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caption:
Ribbon Cutting
The Boxcar Children Mural was dedicated Dec. 4. From left: Pat Hedenberg of the boxcar museum, PBA President Thomas Borner, mural director Elaine Turner, Mayor Barney Seney and Town Administrator Elaine Sistare. Linda Lemmon photo.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Magic descended onto South Main Street.
Dec. 4 the artists, sponsors, town officials and a thrilled public gathered along the Boxcar Children Mural on South Main Street for a dedication of the mural, ribbon cutting and all.
Elaine Turner, the project’s coordinator and director, called it a “magical wall.”
“Barney (Mayor Barney Seney) said ‘Can you get your people to do something with that wall?’” Turner’s first thought was “my people?”. She reached out and so did Seney and others. It turned out that the “people” came from all walks of life and from all over: sponsors, artists, smooshers (smooshing the background colors onto the 290-foot length of the wall). From towns from all over, from schools from all over, and even as far as Tennessee.
All types of artists used outdoor latex paint from Sherwin Williams and Turner said the entire masterpiece acknowledging Putnam’s “favorite daughter” Boxcar Children book author Gertrude Chandler Warner was also sealed. And it will last for decades. Currently she’s considering hanging out at the mural to keep the skateboarders off it. Turner is hoping the coming of winter will give that problem a rest.
Seney told the maybe 50 gathered on the sidewalk that he’s “always looking” for projects to make Putnam better. The parking lot along South Main, next to the boxcar museum was repaved and the long length of weeds dividing that parking lot and South Main became a beautiful swath of grass. Sidewalks had gone in along South Main and Grove streets and the retaining wall along the spiffy new sidewalk needed help. Elaine Sistare, town administrator, used her engineering background to get the wall fixed. It was then painted white.
Seney said “I said to Elaine (Turner) ‘I’ll give you a canvas. What can you do with it?’” Then he joked “You know what they say in the military: If it doesn’t move, paint it.”
He praised the renaissance of Putnam, with all its art and high energy. He also praised the Putnam Business Association (PBA) as a “strong backbone” for Putnam.
PBA President Thomas Borner, whose artist wife Kathy painted one of the Boxcar Children Mural panels, said he was “very proud of what we’ve accomplished here.”
The entire project was funded by sponsors.
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