Cortland Police and Fire Departments to Spend Night at 1890 House to Raise Funds For First Responders Camp & 1890 House

Jack Eves: [00:00:00] X101 Always classic Jack here in the studio. And joining me in the studio right now is Deputy Chief for the City of Cortland Fire Department Derek Reynolds and Cortland Police Officer Joe Peters. Guys, how are you today?

Officer Peters: Fantastic. How are you

Jack Eves: Doing well, you know, and Halloween is next week, a week from today.

And, some exciting and interesting plans you guys have for Halloween night. Right. Some would say terrifying, some would say. I mean, from what I’ve read, I would agree that this is gonna be terrifying for you. And as we said before we went on air, I think this is a hilariously potential bad idea. ’cause you guys are going into the 1890 house at night to raise money.

To first responders camp as well as the 1890 house.

Officer Peters: Absolutely. Deputy Chief Reynolds and I came up with this, great idea. The first responder for a day camp needs a little bit of extra money. They serve so many children, in the summertime for that camp that, why not do a fun fundraiser kind of an off the wall.[00:01:00]

Freaky fundraiser, but

Jack Eves: on Halloween night of all nights, you choose to go into Courtlands, probably most haunted building. See what spirits might come up with there. And you know, as you said, it’s a great thing to raise money for. But with this, there’s also going to be those, you know, certain amount of money is donated.

You guys will be facing a challenge. Is that right?

Officer Peters: I mean, go bigger, go home. Right? So the more money we bring in, every a hundred dollars or so that we raise, we will choose a challenge and we have to do it. Is it, is there a challenge? Deputy Chief Reynolds, we have to do it. So,

Deputy Chief Reynolds: yeah. As Officer Peters is saying, every a hundred dollars raised, we’re gonna plead a challenge in a police versus firefighter format.

A lot of times people think there’s this rift between police and fire. I would say it’s there sometimes, not all the time. Obviously, when the community needs us, we come together, work extremely well together. But behind the scenes we do enjoy that, rift that is iconic across the. World. So as, officer Peter said, this is definitely gonna help us towards our first responder camp.

Just a little bit of history. Yeah. 2014 the fire [00:02:00] department started its first responder camp. It was a one day event with, 120 kids in attendance. That, first year, in 2015 we went to a two day camp with 200, wow. People coming in. Last year we had over 300, people participate in camp and it was the first year we invited our brothers in blue, the city of Cortland Police Department.

And, we had, three stations dedicated towards police activities and three stations that created towards Matic activities. So it was an amazing success. Everyone got a lot out of it. And, at the end of the day, it’s a great event. However, every good free event definitely has a hidden price tag behind the scene.

Yes. On average it costs about $50 per registrant to go through when we factor in all the logistical needs and things like that. So both departments allocate money to it. We had community sponsorships, last year. Royal donated, was able to send us some funded to help out the food costs and things like that.

Mm-hmm. For all the staff that volunteered or were working. And, this year we’re looking to help in other ways, including a lock.

Jack Eves: In at the 1890 [00:03:00] house, a lock in. Indeed. And do you know, I’m guessing the lights are all gonna be off too inside the 1890 house, right?

Officer Peters: The lights will be off the spirits will take place.

Jack Eves: Shenanigans. I mean, is, is there a certain area of the house that either one of you is just absolutely dreading that you’re gonna have to probably go to?

Officer Peters: I am not a fan of the basement. I’ll admit that.

Deputy Chief Reynolds: So if I had to pick, it’d be the, billiard room upstairs on the third floor where all the kids’ toys and the old pool table and Chester’s chair and pipes and things like that.

Officer Peters: Chester Wickwire and I are gonna play some pool hopefully that night. It’s, it’s all you. Yes. ’cause

Jack Eves: Chester did, I believe pass away at a young age. In that house And, well, you guys will find out if he likes late night guests.

Officer Peters: That’s what we hear. Yeah. It’ll be a lot of fun. But let’s not forget, where some of the funds raised, we’ll go to the 1890 house that yes, they’re in some dire need of roof repairs that are gonna cost, upwards are probably a couple hundred thousand dollars to, to fix and do it right?

Jack Eves: That’s right. With our slate roof. Yep. So we’re

Officer Peters: hoping maybe we can, raise enough money to. Help them get [00:04:00] a, get a start on fundraising for that as well. Yeah. ’cause it’s,

Jack Eves: it’s a real win-win, you know, obviously they’re making donation and it’s going for good causes, but then they’re also gonna see some great reactions probably too from where their donation is going for you.

