Boilermaker: Final Committee Meeting

    As the Executive Director Tim Reed states every committee meeting, there are "x" number of days left and a wake up. In sixteen days from now tens of thousands of people will descend upon the greater Utica area all for a little thing called, boilermaker. And to kick off boilermaker Sunday will be a flyover by the Genesee War Birds. This year Special Metals in New Hartford will be the official sponsor. General Manager Kevin Dabbs says, "It was just a really cool community event, of course five years ago they had a fly over, that was really cool. Being that Special Metals puts materials in jet engines that keep them in the air, when we got the opportunity this year we thought it was a great fit."

            Entertainment for the expo at MVCC was announced tonight as well. A day of magic is the theme and for one act it will a truly magical experience performing for his hometown. Illusionist Leon Etienne says, "I said it last year and I'll say it again, it's a dream come true because I'm from Utica, born and raised. Boilermaker is arguably one of the biggest events in the city and in the nation. I mean it's really one of the top road races in the nation and to be a hometown person and perform for them year after year is really an amazing thing and I'm honored truthfully."

                        Tonight's meeting also included long time Eyewitness News contributor Joe Kelly being awarded the Les Diven award and he spoke about what this award means to him. Kelly says, "When they named this award after Les I knew it was going to be a special award because he was a special person, is a special person, all those years at the OD. I could tell you some stories but maybe not on the air but he was a great guy and I enjoyed working with him and it was fun to working with less."

The Boilermaker train is heading down the tracks and it appears crews are on point to make sure it arrives successfully.