OCTOBER 11 - OCTOBER 17, 2019
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VOLUME 4 ISSUE 41
CAR. TR. MKTG MAIL US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 244 BRADFORD, PA
L I L V E G SP RIN TIMES
The official newspaper of the Town of Concord, and the Village of Springville. Serving Springville, the surrounding communities and Springville-Griffith Institute Central Schools
Village of Springville receives positive audit for 2018-19 year By Kellen M. Quigley The finances of the village of Springville are looking to be in good shape after receiving a positive audit for the 2018-19 fiscal year during the village board meeting on Monday. Laura Landers of Freed Maxick, CPAs, presented to the village Board of Trustees the audit results, which she said resulted in issuing an unmodified opinion for the village. “It’s all good,” she said. In the governmentwide financial statements, the activities for the general fund and capital projects fund showed a net value of about $9 million, Landers said, and $11 million for the businesstype activities, which includes the water, sewer and electric.
“We noted that the governmental activities and the business-type activities both had a positive net position at the end of the year,” she said. The largest portions of the village’s longterm liabilities include the bonds payable portion at $6.8 million and the village’s share of the net pension liability at $503,000, Landers said. At the end of the year, the general fund, which includes reserves, assigned fund balances and the unassigned fund balance, had a total balance of about $3.3 million, which Landers said was up slightly from the previous year. “General fund ended up slightly higher with fund balance from the prior year, but the unassigned fund balance is relatively stable,” she
said. For expenditures, Landers said they were under the total budgeted appropriations in the general fund by about $80,000, which shows that the village’s budgeting is pretty close. Additionally, the current year revenues exceeded expenditures by about $50,000. In the capital projects, the village has a deficit fund balance of about $2.2 million, which will be eliminated by either bond anticipation notes or by paying down the bond anticipation notes. Landers said it’s not unusually to see this in a capital projects fund and there’s no concern. For the business/ enterprise funds, the electric department ended the year with a net position of $4.7 million, the sewer fund had a
Joylan Theatre to celebrate re-launch with open house Oct. 16
Times file photo After several weeks of renovations, the Joylan Theatre in Springville is set to open its doors Oct. 16 with a relaunch celebration followed by a Halloween movie for the whole family.
New seating, interior painting, an expanded lobby area and enhanced lighting and audio are just a few of the improvements made to the historic theatre in downtown Springville over the past two months. The Joylan Theatre
is now ready to open its doors to the public with two upcoming opportunities. The Springville Crossing Church will host an open house on Wednesday, Oct. 16 to celebrate opening the newly renovated theater on Main Street.
The day’s events begin at 4:30 p.m. when the lobby and adjacent rooms utilized for several activities, including spaces for children during the Springville Crossing Sunday church service, will be open for a See Theatre page 3
Times file photo
$2.6 million position and the water fund had a $4.7 million position. “All the enterprise funds ended the year with a positive change in net position,” Landers said. “Only the sewer fund had a slight deficit
for the current year.” In the management report, Landers said there are no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. She said there was one control deficiency that relates to the electric department
inventory. Mayor Bill Krebs thanked Landers for the report and thanked village administrator Liz Melock “for overseeing the budget so that we have such a nice report from our auditor.”
Many local farmers in middle of fall harvest
Photo by Rick Miller A harvest crew from Palmer Dairy Farms, of Holland, chops corn silage and collects it in a dump wagon in a field off Thomas Corners Road. Many local farmers are in the middle of the fall harvest thanks to a slow start from a wet spring.
By Rick Miller Despite weather setbacks at planting and this growing season, the fall harvest is in full swing in farming country. Rainy weather held back some farmers from planting for weeks at a time this spring. Farmers with well-drained soil were in better shape to prepare the soil and plant seeds. With abundant hot,
sunny weather at the right times, field corn and soybeans were able to bounce back with ample yields despite the slow start. Josh Putman, field crop and forage specialist with the Southwestern New York Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Team, said the harvest of corn silage for dairy cattle feed started slow, but picked up speed. “The silage moisture is
pretty good, about 35%,” he said. “The quality has been good. The corn really recovered.” For farmers who are ready to harvest, rain over the past few days has slowed some down because of wet conditions in the fields for harvesters and trucks. The corn can absorb the moisture, but not all cornfields are wellSee Harvest page 2
A Look Back: The Original Griffith Institute By Jolene Hawkins
Looking back… did you hear that? What was that ghostly sound? Can you hear the kids singing… ‘School days, school days, dear ole rodand-rule days?’ Could it be the old bell of the school of days gone by? In 1909, there was a new school built to house the growing population of children, and the bell
that had rung for 79 years was told there was no place for it in the new building. Well now, how were the children to know when school started? It was stored and now lost to time. Does anyone of you know what happened to it or where it is? When the “new” school was open on Sept. 9, 1909, it boasted of having 25 students for the training class, to become a teacher, along with 130 high school students, 58 for the ninth grade, 40 in the seventh grade, 28 for the sixth grade, 27 for the fifth
grade, 34 for the fourth, 35 for the third, 29 for the second and 34 in the first grade. I wonder if they all went outside to watch the flag go up on the new pole that Kellogg & Wiley put up. Did they notice the gold-leafed ball on the top that T.B. Prior had made? The old Griffith Institute had a frontage of 150 feet on Academy Street and 90 feet on Main Street. It was built of light-colored Kittanning brick, trimmed with buff Indiana limestone and the roof was slate. The foundation consisted of concrete, crushed stone, cleans sand and cement,
the basement had rooms for the library, the gym was 72-by-54 feet and 18 feet high with an adjoining room fitted with shower baths and could sit 800 people, lockers, cloakroom, closets, lavatories and a boardroom. The first floor consisted of 10 classrooms and a large assembly hall. The second floor had six classrooms, a study hall, lockers, closet and a lavatory. On the third floor were a physical, chemical and biological lavatory rooms, a lecture room and two good size rooms. There was a Frick Automatic Clock and Gong system, which was all operated from the
principal’s office. And the cost of all of this was $75,000. A large 12-horse power electric motor forces pure air taken directly from the outside, heated by eight furnaces into every room of the building. Now, this system met the requirements of the state, which was that 30 cubic feet of air per minute be
supplied to each pupil throughout the building. Is the ghost of William Schaper the janitor still roaming through the school to assist young children entering the building for the first time, guiding them to where they needed to go or helping to find a lost locket? I wonder how See A Look Back page 3