Photos courtesy of Andrea Farwell: Adults have fun at a beanbag toss earlier this year, just one of many events the church sponsors for young and old. A free Family Carnival for the community is planned next Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

YATES – Fun-filled family-oriented events for members and the community are a top priority for the Yates Baptist Church.

Earlier this summer their members decided they wanted to host a free event for the community where the Gospel could be presented, and they decided to host a Family Carnival, with events for the entire family.

A committee was set up, with Corrine Mt. Pleasant as chair.

The event is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 29 at the church on Yates Center Road.

The afternoon will feature games, crafts, animals, prizes, caricatures, face painting, food and archery by Merle Fredericks, a member of the church.

Andrea Farwell, one of the members of the carnival committee, said they had a similar event when they celebrated the church’s bicentennial in 2022 and they are hoping for a large turnout on Saturday as well.

Programs for youth are popular at Yates Baptist Church. Here the youth and leaders pose after a creek float, which was followed by a bonfire.

Yates Baptist Church was founded 204 years ago. She has been a member for nine years, while her husband has attended there his entire life. They are now raising their three children there, Farwell said.

She said it was almost two years ago when Pastor Lyell Drake retired and Pastor Eric Wolbert took the role of lead pastor.

“He has been an answer to our prayers,” she said. “The transition was seamless. The Bible, as God’s inerrant Word, is the foundation of our church and is preached weekly.”

The church has a thriving Wednesday night Family Night program which meets throughout the school year.  Many families join in for dinner, worship, games and Bible study, Farwell said. This year’s Family Night starts Sept. 16 and runs from 5:15 to 7:30 p.m.

The Youth Group at YBC is also very active and gathered throughout the summer for bonfires, pool nights, kickball, bowling and floating down the creek.

The community is also invited to attend worship at 9:45 a.m. Sundays, followed by Sunday School and a family hour at 11:15 a.m.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Anita McCarthy places tickets in baskets up for raffle this afternoon at the Lockstone in a fundraiser for a new Santa School Museum.

There were just over 100 baskets in the raffle. The Albion Betterment Committee put on the benefit to help raise money for a new roof for the museum at 128 North Main St. Organizers say just over $4,000 was raised at the benefit today.

The group has secured a $10,000 grant from the Rochester Area Community Foundation, but the cost is expected to top $70,000 for the roof.

The Betterment Committee will be seeking a grant from Preserve New York for the roof and a grant from the Ralph C. Wilson for arts space and programming on the second floor.

People gather inside the Lockstone for today’s fundraiser.

The Betterment Committee purchased the building at 128 North Main last November from the estate of Henri Pulley. The site is 6,600 square feet. The Betterment Committee said the roof needs to be replaced before a museum opens.

The winning numbers for the basket raffle are called off. From left include Gail Ebbs, Lori Laine and Maureen Bennett. Laine helped secure many of the baskets for the raffle.

She said the museum on Main Street will be a boost for the community and the downtown business district.

“I believe in Albion and Albion needs to be branded,” Laine said. “What is a better brand than Santa Claus?”

The museum will pay homage to the late Charles W. Howard, who created the first Santa School in the world. He ran it on Phipps Road in Albion from 1937 until his death in 1966.

The group wants to develop an interactive tourism center with displays about the Charles W. Howard Santa School and Christmas Park, which Howard ran for many years near his farmhouse on Phipps Road.

Laine said many people still have strong memories of visiting Christmas Park as kids and meeting Santa.

“They hold that place as very special in their hearts,” Laine said.

Nolan Blake, grandson of Betterment Committee member Valerie Rush, served as an elf and took gift baskets to the winners. Rush has long portrayed Mrs. Claus during community events.

Betterment Committee leaders Joe Martilotta, Joe Gehl and Gary Kent have worked for years to promote Charles Howard’s legacy in Albion. Gehl, center, pulled the winning 50/50 ticket. Peter Turkow, the winner, donated the money back to the Betterment Committee.

Gary Simboli played Christmas music from his keyboard during the benefit.

Jesse Colmenero took photos of people and families in a holiday backdrop.

These Santa-themed rocks were painted during the event.

