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"They gave me a pass and said, `You can go where you want, you're one of us now,' " Borst said of a taping of Letterman's show in late December. "They said, `Just don't go on the stage while we're taping.' "
Borst, who doesn't often stay up late enough to watch the 11:30 p.m. comedy show, has become something of a Letterman fan since his upstate village was spotlighted in a show that aired Nov. 18.
"For us in Schoharie, going to the Letterman show was a real big deal," said Borst, who got drafted to read a special Schoharie "Top 10" list on national television and in front of 475 Schoharians who were bused down to the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City. "I got a very good feeling out of this whole experience. And, overall, I really think that it was very, very positive for the village."
Long-term impact
The impact of Schoharie's exposure on national television - the most time ever
devoted to a single place featured in a "Late Show" segment called
"Biff Henderson's America" - may not be realized for months or years
to come.
In the short term, it's clear that the show piqued interest in Schoharie.
"Two Saturdays ago, there were four people - two from Albany, one from Troy and one from Defreestville - all wanting to know what was so special about Schoharie," Schoharie Hardware owner Wayne Schell said of visitors who turned up in his store in recent weeks.
The name Schoharie seems to have some cache now, Schell noted, as out-of-towners have bought up tape measures and utility knives with the village name on them. Incidentally, the village is in a town and county of the same name.
Letterman Lane
One of the newest attractions in the village is Letterman Lane, a road to the
sewage plant that was renamed for the talk show host before the Schoharie show
aired. An Indiana native, Letterman has been angling to have a thoroughfare in
Indianapolis named after him.
"I would really like to think that we get some tourists out of this," said Village Clerk Dawn Durfee, who became a one-woman lobbying campaign for Schoharie when she learned from a "Late Show" staff member that the village was one of five being considered for the feature segment.
Durfee and her husband, Ward, took pictures of the village and sent them digitally to Letterman's staff. She diligently sent along whatever information was requested - and some that they didn't ask for. And it paid off.
"I really wasn't in the loop," said Borst, giving all credit to Durfee. "I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."
Wide reaction
Borst and others are still getting e-mails, cards and phone calls from people
who saw the show or read about it.
"The other night, a guy from Florida called," Borst said of an 84-year-old man who also claimed that his name was John Borst. "He said, `A friend of mine had this article out of the paper that you guys went to the Letterman show. I thought I'd just call you up.' "
A guy who has a radio program in New Zealand also rung up Borst out of the blue.
"They get `Letterman,' " Borst said of New Zealand. "He said, `Man, that was a really good show . . . You've got a nice village, you should be proud of your village.' "
He also received a $25 check for his re-election campaign from a man in Chicago. Borst, an engineer with the state Department of Public Services who has been mayor for four years, is running unopposed.
In the days after the show first aired - and after the second time it aired, on Christmas Day - some Schoharie Web sites got thousands of hits.
"It was way, way above what we had ever gotten," said Jim Batsford, executive director of the Schoharie County Chamber of Commerce.
New tourist information cards that will hit the racks soon make mention of Schoharie's appearance on the Letterman show, Batsford said.
Celebrity mayor
Borst and his wife, Gail, went down to see "The Late Show" on Dec. 26.
The mayor was notified in advance by e-mail that his wife and two guests could
watch the show from the audience, but that he'd have to view it from backstage.
"He said [in the e-mail], `John is recognizable now. We don't want to distract Dave. We don't have any distractions for Dave," said Borst, who laughed at the notion that he's been elevated to celebrity status. "I don't think Dave would have recognized me if I had fallen in front of him after I did the Top 10 list."
It's likely that Borst will make at least one more visit to the Ed Sullivan Theatre. The Schoharie County Chamber of Commerce has charged him with delivering a special matted and framed map of Schoharie - with highlight on Letterman Lane - to the big man himself.
"The chamber handed it over to me," he said of a special ceremony. "And the village is supposed to see that it gets to the Letterman show."
The Harva Co., located on Fair Street in Schoharie, was selected in September to receive Lockheed Martin's STAR Supplier-Best in Class Product Award.
