s the New Year begins, the excitement and anticipation builds. We are inching ever closer to that moment in history which, in my mind, represents more than the rebirth of a beloved regional icon…an American Centerpiece Reborn. I believe it is a rare beacon in a world where there is much darkness and less opportunity for us to focus on our families.

Saturday May 27, 2006, is going to be a blast!!! It will begin at 9:00 a.m. with a tribute to the ring holders. Invitations with more details about this special event will be mailed out sometime in early spring. As promised, these 440 special people will be the first to ride the completed Eldridge Park Carousel. Originally we planned to call this event “Ring Night” with little opportunity to offer rides to ring holder families, friends and the general public. With a ring holder ceremony earlier in the day, we have created a truly historic day long extravaganza! The general public will begin to pour into the park about 1:00 p.m. Thanks to Tom Santulli, the historic county trolley buses will be available to transport people to the park from Wegman's parking lot and/ or the parking garages. At about 3:00pm Brian Williams, Tommy Hilfiger, Guy Vickers, Jeanine Pirro, and representatives from city, county, state, and federal government will address a mass gathering of excited people. (If weather cooperates there could be a record crowd at Eldridge that day!) The celebrities and our famous carousel animal carvers, present from around the nation, will be available to sign items which can be purchased at the carousel gift shop.

Following the dedication speeches and ribbon cutting, the carousel will be open to the general public for the opening season price of $1 per rider. (One adult will be allowed to ride with any child 6 years of age and under as the very young must be directly tended to by an adult). But, the first of the general public to ride will be a group of lucky children selected from schools, community centers, and youth groups all over the region. Julie Bennett is organizing this special event which brings yet another special meaning to this community celebration.

Bands will be playing on and off all day. Food will be available by Wegmans, the Merry Go Eatery, which will feature foot long hotdogs with M&M’s meat sauce, and other vendors. Tents will be set up courtesy of Spotts Awning and Tent, a family which has been helping the project since day one. Security will be provided by the city of Elmira under the direction of my dear friends John Burin, Elmira’s new city manager and Scott Drake, the chief of Elmira’s finest! (Scott will likely enlist help from other local, county, and state law enforcement agencies for this historic event). Bruce Perron and his company Hard Hit Productions will be providing staging, lighting, and sound production for the event and I will continue to provide more details in upcoming updates as they become available.

So who is responsible for planning and financing this celebration? Much of the credit for planning the event will go to Rick Pirozzolo of Elmira downtown development. Assisting Rick are Marcelle Lawas, Jeremy Hogan of Hogan Design, Julie Bennett, Mary Jo Earley, Diana Perron, Amy Uy, and Sue Hamlin and I’m sure before it comes to pass, the event of this decade will enlist the help and talents of many more. Since this is truly a cross-cultural, intergenerational project representing the epitome of community cohesiveness, I thought it best to try to engender enthusiastic financial support from a business community equally as diverse. So far, the May 27th celebration will be cosponsored by Chemung Canal Trust Co., Caywood’s Funeral Home, Learned-Reilly & Learned law firm, Personnel Images, Wegmans, Wallin Insurance Agency and Ziff, Weiermiller, Hayden and Mustico law firm.

The last thing I should mention is that there will be one of the grandest fireworks displays in the regional history at 9:15pm. This will follow the unveiling of the first of many fountains which will enhance the grace and beauty of what was referred to during Victorian times as one of the nations “beauty spots”…Eldridge Park.

In keeping this theme of “victorianzation” the Protect Eldridge Committee continues moving its plan to restore Eldridge as a quality, family oriented haven, very much as it was in the 1800s. Although this group, which looks to form a conservancy in the future, has no legal ties to EPCPS, it serves the community well to think of the carousel as the hub of the wheel…the centerpiece…and other projects to radiate out from the carousel as spokes of the proverbial wheel. Click here to read more about the Protect Eldridge Committee and some of its proposed plans.

Jeff Castor, Mary Ann Gordon and Blaine Overacker continue to install a state of the art security system. There are 4 components to this sophisticated system…fire suppression, smoke, intrusion, and cameras. Walter Booth was responsible for the sprinkler system ($60,000 masterpiece). Smoke detectors are in place in the 4 corners of the building and the cupola which will send info to the monitoring center prior to fire triggering of the sprinkler system. Infrared/microwave motion detectors and door micro switches will detect any movement in the building while up to 8 cameras will record all visible activity in and around the building continuously for over one month on a continuous loop! Lights, sirens…the list goes on and on to create a security system which rivals that of most banking institutions.

Larry Pefferly continues to work on the last four outer row horses. Carving is complete now and he and his wife Jerry will continue to paint them until winter’s end. There cannot be many carousels in the world which boast all outer row carving’s by the same world famous carver. Even the carving masters of the 1800s worked in groups so that the figures were often created by more than one individual! What a wonderful legacy for Larry to leave for us!

Finally, I should mention another way in which this project has brought the community closer. All 4 of the George Washington 1st grade classes are raising money to purchase $75 brass stars. (You can read about these Star Gazette memorials which will hang inside the carousel building for generations to come by clicking here!) These ambitious youngsters are raising money by reading books. Another group raising money for Stars is the Happy House Nursery. Amy Uy, a parent whose little girl attends this facility is heading up the bottle/can drive! They have enough already for a $75 star and plan to be a cosponsor of Sylvia…the Eldridge Generation horse. Thank you so much!!!

The project to bring back this delightful piece of history continues to make me smile from ear to ear most of the time, but the highlight for me will be on May 27th when the work of so many will be celebrated in an altogether fitting and proper way..