Kathryn Ross column: These NY Forward projects would benefit entire Wellsville community

There are several projects under consideration for funding from the Village of Wellsville's $4.5 million NY Forward Grant Program. Some of them, like updating Quackenbush and Tullar Field, have some real benefit for everyone in the village.

I appreciate both those venues. I’ve spent many evenings watching the women’s softball rec teams and many a morning watching the girls softball teams playing on those two Quackenbush fields. Each time I longed to hear someone announcing the game, telling me who was up to bat and what the score was.

If they get the funding requested, my longing may come true.

I can also say the same for the old Tullar field complex. The town is also seeking funding to upgrade it. I haven't caught many Lady Lions games there in many a decade, but the town team plays there in the summer. I enjoy pulling into the parking lot on the south side of the police station and, while sipping a coke or nibbling on a cheeseburger, watching those guys leg out a grounder or fly ball. Some of those guys really get their legs going. Sometimes it looks like centrifugal force is taking them around the bases.

But my memories of Tullar lend themselves more to high school football games and July 4th fireworks.

Another project under consideration is the Grande Theater, which is now owned by the village. The name change never sat well with me. I spent my Friday evenings and Saturday or Sunday afternoons at the Babcock, so it will always be that to me.

I would like nothing more, and I’m sure others would as well, to see movies back on the old theater screen. Yes, we can go other places to watch recently released movies, or we can even wait a couple of months for them to come out on Netflix or Amazon, but you just can’t beat the big screen for some movies. Titanic isn’t the same when the iceberg isn’t sailing right at you. And I don’t watch movies on a 16, 32, 40, 50, 60, or 70-inch screen, I watch them on my 15-inch laptop screen.

The John Rigas Theater in Coudersport is a nice example of an old movie theater circa the Wellsville theater. It would be nice to update it to that level, but there is so much more that can be done with the facility.

I can envision stage shows in there, with singers or bands along with stand-up comics or other kinds of shows. I can picture classes for young filmmakers with movie premieres or film festivals. I can see classic movies being shown on the screen, the kind of movies older adults would like. Beach movies during a heat wave, "Dr. Zhivago" in the dead of winter, John Wayne cowboy movies, or what about a Bills game or an important high school athletic game being screened live?

I can see taking out some of the old chairs and replacing them with tables and booths. I can see awards programs taking place there and offering another venue for groups to take advantage of.

One thing I can’t see is changing the facade. I recently heard that the marquee might be updated with a digital screen, something like the message system on the bank.

I don’t think that is a good idea. I think the charm of the building is the neon-lighted, old-fashioned marquee. I think that is what people want to see, want to remember.

I think the representatives of the Western New York Film Commission would like to see that too.

Our 1950s streetscape in that part of town is as attractive to filmmakers as Angelica’s Main Street is to Civil War reenactors. The theater’s old-fashioned marquee is a big part of that.

More: Ljungström scores another offshore wind contract as hiring ramps up in Wellsville

One of my favorite scenes in “The Natural” is when Robert Redford is sitting on a bench and leaning up against the wall at the railroad station in Arcade. I know parts of the movie were filmed in the old War Memorial Stadium. I just don’t know what parts because I never saw the inside of the old stadium.

Wellsville with its Main Street, movie marquee and Railroad Depot have the same potential for filming the past.

I’m glad the village now owns the theater. I just hope they don’t destroy the ambiance of the building while trying to update it. You don’t have to destroy the past to walk into the future.

For the full list of proposed projects, visit https://www.wellsvillenyforward.com/

— Kathryn Ross writes a weekly Opinion column.

This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: Ross: Wellsville theater, softball projects good uses of grant money