Granville Then & Now – It’s summer, and people are going places

By Erik Pekar, Town Historian

July is here; half of the year 2022 has already gone by. There is still light out well past 9 p.m. The weather is warm, children and families are out and about, enjoying the rail trail and the riverfront park. The summer concert series has returned, people are out and going places, such as to the lake. Lawns are being mowed, pools filled, and gardens kept tidy.

The school year is over, the students are out for the summer. Graduation was held in June, and each graduation had a guest speaker. At Granville’s graduation, the guest speaker was former assistant principal Daniel Poucher. Whitehall CSD managed to get a news anchor from an Albany area TV station to speak at theirs, WNYT’s Mark Mulholland.

The new scoreboard at the Granville softball field off Church Street was installed last month. The new playground at Granville Elementary School has been built next to the site of the old one, which was taken down earlier this year. Several teachers and personnel retired from Granville this year. The longest serving retiree from Granville in recent years is Miss Karen Tourge, who retired in 2021; she taught second grade in the district for 50 years, 20 of them at the Granville Elementary School in the village, and after the grades were shuffled between the schools in the summer of 1991, taught the next 30 years at the Mary J. Tanner School.

A month has passed since the Penrhyn Engine and Hose Company’s car show but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to recall this exchange overheard there. The judges were walking around and examining the cars being exhibited. A car owner asked them: “Boys, are you the judges?” Said one of them: “There’s a GTO here, but it ain’t a judge.” Several classic cars have been seen out and about around here in the past several weeks, including a ’64 or ’65 Oldsmobile Delta 88, two ’60s Ford Mustangs, two ’57 Chevys. An early ’60s Mercury Comet passed through town on the day of the Penrhyn car show but didn’t show there. We wonder when a Rambler will show, whether around town or at one of the two Granville area car shows. Two more months until the Autumn Leaves Car Show; it will be held in the village on the last Sunday of September. The craft fair is slated to make its return, for its second year.

Several teachers and other employees retired from the Granville Central School District at the end of the 2021-22 school year, and were honored by the Board of Education at its meeting on June 13. The full list follows: Joanne Warner, food service manager, 40 years; Teresa Winch, kindergarten teacher, 34 years; Deborah Roberts, guidance clerk, 27 years; Sandra Darius, cook manager at Mary J. Tanner school, 27 years; Carla Prehoda, monitor and coach, 26 years; Lynn Milanese, food service at Mary J. Tanner School, 23 years; Terry Wheeler, business teacher and coach, 20 years; Deborah Lacomb Garrelts, OT and assistive tech, 18 years; Cheryl Crowl, food service at Granville High School, 16 years; David Gibson, custodian, 12 years. Also retiring at the end of the 2021-22 school year is June Brown, sixth grade elementary teacher, 28 years. Congratulations to all the retirees.

Two administrative personnel also left during the school year. Daniel Poucher, assistant principal at the Granville High School, retired in December 2021; he had been assistant principal since 2010. Lisa Meade, principal at the same school, left the district at the end of the 2021-22 school year; she was hired in 2019, and departs for the Schenectady city schools.

Those who have gone by the Granville town office building on East Main Street in the past couple weeks have had a new sight catch their eyes. The Town of Granville’s logo was painted on the wall next to the entrance. This was the work of the talented Jordan Flower. He also painted, inside the meeting-court room, a map of the Town of Granville, with the names of the hamlets scattered throughout the town. These were done in a few days around June 19 to 21. Flower’s work looks as good as ever. He previously painted the “Welcome to Granville” billboard on Main Street, and the several sections of murals on the walls of the Telescope factory buildings on Church Street.

Road work is progressing further. The Route 22 repaving project, from Comstock to West Granville, is practically complete. The road markings were painted the week of June 30 and the unpaved connections mentioned in our column of June 30 were paved around that time. County Route 12 in Whitehall was repaved last month, from just north of Upper Turnpike Road to just before Hatch Hill Road. The culverts in this stretch were replaced last year.

As part of the Route 22 repaving project, NYSDOT trimmed brush and trees near the road. This was most noticeable between Hawk Road and Morgans Lane. An even more rigorous trimming had taken place back in April along County Route 24, the Middle Granville road. Several trees were cut, many more were trimmed to remove overhanging branches, including the tree next to which once stood the Tom Johnson residence, since torn down. The row of poplar trees just north of there, planted close to the road and interfering with the utility lines, were left untouched.

The local events of the July 4 weekend started off in the village of Granville on Thursday, June 30. The New York Players appeared for the first concert of the summer concert series. They played until after 8:30. This was followed by fireworks at the Granville Little League field. Pre-recorded music started playing through a PA system at the Little League field around 9 p.m. The fireworks were announced for 9:30, but due to clear skies they did not start at this time as intended. Music played until 9:48.

At that time, Rick Roberts spoke, thanking everyone for their presence and support. A recording was played of the Star-Spangled Banner and the inaugural fireworks were set off. About a minute passed before the show then got underway, about 9:52. The show continued until about 10:14, just over 20 minutes.

Near the end of the show, and just past it, there was a “rogue” display of fireworks in this vicinity. Set off about 10:09, 10:13, and a couple times around 10:30. Conversations indicated that the second set appeared to have come from the North Street or Pine Hill neighborhoods.

There were more fireworks shows over the weekend, including: Granville Saturday night, July 2, within the hour of 9 p.m., from a site on Mettowee Street; Lake St. Catherine, annual show, July 2 at dusk; Granville, Sunday night, after 9 p.m., from a site on North Street. There were other fireworks set off in the vicinity as well in this time.

On July 4, Independence Day itself, there were parades in Poultney and in Salem. A fireworks show was done in Poultney that night. Later that night, another fireworks show occurred in Granville, starting after 9 and lasting off and on until around 11 p.m., from the same North Street site that had set off fireworks on Sunday, and had prior set some off near the end of the village’s fireworks show on Thursday.

By midnight, the noise had died down, and the area entered July 5 quietly, as on any typical night.