By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – A committee weighing how to spend $25,000 to boost the fishing industry in Orleans County is considering putting the title of “Ultimate Fishing Town” on the Carlton town signs, including this one on Route 98.
CARLTON – When the Point Breeze community won the title of “Ultimate Fishing Town” in June, after two months of online voting, the prize brought lots of free publicity for the community. And it also netted cash to promote the fishery, $25,000 from the World Fishing Network.
The check is in a town of Carlton account, dedicated to promoting the area’s fishing resources. The question for a committee of fishing stakeholders is how to best use that money to entice more anglers and visitors to the community.
The committee met for the first time on Thursday. It wants plenty of signage in Carlton and Point Breeze, noting the community won the “Ultimate Fishing Town” in 2013. Some of those signs could be part of the existing Town of Carlton welcome signs on Route 98 and 18.
In the meantime, at least five businesses are working to buy banners that would be on their stores, noting Point Breeze as the “Ultimate Fishing Town.”
The committee also is considering a sportsfishing event that would partner with a veterans organization and a professional sports team. Veterans would be invited on a charter boat in that initiative.
Sharon Narburgh, owner of Narby’s Superette and Tackle, is on the committee and welcomes ideas from the public. She spoke during Sunday’s awards celebration for the Orleans County Fishing Derby. There were 100 fishermen at the awards party, and Narburgh asked them to submit ideas for promoting the fishery.
I think the committee should use some of the money for a public art project, perhaps having some giant fiberglass fish at different locations at Point Breeze. I think they would be an attraction, and businesses would probably pay to have one on their property.
If we could get 10 of these at Point Breeze, as well as a few in Albion, Holley and Medina, we would have an added attraction that would complement all the salmon and trout.
I was in Olean in March and noticed all of the 4-foot-high fiberglass squirrels sprinkled around the city. I’ve included a picture of “Pop ARThur” from Olean’s public art project called Woodland in the City. I think a similar project in a fish theme would be a major catch for Point Breeze.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Fishing is Orleans County’s biggest tourism draw, generating about $12 million of the $23 million tourism pie. The photo shows an angler at Point Breeze.
A new report about tourism dollars state-wide and per county shows New York is on an upswing growing 6.2 percent for $92 billion in visitor spending in 2012 , following an 8.3 percent gain in 2011.
However, Orleans County’s revenue barely budged, going from $21.01 million in 2011 to $21.13 million in 2012, a 0.1 percent increase, according to the state report prepared by Tourism Economics.
Orleans ranks at the very bottom state-wide among 62 counties for visitor spending. Tourism represents one of the best options for the county to stir business activity for many merchants. The visitor spending also represents outside money and isn’t merely redistributing existing dollars in the community. We should make growing tourism revenue a top priority for the county.
I think Orleans could do much better, given our dynamic and world-class fishery, our historic and agricultural assets, and our location near Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
I strongly recommend the county work to develop a Sandstone Trail featuring our best sandstone structures, including the 68-foot-high Civil War memorial in Mount Albion Cemetery.
I think there are two factors that hurt us. We don’t have a chain hotel and many potential guests won’t consider a stay-over without a room at an established chain. County officials have tried for years to make the case for a small hotel to set up here. That would keep more visitors in the county longer. We draw people for day trips, but then the majority have to sleep in another county.
The outside counties use what could be our “bed tax,” money that could be directed to more promotion of our attractions. Genesee County boasts more than 1,000 hotel rooms. Many Orleans visitors end up staying in Batavia hotels. Genesee also has Darien Lake Theme Park and the Thruway corridor that draw mobs of people into their county.
Genesee takes in about $400,000 in bed tax to promote its tourism assets. That’s about 10 times what Orleans collects. (The bed tax is a 4 percent tax on lodging – hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts.)
Genesee saw its visitor spending jump 9.4 percent last year, from $81.9 million to $89.6 million. That tourism spending means more in sales tax, which can help offset property taxes.
We may not be able to sway a Holiday Inn Express-type hotel to open in Orleans anytime soon. The Orleans Economic Development Agency commissioned a study a few years ago, and the consultants found then there weren’t enough people and tourists to warrant a small hotel.
A second factor hurting our tourism numbers is a shortage of staff working to promote the county’s resources. The county is sorely understaffed in its tourism department. Wayne Hale is the tourism director. He also manages the Marine Park and is the county’s Planning Department director. Last year he semi-retired, but is still juggling three big jobs in a part-time role.
If the county devoted more resources to heritage tourism, it could create a package featuring the historic churches, including a stop at Christ Church in Albion, which has a 150-year-old pipe organ.
Genesee has three full-time people devoted to tourism promotion.
“Wayne has been instrumental through the years,” said Sharon Narburgh, owner of Narby’s Superette and Tackle at Point Breeze. “He has done a hell of a job, but there is only so much time in the day.”
Narburgh credited the county for creating a part-time fishing coordinator position about two decades ago. Mike Waterhouse is currently serving in the role. Narburgh said the county needs more people working on tourism promotion, helping to develop a plan for drawing more people to the county, and keeping them here longer.
