs, crime, multiple incarcerations and overdoses. It was a life I never thought I could escape from or give up. I look back now and can only imagine how many nights my mother waited up for me- just to know I was okay , not in jail or worse, dead!

Faced with the grim alternatives, my mother, of course, preferred I was in jail and alive than the alternatives of still surviving on the streets or dead. -And believe me! My life on the street was simply survival.

At the age of 18 I started smoking pot . By the age of 20 I learned how lucrative selling drugs was. By the time I was 22 years of age, I sold half the North Country drugs- and had users in Tupper lake, Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Newcomb and Long Lake. Fifty percent of the pot that was around probably came from my hands in those years.

At 23 years of age I got into cocaine. I not only abused the drug but got involved heavily with the distribution of $15,000 worth of it through my hands weekly.

In my yard was a four wheeler, a wave runner, a snowmobile, a truck and a car. I had a top of the line sound system electronics in my house and vehicles. You name it, I had it.

But I had no visible means of income. Why didn’t someone in law enforcement notice?

My first bust was in 2005. It involved myself and several other locals. I was charged for felony possession of marijuana as I had been out of cocaine that week as my dealer was in jail. I did 18 months in county jail and spent five years on felony probation “for the weed.”

After that I got into heroine. I was making just under $15,000 every couple weeks give or take, selling it and with what went up my nose. My habit cost me roughly $75,000 (street value) through the course of a year. Looking back, it was pretty sad!

At 39 years of age I was caught in the largest bust in Franklin county involving 36 people- 27 of whom were released to probation. I received a sentence of four years in state prison. Luckily I did only 18 months as I went through the shock program and successfully completed it.

I was only home four weeks on parole and already had already accumulated 30 bundles of heroine while living in a shed on my mother’s property.

After failing a couple drug screenings I finally got my life together as I knew I was looking at ten years in jail on my next bid.

As a friend described the drug trade just about a month ago: “cash is king, baby”.

The hypocrisy in that is as of March 2 he is incarcerated, leaving his wife and children behind and alone.

I no longer live that life! I am a better person for doing so and see things in a much different way!

I have a son, his wife and two beautiful grand daughters and two grand sons. I have a girlfriend who I love with two sons, and a very caring, loving and supportive mother!

Today I choose them and put them before drugs. My past would say differently but my past can’t define who I am today.

What makes me different today, you may ask? Well, I’m doing the unthinkable. Just a short time ago my friend passed away due to an overdose here in our home town, leaving his family, friends, and two children behind.

We drifted apart a few years back. But he and many more friends who I care for are still involved in drugs, so I have to love them from a distance. In doing so in the past seven years I have lost 16 friends to drug overdoes.

This year, hopefully with the help of local, state and regional lawmakers, my goal is to eradicate that problem!

When my friend was left dead on the frozen ground this winter, I lost it! I lost hope in humanity, I lost control, I was filled with sadness and anger and tired of watching my friends die.

I made a promise to someone years ago to rid this town of the poison which killed a friend. But I failed miserably. More friends died, and more shame and guilt have filled my heart. Well, I made that same promise this time, and don’t intend to fail. I have taken action to find my friend’s killer and stop the influx of drugs to our community.

How, you may ask? That’s where the unthinkable comes in. Myself and my girlfriend and a few anonymous others started driving around at night and watching those individuals involved in drugs. We’ve been writing down license plates, talking via texts to addicts and dealers alike.

Our aim is to gain as much information as we can. It got expensive so we started a Go-fund Me to help cover the cost of our gas. I was ridiculed, made fun of, and told I was untrustworthy.

Slowly the fund grew to around $400 and after a few hateful comments we decided to give all funds raised to my friend’s family for a headstone for my friend, Paul. With the money we were raising we also started an account for his two children which at this point is remarkably at nearly $4,000.

I’ve harassed people through Facebook, showing texts of dealers’ dirty deeds, pics of meth, and anything else that implicates their involvement, knowing it would get back to them.

Again, I was ridiculed, harassed and even threatened to the point my own mother deleted me from Facebook as she feared the safety of me and my family and the loss of my sanity. Many friends, all good-natured and well-intentioned people, have said I am wasting my time, loosing my grip on reality and are concerned for me both physically and mentally.

I have been asked: “why am I doing this?” My reply to them is simply: “why are you doing nothing?”

Meth and heroin run rampant in our streets! Everyone complains, but do nothing. I’m not going to continue to do nothing! If I am hurt because of my actions, I would only hope it would shed more light on the situation at hand and if I die, I hope I am remembered for what I am doing, and not for what I have done in my past.

If honoring my many dead friends is not honorable than what is honor? I can only hope that through the information I have obtained it leads to the arrest of my friend’s killer, as no justice has been served for the other 15 friends I’ve lost over the past several years. That is my hope; this is my wish!

It is time for change and over the past month those changes have been happening. People have read my posts and people have started to reach out to me and confide in me about activities in their neighborhoods- sending photos and tips etc. to me.

Others have gone as far as creating a website to expose such things, some of which I don’t condone. But to be honest they are getting their points across and if hurting some folks’ feelings happens, well consider the feelings of all the families who have lost there children here.

People are tired of it- “lots of people are- and they are fighting back. We are not vigilantes but people using the power of our voice to make a change and maybe one day go back to living like we used to for decades here.

Our town is horribly different now- from the innocent place it was years ago. Who doesn’t lock their door now? Who isn’t afraid that their kid may go to the ball park and fall on a needle . We are not the Tupper Lake we used to be, yet we promote how peaceful we are. Tupper Lake is now a community plagued with death of our young adults, addiction and crime.

Are people aware are crime rate has nearly tripled in the course of the last two years- most of it drug-related crime. Why is that? Because the state’s bail reform is not working the way you think it should. Our crime rate has tripled because the same individuals who are apprehended and arrested are released and back on the street before the ink dries on the paper of their arrest. Once out they are back committing more crimes.

While much of this is my opinion, if you look at the local police blotter it’s the same several individuals arrested and released, but not jailed, over and over again! The bail system is broken in New York State.

Squatters illegally staying in local apartments and houses in Tupper Lake was unheard of a few years ago. Now it’s commonplace...people moving into someone’s residence because it’s empty and our laws say we can’t just tell them to get out. It’s a complete and utter atrocity.

To all the elected leaders of our town, our county and our state, I simply ask this:

Will you fix our laws? Will you push to seek justice for those lost to the poisons being pushed in our community? Will you find funding for our local police department so they aren’t done work at 7p.m. when all the fun begins? -Or maybe situate a treatment facility right here where drug users and addicts can go to receive Narcan and mental health counseling?

To my community, I say, it is time to stop treating what’s going on here as a dirty secret. It is time to take our town back with or without our governments’ help! If you see something, say something. It’s that simple! You can remain anonymous but what you should not do is stay silent because before long the criminals will be running our town if we do not take action now!

Last but not least, a few comments to my fellow addicts:

I was once you and still am! I have anxiety and mental health issues persist with me to this day!

I not only feel your pain, your shame and your guilt but truly understand the grip of addiction as it haunts me to this day. I routinely have vivid dreams of smoking crack , nodding out, finding my dead friend and hearing his bones crack as I lifted him dead off the floor.

But some how in some way I finally just had enough and gave it all up. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t think about it almost daily as I to want to numb the pain and quiet that little voice in my head that says “I’ll never be anything more than what I am- a junkie, a depressed and almost insane man of 50 years who sometimes thinks death would be easier than to go on living.

My critics may think I have no compassion. They may think of me as a bully and a bad guy and I’m okay with that. Why? Because I live with it. I hear all their hateful comments directed at me. And they combine on top of all the nasty things my own mind says to me on a daily basis. But I’m okay with it because I have changed and regardless of how low I feel sometimes, every day I rise and I put one foot in front of the other each and continue to fight for my sobriety.

It’s a challenge ten times harder than how I chased the drugs all those years. This is not an easy task by any means. I am no better than any of you and hate that some of you feel that way but so be it. If you ask me for help I will do whatever I can to help you- whether it just my ear to listen to you or the offer of some advice.

I pointed out to a few individuals I hope I’m not looked at as a bully to addicts. I’m the exact opposite. I care about all of you! But some of the things people have written about me on social media post, criticizing my motives and my character, just shows how truly horrible the disease of addiction is! It’s cunning, baffling and powerful.

To those living with it , they know of its power. Someone who is clean and sober may outwardly seem to be doing well on their journey, but then all of a sudden, without warning, they have a slip or even succumb to a full-blown relapse.

This type of behavior is very confusing to addicts and to their family members and friends, who often think that once their loved one goes for treatment that the problem will be fixed. Unfortunately, addiction doesn’t work that way. It’s a chronic illness that has all of the qualities listed above, along with “infinite patience.”

I would refer everyone troubled by addiction to: Stjoesphinstitute.com understanding addiction: cunning, baffling, powerful.

I will leave you with these words from a friend a mine, David Leblanc who said this to me recently: “I’ve known you since before you could walk Your mom played softball with my mom, so I watched you during games. I’ve known you since before your escapades. I saw your heart before it was hardened by crime and drugs. I see your heart even when you are raging mad. A man’s heart is what it is from birth. He’s capable of bad but deep inside of his heart, if it is good, he’s good. You just took awhile to figure out that you’re a good man. Some of us always knew! Maybe God or whoever is out there put you through all of the bad for this mission. Our town is going through some dark times, and maybe it needs a good-hearted man who’s looked into the abyss to help turn the lights back on!”

Sincerely,

Mike Delair

“Party on Park” back on for Saturday of Memorial Day weekend

by Dan McClelland

Plans are moving ahead for the merchants in the uptown business district to be able to celebrate the arrival of the summer tourist season with their “Party on Park” on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

Last week’s village board meeting saw the arrival of a path forward for the retail event.

At the March village board meeting Mayor Paul Maroun invited representatives of the chamber of commerce and the uptown retail community to explain the importance of closing two blocks of Park Street and two blocks of Cliff Ave. for the mall-like event first celebrated here in 2019.

Free Press Publisher Dan McClelland, who is currently interim chamber of commerce president, opened the discussion Wednesday.

He said for years from his perch on the second floor of the Free Press he has watched the Memorial Day traffic pour through the uptown business district on its way to destinations around the North Country, but seldom stopping here.

Mr. McClelland said Tupper Lake’s summer tourist season doesn’t really kick into high gear until mid- to late-June, once school gets out.

“So I’ve been talking in recent weeks with some of our new Park Street retailers- Garrett Kopp, Josh Mclean and my daughter-in-law Faith McClelland” about reviving their Memorial Day Saturday ‘Party on Park’ to stop some of those tourists flowing through here in town for a time.

