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Aurora residents draw line at
plan by Rowland to change Fargo bar

April 17, 2005
By Dave Tobin / Syracuse Post-Standard

Want a glass of wine at the Fargo bar in Aurora? Pick a color.

"You're not going to get a wine list," said Kristine Gans, a Fargo bartender. "You're going to get, 'Pink, white or red?"

Some in Aurora wonder if this kind of unpretentious ambience, and lots more, will change when the Aurora Foundation takes over management of this small village's only watering hole on June 1.

Wells College, which owns the Fargo property, has chosen not to renew the lease of current Fargo owner James Orman. The tavern is being handed to the Aurora Foundation LLC, a company set up by Wells alumna Pleasant Rowland, to renovate and manage Wells' commercial properties.

Aurora, a village on Cayuga Lake, is home to Wells College, which has a commanding presence in this community of 720 residents. News of a change at the Fargo has generated outrage, letters of concern and phone calls to the college and the foundation, a 200-signature petition - and two bumper stickers.

At issue is more than the fate of a bar. It's evolved into a communitywide questioning of the influence and approach of Rowland, the community's wealthy benefactor, who rarely appears in public to discuss her actions and declines media interviews.

Since 2001, Rowland, a native of Madison, Wis., has spent tens of millions of dollars out of her own pocket renovating Wells' campus and its commercial buildings - $18 million in just the last three years, according to tax records. She has torn down some, moved and rebuilt others. Through her Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, she pays operating expenses for businesses she runs, and directs all profits to Wells College.

Along the way, she has encountered resistance at nearly every turn. Wells College fought one legal battle over her plans for the historic Aurora Inn, when a local group tried unsuccessfully to block sweeping changes.

So far, she has prevailed, sprucing up Main Street, professionalizing businesses, raising prices, and recently earning a six-page photo spread for Wells' Aurora properties in the March/April issue of Brides magazine. Just outside the village, she spent $5.1 million to buy the cash-strapped MacKenzie-Childs Ltd. company, preventing it from going under and saving more than 240 jobs.

Rowland's efforts have earned support from village and college leaders, business owners and many residents, who have welcomed her philanthropy, and given her a chance to prove her vision for the village.

After graduating from Wells, Rowland did not return to Aurora for decades. She founded Pleasant Co., the enormously successful maker of American Girl dolls that she eventually sold to Mattel for $700 million, and created the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, which now funds her philanthropy.

But recent news that her foundation will take control of the village's only tavern has roused anger and protests from many who previously gave Rowland unqualified support. New bumper stickers display the mood - "Keep Aurora Weird," and "Aurora Was Pleasant."

"The shine has worn off," said Frank Zimdahl, Aurora fire chief, who had been a staunch Rowland supporter. "She has done a lot of wonderful stuff. But it's reached the point where people are saying, 'Wait a second. What's happening here?' "

Wells College employs nearly 200 people, helping boost median household income in the village of Aurora to $57,222 in the last census, the most of any municipality in Cayuga County. Many employees and former employees of the college live in the village, and the village government is run by people with Wells connections.

Village trustee George Farenthold is married to Wells College President Lisa Marsh Ryerson. Mayor Tom Gunderson is Wells superintendent of buildings and grounds. Assistant Mayor James Chase is Wells director of custodial services. Village trustee Ken Zabriskie is brother to Steve Zabriskie, who for the past 10 years has been chairman of Wells College board of trustees. Village trustee Janet Murphy is a Wells graduate.

On the Fargo issue, all but Farenthold have asked Wells College in writing to renew Orman's lease.

As village officials, Gunderson, Chase, Ken Zabriskie and Murphy sent a letter to Ryerson, expressing concern over "loss of the Fargo as our villagers know it . . . we are witnessing an incredible makeover of our hometown," they wrote. "We need to stand in support of preserving some of our hometown culture, a culture that simply can't be ignored or altered to center around one central theme or influence."

Steve Zabriskie was among nearly 200 who signed a letter to Rowland, supporting the continued ownership of the Fargo by Orman.

"People like their place," said Zabriskie. "It's like an old bathrobe and a pair of slippers. It's the people that make the place."

Wells College officials say that having the Aurora Foundation manage the bar will ensure steady, consistent management, and increase revenue for the college. Foundation officials have asked Fargo employees to continue working at the Fargo.

Wells College officials note the Aurora Foundation already has a strong interest in the Fargo. Two years ago, the foundation paid to renovate the bar.

