Closing down the polling site at Town Hall on West Avenue in Ridgeway would be a mistake and would decrease the amount of voters who would come out to vote.
The reality is that there are voters who do not drive or do not have cars. When we are time blocking nearly every portion of our life’s schedule, there are also people who simply cannot squeeze in the extra 10-20 minutes it would take to get back and forth to the firehall location.
Of all the appalling amounts of money our levels of government waste or trivialise (yes, even our local ones), what is $1,750 in the budget in order to ensure more voters come out to exercise an important amendment?
March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and many of us will remember recent news of those who have died from this disease, including actors Chadwick Boseman and Kirstie Alley, and soccer great, Pelé.
But the Cancer Services Program (CSP) of GOWN wants to remind you of different news about colorectal cancer: getting screened can help you survive this disease or even prevent it.
Colorectal screening tests can alert health care providers that precancerous growths, called polyps, may be forming. These polyps can be removed before they turn into cancer. Regular screening for colorectal cancer can help find it early when it may be easier to treat. Colorectal cancer has a 91% survival rate when found early.
Screening for colorectal cancer begins at age 45. If you are age 45 or older, talk to your health care provider about getting screened. If you do not have a health care provider or health insurance, the CSP is ready to help. We offer free colorectal cancer screening to uninsured people ages 45 and older and can connect you to a health care provider if needed.
Screening for colorectal cancer can be done at home and it’s easy! The CSP uses a stool-based screening test that gets mailed to a lab. We will pay for a follow-up colonoscopy if the test comes back abnormal. If cancer treatment is needed, we help our clients enroll in the Medicaid Cancer Treatment Program.
The CSP can help you get your colorectal cancer screening. Don’t wait. Call us at 716-278-4898.
Wendy Armstrong
Program Coordinator of Cancer Services Program of Genesee, Orleans, Wyoming and Niagara Counties
I agree wholeheartedly with the description of the jail in an editorial by Tom Rivers: “County leaders put a giant turd among our best buildings” in 1970.
That building completely violates all the traditional patterning and proportional systems employed by all its pre-existing neighbors. The delicately detailed vocabulary, vertically oriented, archetypal classical tri-part base-middle-top arrangement of the buildings of, and around Courthouse Square, are disgraced with the brutality of the detail-less, horizontally oriented, unsympathetic brutalist concrete bunker.
Obviously, the jail looks like a jail, but its massing and scale intimidates, instead of enhances the Square.
I’m afraid that the suggestion of disguising the jail with landscaping or murals is just putting lipstick on a turd. The only way to fix that relationship is to tear it down and rebuild it (possibly elsewhere), or do a serious façade make over that breaks up the long low massing into architectural components that can be re-oriented vertically and with adding appropriate details more reflective of a civilized society.
Incarceration was originally understood as a “re-boot” in re-civilizing those who strayed from being civil. Putting those people in a brutalist bunker like animals in a cage just reaffirms uncivilized behavior.
I’m not saying that prisoners should be housed in a country club setting, but that the outside of the building should represent positive civic ideals.
David Strabel
Brockport
(Mr. Strabel, a Clarendon native, is an architect.)
Photo by Tom Rivers: The Orleans County Jail sits at the corner of Platt Street and East Park Street in the historic Courthouse Square of Albion.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 February 2023 at 3:58 pm
Flowers, murals would help soften blighting effect from jail
ALBION – What were they thinking? In 1970 the leaders of the county government put up perhaps the most unsightly building in these parts, and they put it in the heart of the Courthouse Square – some of our best real estate.
The Orleans County Jail, a concrete monstrosity, sits on the Square with the County Courthouse, the Clerks’ Building, seven churches, the U.S. Post Office, the former Swan Library and other impressive sites. The Courthouse Square with its 34 buildings is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Courthouse Square represents the best of the community’s creativity, wealth and ambition in the 1850s to early 1900s. We were a community daring to dream big back then. For example, the Presbyterian Church, with a steeple reaching 175 feet high, is the tallest building in the county. It was built in 1874.