“You need a person to coordinate all of this,” she said. “Right now we don’t have the people to do things the way they need to be done.”
Genesee is a bigger county than Orleans, about 60,000 people compared to the 42,000 people here. Genesee is about 1.5 times more populous, but they are bringing in four times the tourism spending.
Wyoming County would make for a better comparison. I would assume Orleans would draw more in visitor spending because Wyoming seems more remote. Both counties have about 42,000 people. We also have Lake Ontario, the Erie Canal, and a wealth of Medina sandstone and architectural wonders.
But Wyoming generates far more in visitor spending, $35.7 million in 2012 compared to the $23.1 million in Orleans. Our local government leaders should commit the needed resources to tourism promotion. It’s an investment that would bear big returns.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 August 2013 at 12:00 am
State should pay $1 per inmate per day to help prison towns offset some of the negatives
Photos by Tom Rivers – Albion Correctional Facility looms large at the end of Washington Street in Albion. The site is the largest women’s prison in the state with 1,050 inmates.
ALBION – When Waste Management made its pitch to open a landfill in Albion in the mid-1990s, the company offered the community $500,000 annually to lower the town taxes.
The company knew a landfill came with some negatives – an increase in truck traffic, seagulls, noise, odor, environmental worries and a stigma. The $500,000 was part of “host-community benefits package” to help counter some of the negatives. Albion town officials were never swayed, and denied the project.
When wind power companies built the giant industrial turbines in Wyoming County and other parts of New York, the companies paid the host communities big bucks for having these 400-foot-high structures in the rural countryside. Some of the towns are taking in more than $1 million annually from the turbines, which has more than offset town taxes. Schools and the county government also get a piece of the pie from the turbines in Wyoming County.
Towns that allow “noxious uses” generally receive some compensation for dealing with the negative impacts. Albion is home to two state prisons. It’s time the community starts receiving a “host-community benefits package” for these sites.
The Albion Correctional Facility is the largest women’s prison in the state with 1,050 inmates. The state has completed several construction projects at this prison in recent years, including a Special Housing Unit for inmates with discipline problems. This prison is highly visible along Washington Street at the west end of the village.
About three decades ago the state, when it was in a prison-building spree, constructed the medium-security Orleans Correctional Facility. This one today has 710 male inmates.
Orleans Correctional looks like it’s out of a movie set, set along rural Gaines Basin Road with the tall razor-wire fence and the ominous guard towers.
Together the two prisons consume about 500 acres. I think they also have a blighting effect on some nearby properties, discouraging housing development near the prisons.
The community gave up some good land for the prisons, land that could be tax-generating for houses, commercial development or even a cornfield. The state doesn’t pay village, town or county taxes for these properties. It does pay the school district a tiny rate.
We send our fire department and ambulances over there for calls. Our first responders have to train for what-if scenarios at the prisons.
I think the community should be paid for providing some services to the prisons, and contending with the negatives that come with these sites.
What would be a fair host-community benefits package?
Orleans County has a 4 percent bed tax. If a visitor is staying in a bed and breakfast with a $100 a night charge, the customer is taxed the usual 8 percent sales tax plus another 4 percent for a bed tax. That generates $8 in sales tax and $4 for a bed tax if the room is $100.
Orleans County in the past has billed Genesee about $80 a day to house Genesee’s female inmates in the county jail in Albion. That’s the price Orleans has put out as a daily charge for the county jail. If we used that number for the state prisons (I would think the state prisons would be a higher cost) and multiplied that by the 4 percent bed tax, NYS would owe the community $3.20 in a daily bed tax per state inmate.
But the prisons are hardly hotels and the state isn’t made of money. So I think the prison communities should give the state a deal and make it a simple formula. The state should give each prison community $1 a day per inmate.
In Albion, the two prisons have 1,760 inmates. The state should pay $1,760 a day or $642,400 a year as a host community benefits package. I would divvy up this money using a typical PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) plan used by the Economic Development Agency. You take the tax rates from each municipality and calculate a pro-rated share of the money based on the rates.
In Albion, the town would get 10 percent of prison money, the county 20 percent, and the village and school district would each receive 35 percent, according to my plan.
The Orleans Correctional Facility is lined with a razor-wire fence. The facility was built on Gaines Basin Road about three decades ago.
State-wide there are 54,600 state inmates. At $1 a day, the state should pay the prison communities $19,929,000 each year. That money would be directed to communities that need it. The state put these prisons in towns that were economically depressed and have remained so. (Frankly, $1 is too cheap and I’d welcome our state representatives to push for more. If you have a maximum security prison in your town, you should get double the rate.)
The prisons provide jobs and offer some benefits to the communities. The corrections workers and other employees spend money at local gas stations and businesses, boosting our local economy and generating some sales tax for the local and state governments.
But many of these workers don’t live in the communities where the prisons are located. The prison communities are serving as regional job outlets, with many employees driving from outside the community for the jobs. For the Albion prisons, Batavia, Medina, Buffalo and other communities get the benefit of decent-paying jobs for their residents but those communities don’t bear the negative costs of providing services and having good land gobbled up by these sites.
