Water Power Park

Yesterday they turned on the fountains at Water Power Park.

It's hard to miss the fountains as you drive pass on Canal Street.

Water Power Park really isn't much of a park. The bushes are overgrown, and make a good visual screen for nefarious activities.

Little plastic bags all over the place are proof of drug use.

A bench was here last year.

The Park would be nice if it was properly maintained.

Who lives in here?

Oh! Must be your home.

On another note, Gurvulenski's service center, next to Water Power Park, is having a signage problem.

How Not To Campaign In Holyoke

As if it's not enough to be seen campaigning, you have to annoy the hell out people by leading a great honking caravan through the city on an otherwise quiet day.

A good example of how to do it right is last years run for City Council by Tim Purington. Purington beat incumbent John Lecca in an extremely well run campaign. There was nothing really wrong with Lecca, but Purington thought he could do a better job, and beat Lecca fair and square. The real winners in the race were the voters of ward 4 who had to chose between two good candidates vying for their attention.

345-363 Dwight St

I had written off this building a year ago when I found out how bad the structure had deteriorated, and am amazed to see any attempt to save it.

It was listed for $259K a few months ago when I took this picture, but was recently taken off the market. I have been told by several people that it's now owned by the bank, and they have been court ordered to repair the building. I don't know what bank.

Mayor Sullivan says, The City of Holyoke has taken the present owner of record to Housing Court where the court ordered the owner to make the building safe.

Forestdale Crash

The mystery of the Forestdale Cemetery crash was partially solved today when the Republican reported the name of the women who died was 22yr old Laura Johnson from Springfield. We still don't know why she was running from the police. Rumor is: the car she was driving was stolen from a guy she was with at a hotel, but this is just a rumor.

*update* 22news has conflicting info to what the Republican published. They say Laura was from North Carolina, and stole the car. The whole thing was needlessly tragic in any case.

The Forgotten Land

Like many other parts of Holyoke, Mount Tom State Reservation has become run down.

Monday I went with family and friends for a Memorial Day picnic up Mount Tom. It was rather disappointing.

First problem, the entrance fee is too low. Is Two dollars is even worth collecting?

Also, there aren't enough picnic areas. The best spot we could find didn't have a picnic table. We eventually carried a table from a neighboring spot when some people left.

The roads look like something out of a History Channel special.

This area once had a dozen fire pits, and picnic tables, It now has four.

Looks like the hey day of picnicking here was during the Eisenhower administration.

Normally I would be happy to pick up a little trash around my picnic site, but yuck!

After the picnic I was going to drive up to the old Eyrie House ruins, but ran into a fire truck backing out. Someone had started a brush fire.


Once all the trucks backed out the Ranger closed the gate. The road is closed due to it's condition.

.

Another Fire

Small garage fire, 616 South Summer St. In the back alley. Just 2 blocks away from last nights trailer fire.

Who Needs A Transfer Station?

With all the dumpster fires tonight will there be any trash left to throw away? And how does Councilor Lopez feel about the heath affects of ward 2 being filled with smoke from all these fires? What about the air pollution, and property values are going to go down…because I mean who wants to be near a fire? So far he has been silent about the arson plaguing the minority community of ward 2. Isn't this an environmental justice issue? Why isn't there a study being done by Smith college students to find out who is doing this?


Sorry to be so sarcastic, but I rail against people making so much out of the lesser of many evils, (transfer station), while ignoring more serious problems, (gangs, code of silence, arson).

On a lighter note, I hope everyone is having a nice weekend with their families.

Stories I missed last week

Replacement of Route 202 bridge started

Is commuter rail coming to Holyoke?

Opinion, Holyoke soldiers' home

Gateway cities alliance, story one, story two, story three

Sewer rate hike

The casinos are back

Saturday Shoot

Saturday I took my 12yr Nephew to the Westfield Sportsman Club to teach him about guns.

All these guns are 22cal, a good introduction to shooting for a 12yr old.

Membership at the Westfield club cost me $80 a year. I could have gone to the Holyoke Revolver Club, but Holyoke doesn't have a very long range.

Kids have some stupid ideas about guns these days, and my Nephew is no different. He had no formal introduction to guns besides TV, and video games, so last month I began his education with a variety of air guns in the cellar.

The kid was really excited about going to the range, and he did pretty good for his first time shooting at this distance. I am happy to see him loose those stupid ideas, and learn respect for guns.

Not Pictures Of Cats

While digging through piles of junk in my bedroom recently I found two Kodak picture CDs dated 08-10-99. Before digital cameras were so affordable, I used to keep a disposable camera in the glove box of my car. When I had these two developed I opted for them to be digitized on disks. It was the new thing at the time.

I'm sure you can figure out what is happening in this series.