This photo from a drone was taken in February 2017 by Elliott Neidert. It shows some of the Courthouse Square, including the county jail in the lower left.
But, about 100 years later, the county leaders put a giant turd among our best buildings. No effort was made to fit in with the other neighboring structures. We didn’t need an opulent jail. But the county couldn’t have missed the mark more with this building. They put a blight on the landscape with a building that resembles a big boring box.
The Courthouse Square is an amazing achievement by the residents in the 19th Century. Buildings constructed with flourishes – columns, arches, even a dome. There are 43 Tiffany stained-glass windows at one church and a large rose window at another facing Main Street. The folks back then didn’t do the cheapest thing or most cost-effective possible. And they didn’t build with a “sameness” that is so typical in small towns and suburbs today.
Photo from Orleans County Department of History: The previous county jail was built in 1903 out of Medina Sandstone and was demolished for a new jail in 1970.
The jail was done in an architectural style dismissively called “brutalism” by former County Historian Bill Lattin.
In retrospect, the county leaders would have better served the community by keeping the jail built in 1903 from Medina Sandstone. It could have been repurposed as an administrative office for the Sheriff’s Department, or other county offices. The new ugly jail could have been built elsewhere in Albion – away from the masses.
Yes, it is terrible. But what can we do to make it better, to give something back to the Courthouse Square, to not be such a scourge?
I would suggest at the minimum some landscaping with flowers, bushes, shrubs or small trees on front side of the building facing Platt Street, especially on the north half closer to State Street. The other half of the building closer to Park Street has a few small trees, but that side could use an uplift as well. I would mobilize the master gardeners and have them work some of their magic.
I’m a big fan of public art and I think murals would make a dramatic difference on this building. There are long walls of concrete on the first floor of the building. Two long murals on each side would make the site far less depressing and soul-crushing. Or it might be better to have four or five smaller murals rather than two long ones.
Photo by Tom Rivers: These fruit trees are in blossom in the spring of 2018 at Watt Farms in Albion. A mural of an orchard in bloom would enliven the exterior of the county jail.
There could be an Erie Canal theme on the one side. I would suggest a tugboat with a lift bridge in the background. The other long mural could be an agricultural scene. You can’t go wrong showing fruit trees in blossom. The murals would highlight part of the Albion landscape.
The county should seek proposals from the artist community. They may have better ideas on how to make the building better blend in with a historic district and not stick out like such a sore thumb.
The county will officially be 200 years old in 2025. These murals could be part of a bicentennial celebration.
The residents from more than a century ago embraced creativity and wanted the buildings to inspire the community. It’s not too late for the jail to give off some positivity.
In a recent interview with Newsmax, (1/30/23), Claudia Tenney complained that raising the debt limit is driving inflation. I am just dumbstruck at the ignorance of this statement.
Raising the debt limit does not authorize any new spending; it simply allows the government to pay its obligations.
Both Democrats and Republicans have contributed to the national debt. In fact about $7.8 trillion of the $31.4 trillion debt that now must be paid, or 24.8% of the debt, came from the Trump administration. Raising the debt ceiling is an obligation and is not negotiable. Defaulting on the debt could result in global economic catastrophe.
The time to work on the U.S. debt is during the budget process. That is when spending and taxing are negotiated. The Biden administration has already slowed the increase in the national debt.
From the last year of the Trump administration the deficit grew by $2.6 trillion dollars, and the first year of the Biden administration the gap was only $1.4 trillion. Admittedly, this is still too large.
One of the ways to close the debt is to tax the wealthy and large corporations – that is why the Biden administration has hired more IRS agents. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that hiring more agents will bring in $200 billion over the next ten years.
One analysis showed that corporations like Amazon, Exxon-Mobil, Microsoft, and JP Morgan-Chase paid less than 10% tax rate in 2021 despite record profits.