The state already provides a host community package for communities with an industry that brings some societal ills. The State Legislature and governor have directed state money to communities with video gaming centers.
The City and Town of Batavia, plus Genesee County share in that bounty each year because of Batavia Downs. Those communities use about $500,000 from a host community package to help offset taxes.
The gaming centers are advertised as attractions, drawing outsiders to the community to spend money at the race track and other businesses. The gaming centers are featured in tourism brochures. They are depicted as hip and trendy destinations.
The prisons feel like a black hole, sucking the life out of a big section of communities across the state. New York should help offset that with some money.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Group also backs new doors for church, sign for Pratt Center
The Albion Historic Preservation Commission supported a street-scape plan that includes these bike racks, which will be painted blue and highlight Albion’s canal heritage. Design by DERO Bike Rack Company.
ALBION – The Albion Historic Preservation Commission has approved $50,000 worth of street-scape improvements, including new bike racks, trees in planters, benches painted as murals and other projects.
The Commission voted to support the projects on Thursday. The different projects now will be submitted to state preservation officials and the New York Main Street grant program for their approval.
The street-scape improvements are part of a $477,000 Main Street grant that was awarded for the downtown in December 2011. Most of the grant offered matching funds to property owners to work on their buildings.
The street-scape projects include 10 large tree planters made of concrete and stained pale red to mimic Medina sandstone and 18 smaller flower planters. The planters will be able to be moved by the village DPW and they will have drainage.
Twelve benches will be replaced and local artists will paint murals on them with local heritage themes, including apples, the canal, the trolley system and the quarrying industry, as well as many others.
Four bike racks, all with a tugboat theme, are planned for Main and Bank streets. There will be three smaller hoop-shaped racks and a larger rack that looks like a bicycle.
The street-scape subcommittee also wants to swap out the street signs in the Albion historic district with ones that would be blue with a upper box that says “Historic Albion.”
Those signs are targeted for portions of Liberty, Main and Platt streets, running between the canal and Beaver Street. The state DOT needs to approve those changes.
Two interpretive panels – cast-iron mounted signs – also are planned for the downtown. One is targeted for Waterman Park and would be focused on the downtown architecture. The sign also would have “teasers” about the four other nationally recognized historic districts in Albion: the Cobblestone Society Museum, Courthouse Square, Mount Albion Cemetery and the Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor.
Another panel is planned to go near the village parking lot, just north of the Presbyterian Church. The village is expanding the site for parking. There will be space to display two hitching posts. A panel will discuss these artifacts from the horse-and-buggy era and will note that Albion and the 14411 zip code is loaded with old hitching posts and carriage steps.
Other projects include a cast-iron historical marker that will note the downtown business district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Main Street clock will have a sandstone base similar to the one in Medina. A sandstone bench will also be added to the sidewalk and that bench is planned to stay out year-round. The other benches typically are brought inside during the winter.
Mary Anne Braunbach and some of her gardening friends want to create a memorial garden for veterans in front of her building at 138 North Main St. The grant would fund a bronze plaque to be installed on a boulder, noting the garden is a veterans’ memorial.
The commission approved two other projects on Thursday.
The Albion Free Methodist Church wants to replace doors on an addition to the building that was put up in 1985. The double-aluminum doors on the south side of the building and a steel side door will be replaced with bronze-colored aluminum framed doors.
Michael Bonafede and Judith Koehler, owners 118 North Main St., want to change the sign of the building from “Coffeehouse” to the “Pratt Center.” The current sign color, lettering style and signboard will be used.
Editor’s note: Hub editor Tom Rivers is chairman of the street-scape subcommittee.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Peter Loran of Kent submitted several designs for the bench-painting project, including this one of Albion native Grace Bedell and President Abraham Lincoln. Bedell wrote a letter to Lincoln, encouraging him to grow a beard.
ALBION – What do a tugboat, a Chinook salmon, Santa Claus, Abe Lincoln and a quarryman all have in common?
They will be painted on benches in downtown Albion as part of public art project.
The Albion Main Street Alliance is coordinating the project that calls for at least 10 benches to be painted with Albion heritage themes. We may do as many as 12 benches.
A $50,000 Main Street grant, which is paying for several street-scape improvements, is funding the bench project. This fall there should be bike racks, a historical marker, trees and other upgrades to the street scape.
The grant paid to swap out the benches and some of us on the street-scape committee thought it would be a good idea to paint the new benches as a mini-murals. We wanted to celebrate our history and highlight the canal, Santa Claus School founder Charles Howard, the quarrymen and other prominent residents and features of the community.
The artists – all Orleans County residents – came through with many nice designs. I’m real excited about this project.
The Downtown Albion Neighborhood Advisory Committee, a group that has been reviewing all the grant projects through the bigger $477,000 Main Street grant, will pick the bench designs. The winning entries will be submitted to state historic preservation officials to make sure they are OK with everything.
I don’t know the exact time frame for the project due to the review process, but I anticipate the painted benches may not be ready until late fall. At that point, maybe they will be inside businesses where they would stay for the winter. In the spring we will unleash them on Main Street and East Bank.
