As Niagara Falls / Tales of the strange but true
Power of the press
It’s fair to say that Canal Fest week causes life in the Twin Cities to shift a little.
The annual event on the Erie Canal made the North Tonawanda Common Council move the time of its regular meeting an hour earlier than normal last Tuesday.
The change isn’t unusual, since city officials want to be through their agenda in time to march in the Canal Fest parade.
At last week’s meeting, no members of the public were in the Council Chambers when officials began working on city business at 5 p. m.
Second Ward Alderman Kevin J. Brick Jr. took notice.
“I’d like to put forth a resolution to increase our salaries by $10,000,” Brick said, smiling.
The statement stirred an equally jovial response from another alderman.
“You know, I would second that motion if those two weren’t here,” said Council President Brett M. Sommer, noting the two members of the media seated at the side of the room.
Sore loser
A Cheektowaga man was at a children’s birthday party on Elmwood Avenue in Lockport July 13 when he lost a video bowling game.
That’s when, city police say, 36-year-old James E. Blankenburg asked one of the juvenile party-goers if he wanted to box. Thinking that Blankenburg meant a game of Wii boxing, the boy agreed.
That’s when Blankenburg punched the juvenile in the nose and forehead, police said.
The trouble continued when Blankenburg went to play baseball with some juveniles and police said he got angry again, grabbed another juvenile, put his arm behind his back and pushed him into a fence.
Blankenburg took his children and left the gathering, police said, and was picked up a short time later at his girlfriend’s house on North Transit Street, where he was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Fighting words
What’s green and white and read by tourists from all over?
Hint: It has annoyed downtown business owners in Niagara Falls for years.
Answer: It’s a simple sign on the Robert Moses Parkway just outside Niagara Falls State Park. Keep left and you’ll head toward the falls. Keep right, the sign says, and you’ll head toward the ominous- sounding “City Traffic.”
There may soon be a change.
After numerous complaints were raised through the years, including recent concerns from the city’s Tourism Advisory Board, it looks as though the Department of Transportation will give the approval needed to change the language.
Now, local leaders will just have to agree on what it should say.
“The argument that a lot of us have made over the years is that ‘City Traffic’ sounds like, ‘Go some other way. There’s traffic over here,’ ” said Mayor Paul A. Dyster. “We’d rather say something more neutral or informative, like ‘downtown.’ ”
Mr. Limpet would smile
While addressing a group of teachers near the U. S. Coast Guard Station last week, Kofi Fynn-Aikins, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Services chief, began waxing poetic about sturgeon, a very large fish that roams the Lower Niagara River and can live more than 100 years.
“The sturgeon is my favorite fish,” he said, “because unlike most fish I know of, it’s the only one that will come to you and try to interact with you. I worked with one in a big fish tank once and when I stuck my hand in the water, it would come up and slap my finger. They are really cute.”
“He’s the first person I know who thinks sturgeon are cute,” Helen Domske, an extention specialist with the New York Sea Grant, told the teachers.
“I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Kofiresponded. “I tell you, it’s a very charismatic fish.”
With contributions from Aaron Besecker, Nancy A. Fischer, Denise Jewell Gee and Paul Westmoore of the News Niagara Bureau.
