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It was a tragic Monday at the Maid of the Mist viewing platform as the second jumper in a week shortly after noon.
I spoke to one witness who said the person did not make the water, landing on the concrete below. No one else was reported injured. The Maid boats shut down for the day after the incident.
The tower is 282 feet high. It was built in 1961 and refurbished in 2001 and 2003 with new elevators, improvements to the viewing platform and fritting added to the glass to make it more visible to birds.
Last Tuesday’s jumper reached the water. The only thing to surface after was a single sneaker. A fisherman Monday noticed a body in the river near the mouth of Lake Ontario which may have been that victim but the identity has not been confirmed. Generally people who go over the Falls, if they are found, show up with no clothing.
The body found Monday may have been the person who jumped from the observation deck or the body of the person who jumped into the American Rapids from the pedestrian bridge which also happened last Tuesday but was not reported anywhere but in the Niagara Express.
Park Police don’t often release information on suicides. If you need help, go to a phone and dial 988.
As if that tragedy wasn’t enough for one day, I woke up to a report from RobShots of a severely injured man picked up on Main Street near the Rapids Theater and Jenss. I noticed yesterday dumpsters in front of Jenss and assumed some sort of cleanout had begun.
Other than the Heritage Area art project, that appears to be more work than has happened there than in 15 or 20 years. Think about it, from all the time Hastings and Blue Cardinal had ownership, they only thing that happened was the boards got painted and the Heritage Area decorated the Jenss windows with Polly King portraits. When Mayor Robert Restaino triumphantly called a press conference to celebrate the multi-jurisdictional effort to redevelop the desolate stretch of once-proud Main Street no one could see fit to invite representatives of the Heritage Area even as Polly King's portraits smiled down on the gathering.