“They would like to re-enact what in 2019 was a very successful event where the two blocks of the uptown business district on Park Street was closed to vehicular traffic. They were able to draw a number of exhibitors and vendors to join them on the street from around the area and they were able to make some money that Saturday, after a very long winter.

“That year, for the first time perhaps ever, Tupper Lake really benefitted from the Memorial Day traffic!”

He told the village leaders “that it is high time our community begins to think out of the box a bit to garner more tourist trade- and do things we haven’t done before to boost our local economy!”

Mr. McClelland said they were also fortunate that evening to have Joe Sciortino in attendance that evening to explain what can and cannot be done with a section of state highway- as the two block section of the business district is. Mr. Sciortino is a new Tupper Lake resident. He is the state Department of Transportation’s new Franklin County resident engineer, who succeed Rob Haynes last year.

Garrett Kopp, the founder of Birch Boys, was the first local retailer to speak Wednesday.

“Obviously my business has changed over the years. The relevance of this to me is not quite as strong for me now, as it was the year (2019) when I helped get this event started,” he began.

Mr. Kopp’s Birch Boys online retail and wholesale company and its many chaga and other products is now headquartered in the former Tupper Brewery building on Cliff Ave.

He said Josh Mclean, who manages the Adirondack Store in the former Ginsberg building “has really taken over the reins of its planning and pushing it forward!”

“My point in being here is to explain to you guys what the event means to us financially to do this event,” he told the village board members.

“If you were to take your average day of retail sales in the month of May, compared with what we did in 2019 during ‘Party on Park,’ the retail sales in the Adirondack Store was six times higher.”

He said his Birch Boys company, when it was located in the Adirondack Store, saw its sales jump by 300% over a normal day.

Mr. Kopp said he spoke with Russ Cronin, who was in 2019 the co-owner with David Tomberlin of Well Dressed Food when the two blocks were closed. They saw three times their average daily sales during “Party on Park.”

“It was a really, really awesome event for all of us!”

Josh Mclean said going forward they would like to see that happen again every Memorial Day weekend “and want to know tonight how to best work with the village to make that happen.”

“We’re willing to do whatever it takes to make it easy for the village to let us do this every year- and to see that it is always done the right way!”

“Having the street closed that day draws many to that area to check out our event!”

Mr. Mclean said when the state highway is open to vehicular traffic that Saturday- as it is every other day of the year- “people just drive right through out town.”

He said the pedestrian mall-style setting of their event catches the eyes of families passing through the uptown business district that day, and coaxes them to stop and shop.

The young businessman said the first year they staged the event it was an unbridled success. In 2022 when they weren’t permitted to have the two blocks of Park Street closed, it was celebrated instead on the two blocks of the village-owned Cliff Ave., “but it wasn’t as successful.”

Cliff Ave. likely won’t be closed for the event this year, if the retailers can win permission from the village board and the state DOT to close the two blocks of Park Street.

He said the Cliff Ave. site didn’t produce the impact that the event saw when Park Street was closed in 2019.

“The whole point of the event” is showcasing the owners of the various renovated businesses on the Park Street business strip and their investments and upgrades there.

“We want to showcase those businesses and not hinder them in any way,” Josh said of the event’s primary mission.

The two men brought with them a list of about 15 business owners or operators in favor of returning the event to a closed two-block stretch of Park Street.

Mr. Mclean said he was aware of only one business owner against it and that business wasn’t even located on Park Street. The objection involved using Cliff Ave. for the event- as the retailers did last year.

He said that in 2019 even some of the non-retail businesses in the two blocks put out tables that Saturday with brochures or other products to promote their businesses.

Rachel King, owner of Earth Girl Designs, said last year’s event generated three and one half times the sales of a normal Saturday. “It certainly helped us kick off our summer with money for inventory and materials. It generated a significant amount of money for us. It was a great event for us!”

Her partner, Artisan Brandon Cooke of The Crystal Forest Gems remembered he received a number of custom orders that day from visitors passing though the area. “It got people in our shop where they learned there was a silversmith there to help them.”

He said that relative rush of customers that day, seeking his specially crafted items, was both surprising and welcome.

“I typically don’t see more than one person a day come in and ask me to make them something. I saw several new people that day...it was a very good day for me!”

Garrett Kopp said there are a number of people in Tupper Lake who have craft-type businesses and who aren’t situated on Park Street that joined them those two events. “-And they did very well.”

“I can tell you I started my business going to any pop-up sales event around the region which would have me- whether it was a festival at Gore Mt. or a farmers’ market in Potsdam. Some were great while some were a waste of my time, but I needed to try them all out.”

He said the itinerant vendors who attend both “Parties on Park” all did well in sales.

Mr. Kopp said it helps generate money for them that they can re-invest in their small businesses.

Some of those people, Mr. Mclean noted, hope some day to have their own “brick and mortar” stores.

Mr. Kopp said a number of businesses in other parts of the town like Raquette River Brewing take advantage of the Park Street event to sell and promote their wares.

“We want the event to be inclusive of all our local businesses,” Mr. Mclean said was their hope.

Tupper Arts President Susan Delehanty said she remembered working at their site during the event in 2019. “We were slammed with a lot of visitors.” She said many were visitors “and they were incredulous with what they saw on Park Street that day.”

“Many told me they’d always driven by” on the Memorial Day weekends over the years, “but were never encouraged to stop- until that year! They wanted to know where they could eat, where there were other gift shops and stores.”

Mrs. Delehanty said her group was a little concerned that closing Park Street might hurt some of the businesses there who benefit by people pulling up at the curb to pick up take-out orders.

“So I asked Gary Kucipak next door, who owns Guido’s Pizzeria, if it impacted his business and he told me it ‘didn’t impact him either way, because most of my business is done with deliveries’.”

“That made me feel better that closing the two blocks didn’t negatively impact his business,” she told the village board members.

She said some of those first customers in 2019 have returned in subsequent summers after being introduced to their shop that first year.

Andrew Russell, who is one of the new owners of the Top Notch Motel on Upper Park Street and who was at the meeting on another matter, said when he and his wife Ilona are driving through a community any time with their two small children they often use events like “Party on Park” as a chance to stop, get out and let their kids stretch their legs. -And often times, he noted, he and his wife will shop a bit.

At that point the mayor took the floor for a moment and said people often ask him why Tupper Lake does not paint our main thoroughfare green like their do in Saranac Lake on St. Patrick’s Day each year.

“The main road in Saranac Lake is not a state highway, so it does not have to follow state guidelines in its main business district.”

Lumberjack spring track season underway; Olivia Ellis wins twice; boys relay team first

By Dick Sterling

The 2023 high school spring track and field season is underway. Last Monday the Tupper Lake Lumberjacks battled against Potsdam, Massena and Ogdensburg at Potsdam. Tupper Lake standout Olivia Ellis finished first in the 100 meter hurdles and the high jump and also earned second place finishes in two other events. For the boys, the Lumberjack 4x100 relay teams earned an impressive first place finish in their race.

Lumberjack Head Coach Hannah Klossner said that right out of the gate, they work hard to get her kids ready for sectionals. She said that this Saturday’s invitational will be a great early season indicator on just where Section 10 athletes stand at the start of the new season. “The event, the Section 10 Invitational, is this Saturday at St. Lawrence University (10 a.m.).

In the first meet of the year the Lumberjack boys were beaten by Potsdam 170-44; lost to Ogdensburg 106-68 and fell to Massena 164-44. The Ladyjacks lost to Potsdam 169.5-47.5; they fell to Ogdensburg 95-84; and picked up a win against Massena, earning a 100-67 victory.

Coach Klossner said that both the boys and girls teams have more athletes this season and is looking for the boys and girls teams to win some dual meets. “There’s lots of new kids on both teams and right now we’re figuring out where they are best placed.”

Lumberjack senior Olivia Ellis kicked off her season with an outstanding performance at Potsdam as she won the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 18.28 seconds, nearly two seconds ahead of her closest rival, Jaedyn Rutledge, of Potsdam. Olivia also placed first in high jump with a winning effort of 4-feet and 8-inches. Olivia also earned second place finishes in the 400 meter hurdles, with a time of 1:19.50; and the long jump with a leap of 14-feet 2 ½-inches.

The Lumberjack boys 4x100 relay team may have surprised some of the other teams with their performance in their event. The team of Sean Bujold, Brock Fleishman, Cohen Gerstenberger and Brayden Shannon sprinted to a time of 51.75 seconds to beat Potsdam by just over three-quarters of a second.

Two Ladyjack relay teams earned top three finishes. The 4x400 relay team of Rebecca Becker, Raegan Fritts, Sadie Safford and Livia Meade ran their race in 5:23.20, finishing second to Potsdam. The girl’s 4x100 relay team of Caydence Flagg, Emily Bissonnette, Lacey Tarbox and Livia Meade placed third with a time of 1:02.49.

Other Ladyjacks to turn in outstanding efforts included: Meade, who finished fifth in the 200 meter dash (32.30) and fourth in the 400 meter dash (1:11.30); Tarbox, who placed sixth in the 100 meter dash (15.39 seconds) and sixth in the 200 meter dash (33.34 seconds); Becker placed sixth in the 400 meter dash (1:14.23) and fifth in the long jump (12-feet and ½-inch); Fritts finished fourth in the 400 meter hurdles (1:28.80) and fifth in the long jump (26-feet 3 ½-inches); Sammy Flagg finished fifth in the 800 meter run (3:24.40) and Meika Nadeau placed sixth in the same race (3:29.60); and Mary Becker finished sixth in discus (49-feet and 11-inches).

For the boys: Shannon placed third in the high jump (5-feet 0-inches), fifth in the 200 meter dash (25.00 seconds) and sixth in the 100 meter dash (12.65 seconds); Gerstenberger finished sixth in the 400 meter dash (1:03.15); Dane O’Connor finished fifth in the 800 meter run (2:35.20); Logan Flagg placed fifth in the 3,200 meter run (12:12.20); and CJ Levey finished sixth in the shot put (32-feet 9 ½-inches).

Retailers will lobby tonight for closing uptown business district for “Party on Park”

by Dan McClelland

At least two members of the Park Street retail merchant community are expected to appear before the village board at its monthly meeting tonight to present solid facts why the uptown business district should again be a pedestrian mall on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

Appearing with Garrett Kopp of the Birch Boys business on Cliff Ave. and Josh McLean of the Adirondack Store at Cliff and Park will be the hometown publisher, Dan McClelland who is currently the interim president of the Tupper Lake Chamber of Commerce. The chamber all but dissolved last fall, but Dan McClelland has hopes of creating a similar but different type of business organization in its place.