Ms. Tenney is gaslighting her constituents. If she was serious about the national debt she would be honest about the debt ceiling and ways of reducing it instead of making ridiculous nonsense comments.
Hats off to editor Tom Rivers for his February 3 editorial and ideas on celebrating Orleans County’s lift bridges.
We in Brockport, could not agree more about the iconic value of our two lift bridges and their greater 100+ years significance to our community.
Brockport is twinned with Albion on lift bridge rehabilitation, being part of the same contract with Crane-Hogan. Rehabilitation of our Main Street lift bridge will begin in April 2023.
Our public meeting with the DOT to announce the April closure will take place on February 9 at Brockport’s Seymour Library from 6 to 8 p.m. Leading up to the bridge closure in Albion Brockport and Albion have shared information about events, traffic, and marketing and many of us in Brockport watched the live feed of the lifting of the trusses off the Albion bridge.
This year, Brockport will be celebrating our bicentennial when the canal ended in Brockport for two years as it was being completed to Buffalo. We’ll acknowledge our 200 years on the Erie Canal at our annual canal opening celebration, Low Bridge High Water, on Saturday June 10th with kayaking, music, food, and other family friendly activities.
On that occasion we will also be dedicating an historic community museum panel commemorating the Park Avenue lift bridge which was completed in 1913 and is one of the very few lift bridges on the canal still operating with all its historic parts. A similar panel for the Main Street lift bridge will be dedicated in 2024 when the bridge reopens.
Editor Rivers’ lift bridge festival is a terrific idea. Why not expand it into neighboring Monroe County to include Brockport, Adams Basin, Spencerport, and Fairport? Boaters would love it!
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 3 February 2023 at 12:29 pm
“Welcome to Orleans County – the lift bridge capital of the Erie Canal!”
Photos by Tom Rivers: The Main Street lift bridge in Albion is elevated in this photo from Aug. 8, 2022, making room for boaters to pass through.
Orleans County has a secret: It has the most lift bridges of any county on the canal system. We have seven out of the 16.
It’s not something you’ll see on a tourism brochure, a welcome sign or on a local municipal website.
Around here, we treat the lift bridges with annoyance. We don’t like to wait a few minutes when a boat passes by and the 200,000-pound plus bridges rise to give the boaters some room.
The lift bridges are a marvel. I’ve seen visitors drop what they are doing and get very excited when they have been in downtown Albion and the bridge seems to let out a groan and start its elevation. It’s a sight that amazes out-of-towners.
The lift bridges were all built in the 1910s with the canal’s widening and expansion. The downtown districts and hamlets were already built up near the bridges. It wasn’t reasonable to knock down the commercial buildings close by to push back the bridge approaches and make gradual inclines for a stationary high bridge like out in the country.
So we got seven vertical lift bridges – in Medina, Knowlesville, Eagle Harbor, two in Albion, Hulberton and Holley.
The 16 lift bridges on the Erie Canal are all on the western side. Besides the seven in Orleans, there are four in Niagara County and five in Monroe.
The four in Niagara include two in Lockport, and one in both Gasport and Middleport. The five in Monroe include two in Brockport, with others in Adams Basin, Spencerport and Fairport.
The Tugboat Syracuse carries engineers and Canal Corp. officials in this photo from Sept. 14, 2016 during an inspection of the canal system in Orleans County today. The tug is approaching the Ingersoll Street lift bridge in Albion.
We have the most of these bridges and that distinction should be proclaimed: “Welcome to Orleans County – the lift bridge capital of the Erie Canal!”
Orleans County will be 200 years old in 2025. That year also marks the 200th anniversary of the completion of the original 363-mile long Erie Canal.
Orleans County doesn’t need to wait two years to celebrate the lift bridges. The county should dip into some of its tourism money to put up engaging signs and craft a campaign about these bridges.
The entire community should rally around them as a source of pride.