Orman, whohas leased the bar for seven years, pays $580 a month to rent the space. He would not say what his annual profit was.

The Fargo has had a string of owners since opening in 1939. It has a dark, pub-like atmosphere, serves lunch, and at night serves burgers, wings, and leftover lunch specials. It can get rowdy and loud, with patrons spilling out onto the deck in back, the front porch, the street.

Wells College and Aurora Foundation officials insist the Fargo's atmosphere won't change. Regular patrons aren't so sure. They have had three years to witness Rowland's work, and her distinctive mark is too tidy, too perfect, too consistent for them to trust that it won't be laid on the Fargo.

Rowland rarely personally addresses concerns about her plans. Her local spokeswoman, Katie Waller, questions why people are so upset about the Fargo. "The suspicions - I guess that's what you'd call it, suspicions - or rumors abounding are so not true," she said.

"You need some grubbiness in a village," said Sheila Edmunds, village historian. "If everything is uniform, we might as well live in Disneyland."

Op-Ed Article in Auburn Citizen
June 20, 2005

Maybe Aurora will one day be pleasant again

As a 45-year resident of Aurora, I applaud The Citizen’s willingness to give such fulsome coverage to the unfolding saga of Pleasant Rowland’s attempt to buy and control our lovely lakeside village. It is an astounding story and well worth the time and obvious effort which your staff has devoted to it. However, there are aspects of the situation which have been misunderstood or inadequately reported.

For example, there is an oft-repeated characterization running throughout coverage of Ms. Rowland’s activities that Aurora was, as The Citizen put it yet again on May 8th, “a once-struggling village.” As one who resided here long before Pleasant came, I did not think we were struggling, and I seriously doubt that a majority of my fellow villagers thought so either. I think it’s time to stop using this misinterpretation as an excuse for what Ms. Rowland has done to our community. The bumper -sticker currently found on local vehicles sums up the feelings of many residents: “Aurora Was Pleasant Before!”

Ms. Rowland has been characterized by her employees as a philanthropist. In this situation, the term is a misnomer. The assertion that she “will not realize one penny from her involvement” is somewhat misleading. She receives large tax breaks on the funds she donates to Wells College, a non-profit organization. Then these donations are transferred into the management of the Aurora Foundation which she controls.

Thus, Ms. Rowland can have her cake and eat it too.

She gets a tax break for her donations, yet continues to control these assets through the Aurora Foundation. The word “foundation” implies that it is a charitable trust, but in fact it is a privately-held commercial corporation. As such, its financial and tax records are not open to full public inspection. So it may be impossible to assess the accuracy of her spokesperson’s claim that “any profit [made by the foundation] will be turned over to Wells.”

Another mistaken notion which your coverage perpetuates is that Rowland “restored” the Aurora Inn. What she actually did is characterized by state and national preservation organizations as a “gut-rehab”. She completely destroyed and re-configured the interior, and altered much of the exterior as well. Despite the claims of the Aurora Foundation, the Inn was not restored or in any way returned to its original condition. It lost all its integrity and character to become a cheap-looking Disney version of an imaginary colonial inn. Words have meaning, and should represent the truth. The term ‘”restoration” is false when applied to the Aurora Inn.

Other questionable statements by foundation representatives include the assertion that over 100 jobs have been created by the businesses managed by the foundation. This seems a very high figure for the number of establishments involved, and it appears to some of us living here that most of these jobs have gone to persons from outside the community.

Furthermore, long-established local business-persons have been prevented from continuing their work in Aurora, because the foundation, which controls almost all the business premises in town, refuses to rent to them.

Village taxes in Aurora are very modest. As the foundation’s property purchases (at prices far above assessed value) and its extravagant gut-rehab projects expand our tax base, we could see some small reduction in village taxes. But such benefit will be far overshadowed when the inevitable rise in our home-owner assessments, forced up by the foundation’s spending spree, leads to large increases in each home’s school and county taxes. Your paper needs to look beyond the figures the foundation’s apologists provide and examine the true impact of its development program.

Finally, Katie Waller, Executive Director of the Aurora Foundation, alleged that statements by a grass-roots preservation organization which has opposed some actions of the foundation are "lies."

She failed to specify what statements by the Aurora Coalition, Inc. she believed untrue, and apparently your reporter looked no further. Without specifics or proof, Ms. Waller’s accusation is simply name-calling.

It is my hope that you will continue your coverage of this unfolding drama, but with increased attention to the completeness and accuracy of all the complex facts involved. Perhaps, with the increased concern and involvement of an informed public, Aurora will someday be pleasant again.

