We want the good, the bad and the ugly! We want the super basic, the traditional, and the unimaginable. We want pumpkins from the littlest of kids, bigger kids, teenagers and adults. We want lots of pumpkins! Help fill the party tables lined up along Chestnut Street on Saturday, October 24th. Bring one or more pumpkins and earn the right to bask in the glow! Enjoy the entertaining pumpkin roll, music, crackling fire pit, delicious food and cider. This is a pretty fun event that the Leeds Civic Association has held annually for two decades. It’s a celebration of and for the Leeds’ community, so don’t be shy, make your way down to the corner of Upland and Chestnut with a pumpkin in your arms on October 24th!
Carve or decorate a pumpkin and have a chance to win the raffle prize for your age group: Kids (age 6 and under),Youth (age 7-12), Teen (age 13-17), Adult (age 18 and up).
Drop off your pumpkin creations between 3:00 and 5:00 at the corner of Chestnut and Upland. Be sure to check in at the registration table because that’s where you’ll receive get your raffle ticket.
Kid’s Pumpkin Roll (12 and under) starts at 4:30. A first and second prize will be awarded and the winner’s names will be preserved for history’s sake on the “winner’s board” – a great honor that your child may choose to include on his or her college applications!
Homemade hot soups, baked potatoes with the fixins’, warm cider, side dishes, and desserts will be available after the pumpkin roll.
We have set up an easy way to sign up for food items for the party. Click on the SignUp Genius link below to see a list of what is needed. You may also contact Amy Quinn at 413-586-0283.
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f054cafae2aa57-great
If you are able to contribute a food item please label your serving utensils and bowls with your name which will make it so much easier to get them back to you if you accidentally leave them behind!
Deliver food between 4:30 -5:30. There will be several grills to keep the soups warm.
New guy in town to give some attention to Leeds residents!
by David Rondina
Officer Jared LaValle has been with the Northampton Police department since late 2014. He previously worked at a correction center in Worcester. He was brought up with a grandfather in the military and studied Law Enforcement at Springfield Technical Community College after exploring other possible career ideas and studies. While he started off his employment here “walking the beat” downtown in the cold winter months, he aspired to connect more with the community at large. When Chief Kasper initiated three responsibility expansions of duty to include “Community Outreach Officers,” he immediately applied for one of the roles. When spring rolled around and the bicycle patrols starting rolling again downtown, he was given the assignment of “Area 4” which includes downtown Florence and Leeds.
The Belchertown “towny” loves working for the city of Northampton. “It’s exciting, interesting, and always different” says LaValle, whose favorite part of the job is connecting with people. “Being a police officer is certainly about helping people, but I really enjoy the interactions and meeting new people, making friends, and connecting deeper with the community.” LaValle comments that it is not just about fighting crime, but showing that law enforcement is out to make people feel safe, cared for, and develop a “community feel” and not be viewed as “us versus them”.
After I spent some time chatting with him, I can attest that it is a pleasure and gift that we have Officer LaValle to help look after our Village of Leeds. Following a meeting with the LCA, Chief Kasper and others concerning graffiti on Orange dam, LaValle’s responsibilities expanded to include patrols by the river and along the bike path to help address the lack of respect that some individuals have for our Village’s communal resources. Along with his patrol duties, he plans to attend as many Leeds Civic Association meetings and events as possible as he even enjoyed doing before the actual assignment. In the mean time, you can often see him working the day shift from 3-11. Keep an eye out for Officer LaValle and say hello and thanks when you see him around the ‘hood!
Good Deeds in Leeds
Thanksgiving is right around the corner and so its a good time to look up and around and notice what others do for our community. Here is one example of an individual who noticed something he could make better, sought out collaboration partners and got the job done. Unlike Tom Sawyer who cleverly tricked his friends into doing the work, Jason Greene, and the J. Greene Painting crew took on the task for themselves, donating their expertise and labor. The fence along Florence Street near Leeds Elementary School has looked cruddy for years – a mottled mess of chipped off paint.
Several months ago Jason contacted Jesse Adams, City Councilor At-Large (who is now a resident of Leeds!) to see if the DPW could repair the rotting and missing fence boards. Jason offered to donate the labor and have the material donated as well. Jason spoke with Lee Pitrat at Florence Paint who agreed to donate the Benjamin Moore material. DPW made the repairs, however the painting was held up during the warm summer months because of poison ivy growing in the area. After recent frosts the poison ivy is now dormant and so Jason and his crew were able to get in and paint. Jason says, “So far, my ankles are not itchy…fingers crossed!
Pumpkin Party 2015 Photos
Autumn Palette
Hotel Bridge – photo by Pennington Geis
Candidate Forum – Oct 21
By Penny Geis
Who will you vote for to make your city and school policy and budget decisions? Come get to know the candidates at a forum on Oct 21. From 7:00 – 9:00 pm, in the JFK Community Room.
WFCR will air it live, and NCTV will broadcast it both live and with re-runs, but there is no substitute for a face-to-face, in-person evaluation to get that informed gut reaction!
