June Update on Fassett Greenspace Project

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?

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.

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.    

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

The Garman Family Foundation through the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo - $15,667

 The Allegany County Area Foundation - $750

Donations

·         ​ALCO Federal Credit Union - $1,000

·         Steuben Trust Company - $1,000

·         L C Whitford & Company, Inc. - $2,000

·         The Searle Family Estate - $400

·         Wellsville Citizens for Responsible Development - $500

·         Patricia Ann Kuzman - $95

·         Sheila Kalkbrenner - ongoing 

·         Allegany Arts Association - $100

·         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