Their appearance was prompted by a call from Mayor Paul Maroun to come before the board at its April meeting to convince them why Cliff Ave. should be closed for the retail community’s “Party on Park” on the Memorial Day Saturday, where local organizations and vendors join the retailers for the street festival.

The event was launched in 2019 and held again one of the COVID years, and both times Park Street was closed for it. The retailers’ request to close Park Street was denied by the village leaders last year.

The day-long closure of that part of Park Street caused no problems for traffic through or in and around the village those times.

Cliff Ave., which is a village street, has been routinely closed for special events there in recent years, most recently during the operation of the Tupper Brewing, when it was situated there for about four years.

At the village board’s March meeting the mayor said that the two blocks of the Park St. business area won’t be closed to vehicle traffic this year, and Cliff Ave., may not either.

He asked that the retail merchants and the chamber appear in April to plead their case.

Village leaders have always been reluctant to close the Park St. blocks of the uptown business district because it is a state highway. It requires the permission of the regional Department of Transportation office in Malone to close it. That permission has come a number of times in the past, including the day-long celebration several years ago to commemorate the completion of the ambitious DOT rebuilding of the business district corridor five years ago.

It has also been closed also for at least one public event organized by Tupper Arts in the holiday season.

The mayor is likely to argue tonight that the village currently does not have enough officers (three sergeants and four uniformed officers) to direct traffic around the business district for the Memorial Day Saturday.

All Park Street area businesses are invited to attend tonight’s meeting to weigh in on the issue.

The meeting begins at 6p.m.

Adult Center: best and most affordable lunches in township

by Dan McClelland

If you are 60 years of age and older, you won’t find a better lunch in town than at the Adirondack Adult Center on Demars Blvd. -And lunch cost is only a donation of $2, if the diner is able.

The homemade lunches are the best, regular patrons have been telling us for years. At their invitation we paid the place a visit earlier this month to interview some of the local folks who love the place.

Mona Sapone, one of the regulars, was helping cut up fruit with Assistant Cook Debbie Nadeau in the kitchen before lunch that morning. Mona, the volunteer, does what they need her to, as we watched her mill about the dining room and kitchen.

On that day’s menu was Teriyaki grilled chicken, served over brown rice with stir fried vegetable. It smelled wonderful. Toss in a chocolate chip cookie for dessert- and lunch was complete.

Other great lunches on the menu last week were a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, a steak and cheese sub and spaghetti with meat sauce.

Today, chicken and dumplings was the main fare.

The star of the place is Cook Sally White, and there was a consensus among the 15 or so diners who were the first to arrive that Sally’s cooking is the best. She apparently goes all out for her patrons.

Sally’s kitchen is also the base of the adult center’s meals on wheels program, which is run by Adirondack Adult Center Director Stacey Button.

On the day of our visit 46 lunches left for houses and apartments around Tupper Lake, shuttled by a team of loyal volunteers. There were six drivers that day. Some seniors find it hard to get out, particularly in the cold and snow of winter. Other meals on wheels recipients just like the convenient service.

The meal deliverers make it a point to step inside every residence, to make sure everything is okay. Leaving the meal on the doorstep isn’t allowed.

For many the visit might be the only person they see that day- so for them it’s a life line.

Some of the local volunteer drivers and other helpers here are Scott Shannon, Patty Nichols, Ron Stone, Jenn Bradley, Jason Rolley, Mary Richer, Amanda Farnsworth, Joe and Lisa Kimpflen, Ann and Rudy Gibbs, Patty Flag, Mike Larabie, Kay Pauquette and Tammy Roshia, plus some Sunmount folks and their care-givers.

The meal at the center begins at noon and is over when all are fed, explains Stacy.

After lunch some days there’s a speaker, who talk on a variety of interesting topics.

Last Tuesday, the featured speaker was Pete Gilbert, a highly active Civil War re-enactor here.

Bobbie Newman, who operated the Tupper Lake Motel with her husband Al here for years, calls the place “her second home.” She said she loved the people and the hospitality, always dished out in heaping portions.

Bobbie, a long time resident of Lake Simond, is the unofficial photographer, snapping photos of everyone and anyone. Many of her prints hang on the bulletin.

At 93 Bobbie still pretty handy on the computer- and she sometimes operates the one there, printing out materials for the patrons. The place could use a new computer, so if anyone here has a good one they are not using, the center would like it. She’s the center’s historian and uses the computer there in her work.

“If someone donated a computer to us that would be wonderful,” Stacy told the Free Press.

Bobbie, who will be 91 this May, sent us a couple of photos included with this story.

Of Sally, Bobbie figures she’s the best cook in the county’s entire nutrition program which covers about 15 or 16 town centers. Mona shakes her head in agreement.

Bruce Cooke has the shortest distance to the center of any of the patrons. He lives two doors down. He’s a newcomer at just several weeks, and he gave us a double thumbs up on the meals.

While the meals are great, there are no special requests. All the meals are set by day by the county’s office for the aging in Malone. The meal products are sent to each center for the cooking staff to prepare.

A familiar face at the center that day was former center director, Ray Bigrow and his girl friend Rose Marie Lang. They were both hungry and looking forward to lunch.

Ray, even after his retirement this past year, continues to be an active volunteer at the center.

Says Ray, “the companionship here is wonderful. If someone is not here, we actually get worried about them.”

He remembers that before COVID there would often be 25 people for lunch at the center. Meals at the center were adjourned for the most part during the pandemic, and the focus moved to bringing food to the homes of the elderly, particularly those worried about their exposure to the virus.

During the COVID years it was not unusual to transport over 75 meals to Tupper Lake people at home. Occasionally the delivery list would hit 100 a day.

He said that while there isn’t a formal check- on-a-person system in place, it’s done informally by friends. “Mona was missing one day, so I went to her home to see if she was okay, which she was.”

In order to reserve a lunch, patrons of the place have to make a reservation by 9:30a.m.- so the kitchen staff knows how many lunches to prepare. Reservations can be made the day before or for a week at a time, Stacey noted.

On the day of our visit, there were about 20 diners. On a recent volunteer appreciation lunch there were over 50 for lunch.

Bob Woods, one of the regulars as is his wife, Betty, had a big grin that morning. Bob is a great story-teller and his stories of living his entire life here, with the exception of military service are often part of the lunch fodder.

“I like it all...I like the food, I like the companionship!”

Bob and Betty were active volunteers at the Wild Center for years.

Betty admitted she likes not having to prepare Bob’s lunch every day.

Some times seniors here take in a daily swim at the Sunmount pool, where they work up an appetite for lunch.

Lenny Indellicati from Piercefield is another regular. He said he likes the low $2 donation price for a great lunch.

What would they be serving in Piercefield today, if the center wasn’t offering lunches? “Not much,” Lenny smirks.

Retired Tupper Lake Baptist Chapel Minister Rick Wilburn and his wife, Judy, enjoy some of their lunch-time meals at the center.

Sometimes the Rev. Rick says Grace. Others like Mona share that duty.

“I think it’s great for the community and its seniors,” noted Mr. Wilburn. He also applauded the paid staffers and the volunteers who help keep the entire program running smoothly. “They treat us very well!”

The diners vary in how many days they come for lunch. Bobbi Newman says she attends three times a week. Some people come once a week, while others are there every day.

The consensus of the diners last Monday was the program is both vital and enjoyable for the seniors of Tupper Lake- both the meals enjoyed at the center and those who get them at home. And several shouted: “Sally is the best!”

And Director Stacey is also very well liked and respected. It’s commonplace for her to help in the kitchen or with other lunchtime chores there.

She said she would like to see more people come to the center for their lunches and for the friendships made there. It’s indeed a special place!

North Country Community College announces venture with UPNCoding in Tupper Lake; new jobs on horizon

North Country Community College is partnering with a new computer coding initiative here called UpNCoding to prepare students for careers in the growing software engineering industry.

UpNCoding is both a company and a course that focuses on preparing the next generation of software engineers through education and training.

Together, NCCC and UpNCoding will offer a 12-week course, beginning this May, that is designed to provide students with career opportunities across multiple industries and with varying sized companies.

When they complete the course, students will be prepared for modern software interview processes and will be educated in various potential entry-level positions from Full-Stack Engineer to Machine Learning Engineer.

UpNCoding has been creating a partner network where students would be able to interview for open positions immediately after completion of the course.

The course introduces software engineering principles through instruction-led projects and industry standard tools that students will interact with in their future technology careers. The class meets three times per week for 3-hour sessions. The sessions will be available in a HyFlex format with in-person, synchronous online instruction in addition to recorded sessions to allow for flexible learning. All sessions will be taught by one or two industry-experienced instructors.

“While other institutions focus on a front-end app development, UpNCoding is providing a more well-rounded, full-stack education that better addresses the growing needs of the software engineering industry, said Dan Preice, CEO of UpNCoding and one of the course instructors.

North Country Community College will host the course while UpNCoding will provide instruction and the curriculum.

“We are excited about our joint initiative with UpNCoding,” said Sarah Maroun, North Country’s Vice President of Academic Affairs. “This technical curriculum will provide direct-to-work training with a 12-week program, and we are excited that additional courses are being prepared in topics such as Security, DevOps, Microprocessor Firmware and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning to better address the needs of the industry and region.”

To further align the needs of the community, NCCC and UpNCoding are also developing a second phase of their relationship with a joint venture to provide software contracting services as a means to introduce resume-building workplace experience to our students.

The course schedule is May 22 through August 7, every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the NCCC campus from 4-7p.m. The format will be HyFlex with in-person, live broadcasting, and recording available.

More information can be found at www.nccc.edu/coding. Or call 518-891-2915 ext. 1203

Hundreds of kids collect thousands of eggs on April Fool’s Day

by Dan McClelland

Several hundred children, most accompanied by a parent or two, mobbed the fields around the L.P. Quinn Elementary School on April Fool’s Day this year. But it wasn’t a joke. There were nearly 6,000 goodie-filled eggs to gather.

It was another successful and popular version of Erin’s Easter Egg Hunt, which honors the late Erin Farkas Dewyea, who helped create it as a Kiwanis Club event staple over a decade ago.

Although there was light rain in the morning, by noon the sun came out and the mercury began to rise into the 30s, for the enjoyment of the egg hunters and their chaperones.

The hunt was again co-sponsored by the Adirondack Regional Federal Credit Union.