"It's an extremely prestigious award," said Susan McGiver, president at the Harva Co.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin manufactures various items in the fields of aeronautics, space systems and other industries.
Lockheed reported sales of about $24 billion in 2002, more than half of which went to the U.S. Dept. of Defense, according to the company's Web site.
McGiver said the award adds to recognition received in the past from Eastman Kodak, IBM and Pitney Bowes.
The family-owned Harva Co., which employs about 36 people, specializes in close-tolerance machining, thermoforming, screen printing, die cutting and assembly products. The local company fills custom orders for Lockheed Martin under several headings, including Naval Products and Air Defense.
Harva Co. products are used as parts in early warning systems for U.S. Navy submarines, infrared surveillance equipment for the U.S. Army's Apache helicopter, and ground-based radar units, among other items.
McGiver said the recognition comes as a great boost to the small business, which went through a tough year in 2002.
Pressure in the industry forced the company to reduce the work week from 40 to 32 hours. McGiver said despite asking employees to sacrifice hours, the staff continued to make quality products.
"The people here truly believe in the quality of their work," McGiver said.
The recognition benefits the local company because Lockheed displays the names of its award-winning suppliers on a Web site in an effort to employ preferred suppliers.
Representatives of Lockheed Martin are expected to present the award at the Harva Co. on Feb. 6.
Village residents Claire McMahon and Elaine Snowdon did some Irish step-dancing.
And glazier Hans Janke proudly pulled down his pants to show off the large, colored tattoo of Paul Bunyon and Babe the blue ox on his thigh.
Yes, it was "Late Night," Schoharie-style.
Late night talk host David Letterman filled his audience with Schoharians for his "Late Show With David Letterman" program on Monday night, providing bus transportation from Schoharie to Manhattan for 475 people who live and/or work in the village.
Letterman, whose show airs locally at 11:35 p.m. weekdays on WRGB, Channel 6, extended the invitation in an advertisement placed by the show an October issue of the weekly Cobleskill Times Journal newspaper. Villagers had to call a toll-free number in October to reserve seats on the charter buses.
"Are we excited? You bet we are!," said Ellen Johnson, wearing her brother-in-law's "Late Night" sweatshirt and flanked by her shivering sister Diane Croot and friend Lisa Warbach as they waited for the buses to leave the former Great American parking lot in Schoharie early Monday morning.
Jeffrey Tew, an interpreter at Schoharie's Old Stone Fort Museum, showed up dressed as a British soldier during the Revolutionary War, complete with bayonet and tricorn. He said he dressed up hoping to draw attention and spread the word about the historic fort on the nationally televised show.
"I brought my musket but they told me to leave it in the car," he said.
Letterman devoted more than half of his show to ribbing Schoharie, good-naturedly portraying Schoharians as simple, backwoods folks who like to hunt, drink and tattoo themselves.
In his five-minute monologue, Letterman talked about nothing but Schoharie, winning big laughs as he joked about the town's rural character.
"It's part of our audience exchange program," Letterman said of bringing Schoharians to the show. "Now, 462 people from New York City are in Schoharie and they're watching Ed Scribner rewire his toaster."
And he joked about its size.
"It's so small, it has to time-share a hooker with Cobleskill," Letterman said of the village. "It's so small, Winona Ryder could fit the whole town in her purse."
Letterman wasn't able to fit the entire population of Schoharie in the Ed Sullivan Theater - the village's population is 1,033, according to Village Clerk Dawn Durfee. But "Late Show" spokeswoman Kim Izzo said seats were added - about 40 of them - to accommodate the Schoharians who were bused down in 10 Brown bus coaches from the Main Street pickup point around 11:30 a.m.
Schoharians weren't too concerned about being the butt of an elaborate Letterman joke. They certainly expected to be made fun of, though, and graciously laughed it off.
And they beat Letterman to the punch, naming the street that leads to the sewage treatment plant "Letterman Lane."
