Last Monday the Marcellus Town Board approved the construction of a community bulletin board in front of town hall. The sign, valued at around $5,000, was a gift from the Olde Home Days Parade Committee and will be used to publicize events as well as village and town board meetings. Town and village officials hope to have the sign up in time to announce the Olde Home Days Parade, an annual event that runs for the first weekend of June. Mayor John Curtin, who has been treasurer for the Olde Home Days Committee since it started in 1995, said he would be installing the frame this week. “It’s going to be nice,” said Town Supervisor Dan Ross. “We’re going to make a little pocket park out of it with some benches, and anyway we can communicate community events, that’s a good thing. It’s nice and we thank the Old Home Days Committee for all their work to pay for it.” Ross said town employees will put down a porous surface made of recycled tires that will decrease storm water run-off in the village. “We’re doing what we can to cut down on our storm water,” he said.
The Olde Home Days Committee has helped fund a variety of local projects since 2002, when donated $3,000 to the village for repairs to the Marcellus Clock and $2,000 to the Friends of Marcellus Park for maintenance and upkeep. Funds have varied depending on the weather, but 2010 was another successful for the parade, allowing the committee to donate the sign and several smaller donations totaling $1,025.04, including: $500 to the Marcellus High School Band, $171.04 for the purchase of a new village flag, $250 to the American Legion Post for repairs to the Veterans Monument at the Point, and $104 for the Marcellus Mural Committee to make prints and postcards of the mural created by Marcellus students, the selling of which will be used to finance the next mural. Ross said the bulletin board will be managed by town clerk Karen Pollard and village clerk Dawn O’Hara; anyone interested in posting events will go to them. Mural approved to go up on town hall
Town hall should look livelier than ever in the near future; the board also approved to have the next Marcellus Mural go up on the parking lot side of town hall. “We want to do it because we think it will be good for the community, but also to support the kids,” said Town Councilor Kevin O’Hara. The mural will be four feet tall and eight feet wide and will display an image of the historic Upper Crown Mill. The Upper Crown Mill was an industrial center from 1812 through the late 20th century and once utilized waterpower from Nine Mile Creek. It was demolished in the late 1980s; the Upper Crown Mill Condominiums, designed to closely resemble the original mill, stand in its place. Marcellus High School art students will paint the mural. The first Marcellus Mural, which replicates a photo taken at the 1916 Olde Home Days Parade, went up in October and was painted by AP art students Zach Garrison, Colin Hewett, Zoe Mullan-Stout, Anne Dailey and Brennen Dooley. The Marcellus Mural Committee was formed by Betty Tross in an effort get the long-discussed community beautification project off the ground. Town now offering free electronics disposal
The town has contracted with a company to provide a drop-off point for all used electronics. The site is located at the Marcellus Town Highway Department, 4264 Slate Hill Road. Ross said a recent state law bars municipalities from charging residents for pickup of unwanted electronics; the town used to charge residents to drop off electronics during spring trash days. The new drop-off site allows residents to dispose of their items free of charge, year-round, 24/7, Ross said. “We’re not paying anything for this service,” he said. “The company that does it is being paid by the manufacturers [of the electronic products].”