The Peru Gazette

Mike Relation points to the location of used car parts

By John T. Ryan

In two years one of Peru’s most colorful personalities will be recalling that its been 40 years since he erected his business sign at 85 Connors Rd. Mike Relation started Rustic Auto Body as an auto body repair shop. Over the years he’s added used cars, new car parts, used car parts, antique cars and project cars. (More Photos) 

Rustic Auto Body is probably best known for its variety of used car parts. Customers come from all over the northeast knowing that this is where they very likely will find the car part they need. Rustic’s twenty-acre junkyard contains almost 1,500 cars some dating back as far as 1914. There are 100 foreign cars including eight Volkswagen bugs.  Thirty-four school buses dot the landscape and are filled with such things as rims, wheels, headlights, doors and transmissions. When a customer enters and asks for a specific part Mike Relation casually reaches under the counter, pulls out his two-foot machete and uses the machete to point to an aerial photograph of the junkyard.  Relation knows the exact location of every part in the yard and points out its location on the photograph. The customer is given the choice of either walking into the yard or riding on an ATV with Relation or his right hand man Mike Wells.  During the brief time the Gazette visited with Relation one customer from Syracuse walked into the yard looking for a part for a 1980’s vehicle while Mike Wells took another man into the yard looking for wheels for a 1987 Lincoln.

Mike Relation is a Peru native who graduated from Peru High School in 1967. Many people doubted that he would ever be able to operate his own business.  He contracted polio at five years of age, Read more »

Charter Cable scheduling is a problem according to Gagnon 

Media Release from Peru Central School 11:15 a.m. 

Scott J. Osborne, with prior success as a K-12 Principal, elementary grades classroom teacher, a Reading First program literacy coach and peer presenter, was appointed last night by Peru Central’s Board of Education to a three-year probationary appointment as Primary School Principal, starting on or about July 1, 2009, when veteran administrator Christine Angevine retires from active service as a Primary Principal at Peru Central. The Primary School enrolls approximately 440 students in kindergarten through 2nd grade.

Read more »

By Carol Sorai-Rusco

The Elmore SPCA will be holding its second membership drive at Champlain Centres this Saturday, April 25 from 10-7.  Members of the Clinton Community College Honor Society will be selling raffle tickets for a beautiful handmade butterfly pattern quilt during the membership drive.  Proceeds from the membership drive and the quilt raffle will go to benefit the Elmore SPCA homeless animals.



The 12th annual Chazy Key Club “Run For Your Life” charity run/walk will take place on Saturday, May 16, at 10:00 a.m. Proceeds from this year’s event will benefit the Elmore SPCA Humane Society & Animal Shelter. Read more »

Bishop Robert Cunningham will lead Diocese of Syracuse

See the Press Republican’s online report

By John T. Ryan 

It’s very clear that the Sunday, April 19, 2009 fundraiser for Tyler Haudberg and his family was a tremendous success.  People from all over the North Country crowded the Peru VFW throughout the afternoon.  Lisa Gonyo, one of the event organizers, said she was overwhelmed by the community’s response. Hundreds of businesses and individuals donated merchandise, money and time to the effort. The Peru Knights of Columbus served over 500 spaghetti dinners while bands provided great music and people purchased bake sale items and bid on donated auction items. Congratulations to the organizers of this wonderful event and to everyone who contributed in any way. As usual, North Country residents demonstrated generous support for someone in need! See more Photos

By John T. Ryan

An enthusiastic Clinton County Democratic Party Chairman Martin Mannix spoke to a Town of Peru Democratic Party meeting on Thursday, April 16^th at St. Augustine’s Parish Center. Noting President Barrack Obama’s election and the fact that a Democrat carried overwhelmingly Republican Essex County in the recent Congressional Special Election Mannix said,  “I think it is a great time to be a Democrat in the State of New York and in Clinton County. Times are changing.”  Read more »

The Peru Central School District Board of Education has two special board meetings slated for the week of April 20th. The first special meeting is set for 6 PM Monday, April 20th in the community room, when the Board will promptly re-convene in executive session to interview candidates for Primary School Principal. No public session business is on the agenda for that evening’s special meeting to interview candidates.

Read more »

Peru Central’s Board of Education is set for the full range of monthly business at its regular meeting, Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 6 PM at the community room, adjacent to the high school’s main entrance. An executive session associated with collective bargaining and the performance history of particular employees will take place immediately following the 6 PM start. The school board is slated to reconvene for public session business at 7 PM. It’s anticipated the school board will: Read more »

By Don McBrayer

Peru Resident Don McBrayer helped out with the Tea Party held at Trinity Park on April 15, 2009 in Plattsburgh and submitted this report. There were many local voices who expressed concern about taxes and the growth of the federal government in Trinity Park yesterday.  Ron Wood Sr., Cortland Wood, and Carl Kokes performed a variety of patriotic songs. I estimate about a hundred and fifty people were there. For my part I helped Bill Ferris of Big Apple Audio with the staging and the sound system. I believe the attached photos were all taken by Bill Ferris.

Thanks to information from a frien our homepage is now linked to the National Weather Service rather than to Yahoo Weather. The National Weather Service site gives a concise seven-day forecast and one-click detailed data. Just look under our community links on the right side of the homepage for “Peru Weather.”