Next year a massive rehabilitation of the Main Street lift bridge in Albion will be complete. The state Department of Transportation is spending about $15 million to give the bridge a major overhaul. That will ensure the bridge stays functional for decades to come. The state about 15 years ago finished a similar rehab of the Ingersoll Street lift bridge in Albion, costing several million dollars.
The state is showing a commitment to keep these bridges in good shape. There are times when some of them are shut down a few days or weeks for a repair. But the bridges get the job done, year after year – more than a century after they were originally constructed.
Photo by Philip Kamrass, New York Power Authority: Fairport lights up its lift bridge and celebrates the span as an iconic landmark in the community.
The Village of Fairport seems to be the only canal town that takes pride in having a lift bridge. The village in Monroe County proudly displays the lift bridge on signs and in promotional materials about the community.
It lights up the bridge for major events. It had a big celebration in 2014 when the bridge was 100 years old. There were a series of events that summer to celebrate the centennial. Fairport rededicated the bridge in a ceremony on Aug. 15, 2014, and re-enacted the first motorized vehicle riding across the bridge. Fairport had a Model T do it for the ceremony.
The community hosts a bash every year to kick off the canal boating season. You can feel their pride.
Not so much around here when it comes to the canal, the lift bridges and tugboats that seem so obvious to celebrate and build an identity around.
In Iowa, the Bridges of Madison County are deeply valued and part of the community fabric. Those historic covered bridges fill that community’s tourism promotions and were the backdrop of a film starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep in 1995.
Madison County used to have 19 of the covered bridges, but only six remain today. They are deeply treasured by local residents. The community has a covered bridge festival each year. This year it will be Oct. 14-15. (Click here to see more from the Madison County Chamber & Welcome Center.)
Ashtabula County in Ohio has a line of merchandise highlighting its covered bridges, including these hoodies. (Images from Ashtabula County Bridge Festival.)
Ashtabula County in Ohio may be the most enthusiastic community when it comes to loving and embracing their historic bridges.
Ashtabula County has had a covered bridge festival every year going back about 40 years. The community has activities at 19 different covered bridges on an October weekend. Service clubs, businesses, churches and other groups adopt a bridge for the weekend and host events.
Some of the activities include a troll costume contest, Lego covered bridge contest, horse-drawn wagon rides and lemonade stands run by Girl Scouts. Click here to see more about their festival.
The community sells and displays numerous covered bridge merchandise and signage, with different covered bridges featured on shirts, ornaments, blankets, totes and bags, hoodies, cards and other items.
The local lift bridges have paths for pedestrians, including the one on Main Street in Albion. This is an older photo because the bridge has currently been removed for a massive rehabilitation.
You could see an Orleans County Lift Bridge Festival on a weekend, perhaps in late August while there are still boaters using the canal before the end of the summer.
We could have activities at the seven bridges. I could see a 5K race or walk perhaps from the Eagle Harbor to Albion bridge, or from Hulberton to Holley. There could a 10-mile race for more ambitious runners going from Medina to Albion, or Albion to Holley. There could even be a Lift Bridge marathon for 26.2 miles that would go just about from one end of the county to the other.
I think most people would like to see the bridges in action. Every half hour there should be a commitment to have the bridges go up in lower-trafficked areas such as Hulberton, Eagle Harbor and maybe Ingersoll Street in Albion once the Main Street bridge is open. That way people would be guaranteed to see the bridges in action and not have to try to time it to boating traffic.
We could develop some merchandise and signage to give the lift bridges some limelight.
The festival could culminate with fireworks near one of the bridges.
A lift bridge festival would give the service clubs, fire departments, municipalities and residents in the canal communities an opportunity to work together on a fun-filled weekend for the community, while also welcoming visitors to learn about and experience our lift bridge treasures.
Bill Lattin, the retired Orleans County historian, spoke during the first Hall of Fame induction ceremony for the Medina Sandstone Society back in 2013. Lattin said then that Orleans County has so many ornate Medina Sandstone churches, houses, monuments and other structures for such a small community. Yet, the locals don’t pay much notice to what Lattin called “the extraordinary ordinary.” He could say the same about the lift bridges.