"He made fun of us but we appreciated the humor," said village resident Joyce Stah, carrying a box lunch and a bag of "Late Show" goodies given to each audience member as she boarded a bus for home after the taping.
"They could have done much worse," added resident Ginny Kintz.
Letterman featured three segments involving the village, including the popular "Video Quiz" bit - Shaffer and his band played "Volare," changing the lyrics to "Schoharie."
All the bumpers - clips coming in and out of commercials - were footage of Schoharie, including places like the Glass Bar, the village pub.
The Manhattan backdrop behind Letterman was replaced with Main Street, Schoharie, which prompted some funny banter between Letterman and band leader Paul Shaffer.
Show regular Biff Henderson spent about a week in Schoharie in October, interviewing residents and business people for a segment called "Biff Henderson's America." There was Henderson patting down Police Chief Harold Orlup against Orlup's squad car, then Orlup returning the favor.
Henderson learned how to do a turkey call at the local hardware store and talked to patrons hanging out at the Glass Bar.
"I'll never forget the things I saw in Schoharie," said Henderson. "But I'm sure going to try."
A few minutes later, Letterman brought the mayor out to read the Top 10 list. The mayor chuckled as he ticked off the reasons why his job was the best job in the world.
"Number six: If three people like you, you're looking at a 90-percent approval rating," Borst said. "Number five: I'll probably get a nice note from Warner Brothers after the $600 my town spent this weekend on "Harry Potter.'"
As for why Letterman chose to feature Schoharie, Tom Keaney, spokesman for Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants Incorporated, had a simple explanation: "We love Schoharie."
Durfee said "Late Show" officials contacted her a few months ago, asking "hundreds" of questions about the village before spotlighting the area on the show. The village of Fonda and two other areas were also under consideration, but Schoharie won out because of the village's - and Durfee's - enthusiasm toward the project, she said.
This isn't the first time Letterman has done this type of thing. Over the years, he's invited residents from 11 cities, including metropolitan areas like Boston and Chicago.
But it's the first time he's focused on an area as small as Schoharie, Izzo and Keaney explained.
"It's an extension of [the ongoing show segment] "Biff Henderson's America,'" said Izzo. "Biff's been going to small towns and now we're bringing a small town here."
Marcus Heim cuts ribbon for new bridge (former Clauverwie Road Bridge) named in his honor
MARCUS HEIM BRIDGE
Bridge dedicated to and hereafter named in recognition of his valiant and heroic acts in World War II
It was a time when physician Christopher Best loaded up his leather saddlebags with cork-topped vials of medicinal powders and medical instruments, mounted his horse and headed out to house calls at farmsteads far from his home in the village.
It was 1876, and Best, a recent graduate of New York City's Eclectic Medical College, had begun his practice here as a general practitioner. Fees adopted by the "Eclectic Medical Society" in 1878 included 50 cents to $2 for an office visit, $2 for an "ordinary visit, distance within one mile," and "visit at night, after ordinary bed time, 50 percent extra."
For "ordinary cases of midwifery," the fee was $5, for amputation of a finger or toe, $3 to $5; for "leeching or cupping," $1; reducing minor fractures, $3 to $10; "for examination and certification of lunacy," $5 to $10.
Handwritten notebook entries in dozens of small ledgers stacked in drawers reveal the extent of Christopher Best's practice. They include names, dates, and reasons for visits. Patient conditions were not written in medical terms. For example, next to the name of one of his patients, Best recorded she was "sick."
But Harold Zoch, Schoharie County historian, who was offering a recent tour of the Dr. Christopher S. Best Medical Exhibit, said "sick" in one case meant Best was about to "deliver the woman's baby."
"Christopher seemed to have his own code for identifying a patient's medical problem," said Zoch.
Today, the Dr. Christopher S. Best Medical Exhibit and home at 34 Clauverwie Road is owned by the Middleburgh Public Library, which offers tours on Thursdays from May through September and other times by appointment.