Provided photo from Susan Starkweather Miller

ALBION – The new slate roof is shown on Mount Albion Chapel on Friday. Easton Specialties Inc. in Honeoye Falls put the new Vermont slate on the roof for the chapel, and it was done in a way that the pattern and colors match the original slate from 1875.

The new roof is part of an overall $225,000 restoration of the building.

Local mason Neal Muscarella last year repaired and repointed the chapel’s entire exterior.  The most extensive damage was in the northwest section.

Easton also has rebuilt the northwest corner’s rafters and repaired the roof deck in spots where it has failed over the years. The company installed an ice and water shield, a copper drip edge and flashings.

Mount Albion will host a tour of the cemetery at 6 p.m. on Aug. 30, with the tour led by retired Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin and current Village of Albion Historian Sue Starkweather Miller. There is tour this evening beginning at 6 p.m. at the Otter Creek Cemetery with Town of Gaines Adrienne Kirby (13252 Ridge Road, Gaines).

There will be other substantial work to follow at the chapel including interior replastering of the north wall; electrical upgrades (wiring, outlets, internal and external lighting); heating unit for seasonal use; removal of old floor, repair subfloor and put in a new floor; and refurbish exterior doors and window trim.

The $225,000 for the chapel restoration was funded by donations from the community.

File photo by Tom Rivers: The chapel at Mount Albion Cemetery is shown in September 2024 before getting new mortar and a new roof.

Press Release

BATAVIA – State Senator Kristen Gonzalez will bring her “NY Fights AI Data Centers” Statewide Tour to Genesee County today at 2 p.m. at Eden Cafe in Batavia, 242 Ellicott St Batavia.

The event is hosted by local residents of Genesee County who are concerned about the proposed STREAM US Data Center at the Western New York Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing (STAMP) mega-industrial site in the town of Alabama.

Senator Gonzalez sponsored the Responsible Data Center Development Act (S.10642), which the NYS Legislature passed earlier this year. This event is one stop on the Senator’s statewide tour to learn from communities fighting existing and proposed data centers.

Residents plan to address a wide range of issues, including their experiences with local governments, the potentially detrimental consequences of a data center at STAMP, concerns about PILOT payments, transparency and accountability issues associated with the GCEDC, the public health and environmental impacts, and alternative visions for the future of the site.

The event  will also include time for additional audience comments and discussion with the Senator. The event is open to the public, although in-person attendance is limited and requires an RSVP. The organizers will also livestream the event on zoom.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed Executive Order No. 62 on July 14, 2026, making New York the first state in the country to enact a statewide pause on new hyperscale data center construction. While the Executive Order marks a step toward protecting New Yorkers from the impacts of large-scale data centers, organizers of Sunday’s event hope that this listening session and the Senator’s tour will bolster advocacy efforts towards creating long-term regulations on future data center developments.

Senator Gonzalez’s legislation, the Responsible Data Center Development Act (S.10642), which passed both chambers of the Legislature with bipartisan support in June, codifies important regulations missing from the current Executive Order and ensures public engagement, labor agreements, and energy efficiency standards.

Local residents join advocates around NYS in urging Governor Hochul to sign the Responsible Data Center Development Act to protect New Yorkers after the current Executive Order – which is in effect for up to one year only – has expired.

Today’s listening session represents an opportunity for the downstate-based Senator, Chair of the Senate Committee on Internet and Technology, to hear firsthand how these projects affect rural communities.

People who wish to attend the event in person may RSVP using this link (click here). Those who prefer to watch the proceedings live may join via the Zoom link –https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84465170895.

This headline was gladly welcomed in the Albion Advertiser on August 16, 1945.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 6, No. 23

ALBION – President Truman officially announced Japan’s unconditional surrender to the Allied Forces at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 13, 1945.

The announcement of the ending of this war which had begun on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, was a welcome one. In Albion, factory whistles and bells sounded out the celebration.

Events on the world stage invariably have a local impact.

In that same issue of the Albion Advertiser, an article titled “Medina Man Gives Life in Pacific War” told of the death of Sgt. Stanley W. Dunn, killed in action over the Ryukyus Islands in the Pacific on July 18, 1945. He had served as a top turret gunner on a B-25 with the 405th Bomber Squadron, Fifth Air Force.

