City of Amsterdam Recognizes Historic Amsterdam League for their Work at City Hall

Amsterdam, NY- Though Amsterdam City Hall staff were not sure how it happened, it looked as if this past spring, a vehicle had backed into a small, nicely landscaped patch of grass at the rear of the building. This location has for many years been the home of a prized miniature windmill, constructed by city DPW employee, Jason Ludwin. In addition to breaking off one of the blades of the windmill, the incident also tore up the lawn and plantings that surrounded the five-foot structure.

Historic Amsterdam League’s core group of dedicated members

Fortunately, the Historic Amsterdam League (HAL) has a core group of members who are dedicated to preserving historical landmarks in our City. When HAL President Jerry Snyder noticed the damage done to the Windmill, he brought up the suggestion at the next HAL meeting that the organization take on the task of repairing the windmill and relandscaping its surrounding area. HAL members enthusiastically approved of the project and so did Amsterdam Mayor, Mike Cinquanti when Snyder approached him for permission to move forward with the effort.

During the next few weeks, Snyder was joined by HAL members Ray Fyfe, Nancy Thompson, Bob Hartig, and Pam Hartig in the project’s work detail. They replaced the broken blade, repainted the entire windmill and put in new plantings around it. When they were finished, the windmill looked better than ever.

Mayor Cinquanti gathered the group of volunteers together recently at City Hall to formally thank them on behalf of the City. At the same time, the Mayor also recognized and thanked HAL member Judy Cisek, who repainted two ornate urns positioned on the raised lawn area of the south side of City Hall and replanted them with a beautiful arrangement of flowers. Ms. Cisek has faithfully maintained the urns since.

“HAL is one of this City’s most treasured cultural resources” said Cinquanti. Everything they do, their events, their books, their preservation projects are done with a level of pride and professionalism which is doubly impressive when you consider it is an all-volunteer organization. We are so lucky to have them here in Amsterdam.