I think they will draw folks to the downtown, giving the businesses a lift and stirring community pride.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – “Chubby” stands outside a former Rochester fire station on University Avenue.
ROCHESTER – “Chubby” is quite popular in Rochester. I met him yesterday for the first time.
He is one of several fiberglass horses painted in Rochester along University Avenue’s “ARTWalk.”
Chubby is located in front of a former Rochester fire house that is now home to Craft Company No. 6, a handmade arts and crafts store that’s been in business for three decades. There is also a sculpture of a firefighter next to Chubby. Before motorized fire trucks, horses were used to pull steam engines to fire scenes. Chubby was Rochester’s most famous equine firefighter.
Other communities have done public arts projects, including Batavia with horses and Olean with squirrels. I think we could pull this off in Orleans County.
Olean painted many fiberglass squirrels and sprinkled them around the city.
I think one possibility for Orleans would be having different painted “creatures” spread around the county, with one in front of each of the 10 town halls and the four village halls.
The lakefront communities – Kendall, Carlton and Yates – might consider having giant painted salmon. We could mix in other animals – deer, ducks, beavers, bluebirds and more. Each community could pick an animal to highlight. These would be painted and set up outside the municipal buildings.
It would be an attraction and would link the communities together and provide a sense of history and “place,” as community planners like to say. If each community contributed, it wouldn’t be a huge daunting task for one entity. I also like the idea of spreading them around the county, rather than concentrating them all in one spot.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 July 2013 at 12:00 am
These bike racks, which will be painted blue, highlight Albion’s canal heritage. Design by DERO Bike Rack Company.
ALBION – This fall a series of street-scape improvements will be added to downtown Albion, with new tugboat-themed bike racks, potted trees and planters, benches painted as murals, a historical marker and interpretive panel about the downtown historic district.
The street signs in the historic district will be swapped out with signs that are blue and white and say “Historic Albion” on the top. The Main Street clock will have a sandstone base and one sandstone bench will be added to a downtown sidewalk. That bench is planned to stay out year-round.
The Albion Town Board on Monday backed the list of projects and agreed to front the money for the $50,000 in improvements. The state is paying for the projects as part of a $477,000 Main Street grant awarded to the community in December 2011.
The bulk of the grant is matching funds for building projects. The state also approved the $50,000 for Albion’s street-scape, money that doesn’t require a local match. However, the town will pay for the projects and then be reimbursed by the state.
Katelin Olson, the Albion Main Street Alliance interim executive director, wrote the grant and has been administering the funding. The list of projects, with their final designs, needs to be submitted to state officials by the end of next week. It will likely take four to six weeks for state review. Then the community can begin installing some of the improvements, likely between September and November.
I’ve been the chairman of the street-scape subcommittee, which formed about 18 months ago. We’ve been trying to build on our canal and sandstone heritage with these new additions, while also adding trees and flowers to the downtown landscape.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 July 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Marcy Downey checks out the sound and lighting system inside Studio B at the Gotta Dance by Miss Amy site at 28 West Bank St. Downey will be the first performer in the new cabaret on July 28.
ALBION – For 12 years Amy Sidari and her staff have worked with hundreds of students each year, teaching them jazz, ballet, tap, hip hop and other dance moves.
Gotta Dance by Miss Amy will soon expand as a talent showcase, by using one of the studios for cabaret, with professional-quality lighting and sound. Sidari will have 20 tables inside “The Cabaret at Studio B,” and will serve gourmet desserts, coffee and soda during concerts and other productions.
“They will get a high-end Rochester performance without going into the city,” Sidari said this afternoon at the Gotta Dance site at 28 West Bank St.
She has the first performance scheduled for 7 p.m. on July 28. Albion native Marcy Downey will perform her current one-woman cabaret show, “Here’s To The Divas and Dames,” which pays tribute to popular singing divas, including Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Liza Minnelli, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday and others.
“Anything she touches is successful,” Downey said about Sidari. “I love the idea of doing something right here in Albion.”
Marcy Downey, left, and Amy Sidari pose in front of the curtains at the Cabaret at Studio B.
Sidari repainted the room, installed lights and a sound system, made the curtains and added a padded performance floor. She had a team of helpers for the project, with her father Ace Caldwell handling most of the construction.
Sidari had the lights in storage for most of the year, bringing them out for the Gotta dance annual recitals in May.
She said the cabaret will hopefully draw more people to Albion to visit local stores and restaurants before the 7 p.m. shows.
Sidari has other events planned for the cabaret. Phyl Contestable performs as The Reverend Mother on Aug. 2. Sidari’s 6-year-old daughter Gina and her friends will have a fashion show Aug. 14 with a suggested $5 donation going to COVA.
Albion native Kailey Winans and Gary Simboli, high school musical and chorus director, will perform together on Aug. 23.
For more information on tickets and prices, call 585-354-2320.
Sidari also welcomes more performers throughout the fall. They should call that number if they’re interested.