The house and its contents were donated by the late physician, Duncan L. Best, Christopher's son, who joined his father's practice in 1932 after graduating from Albany Medical College and completing his internship. They practiced together for about two years, until Christopher's death at age 82. The Best House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Here you'll find all the medical instruments and apparatus used by Christopher in his medical practice, including a treatment table, surgical kits, laboratory equipment, a small apothecary, and devices for electrotherapy.
"Christopher used many approaches to treating his patients," said Zoch, including traditional medical therapies, homeopathy and electrotherapy.
Shelves lined with bottles and vials of medicines and natural substances fill up a small area of his treatment clinic, where Christopher used a mortar and pestle to grind into powders the medications he gave to patients. Here you'll find glass containers once filled with such medicines as Fersulans with strychnine, arsenic and mercury, quinine sulfate, fat-free digitalis, belladonna root, Cannabis Indica, tincture of opium, aromatic spirit of ammonia, Cactus Grandiflorus and black pills for sore throats.
A bookcase filled with medical books and manuals crowds another corner of the treatment room.
An electrostatic generator, housed in a large wooden cabinet like a finely-finished piece of furniture, sits in a small room next to the main treatment room. Behind the glass-enclosed cabinet, a water-powered turbine turned a belt that rotated 10 large glass plates at a high speed, creating a static electrical charge. The harvested charge was then applied with an electrode to an area of the patient's body to cure whatever ails him.
The machine, manufactured by Vanhouten and Tenbroeck company of New York City in the late 1800s, was touted to cure such illnesses as red nose, acne, alcoholism, hair loss, anemia, appendicitis, brain fatigue, bronchitis, cancer, cataracts, constipation, dandruff, deafness, diabetes, diarrhea, drug addiction, hemorrhoids, flabby breast, obesity, and writer's cramp.
The machine also powered an X-ray tube, the earliest technology for producing X-rays of the human body.
Christopher also used diathermy machines in his practice, electrically-powered devices that produce high-frequency electrical currents to warm the tissues of the body to relieve aching muscles.
"The exhibit offers people a chance to see the types of medicines, equipment and treatments physicians used in an earlier era," said Zoch. "Dr. Christopher Best kept himself up-to-date with the latest devices and techniques in medical practice for the times."
By EDWARD MUNGER Jr.
Gazette Reporter
The $3.6 million project, commissioned by the state Department of Transportation, includes the reconstruction of the intersection of State Routes 30 and 145.
Pavement, curbs, a new drainage system and new water lines are some of the less-visible segments of work under way.
But completey invisible is the entire half-mile stretch of stone wall - it was removed this summer.
Crews took apart the hand-laid limestone wall to send to Stone Cast Inc. of Queensbury. There the stones are being cleaned and reset with new mortar, in 20-foot sections, to be shipped back to Middleburgh.
Middleburgh Town Historian Charlie Spickerman said the precise history of the wall is not really known.
The letter is written by the daughter of a superintendent of the Miller Brothers Construction Company, Fred Donegan, who worked on the construction of state Route 30 from 1932 to 1933.
According to Donegan's records preserved by his family, Miller Brothers spent 30 cents a foot on the 2,259-foot wall. Three local men quarried the limestone rocks from Schoharie, and constructed the wall from April 9 to July 25, 1933.
The total cost to Miller Brothers, according to Donegan's records, was $677.72.
Different story
Replacing the wall today, however, was a different story altogether.
DOT requested bids in the fall expecting the entire job to cost about $2.5 million. But replacing a hand-laid limestone wall topped with timbers turned out to be more expensive than planners expected, driving up the cost of the entire project.
A project manager early this year said DOT had few similar projects on the books to compare prices with, so the bids came in at about 24 percent more than they estimated.
DOT had considered different styles of wall, and at one point suggested the wall be built higher.
But the wall as it looked was ultimately considered to be an important part of the village's history, and historians worked to make sure it was preserved.
The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation was involved in the planning, because several homes along River Street are considered historic.
"Going along River Street, the houses that face the creek form what we determined to be a small historic district, eligible for the historic register," said Ray Smith, a program analyst at the state office.
