Dear Bethany History Keepers, And To Those of You Historians and Interested Area Residents, Our local town board of Bethany held their January meeting this week; it has been **summarized, below** for you by Jane Schmieder, who many of you know as our local "Town Hall Preservation Advocate": ** I was in attendance last night at a regular town board meeting at the Old town hall, and I learned: -Clark Patterson, Inc., representative was there, Jon, and he had revised floor plans for new building renovations, and they completed interviews with town officials on Dec 18th or so. Seemed focused on furniture, computer plug-ins, and toilets. I did not see the revised floor plans he handed out to them - I asked if they had completed the conveyance of the new building to the Town, they said no, and it seemed to be a lawyer-delay - I asked when they plan to move, and they said when construction is completed, which they estimate to be Dec 2004. Construction bids to begin in April 2004 and construction to start in June - I asked what happened with the buyer, and found out that they dont want to negotiate with him until they are more certain that the new building is a go. I asked his name, they said Ackerman of Paradise Road, they said he is very eager and wants to buy the building asap, but they only want to lease it to him at this point anyway. He wants to use upstairs for a dance school, downstairs for some kind of retail store, and allow room for a historian or history group to share a part of the building. Please disseminate the info to others of the fine Bethany crowd!! Happy New Year! Jane ** Winter is in full swing in the western New York area right now; frigid temperatures are keeping schools closed. Hopefully, you won't endure cabin-fever this winter, because you can enjoy doing some research online~the Bethany Web-Page includes many items of interest ~ recently posted, include~ ~ photographs of some of Bethany's residents-some from over 100 years ago; ~ some un-identified photos are included, please let me know if you have any information about them; ~ marriages, from newspaper articles, and from the 1875 Census; ~ names of local businesses of the past, 1960s era; ~ local businesses of the present (ex.: Shoppes at Rolling Hills -formerly Carriage Village; and also, a new business in Bethany starting up--"Computer Services"); ~ Guest-book entries: those interested in the area/genealogy have left messages, for you to respond to It is my hope that you are making use of the Bethany Website, and telling your friends about it; please forward the link (*below) to anyone you feel would like to learn more about our town, its past history & also our present-day activities. Also ~ Please send any information to me that you would like to see posted online; if anyone has any photos that they would like to forward to me for the site, I would be glad to include them. A big thank you goes out to several people who have already contributed many of their family's photographs. The e-mail address to forward photographs to is at: ny_hummingbird@yahoo.com Keep in mind, the web-page is Under Construction! New items are added as they become available, and when I have time to post them. I'll do my best to serve you; I hope you will take some time to view the site and that it will be useful to you. Hopefully, the Bethany History Keepers will be meeting again this year; right now, we are looking forward to meeting in March, after a holiday/winter respite; more details will follow next month. Use this time now to gather your ideas, questions, and any momentoes that you would like to share with the group. Please e-mail me if you have any questions, or comments; I'd appreciate your feedback on the website, too. Stay warm! Linda *Web-Page Editor for Bethany* BETHANY: Its Past and Present ~ Bethany Town Page http://www.arkwebshost.com/family/bluebird/TownOfBethany.shtml