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Green spaces, flower beds
White paths between flower beds
brown covered seating area
gray performance space
black circle, fountain |
WELLSVILLE: There’s activity on the corner of
Main and Fassett in Wellsville. People who haven’t been in Wellsville in a
while will notice that something looks different but even people who walk past
weekly will register a change. So, what
is going on?
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| Lauryn Sherwood |
The
corner was a site of community business in the early 1800s when Wellsville town
meetings were held there. Decades of commerce took place there until interrupted
in 1867 when fire leveled the wood framed buildings of Wellsville’s Main
Street. Isaac Fassett announced he would build a solid hotel on that corner with
brick exterior walls and thick interior firewalls. He didn’t intend to have
Fassett House tumble down in any fire. He wanted it to endure and endure it did
from 1870 until 2005.
 |
| Andy Glanzman |
The
lot was emptied when Isaac Fassett’s dream was torn down (fire and water damage
were too expensive to repair) and now the lot is owned by Andy Glanzman who has
given it to create a dynamic new type of community center.
On
weekends, you can find Glanzman, Andrew Harris, Cassandra Bull, Jim Lemkin as
well as other community members, business owners, high school students, and this reporter shoveling
rock, moving blocks, pounding, gluing and building to make the Fassett
Greenspace Project.
Roughly,
the project will include a labyrinth of raised beds with a water fountain in
the center. Plantings aren’t fully defined yet but will involve a mix of
perennial flowers and edible plants along with annual vegetables. On the side
furthest from the street there will be a covered seating area for people to
enjoy outdoor performances and classes in art, gardening, exercise and more.
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| Layer 2 on the second ring. |
Grant
applications are in progress to get funding to pave the walkways both to preserve
the labyrinth on this sloped corner and to make it wheel chair and stroller accessible.
Another grant seeks funds to purchase outdoor musical instruments.
On
Saturday, some high school students spent time working toward their community
service requirements. Lauryn Sherwood put in a few hundred plastic pins. She
plans to study nursing after graduation, a career area that became of interest
to her because of the TV series Gray’s Anatomy.
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| Jacob Beirman and Nick Lakatosh |
Nick
Lakatosh has done community service for the SPCA and at the fire hall but spent
his Saturday morning moving several hundred pounds of blocks and caps at the
Fassett Greenspace. He worked with Jacob Beirman and Isaiah Plank to move the
blocks and while there is a wheel barrow to help, it is no easy task to move
anything over a deep layer of loose stones. Other volunteers built a sort of wood
pallet-road but the last several feet have to be carried by hand.
Isaiah
Plank has done some community service with the MS Walk, the Lions Club Cleanup
and the Maker’s Fair prior to helping at the garden. After he graduates he
hopes to study at Alfred State in Wellsville to become a gourmet cook. Isaiah
thinks that people feel good when they help their community. Jacob Beirman thinks
the Greenspace will be great when it’s finished. He spent some of his other community service
time at the SPCA and at the United Way golf tournament.
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| Roxanne Blouvet |
Roxanne
Blouvet has lived in Wellsville off and on for about 30 years. She has helped
at 3 work sessions at the garden after seeing a post about it on Instagram. She
does a lot of community service for friends, neighbors and at Arbor Development
where she brings meals on holidays. Blouvet said, “This is a great idea for the
community and will bring beauty downtown. It’s great to share the work together
and I hope other people will come to help.”
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| Jim Lemkin and Cassandra Bull |
Jim
Lemkin drives over from Black Creek to help in part because of the influencer
of his neighbor, Cassandra Bull, president of Art for Rural America, the parent
organization that is building the garden. It wasn’t just being neighborly
though. Jim realized right off the potential that the Fasssett Greenspace has for
Wellsville saying, “I’m honored to be a small participant in this amazing
project. I believe that people will travel great distances to experience what will
become a majestic destination.”
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| Andy Glanzman and Isaiah Plank |
The
project is huge and needs help - physical and financial - to move it toward
that majestic goal. Tax deductable donations are welcome. Send checks made out
to Fassett Greenspace and mailed to AFRA , 130 North Main Street, Wellsville
14895. Feel free to stop and talk with anyone working there if you pass by.
To
learn more about the project, go to www.ArtForRuralAmerica.com
or to Fassett Greenspace Project on Facebook. You can contact board members at either
site. Occasionally you may find a note on the Facebook page announcing work times
when you could stop by and earn the right to say, “Hey, I helped build that!"
Box: It takes a
village of workers and a bank of funding to create such an ambitious project.
Some donations to date include:
Grant Awards.
Donations
·
The
Searle Family Estate - $400
·
Patricia
Ann Kuzman - $95
·
Sheila
Kalkbrenner - ongoing
·
Giant
Food Mart - $1,000
In-Kind Donations
·
Kevin
LaForge Disposal
·
JR.
Green Trucking Company
·
The
Village of Wellsville
·
Tim
Shea
·
Lehman's
nursery
·
East
wind Landscaping Nursery
·
Southern
Tier Concrete Products, Inc.
·
Nate
Piscitelli
·
Anna
Joyce
·
Volunteer Support
·
Alfred
State College Department of Heavy Equipment with Vinny Grottanelli
·
Alfred
State Department of Masonry with Steve Richard