Click here for the story

By John T. Ryan

The Town of Peru Zoning Board of Appeals will conduct its monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at the Peru Town Hall at 7 p.m. Code Enforcement Office Paul Blaine states that Patricia Pugh of 15 Campsite Rd. is seeking an area variance for a 16’ X 17’ shelter for her horse and goats. Blaine reported that the shelter has been erected without the required building permit Read more »

Easter eggs represent the new life of the people springing from the Resurrection of Christ and a large number of children turned out for this morning’s Easter Egg Hunt at St. Augustine’s Church. The Easter Bunny arrived at the end of the 10:30 Mass and led the children to the parish center where the eggs were hidden in the many classrooms. St. Monica’s Court 2598 of the Catholic Daughters of America sponsored the event. (See more photos)

The Town of Peru has announced its Sunday night summer concert series.  Our community will have another season of fine entertainment at the Little AuSable Park Gazebo. Concerts begin on June 28 and continue through August 9, 2009.  Concerts start at 6 and end at 8 p.m.

•  June 28 – Hot Rod Lincoln – “Genuine House Rockin’ Music”
•  July 5 – Inisheer – Traditional Irish, Celtic Music
•  July 12 – Roy Hurd – Adirondack Folk Music
•  July 19 – Flashback – 50’s, 60’s Rock & Roll, Easy Listening
•  July 26 – The Castaways – Country, Classic Rock, Folk, 50’s – Present
•  August 2 – Back Porch Band – Bluegrass, Country, Acoustic
•  August 9 – Beartracks – Bluegrass, Country, Acoustic
•  August 16 – Too Tall String Band – Adirondack, Celtic, Country, Bluegrass

In case of rain concerts will be held at the Peru Community Church Fellowship Center.

Bring chairs & blankets. No alcoholic beverages allowed. Concerts are brought to you by the Town of Peru!

Many children enjoyed the Easter Eggs last year

By John T. Ryan

On Easter Sunday, April 12th, St. Augustine’s Parish will hold its 2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt after 10:30 Mass.  Follow the Easter Bunny over to the Parish Center for the Easter Egg Hunt. There will be two age groups: 5 and under and 6 to 10. The event is sponsored by Catholic Daughter’s of the Americas, Court St. Monica 2598. 

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By John T. Ryan

It has been several years since the Peru Town Board went out to bid for liability insurance coverage. They decided to do so this year and the town will be saving almost $15,000 and receiving increased insurance coverage.  The Counselors opened bids at their March 23rd meeting, studied the issue for a week and convened a Special Meeting on Monday, April 30, 2009 where they voted to contract with Northern Insuring for liability insurance coverage even though Latremore Insurance submitted a $2,600 lower bid.  Read more »

Rev. Alan Shnob, Pastor of St. Augustine’s Parish congratulates Maryann Keenan and Larry Ewald Sr., recipients of the 2009 Golden Rose Award in recognition of their many years of dedicated service to the parish.  They received their awards at a recent Sunday Mass. 

The Peru Gazette previously published a story on the April 19th fundraiser at the Peru VFW to benefit Peru resident Tyler Haudberg and his family.  The Press Republican published a similar story on March 30th. Hopefully everyone in our town will turn out in a spirit of unity to support this family in need!

By John T. Ryan

The New York State Association of Realtors released its February 2009 existing single family home sales survey on March 26, 2009.  Clinton County’s sales totals declined 40.6% from February of 2008 with nineteen homes sold in 2009 compared to thirty-two homes sold last year. Statewide sales were down by 26.8% during February 2009 compared to last February’s sales. February sales in Essex County increased in 2009 by 27.3% from eleven to fourteen homes.  Clinton County’s median home price declined by 27.6% for the month, while Essex County’s median price increased by 34.9%.  These prices are such a small sampling of long-term prices they do not appear to represent overall real estate value trends.

On Sunday March 29, 2009, the Press Republican reported on its front page that Peru Town Supervisor Donald Covel has been arrested on seven new official  misconduct charges and one charge of obstruction of governmental administration.  The charges were not unexpected. They relate to a September 2008 indictment and Mr. Covel’s refusal to plead guilty to a lesser charge. See previous story

By John T. Ryan (Corrected March 31, 2009 – The March 30 Board Workshop involved the recently passed Work Boiler Law not the proposed outdoor burning law.)

Counselor Cortland Forrence’s announcement that he will be resigning in a few weeks overshadowed other important business at the Town Board’s March 23, 2009 meeting.  After several weeks of meetings and workshops, the Board opened bids for the town’s 2009 liability insurance contracts and found they will be saving between $14,700 and $17,000 this year with increased coverage.  The Board, however, did not award the contract at Monday’s meeting. Northern Insuring Inc. and Latremore’s Insurance submitted sealed bids for opening at this meeting. Northern Insuring submitted a bid of $57,657. Latremore’s bid was $54,999.  Last year Northern Insuring charged the Town $71,992. Counselor Powers motioned to award the bid to Latremore’s. Supervisor Donald Covel seconded the motion. Counselor Powers voted “yes.” Counselor Cortland Forrence voted “no” Read more »

According to a front page story in the March 27th Clinton County Free Trader Today the Peru Free Library has received a $67,000 grant that will fund installation of solar panels, repairs to the roof, replacement of  the furnace and front sidewalk.  Read the story

By Rodney Brown

Updated March 28, 2009. (A link to the Draft Open Space Plan appears at the end of Mr. Brown’s story)

On Tuesday, March 31^st at 7:00pm the Committee to Implement the Comprehensive Plan, along with consultant Nan Stolzenberg of Community Planning and Environmental Associates, will present a draft document titled “Town of Peru Open Space Plan” at the Peru Town Hall.  The meeting is open to anyone interested in learning more about the contents of the plan and its implications for the future of the Town. Read more »