A TINY TOWN ROLLS OUT WELCOME MAT
UPSTATE VILLAGE PUTS ON ITS SUNDAY BEST TO ENTICE FIRST COUPLE
New York Daily News; New York; Aug 15, 1999; LINDA YGLESIAS SUNDAY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Abstract:
SKANEATELES To grasp how Skaneateles isnt the Hamptons, heres all you need to know:
Skaneateles (just say skinny Atlas) is the historical site of the Short Fat Man Race, open only to short, fat men whose waists had to be 3 inches bigger than their inseams.
The First Couples holiday will begin Tuesday, when the President and First Lady head to Marthas Vineyard. Then its on to the tonier- than-thou Hamptons for some fund-raising fun on Aug. 28 before the Clintons veer north on Aug. 30 for their five-day finale in the verdant village where 2,700 villagers (7,500 in the town) would please like to know:
Full Text:
Copyright Daily News, L.P. Aug 15, 1999
SKANEATELES To grasp how Skaneateles isnt the Hamptons, heres all you need to know:
Skaneateles (just say skinny Atlas) is the historical site of the Short Fat Man Race, open only to short, fat men whose waists had to be 3 inches bigger than their inseams.
They had to train with Twinkies, and a great big truck followed them around in case they got tired, said Doug Boyle, a construction worker who was quaffing a lunchtime beer on the towns main drag, Genesee St.
With Bill and Hillary Clinton set to spend their final vacation leg fresh from the Hamptons in this happily un-Hamptonish Finger Lakes village, the Presidents lust for sweet things would have made him a shoo-in for race marshall.
Its a pity the run bit the dust years ago, locals say.
The First Couples holiday will begin Tuesday, when the President and First Lady head to Marthas Vineyard. Then its on to the tonier- than-thou Hamptons for some fund-raising fun on Aug. 28 before the Clintons veer north on Aug. 30 for their five-day finale in the verdant village where 2,700 villagers (7,500 in the town) would please like to know:
Whether the Clintons are coming so the First Lady can meet-and- greet for her all-but-certain Senate run.
Whether the 2,700 will have to change their motto, Life in the past lane.
Were a little looser than a lot of places, said Jan Loveless, who has invited the First Couple to consume a seven-course Krebs Traditional Meal ($36.95) at her and husband, Larrys, Krebs restaurant, a 100-year-old village institution.
How loose is loose?
That reveals itself in the Krebs bar, where Michael Elliot who claims to be the towns only registered Democrat bartender pours a helluva finger of Loch Oha Black Scotch.
When you live on a lake where some abodes get called on by a Honey Barge a floating pail service (dont ask) that collects sewage from outhouses necessitated by terrain too steep and remote for septic tanks youre more laid back about lifes little vagaries.
So fantasize about this. Its a warm summer night, and at least 1,000 of the 2,700 folks are relaxing in their lawn chairs, inhaling the cool mist of 16-mile-long Skaneateles Lake, a mile-and-a-half at its widest point:
Theres laid-back Bill, riffing on his sax with the 50-member Skaneateles Community Band ages 17 to 80-plus inside the gazebo by the clear blue waters brimming with bass, salmon, carp and trout.
We wrote a letter asking the President to sit in, said band announcer Ted Davenport. We play Broadway show tunes, classical, John Philip Sousa and other marches, novelty tunes, sing-alongs. Well provide him with the sax if need be.
Wed ask Mrs. Clinton, Davenport offered. But I dont know if she plays an instrument.
Thats okay. If the fantasy turns real, shell be up the block on Genesee St., at the Hairtique Salon. We have this thing we call the Anti-Stress Spa Special, an hour facial for $90, said Randy Stockweather, who owns the salon with his wife, Donna.
It was my wifes idea to write a letter asking Mrs. Clinton if shed like to have the anti-stress thing, he said. Actually, I thought it was a little geeky. But it was Donnas small way to counter what you could say is a little negativity over their visit.
Like, say, the red-and-white menu board at Johnny Angels Heavenly Burgers: Hillary Special, Mostly Baloney $3.50.
Ive sent word through law enforcement channels shes invited to eat here, said owner Johnny Angyal, a former state police detective.
So far, neither he nor Davenport, the Stockweathers or the Lovelesses have received a reply to their offers. But the First Couple have many options.
If the Clintons decide to venture from the glass-fronted, lakeside showplace of real-estate developer Thomas McDonald, who is turning over his home to the vacationers, they can partake of golf at the country club, free swimming at Clift Park or a stroll through the town arboretum.
Or Hillary Clinton might want to visit the four schools of Skaneateles a kindergarten, an elementary, a middle and a high school to see their National Exemplary Reading Program, National Elementary School of Excellence and National High School of Excellence awards.
Or maybe the President and Mrs. Clinton would like to go on a boat ride, a mail boat run, said Mayor Don Price. This would not occur on the Honey Barge, a business out of Syracuse, but on one of the vessels in Peter Wiles Mid-Lakes Navigation Co.
Besides chartering sightseeing cruises $8 to $35 a head the family owned business has, for 31 years, delivered U.S. mail to 30 lake houses inaccessible by road.
Im also happy to take the Clintons on my own private boat, the Harriet, Wiles said. They could stream past lake property that starts at $300,000 for a summer cottage, $500,000 for a year-round home.
Then on to host McDonalds spread.
If it sold today it would be well worth over $3 million, said Linda Roche of Linda Roche Real Estate, whos been in the business for 22 years.
Were being watched
In the wake of all this reverie, Price is quick to point out that the village cant officially plan anything, yet, because the village has not been officially notified by the White House or anybody else that the Clintons are coming.