Amy Sidari is working to turn a dance studio into a venue for singing and other performers. The space will continue to be used for dance as well.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Ninandré Bogue is painting quarrymen mural for Albion
Photos by Tom Rivers – Nin Bogue referenced century-old quarrymen photos and his own feel for local Medina sandstone to create a scene of workers in a quarry. The mural will be placed on the side of a building at Waterman Park on Main Street in downtown Albion.
LYNDONVILLE – Ninandré Bogue wanted to live in a community with a sense of history. The Amherst native and his wife, a Southtowns native, picked Lyndonville.
For 13 years he has worked full-time as a professional artist, often returning to Erie County suburbs to paint murals inside big houses.
His latest project involves a 20-foot-long mural that will be mounted on the side of a building on Main Street in Albion. It will depict immigrant quarrymen from a century ago working in a local quarry. The project is sponsored by the Albion Rotary Club and also includes support from the Orleans County Tourism Department and matching funds from the Rotary district.
“With the quarrymen, this project connected to me,” Bogue said in his studio today. “I saw people and the history to it.”
To get a feel for the quarries, an industry that peaked a century ago, Bogue looked a historic photos provided by Holley Historian Marsha DeFillipps. She has a stack of photos of Holley and Hulberton quarry workers.
The pictures were in black-and-white so Bogue studied the local reddish-brown Medina sandstone to know the color of the stone. He had to fill in other gaps.
“I’ve had to use my imagination,” he said.
Nin Bogue wants to honor the quarrymen from generations ago who worked in local quarries.
He expects to finish the mural possibly today, with it soon to be installed on the Albright building on the north side of Waterman Park, about a half block south of the canal. That park is also targeted as a site for a bronze statue of a quarryman.
Albion also is working to install $50,000 worth of street-scape improvements, which will include bike racks, potted trees and flowers, interpretive panels and a public art project where 12 new benches will be painted in Albion heritage themes.
The Orleans County Chamber of Commerce also is working on public art project, where 75 palettes painted by artists are being showcased in local businesses.
Bogue, 46, believes artists can help draw tourists and spending to downtown business districts.
“Art gives hope and hope is a very powerful thing,” he said. “We should embrace sculptures, gorgeous gardens and picturesque scenes. It will open the door to tourism.”
For more information about Bogue, check his website at www.bogueartstudios.com.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 24 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Businesses will upgrade buildings as part of Main St. grant
Photos by Tom Rivers – The third floor opera house at 118 North Main St. will be brought up to code in a project by Michael Bonafede and Judith Koehler.
ALBION – Contractors will soon go to work on several historic buildings in downtown Albion, giving upgrades to the exteriors that are in line with the character from a century ago while modernizing the infrastructure inside some of the structures.
The improvements are part of a $477,000 Main Street grant approved for Albion by the state in December 2011. The grant matches money by the building owners for projects. Albion Main Street Alliance is working to have the projects complete by the end of September.
The work needs to pass the state Historic Preservation Office and also the local Albion Historic Preservation Commission. SHPO has signed off on most of the work. The local commission approved a slew of projects at its meeting on Thursday.
The projects include:
114-118 North Main St., the Pratt and Day buildings owned by Michael Bonafede and Judith Koehler.
The interior of 114 North Main will have new insulation between the second and third floors, a high-energy HVAC system on the first floor, AC on the third floor and a new commercial space on the third floor. That space will have a cleaned brick wall and repointed soft mortar. The site will receive a new sanitary line, plumbing and electrical systems, and other improvements.
Vincent Navarra will replace some of the mortar at this building at 10 North Main St.
The ornamental castings on the east face will be removed, cleaned and repainted, and then reattached in their original locations. Damaged mortar on a chimney will be removed and repointed with a soft lime mortar. Some brick will be replaced. The roof line will be resealed and some portions of the roof will be sealed and coated, with repairs made to damaged sections.
The east façade at 114 North Main will be repainted on the first, second and third stories with the first and second stories repainted on the west façade.
The first floor belt courses (display areas under plate glass) will be removed and the original materials will be repaired and repainted. A cracked plate glass display window will be replaced on the east façade.
Bonafede and Koehler will replace steel shutters, replace a metal door from the rear entry with a wooden one, and put in a new door at a rear entrance that was sealed by a previous owner. The couple will also add exterior safety lighting, and complete a fire escape.
118 North Main, the site of the former opera house building, will have exterior ornamental castings cleaned and repainted. Chimneys and roofs will be repaired, and painted windows will be washed and scraped, and then repainted with two coats of paint.
Bonafede and Koehler will repair and repaint the belt courses on the first floor facades, and windows will be repaired and reglazed. A ladder for the first floor of the fire escape on the north side of the building will be added so the fire escape is complete.
The building owners also will add exterior lighting in Beaver Alley, will add 15 fire doors on the first and second floors, HVAC on the first and second floors, and a second floor performance room will be brought up to code with upgraded electrical wiring.
The third flood opera house will have the hardwood floor patched, windows stripped and repainted, stone walls repointed, and two separate electrical services installed – one for audience space and one for the stage.
10 North Main St., a building owned by Vincent Navarra, will have damaged mortar joints replaced on the west façade facing Main Street, the south façade and side facing Liberty Street. He will repoint with soft mortar.