The son of Mr. & Mrs. William Dunn of Fletcher Chapel Road in Shelby, Sgt. Dunn was awarded the Purple Heart Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross. His monument is in the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines, the largest of the American overseas military cemeteries, it honors over 17,000 American servicemen

An unusual event, which occurred at the First Methodist Church in Medina on Sunday, August 12, just days before the announcement of the end of the war, was also reported in that issue of the Albion Advertiser. During a service which was being led by Rev. Webb Ayres, the congregation was startled by the sudden appearance of a white dove flying through the church. It perched on an organ pipe at the front of the church and later flew to another part of the church where it remained for the duration of the service. A white dove is generally recognized as the symbol of peace.

Garrett Knaak sent in this photo from 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday of a shelf cloud on Clarendon Road in Albion. This cloud is a low and a horizontal, wedge-shaped cloud that appears at the leading edge of a thunderstorm’s gust front. It signals sudden strong winds and a dramatic drop in temperature.

The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m. for Orleans County and much of Western New York.

The Weather Service also issued a beach hazards statement from Sunday morning through Tuesday evening, warning that strong currents will create dangerous swimming conditions at beaches in Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, Wayne, northern Cayuga, Oswego and Jefferson counties.

Photo by Alexandra Peracciny: Youth are shown in an activity during one of the youth programs held during the summer as part of the Medina Triennial. Here, they are building structures out of toothpicks and marshmallows to see how different materials hold up. They practiced using a variety of foraged and repurposed materials to see what was most sustainable. The final two programs are this Sunday and Aug. 30.

MEDINA – As the Medina Triennial enters into its final weeks, focus is being given to a series of youth programs, led by Medina School teacher and local photographer Alexandra Peracciny.

Peracciny has been leading the free programs throughout the summer, in which children and teenagers were introduced to the ideas behind the Triennial’s artworks through conversations, close looking and hands-on creative activities, said Kari Conte, creative director of the Medina Triennial.

Each workshop offered separate sessions for ages 5-10 and 11-18, allowing activities and discussions to be tailored to different age groups.

The programs encourage young people to think about art in relation to everyday life, community, local history, food, storytelling and the environment.

Participants received Triennial passports to use while visiting the exhibition’s 10 sites throughout Medina. The passports encourage families to experience the full exhibition and connect the individual artworks.

The Medina Triennial is a contemporary art exhibition presented across multiple sites in Medina. Its programs invite residents and visitors of all ages to engage with art and with ideas that relate to the region, its communities and the wider world.

The next program, titled “Nourishing Connection: A Workshop on food and Where it Comes From,”  is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Medina Triennial Hub on North Main Street. The sessions for ages 5-10 begin at 2 p.m., followed by the program for ages 11-18 at 3 p.m.

Inspired by the works of Mary Mattingly and Michael Wang, participants will discuss where food comes from and how caring for their communities can encourage healthier habits. Each participant will then plant seeds to take home.

The final youth program of the summer on Aug. 30 is called “Reflection:” Who We Are and What We’ve Learned.” Sessions begin at noon for ages 5-10 and at 1 p.m. for ages 11-18. Participants will receive the Triennial passports they completed over the summer and reflect on their favorite artworks and the projects they created during the youth program. The closing activity will invite participants to make self-portraits and write descriptions expressing who they are as artists and who they hope to become.

Past programs, which began June 14 with “Everyday Stories,” introduced participants to works by Jean Shin and Tania Candiani. Young people considered how art can celebrate ordinary experiences and make space for many voices. They then created projects inspired by the discussion.

Future Forests on Aug. 9 explored sustainability and deforestation through works by James Beckett, Harun Farocki and FIBRA. Participants used recycled materials to construct structures of their own.

Collective Memory on Aug. 16 drew upon works by Futurefarmers and Gregory Halpern. Participants discussed how one place can contain many stories and perspectives, then created drawings through which they shared their own stories.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The Marti’s on Main art gallery in Albion held a reception on Friday for a new art show featuring Jan Kisiel, Jenna Papponetti, Paul Facklam and Sharon Stewart. The top photo shows Harriet Symons, 10, taking a photo of paintings by her grandmother, Sharon Stewart of Albion.

Sharon Stewart is shown with some of her acrylic landscape paintings. Some of them are from trips she went on to Italy and Greece.