Fireworks are reflected in the Erie Canal by the lift bridge in Holley at about 10 p.m. on Saturday, June 2, 2018. The 20-minute fireworks show was an explosive conclusion to the June Fest celebration in Holley.
Orleans County officials have proposed another half-hearted redistricting plan whose sole purpose appears to be to preserve one-party rule and discourage competition.
The current model, with three at-large representatives, dilutes voter participation and increases the costs for citizens that may want to run for office.
The current system was the result of a referendum held in 1979, and a State Supreme Court Judge created the at-large model (four equal districts and three candidates that run in overlapping districts countywide) after a decade of legal challenges to the former governmental body, the Board of Supervisors. The at-large model was never intended as a permanent solution.
As far back as 1980, people that were advocating for the dissolution of the board of supervisors proposed a one-person one-vote solution that included dividing the county into seven equal electoral districts.
Orleans is the only county in the state that uses an at-large model, and since its inception, the result has been one-party dominance at the county level. That is the only justification for keeping it in place
The proposed reapportionment plan is similar to the approach the county took ten years ago when they were forced to comply with the redistricting law. They did as little as possible and waited until the last possible moment to propose changes so they could create a false sense of urgency. This proposed plan, like the last one implemented ten years ago, doesn’t pass the smell test, and it should not pass legal muster either.
County governments are supposed to redistrict six months after census figures are released, and again, the county ignored the law until the threat of litigation. The census data was released in April of 2021, meaning it will be almost two years since the county had to implement a plan.
The law states: “Districts shall not be drawn to discourage competition or to favor or disfavor incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties.”
In Orleans County there are 22,320 active voters, 13,365 of them are registered Republicans, which is approximately 60%. Over the last five elections for county legislature, there have been 35 contests, with the minority party winning one contested election. That is 3%.
Weighing them against state regulations also exposes other problems with the current system:
“Districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minority groups to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice.”
Regarding racial and minority groups, the legislature has not had an African American on the legislature in a decade, they have one woman and zero minority representation.
In the Village of Albion, two out of five candidates were endorsed by Democrats, and two minority groups are represented on the Village Board. That strongly suggests that a smaller district would not only encourage minority participation, but it may also even result in the county legislature looking more like the county it represents.
The At-Large model is long outdated and usually does not stand up to legal scrutiny. As far back as 1986, in Dillard v. Crenshaw, a federal district court found that hundreds of Alabama districts intentionally employed an At-Large electoral model to discriminate against minority voters. Because of that litigation, 176 jurisdictions settled and adopted some form of district voting. Most municipalities in Alabama have abandoned the dilutive At-Large voting model decades ago.
Perhaps most importantly, the intent of voters back in 1980 was to have better representation for all the residents of the county, and yet we have multiple county legislators that live in the same township. How is that better for the residents of the county?
Most people probably don’t care about this issue, but hopefully, Orleans County citizens demand reform, If the county’s current proposal stands, the minority party should proceed with litigation and not back down like they did ten years ago. By allowing the system to continue, the result was another ten years of absolute control that included the ill-thought-out sale of the nursing home to financial predators.
County legislators had a clear choice, they could have corrected the mistake made in 1980, or they could propose a system that preserves their power. It’s clear which one they chose.
Thom Jennings
Oakfield
(Jennings, a former Albion resident, previously ran for County Legislature.)
I can not help but wonder why people are not more involved in politics. They seem to be oblivious to politics but complain about diminishing rights and inflation.
Politics affect our entire lives, from the environment to nuclear war. Two big things in the news today. Yesterday was the first Orleans County Legislature meeting of 2023 and I think I was the only “Joe Public” who attended. Covid did mess up meetings and all our lives but Orleans County Legislature meetings are back open to the public.
Resolution #23 at the meeting was a contract agreement between the Orleans County Board of Elections and Dominion Voting Systems Corporation, which got approved. Through my research I believe electronic machines and the internet have no business in our elections.