"We identified the wall as a contributing feature to that district," Smith said.
The village's revitalization committee and local leaders are credited with making the wall's importance known to project developers, Smith said.
"In the past, there have been situations where DOT projects were not exactly what the community wanted. But in this case the village and the residents had a lot to say about how they wanted it to be developed," Smith said.
Local input was instrumental in getting the project in place, and by the luck of the bidding process, a local company is coordinating the job.
Lancaster Development of Richmondville was awarded the $3.6 million contract in the spring, and a company official there said the unique project combines a lot of local effort.
"There's actually quite a few local companies involved in the whole process; there's very few outside companies involved," said Mark Galasso, president of Lancaster Development.
"Being local, it was obviously an attractive job because of geography. But also because unique jobs present unique opportunities and challenges," Galasso said.
The company generally contracts paving jobs and bridge rehabilitation with the DOT and the state Thruway Authority, and Galasso said the DOT's commission of this project is unique.
"Their responsibility is to provide a safe and durable road system," Galasso said.
The project under way will not only rehabilitate the road structurally, but will also be a major improvement to the view of Middleburgh, Galasso said.
"It's going to be a very nice, pedestrian-friendly rural village setting," Galasso said.
Re-set in Queensbury
Originally, the job specifications called for setting a substructure under the
stone wall, with the stones to be laid by hand.
But Galasso said a chance conversation with Stone Cast Inc. of Queensbury resulted in new plans for the wall.
The original stones are being cleaned and re-set in Queensbury, which presented a cost savings on the project compared to hand-setting the stones on the jobsite.
Paul Glotzbecker, chief financial officer at Stone Cast Inc., said crews have been taking the wall apart rock by rock, separating stone from mortar and recovering as much of the original stones as possible.
"Our goal is to re-create the wall as close as possible using original stone," Glotzbecker said.
Stone Cast Inc. has some similar rocks that could have been used, and they would have looked the same eventually, Glotzbecker said.
"But initially, the quarried stone doesn't have all the years of weathering on it, so the initial appearance would be different," he said.
Instead, the company stacked all the limestone rocks on pallets and is manufacturing the walls - in 20-foot sections - with a patented process in its factory.
Though it is expected to look the same as it did decades ago, Glotzbecker said it will be stronger.
Instead of using a hand mortar, the stones are being set with concrete reinforced with steel bars.
"You get a product much quicker and one that is much stronger," he said.
New sidewalks, antique lighting and landscaping will be part of the job, which is expected to last through December.
Once complete, residents said the village will once again stand out in the eyes of visitors.
"It's going to be beautiful," Middleburgh Supervisor Richard Hanson said.
Lancaster Development Inc. of Richmondville won the contract to replace about one-half mile of the stone wall facing the Schoharie Creek at River Street and reconstruct the roadways along River and Main streets.
"It's really quite a thing to have the state spend $3.5 million in Middleburgh," Town Supervisor Dick Hanson said Thursday.
State and local officials will hold a groundbreaking ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday in front of the New Reformed Church of Middleburgh.
Preliminary site work began the end of last month, DOT spokeswoman Kate Zenzel said Thursday.
The project itself has been a goal of village and town officials since the flood of 1996 took down part of the deteriorating stone wall lining River Street, Hanson said.
"It's been a long six years," Hanson said.
The work itself will be geared toward maintaining the historic attributes of the village.
New lighting will line River Street opposite the stone wall, which will be reconstructed to match its original form.
Built in the 1930s, the distinctive retaining wall on River Street is one of several aesthetic attributes the state DOT wants to accentuate at the intersections of River and Main Streets.
The current wall, which spans about a half-mile, was constructed from hand-quarried stones by the Miller Brothers Construction Co. during the years 1932 and 1933, according to documents from the village clerk's office.
Sidewalks will be replaced in the work area, with gray-colored concrete to blend in with existing sidewalks, according to DOT.
New water lines, a closed drainage system and ornamental lighting will also be part of the project.
Work is expected to finish in December.
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