Nathan Lyman will replace windows in his building (the one with green paint) at 51 North Main St.
18 North Main Street, a building owned by Vincent Navarra will have the existing vinyl siding replaced with steel siding. The drywall underneath will be replaced with plywood. Navarra will also remove old tile on the first and second floors and add carpet and a new air-conditioning system.
132 North Main St., a building owned by Jim Theodorakos, will be repainted and a broken window will be replaced.
138 North Main St., owned by Braunbach-DeCarlo Inc., will have a 20-year-old flat rubber roof replaced with a new one.
Five Star Bank, 102 North Main St. will be repainted and the rear entrance accessibility will be enhanced with steps and a new hand rail.
4 North Main St., the former Swan Library will replace 17 deteriorating aluminum storm windows with new ones, and will repair 15 wooden storm windows. The library will also test for asbestos in tiles on the second floor, remove it and refinish the hardwood floors underneath the tile.
51 North Main St., owned by Lyman and Lyman. Attorney Nathan Lyman will remove and restore 10 windows on the third floor, six more on the rear and will recoat the roof. Lyman will also repair the green-painted plywood panels on the first floor façade and scrape, prime and repaint the interior of the first and second floor hallways and stair treads.
59 North Main Street, owned by Corey and Marilyn Black. The owners will remove damaged mortar and repoint the south and west façades. Any damaged bricks will be replaced.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Consultant recommends making Bent’s Opera House a ‘cultural hub,’ telling sandstone story and highlighting local foods
Photos by Tom Rivers – Ted Pietrzak, a consultant hired by the Orleans Renaissance Group for a Medina development plan, believes Medina and all of Orleans would benefit by promoting its canal and sandstone heritage. He is pictured under the Canal Culvert in Ridgeway, a sandstone structure that goes under the canal.
MEDINA – A consultant hired by the Orleans Renaissance Group to develop a plan for Medina’s future has proposed establishing a Sandstone Trail along Route 31.
That trail would not only benefit Medina, but all of Orleans County, especially the canal towns that are rich in sandstone architecture, said Ted Pietrzak, a consultant who presented the proposal on Tuesday to the Medina Business Association and county officials.
“The Erie Canal and sandstone architecture may be the two most widely recognized attributes of the region,” Pietrzak said.
He told the MBA and county officials that there hasn’t been a “cohesive and sustainable tourism plan” to fully capitalize on those assets.
Pietrzak was hired by the ORG to focus on a redevelopment plan for the Bent’s Opera House, a mostly vacant building that dominates a corner of Main Street in Medina. That three-story sandstone building would make for a great beginning for the Sandstone Trail, with exhibits and displays about the area’s sandstone history, Pietrzak said.
The first floor space at Bent’s should also tell a history of the immigrants who worked in the quarries and the site should highlight some of spectacular structures they built locally, in the region and throughout the state. In fact, an unofficial sandstone trail already runs along the canal, with Medina sandstone buildings from Buffalo to Albany, and even into New York City, Pietrzak noted.
Pietrzak sees the Bent’s Opera House as a high-profile building that could be used to tell the region’s sandstone story, while also showcasing local products.
The Bent’s site has room for the sandstone exhibit, and samplings of local food, art and culture, as well as more space for a first floor tenant, perhaps an Amish or Mennonite craftsman, Pietrzak said. The site should be developed into “a cultural hub,” he told the MBA.
The ORG has envisioned the second floor of Bent’s for a restaurant and the top floor as a performing arts venue. Pietrzak has ideas for those floors, but first wants to present that plan to the ORG board before making it public.
He presented the trail initiative Tuesday because he said it has potential to include many businesses and community stakeholders.
I met with Pietrzak in early May and drove him to sandstone sites north and south of the canal from Medina to Albion. I’ve emailed him pictures from Hulberton and Holley. We share the belief that a Sandstone Trail would raise awareness for these structures, boost community pride, and would highlight other local “trails” that could intersect, including routes focused on cobblestones, Amish/Mennonite businesses, farm markets, and other local attractions.
He believes the trail and the attractions along the route would draw people from west of the county in Buffalo and Niagara Falls and east of Orleans in the Rochester area. If the trail is promoted with “a series of desirable experiences,” Pietrzak said people would come and stay for a few days.
A Sandstone Trail could run from Medina to Holley, with a stop at the Murray-Holley Historical Society Museum, a site that includes quarrymen photos and tools.
Pietrzak and I both addressed a planning committee at the county after he met with the Medina Business Association. If we pursue the trail, we need someone to take the lead and manage the project, including the minutia of securing permits for roadside signs. Some of these roadside markers could go on the existing Route 31 signs. That’s how Niagara County does many of its “Niagara Historic Trail” signs on 31.
Other communities have beer and wine trails that help connect wineries and breweries. The state helps pay for these, knowing that tourism dollars mean sales tax for the state and the local government. We could pursue a grant for the Sandstone Trail from the state. The governor and state legislators know about Medina Sandstone. The Million-Dollar Staircase in the state capitol building is made of our sandstone.
Pietrzak suggested there be town hall-style meetings, with two each in Medina, Albion and Holley to gauge public support for a trail, and solicit ideas on how it could be used to promote local businesses.
