Joseph Smith from Kent, N.Y., and assigned to the 222nd Military Police Company received a promotion to the rank of specialist on November 21, 2020.
Major General Ray Shields, the Adjutant General for the State of New York, announced the recent promotion of the member of the New York Army National Guard.
Army National Guard promotions are based on overall performance, attitude, leadership ability, and development potential.
Photo courtesy of Orleans County Sheriff’s Office: Pictured from left include Orleans County Undersheriff Michael Mele, Sheriff Christopher Bourke, Sheriff’s Investigator Kevin Colonna, Trooper Scott Gregson, and State Police Sgt. Glenn Rigerman
ALBION – Two local law enforcement officers have been recognized with “Life Saver” awards from Orleans County Sheriff Chris Bourke after they revived a man in the Albion Walmart.
On Nov. 3, State Trooper Scott Gregson was handling an incident in the Security Office of the Walmart in Albion. Trooper Gregson was in the process of conducting interviews when a 77-year-old man slowly sat down, leaned over face first and grabbed his chest.
Trooper Gregson contacted the Sheriff’s Dispatch Center for an ambulance. Orleans County Sheriff’s Investigator Kevin Colonna arrived on scene.
The man had become unresponsive and was not breathing. Gregson and Colonna began chest compressions and connected an A.E.D. (automated external defibrillator) and a shock was given. Shortly thereafter the man began breathing and had a faint pulse.
Central Orleans Volunteer Ambulance (COVA) arrived and took over the medical assistance to the victim, and transported him to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.
“The quick decisive actions of Trooper Gregson and Sheriff’s Investigator Kevin Colonna on November 3rd, 2020, without doubt, saved the life of another human being,” Sheriff Bourke said. “The seamless coordination and quick response by these law enforcement officers serves to exemplify the great working relationship that exists between the New York State Police and the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office.”
Bourke last month presented Gregson and Colonna with the Sheriff’s “Life Saver” award. The two were also recognized on Wednesday at the Orleans County Legislature meeting. Legislators acknowledged the life-saving actions of the two law enforcement officers and read into the record the details surrounding the Life Saver Award.
ROCHESTER – Several Orleans County residents who are Nazareth College students have been named to the Fall 2020 Dean’s List. A student’s grade point average must be at least 3.5 or above, and they must complete 12 credit hours of graded work that semester in order to be included on the dean’s list at Nazareth.
The following from Orleans County made the list:
Photo by Derek Reiner/Supportive Care of Orleans: Gilbert Cain of Medina, a volunteer at Supportive Care of Orleans (Hospice), was honored this week by the New York State Office for the Aging as an outstanding community service volunteer.
ALBION – Gilbert Cain has volunteered for Hospice (now known as Supportive Care of Orleans) since June 2015. This week, in celebration of the annual Older New Yorkers’ Day, Cain was recognized by Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and director of the New York State Office for the Aging, Greg Olsen, in a virtual ceremony.
Because Cain does not have access to the internet, Supportive Care of Orleans streamed the broadcast for him at their Conference and Counseling Center on the Hospice grounds on Route 31 in Albion.
Hospice patients and family members are amazed all Cain does at the age of 85. He has mastered the hospice residence volunteer meal service position and now trains new volunteers. He won the 2018 Hospice of Orleans Volunteer of the Year Award for outstanding volunteer service. In 2019, he provided more than 700 hours of service.
“Gil is the kind of volunteer who takes time to learn people’s favorite foods and makes certain those foods are available,” said Derek Reiner, manager of Development and Public Relations at Supportive Care of Orleans. “Gil has been known to deliver spaghetti dinners, lemon pie and special donuts to patients at all hours of the day and night. Gil donates holiday meals prepared by Tops and Wegmans for residence patients and their families. He works at least six shifts per week in the Martin-Linsin Hospice Residence. Gil also participates in hospice fundraisers and is a friendly, welcoming face around the campus. We can’t wait to welcome Gil and all of our volunteers back to campus once the pandemic ends.”
Cain retired from Lipton’s after 38 years, where he worked as a distribution analyst. In addition to volunteering at Hospice, he is an active volunteer in his church.
Cain would tell others that volunteering is a great way to keep your mind and body busy.
“Volunteering and giving to others is a great way to lift your spirits and feel rewarded at the end of the day,” he said.
Press Release, New York National Guard
Major General Ray Shields, the Adjutant General for the State of New York, announces the recent promotion of members of the New York Army National Guard in recognition of their capability for additional responsibility and leadership.