Four candidates are vying for two at-large seats on the School Committee and three are running for the two at-large seats on the City Council. The forum includes only these contested seats; your ballot will also include unopposed Ward 7 positions. The ward representatives are unopposed across the city, and are not included in this two-hour forum .All of the at-large candidates have agreed to be at the forum. Running for two seats on the City Council are Jesse Adams, Bill Dwight, and Marc Warner; for the two School Committee positions, Molly Burnham, Blue DuVal, Kari Nykorchuk, and Nathaniel Reade.
We need your questions! What do you want to know from these candidates? What do you care about? How should Council and School Committee members work together to balance the competing budgetary needs of the city and the schools? Send your questions to forum2015@comcast.org
The Leeds Civic Association is co-sponsoring the forum, together with the League of Women Voters, the Gazette, WHMP, NCTV and the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association. The League is taking the lead, and will be moderating the event. The live broadcast will begin at 7, so please arrive early enough to get settled before then.
The Great Leeds’ Pumpkin Party – OCTOBER 24
We want the good, the bad and the ugly! We want the super basic, the traditional, and the unimaginable. We want pumpkins from the littlest of kids, bigger kids, teenagers and adults. We want lots of pumpkins! Help fill the party tables lined up along Chestnut Street on Saturday, October 24th. Bring one or more pumpkins and earn the right to bask in the glow! Enjoy the entertaining pumpkin roll, music, crackling fire pit, delicious food and cider. This is a pretty fun event that the Leeds Civic Association has held annually for two decades. It’s a celebration of and for the Leeds’ community, so don’t be shy, make your way down to the corner of Upland and Chestnut with a pumpkin in your arms on October 24th!
Carve or decorate a pumpkin and have a chance to win the raffle prize for your age group: Kids (age 6 and under),Youth (age 7-12), Teen (age 13-17), Adult (age 18 and up).
Drop off your pumpkin creations between 3:00 and 5:00 at the corner of Chestnut and Upland. Be sure to check in at the registration table because that’s where you’ll receive get your raffle ticket.
Kid’s Pumpkin Roll (12 and under) starts at 4:30. A first and second prize will be awarded and the winner’s names will be preserved for history’s sake on the “winner’s board” – a great honor that your child may choose to include on his or her college applications!
Homemade hot soups, baked potatoes with the fixins’, warm cider, side dishes, and desserts will be available after the pumpkin roll.
We have set up an easy way to sign up for food items for the party. Click on the SignUp Genius link below to see a list of what is needed. You may also contact Amy Quinn at 413-586-0283.
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f054cafae2aa57-great
If you are able to contribute a food item please label your serving utensils and bowls with your name which will make it so much easier to get them back to you if you accidentally leave them behind!
Deliver food between 4:30 -5:30. There will be several grills to keep the soups warm.
Ice Cream Social 2015 Photos
Sept Update
Julie Bowers of Workin’ Bridges, the iron bridge restoration outfit that performed a March 2015 site visit and submitted a scope of work report on Hotel Bridge, has done further reseach on lifting Hotel Bridge to the parking lot across Main Street to make the repairs on land. Bowers contacted the utility companies over the summer to determine what actions might be feasable. Her findings to date follow: Moving electric, cable, and phone is doable. The big hinderance is that there is a Columbia Gas service line that runs across the south side of the bridge deck. The line carries gas to Water Street customers. Rerouting the line would be expensive (Columbia gas pays the city for use of resources). Temporary piles to hold the gas line in place while the bridge is moved would be expensive as well. Unfortunately, in order to move Hotel Bridge to land it would require two 500 ton cranes, and dollies, not the smaller crane that Julie used for the quote given at the June 1st community meeting. The conclusion drawn is that it is not a feasable alternative to move the bridge to the parking lot for repairs.
Julie is currently seeking further information from the engineering firm, Stantec Associates, that ran the original load capacity numbers on the bridge. Stantec used heavy tonnage to determine the load capacity. Workin’ Bridges would like them to rerun the load capacity using more realistic pedestrian only weight figures. Just a few days ago Paul Duquette of Stantec responded to Julie’s inquiries and said he will be conferring with his structural and legal team to see if they can change a recommendation with new data. If they are able to rerun the data, fewer repairs will have to be done in order to make the bridge safe for pedestrians. Of course the City, as owners of the bridge, would have to support the plan.
Ice Cream Social on the Leeds Green
When my grandfather was a kid, he and his buddies paid close attention to the ice man’s comings and goings. Large ice deliveries often meant ice cream making was happening. When the ice cream was ready for a big party in a fancy house it was stored on the back porches surrounded by the big ice chunks. Knowing this routine, Pop Pop and his buddies would lay in wait and be sure to get first dibs (sometimes even the whole container) of delicious homemade ice cream. He loved ice cream so much that as an adult he bought two huge freezers full of gallon containers from a shop going out of business. Ate every last spoonful too.
The Leeds Civic Association is making it easy for everyone to enjoy some delicious home made ice cream from Mt. Tom’s. You won’t have to lay in wait, just come down to the Main Street Village Green on Sunday, September 27th at 3:00. LCA members will be scooping up the good stuff. Bring your families and neighbors. The ice cream social starts at 3:00 sharp. Get it while it lasts!