Stewart is a retired math professor from a community college in Kentucky. She and her husband Brian moved to Albion to be close to their daughters and their families, including six grandchildren.

Stewart, 79, was an art minor at Houghton College. She has 21 paintings featured in the new show at Marti’s, which is located at 20 South Main St.

Jenna Papponetti, 26, of Albion has seven charcoal landscape drawings on display featuring the Erie Canal. Papponetti also has written and illustrated three books. For more information on her books and artwork, click here.

Paul Facklam is recently retired as an art teacher at Roy-Hart, working in the elementary, middle and high schools. Before his 27-year teaching career, Facklam worked 20 years as an illustrator.

He has paintings with marshmallows, which he said represent “that soft, sensitive part out us.”

The paintings by Facklam shows marshmallows with fishing lures, billiard balls, and a hammer and nails.

“The hammer and nails represent the difficult or painful things that happen to us,” he said. “The fishing lures symbolize the things that we can be drawn to that are not particularly healthy for us.”

Jan Kisiel, a retired event planner who lives in Holley, has 12 pieces in the art show. She uses egg tempera painting, mixing dry pigment, egg yolk and some water.

The top painting shows a lamb sticking out its tongue. It was inspired from the ‘Good Shepherd” stained-glass window at the Canalside Community Church in Albion, a former United Methodist church. That window shows Jesus as a shepherd with lambs. In the window, one of the lambs is sticking out its tongue.

Kisiel said being an artist and an event planner are similar in that both need a strong attention to details.

For information on Marti’s, click here or call 585-590-9211.

CLARKSON – A Holley man died on Thursday morning after an accident with a farm tractor on Route 19 in Clarkson.

Daniel Kernan, 60, of Holley collided with a tractor just before 6 a.m. on Lake Road in Clarkson. Kernan was driving a SUV.

Kernan was headed northbound near Lawton Road when he collided with a tractor towing a set of 17-foot discs, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office reported.

Karnan was pronounced dead at the scene. The tractor driver wasn’t injured or impaired, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Press Release, Assemblyman Steve Hawley

BROCKPORT – Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C-Batavia) will host a series of town hall meetings in the Village of Brockport & Town of Sweden, Clarkson and Hamlin on Saturday, Aug. 22.

The meetings provide residents with an opportunity to hear updates on state and local issues, ask questions and share concerns directly with their state representative. All members of the community are welcome to attend.

• Village of Brockport and Town of Sweden from 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. at Sweden Town Hall, 18 State St., Brockport, NY 14420
• Town of Clarkson from 11 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. at Clarkson Town Hall, 3710 Lake Rd. N., Clarkson, NY 14430
• Town of Hamlin from noon to 12:45 p.m. at Hamlin Town Hall, 1658 Lake Rd. N., Hamlin, NY 14464

Press Release, Holley Central School

HOLLEY – The Holley school district will host Homecoming Weekend on Oct. 2-3, and registration is now open until Sept. 8 for the annual Alumni Soccer and Alumni Football games.

The games are open to all Holley alumni who graduated from the district on or before 2023. Participants do not need to have played the sport while attending Holley to take part.

The Alumni Soccer Game will be held on Friday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. at Sander Soccer Field at The Woodlands. To register to play in the game, complete the registration form: Holley Alumni Soccer Game Registration.

Alumni cheerleaders are also invited to participate during the soccer game. To register to cheer for the game, complete the registration form: Holley Alumni Soccer Game – Cheerleading Registration.

The Alumni Flag Football Game will take place on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 4:30 p.m. at Hawk Stadium. To register to play in the game, complete the registration form: Holley Alumni Football Game Registration.

The Alumni Soccer Game will benefit the Interact Club and the Eighth Grade Washington, D.C., Trip Scholarship Fund. The Alumni Football Game will benefit the Holley JV/Varsity Wrestling teams.

ALBION – A man pleaded guilty for his role as  one of three co-defendants in a series of burglaries at Brockport-Clarendon Self-Storage at 4510 Hall Rd. in Clarendon.

Antonio Suarez, 38, admitted in Orleans County Court on Wednesday that he entered Unit 7 at the self-storage on Jan. 3 to steal property. He acknowledged he was committing the crime with the two other defendants, Erin Starkweather and Phillip Martinez.

