Gallupville Weighs Dollar General, Upcoming Events

GALLUPVILLE — A busy night in Gallupville (for meetings) began at The Gallupville House as members of the Gallupville House Association (GHA) met to discuss upcoming events, including a slate of musical performances and puppet theater. First and foremost, the group discussed the forthcoming Friday night concert on August 23rd featuring “local music legends” The Geezers. Billed as “back porch Americana,” the event will sadly be a tribute to their recently deceased fiddle player and singer, Mike Otis, who passed away suddenly only weeks ago. The rest of the group, Foster Greene, Hank Lamont, Paul Sherman, and Tom White, felt that he would have wanted the show to go on abd have chosen to honor that. The free show begins at 7:00 PM. The music will continue in September with a performance by Jim Gaudet and The Railroad Boys, followed by a marionette performance of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in October by The Puppet People. Momentum continues for the major renovations to the Gallupville House and its property, propelled largely by a grant from community philanthropist Nick Juried with designs in the works for an enhanced community area, unlike anything the town of Wright has ever seen. Additionally, recent donations from the family of Evva Cornwell generated some ideas for potential events. 

At the opposite end of the small hamlet, the Wright Planning Board held a special meeting to review the proposed Dollar General project along Route 443. The board, which was short one member, used a system for its consideration of different topics related to the potential project. Using a metric of whether or not the impact would be short-term, long-term, or irreversible to measure if the effect would be significant or insignificant, the board moved through topics like the historical relevance of the site, alteration of the community character, and alteration of the setting. Not lost on any of the members was the fact that this would be the first major commercial development in Wright, a concept that is clearly weighing heavily on the minds of the board. Board president Evan Motschmann called the meeting at approximately 9:30 PM. Before doing so, the board set a date for their next meeting on September 17th. Motschmann encouraged anyone with comments to email them to wrightplanningboard@gmail.com and was quick to assure everyone that they are not done with public hearings and will likely schedule one after the next meeting.

For more information about the Galluplville House, including upcoming events, visit gallupvillehouse.org.