It
took fencer Felicia Zimmermann a while to recover from a disappointing
performance at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
           “I’m like, ‘I suck so bad! I suck!'”
she remembers now with a self-deprecating laugh. “I was lost for a long time. I
was really upset.”
           But Zimmermann, who lives in Rush
and trains at the Rochester Fencing Club on Culver Road, rallied in time to win
the bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships. She was also on the US team
at the 2000 Olympiad in Sydney, Australia. It finished fourth.
           “We call it the leather medal,” she
says.
           Sydney was supposed to be the end.
Zimmermann finished an engineering degree at Stanford and entered the workaday
world.
           “It just didn’t feel right. I kept
thinking about fencing,” she says.
           Now Zimmermann, 28, is immersed in
training for her third and final Olympics. She’ll find out in March if she’ll
be her sport’s US representative at the 2004 Olympiad in Athens, Greece — the
cradle of the Olympic Games.
           “I think it’ll be very interesting
compared to Sydney and Atlanta, because they’re making such a huge emphasis on
the cultural Olympiad,” she says. “You could be one of the Olympians in the
Greek sense.”
           Zimmermann’s main competition for
the slot is her younger sister Iris, 23.
           “It’s just another competitor, but
it’s a little tough,” she says. “[In] my position as the older sister, I’m
always looking out for the younger sister.”
           Zimmermann is involved in a fierce
physical and mental routine for her final Olympic bid. Long days training are
balanced with studies in Tai Chi and Qui Gong.
           Walking out onto the field during
opening ceremonies is “the most amazing experience of my entire life,” she
says.
           “You realize at that moment a huge
sense of accomplishment because you can’t go any higher than you are right
now,” she says. “You’re part of the best of the best.”
           Post-Athens, Zimmermann isn’t sure
where life will take her. She’ll always be involved in fencing, she says, but
she’s also interested in other fields of study such as strategy consulting,
advertising, and marketing.
           “I’m going to be at least 100, so I
know I can do everything,” she says. “Just one thing at a time.”
—
Christine Carrie Fien
Happy
trails, part 2
The
Genesee Transportation Council’s “Regional
Trails Initiative” is jogging right along. And it’s not only about
recreation and nature-gazing. Planners also want to enhance local trail systems
to encourage non-motorized commuting. (Right now we’re cruising toward the
less-than-honorable title of “non-attainment area” for ground-level
ozone — so we’d do well to convert people from horsepower to pedal-power and
shoe leather.)
           Phase 1 of the trails initiative
focused on developing and improving dedicated trails for uses like hiking and
biking within Monroe County and in adjacent developed sections of Livingston,
Ontario, and Wayne counties.
           Now Phase 2 is underway, and the
focus is on trails outside the Phase 1 area: Genesee, Orleans, Seneca, Wyoming,
and Yates counties. (Some trails are set aside for snowmobiling, by the way.) A “Draft Regional Trails
Initiative — Phase 2 Public Review Document” is now available for a
30-day public review, ending Friday, January 30. And GTC has announced a series
of eight “public input meetings” to be held over the next few weeks
throughout the Phase 2 area.
           Input meetings will take place this
week in Newark, Albion, Penn Yan, and Waterloo. Get the full schedule and other
information by calling GTC at 585-232-6240, or by visiting www.gtcmpo.org,
where you’ll find the entire Phase 2 document. You can also view the document
by walking or running to your county’s “central repository library,”
or to the planning offices in your particular county seat. (Again, call GTC or
visit the website for locations.)
           There’s something in this ambitious
plan for everyone and every part of the region. Take these “planned”
or merely “suggested” new stone-dust trails for biking and hiking: a
6-mile, $1.2 million “Alexander to Attica” trail, extending the
Groveland Secondary Trail; a 6.8-mile, $1.4 million “Clyde-to-Savannah”
rail/trolley trail; and a 1.5-mile, $319,000 “Erie Canal-Glenwood Lake
Connector Trail” in Orleans County.
That
makes four
With
the likely departure of President Dennis
Pelletier, four seats will be up for grabs this fall in the Monroe County
Legislature.
           Pelletier, 54, is County Executive
Maggie Brooks’ choice to head up the county Water Authority. Pelletier would
replace acting executive director Ray Benshoff. Benshoff stepped in when John
Stanwix retired a year ago.
           The job pays about $132,000 a year.
           If he takes the job, Pelletier will
resign from the legislature.
           A resident of Spencerport,
Pelletier, a Republican, has been in the legislature since 1993. He has been
president since 1998.
           Three other seats will be contested
in the county lej this year. Republicans Tracy Logel and George Wiedemer
resigned after winning election as Chili and Penfield supervisors,
respectively. Republican Sean Hanna resigned.
Power
surge
If
you’ve listened to 90.1 WGMC FM over
the past decade you’ve heard no shortage of tower-in-the-sky wishes for a more
powerful antenna. Now the new antenna, boosting power from 2,000 to 15,000
watts, is a reality. And the station is celebrating.
           A Power-Up Party takes place next
Wednesday (January 14) from 4 to 7 p.m. at the studio, 750 Maiden Lane in
Greece (Door #4, top floor). Listeners, many of whom contributed to the tower
fund, are invited for food and live music by the Vince Ercolamento Quintet featuring Ercolamento, sax; Mike Kaupa, trumpet; Mark Manetta, guitar; Dan Vitale, bass; and Steve Curry, drums, along with other
special guests.
           After the power boost, the station’s
signal should stretch throughout the six-county area all the way from
Canandaigua to Batavia and beyond.
           “After 30 years on the air, WGMC is
ready to truly become Rochester’s jazz station,” says Jason Crane, station manager. “A power increase is a very rare
thing in radio, and it’s an even rarer thing for a jazz station. Our staff and
volunteers have poured their love of the music into this project, and we’re all
thrilled at the result.”
           Crane is quick to add that the
station actually didn’t raise enough money to pay for the entire project and
has gone into debt to meet the deadline. “Now we really need Rochester’s jazz
fans and arts supporters to help us move forward.”
—
Ron Netsky
Correcting
ourselves
Several
words were mistakenly deleted from a paragraph on Rudy’s Oven in Adam Wilcox’s
last food review (“Going South in a good way,” December 30, 2003). The full
paragraph should have read:
           In six years at Rudy’s Oven (650 South Avenue), Steve Conversi has established
himself as a neighborhood character. Stop by Tuesday through Friday, 10:30 a.m.
to 6 p.m. (Saturday to 4:30), for Steve’s rotating menu of breads and
entertaining conversation on just about any topic. The loaves are smaller and
less expensive than at most “artisan” bakeries, suiting family appetites and
budgets perfectly.
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2004.
