By Jason Emerson
editor
The end of the year typically marks the time to reflect back on what has happened in our communities over the past 365 days. The year 2017 had a number of major headlines in the areas of community news, crime, arts, schools, business and sports that made us rejoice, lament, commiserate and, at times, shake our heads in utter consternation and confusion.
Thinking back over the past year, and looking through the past 52 issues of the Eagle Bulletin, there have been many important stories, including the Fayetteville Free Library budget battle and tussle with a group of local residents over library policies and procedures, the F-M girls cross country team earning the national championship again, and the building and opening of the new Manlius Fire Station at Enders corners and the approval of the $45 million F-M school district facilities project. Other significant milestones in our area include the opening of the new Community Library of DeWitt & Jamesville Library, the 60th business anniversary of Sno-Top and the passing of longtime Manlius community member and public servant Harold Hopkinson.
On the social media side of things, the stories with the widest appeal were stories about people, such as the retirement of longtime Fayetteville Elementary physical education teacher Laurie Valentine, the promotion to colonel of Catherine A. Hutson, of Manlius, in the New York Air National Guard, the creation of a gluten free website, gfguiders.com, by local sisters Emma and Sara Kronenberg as part of their Girl Scouts Silver Award and the reelection of Manlius Mayor Paul Whorrall over former mayor Mark-Paul Serafin.
Here are the top stories and issues that caught the attention of area residents during 2017:
FFL budget battles
The past year has been a challenging one in many respects for the Fayetteville Free Library. In January, the library board of directors approved its 2017 operating budget to be voted on by the public in May. The $1.8 million budget included a 4 percent increase, for which a group of concerned citizens, who had been attacking the library and its board since 2016, continued their accusations of library overspending, overtaxing and mismanagement.
The group went on a public offensive against the library’s proposed budget, which was rejected by more than 500 votes in the May election. The rejection meant that the library lost about $70,000 (the size of the requested tax increase), which will force the library to cut staff increases “across the board” and “be creative” in how it makes cost savings this year, said Executive Director Sue Considine.
After the budget vote, the citizens group continued its criticism of the library board and administration, seeking changes to the organization’s operations and management. In September, the state board of regents approved the FFL’s proposal to update its 1909 founding charter, which modernized the makeup of its board of trustees and revised the library’s service area based on recent state mapping changes.
With the charter approved, the library board then amended its bylaws and created three new board committees, all done as part of the board’s continuing efforts to improve its management efficiency and effectiveness, said board co-Presidents David Wheeler and Randi Ludwig.
Sno Top turns 60
Any way you look at it, 60 years in business is a major milestone. And that is exactly what Sno Top in Manlius achieved in July 2017 — six decades serving ice cream to local patrons.
Sno Top was built in 1957 on a parcel of property owned by Wilbur Chapman, in front of the Manlius Mart which was built behind the area of Sno Top. The Chapmans owned the ice cream business for a number of years, then it passed through the hands of several other families before being purchased by Vince and Kathy Giordano in 1974, who still own it today.
When they first started, the Giordanos employed five other employees to help with the shop but Manlius has grown a lot since then, said Kathy, and they now employ 18 part-time and one full-time employee each season. Sno Top is also a family-business and their children and even grandchildren have worked at the shop.
On Saturday, July 8, Sno Top celebrated their 60th anniversary with reduced price ice cream, 60-cent small plain ice cream cones and 60-cent hot dogs, music from the Dinosaur Radio station and other various activities for families.
DeWitt library opens
The new Community Library of DeWitt & Jamesville (formerly the Dewitt Community Library) celebrated its grand opening on Aug. 26 at its location 5110 Jamesville Road. The creation of the new library and its move out of the previous location in Shoppingtown Mall was nearly 10 years in the making.
The new 23,700 square foot library building, nearly double the former size, is located in the center of its service area and is accessible from routes 481, 5 and 173. It includes design elements requested by the community in visioning meetings such as flexible program space, a large community room, a maker space and digital production labs. The former library space was not designed for library use and is cramped, inefficient, inflexible and not thoroughly ADA compliant.
The $8.14 million cost was primarily being funded from a tax levy approved by taxpayers in the JD school district, from library cash reserves and through a mortgage with Community Bank.
“It has been enormously gratifying to see the overwhelming support for the new library,” Executive Director Wendy Scott recently said. “When people walk in, their first word is, ‘Wow.’ People are just in awe at how beautiful it is and how much we have to offer in our new location.”
Manlius fire station built and opened
The new 26,000 square-foot one-floor station for the Manlius Fire Department opened in early October on the corner of Enders and Cazenovia Road in the town of Manlius.
the new $10.2 million station includes a front lobby with a history room and memorabilia, a community room, a conference room, a fire control station, emergency training areas, clerical offices, bunks which can accommodate 12 to 14 firefighters overnight and a day room with a kitchen and tv area.
The station was built to replace the two aging stations on Pompey Hill Road and Stickley Drive, which were in need of many repairs and updates to bring it up to standards.
For the past decade, plans to build a new station have been in the works, and the current fire station was brought to a public vote in March 2015. Citizens in the village of Manlius voted by a small margin to approve a $10.8 million bond resolution to construct a new fire station with an official vote of 266 to 243. In September 2016, village trustees voted to submit serial bonds in the amount of $10.2 million, about $500,000 less than the referendum bond amount due to a decrease in the expected construction amount, which was $9.8 million.
F-M facilities project vote
Voters in the Fayetteville-Manlius school district on Dec. 5 approved the district’s proposed $45.2 million facilities referendum that will bring much-needed infrastructure upgrades and repairs to three district schools.
After months of informational updates and public meetings on the proposal, voters approved the referendum by a vote of 1,073 to 810.
The referendum will allow the district to move forward with renovations to Wellwood as well as make repairs to Enders Road Elementary and F-M High School and carry out energy efficient projects to all district buildings.
It will likely be about 18 months before construction at Enders Road Elementary School and Fayetteville-Manlius High School would begin, and nearly two years before Wellwood Middle School’s projects begin, according to the district.
FM girls cross country team wins 11th national title
The Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country team earned its 11th Nike Cross Nationals title in the last 12 years on Dec. 2 in Portland, Oregon, edging Naperville (Illinois) by five points in the team standings, 89 to 94, while the boys Hornets finished second in its division of the Nike Nationals earlier in the day.
As usual, head coach Bill Aris brought a heavily favored F-M side to Portland, but at the worst possible time two senior leaders of the squad, Sophia Ryan and Rebecca Walters, fell ill. Yet Ryan and Walters were both on the starting line, joined by sophomores Claire Walters and Phoebe White, plus seniors Palmer Madsen and Alex Villalba and freshman Grace Kaercher.
And despite all they had gone through, Ryan and Rebecca Walters would finish in the individual top 50. Ryan posted 18 minutes, 39.1 seconds, getting 43rd place and 16th among team runners, while Walters posted 18:44.2 for 49th place overall and 20th place among team runners. That backed up what Claire Walters did as she roared to a fifth-place time of 17:55 flat and was second in the team standings, while White made her way to fifth place in the team event and 15th overall in 18:05.5.