Not that anybody needs official word.
Ive seen strange people in here, checking us out, said Mary Saunders, who hopes to serve the Clintons Sausage gravy over biscuit ($4.50) at her and husband Craigs CAMS diner.
We had some surveyors on the corner, seemed like their hard hats and orange vests were brand new, their shoes were awfully shiny, Randy Stockweather said.
Do we really need copters flying over us? Hey, okay, lets give it a try.
Not everybody in Skaneateles feels that way.
Its 90-to-1 in favor of the sandwich, said Angyal, a lifelong Republican. I bought 400 pounds of bologna two weeks ago, and Ive only got 50 pounds left.
Angyal is among those who adhere to the widespread assumption that theres more to the Clintons vacation than the call of either Long Lake the Iroquois meaning of Skaneateles or Beautiful Sleeping Squaw as the Onondaga Indians purportedly described the village waters.
More likely, they say, the First Ladys gauging of political tides in her quest for retiring Democratic Sen. Daniel Moynihans Senate seat lured the First Couple to this upstate hamlet hefty with Republicans.
Eighty-five percent, registered Republicans, said Price, a lifelong Democrat.
And it just so happens, 25 miles away in Syracuse, the State Fair will be alive with 90,000 daily visitors a wanna-be senators stumping heaven.
Vacation? Ha! said C.J. Horan, one of the regulars at Krebs, where regulars eat and drink upstairs in the old porch-fronted house.
Why in the world would you pick a 3-to-1 Republican town during State Fair week? Why come and spoil our Labor Day? Its unfair. Were starting a defense fund for whoever they get into trouble, like they did in Arkansas.
I was born at night, but it wasnt last night, Angyl said. Shes on a taxpayer-funded political tour, as best I can see.
Those are the kinds of sentiment that are better left unsaid, Price said. God gave us one tongue and two ears. Maybe we should do more listening than talking.
Some choose to leave
Some of the citizenry has decided to do neither and just get out of town. The Chamber of Commerce is running a signup list for residents who want to rent out their houses the week the Clintons arrive.
Lets put this in perspective: In the wake of the Clintons, a normal rental on the lake for $2,500 a week would double to $5,000, Roche said.
Its sort of like selling your front yard as a parking lot for a football game, thats what people are doing with their houses, Wiles said.
Im up to 35 houses or so, said Chamber of Commerce administrator Sue Dove. But I have more houses to rent than I have demand for them so far.
Which brings our tour of Skaneateles to one particular lakeside house the Ruston estate. The house with seven fireplaces, eight bedrooms and an indoor pool and solarium on nearly eight acres at 3384 West Lake St. Asking price: $2.25 million.
Weve heard rumors, said nearly everybody named in this story, that the Clintons are scouting out the spread for a possible future home.
I think that what the Clintons are doing, is having people scout all over the state for possibilities, in case they do decide to come to New York, Roche said. There is an individual who is fronting for someone, she said about the Ruston property. But I dont know who.
Whether the Clintons wind up in Skaneateles for five days or a zillion years, what is really important is that a village stays a village, residents like Roche say.
We dont want to be the Hamptons. Were a small town 30 years ago in time, she said. Our town has never moved on from an old-fashioned bakery with half-moon cookies, the gazebo and the community band at night.
On that note, if the President turns down the Skaneateles bands offer, theres one more invitation in the mail from Rick Kraetz of the Little Havana Trading Co. cigar shop.
Were the perfect place for him to announce the end of the Cuban embargo, I wrote him, Kraetz said. What better place to do it than a cigar store called the Little Havana Trading Co.?
Im hoping the President will stop in. Hed be good for business.
Sidebar: WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE A VILLAGE
Presidential hopefuls have come to Skaneateles before, but Bill Clinton will be the first sitting President to stop by, says local historian Helen Ionta, who turns 90 this year and has sent a copy of her history, Our Town, Skaneateles, to the Clintons.
With the President and First Lady on their way to the Eastern gateway of the Finger Lakes region, herewith is a take on what it takes to make a village:
The first settlers arrived from Orange County, N.Y., in 1794.
Millard Fillmore, our 13th President, grew up 17 miles southwest of Skaneateles.
Teddy Roosevelt came in 1911 while mulling a second run for the presidency. He made a speech from the back end of the Auburn-Syracuse electric trolley, which stopped in the center of town.
Presidential hopeful Franklin D. Roosevelt, governor of New York, took lunch at Roosevelt Hall, home of the Skaneateles branch of the Roosevelts, in 1931.
Krebs restaurant founder Fred Krebs, a friend of FDRs, stood on the eaterys front porch and waved as the future President drove by.
New Hope Mills, a water-powered gristmill, has been in operation since 1823.
The Marquis de LaFayette, a Frenchman who was general in the Continental Army during the Revolution, came through in 1824.
Skaneateles was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
Skaneateles boasts the cleanest lake in the lower 48 states, and the second-cleanest in the 50 states. Theres one thats cleaner in Alaska.
The Honey Barge is a World War II-vintage steel vessel that delivers and picks up outhouse pails for about 30 cottages in terrain too rugged for septic tanks along Skaneateles Lake. The service is almost
a century old.
The Short Fat Man race occurred on Thanksgiving Day.
[Illustration]
Caption: PHOTOGRAPHS BY DON HEUPEL AP "We're the perfect place for him to announce the end of the Cuban embargo" - Rick Kraetz, Little Havana Trading Co. cigar shop. Donna Stockweather has offered the First Lady the "Anti-Stress Spa Special." Jan and Larry Loveless have invited the First Couple to a traditional seven-course meal at their Krebs restaurant.
