For anyone driving along Niagara Falls Boulevard or walking down Pine Avenue around lunch time on Thursday, yes, that was a great white buffalo you saw making its way toward the lower rapids.
Of course it wasn't wandering loose, but tightly bound in place in the back of my 1989 Ford Ranger, bound not for grazing pastures, but the old Niagara Falls High School.
Oh, and it posed no danger of breaking free and stampeding through Little Italy, since it was made of fiberglass.
One nice thing about owning an old-fashioned pickup truck in the age of the SUV is that you can help friends move stuff.
And one lousy thing about owning an old-fashioned pickup truck in the age of the SUV is that you have to help friends move stuff.
Over the years, the Ranger's bed has carried desks, drafting tables, mattresses, hutches, filing cabinets and just about every other home furnishing that won't fit in the enclosed back of a Lincoln Navigator.
But unlike, say, an antique oak hutch, this large-but-light load inflicted no crunched fingers, stubbed toes or strained backs.
And, as they say, it was for a good cause. The Buffalo Fire Historical Society, to be exact. Margaret Coghlan, a longtime friend and occasional guest editrix for the Niagara Falls Reporter, serves on the group's executive board along with her father, Pat, a retired Buffalo firefighter, a founding member and the vice president.
The society purchased the buffalo, created for the 2000 "Herd About Buffalo" project that raised money for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, with the intention of decorating it like a firefighter.
Enter Niagara Falls artist Robin Meisburger, one of more than 60 artists and performers renting studio space at the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center, which occupies the former high school building.
But first, we had to get it there.
Thursday morning, we met up at the Buffalo Fire Historical Society, located at the corner of William and North Ogden in South Buffalo. After the obligatory donuts-and-caffeine intake and a brief tour of the museum's collection, which includes a 1907 American LaFrance steamer, a 1931 Ahrens Fox pumper and an array of equipment, uniforms and photographs, we set about loading and securing the beast for the journey north.
Since the buffalo weighed only about 100 pounds, hoisting into the truck's bed was no problem. Never having made it to Boy Scouts and bereft of Navy experience, I left the knot-tying to Pat Coghlan and Carl Hoepfinger, the society's president. Their skillful binding left the animal unable to move and kept it firmly in place throughout the trek.
Not wanting to chance a wind-aided escape on the Thruway, we took the looooooong way -- William Street to Harlem Road to Sheridan Drive to Niagara Falls Boulevard.
While passing through North Tonawanda on the Boulevard, a Niagara County Sheriff's Deputy rolled by, wearing a "what-the?" look. More of the same followed as we hit the stop-light gantlet beyond Military Road, as well as once we hit Pine Avenue.
We found a door wide enough to allow entry on the Walnut Avenue side of the ancient building. It took a bit of maneuvering to get the 5-foot-tall, 100-pound beast into the building and up the stairs to Meisburger's studio, a one-time math classroom now filled with Meisburger's work and supplies, as well as a rather comfy-looking couch.
Since Robin said she needed to name the bull (yes, the sculptor made him anatomically correct), Margaret suggested Carl, after the BFHS president. So Carl it was, and shall be. I'll confess to a bit of skepticism when the community group Save Our Sites in Niagara Falls protested the planned demolition of the old high school. This, after all, was the only school I've ever heard of to host a basketball game that got rained out, thanks to the leaky roof. It was easy to wonder if there were enough artists and art lovers in and around Niagara Falls to support the endeavor.
But the group got a state grant, to be matched by donations and volunteered work hours, to fix the roof. No government subsidies cover the day-to-day expenses, though, with that money coming from rent paid by the artists, a commission on art sales and admission paid for theater, dance and musical events offered there.
At the moment, the rentable space is roughly 80 percent filled. The NACC itself isn't a thing of beauty, with its array of industrial-colored walls, beaten-up lockers and exposed insulation, but its presence oozes a vitality that no strip mall can match, particularly in a city where most buildings with any historic value whatsoever fell to the wrecking ball years ago.
Once Carl gets his new outfit, he'll make the journey in reverse back to the museum at 1850 William St. The museum is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday, or by calling 892-8400 to make an appointment. Admission is free. The BFHS meets at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month and welcomes new members.
Back in Niagara Falls, the NACC is also worthy of a visit, and support. More information is available online at www.naccarts.net, by calling 282-7530 or just stopping by.
And if anyone needs a fiberglass buffalo moved, I've got the experience and the truck.
Speaking of support, last week's Buffalo News report that aspiring Buffalo Sabres owner Mark Hamister is asking for up to $35 million in state, county and city funds to prop up his bid for the floundering franchise should have come as a surprise to absolutely no one. Public funding for professional sports franchises has become part of American life (though New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft somehow managed to line up private financing for construction of Gillette Field).
State and local governments essentially built a new stadium for Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson a few years back, and Gov. George Pataki forgave much of the debt on HSBC Arena to help seal a deal with Adelphia a few years back. That plan, which would have brought a new corporate headquarters and hundreds of jobs to Buffalo's long-neglected waterfront, splattered into the sewer along with Adelphia's stock prices.
Now Hamister is taking the franchise's "It's our team ..." ad campaign quite literally. He wants Pataki to forgive the rest of the debt, pegged by the News at $23 million, or at least rework it to make payments more manageable. He's also asking for concessions from the county and city. Both entities, and the state, face enormous deficits over the next year. That means we taxpayers can look forward to spending more for less, even if elected officials don't bail out Hamister and majority partner Todd Berman.
I'm not sure how anyone can be called the owner of anything when just about everyone else winds up paying the tab. But maybe that's just me.
Hamister isn't asking for anything terribly unique, if you look at stadium and arena deals around the country. And his status as chairman of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, which specializes in lobbying for governmental handouts to already-wealthy people, gives him a decent shot at getting what he wants.
But his refusal to discuss how much corporate welfare he expects in an open and public manner is an outrage. He wouldn't go into any details about his bid when it was announced last month or make any comment to the News.
If he and Berman want us to finance their dream of owning a hockey team, they'd damn well better show us the price tag.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | December 10 2002 |