Joining the two local sponsors were a number of community members. A number of businesses donated goodies to be collected inside all those many colorful eggs that day at noon. From The Castle of Toys, which the local civic club also operates at Christmas each year and runs from its home above the VFW Post came a number of the small toys that went into some of the eggs. Small gifts also came this year from McDonald’s on the Boulevard.

A horn set the searchers in motion in three places.

This was believed to be the first Erin’s Easter Egg Hunt on a blanket of snow since the first two around 2013. But it made for easy spotting by the youngsters. Typically the early Easter event is graced with unseasonable nice April weather.

It’s a rain and shine event, but normally the hunts have attracted good weather.

This year, however, the snow was still six inches deep on the Rotary Field and the track that rings it, where parents typically observe the young gatherers. Because of that, the gathering sites surrounded the school this year, where snow cover was thinner. Three different age groups- those in first and second grades, kindergarten to pre-K and pre-K and younger hunted in three difference places: near the bus lanes, on the school playground and on the upper soccer fields.

There were six golden eggs- two on each field- to be found, which entitled the holders to a bundle of Easter loot: an Easter basket with toys, a back pack, legos, board games and more.

Denver Proulx won one, but we don’t know the winners of the rest.

Juli Dukett, one of the key Kiwanis Club organizers, was pleased with this year’s version of the event that honors her friend and fellow club member, Erin.

She again handled the opening announcements, briefing anxious egg-searchers on the respective sites and the rules.

Recent grants boost fundraising of history museum project

by Dan McClelland

When they are not continuing with their renovations at the new Tupper Lake History Museum on Upper Park Street, the volunteer board members are working full speed on grant applications to assist the local fundraising work.

The board of directors of the local museum, under the direction of Chairwoman Kathleen Lefebvre, is committing a good share of its recent donations to getting their new place finished for a grand opening this summer.

-And there’s been plenty of good news in recent months.

The museum board received a $5,000 donation recently from the Aseel Legacy Fund, created by the family of the late Alfred Aseel in support of good projects here.

More good news came on the back of that generous donation- this time from an anonymous donor, who sent along a check for $5,000.

On the last day of March last week the museum fundraisers received even more good news- this time from the Adirondack Foundation. The local foundation awarded a grant of $2,500 through its Generous Acts fund “for bringing the Great Room to Life.” Partnering with the Generous Acts program of the Adirondack Foundation is its Fund for Tupper Lake.

The last piece of great news came from Leslee Mounger, funds and program officer at the foundation to Museum Board Member Joe Kimpflen, who wrote the grant application.

“We are so thankful to the very community-minded folks at the Adirondack Foundation, at the Aseel Legacy Fund and from our anonymous donor for helping us with our renovations and believing in the importance of a vibrant local museum to tell some of the history of our community,” Kathleen Lefebvre said this week.

“We will be open for business again this summer, thanks to these recent donors and to the many people who have donated to our project in recent years!”

Several other grant applications have been filed in recent weeks by the museum volunteers who are anxiously awaiting the results. The largest is a $10,000 “Destination Development and Marketing” grant application that was filed to the Franklin County Tourism Department by Monday’s deadline by Mr. Kimpflen. The application followed a meeting Tourism Director Phil Hans had with Mrs. Lefebvre and Board Member Dan McClelland last month at the museum site.

The museum board’s fundraising efforts continue and donations can be sent to the Tupper Lake History Museum, P.O. Box 824, Tupper Lake.

Once all renovation costs are covered, the campaign will devote all donated resources to paying off the building’s $100,000 mortgage.

The names of all donors will continue to be published in the Tupper Lake Free Press.

Watch for a story on the museum renovations and other development there in upcoming issues.

Former LeBoeuf's market building, adjoining buildings destroyed by fire

by Dan McClelland

The building complex that once housed the former corner market where for decades residents of the French Village purchased their milk, bread and meat was completely destroyed in an early morning fire yesterday.

The former LeBoeuf’s Market building at 15 Broad Street, the garage behind it and red house next to it on, both on McFarland Street were all lost to the blaze with flames jumping jumped high into the air by 6:30a.m. It could be seen vividly from blocks away. The fire department was called out at 5:50a.m. and arriving there the firefighters found the buildings fully involved.

Volunteer firefighters here battled the huge fire valiantly for hours. Even two hours later the fire continued to consume the old buildings and volunteers were on the scene most of the morning. Firefighters from Paul Smith’s-Gabriels, Saranac Lake, Long Lake also responded to the conflagration. The Piercefield volunteers stood by at the Tupper station.

For the Schuller family here and for the families who lived there, it represented a huge loss.

Watching his investment burn up, Mr. Schuller was unsure how much insurance he had on the building, if he had any.

His son, Joseph, had recently moved back to Tupper Lake from California and purchased the red two-story house next to the garage which was also destroyed in the multiple-building blaze. That property was reportedly insured, according to the senior Schuller.

The garage was the headquarters for Tupper Lake’s popular garbage man, Fred Schuller. One of his pick-ups parked on McFarland St. and his dump truck, parked on the opposite side of the building, exploded in flames at one point early in the fire. A car parked next to the pick-up on the McFarland St. side was also destroyed by fire. Only shells of the vehicles remained.

Mr. Schuller purchased the former convenience store at county public auction over ten years ago and did considerable renovations to the building over the years, fashioning two apartments.

The Rick Bolia family was renting the first floor apartment. The Michael Thompson family, with two small children, lived in the upstairs apartment.

Fortunately no one was seriously injured. Firefighters had to climb ladders to the second floor window to rescue two adults from the upper apartment, as the flames roared overhead.

The local fire department used its aerial platform truck to rain water on the blaze for hours. Multiple hose crews poured water on the buildings from all sides.

Rick Bolia said that morning he wasn’t at home at the time of the fire, but his teenage son woke up coughing from the smoke in their apartment.

The fire is believed to have started in the garage where Fred kept a wood stove to heat it. Mr. Thompson had been apparently using it as late as Monday evening, and may have forgot to secure it before heading back upstairs to his apartment, according to Mr. Schuller.

As a safety precaution the village electric crew was asked to kill power on the Broad Street circuit during the fire which left some residences as far away as River Road in the dark for several hours.

Superintendent of Schools Russ Bartlett released an emergency call to all families with children in school here, via the district’s emergency telephone system, about 8a.m. yesterday. In the message, he explained because the L.P. Quinn Elementary School was without electricity and because of the poor air quality in and around the middle/high school, several blocks from the fire scene, an emergency dismissal had been called, where middle/high school students were dismissed at 8:45a.m. and the elementary students about 15 minutes later.

Most of the fire was extinguished about 8:30a.m. At about 10a.m. a large excavator was brought in that started tearing down the burned and still standing walls of the three structures.

The Broad St. circuit and the neighborhoods it serves was re-energized by the electric department shortly about 10:15a.m.

Hundreds of feet of hose was used by the various departments- tapping hydrants on Wawbeek Ave. and all around the scene.

By 10:30a.m. the various departments were spreading out their hoses on the bottom of Broad Street and rolling them up.

The fire was so hot at one point it melted the vinyl siding on a garage directly across McFarland St.

During the fire two people were transported by the Tupper Lake Volunteer Emergency and Rescue Squad to the Saranac Lake hospital.

Firemen were able to prevent the huge blaze from spreading to the Bob Fletcher house across a driveway next door. The back of Mr. Fletcher’s adjoining garage did, however, sustain damage when it caught fire at one point.

Erin’s Easter Egg Hunt set for April 1

Young Easter Egg hunters and their parents are reminded of Erin’s Easter Egg Hunt set for April 1. The annual event remembers Erin Farkas Dewyea and her many kindnesses to local students during her all too brief teaching years here.

Sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Tupper Lake, of which Erin was a member, and the Adirondack Regional Federal Credit Union, the hunt for tasty eggs starts at noon sharp on the fields of L.P. Quinn Elementary School.

Infants to pre-k students will hunt on half of the Rotary Club’s football field and the kindergarten to second graders will comb the other half for goodies in the colorful shells. Older egg hunters in grades three to five will hunt the grounds in front of the elementary school.

Hunters and their parents are advised it’s a rain or shine event, so come prepared with boots, rain coats, and such to handle anything Mother Nature throws at us the first day of April.

Hunters are also encouraged to bring with them their collection baskets. There will be an opportunity to have a photo taken with the Easter Bunny.

The event is free for all children up to the fifth grade.

Seussical the musical delights audiences as promised in three shows

by Dan McClelland

The Tupper Lake Middle/ High School’s Red and Black Players lit up the auditorium stage and generated tons of laughter from the hometown audience March 24, 25 and 26 when they presented Seussical, a musical comedy.

Although we can only base our praise on the Friday evening performance we attended, the Red and Black Players- to a person- outdid themselves. The show was fun, flawless and just what audiences here cooped up all winter needed, a delightful tonic for the blues.

The songs and music of “Seussical” were funny, peppy and whimsical, like the quirky tales of the famous author. All were well sung by the 30 or more local students in the larger than usual cast in a spring musical on Tupper High stage.

What was very clear to us was that everyone on stage took their roles very seriously and did their best to bring great passion to them. Together they were an amazingly gifted group of kids.

And there were some real standout performances by the leads.

Meika Nadeau, the Cat in the Hat, will graduate this June. Seussical was her last show on the hometown stage and she will be deeply missed by the Red and Black troupe.

Her singing was excellent and her dancing was even better. Her tap routine that opened the second act was top shelf.

When she was on stage, Meika controlled it.

Cody Auclair turned in a great performance too as the passionate Horton the elephant...sometimes thoughtful, sometimes worried, all of the time caring for the tiny population of Who-ville.

Cody, a junior, handled all the songs he sang well, projecting clearly into the audience each time. Cody is comfortable on stage. His facial expressions are most telling. He obviously loves the stage...it was easy to tell!

Raegan Fritts, like Cody, is also a junior, so we’ll get to see her again on stage this next school year. Raegan is a wonderful singer, polished and solid. She’s regularly asked to sing the national anthem at public events here, her singing is so good. Her ukulele performance in Seussical was delightful.

Raegan has the gift of poise in movement. She moved effortlessly across the stage, sometimes on one foot, or bending and twisting with ease. It was like watching a seasoned gymnast perform a well-practiced floor exercise.

She handled some of the dramatics of her part very convincingly- and was not afraid to scream loudly when Miss Gertrude McFuzz was infuriated.

We saw a couple of relatively new performers emerge into lead parts this time: Junior Shae Arsenault as the no-nonsense Mayzie LaBird and Sophomore Sophia Staves as the confident Sour Kangaroo. Both sang very well and both have been performing on stage here for years. It certainly showed by their supporting lead roles this weekend.