Nickolas Richardson from Holley and assigned to the 222nd Military Police Company received a promotion to the rank of private first class on September 13.
Army National Guard promotions are based on overall performance, attitude, leadership ability, and development potential.
These promotions additionally recognize the best qualified soldiers and attract and retain the highest caliber citizen soldiers for a career in the New York Army National Guard.
The New York National Guard (New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs) is the state’s executive agency responsible to the governor for managing New York’s military forces, which consists of nearly 20,000 members of the New York Army National Guard, the New York Air National Guard, the New York Naval Militia and the New York Guard.
Provided photos: John Mignano, left, and David Pollock both recently retired after 25 years as corrections officers in the Orleans County Jail.
ALBION – Two leaders among corrections officer sin the Orleans County Jail were recently retired on their retirements. John Mignano and David Pollock both worked 25 years as corrections officers and were lieutenants.
Lt. Michael Christopher sent in the following in the following information about Mignano and Pollock.
John Mignano
John Mignano started full time on Oct. 1, 1990 and retired on June 29, 2020. He was promoted to rank of sergeant after five years as a corrections officer and then was promoted to lieutenant on February 2000.
He was in charge of ordering cleaning materials and inmate products for many years. He took pride in having a clean jail and personally supervised it on the administrative level on a nearly nightly basis.
He is also known to have received over a dozen funny nicknames over his career from staff and inmates. He plans on spending a lot of time with his two young grandsons and has always been an avid German Shepherd owner.
He also is a big Harley Davidson owner and follower often going to Sturgis, South Dakota for the bike rally. He and his wife Janet have frequented the Full Throttle Saloon that was a popular TV series for a few seasons. Interestingly, they have become friends with owners Michael and Angie Ballard.
David Pollock
David Pollock started full time as a corrections officer on Aug. 22, 1995. He retired on Sept. 12, 2020. He was promoted to sergeant in March 2000, and then was promoted to lieutenant in January 2002.
He was also certified NYS instructor, most notably an excellent firearms instructor. He took the most pride in being very precise on facility paperwork, organization, documentation and storage.
He and his wife Sharon plan on spending time with their very young and newly born grandchildren from both his son and his daughter. Interestingly his wife retired from her job the day before his last day.
His retirement decision was made much easier knowing he would get to spends lots of time with the grandchildren and his wife. They spend a lot of time going to craft shows and toy train shows together and both are animal lovers. Dave has a huge hobby of collecting train sets, post cards and is a huge world history buff.
Both John and Dave had farewell parties on June 29th and Sept 10th, respectively. The parties were put on by the Orleans County Sheriffs Employee Association Local 2966.
Many current and former employees attended both parties. Both had pizza, wings, cakes and laughs.
Superintendent Scott Wilson, Sheriff Christopher Bourke and Undersheriff Michael Mele attended both parties and presented both with recognition plaques and certificates of appreciation.
Union Vice President Michael Christopher presented both with plaques for their 25 years of service to Orleans County. Christopher has started a 25-year Orleans County employee recognition wall at the jail and in 911 dispatch. The two retiring lieutenants make it seven officers on the 25-year jail wall.
Photo courtesy of Thom Jennings: Bryan DeGraw is shown with winning meads produced by 810 Meadworks in Medina.
MEDINA – A Medina meadery has won two international awards for its mead, including the top honor for Scarlett A.
810 Meadworks made that fermented mead with cranberries, blueberries and cider. It won the gold medal, beating out 13 other entries in the cyzer category which include mead made with apples.
Bryan DeGraw, co-owner and meadmaker, also was awarded a bronze medal for Sweet Devotion. It was third out of 36 entries in the fruit/vegetable melomel – semi-sweet category. That mead from 810 Meadworks features currants.
DeGraw and his wife LaRissa opened 810 Meadworks in downtown Medina about six years ago. This is the first time the business has been recognized with a gold medal at the Mazer Cup International, a contest held annually in Denver.
Normally the results are announced in March, but the judging was pushed back due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The winners were announced on Oct. 2.
“I completely forgot about it,” DeGraw said about the competition.
He said a post about the results on the group’s Facebook page and felt humbled to be recognized by the industry.
“the beauty of it is the judges are primarily mead makers,” DeGraw said. “It’s an award of your peers. So I’m very proud of it.”