I think the trail should run from one end of the county to another, and we should have sandstone signs in each community with the name of the town or village. We might consider replacing some of the wooden signs with stone ones.
There’s a lot of features we could add, to build appreciation for our sandstone heritage, and draw people here to spend money at our businesses.
The trail grant could be part of a bigger sandstone grant application from Orleans County. I’m a member of Arts, Culture and History Subcommittee on Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council. The subcommittee is trying to identify and build public support for projects that promote the area’s culture and history. Clearly, the immigrant quarrymen and Medina sandstone are a big part of our local, regional and state history and their story isn’t being told or showcased at a site.
In addition to the sandstone trail, there are two other projects that I think have a good shot at state funding and would give the area a lift. A bronze statue of a quarryman on Main Street in Albion and the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame and Museum in Medina would complement the Sandstone Trail, and tell the story of the skilled stonecutters and some of the state’s finest buildings.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 14 June 2013 at 12:00 am
MEDINA – The State Senate has approved extending the Niagara Wine Trail through Orleans County all the way to Rochester, which brings the prospect of new tourists and economic development for businesses in Orleans.
The legislation would designate two state roads as wine trails. All of Route 104, between the Ferry Avenue/Route 62 intersection in Niagara Falls and Route 390 in Monroe County, would be known as “Niagara Wine Trail Ridge.” All of Route 18, between Route 104 in Lewiston and Route 390 in Monroe County, would be known as “Niagara Wine Trail Lake.”
The longer trail could be a huge asset for Orleans County businesses, said Wendy Wilson, president of the Leonard Oakes Estate Winery in Medina and treasurer for the Niagara Wine Trail.
“It connects everything between Niagara Falls and Rochester, and we’re right in the middle of it,” she said. “This will be a whole new dynamic for promoting the area.”
Orleans County could piggyback on the wine trail, creating trails for cobblestones, sandstone, antiques, quilts and perhaps the Amish and Mennonites, Wilson said. The wineries could then promote those other attractions, and those businesses could promote the wineries.
“There are a lot of things going through here,” she said. “There are a lot of things that we could build off this. This will allow us to have the needed signage.”
The Niagara Wine Trail already has state funding lined up for the wine trail signs. That was approved two years ago.
Orleans businesses will gain more exposure with the trail, and will benefit from the marketing and tourism dollars in Rochester and Monroe County, Wilson said.
Leonard Oakes is currently at the end of the Niagara Wine Trail. If the Assembly and governor approve the extension, Schwenk Wine Cellars in Kent could join. Wilson said other wineries in the county and in Monroe are in development.
The Senate approved the trail extension last year, but the Assembly never voted on it. Wilson believes any reservations in the Assembly have been addressed.
“I call upon the Assembly to approve this measure as soon as possible and stop ignoring one of the brightest areas of economic development in Western New York,” State Sen. George Maziarz said. “There is simply no reason why the Assembly has not passed this, and hopefully they will move forward in a timely fashion. We have been waiting long enough.”
There are currently 17 wineries on the Niagara Wine Trail, which started about a decade ago. Maziarz praised the growth on the trail.
“The wine industry in the greater Niagara Region is growing so fast that our laws designating the various wine trails must keep up with the pace of growth,” he said. “Signage, literature, and other tourism promotion materials need to be updated to reflect the wineries in existence now and the wineries soon to come.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – The former Jubilee in Medina has been gutted and turned into a hardware and lumber business at 342 East Center St. Ace Hardware opened the site last month following more than a year of renovations.
MEDINA – When Roger Andrews was at the closing to buy the former Hahn Hardware in Medina, local attorney Andrew Meier asked Andrews his long-term goal for the store.
Andrews said he would likely need more space. He wanted to offer more lumber and other choices for customers. That was on April 11, 2011.
Meier, who also serves as Medina’s mayor, suggested Andrews take a look at the former Jubilee store on East Center Street. That building had been empty since 2006, closing soon after Walmart opened a Supercenter in Albion.
Andrews, 42, went to see the former Jubilee and immediately saw possibilities in the vacant and run-down property. He acquired the site from the county by paying $100,000 in back taxes.
For 13 months he worked at transforming the 26,000-square-foot building. The store was gutted, with walls taken out to accommodate an Ace Hardware. Andrews opened the Ace on April 22 to praise from the community. He held the grand-opening celebration on May 18-19.
“It’s really cleaned up that end of the business district,” Meier said.
Roger Andrews, owner of the Ace Hardware in Medina, talks with customer Gloria Short at the former Jubilee site, which was renovated in a 13-month project.
The former Jubilee is a large building at the gateway to the downtown business district, coming on Route 31 from Albion. Meier said other building owners have also invested in that part of the village. He noted improvements by Lyon’s Collision and Tom Snyder, owner of Medina Lumber and Hardware.
“It’s great to see that continued investment at the end of the village,” Meier said.
Andrews said the former Jubilee site has tripled the space for hardware supplies. The other side of the building includes room for lumber. Andrews said the site has 36,000 different products and he will add more if there is a demand for them.