The Who mayors, Ayden Rabideau and Nevaeh Toohey, also both handled their support leads well. Ayden is blind but that doesn’t let it stop him on the high school stage or on the basketball court. Both Nevaeh and Ayden have been part of productions here since they were in elementary school. Both are sophomores so we’ll see them on stage for two more years, that’s great news!

Lacey Pickering, making her second Red and Black performance in as many years, is only in seventh grade, so we’ve got a lot more to see from her in the years to come. Her acting as JoJo, a Who-ville boy was very believable with very appropriate facial expressions to carry the message of her part. Like all the leads in Seussical, she handled her singing parts very well.

The entire performance was full of dance and song, and action on the stage was kept lively throughout by the very able performances of over 20 young back-up performers in grades 7, 8, 9 and 10. It was witness there’s a lot more to come from these players in the next few years.

Seussical is based on the book by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, based on the many children's stories of Dr.Seuss, with most of its plot being based on Horton Hears a Who!, Gertrude McFuzz, and Horton Hatches the Egg while incorporating many other stories. The musical's name is a portmanteau of "Seuss" and the word "musical".

Following its Broadway debut in 2000, the show was widely panned by critics, and closed in 2001 with huge financial losses. It has spawned, however, two US national tours and a West End production, and has become a frequent production for schools and regional theaters.

Much the following narrative comes from publicity we found on the web about the show.

​Plot

​Act I

The show opens on a bare stage, save for an odd red-and-white-striped hat in the center. A small boy wanders into view and notices the hat, wondering to whom it might belong. He finally mentions the Cat in the Hat, who appears before the boy and tells him he has been brought to life by the boy's “Thinks.” The Cat (Meika Nadeau) urges this boy to Think up the "Seussian" world and its characters.

"Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!" is the opening number sang well by the Cat in the Hat, Jojo, Horton, Miss Gertrude, Mayzie, Sour Kangaroo, Mr. and Mrs. Mayor, the general, and Whos and the Jungle Creatures.

The Cat then reveals to the boy that he is about to tell a story about someone as imaginative as the boy is.

To begin the story, the Cat encourages the boy to think up the Jungle of Nool, where Horton the elephant (Cody Auclair) is bathing. Horton hears a strange noise coming from a nearby speck of dust. He reasons that someone must be on it, calling out for help. He carefully places the speck on a soft clover and decides to guard it.

Horton (Cody) sings about his dilemma with "Horton Hears a Who,” accompanied by the Bird Girls (Hannah Barber, Aubrey Nadeau and Aubrey Sparks) and the Jungle Creatures (Lily Wilber, Ghost Switzer, Yana Kucipak and Rain Skiff). But Horton is mocked mercilessly by the Sour Kangaroo (Sophia Staves) and the other animals of the jungle, who do not believe him. "Biggest Blame Fool" is how most of the characters on stage felt, as they joined in song to vividly make their point. The only exceptions are Horton's bird neighbors, Gertrude McFuzz (Raegan Fritts), who admires his compassion, and Mayzie LaBird (Shae Arsenault), a self-centered colorful bird who seemed more concerned about herself.

Horton soon discovers that the speck is actually a microscopic planet populated by creatures called Whos. The citizens of Who-ville introduce themselves and their yearly Christmas pageant directed by their friend, the Grinch (Noah Switzer). They also reveal that in addition to being unable to control where the speck flies, they are on the brink of war and their entire population of Truffula Trees has been cut down ("Here on Who"). The Whos thank Horton and ask for his protection, and he agrees to guard their planet.

The Who mayor, Mrs. Mayor, the Grinch, the Whos join Horton in the song “Here on Who,” to describe life on the tiny speck.

At this point, the Cat pushes the boy into the story; he becomes Jojo (Lacey Pickering), the son of the Mayor of Who-ville and his wife, Mrs. Mayor (Ayden Rabideau and Nevaeh Toohey).

The opening song “The Thinks You Can Think” is sang again for the enjoyment of the audience by the Cat and his new friend.

Jojo has been getting into trouble at school for having Thinks, so his parents order him to "take a bath and go to bed, and think some normal Thinks, instead. Jojo blames the Cat for getting him into trouble and tries to send him away. The Cat refuses and persuades Jojo to imagine the tub is McElligot’s Pool. Several two-dimensional fish began floating about the pool.

Jojo (Lacey) and The Cat (Meika) sing that "It's Possible". The two students sang very well together. Jojo inadvertently floods the house, leading the Who-ville mayor and his wife to contemplate what to do with their son when they sing: "How to Raise a Child". When the Cat hands them a brochure, they decide to send Jojo to a military school run by General Genghis Khan Schmitz (Ava Facteau), who is preparing to go to war with those who eat their bread with the butter side down. The general and his cadets (Ash Barber, Jeevika Branchaud, John Fallon, Gabby Frenette and Bryce Richer) belt out a song, "The Military". While there, Jojo meets Horton, and finds a mutual friend in him. Together they do a nice job singing all about "Alone in the Universe".

Gertrude, meanwhile, has fallen in love with Horton, but is afraid he does not notice her because of her own tail, which consists of only “one droppy-droop feather. Raegan, who has a strong singing voice tells the audience about it with the song, "The One Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz". At the advice of Mayzie (Shae), whose tail is enormous and dazzling, she consumes pills which make her tail grow new feathers. Gertrude is so excited that she overdoses, causing her tail to grow long and unwieldy.

"Amayzing Mayzie," is sung and explained by Miss Gertrude (Raegan) and Mayzie (Shae) with back-group vocals help from the Bird Girls.

Another song, “Amazing Gertrude,” is Miss Gertrude’s response, with vocal help by the Bird Girls again.

Horton is ambushed by the Wickershams (Emily Roberts, Haylee Callaghan, Joelle Bedore and Dean LaVigne), a gang of delinquent monkeys, who steal the clover and make off with it, bragging loudly as they sing "Monkey Around".

Horton gives chase until the Wickershams hand the clover to an eagle named Vlad Vladikoff (Dean LaVigne), who drops it into a large patch of identical clovers, detailing the mischief in a song called "Chasing the Whos". Many of the lively characters joined in on that song, including Sour Kangaroo, the Bird Girls, the Wickershams, the Cat in the Hat, Horton, all the Whos (Gabby Frenette, Jeevika Branchaud, Ash Barber, Brittany Curry, John Fallon Aubrey Bissonette, who played Cindy Lou Who, Eliza Bujold, Oliver Roberts, Noah Switzer, Ava Facteau and Bryce Richer), the Jungle Creatures (Lily Wilber, Ghost Switzer, Yana Kucipak and Rain Skiff), as well as General Vlad (Dean).

At this point in Act I, the Cat in the Hat cuts briefly into the action to remind the audience how lucky they are to not be Horton, performing a strong vocal solo, "How Lucky You Are"). Undeterred, Horton (Cody) begins to look for the clover, hoping the Whos are still alive, when Gertrude catches up with him and tries to get him to notice her new tail. Horton is too busy, so she leaves to take more pills, singing a nice duet with Horton (Cody) about feeling sorry for themselves- a song called "Notice Me, Horton".

Horton is about to search his three millionth clover when he loses hope. Mayzie (Shea Arsenault), sitting in a nearby tree, offers to help him forget about the Whos by hatching an egg that she is too lazy to care for. Horton and Mayzie do a nice job with the song "How Lucky You Are,” a reprise sung earlier by the talented cat (Meika).

Horton reluctantly agrees, and Mayzie leaves for a vacation. Horton sits through months of harsh weather as he tries to decide between the egg and the Whos. Horton sits on the egg and sings about it before he is captured by hunters (Bryce Richer and John Fallon), who take him away along with the entire tree. Gertrude (Raegan) tries to stop the hunters, but cannot fly due to her heavy tail.

Almost the entire cast returns for the finale of the act- the Cat in the Hat, Horton, Gertrude, Jojo, the Whos, the Bird Girls, Wickershams and the Jungle Creatures.

​Act II

The act opens with an amazing dance routine by the hatless cat (Meika Nadeau). It featured some very proficient solo tap dancing by the local senior, at times lifting her self between steps into the air, in close step with the polished and well played pieces performed by the all-adult pit band. The musicians were Conductor Liz Cordes on keyboard, Laura Davison, woodwinds and pit band coordinator, David Fortino, woodwinds, James Bamonte, trumpet, Jonathan Dallas, trombone, Wayne Davison, bass guitar, Alanna Kogut, auxiliary percussion and Jeffrey LeFebvre, drums.

The act begins with Horton (Cody), still hatching the egg, is auctioned off to the traveling Circus McGurkus. The song "Egg, Nest, and Tree," well explained in song by Sour Kangaroo (Sophia Staves), and accompanied by the Bird Girls, Wickershams and the Jungle Creature.

“Circus McGurkus" was described in song by the Cat in the Hat (Meika) and Meika teamed up with the very troubled Horton (Cody) in another reprise of “How Lucky You Are!” and “The Circus on Tour.”

At one show in Palm Beach, Horton (Cody) meets up with Mayzie (Shae) who insists that he keep the egg for himself before leaving. The junior tells the audience just how amazing Horton is when she sings alone this time another rendition of "Amayzing Horton".

There’s a comical scene too with Mayzie, relaxed on Palm Beach, getting her nails done by The Cat, and the pair sing well about it.

The very distraught elephant (Cody) delivers a very moving version of "Alone in the Universe.

Horton also sings in soft and emotion-packed lullaby fashion with Jojo (Lacey) about a magical place called Solla Sollew in a song by the same name. At the same time, the Who Mayor (Ayden) and Mrs. Mayor (Nevaeh Toohey begin to miss Horton and Jojo, and join them in song about the special place, with vocal help from the 11 Whos and the Jungle Creatures (Lily, Ghost, and and Rain)

Jojo (Lacey) General Schmitz (Ava) and his platoon as the Butter Battle commences. Jojo deserts Schmitz, but sprints into a minefield and vanishes in an explosion. Schmitz assumes the worst and heads to Who-ville to tell Jojo's parents that their son has died. The Cat returns to perform a re-enactment of the dramatic scene. But in reality, Jojo has survived, but is lost with no idea of where to turn. The Cat appears to him with a band of Hunches (completely clothed creatures in flag-style colorful garb), encouraging him to use his Thinks to find his way home. "Havin' a Hunch" is sung by The Cat, Jojo and the Hunches.

Jojo gets the idea and happily reunites with his parents, who forgive him for his Thinks.