810 Meadworks has seen an uptick in orders for the winning meads and others since the results were announced.
He acknowledged mead is niche in the alcohol industry, but is on the rise. When 810 Meadworks opened six years ago, there were about 150 meaderies in the United States. Now there are about 600. In New York, it has grown from five to more than 20 during that time.
810 Meadworks has a tasting room/mead bar open Friday through Sunday at 113 West Center St. It has partnered with Sourced Market & Eatery to have sandwiches available to meet guidelines from the state for consuming alcohol.
For more of the Mazer Cup, click here.
BUFFALO – Buffalo State is pleased to welcome the Class of 2024 to campus. The new Bengals started class on August 31, 2020.
Buffalo State is a State University of New York college located in Buffalo, New York. The college offers 79 undergraduate majors as well as many minors and certificate programs. Every year, thousands of students benefit from Buffalo State’s community engagement, hands-on learning opportunities, and affordable SUNY tuition. Buffalo State also offers more than 60 graduate programs.
State Assemblyman Steve Hawley
Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) recently testified in a virtual Zoom New York State Department of Labor public hearing regarding an upcoming decision on resetting the overtime threshold for farm laborers.
Concerned with the rashness of the actions attempted to be taken on this issue, during a pandemic, Hawley suggested that a delay in the decision-making would be most advantageous for farmers and their farms, and that the state should be doing as little as possible to interfere with their already modest margins.
“As someone with farming experience myself, I can tell you that however well-intentioned the lowering of the overtime threshold is for the farm workers, the actual farm employers themselves won’t be able to sustain these changes; certainly not in the economic world we’re living in right now,” Hawley said. “The last thing New York needs to be looking to do is strangle our farms and our farmers into submission.”
Hawley said during his testimony on Monday, “Why would we want to increase costs for our agricultural producers, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic economic calamity? Workers are considered family; average wages are $13/hour. In many cases, housing and food are provided. Even during good economic times, implementing mandatory increased labor costs for agriculture is a bad idea. Farmers have little to no control over prices they receive for their product, and with variations in factors like weather, long hours are necessary.”
In a closing note, Hawley said, “We need to protect New York state’s number one industry: Agriculture. [We should] delay the implementation of lowering the overtime threshold.”
ALFRED – Several Orleans County residents are among the 840 students who earned degrees at Alfred State College recently.
The following from Orleans earned diplomas:
ROCHESTER – Rochester Institute of Technology conferred some 4,000 degrees at all of its campuses in the 2019-2020 academic year. A virtual celebration was held May 8.
The following local residents received degrees:
Rochester Institute of Technology is home to leading creators, entrepreneurs, innovators and researchers. Founded in 1829, RIT enrolls about 19,000 students in more than 200 career-oriented and professional programs, making it among the largest private universities in the U.S.
ALFRED – Dr. Kristin Poppo, provost at Alfred State College, has announced the Dean’s List of academically impressive students for spring 2020. To be listed, students must have completed at least 12 credit hours for the semester and earned a 3.5 grade point average out of a possible 4.0. For the most recent semester, the dean’s list includes 980 students. In addition, 293 of these students achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA. The 4.0 GPA students are indicated with an asterisk (*).
Those students honored were enrolled full-time in either the School of Applied Technology; School of Architecture, Management and Engineering Technology; or the School of Arts and Sciences.
The following Orleans County students were among those recognized:
Photo by Tom Rivers: Mike and Cheryl Wertman cover a local track and field competition in this photo from April 30, 2019. The two were honored by the Basketball Coaches Association of New York for their commitment to covering high school sports in Orleans and Niagara counties.
A husband and wife who have been covering local high school sports for several decades have received a state-wide award for their dedication.
Mike Wertman, the Orleans Hub sports editor, and Cheryl Wertman, the Hub’s sports photographer, have been recognized with the “Golden Media Award” by the Basketball Coaches Association of New York.
Brett Sippel, coach of the Wilson boys varsity team, nominated the Wertmans.
“Mike and Cheryl are relentless workers,” Sippel said today.
He has worked with them for 20 years, with both basketball and as the cross country coach. Even though Wilson is outside Orleans County, Mike Wertman does game summaries on the team for the Orleans Hub and previously for The Journal-Register in Medina.
Sippel said the daily papers that are closer by have stopped with the box scores on each game.
“We’re not even an Orleans County school district and he reaches out and wants to know how a game went,” Sippel said. “He does a tremendous job.”
