Fixing the flag pole

On Wednesday morning a crane arrived at the Court House to lift a welder to the flag pole for repairs. It took at least an hour for the crane to be assembled--counterweights had to be put in place and the boom extended. The crane came with a bunch of workers and two flatbed trucks.

A bit after 11:00 the crane lifted the cage with the welding equipment and the operator.

He first removed the stuck flag.

The whole repair once the crane was ready took only about an hour. At one o'clock the job was finished.

Another job that was finished on Wednesday was paving for the wet weather treatment plant, which may be operating again today as we are expected to get and inch or two of rain. (The rain may send the river to flood stage.) This funny machine was used to deliver asphalt to the walking path along Lincoln. Here it is putting asphalt on a small area of Elza that needed to be repaired.

On Monday night the Park Board met. There were several guests. One was from Anytime Fitness and he wanted permission to conduct free workout classes in Brookside Park on the Saturdays in May. The first one should be at 10:00 this coming Saturday. Anytime Fitness had this program last May, but not at Brookside, and had attendance from about 7 to about 15 people.

The other two people were representing Pop Warner Football. Once a popular and successful program, it fell on hard times and is now trying to make a comeback. They had expected to use fields at SJC but that will not be possible with the school's closing. Their finances are shaky because a few years ago they went into debt to purchase new equipment. Last year they had 67 participants, with 12-15 of them cheerleaders. They need 17 on a team for the older ages and 11 for the youngest. They were offered use of the field west of the tennis courts at Brookside Park where in the past the July car shows set up. That area will be for practice. They hope to have their home games at area high schools.

The Board approved purchasing mulch for the playground equipment in three parks and discussed moving on a walking trail for Bicentennial Park.

Wednesday's issue of the Rensselaer Republican had a long letter to the editor from an SJC alumnus about the school's closing. Read it if you can--it is excellent. It pointed out that the financial problems were long-standing and that there were people very concerned about the future of the college several years ago. It also makes that point that a reason that some people did not donate is because they did not see a plan by the College to deal with the financial problems--the College has not been a good steward of its resources. Again, read the letter if you can.