Suarez pleaded guilty burglary in the third degree. As part of a plea agreement, he faces a maximum of 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 18. Without a plea agreement, the charge would carry a sentence of 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison.

Suarez and the codefendants need to repay restitution of $11,178 to cover the costs of damages and for items not recovered.

In other cases in court on Wednesday,

• Michael Savage, 38, of Murray was sentenced to three years of probation for endangering the welfare of a child. He also will pay $750 in court fees and fines.

Savage faced more serious charges of course of conduct against a child, two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree, and forcible touching. The crimes allegedly occurred between 2020 and March 2025, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

The victim’s father said the crimes left his daughter suicidal and traumatized.

Frederick Rarick, Savage’s attorney, said the sexual abuse allegations were never brought up when the victim was interviewed by teachers, a therapist and physician.

“Cases like this are very difficult to defend,” Rarick said.

Judge Sanford Church issued an order of protection for five years for the victim in the case.

• Madison Desso of Lockport pleaded guilty to felony DWI on March 30 while in Murray. He faces a split sentence of six months in jail and five years on probation when he is sentenced on Nov. 18. He has a prior charge of driving while under the influence of alcohol in Syracuse in 2016.

• James Kaiser, 51, an inmate at the Orleans Correctional Facility, was arraigned on three counts of promoting prison contraband in the first degree and two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree.

Kaiser on Nov. 22 is accused of knowingly introducing dangerous contraband into the men’s prison in Albion. He allegedly had the precursors to make methamphetamine and also allegedly possessed 5.25 grams of meth.

Kaiser is currently at Orleans Correctional Facility, serving a sentence of 3 years, 6 months for attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree.

Photos courtesy of Marlene Seielstad

ALBION – The Albion Rotary Club on Thursday presented a ceremonial check for $5,000 to the Office for the Aging in Orleans County. Rotary held its annual golf tournament last month at Shelridge Country Club in Medina and most of the proceeds will go towards the OFA’s volunteer transportation program, which provides rides for local senior citizens to medical appointments and essential errands.

Pictured from left include tournament committee leader Cindy Perry-Follman, OFA director Melissa Blanar, OFA employee and golf tournament committee member Becky Karls, and OFA employees Jackie Taylor and Kathleen Bates.

For information about senior rides and volunteer driving, contact the Office for the Aging at (585) 589-3191

Kathleen Bates also was honored and welcomed as a “Friend of Rotary.” Bates has volunteered at many Rotary community events, including the golf tournament, dinners and by selling light-up toys at Albion’s July 3^rd celebration at Bullard Park.

She was presented with the honor by Becky Karls and Rotary President Mike Bonnewell, left.

The Rotary Club meets the first and third Thursdays at Tavern on the Ridge with the first meeting at noon and the second meeting at dinner time.

Photos by Tom Rivers: Joanne Suhr leads the Lyndonville Board of Education meeting on Tuesday.

LYNDONVILLE – When Joanne Suhr was elected to serve as president of the Lyndonville Board of Education last month, school officials thought she might be making history as the first woman to serve in the role.

After digging deep in district history, it turns out Suhr is the second woman to serve as board president. Elaine Wilson was the first back in 1958-’59.

Suhr was elected by the other board members on July 14 to serve as board president this school year. She joined the board about a year ago. She was elected as a board member on May 20, 2025.

Suhr retired in June 2022 after working 30 years as an elementary school teacher. Her final year she was honored as the district’s “Educator of the Year” when she was a third grade teacher who specialized in teaching math.

She also has served on the Town of Yates Planning Board and the Town of Yates Bicentennial Committee.

During this past Tuesday’s meeting, she said the district is getting ready for the new school year, with contractors working long hours on a capital project. Some of that construction work will extend into the school year with crews working after the school day is over, Suhr said.

Some of the work includes new ADA-compliant bathrooms, new HVAC and air conditioning, and new windows for the upstairs of the schools.

Suhr succeeds Patrick Whipple as the board president.

Joanne Suhr leads the meeting on Tuesday in the school cafeteria. Next to her are Dr. Heather Lyon, the district superintendent at left, and Tanya Marek, administrative assistant to the superintendent at right.