The Peru Gazette

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The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports

Gazette File Photo

By John T. Ryan

On January 8^th eighteen members of the Peru Community Church Jamaican Mission Team will depart for the Church’s 12^th Annual Jamaican Mission trip. Missioners travel to the Mandeville, Jamaica region. They typically work in a local school and orphanage, conduct counseling training classes for local churches, build a simple home for a local family and perform maintenance work at the home of Roy Jones, the apple picker whose serious injury in Peru, NY prompted the first mission trip.

George and Harriet Burrell organized the first mission trip and continue their work each year. Asked if he ever thinks about not going George Burrell responded, “We just seemed to be called back. At some point we may stop; but we’re still going strong.” Noting he is getting a “little older” Burrell said, “When we do stop, we hope younger people will continue the mission.”

This year the missioners will be assisting an orphanage which is home to twenty-seven children almost all of whom are under five years of age. The New Hope Children’s Home in Mandeville is in tremendous need of gently used or new clothing especially shorts, socks and sundresses, crib fitted sheets, diaper cream, baby powder and chewable vitamins.

Along with the clothing and children’s items, monetary donations are still needed to pay for transportation of supplies, to build the home and repair Roy Jones’ home. If you would like to help please mail your check to the Peru Community Church, 13 Elm St., Peru, NY 12972. Please annotate the check “Jamaican Mission.”

Peru Community Church website information on the Mission (Click here)

An excellent Press Republication story on the the Mission orphanage program (Click here)

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports

The Watertown Daily times reports

The Watertown Daily Times reports

The adirondack almanac reports (Sounds like a great book!)

The Press Republican reports

By Donald McBrayer

On the morning of December 21, just 15 hours before the winter solstice you’ll get a chance to witness the first total lunar eclipse in nearly 3 years. A total lunar eclipse happens when the shadow of the Earth passes over the surface of the moon completely covering it. The lunar eclipse begins at 1:35 AM and will last about 90 minutes.

The Moon will be easy to spot high in the southern sky near the borders of the constellations Taurus, and Orion. During the peak of the lunar eclipse the Moon will appear brownish orange or brick red and the sky will grow darker, allowing the bright winter stars surrounding our celestial neighbor to sparkle in prominence. Unlike a solar eclipse (the moon’s shadow passing over the Earth), a lunar eclipse is completely safe to watch.

While you’re looking up, glance a bit west of the eclipse to notice the sky’s brightest star cluster, the Pleiades (M45), also know as The Seven Sisters, in the constellation Taurus. This star cluster can be viewed almost any winter night, and is a marvel to look at through binoculars. Another wonder to check out with binoculars is the Great Orion Nebula (M42). This murky star nursery is located just under Orion’s Belt (three stars in the center of the Orion Constellation), and is 24 light years wide.

Weather is the only thing that will disrupt the view so if you miss this year’s lunar eclipse you’ll have to wait till April 2014 to catch the next one.

The Post Star reports

The Watertown Daily Times reports

The Watertown Daily Times reports

The Post Standard reports

The Watertown Daily Times reports

Peru Intermediate School teachers and staff followed what has become an annual tradition today when they distributed a tray of cookies and other edible delights to the bus drivers.  It’s a small way to show appreciation to vital members of the Peru Central education team. (Click here for more photos)

By John T. Ryan

December 17 update: Peru Voters approved the purchase of a new ambulance at the Tuesday, December 14th Fire Department voting.  The vote was 28 to 0. Robert Akey was unopposed and was reelected Department Treasurer. Courtney Tetreault was also unopposed and was reelected as a Fire Commissioner.

Dec. 13 – Peru voters are being asked to approve the purchase of a new ambulance and vote on the election of a Fire Commissioner and Department Treasurer. Voting will be held on Tuesday, December 14^th from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Peru Fire Station. The ambulance proposition will permit the Department to purchase an ambulance for not more than $175,000. $50,000 is on hand in the general fund and the current ambulance should sell for a minimum of $12,500, therefore the Department anticipates issuing serial bonds of approximately $112,500. The Department attempts to replace its ambulance every ten years. The current ambulance is a 1999 Ford.

Courtney Tetrault is running for re-election as a Fire Department Commissioner and Robert Akey is running for reelection as Department Treasurer.

Greg Timmons chairs the Fire Department Commissioners. Other members include Bruce Dimock, Frank LaBombard and Scott Houser.

The Watertown Daily Times reports

The Times Union reports

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports

The Mail reports

On December 27th at 6:45 p.m. the Town of Peru will conduct a public hearing to hear citizen comments on a revised Dog Control Law. The Peru Gazette asked Town Supervisor Peter Glushko to describe the proposed changes.  He responded: One big change is in the licensing procedures. NYS Agriculture and Markets no longer wants to administer and track the licensing of dogs in NY towns. This has been left entirely to the Town Clerks in the state and we have included the procedures that we as a Town will use to administer the notices and collect the fees involved. Other changes include:1) a set discounted fee for senior citizens for dog licensing; 2) Dogs under 4 months of age are not required to be licensed; 3) no more purebred licenses are required; 4) A dog enumeration (census) fee will now be levied when licensing dogs. Those are the more noteworthy changes in the new law.

Here is the proposed law in its entirety. Read more »

The adirondack almanac reports

The Press Republican gives us the chance to continue a wonderful tradition – click here