I know, mayor Steve is gonna be joining you as well, as well as Officer Drake and there’s probably a few other people that are pending right now. Hopefully you get them on, the course, come on in. Right. We have asked

Officer Peters: multiple police officers and firefighters and, common response is, I don’t want to do it.

Deputy Chief Reynolds: And see, fun thing about ghosts, You can’t see ’em,

Jack Eves: I mean, I, I have to admit, when my sister used to work there, I mean, I had my experience up on the third floor. You know, we, ironically, we were finishing up, one of those spirit nights and it, so it’s 1130 at night.

My sister is in the kitchen. She’s like, Jack, can you go shut off the lights to the house and meet me back here? Sure, no problem. Start shutting off the lights. All of a sudden I hear the door slammed that I already closed, and then some boots start [00:05:00] walking towards me as I’m going down that narrow staircase to the second floor.

And you know, I instantly just slap every other light off on the second floor and book it to the kitchen. And I told my sister right then and there, I’m never doing that again. ’cause that was. I’m not a happy door slamming. Yeah.

Deputy Chief Reynolds: And I appreciate you validating my third floor fears. It makes me feel a little better.

Officer Peters: Yes. And and that’s why I, I, we go straight to that third floor.

Jack Eves: Yeah. You know what goes straight to the third floor and just start, the. Lecturing about how you shouldn’t be slamming doors, especially historic doors, and, see what that might turn off to. That’s gonna be fun.

Deputy Chief Reynolds: Yeah. And additionally, we learned the other day that, after Chester passed away, his son Frederick Yes.

Took over the house and there were some unique and interesting things with, Frederick in the home as well. So, so apparently

Officer Peters: Frederick only. You know, lived in the home for a couple of years and died at, I, I think we were told 46 years old. Right. And he was very angry about the fact that he died so young.

So, he, he doesn’t like late night visitors from what we’re [00:06:00] told.

Jack Eves: And here you guys come in with, are you gonna probably try to get him to react to some things or?

Officer Peters: I, well, we’re hoping he reacts to something. Some of us are hoping he good or bad, reacts to something.

Deputy Chief Reynolds: [Not] Trying to aggravate the spirits and things like that. I’m hoping for a nice quiet night, just like we would at the firehouse. And just,

Jack Eves: just a typical peaceful night in the 1890 house on Halloween. Difference

Officer Peters: between police and fire.

Jack Eves: You can say that. Oh, and the trash talking has already begun, folks,

Officer Peters: but, but it’s gonna be for, it’s for a great cause.

Two great causes. And you know, the children, you know. First responder for a day camp, they deserve this. The 1890 house is, you know, not going anywhere anytime soon, so. Mm-hmm. We need to keep that up and running and looking good. So,

Deputy Chief Reynolds: and we are pumped, I’m sure you’ve got the list there, but some of these challenges for the donations we do raise, well fearful.

I am still excited. Just that rivalry between police and fire and the fact that we’ll get to go up to [00:07:00] a. Coffin box to pick these challenges out when things

Jack Eves: Yes. Yeah, yeah. Coffin and speaking some of those challenges. Now I turn to the page. We have a mere challenge, the basement alone, which I also don’t recommend.

Locked in the servants quarters. Okay. And then, we also have a house wide blackout as well, and some haunted props.

Deputy Chief Reynolds: So, yeah. The. Chester’s pipe is believed to be pretty haunted. There’s times when you can smell fresh tobacco emanating from the pipe and some other things. The billiard room, there’s some, pool balls that will decide to roll across the table at different times on their own.

Believe she was sharing a story with us about the pool balls clashing against each other, even though there’s a single ball on the table. Oh, boy. Yes, yes.

Officer Peters: that’s what we heard, as well up there.

Deputy Chief Reynolds: Several different things. So, so which

Jack Eves: one are you looking most forward to? Officer Peters, I want to play pool with.

Chester. Chester? Yeah. And what about you, Derrick? Which one are you looking forward to [00:08:00] the most?

Deputy Chief Reynolds: Police versus fire, hide and seek. Okay. I think

Officer Peters: we’re good at finding people. It’s what we do for a living,

Deputy Chief Reynolds: so you gotta remember it’s you hiding me. Hiding in the marere finding. Ah, so would would be a true test of the mare’s ability to.

Find employees, I guess we’ll see. It’s either the mayor

Jack Eves: finds you or something else, finds you in that house. Right. And

Deputy Chief Reynolds: that’s where the fun comes in when you’re locked alone in the basement trying to hide in a spirit or some other thing gets in your mind and you start hearing these weird noises and all of a sudden you screech and run away.

