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New basketball and pickleball courts ready for ribboncutting in Dolgeville

By Dave Warner

Dolgeville is about to get a new basketball/pickleball court next to the new playground in Center Park during a ribboncutting event scheduled for July 2, 2024, at 1 pm.

In 2016/2017, the Village started working with Cornell Cooperative Extension, working towards a HEART grant to help pay for the project. “The whole idea of that was to increase activity in the community, especially among the older population, for heart health,” stated Christine Reynolds, the Chairperson of Dolgeville Forward.

Mayor Mary Puznowski said, “We had the

opportunity to get involved in that program, and enough people were interested in it.”

The original idea was to install exercise stations around the village so that people could walk from station to station.

“Then, we got thinking that the playground was in such terrible condition - a lot of the equipment was broken or had been removed - so we thought, let’s go big,” Reynolds said.

They ended up calling it the Dolgeville Fun and Fitness project, and they raised over $150,000 in grants, gifts, donations, fundraisers, and in-kind work from the DPW.

“We actually did several

community builds to finish the entire playground,” Reynolds stated. “That was the first step, but we knew this basketball court was in poor shape with garbage asphalt and one ancient basket without a net.”

Kids were always down there wanting to play, so they felt they had to tackle that project as well.

“That’s where we come into the Center Park Project,” said Puznowski.

“That’s been pretty slow

Cooley continues to build his collection

By Dave Warner

Edward Cooley hasn’t slowed down in collecting Hot Wheel Toys since we last wrote about it in May of 2022 - in fact, there are thousands more in his home since we last visited.

Cooley is a lifelong resident of Little Falls who graduated in 1977. He started collecting when he was 12 and doesn’t remember why he started.

Since our last story, he’s done plenty of remodeling on his display

area - redoing floors, walls, ceilings, and LED lighting. “I’ve put proximity switches in so that at night, as you walk through, they turn on in each cabinet.”

He said there are 240 feet of glass shelves with the display, and

coming, so we looked for some alternative funding, and that came from The Wadas Foundation. They gave us a very generous gift. I was also approached by Rodney Schwartz, our County Legislator because they had decided to split up their ARPA funds between all the districts,” Reynolds said.

The Legislators wanted that money to go towards kids’ activities or something that would benefit the community.

he’s now added tractors to the collection. “I don’t have them all out. A lot of them are still in boxes. There are about 6,000 that I couldn’t get on the shelves because I’ve run out of room.

There are almost 7,000 Matchbox and Hot Wheels on display at his home. “I’ve probably got another 18,000 left in the other room in boxes still to get out.”

Cooley said he’s thinking about removing the upstairs bedroom and converting it to display space, but he still has to convince his wife. “She’s not too keen on that yet.”

Lately, he hasn’t been in a buying mood because of all the work he’s been doing updating the displays, but he’s getting ready to get back into the selling and buying of the collectables.

“Those were the two sources of funding for the basketball court,” stated the Mayor.

With that money, they haven’t had to tap into the original grant funding, so it’s still all going towards the Center Park Project.

Regarding that project, the Mayor stated that they’ve torn down the old pavilion, cleared the land, removed old fencing and trees that were in the way, and cleaned out the

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“I’m going to get rid of some of my extra ones. I’ve got about 3,000 to sell yet. They’re all in packages. I’ve probably got another 500-600 under the table that don’t have packages,” he stated.

Cooley said that the market is pretty good right now. “It does slack off a little bit sometimes, but right now, it seems to be pretty hot.”

He said that he buys most of the ‘red line’ models, which were made from 1968-1974. “They have a red line around the tires. I do mostly those because they’re more valuable and they’re rarer - they’re antiques.”

Cooley said they make millions of the new ones, and you just can’t keep up. “They didn’t make so many years ago.”

Please

Photo by Dave Warner - The new basketball/pickleball courts in Dolgeville, with the new playbround equipment in the background.

Photo by Dave Warner - Edward Cooley arranges a few of his Hot Wheel Toys on top of a display cabinet in his home.

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“Once in a while, I see something on eBay that I’d like to get. I’ve been working lately on the Hot Wheel Rumbler motorcycles. I’ve been trying to get one of each of the series. I’m down to about five or six before I have the full set. I don’t have all the colors, but I’ll

have the whole series, he stated.

Some of those are $500-600 apiece. “They weren’t that expensive a few years ago, but now, for some reason, they’re getting hot right now. Maybe it’s just because I’m looking for them.”

Mini Mountie Museum pops up at Chickweed Boutique

By Dave Warner

Featured artists from the Little Falls Central School District now have their work displayed in a Mini Mountie Museum at the entrance to Chickweed Boutique on 642 East Main Street in Little Falls.

Adrianne Watson applied for a small grant through the Donors Choose to fund the project.

