‘Important Fixture’
Cassadaga celebrates refurbished gazebo
A dedication ceremony was held for the Cassadaga Gazebo remodeling project. Adults pictured from left, bottom row: Betsy Swanson with the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation, Eileen Ardillo with NCCF, Citizens for a Better Cassadaga President Cindy Flaherty, beach director Tammie Wichlacz, and Dave Rowley, who is both a Cassadaga trustee and a member of NCCF. Top right is Dan Pavlock, the contractor, along with some of the children who are participating in the Cassadaga beach program.
Submitted photo Pictured is the Cassadaga Gazebo before it was remodeled. While it was used by children, there were concerns about its safety.
A dedication ceremony was held for the Cassadaga Gazebo remodeling project. Adults pictured from left, bottom row: Betsy Swanson with the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation, Eileen Ardillo with NCCF, Citizens for a Better Cassadaga President Cindy Flaherty, beach director Tammie Wichlacz, and Dave Rowley, who is both a Cassadaga trustee and a member of NCCF. Top right is Dan Pavlock, the contractor, along with some of the children who are participating in the Cassadaga beach program.
Submitted photo Pictured is the Cassadaga Gazebo before it was remodeled. While it was used by children, there were concerns about its safety.
Trending
CASSADAGA - For 19 years, Tammie Wichlacz has spent her summers on the Cassadaga beach, looking at the gazebo as it continued to worsen. She desperately wanted to see it remodeled, for both safety as well as aesthetic reasons.
This summer she got her wish.
Late last year the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation issued a $15,000 grant to the Citizens for a Better Cassadaga to get the gazebo remodeled.
Dan Pavlock with Pavlock and Sons Construction bid on the project and was awarded it. At the time of the bid he said that if it went over a certain price, he would cover the balance.
The entire project ended up costing $25,980, with Pavlock donating about $7,500.
He explained the gazebo is quite old and had a lot of issues.
"Once we tore apart some of the structure we saw it was in pretty poor shape. We rebuilt the perimeter as much as we could," Pavlock said, noting that bugs had destroyed a lot of the wood.
They worked hard at keeping its historical look.
"We reused some of the original porcelain fixtures that were there," he said.
Pavlock had some of his family members, including his wife, helping restore the gazebo. He said for a couple of weeks they were at the beach, arriving around 5:30 a.m. to work on it until the beach opened at 10 a.m.
Pavlock is a Cassadaga Valley alumnus, and remembers visiting the beach.
"I used to come here as a kid. We would be riding bikes and canoeing and kayaking and stuff. We would use (the gazebo) some. Quite honestly, they've always maintained it as best as they could and probably needed to fix it back then," he said with a laugh.
The gazebo used to be known as the bandstand and was located in the four corners of Cassadaga.
According to an article by village historian John Sipos, it was built in 1940.
"During the time the bandstand was there, band concerts were held on Saturday evenings from July 1 through September 1. The concerts drew crowds from the surrounding towns," he wrote.
Sipos noted that in 1948 the Cassadaga Beach was established.
"Since more people gathered at the beach now for a view of the Cassadaga Lake, the bandstand was moved from the village park to the Cassadaga beach in 1948, where it remains to this day," he wrote.
According to Sipos, the original colors of the bandstand (now known as the gazebo) were white with green trim, somewhere between Christmas green and forest green. When Wichlacz started working at the beach, she noted the gazebo was a brownish burnt red. At one point she helped paint it blue and white.
But even with a fresh coat of paint, Wichlacz knew it needed more attention.
"Wanting this was the vision I had - the whole openness of it, the wider staircase. Everything just made more sense with the way it's remodeled now and it really looks like it fits in the time period for our village," she said.
Dave Rowley is a trustee with the village as well as a board member of NCCF and shared his thoughts.
"It's a great attraction to the beach. It gives people a historic view of the village and it kind of ties in; it's a focal point for the beach," he said.
Mayor Rudy Abersold agreed.
"It's an important fixture of the beach. It's an important fixture of the community. With the renovations and new materials, it should stand for a long time," he said.
He thanked NCCF for awarding the CBC the grant for the renovation as well as Pavlock for his hard work.
CBC President Cindy Flaherty was the person who wrote the grant to NCCF. She noted when she was a trustee they were always battling bees in the gazebo.
"It was time to get it done," she said.
She invites the public to come to the beach and check the gazebo out.
The next concert by the CBC is Osborn Nash, which will perform on the floating stage on July 26 at 5 p.m. Before Osborne Nash performs, Jack Blodgett, a Hank Williams tribute artist, will be performing at 4 p.m. in the gazebo itself. The public is welcome to attend to see the performer as well as the remodeled gazebo.