It’s, we will be streaming event Yes. On either Facebook Live or YouTube. We’re still working those logistics out now, but we’ll get that link up as soon as we can. Yep.

Officer Peters: I believe we’ll have, through one of the. Police department’s, Facebook pages, we’ll have access to Facebook Live. Okay. Hopefully we’ll have the same, through one of the, the fire department.

I think you guys have a Facebook page. Yeah. We’ll just link to yours. We’ll link through and we’ll have a. So we can, we can’t hide. We’re not, we’re not, you get these challenges and we raise the [00:09:00] money and have to do the challenge. We have to do the challenge. There’s no hiding behind it. No hiding behind it.

It’s gonna be live. We have to do it.

Jack Eves: They’re gonna be, everyone’s gonna be watching from the comfort of their home and seeing how this all goes. And obviously raising money for that too. And it’s gonna be easy, convenient ways as well for them to donate. I mean, you mentioned as well, Venmo is we’re gonna have a,

Officer Peters: we’ll have a Venmo account, available.

To make those donations. Okay. And we’ll keep an eye on that. We’ll have some folks keeping an eye on that so that when, there’s a donation made, we know it’s time to, to get to a challenge. And hopefully

Deputy Chief Reynolds: we’ll have this, up probably a week ahead of time. Right Joe? That way we can get some donations to start the challenges right at, to kick off at 10:00 PM Yes.

Officer Peters: We’ll, we’ll have, hopefully, by the end of the weekend I’ll have something put up on Facebook as far as the QR code Okay. To start making some donations, if already had some people approach me wanting to make donations. So, we’ll go from there. Hopefully we start off with a few challenges already pending.

Jack Eves: Yeah, I, I am, I’m just, I wish you guys luck. That’s all I have to say [00:10:00] again. Starting at 10 o’clock on Halloween night itself, that’s one week from today, folks, Courtland Police and Fire Department, as well as Mayor Steve will be at the 1890 house for a lock-in. For some paranormal experiences on probably the worst day you can do it, in my opinion.

All raising money though to benefit the first responders camp as well as the 1890 house. Two big things for this Corland community. You can follow them on their Facebook pages. The City of Corland Fire Department and City of Corland Police Department, they’ll also be having that live stream as well.

Guys, thank you so much for coming in. Is there anything else you want to add real quick?

Officer Peters: I just wanna thank the communities ahead of time. Hopefully we get a, a good turnout on, on Facebook. We, we value the, comments as we’re live. Like I said, we’ll have people watching those to relay the comments to us.

So if you want us to do something, might even get some good

Jack Eves: ideas too from those comments.

Officer Peters: We, we didn’t mention. I was saving that for last, we, we forgot to mention we do need, if one of us refuses to do a [00:11:00] task, we, we do need a bit of a, a, a punishment, if you will, penalty, to, decide what, what we’re gonna do.

If we won’t do a challenge, if it’s a monetary or. Maybe Deputy c Reynolds. You just have to go hang out in the basement for a little bit. The basement I can do

Deputy Chief Reynolds: that doesn’t creep me out. That third floor, that’s a, that’s a whole nother story.

Jack Eves: Penalty suggestions are needed too, folks, and definitely comment them on this as well as their Facebook pages.

I wish you guys luck. I think that’s the only thing I can say.

Deputy Chief Reynolds: I just want to take a second to thank the community for all their support and, different ventures, we’ve gotten into as the fire department, as far as firefighter for day camp, turning the first responder camp or here comes Santa event and things like that.

We truly enjoy interacting with the public on a daily basis, and it means a lot to us to get out in non-emergent situations and interact with both the parents and the children, and we’re just ecstatic to provide this. Free of charge and we hope to keep it going for

Jack Eves: many more years. Yes, and we’re very lucky too in this community to have a active police department and fire department working with the community nonstop [00:12:00] and coming up with all these great events too that are free for kids and families in this area.

Guys, thank you so much for coming in. I’m looking forward to safely watching this online. It’s, it’s gonna be a good one. That is the Corland Police and Fire Department, as well as Mayor Steve at the 1890 house for their paranormal lockdown. That’s gonna be benefiting the first responder camp and 1890 house.

We’ll have that link to of where you guys can easily find it of their Facebook pages online@wxhc.com. Guys, thank you again. Thank you. Thank you for X 1 0 1. I’m Jack Eves.