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Liberty

September 28, 2021

Fran Kurpil
Posted 9/28/21

Hello: It’s Fran DeFilippi Kurpil, Early Autumn 2021, here in my home town, Liberty. What a beautiful name for our town with a rich history. Each generation adds to our roots and enriches our …

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Liberty

September 28, 2021

Posted

Hello: It’s Fran DeFilippi Kurpil, Early Autumn 2021, here in my home town, Liberty. What a beautiful name for our town with a rich history. Each generation adds to our roots and enriches our heritage.

Maurice Gerry: It is always great to chat with an old high-school friend especially about good things in our town. Maurice was raving about the beautiful flower barrels.…those at Sergio Saravia’s law office down by the Ferndale Post Office. They couldn’t be more beautiful and certainly draw attention to Saravia’s new location. Maurice also said that AHAVA Medical and Urgent Care Center on Carrier Street had an amazing display of fifteen flower barrels in front of the facility. I agree with Maurice…It means a lot to see beautiful flowers enhancing our professional properties…The Community Garden on South Main Street is a truly great endeavor and we give special thanks to the members for their continued work. It looks so beautiful, and the Spanish restaurant next to it always has unbelievable plants beautifying the front of their store. Our daughter-in-law, Lesli has brought many take-out dinners here to enjoy. Always delicious.

Supervisor: Frank Demayo updated me on some great work that is being done with donations from Liberty Rotary and work by Parks and Rec Crews. I am just a reporter at this point in my old age…ha, but I give my utmost thanks to those who volunteer their time and effort to do what ever improvements are needed. I know I did my part over the years and it is always a good feeling.

Liberty Rotary and work by our Parks and Rec Crew has contributed to LED lights that are now being installed. The contribution will also include on-going improvements to the Pavilion at Hanofee Park. A newly poured concrete kitchen floor, new kitchen appliances and stainless steel tables are some of the greatly appreciated up-grades. Also, Parks and Rec workers have replaced support poles which were needed to protect and enhance the structural integrity of the structure. They will also be removing asphalt around the support poles and replacing it with concrete, graded away from the poles to protect them from deterioration. Hanofee Park is a special place and when I was a real-estate broker, I always included it in my positive description of the property I was listing in Liberty. I’m sure that buyers, knowing of a pool, a rowing lake, picnic tables, hiking trails and a gathering pavilion at Hanofee Park were certainly very pleased. Our grand-daughter, Megan Burns, has been a summer life-guard there for years and recently mentioned her love for the job and seeing the same kids every year, from times when she had to encourage them to jump from her arms into the water, and now fully enjoying swimming times and renewing friendships. Bravo to Meg…and our great Hanofee Park.

Passing Thoughts: To Brian and Jennifer Rourke…we missed The Barn. My love of music goes back to my early years and the old records from my Dad…Enrico Caruso and Italian opera, so I was happy last week to hear Andrea Bocelli performing from Central Park. So Jen and Brian, I hope next summer we can again gather at The Barn, your perfect musical venue for live shows sitting close to the talented musicians and seeing Gary Siegel on his horn or other local guitarists and drummers is so special.   Some day I’ll relate my in-person meeting with Vic Damone when I was a teen. Does anyone remember him?

Village Good News: I try my best to drive at a crawl down Main Street so I can see all the great improvements but so often I’m blocking some driver that is in a hurry. I am thrilled to see the store-fronts being finished in the Theater Building and I hear great positives from Etta Barbanti, our expert, local realtor. Etta filled me in that a new bakery is coming to 42 South Main Street, a new salon is at 91 North Main Street and looks gorgeous. Healthy Eating and Nutrition at 39 North Main is looking good. You notice all the beautiful flowers at the old Frankel’s Store where a new business has opened with a great selection of green plants. I have to stop in and see all their other items. They were previously in the former bank up the street which is a favorite shopping place for me. Easy parking helps.

Lickity Splits: What a nostalgic location in the Green Building (My Dad’s Barber Shop). I’m happy to see a gathering place…ice cream and goodies. Where else can young folks gather after school like we did at Lapolt’s and other Main Street places. I think Woolworth’s even had a soda counter. I’m hearing great reviews. Just ask John Liddle and his ice-cream lovers. Our best to Lickety Splits. Maybe they will have hot cocoa as the weather gets colder.

Real Estate: It has been a very busy market. We personally have new neighbors in surrounding homes and we welcome them and are happy to have them join our families. Pete Feinberg, from Berkshire Hathaway real-estate office, has earned a special award for the highest sales. Congratulations to Pete, my former co-worker. He is well known as a former teacher in Livingston Manor and just in case I ever have a issue with the Sheriff, Mr. Feinberg is also a local Judge.

Liberty Library: Marjorie Linko was very happy to give me a bit of very good updates that we should appreciate. She said the library hired three part-time teen age Library Pages to work this year: Katrina Blais, Jayden Ramsey, and Julia Juron. Each teen worked over the summer assisting with our Summer Ready Programs, by preparing craft materials, making and leading flannel board stories and other activities. They also run in and out materials for patrons, reshelved items, filled hold requests and helped create program flyers and other signage. It sounds to me like a great, learning experience for the students and a big help for the library staff. Marj. Linko added: “We were impressed by the quality of their work and their friendly, enthusiastic spirit.” I assume this great summer work plan was a collaboration with Liberty High School staff and a great idea.

Bye For Now: If you want to announce an event, send me a few words. The Liberty column is printed on every other Tuesday.

I’ll sign off with an old song that our kid’s piano teacher, Ruth VanEtten, always used as a sign-off to her program: May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You.

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