Published: July 18, 2008 08:58 am      

Planter to be dedicated in memory of Cerutti

CUMBERLAND — Colin DeVore remembers his grandmother bringing him downtown for sweet rolls nearly a decade ago.

At the time, none of the fountains worked, many of the buildings were vacant and few people ventured along the pedestrian mall.

As he sits outside the Manhattan Bar & Grill on a Tuesday afternoon and sees business booming and visitors strolling the bricks in the city’s Town Centre, he can’t help but attribute much of the success to his grandmother.

“If it was day time, this was where she was,” he said of Sue Cerutti, who introduced dining al fresco to the downtown.

On her birthday, Saturday, at 7 p.m., the planter outside the restaurant will be dedicated to Cerutti, who died April 23, 2007, from ovarian cancer. She was 69.

“Sue Cerutti was a constant champion for downtown Cumberland, and for the entire city of Cumberland,” Becky McClarran, a member of the Downtown Cumberland Business Association, said. “Without her initial vision, the renaissance of downtown in all its facets — retail, dining, arts and entertainment, business — it would simply not have been the success it has become.”

Cerutti and Ed Mullaney were named downtown co-managers in 1998 and the joint venture worked.

Mullaney calls his former colleague a visionary who was confident and well-read. Her husband, Dick, was like a third downtown manager and was supportive of each of her endeavors — all of which centered on giving back to the community.

Cerutti was a native of Frostburg and Mullaney called her one of that city’s “greatest gifts to Cumberland.” He looks at the eight planters along the mall and said like those centerpieces, Cerutti was one.

“Aurora,” a statue Cerutti admired, has been moved from the Western Maryland Health System’s Braddock campus and will be placed in the planter. Dr. Nick Giarritta and his wife, Shirley, originally donated it to Sacred Heart Hospital nearly 40 years ago.

The health system donated the artwork to downtown and Jim Odgers, who has a foundry on Baltimore Street, worked to clean it.

Danny Glantzer, a Downtown Development Commission employee; the city’s parks and recreation department through Reuben Lease; Paul Eriksson, the city’s natural resources specialist; and volunteers from the Allegany County Human Resources Development Commission also have been instrumental in preparing the planter.

Arts-N-Letters designed the plaque that will recognize Cerutti’s accomplishments.

Flowers donated by the Allegany County Commission on Women, the DDC and private individuals also will be planted.

DeVore has been right there preparing the planter.

A senior at Frostburg State University majoring in recreation and parks management, he is interning with Mullaney. It’s an experience he’s sure would meet his grandmother’s approval.

“The first couple of days I was looking for her without realizing it,” he said.

Margi Gagliano often had lunch with the managers and said Cerutti’s legacy is deserving of the dedication.

“She was a prominent fixture downtown,” she said. “She didn’t just reside in Cumberland, she lived here. She truly did.”

Cerutti befriended Evelyn Kauffman, who became the volunteer downtown office manager and a lunch companion, even in the Cerutti household on Sundays.

“I don’t think it’s enough,” she said of the planter. “They should do more — put a memorial up some place here. She was a wonderful person. ... She was a remarkable person.”

Contact Maria Smith at msmith@times-news.com.