Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer
“We’re not skipping a beat,” Lake George Village Mayor Ray Perry told The Chronicle. “We still have all the free entertainment that everyone’s used to having. And look out for us next year — it’s going to get even better.”
A tent provided by local concert promoter Entertainment One quickly went up and concerts are going on at Shepard Park where the stage was destroyed by a June 30 fire caused by “undetermined electrical arcing in the utility room.”
“I’m told a lot of people like the tent,” Mayor Perry said. “The Lake George Community Band has indicated that they’d really like to keep the tent there for now. But then we have some events with some bigger bands where we’re probably going to bring a stage in and move the tent out.”
“It’s a work in progress,” he said. “We’re building the plane while we’re flying it.”
The village’s insurance will pay for a new bandstand, but Mayor Perry wants to make it better than before.
“It’s a watershed moment,” he said. “We don’t have this opportunity very often.”
He noted, “There’s going to be some disparity between what the insurance will cover and what myself and others in the community feel we need to build.”
The Lake George Arts Project has started a Friends of Shepard Park fund.
The former bandstand, built in 1990 with an addition in 2010, “wasn’t perfect the way it was,” the mayor said. “It was great — don’t get me wrong. It’s a very special place. But we can do better.”
In researching amphitheaters around the country the mayor found some open-air facilities, as well as others that can close off from the elements when needed.
“Winter Carnival could utilize something like that, where it’s not so cold,” he said. “Possibly even put some heat in it, where they can hold the cookoff without it being so bitter cold, as it can get.”
Mayor Perry also envisions adding a basement instead of the two exterior rooms the last bandstand had.
“You wouldn’t have to look at them,” he said. “Everything would be down underneath and you could have a minimal structure for the building.”
Mayor Perry even plans to make use of the three timpani drums damaged in the fire. “I was told we can’t re-skin them and they’ll never sound the same, so I want to plant flowers in them and put them down there as a tribute to the music that we put on down there,” he said.
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