As a result, she was able to purchase the kit and art supplies while LFMS students built and helped

to design the museum.

The goal is to provide a designated space within the community where students can showcase their work. The school aims to enhance their research, critical thinking, and presentation skills by providing this platform for students to curate their mini-exhibits.

The Mini Mountie Museum will become a living, ever-evolving resource for students to explore, learn from, and take pride in.

The cart will be stocked with art materials donated by community members and organizations, and in an effort to nurture artistic expression, it will provide free art supplies and a lesson.

Students will have access to a wide range of art supplies, ensuring that financial constraints do not hinder their creative endeavors.

If you are interested in sharing your work, you can use the hashtag #minimountiemuseum

It’s the launch of the Veggie Van program

Cornell Cooperative Extension Herkimer County is thrilled to announce the launch of the Veggie Van, a mobile farmers’ market bringing fresh, locally grown and produced farm goods to underserved neighborhoods in our community.

This food access intervention aims to bridge the gap in food security and support the

health of our community.

The Veggie Van, featuring West End Farm, will make regularly scheduled stops throughout the week, providing a convenient and affordable way for community members to purchase high-quality fruits and vegetables.

The Veggie Van accepts cash, credit, SNAP (formerly known as Food Stamps), Farmers

Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) checks, & Fresh Connect Checks (FCC). Schedule for the Veggie Van program runs from June 18th through October 31st, 2024:

Tuesdays: 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM: Galinsky Apartments, 105 Protection Ave, Herkimer 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM: Eastern Park, Waverly Place, Little Falls across from the Little Falls Library

Thursdays: 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM: London Towers, 100 Please See VEGGIE Page 5

Irish Musician Photography by Kevin Yatarola

Please join us at the H.A.R.P. Museum in the Irish Cultural Center of the Mohawk Valley on Wednesday, July 17 7:00 PM for a presentation by musician photographer Kevin Yatarola.

Salisbury, NY resident Kevin Yatarola is a performing arts photographer working in New York City. For all of his professional life, his day job was in the music business, where he used this access to photograph musicians in studios and on stages. In 2003, he added a second career as a freelance photographer, documenting live performances around the city. His main clients include Lincoln Center,

Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, and Symphony Space. In addition, his freelance clients included the Bonnaroo Music Festival, the Country Music Association, Spotify, and Pace University Schimmel Center for the Performing Arts. His work has appeared regularly in the New York Times and other publications, as well as all over the internet.

For five years (19941999), Kevin worked for Green Linnet Records, a major Celtic music label at the time and had the opportunity to photograph many masters of the genre.

The images for this exhibit, derived from over 25 years of performance

photography highlighting some of the Irish musicians he has documented, will be unveiled and on display. Kevin is grateful for the opportunities he’s had to see and hear these masterful artists.

You can attend this presentation at the H.A.R.P. Museum located on the second floor of the Irish Cultural Center of the Mohawk Valley, 623 Columbia St, Utica. All are welcome to attend this program and the museum is wheelchair accessible. This program is free, please register at this link https://bit.ly/4eg3TLu, or visit our events calendar at iccmv.org/my-calendar/ or leave a message at 315-733-4228 ext.6.

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culvert. “The site is really ready to go. However, the first bid that we went out for far exceeded the funds that we had.”

She said that they then decided to break the project up and do a portion of it, which led them to the decision to do the basketball court by itself.

“At this point, we need to put in the splash pad and the pavilion to satisfy the first grant,” Puznowski said.

“The splash pad is a series of modules where water shoots out, and kids can run around on it,” Reynolds said.

The Center Park Project grant has been helped by the New York Forward grant, which allocated another $1.7 million for the project. “With that, we’ll pretty much be able to complete the whole project,” stated Reynolds. “It’s going to be beautiful. It’s all going to be connected with paths that are walkable and wheelchair accessible.”

There will be a picnic area, parking lot, kitchen, bathrooms, and a threeseason room, which will be used for the summer park program. “If a thunderstorm comes up suddenly, kids will have a quick shelter to get to,” the Mayor said. Right now, they have to go all the way to Village Hall and go upstairs to the youth center.”

“The Youth program runs most of the summer and they are going to love this. Between the playground and this, they’re going to have so much to do. It’s going to be so much fun for them,” Reynolds remarked.

“We’re hoping to have tournaments and other events on the new court. We will have a fullyweighted free-standing net that can be pushed off to the side when people aren’t playing pickleball,” Puznowski said.

The Mayor said that the company that did the work did a wonderful job.

City of Little Falls

July 2, 2024

Common Council

Meeting - Auditing of the bills: 6:30 pm Regular Meeting: 7:00 pm in City Hall.

July 8, 2024

Golf for Life Youth Clinic