Miss Gertrude (Raegan) sneaks into the circus to free Horton, explaining she plucked out all but one of her tail feathers to fly there, and confesses her love for him. She also reveals she has found his clover, delighting and relieving Horton to find the Whos alive and well. "All For You" is the solo Miss Gertrude sings, explaining her infatuation with the elephant. However, the Sour Kangaroo (Sophia Staves) and the Wickershas arrive to take Horton back to the jungle.

In the jungle, Horton is put on trial for such heinous crimes of "talking to a speck, disturbing the peace, and loitering... on an egg.

"The People Versus Horton the Elephant" is jointly performed in song by most of the cast.

Aided by Miss Gertrude, Horton makes his best case, but Judge Yertle the Turtle (Antwon Gachowski) finds him guilty. He orders Horton remanded to the "Nool Asylum for the Criminally Insane" and the clover destroyed in a kettle of hot "Beezle-Nut" oil.

Desperate, Horton encourages the Whos to make as much noise as possible to prove their existence, but the animals do not hear them. Jojo finally uses his Thinks to conjure a new word, "Yopp", which he shouts loudly enough to reach the animals' ears. Convinced at last, the animals repent and promise to help protect the Whos, and Horton is acquitted.

Horton (Cody) and Miss Gertrude (Raegan) pair up to sing the song “Yopp,” and reprise “Alone in the Universe.”

Jojo (Lacey) is accepted by his parents and the rest of Who-ville as "Thinker Non-Stop" for saving their planet. Horton's egg hatches into a tiny flying "Elephant-Bird", amazing everyone, but dismaying Horton, who panics at the thought of flying progeny. Gertrude reassures him that they can raise the child together, and they agree to do so.

With the story finished, the Cat returns to close the show with the entire cast, belting out the finale,”Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!" The Cat then vanishes along with the scenery, leaving only his hat and Jojo, who is now the boy again. The boy picks the hat up, dons it, and says, "Seuss!"

The show finishes with bows from the cast with a rousing version of “Green Eggs and Ham”- one of Dr. Seuss’ best tales.

The artistic personnel of the show were Stage Director George Cordes, Music Director Liz Cordes, who together have directed the Red and Black Players here for many years, Assistant Director Danielle LaMere, Choreographer Kendall Davison and Technical Director David Naone.

Making up the stage crew was the stage manager, Genna Carmichael, Jack LaQuay, assistant stage manager, Liza Crouse, crew chief and Hannah Callaghan, Rylee Kennedy, Morgan Lohr and Alison Richer.

The lighting crew comprised of spot operators, Rebecca Becker and Jack Dukette, with help from Kaileigh Dukette and Jackson Rice.

The props crew was Vivian Allen, Heather Bujold, Lucy Frenette, Molly Hales and Raegan Hudak. The costume crew was Claire Snye and Mariah Young.

Making up the painting crew which produced some vivid, colorful back-drops, were Vivian Allen, Heather Bujold, Hannah Callaghan, Jack Dukette, Kaileigh Dukette, Lucy Frenette, Molly Hales, Raegan Hudak, Rylee Kennedy, Jack LaQuay, Morgan Lohr, Alison Richer and Claire Snye.

The performance program at the show praised a number of local residents for helping to make Seussical the success it was this weekend. Jamie Gachowski, Meagan Sparks and Stephanie Hachey helped feed the hungry group of actors and the behind the scenes workers this pat week. Also applauded were Stephanie Bissonette and everyone who contributed to the Seussical bake sale, to the parent volunteers who sold refreshments and souvenirs in the high school lobby, to Bryce Davison and Patrick Clark for the strong backs, the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts for the loan of microphones, to Curtis Switzer for his hours spent as Ayden’s aide and for the assistance offered by the school’s faculty and staff.

Seussical was presented through special arrangement with Music Theater International.

Seussical the Musical coming to high school stage

The Tupper Lake Middle/ High School’s Red and Black Players will light up the auditorium stage and generate tons of laughter from the hometown audience when they present Seussical, a musical comedy. The performances will be March 24 and 25 at 7p.m. and March 26 at 2p.m.

The musical is based on the book by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, based on the many children's stories of Dr.Seuss, with most of its plot being based on Horton Hears a Who!, Gertrude McFuzz, and Horton Hatches the Egg while incorporating many other stories. The musical's name is a portmanteau of "Seuss" and the word "musical". Following its Broadway debut in 2000, the show was widely panned by critics, and closed in 2001 with huge financial losses. It has spawned, however, two US national tours and a West End production, and has become a frequent production for schools and regional theatres.

Much of the following narrative comes from Wikipedia, the free encylopedia.

​Plot

​Act I

The show opens on a bare stage, save for an odd red-and-white-striped hat in the center. A small boy wanders into view and notices the hat, wondering to whom it might belong. He finally mentions the Cat in the Hat, who appears before the boy and tells him he has been brought to life by the boy's “Thinks.” The cat urges this boy to Think up the "Seussian" world and characters around the boy and himself ("Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!"). The cat then reveals to the boy that he is about to tell a story about someone as imaginative as the boy is.

To begin the story, the cat encourages the boy to think up the Jungle of Nool, where Horton the elephant is bathing. Horton hears a strange noise coming from a nearby speck of dust, and reasons that someone must be on it, calling out for help. He carefully places the speck on a soft clover and decides to guard it ("Horton Hears a Who"). But he is mocked mercilessly by the Sour Kangaroo and the other animals of the jungle, who do not believe him ("Biggest Blame Fool"). The only exceptions are Horton's bird neighbors, Gertrude McFuzz, who admires his compassion, and Mayzie LaBird, who is more concerned about herself.

Horton soon discovers that the speck is actually a microscopic planet populated by creatures called Whos. The citizens of Who-ville introduce themselves and their yearly Christmas pagenat directed by their friend, the Grinch. They also reveal that in addition to being unable to control where the speck flies, they are on the brink of war and their entire population of Truffula Trees has been cut down ("Here on Who"). The Whos thank Horton and ask for his protection, and he agrees to guard their planet.

At this point, the cat pushes the boy into the story; he becomes Jojo, the son of the Mayor of Who-ville and his wife. Jojo has been getting into trouble at school for having Thinks, so his parents order him to "take a bath and go to bed, and think some normal Thinks, instead". Jojo blames the cat for getting him into trouble and tries to send him away. The cat refuses and persuades Jojo to imagine the tub is McElligot’s Pool ("It's Possible"). Jojo inadvertently floods the house, leading the Mayor and his wife to contemplate what to do with their son ("How to Raise a Child"). When the cat hands them a brochure, they decide to send Jojo to a military school run by General Genghis Khan Schmitz, who is preparing to go to war with those who eat their bread with the butter side down ("The Military"). While there, Jojo meets Horton, and finds a mutual friend in him ("Alone in the Universe").

Gertrude, meanwhile, has fallen in love with Horton, but is afraid he does not notice her because of her own tail, which consists of only “one droppy-droop feather ("The One Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz"). At the advice of Mayzie, whose tail is enormous and dazzling, she consumes pills which make her tail grow new feathers. Gertrude is so excited that she overdoses, causing her tail to grow long and unwieldy ("Amayzing Mayzie"/"Amazing Gertrude").

Horton is ambushed by the Wickersham brothers, a gang of delinquent monkeys, who steal the clover and make off with it ("Monkey Around"). Horton gives chase until the Wickershams hand the clover to an eagle named Vlad Vladikoff, who drops it into a large patch of identical clovers ("Chasing the Whos"). Here, the cat cuts briefly into the action to remind the audience how lucky they are to not be Horton ("How Lucky You Are"). Undeterred, Horton begins to look for the clover, hoping the Whos are still alive, when Gertrude catches up with him and tries to get him to notice her new tail. Horton is too busy, so she leaves to take more pills ("Notice Me, Horton").

Horton is about to search his three millionth clover when he loses hope. Mayzie, sitting in a nearby tree, offers to help him forget about the Whos by hatching an egg that she is too lazy to care for ("How Lucky You Are (Reprise)"). Horton reluctantly agrees, and Mayzie leaves for a vacation. Horton sits through months of harsh weather as he tries to decide between the egg and the Whos ("Horton Sits on the Egg") before he is captured by hunters, who take him away along with the entire tree. Gertrude tries to stop the hunters, but cannot fly due to her heavy tail.

The cat closes the act with a reprise of "How Lucky You Are", and conducts the band during the intermission.

​Act II

Horton, still hatching the egg, is auctioned off to the traveling Circus McGurkus ("Egg, Nest, and Tree"/"Circus McGurkus"/"How Lucky You Are (Reprise)"). At one show in Palm Beach, he meets up with Mayzie, who insists that he keep the egg for himself before leaving ("Amayzing Horton"). Horton mourns the loss of the Whos and Jojo, but vows just as surely to protect the egg, as it, too, is alone without its mother ("Alone in the Universe (Reprise)"), and sings it a lullaby with Jojo about a magical place called Solla Sollew. At the same time, the Mayor and his wife begin to miss Horton and Jojo, and wish for Solla Sollew, as well ("Solla Sollew").

Jojo is with General Schmitz and his platoon as the Butter Battle commences. Jojo deserts Schmitz, but sprints into a minefield and vanishes in an explosion. Schmitz assumes the worst and heads to Who-ville to tell Jojo's parents that their son has died. The cat returns to perform a re-enactment of the dramatic scene. But in reality, Jojo has survived, but is lost with no idea of where to turn. The Cat appears to him with a band of Hunches, encouraging him to use his Thinks to find his way home ("Havin' a Hunch"). Jojo does so and happily reunites with his parents, who forgive him for his Thinks.

Gertrude sneaks into the circus to free Horton, explaining she plucked out all but one of her tail feathers to fly there, and confesses her love for him. She also reveals she has found his clover, delighting and relieving Horton to find the Whos alive and well ("All For You"). However, the Sour Kangaroo and the Wickersham brothers arrive to take Horton back to the jungle.

In the jungle, Horton is put on trial for the crimes of "talking to a speck, disturbing the peace, and loitering... on an egg" ("The People Versus Horton the Elephant"). Aided by Gertrude, Horton makes his best case, but Judge Yertle the Turtle finds him guilty. He orders Horton remanded to the "Nool Asylum for the Criminally Insane" and the clover destroyed in a kettle of hot "Beezle-Nut" oil. Desperate, Horton encourages the Whos to make as much noise as possible to prove their existence, but the animals do not hear them. Jojo finally uses his Thinks to conjure a new word, "Yopp", which he shouts loudly enough to reach the animals' ears. Convinced at last, the animals repent and promise to help protect the Whos, and Horton is acquitted. Jojo is accepted by his parents and the rest of Who-ville as "Thinker Non-Stop" for saving their planet. Horton's egg hatches into a tiny flying "Elephant-Bird", amazing everyone, but dismaying Horton, who panics at the thought of flying progeny. Gertrude reassures him that they can raise the child together, and they agree to do so.