Crawford R. Thoburn
Aurora
***

° FATE OF THE FARGO °

Aurora Uproar

Wells opts not to renew manager’s contract

By Louise Hoffman Broach / The Citizen
April 14, 2005

AURORA - When Jim Orman signed a seven-year lease on the building that housed the Fargo Bar and Grill in 1998, he figured he would run the establishment until he was ready to retire.

But June 1, the Fargo will be taken over by the Aurora Foundation.

Wells College owns the building and has declined to renew Orman's lease, which would allow the foundation to manage the Fargo. The foundation, started by Wells alumna and philanthropist Pleasant Rowland, also runs the Aurora Inn, Pizzaurora, Dorie's Ice Cream shop and several other businesses in the village.

The foundation has invested millions of dollars in the village, but there are critics of their methods.

Orman, 58, said he's being forced out for a decision he's been told is in the college's best interest. It leaves him without an occupation, and it leaves Aurora without the neighborhood tavern on Main Street that he and two other independent business owners before him operated for decades.

"It's more than just a bar, it's a social center," said Orman, an Aurora native who gave up a job with Monroe County and moved back to Aurora full-time to operate the Fargo. "It caters to the needs of a small town."

Orman said when the foundation renovated the Fargo — some referred to it as Rowland's redecorating — he was consulted about changes he wanted.

That's why he's disappointed the college is not renewing his lease. Originally the lease expired March 31, but Orman was granted a final two-month extension.

Many have rallied in his favor. There have been petition drives and the village board drafted a letter to the foundation, asking that the decision be reconsidered. Four of the five members of the board signed the letter.

Katie Waller, who runs the foundation, said Wells College made the decision to end the relationship with Orman. She's looking ahead to setting up a stable transition; all six of the people who work for Orman have been asked to stay on.

"I don't anticipate changes," Waller said.

But some say it will not be the same without Orman.

"There is something rare, special and curiously appealing in the small town bar atmosphere of the Fargo," said village resident Laura Holland, who recently wrote a letter to Rowland, asking the foundation to leave the Fargo's operation under a lease agreement. "It is also raunchy, surprising and fun."

The argument about the Fargo brings into focus an uncomfortable position in which many Aurora residents have found themselves.

While they appreciate how Rowland's generosity has revitalized the village, they say it has threatened the security of existing merchants if they happen to rent space in college-owned buildings.

"It's our responsibility to use our properties to support the college," said Ann Rollo, Wells' vice president for external relations. "The foundation absorbs costs and losses and Wells gets the profits. It's an extraordinary gift of philanthropy."

Aurora resident and Fargo regular Jay O'Hearn views it differently. He sees Orman's operation of the establishment as being integral to what it has become. The foundation, O'Hearn said, could erode that through what he implied may be corporate-type decisions.

"For many in town, the Fargo is the heart and soul of the village, a reflection of the quirky uniqueness of Aurora," O'Hearn said. "Foundation control of the Fargo would inexorably compromise its free-wheeling atmosphere and consequently degrade its special charm."

The letter from the village, O'Hearn hopes, "draws a line in the sand" for the foundation and where development is going.

Village board member Jim Chase said the letter to the foundation encourages locally operated businesses in Aurora.

"Not everything should be run by the foundation," he said. "The foundation has done tremendous things. I am in support of the way it made things look. But there should be an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to have a presence."

Like many people in Aurora, Chase works for Wells College, where he is director of facilities. Mayor Tom Gunderson is superintendent of buildings and grounds at Wells and George Farenthold is married to Wells College President Lisa Marsh Ryerson.

Chase said the connections to the college can put people in a difficult position, trying to balance community interests with college goals.

Farenthold didn't sign the letter because he doesn't find it to be the village's place to tell the college how to run its properties. He said it is better economically for the school to have the foundation underwrite businesses in college-owned buildings.

"The deal the foundation has with the college is to rehab properties to be a functional revenue stream for the college," he said.

He also has an issue with the idea that only someone local should run the Fargo.

"How do you define local?" he asked, noting he's lived in Aurora 10 years. There are people who have come to Aurora before and after who claim to have as much of a stake in the community, he pointed out.

Waller's hope is the community will wait and see how the Fargo operates under new management.

"The hope is they will be happy with the end result," she said.

Orman, meanwhile, said he's not sure what he will do next.

"This was my future," he said.

More info on the Rowland-Wells alliance to transform Aurora may be found on another website.