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VOLUME 4 ISSUE 14
The Official Newspaper
FREE
of the Village of Ellicottville, the Town of Ellicottville and the Towns of East Otto, Great Valley and Mansfield, New York
www.EllicottvilleTimes.com facebook/theEllicottvilleTimes
APRIL 10 - 16 2015
Your Hometown Newspaper Serving Ellicottville, East Otto, Great Valley, Little Valley, Mansfield, Olean, Randolph, Salamanca, Springville and Beyond
Calendar of Events
Get Out and Enjoy Spring
April 15 Holiday Valley Golf Course Front 9 opens (tentative)
Mud Season or Not By Alicia Dziak
It’s that time of year when the snow has (mostly) melted, but the grass has yet to turn green. Even with only slightly warmer temps, who can wait any longer to get outside and enjoy? Don’t fret—there’s plenty of outdoor fun to be had during “mud season.” If you’re feeling adventurous and can’t wait for the mud to dry, put on some waterproof hiking boots and tackle the area trails on foot. A great option is the trails at Holiday Valley, which lead to nearby McCarty State Forest. Eager to get out for a hike but want to take it easy on the footwear? Allegany State Park boasts a lengthy paved biking and hiking trail that surrounds Red House Lake, as well as a shorter paved path that runs next to ASP 3 on the Quaker side. Or for a more leisurely stroll, check out Ellicottville’s Nannen Arboretum, open every day from dawn till dusk. Trout season opened April 1, and that means plenty of opportunities to try your luck at area creeks and lakes. For more information, visit www.dec. ny.gov. Need that extra adrenaline rush? Try whitewater rafting in Zoar Valley, where you can take a guided trip down the Cattaraugus Creek and make new friends along the way. Early spring is the ideal time to go, as water levels are at their highest. For more information, visit www.cattraftingadventures.com or www.zoarvalleyrafting.com. Of course, April is the perfect time to get out and act like a kid again. Grab your rain boots, skip down the village streets and plan to jump in some puddles!
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April 17-19 Greater Olean Area Home & Garden Show April 25-26 Maple Festival Franklinville May 2 I Love My Park Day Allegany State Park May 2 Adventure Run Allegany State Park May 8 Sky High Adventure Park opens May 29-31 Allegany Nature Pilgrimage June 5-6 Cycling Weekend Holiday Valley June 5-7 Dairy/Ag Fest Springville June 20 Mudslide Obstacle Run Holiday Valley July 3-5 Summer Music Festival Holiday Valley
One More Weekend Holiday Valley, HoliMont Extend Seasons It’s official! Both Holiday Valley and HoliMont have too much snow to let it go. So before it begins to melt in earnest, the resorts will be open for business this Saturday and Sunday, April 11-12. At Holiday Valley, the Yodeler Quad and Chute Quad will operate to serve 11 slopes -- two green circles, three blue squares and six black diamonds. HoliMont plans to have the Exhibition chair open all weekend. Additional lifts may be added as conditions are evaluated. So get out there and enjoy what promises to be an exceptional weekend for spring skiing, boarding and resort fun.
Volunteers Needed for Fire/Ambulance Service Recruitment Open House: April 25 By Jann Wiswall
EFD rookie Morgan Manfreda with Fire Chief Kevin Morton
See Fire/Ambulance Volunteers Needed page 8
Annual Home Show April 17–19 New Products, Clever Ideas, Practical Advice By Eva Potter
From top to bottom, inside to outside, and everything in between, the 2015 Greater Olean Home Show has you covered. More than 80 of the area’s most respected businesses are preparing to exhibit their products and services to help you with almost any home improvement project you can imagine. “It’s a one-stop shopping center for all your home
ECS Presents: Cats Performances This Weekend
Ellicottville Central School’s spring musical performance of Cats takes place this Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Salamanca Ray Evans Theater. This beloved musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber is the third longest running musical in Broadway history and is sure to be a hit with theater-goers in Salamanca. Based on the T.S. Eliot novel Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, the musical tells the story of a tribe of felines with a difficult choice to make. Members of the tribe tell their stories to the human audience, including how each cat got his or her name. Because of the many roles in Cats, most of the members of ECS’s drama club have a significant role telling the story of their feline characters through song and dance. Lead roles are being played by eighth grader Malorie Chamberlain, seniors Calum Watt, Olivia Venezia and Alessia Filutze, and junior Nick Delity. Tickets are $7 and can be purchased at the theater on both nights.
This past Mardi Gras/Winter Carnival weekend was a lot of fun for most of us, but for our local fire departments and ambulance service, it was one of the most intense weekends in anyone’s recent memory. Over that Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the Ellicottville Fire Department (EFD) responded to 14 calls for emergencies ranging from a vehicle gas leak, a smoke
See Olean Home Show page 8
School Board Passes $11.6 Million Budget By Jann Wiswall
The Ellicottville Central School Board unanimously passed the 2015-16 budget as presented at its meeting on Tuesday, April 7. ECS voters will have the final say on Tuesday, May 19 when they will be asked to vote on the proposition for the basic budget, additional funding
for school bus leases and the school’s annual contribution to the Ellicottville Memorial Library. The basic budget of $11,620,182 is an increase of $555,000 over last year. $180,000 of that will be covered by New York State aid, a welcome increase of $82,000 over last year. The balance will
be collected from taxpayers. While that tax increase comes to approximately 4.2 percent, 2.3% ($155,000) of those funds are to cover payments on the loans for the two capital projects that were approved by voters over the past two years. The remaining See School Board Passes Budget page 4