With the story finished, the Cat returns to close the show with ("Finale - Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!"), then vanishes along with the scenery, leaving only his hat and Jojo, who is now the boy again. The boy picks the hat up, dons it, and says, "Seuss!"

Seussical is presented through special arrangement with Music Theater International.

Erin’s Easter Egg Hunt set for April 1

Erin’s Easter Egg Hunt, which remembers the memory of Erin Farkas Dewyea and many kindnesses to local students during her all too brief teaching years here, will again be celebrated on Saturday, April 1.

Sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Tupper Lake, of which Erin was a member, and the Adirondack Regional Federal Credit Union, the hunt for tasty eggs starts at noon sharp on the fields of L.P. Quinn Elementary School.

Infants to pre-k students will hunt on half of the Rotary Club’s football field and the kindergarten to second graders will comb the other half for goodies in the colorful shells. Older egg hunters in grades three to five will hunt the grounds in front of the elementary school.

Hunters and their parents are advised it’s a rain or shine event, so come prepared with boots, rain coats, and such to handle anything Mother Nature throws at us the first day of April.

Hunters are also encouraged to bring with them their collection baskets. There will be an opportunity to have a photo taken with the Easter Bunny.

The event is free for all children up to the fifth grade.

Come tell your story, tomorrow

by Joseph Kimpflen

The best thing about our history, is how much of it is saved, to teach and inspire us. The worst thing about our history, is how much of it is lost, forever, every day. Tomorrow (Thursday, March 16), our effort to change that, right here in Tupper Lake, revs back into gear.

Tupper Tale Tellers (T3) is an oral history project, dedicated to preserving the rich history of our area by tapping the memories of those who lived it. At the same time, the program seeks to foster cross-generational communication and understanding, because it is our young people who take the lead in collecting older residents’ stories. T3 operates with the cooperation of both the Tupper Lake Central School District and the Goff-Nelson Library.

Launched in 2019 with a grant from the Aseel Legacy Fund, the program quickly won the participation of a core group of about 15 Tupper Lake High School students, and got off to a vigorous start. Local residents interviewed early on included John Amoriell (at the time the town’s oldest resident, at 109) and town historian Jon Kopp (with participation from Birch Boys entrepreneur Garrett Kopp). The COVID epidemic forced T3, like so much else, to go on hold, although not before the students found ingenious workaround for the virus, interviewing well-known Tupper Laker Jim Frenette remotely via Zoom, as well as family members at home.

Tomorrow’s session, to be held in the Community Room (entrance off back parking lot) of the Library from 1p.m. to 4p.m. is open to all. It will be all at once an open house for anyone interested in learning about T3; a jump-start to get the program going again post-COVID; and a chance to conduct actual interviews. In addition to high school students currently involved in T3, expected participants include middle-school students hoping to join the effort, and graduates who were active in the program’s pre-COVID era. Future plans for T3- including a soon-to-be-launched website, and longer-term plans for how the taped interviews will be organized, stored, and made available to the public—will also likely be discussed.

So, think back on your life and times, and what you could tell the future. How you coped with severe winters in years gone by. What Tupper Lake High School was like for a student in the 1970s. Memorable hunting seasons over the years. Work in the woods, on the railroads, and at great camps. Businesses come and gone in town. Soldiers returning from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Family life during the Depression. The Spanish Flu epidemic of 1919 (ok, maybe not that one). But you get the idea. You remember more than you think you do, and it’s a lot more important, and interesting, than you think it is!

In addition to providing seniors the satisfaction of telling their stories, and giving all of us a precious historical record to draw upon, it’s not hard to see the potential benefits for the students involved. The act of interviewing, itself, builds self-confidence, listening and thinking ability, and good interpersonal and social skills. Subsequent work, editing and organizing the raw material of interview tapes, should involve critical thinking and analytic skills, as well as decision-making ability, not to mention command of grammar, spelling and punctuation. Not a bad haul of learning, in an era when young people are too-frequently seen as overly focused on social media and gaming, to the detriment of traditional academic skills.

T3 operates with the adult supervision of Adirondack Experience veterans Caroline Welsh and Christine Campeau, and of TLHS’s Wendy Cross.

So, come out tomorrow, to encourage our young people in a great initiative—and maybe to tell your own stories of the colorful life you have lived, and that is now a part of our rich, shared history. If you cannot come tomorrow, but want to be interviewed, or know someone who does, reach out to Goff-Nelson Library Director Courtney Carey (518-359-5186; goffnelson@gmail.com), and she will put you in touch with the T3 team.

Red & Black Players explore the worlds of Dr. Seuss with the fantastical musical ‘Seussical’ March 24-26

The Red and Black Players continue their musical exploration of the worlds of the imagination as they present Seussical at the Tupper Lake Middle/High School auditorium, 25 Chaney Avenue, on March 24 and 25 at 7 p.m. and March 26 at 2 p.m.

There will be flowers and a bake sale in the lobby before the show and during intermission of each show. There will also be a 50/50 raffle in the lobby to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation; the winner will be drawn on Sunday, March 26. That Sunday is World Epilepsy Day, and audience members are encouraged to wear purple to support this worthy cause.

Seussical is a fantastical, magical, musical extravaganza. Tony winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Lucky Stiff, My Favorite Year, Once on This Island, Ragtime), have lovingly brought to life all of our favorite Dr. Seuss characters, including Horton the Elephant, The Cat in the Hat, Gertrude McFuzz, Mayzie La Bird, and a little kid with a big imagination – Jojo. The colorful characters transport us from the Jungle of Nool to the Circus McGurkus to the invisible world of the Whos.

The Cat in the Hat tells the story of Horton, an elephant who discovers a speck of dust that contains the Whos, including Jojo, a Who child sent off to military school for thinking too many "thinks." Horton faces a double challenge: not only must he protect the Whos from a world of naysayers and dangers, but he must guard an abandoned egg, left in his care by the irresponsible Mayzie. Although Horton faces ridicule, danger, kidnapping and a trial, the intrepid Gertrude never loses faith in him. Ultimately, the powers of friendship, loyalty, family and community are challenged and emerge triumphant. Seussical is fun for the whole family!

The cast features Meika Nadeau as the Cat in the Hat, Cody Auclair as Horton the Elephant, Lacey Pickering as Jojo, Raegan Fritts as Gertrude McFuzz, Shae Arsenault as Mayzie La Bird, Sophia Staves as the Sour Kangaroo, Ayden Rabideau and Nevaeh Toohey as Mr. and Mrs. Mayor of Whoville, Ava Facteau as General Ghengis Khan Schmitz, Hannah Barber, Aubrey Nadeau, and Aubrey Sparks as the Bird Girls, Joelle Bedore, Haylee Callaghan, Dean LaVigne, and Emily Roberts as the Wickershams, Antwon Gachowski as Yertle the Turtle, Noah Switzer as the Grinch. Portraying an array of other Seussian characters are Ash Barber, Aubrey Bissonette, Jeevika Branchaud, Eliza Bujold, Brittany Curry, John Fallon, Gabby Frenette, Yana Kucipak, Bryce Richer, Oliver Roberts, Rain Skiff, Ghost Switzer, Lily Wilber, and Raina Gillette.

Crew for Seussical are stage manager Genna Carmichael, assistant stage manager Jack LaQuay, along with Vivian Allen, Rebecca Becker, Heather Bujold, Hannah Callaghan, Liza Crouse, Jackson Dukette, Kaileigh Dukette, Lucy Frenette, Molly Hales, Raegan Hudak, Rylee Kennedy, Morgan Lohr, Jackson Rice, Alison Richer, Claire Snye, and Mariah Young.

Stage director George Cordes and music director Elizabeth Cordes have again been joined by their own intrepid team: lighting and tech director David Naone, assistant director Danielle LaMere, and choreographer Kendall Davison. This production will also mark a return to a live pit band, featuring an all-star lineup of musicians.

Seussical is presented through special arrangement with and all authorized materials are supplied by Music Theatre International. It follows the Red and Black Players’ 2022 production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast JR. sWith this production, the Red and Black Players celebrate their 17th anniversary of bringing musical theatre to Tupper Lake. Previous shows include also Footloose: The Musical, Guys and Dolls, Godspell, Anything Goes, Hello, Dolly!, All Night Strut: A Jumpin', Jivin', Jam!, Back to the 80s: The Totally Awesome Musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Annie, Seussical: The Musical, The Boy Friend, and Bye, Bye Birdie. In 2020, they had to cancel their production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The directors hope to revisit this production (with the original cast) sometime in the future. Stay tuned!

Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students and senior citizens and will be available at the door. Children 5 and under admitted free.

Joint town and village board meeting re-scheduled for March 20

The joint meeting of the town and village boards that was originally scheduled for last Thursday has been rescheduled for Monday, March 20 at 5p.m. at the Community Room of the Emergency Services Building on Santa Clara Ave.

On the agenda for discussion that evening will be a number of community issues which relate to both boards and both local governments.

The public is most welcome to attend.

Total Solar Eclipse coming to Tupper Lake next April 8

On April 8, 2024, a spectacular Total Solar Eclipse will occur in Tupper Lake. On that day, the moon will pass in front of the sun and cast a shadow across the United States starting in Texas and moving north and east across the country. It will eventually reach Tupper Lake and begin covering us in darkness at 1:12 p.m.

By 2:26 p.m., the moon will totally eclipse the sun for three minutes and 33 seconds. The moon will end its pass in front of the sun at 3:36 p.m., and this unprecedented astronomical event will be over.

For some perspectives, Tupper Lake has experienced eclipses in the past. Within the last century, Tupper Lake experienced a number of “partial” eclipses where the moon did not fully cover the sun. Those occurred in 1925, 1932, 1963 and 2017.

On May 10,1994, an annular eclipse occurred when the moon, because of its varying distance from earth, moved in front of the sun, but was too small to fully cover it. Another annular eclipse will occur in Tupper Lake on July 23, 2093.

Astronomical records show that a Total Solar Eclipse has not occurred in Tupper Lake in almost two centuries.

The Sky Center is developing educational programming that will help our community and visitors better understand the science behind eclipses, as well as the cultural and historical significance of this rare and truly once in a lifetime event.

The Adirondack Sky Center & Observatory is the sole public astronomy-based organization in the Adirondack Park. Large crowds are predicted to visit on that day in order to make use of their expertise and abundant resources. Astronomers from around the country will be on hand, live video feeds from NASA, and a full range of activities for the community and visitors of all ages are already being planned. The organization’s state-of-the-art equipment and knowledgeable staff will provide guidance and support to eclipse viewers.

