P-Town Profiles

For nearly 50 years, the all-volunteer Fairport Canal Days Festival has set the standard for non-profit, community-based summer festivals in New York State. No one does it better. Festival Co-Chairs, Lydia Rugaber and Ian Winner, represent a new generation of leadership for Fairport Canal Days. Each began volunteering as teenagers with their parents, Wendy Rugaber and yours truly. Today, Ian and Lydia are responsible for guiding the work of a dozen committee members and hundreds of volunteers who help host approximately 200,000 festival goers the first weekend in June each year.

Captain Tammee Poinan Grimes is the Master of the flatwater behemoth known as the Colonial Belle. We track the arc of her career, starting as a dance studio operator and mom, evolving into the Captain of the largest, and one of the last, tour boats on the Erie Canal, to becoming a leading advocate for the revitalization of the Canal as a recreational boating and tourism destination. 

Chuck Smith – Designs for a Future Rooted in HistoryNative Minnesotan turned Fairport fixture, Chuck Smith, a highly regarded architect well known for his residential and lake house designs, discusses historic preservation, design in the public realm, and current housing issues in the Finger Lakes and Erie Canal communities.

Native son and former Pittsford Mayor, Robert Corby, discusses possible impacts of proposed zoning code changes in both Pittsford and Fairport. Highlighted are the potentially negative effects on residential neighborhoods and streetscapes, as well as urban renewal and design choices that have altered the historic character of these Erie Canal Villages.

Native Fairporter, entrepreneur, family man, tent and event industry leader and now music festival auteur, Sean McCarthy talks to us about growing up in Fairport, his road to success as a business founder/owner/operator and family man.

This hyper-local podcast focuses on Rochester’s east side towns and villages. Featuring conversations with business and community leaders who help shape our local economy, public places, policy, and politics. Those who have made and want to make a difference discuss the ideas, issues, opportunities, and challenges facing Pittsford, Penfield, Perinton and the villages of Fairport, East Rochester, and Pittsford.