By Jeanne Sager
JEFFERSONVILLE — December 10, 2004 – It’s a sure bet that Jeffersonville has the inside scoop on The Learning Channel’s newest show – but now residents will be enjoying their 15 minutes of fame three hours earlier than the rest of the country.
Thanks to an offer from Time Warner Cable, the village will offer a one-time private screening of the January 22 episode of TLC’s “Town Haul,” the show set and filmed this fall in Jeffersonville.
Open to the public but invitation-based, the party will kick off with the show’s premiere at 7 p.m. – the rest of the country will have to wait until 10 p.m. to tune in for the first-ever episode of the show.
According to Village Clerk Louise Gorr, Time Warner will be footing the bill – they only asked that the village find a place to hold the screening.
St. George’s Pope John Hall, which will hold more than 200 people, seems like the perfect place, said Mayor Ed Justus.
A number of “free” offers flooded into the village hall during the Wednesday meeting of the village board.
Contractor Tom Maus, who ironically owns a company named TLC Construction, offered his own crews to expedite work left to be done on the village hall – work that the film crews did not complete before heading to their second location in South Carolina.
“I know there’s problems with financing in the village,” Maus said.
Kohlertown resident Jack Costello, who volunteered during filming doing everything from painting to construction, was also in attendance to offer his assistance on any remaining projects.
“The list goes endlessly,” Costello said. “We’re just trying to make everyone happy because, yes, they’re out of town.”
Costello said he and wife Doris would also be glad to chaperone events in the teen center created by TLC in the upstairs of the village hall.
“It looks beautiful up there,” he said. “If it falls down because of a negative vote, that’s one thing.
“But if it’s because of no volunteers . . .”
Costello said he’s talked to a total of five people, some village residents and some village business owners, who would be willing to donate their time to make the teen center a viable option for the village.
Justus said the teen center won’t be open anytime soon because there’s still a lot of work to be done – an elevator has to be installed to provide handicapped accessibility, and there’s still electrical work to be done.
“We don’t even have a [certificate of occupancy] up there yet,” Justus said.
Justus thanked both Maus and Costello for their offers and made a blanket thank you to the many volunteers who have been helping out – both during and after filming.
He said details will be released in the future about the special screening for the first episode.