“We want this to be a come-early-stay-late event for visitors,” says Seth McGowan, president of the Adirondack Sky Center & Observatory. “But what’s even more important,” he continues, “is we want everyone to have an enjoyable experience that will make them want to come back to our community in the future.”

Mr. McGowan has already engaged with local and regional partners, including schools, businesses, museums, and community organizations, to create a comprehensive plan for the eclipse. In addition to logistical planning for such large crowds, the plan also includes educational programming, public outreach, and scientific research. An organizational meeting is set to take place at The Adirondack Sky Center & Observatory’s 36 High Street Office where representatives from the Town, Village, Arts Center, Library, Wild Center, and ROOST will begin their planning.

Look for regular updates on the April 8, 2024 eclipse here from the Adirondack Sky Center & Observatory.

Chamber to reorganize this month; tourism director to showcase county grants

The Tupper Lake Chamber of Commerce will hold a re-organizational meeting on Thursday, March 16 at 4p.m. at Raquette River Brewing.

The aim of the meeting is to gather interested business people and community-minded residents to chart a new course for the chamber, which has been in operation here since shortly after the turn of the last century. The current aim is to develop an organization that won’t be involved in staging events or creating advertising materials or promotions. The principle aim will be to develop a membership organization that will be a strong advocate for commerce and economic development- a new voice for all things good for Tupper Lake and its economy.

The goal of that afternoon’s meeting will be to create a steering committee to guide a refocussed chamber.

The chamber’s board of directors last fall announced the planned dissolution of the organization. To that end, the 2022 town board agreed to enlarge its youth activities department into a full-blown recreation department that assumed the role of event-promoter here. The board agreed to take over all of the chamber’s half dozen or so major events each year.

After the chamber board’s vote to dissolve, long time Chamber board member and chamber treasurer Sandi Strader asked Free Press Publisher Dan McClelland, an active community volunteer for many years here, to help her re-energize the organization. The March 16 meeting is a step to that end.

Also featured at the March 16 will be a presentation by Phil Hans, the new director of Franklin County Tourism, who will outline the many new grants available for tourism and economic development now available through his county office. Since the county’s tourism office was re-formed last year to take advantage of the more than a million dollars now generated in the county each year from the new bed tax, businesses and organizations have won dozens of $5,000 and $10,000 grants to help fund improvements that will foster more business in the county and more visitors through the advancement of tourist-promotion endeavors.

His information should be particularly meaningful and helpful for all businesses here and for the leaders of all community organizations.

Those planning to attend the meeting are asked to RSVP Mr. McClelland at tupperlakefreepress@ gmail.com.

editorial What an event the BrewSki was!

The James C. Frenette Recreational Trails at the Tupper Lake Golf Course were packed with skiers, snow-shoe users, walkers and even a few fat tire bike riders Saturday for what we figure might have been the best BrewSki yet.

Even the 94 year old creator of the town’s popular multi-season trail network which is named after him was there skiing that day with daughter Margaret and son-in-law Paul O’Leary.

A brand new event for the town’s recreation director, Laura LaBarge, after the chamber of commerce leaders handed over their events to the town this past fall, it’s staging was flawless, in our estimation.

Participants waited in a line that stretched almost 100 yards back from multiple processing tables in the large admission tent, next to the now heated pro shop.

Inside the pro shop Lion Cindy Lewis was selling her club’s annual BrewSki 50-50 tickets and Councilwoman Mary Fontana was peddling souvenir Brewski clothing. When she ran out she started taking orders to be produced and mailed to the happy BrewSki crowd.

There was no pushing or shoving in the long line outside, only smiles and an upbeat mood of happiness being outdoors and ready for an afternoon of recreation and dozens of types of tasty craft beer from 16 beer-makers across the region. Only one brewer scheduled to be there didn’t make it.

Throughout the four-hour afternoon there were long lines at each vendor- sometimes 75 to 100 people deep, but no one was complaining. All of them eager to sample the next craft beer.

Three Februarys ago, the chamber of commerce’s BrewSki, on the eve of COVID, participant numbers topped 1,500. That unusual February day the mercury topped 40 degrees F. and the sun shone brightly. It was like spring had arrived early that day. Last year’s crowd was much smaller when frigid gale-force winds blew through the area and kept many BrewSki fans away.

This past Saturday was different. A typical February day that began early about minus 20 degree F., the mercury eventually rose by mid-afternoon to about 20. It was overcast. People came dressed for the weather.

While the town recreation department’s attendance numbers don’t seem to indicate it, we think Saturday’s crowd topped the best-attended BrewSki three years ago. The place just looked busier than in the past.

And there were more parked cars on Country Club Road than we’ve ever seen before. They stretched from above the golf course all the way to John and Patti Gillis’ place at the bottom, near the state highway. Cars were also parked on Schugar Lane and Tamarac Road and just about anywhere someone could squeeze in their vehicle.

When we arrived about 11:45a.m. we couldn’t believe the number of cars lining the town road already, and they hadn’t reached the bottom yet.

Parking was kept to the downhill side of the town road and well marked with the loaned signage the Tupper Lake Sportsmen’s Club uses so well to keep parking in check for their often 1000-angler Northern Challenge each February. Club volunteer Alan Imlach laid out all the signs early Saturday morning, so all directional markings were in place when people started to arrive shortly after 11a.m.

“We wanted to make everything as safe as possible when it came to parking.” Her dad, whose is her town assistant, Bill Cote, has over 20 years of law enforcement experience and in public parking and his experience proved invaluable to that part of the planning.

The recreation director said the town highway department was able to push back the snow banks so that there was room for one-side parking and for oncoming vehicles to move up and down the road during the event without major difficulties.

One happy group in the parking lot from Rochester were snacking “tail-gate” style-all with bright smiles and some mustard on the faces-while they waited for BrewSki to start.

Organizer Laura said the she thinks in the past the chamber organizers capped admission at 1,000 beer-drinking participants who pay for the full ticket. Non-drinkers and youngsters who come not to imbide but to just enjoy the day always flesh out the crowd bringing it to 1,500- for example in 2020.

Her town team capped ticket sales this year at 1,200. Of that number, 1,100 were pre-sold before the event. Tickets sold for $25. The non-beer drinking crowd, pushed total numbers to about 1,500- by Mrs. LaBarge’s count.

The number of brewers was up from last year’s number of 13 and Laura hopes to draw more next year.

In preparation for her first time hosting of the event, Laura and helpers tracked every pre-sale ID before any lanyards were handed out Saturday. “We were checking passports and other IDS from provinces in Canada, California, Colorado, Florida. Plus Virginia, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut- from many places all up and down the east coast.

Some were already visiting in the area but many came here expressly for the BrewSki.

It’s strong evidence the event is gaining traction across the country among craft beer fans who love recreation between beers.

Standing at the fire near the Raquette River Brewing station we met two couples who had driven up from Virginia just to attend the event. “When we left it was 73 degrees F.,” one man laughed. It was at least 80 degrees difference at noon at the course.

A half a mile or so up the trail we met four young bucks, swilling the beer from tiny lanyards at another beer station. They drove here the day before from Boston.

One of them, a computer guy, had just launched a start-up company this year. “So you’ll be rich next year when you come back?” we asked him. “Or broke!” he answered with a knowing smile of his risk.

Mrs. LaBarge’s only disappointment with the attendance at her first crack at BrewSki was a local turnout which she called “pretty small.”

We too noticed the absence of familiar faces, with the exception of Laura’s many volunteers.

A goal for next year is to boost the locals numbers, she said, adding she feels more people here would really enjoy the event if they gave it a chance. More promotion of BrewSki locally might be the answer to drive local numbers up.

For next year’s BrewSki and the Field Day event she pioneered last July, she hopes to draw more locals as both volunteers and participants.

“I want more local folks to enjoy our events too each year.”

She said she spent recent months talking to people who have helped run the BrewSki in the past, and those who have attended them here and from the brewers who have exhibited.

In past events it was commonplace for some of the brewers to run out of product. To make sure that didn’t happen this year Laura asked them to double the number of kegs they were going to bring “and we paid them more this year” that they had ever been paid here before.

Each brewer was paid $400 this year. For most of them it made their visit here worth the trip, over and above exposing their products to a new crowd. Each brewer also received a $50 meal voucher at a restaurant in town, which helped spread some extra cash around town that evening.

Mike Reandeau, the Swiss Kitchen’s hardworking chef, said they were jammed with visitors over the weekend and happy about it.

Many of the BrewSki visitors headed to Raquette River Brewing to taste how well Tupper Lake makes its beer. Mickey and Claire were there to entertain the crowed. Some apparently hit P-2’s as well, on owner Michelle’s invitation out front.

The winter event was made safer for some of the attendees by the presence of Mac’s Safe Ride which shuttled locals from their homes to the event, to an after-BrewSki party and back home. We don’t know how many took advantage of that great service but we hope many people did. Hopefully too some of our local moteliers pointed their guests to Mac’s- Tupper’s unique “get home safe” program.

We ran into John Gillis riding one of the town tracked vehicles as he was hauling wood to the fire pits at each vendor stop.

The town board’s point man on the BrewSki, having been a part of it with his trail grooming team from the start, he figured the event filled all or most of the town’s motel rooms, as well as many short-term rental properties here.

Laura brought a cadre of volunteers to help her run the BrewSki- many we had never seen before helping at major events. Many were her family members and friends, including her two best friends, Melissa DeVirgeles and Katie Drasye, who she said always have her back.

Understanding that volunteers are always in short supply, she admitted Monday she is trying to come up with a way for volunteers to be paid a small stipend when they help- either in the form of cash, gifts or other incentives.

From a personal stand-point as a novice event organizer and “a small town girl from Tupper Lake,” she said she was stunned by Saturday’s turn-out. “For that amount of people to come to our town on a very cold Saturday was amazing to me!”

She also said she was also amazed at all the “positive energy” the event generated. “No one was miserable; no one was complaining. -And these were people before they were drinking, talking to us while they were waiting in line. They were cheering as they waited to go in and I found that fantastic!”

Laura is working this week on another town event, “Cards Against Potter,”- a Harry Potter themed adults-only game night at Raquette River Brewery Sunday. She’s also working on plans for an adult prom in May at the Tupper Lake Golf Course restaurant.

We hope Laura will continue to be stunned and amazed by the crowds her town events attract as she moves forward in her new career bringing more and more visitors to our community. Kudos to her and her helpers on a fantastic BrewSki.

-Dan McClelland