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North Country’s Finest: Piano Man

The work never ends at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam for senior piano technician Lane Miller.

He has a brisk schedule since he keeps 150 grand pianos, each with 88 keys, working and sounding great.

It’s a job that combines a scientific mind with the heart of a serious musician.

See Mike Boyce’s report:

North Country’s Finest: Water Witch

Using a freshly cut Y-shaped stick, Ed Chartrand demonstrates how to find ground water through the practice of water witching or dowsing.

When the 85 year old town of Diana man holds the stick in his hands, the end of the stick points down where the water is at its deepest point.

As soon as he walks away, the stick rises back up.

“I have been accused of twisting my fingers and everything, but I don’t make them do a thing,” said Ed.

He says he’s tapping into a powerful physical energy.

Ed says water witching is a gift few people have.

He discovered he had the talent when he was 11 years old.

Over the years he has helped people search for well water free of charge.

Through dowsing, Ed has correctly identified the source of hundreds of wells.

He says he was only wrong twice, both times on the Tug Hill plateau.

He says the limestone on the plateau has unusual water veins.

See Mike Boyce’s report:

North Country’s Finest: Discovering The Past

Nicholas Goodall could play any music if he heard it just once.

A violin prodigy who toured the country as a child, Goodall was known as the “mad fiddler.”

He died in his early 30s in the Jefferson County poorhouse in Watertown in 1881.

Now a city woman is out to restore not only Goodall’s reputation, but his final resting place.

Kathy Plante-Hunt has worked to restore Watertown’s Arsenal Street Cemetery.

Along the way, she has found Goodall’s neglected and long forgotten headstone.

“I was so elated. It was like finding the blue diamond in the rough. I was so happy,” she said.

The marker was set upright and cleaned.

It’s unclear how Goodall came to reside Watertown.

His father was also a violinist; he happened to be in the orchestra at Ford’s Theater in Washington on the night that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

See Mike Boyce’s report:

North Country’s Finest: Retired Art Teacher Continues To Inspire Students

In her 36 years as an art teacher, B.J. Blodgett has shown thousands of children the finer points of artistic expression.

Newly retired, she has left a lasting gift at Watertown’s Wiley School that will inspire current and future generations of students.

The school district asked her to choose a work of art that will be donated and displayed in her name.

Blodgett selected a print by French artist Henri Matisse.

The work now hangs outside the Wiley library.

She was also asked what the school should do with the wall in the back of the library, she decided to design and paint an ambitious 12 by 62 foot Matisse-inspired mural.

“I used to do many lessons about Henri Matisse,” said Blodgett.

While students at Wiley no longer have the benefit of Blodgett’s teaching, she’s still conveying the philosophy of Matisse’s self-expression.

See Mike Boyce’s report:

North Country’s Finest: Bridge Builders

They’ve taken titles in 12 of their last 15 bridge building competitions and they’re doing it at the expense of engineering powerhouses like Cornell, RPI and MIT.

They’re members of the SUNY Canton Steel Bridge Team.

They compete against other schools to assemble a bridge in less than five minutes.

The span must be 20 feet long and be able to bear more than a ton of weight.

Team members all play a vital role.

Everybody knows exactly what they have to do and they do it instantaneously. People are flying. Everybody’s running and nobody hits anybody, but that takes weeks and weeks and weeks of practice,” said Engineering Professor Robert Blickwedehl.

See Mike Boyce’s report:

North Country’s Finest: Watertown Model Railroad Club

Watertown Model Railroad Club members are getting their last look at their remarkably detailed layout in their headquarters beneath the Stream Call Center.

They’re packing up for the 1000 Islands Model Train Show next weekend at Clayton’s Recreation Park Arena.

Each of the club’s members is responsible for at least one small section of track.

Members have gone so far as to mount a tiny camera on one engine to help see the lay of the land.

Club president Jan Keen says for most enthusiasts, it’s a passion that starts early.

“I think a lot times people are capturing memories of the way things were and the times that they liked during their life,” said Jan Keen.

Keen says the club is always looking for new members.

If you have an interest, stop by the Clayton Arena next weekend.

See Mike Boyce’s report:

North Country’s Finest: A Painter for the Ages

Like many artists, she displayed a talent for painting at a very early age.
However, real life kept that talent hidden until she retired.
7 News producer Michael Boyce traveled to Carthage to meet Elma Pickle, one of the North Country’s Finest:

North Country’s Finest: The Circus of Thompson Park

Maybe not a circus, but this talented family has more than one trick in their bag.

Skateboarding, unicycling or h00la-hooping, the Ebberecht family proves that practice makes perfect.

And it makes for fun people rarely see or have.

7 News producer Michael Boyce presents the North Country’s Finest for this week, the Ebberecht family:

North Country’s Finest: The Croghan Railroad Depot

For decades it was the hub of activity in the village of Croghan and now the Croghan Railroad Depot has been restored to its former glory.

7 News producer Michael Boyce hit the tracks for a visit to one of the North Country’s Finest: The Croghan Railroad Depot:

North Country’s Finest: A Car Above the Rest

In Great Bend, that rumbling noise you hear may be Danny Tyner’s 1963 Ford Falcon.

Tyner currently holds the record for the amount of horsepower generated at over 1,770 HP.

That’s a lot of power and when you’re at the top of the game, challengers come running.

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