Wilson is on the western end of the Niagara-Orleans League. It’s not in Orleans County, but it’s part of a league that plays schools in Orleans County. The Wertmans also cover Barker, Roy-Hart, Newfane and Akron, which aren’t in Orleans County but are in the N-O League. They also cover the Genesee Region League which includes Holley, Kendall and Lyndonville, as well as many rural districts in the region, mostly from Genesee County.
Mike Wertman has been covering the local sports scene for 42 years. He worked at former Journal-Register for 35 years before joining the Orleans Hub 7 years ago. He has posted 7,900 sports articles on the Orleans Hub.
His wife Cheryl has joined him at the games for more than 35 years. She credits Don Cook, a late JR photographer, for getting her started as a sports photographer.
Sippel said Mrs. Wertman can be counted on for awesome action shots from the games, and her husband gets the details on the players’ scoring, assists and rebounds. Sipped said Wertman did the league a big service by researching and chronicling all the league champs for nearly the past century.
“I think it’s so important to recognize them during this time when the media has dwindled,” Sippel said. “Mike still gets the results every night at a time when other papers don’t do nightly write-ups. They are appreciated by the kids and the coaches. They really do an excellent job.”
MONTOUR FALLS – Tyler Harrington, a Medina firefighter, is among 21 graduates from the state’s Recruit Firefighter Training program at the Office of Fire Prevention and Control’s Academy of Fire Science in Montour Falls.
The graduates hail from 14 fire departments and represent the Academy’s 79th Recruit Firefighter Training class. The typical 11-week residential program provides extensive fire service training in an environment similar to a full-time fire department.
However, given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the training was adapted to accommodate remote learning for the classroom-based portions and to ensure the practical training conducted on-site was done so safely. Upon graduation, all recruits will become full-time firefighters in their respective fire departments when they return home.
“As we continue to move forward in this new world, it’s more important than ever we continue to provide critical training to the first responders out there every day helping communities stay safe and secure,” said Patrick A. Murphy, commissioner of the NYS Homeland Security and Emergency Services. “Achieving firefighter certification is no small task, and to have reached this goal amid a global pandemic is all the more impressive. I congratulate these recruits on a job well done and wish them nothing but the best as they begin their careers in public service.”
During the 11-week program, recruits participate in more than 500 hours of training in both classroom and practical settings. Classes focus on areas such as emergency vehicle and pump operations, flammable gas firefighting, basic rescue technician skills and foundational firefighting training and operations.
Recruits also participate in daily physical fitness training in preparation for the Candidate Physical Ability Test. Upon completion, graduates will have received national certification from the National Board of Fire Service Professional Qualifications in Firefighter I, Firefighter II and Hazardous Materials Operations.
ALBION – Ashley Ames, an incoming senior at Albion in 2020-21, is part of the first ever virtual American Legion Auxiliary Girls State.
Ashley Ames
Ashley is one of 400 young women selected to attend the 79th American Legion Auxiliary Girls State session. The program started June 28 and continues until July 12.
As part of the annual program, outstanding students are chosen from their local high schools to spend a week learning about the inner workings of state, local and county government.
This premier leadership conference is designed to provide practical insight into the workings of the government, promote youth civic engagement, instill a sense of pride in America, and empower the next generation of women leaders, providing them with a network that lasts a lifetime.
Ashley is active in many ways at Charles D’Amico High School in Albion, including Student Council, the school newsletter, drama, concert and marching band, Pride Alliance, National Honor Society, and the Close Up club.
Madison Nardi of Kendall High School also has been picked for the program. Gina Fox of Albion was chosen as an alternate.
“The ALA Girls State experience is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for young women across our state and while we couldn’t hold the program in person, our team worked hard to ensure that this cohort of High School Juniors get to learn some of the important principles of democracy and about the American Legion Auxiliary ” said Jennifer Farley, American Legion Auxiliary Girls State chairman. “Our hope is that after attending the virtual ALA Girls State, the girls will be inspired to participate in the democratic process, volunteer in their communities and be filled with patriotism and pride.”
ALA Girls State: The American Legion Auxiliary’s marquee Girls State program, first presented in 1937, is one of the most respected and coveted experiential learning programs presented in the United States.
The program epitomizes the ALA’s mission to honor those who have brought us our freedom through our enduring commitment to develop young women as future leaders grounded in patriotism and Americanism. The young women become knowledgeable of the democratic process and how our republic form of government works at the state and national levels.
To learn more about the Auxiliary’s mission, visit www.ALAforVeterans.org.
For more on the Girl State program, click here.