“With this style and layout it is so much easier for the customers,” Andrews said. “It’s bigger and brighter. You have aisles you can walk up and down.”
Andrews also owns an Ace Hardware in Derby, south of Hamburg. He has 26 years in the business, starting as a teen-ager.
Mark Watts of Medina shops in the plumbing section at the Ace Hardware in Medina.
He praised the Medina community for the renaissance in downtown Medina, with several new businesses opening in recent years and building owners tackling big renovation projects.
“The community has done such a great job on Main Street,” he said. “It’s definitely on an upswing.”
He changed the façade of the former Jubilee to make it look like a store from the early 1900s. He said the building provides a nice transition to the historic district.
“It would have been a shame to let this building sit,” he said. “This is the right project for this spot.”
He is working with tenants to use the former Hahn site on West Avenue across from the library. And Andrews is looking at other spots in Medina for other projects. But he’s going to hold off for now after working so hard to change the former Jubilee site.
“I want to do other rehab projects in Medina,” he said. “But I promised my wife I’d take a break.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – This home at 204 West Center St., Medina, was one of 17 houses in the village to receive matching funds for improvements through a grant administered by the Orleans County Chamber of Commerce. The $200,000 grant also provided money to 11 businesses for façade and sign upgrades.
MEDINA – Kathy Blackburn drives down Main Street and some of Medina’s residential streets, and she sees new signs for businesses, fresh paint on buildings, and new siding and roofs.
And more of those projects will soon be tackled, with the prospect of more improvements next year.
Blackburn, executive director for the Orleans County Chamber of Commerce, is administering a $200,000 grant that provides matching funding for the projects that are all in the village of Medina. An anonymous funding entity is paying for the grant, and that entity will likely continue a second round in December, Blackburn said.
The grant has paid for $121,000 worth of work on 17 houses and $68,000 for 11 businesses. Some of the projects have been completed, and others will soon get under way, Blackburn said.
More than 50 applicants sought matching funds through the program after it was announced in November. A committee reviewed the proposals.
“We would have liked to do more projects, but you only have so much money,” Blackburn said.
The committee included Medina Code Enforcement Officer Marty Busch, a contractor, investor, banker and accountant.
The group was focused on projects that would have the biggest impact for “curb appeal,” Blackburn said. The grants were capped at a maximum of $20,000 per property.
The grant program is expected to be focused on the Medina area again if a new funding round goes forward, Blackburn said.
“This project pulled at your heart strings because it is helping some people stay in their homes and do work they couldn’t have afforded on their own,” she said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Cardone family reopens Main Street site for food and entertainment
Photos by Tom Rivers – Renee Schuner, events coordinator for Medina Theatre, stands inside the remodeled theater that is used for music, live entertainment, parties and other events.
The Cardone family has reopened the Medina Theatre at 607 Main St.
MEDINA – After 30 years of mostly sitting underutilized on Main Street, the Medina Theatre has a new life as an entertainment venue for bands, a party house for weddings, and restaurant for individuals and groups.
The Cardone family remodeled the historic theater site and reopened it late last year. The building has been equipped with state-of-the-art audio, video and lighting equipment. Live entertainment is booked most weekends, including a Murder Mystery this Saturday. Local and regional bands also perform inside the former theater that seats 400 people.
“We have the capability to book any kind of event you want,” said Renee Schuner, the events coordinator. “I love this venue. It has so much potential for the community.”
Medina Theatre has a busy schedule with entertainment lined up Fridays and Saturdays, including a Murder Mystery this Saturday.
Joe Cardone said his family wants a new generation to experience the Medina Theatre. The site was restored and expanded by Warner Brothers in 1938, making it a premiere movie theater in Western New York that drew regular customers from outside the county. Warner Brothers was hit with an anti-trust suit in mid-1940s and had to sell its theaters.
The Medina site changed hands many times. Vincent Cardone bought it in 1975 and remains the owner. The site was used as a movie theater until that year, when it last showed “Jaws.” Movie theaters received a tiny portion of the ticket sales and had to rely on concessions. That wasn’t enough to survive for many small-town theaters, including the theater in Medina, Joe Cardone said.
Cardone is optimistic about Medina, and sees the upgraded building as part of the community’s renaissance.
“We didn’t want this to be an eyesore or a nonproductive building,” he said about site at 607 Main St. “There’s a whole generation of kids that haven’t been in here. We have a lot of things planned to draw people here.”
The theater received an extensive upgrade in 1938 when it was acquired by Warner Brothers. Many of those improvements are still evident, including movie reels and old projectors. This plaque near the front entrance remains.
The main theater room has space for large parties or for bands and live entertainment. The Cardones have also serve lunch from Mondays through Fridays in the Diana Lounge, named for the daughter of former theater owner Nikitas Dipson.
Medina Theatre serves dinners from Thursdays through Saturdays.
Schuner returned to Medina last year after working as an event planner in Sacramento, Calif. She said Medina is becoming a destination.
“There has been a resurgence in Medina,” she said. “It’s a darling town. People come from Buffalo and Rochester and can’t believe what a gem is here.”
