The Christmas holiday season is here
By Erik Pekar
The Christmas holiday season is now in full swing. Over the next couple of weeks, a few different Christmas themed events will take place in Granville.
Two of these events will happen tomorrow, Dec. 2. Granville’s annual tree lighting ceremony will take place, including a parade and the unveiling of the lighting at Veterans Memorial Park. Sponsored by the Granville Area Chamber of Commerce, the tree lighting event has been held every year since 1990. The Slate Valley Museum’s Festival of Trees will also be held tomorrow, showcasing trees decorated with various themes. First held in 2012, the festival returns for the first time since 2019. Both of these events will be accepting donations of winter clothing for children; specifically, hats, mittens, gloves, scarves, and other clothing of those lines.
Next Friday, Dec. 9, Granville will be the center of the 5th annual Granville Lighted Tractor Parade. This event was first held in 2017 and is already joining the popularity ranks of Granville’s long-established annual events. For the first time since the 2019 parade, the parade route will return to the normal route of crossing the Church Street bridge; the new bridge had not reopened yet at the time of the parade last year. A judge’s booth will be set up on Main Street and several vendors will have their stands set up nearby, in front of the Land Craft building (the former bank).
Many are looking forward to these annual Christmas holiday events. All have had great turnouts of spectators in the past few years, and hopefully the same will apply this year. The public is encouraged to attend these events.
+++
The first half of November was abnormally warm. A foggy morning on Nov. 1 marked the start of the month, and the start of a heat wave. For about a week, daily temperatures reached well into the 70s. This stretch of pleasant, yet unseasonably warm weather ended by Nov. 9, and by the end of that week the temperatures had cooled down into the 40s, more typical for early November.
With cooler weather came increased chances of snowfall. The first serious snowfall started around 8 p.m. on Nov. 15. It continued overnight, and began to stick, first on some surfaces, and by 2 a.m. was covering roads, pavement, sidewalks, and grass. The snow stopped falling before 6 a.m. on Nov. 16. The snow cover was only a few inches deep; weather conditions were cool and the snow stuck around for the day. However, temperatures warmed back up into the 40s, resulting in most of the snow melting before the end of the weekend, Nov. 20. The cool weather continued for the rest of the month.
+++
With Veterans Day behind us until next year, the banners of the Slate Valley Military Honor Banner Project were taken down on Nov. 14. This was the second year the banners were up on streets in the Village of Granville, as well as in surrounding locales such as Hampton, Hebron, and Wells, Vermont. The banners are now in storage for the winter and will be put back up in the spring. Anyone who has not ordered a banner and wishes to do so can contact Charlie King or the American Legion or VFW posts in Granville. Thank you to all who have been involved with the honor banner project.
+++
The removal of the honor banners for the winter season is the signal that the arrival of Christmas holiday decorations on Granville’s Main Street is not far behind. Over the week of Nov. 17, the streetlight poles on Main Street were decorated with light-up snowflakes and “fir” garland. The Christmas trees followed on Nov. 18, and the lights were installed the following day. The Christmas decorations, along with the decorative building outline lights, were turned on Nov. 22. This year’s new business installations of the outline lights include Scarlotta’s Car Hop and Twisted Scissors.
+++
There are many Christmas decorations and light fixtures appearing around the Granville area. Middle Granville was first this year, with one household there getting their decorations and lights ready and turned on just a few days into November. Now that it is early December, there are many more decorated and lit up houses around Granville. Those wanting to see great Christmas lights are encouraged to drive around the Granville area, both through the village and around the town. Thank you to all who have decorated or are about to decorate their homes, businesses, buildings, or public spaces, for showing Christmas spirit this holiday season. When Granville area people get into the Christmas holiday spirit for decorating their houses, they do a great job.
+++
After two months of work, the remodeling and expansion of the Poultney Stewart’s is complete. Construction on the rear addition began in September. The change really became noticeable in late October, when the refrigerator coolers on the old back wall were removed. This set off a steady set of incremental changes to the interior, including new walls, rearranging of counters, replacing of cooler units on the floor, and expansion of store space. The changes finished up the week of Nov. 17; the store remodeling is now practically complete. With the conclusion of construction, Poultney now has a modern Stewart’s store.
+++
With the cooler weather comes the wrapping up of another year’s worth of road work projects. Route 4 from Comstock to Whitehall village was finished in early November. This repaving project was bounded from the south end of the short section patched after the rock slide several years ago, to the crest of the first hill south of the Whitehall village line, near the driveway for the former McDonald’s.
Another awaited project was the replacement of the drainage culvert on Taylor Hill Road, about 100 feet from the road’s north end at Route 149. The new culvert is 80 feet long, 10 feet seven inches tall, and at its widest is 16 feet seven inches. This type of non-circular culvert is called a “squash tube.” The old culvert was removed in late September. The new “squash tube” culvert was installed in early October. Guardrails were installed, and the road was paved and embankments hydroseeded by early November.
+++
With the Christmas holiday season having arrived, one of the popular aspects of this annual time is the purchase of presents. All sorts and types of items are bought from different places. However, some people have a tendency to purchase these items at malls and department stores in distant places such as Glens Falls, Saratoga Springs, Rutland, or beyond, or even from online retailers. Many times this is unnecessary, as the items can be purchased at stores right in the Granville area. This season, we encourage the people of the Granville area, when shopping for Christmas gifts, to first consider and shop local with area businesses whenever possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment