Further details emerge on new town maintenance team plan
A review online of last week’s Roscommon Co Co monthly meeting gives some further detail to the notice of motion put down by Boyle Councillor John Cummins for the allocation of mechanical footpath sweepers to each municipal district in the county. At the meeting, Councilor Cummins used the cycleway between Lough Key and Boyle as an example of what happens when there is no maintenance plan in place. He said “70% of this cycleway goes through Lough Key Forest Park and only for the local office come out it would be impassible on occasion during the winter months”. The Council executive replied that a specialised maintenance team is proposed for each municipal district to undertake maintenance of all the public realm work that has taken place and they would be equipped with such sweepers but ‘research is needed into the type of machine that works best along with consideration into the budgetary and resource for same”. This led Councillor Cummins to propose that a letter goes to central government requesting that a percentage of any funding that is made available for further public realm projects, should include an element for maintenance”. This was unanimously agreed.
Danger at local pedestrian crossings
At present we have three pedestrian crossings in Boyle with speculation that this number may increase once work starts in the next few weeks on the redesign of Bridge Street and Shop Street. Unfortunately, the three crossings we currently have are quite dangerous, due to two factors: 1. Vehicles are parking on the marked restricted areas right up to the crossings, thus reducing visibility of pedestrians for approaching motorists and 2. Some pedestrians assume they can be seen and proceed to walk on to the crossing, believing that vehicles will automatically stop, which is not always the case. So pedestrians – please stop, use the lights on the crossing, wait, while remembering that not ever motorist will see the red light, and motorists – please do not park right up to the pedestrian crossings.
Halloween Happenings around Boyle
Halloween is fast approaching and here in Boyle there is plenty to keep the younger (and older) children occupied. As usual Lough Key Forest Park has a large number of events running from October 29th to November 3rd. More details can be found here. King House, once famous for the mythical ‘Green Lady’ who allegedly appeared at midnight on Halloween Eve in a top floor window at the old army barracks, will this year host ‘Horror at the Museum’ on Saturday 28th October after 7pm, Sunday 29th after 6pm and Monday 30th after 6pm with more details available here. In Ballinameen the local GAA club will host a ‘Dress up for Halloween Movie Night’ in their club house from 7pm – 9pm on Friday October 20th. Spaces for this event will be limited so call, text or watts app your child or children’s name to 087 2038085 to book them in.
Another piece of the town center jigsaw falling into place
There was a great reaction to our news story on Wednesday last that an application for funding to undertake landscaping work on The Lawn area in Boyle is to be submitted – when the opportunity arises. Boyle Town Team and Roscommon Co Co have been working on getting this project progressed for a long number of months but it is understood both bodies were committed to other projects which needed to be advanced before attention could turn to The Lawn area. (Indeed great credit is due to the numerous people from Boyle, many who never even walked previously in The Lawn, who spent a number of evenings over the summer cleaning up this area and picking up litter and cutting back hedges and who got on with the work for the betterment of the town, not whining that this area had been forgotten about – which it obviously had not).
The grant application will be made under the next Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme and hopefully the funding will follow. To assist the application, a short survey is now available online and your assistance in completing this (here) will help the application. You can also scan the QR code on Boyletoday Facebook page to access the survey.
One of Boyle’s oldest buildings celebrates it’s anniversary
One of Boyle’s oldest buildings celebrated it’s 250th anniversary on Sunday last with a Service of Celebration and the launch of a booklet compiled by Clive Roe celebrating the occasion. Boyle Church of Ireland on Green Street was built in 1773 and has been part and parcel of Boyle life ever since. It is a building steeped in history which is detailed in the booklet that is for sale in various establishments around town priced €5.
Super Sunday lies ahead
All roads lead to Hyde Park this Sunday for the Roscommon senior football championship semi final between Boyle and Padraig Pearses. Throw in for this all ticket game is at 4pm with live coverage on Shannonside FM and streamed live on Rosgaatv.ie. Supporters are advised that due to construction works at Dr. Hyde Park, access to the stand will be strictly via the County Home Road entrance and access to the terrace will be via the Athlone Road turnstiles. Earlier on Sunday, Boyle Ladies will also contest a county semi final, in and against Kilbride with throw in at 11am. Two senior semi finals in the one day!
News snippets from around Boyle
Lets hope Boyle Tidy Towns get the recognition they deserve at this afternoon’s Tidy Towns Awards ceremony in the Hogan Suite in Croke Park, Dublin. Three members have been invited to attend which gives a glimmer of hope of some award or nomination for the Boyle group……..Hats off to Boyle’s biggest employer – Nordson Medical – who will show real community spirit next Friday morning (13th) when staff members will paint the black and gold railing along the river in front of Wing Hung Chinese Restaurant in Boyle. This event was scheduled to take place this morning but has been postponed due to inclement weather. According to the company, this is their way of giving something back to the town. Well done to Nordson, who are a highly respected, and the largest employer in our town……..The Christmas Craft Fair in King House will take place over two days: Friday evening November 17th from 5pm to 9pm and on Saturday 18th from 10am to 5pm. Those wishing to have a stand at the event are asked to email [email protected] for booking form and terms & conditions. Deadline for completed forms to be returned is 18th October……Let’s hope………….A reunion of Scóil Chríost an Rí class of 1972-1977 (and those who joined at different stages) will be held on November 11th in Daly’s Lounge, Boyle. If interested please contact before Nuala 086 3974566, Maria 086 3770822 or Attracta 0868129190 before October 20th……..Run Walk n Roll will take place in Boyle on Sunday the 15th of October starting at an earlier time this year of 1:30pm from St Joseph’s Hall Boyle………This week’s problem on the Dublin Sligo rail line resulted in customers unable to book yesterday’s busy 07.14 service ex Boyle. A call to Irish Rail ‘Customer Care’ resulted in an unhelpful lady telling the intending passenger: “All I know is what you know as I am looking at the same page as you“!! On Thursday evening a written reply came to the customer from Irish Rail which read: “There was a technical issue with this service online from Tuesday morning whereby a small number of services were not bookable online. This was due to a system update in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Our Supplier investigated the issue, and a fix was put live yesterday evening”. ………..Great to see the shining new bike racks installed at key locations around the town courtesy of Boyle Town Team and Healthy Ireland…….Motorists travelling on the Boyle to Roscommon N61 face a two week disruption from Monday 16th when the road from Tulsk to Four Mile House will close for emergency resurfacing work. Diversions will be in place.
And finally…..!
Once, there was a preacher who was an avid golfer. Every chance he could get, he would be on the golf course swinging away.
It was an obsession.
One Sunday was a picture-perfect day for golfing. The sun was out, no clouds were in the sky, and the temperature was just right.
The preacher was in a quandary as to what to do, and shortly, the urge to play golf overcame him.
He called an assistant to tell him that he was sick and could not do church, packed the car up, and drove three hours to a golf course where no one would recognize him.
Happily, he began to play the course.
An angel up above was watching the preacher and was quite perturbed.
He went to God and said, “Look at the preacher. He should be punished for what he is doing.”
God nodded in agreement.
The preacher teed up on the first hole. He swung at the ball, and it sailed effortlessly through the air and landed right in the cup 250 yards away. A picture-perfect hole-in-one.
He was amazed and excited.
The angel was a little shocked.
He turned to God and said, “I beg your pardon, but I thought you were going to punish him.”
God smiled. “Think about it – who can he tell?”
