The Peru Gazette

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The 2^nd Annual Leo P. Bourgeois Memorial Golf Tournament will be held on Friday, September 30^th to raise funds for the scholarship in his name.  The tournament will be held at Adirondack Golf & Country Club in Peru with registration beginning at 11 a.m. and a shotgun start at noon.  The cost to enter the four person scramble tournament is $260 per team which includes greens fees for 18 holes, golf cart, gift bags, awards and a hors d’oeuvres reception following the tournament.  Non-golfers and alumni are encouraged to attend the reception at a cost of $20.00 per person. Volunteers for the day of the tournament are also needed.

Over a career that spanned several decades, the late Leo Bourgeois or Mr. “B” as he was affectionately known, impacted the lives of hundreds of Peru Central School students, encouraging them to do their best and not to give up.  For Mr. “B”, giving up on kids was not an option as their futures could not be seen. With his wisdom, warmth, humor and optimism, Mr. “B” gave students hope and helped them find their way.

In honor of Mr. “B”, several PCS alumni came together in 2010 to establish a scholarship in his memory for a deserving PCS Senior – a fitting tribute to a man who spent his life reaching out to students motivating them to be the best students possible for a brighter future.  The first $1,000 scholarship was awarded this past June to PCS Senior, Abigail Jodi, who is pursuing a pre-med course at SUNY Albany in the fall.

The cost to become a tournament sponsor is $50 to $150. For more information about the tournament, entering a team, becoming a sponsor or to volunteer, contact Cheryl Breen Randall at 524-1192 or by email at cheryl.breen-randall@verizon.net.

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports 

Washington, DC — A bipartisan group of 20 New York U.S. House members today thanked President Obama for expediting the Major Disaster Declaration process for several New York Counties and requested that the President quickly approve all 26 counties identified in Governor Cuomo’s request for federal disaster assistance. So far, 19 counties have been made eligible for Public Assistance (PA), and 8 counties have been made eligible for Individual Assistance (IA). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is currently reviewing the remaining counties to determine their eligibility for federal assistance.  Read more »

Lincoln’s historic decision to free slaves in southern states came almost 2 years into the Civil War, and it helped the North win.  But Lincoln was not elected as an abolitionist.

Local Lincoln historian Jim Howard, 2007 winner of the Horace Mann Lincoln Fellowship, offers a multi-media presentation tracing The Great Emancipator’s personal struggles with slavery and the nation’s highest ideals. It will be presented at the Peru Free LIbrary on Saturday, September 10th at 5 p.m.

The presentation is sponsored by the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association and is free to the public.  The Peru Free Library is located at 3024 Rte 22 in Peru, NY.  Refreshments will be served.

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By John T. Ryan

Last Friday was a day filled with optimism at Forrence Orchards. Jamaican men were arriving to pick one of the largest crops ever.  The orchard had been hard hit by a July hailstorm that damaged about 200,000 bushels of apples. Still, this year’s bumper crop was a reason for optimism. Today, that is no longer the case. Hurricane Irene’s high winds and driving rains on Sunday, August 28, 2011 left about 100,000 bushels of Forrence’s apples on the ground and thousands of trees either severely damaged or destroyed. Undoubtedly most if not all of Peru’s orchards suffered similar storm damage.

Seth Forrence manages Forrence’s orchards along the Mannix and River Roads in Peru. He supervised the planting of the orchards’ thousands of Honeycrisp and McIntosh trees and devoted thousands of hours nurturing their development over the past several years. Needless to say, viewing the broken and bent trees is not an easy thing for Seth to do. Forrence says, “I’m finding it a little difficult to go into the orchard right now.”

Most of the apple trees are tethered by long wires or cable lines. The small trees planted today need support to support their abundant fruit. Unfortunately, when one tree falls several others are dragged along. Seth said “Bound together, like they are, it worked like a large sail.”

Honeycrisp trees suffered the most severe damage. While McIntosh trees tended to bend rather than break, the Honeycrisp trees tended to break very near the soil’s surface. Forrence explained, “They broke at the bud union rather than bending.”  Forrence estimates that at least 10,000 bushels of Honeycrisp apples are on the ground and he hasn’t had time to count the severed trees. Planting new trees and bringing them to full production will take about five to six years.  The destroyed trees were just reaching full production.

All the Forrences are well aware that apple growing is a risky business. Seth says his great grandfather Virgil H. Forrence used to say, “When you think you’ve got something, you’ve got nothing.”  Seth has his own words to describe his chosen profession saying, “Apple growing is Las Vegas every day.”

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