Politics are the most important duty of the citizen. It is you, who through your vote, causes how your life and your neighbors’ lives will be.
I personally believe in the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, created by the people for the people. Get involved.
I feel the push to phase out gas stoves with new construction is a knee-jerk move and should not happen. While I am concerned about global warming and health, I feel that the benefits of a ban are far outweighed by the usefulness of gas stoves.
Natural gas and propane have far less impact that other fossil fuels and are more cost effective than electricity at this point in time.
I would like to offer a link (click here) to Senator Ort’s petition regarding gas stoves.
The circus was a wonderful delight for Albion students! We went last night and how delightful!
How smart to have children “free” and the low fee of $15-20 for adults. To have such a well-planned event so close by – no-parking fee –, to encourage children to sit or lay on the floor, to wander around, to join their friends is brilliant.
The children who attended were comfortable within their friendships and their ease. So were the adults in the bleachers! Were there trapeze artists? Were there wild animals? Were there bareback horse riders? No! None of those were necessary!
Instead, there were lines at both the face painters! There was an amazing juggler! A student was asked to help with plate spinning by a wonderful clown. The costume changing acts were really fun to watch.
Was there anything to buy? Oh, sure, $3 kept going out of my pocket for water, popcorn, and cotton candy. No big deal! Were there other things to purchase? Sure! But such a wonderful evening was available because of the teamwork of this circus.
It appears that only a dozen total circus staff are able to bring this to small venues like Albion. So much has to be planned, licensed, trucked, hauled, set up, costumed, taken down and it all has to work fast and right.
And so a huge thank you to all who arranged and presented Billy Martin’s Cole All Star Circus!
I would like to pose some thoughts before the meeting on Feb. 6 for district voters to ponder.
1. How can we guarantee that construction costs will be covered 18 months prior to construction given the dramatic fluctuations in cost and supply line disruption we have experienced recently?
2. Given that the country is racing to electric vehicles, should charging stations for buses be included now rather than later for additional cost?
3. While ADA restrooms are being included there is no provision for LGBTQ+ restrooms.
4. Are we adding additional classroom space or repositioning it to accommodate the STEAM and Technology Computer lab rooms?
5. Are District leaders giving full consideration to changing trends for heating and air conditioning as well as energy efficiency that are facing society? Will changes be sufficient for new laws that might come sooner rather than later. Also will cafeteria kitchens be upgraded to remove gas appliances and change to electric?
6. Is there sufficient cash reserve to cover unexpected costs and changes that are sure to be encountered in any building program.
7. Are any considerations being given to solar panels to help with costs for electric?
I realize that improvements are needed and that security and safety changes are necessary. I just do not want to be surprised 4 or 5 years from now with another large program that might not be covered. I also do not want to have increased taxes needed to cover unexpected issues. I hope all district residents will ponder these items and perhaps some I have not addressed and attend the meeting on Feb. 6.
I also want to add that I am not advocating denial of the building program as all the items that are addressed in the proposal are necessary. And piecemeal corrections will cost residents more than we can afford to pay!
In response to Jason Dragon’s letter, sir, apparently you are not paying attention to the facts. Also, how can you seriously think that business and investors do not come here because of high taxes because of the police budget? If I was an investor, I would want to know that the community I’m investing in is safe.
Maybe you should request a ride-a-long on the afternoon shift with the Police. Or maybe investigate burglaries and larceny reports on the day shift? How about the midnight shift, especially on the weekends?
Try dealing with the drunks, crack heads, the heroin-addicted, coke heads or mentally ill. How about fatal accidents, suicides and homicides? And then the drunk drivers who could potentially kill our loved ones?
And all you have is to criticize our past mayor for building her and her husband’s retirement dream house on beautiful Lake Ontario? And by the way, her husband, Dale, served our community well also. He not only served on the village board, was a fire chief, and then became Orleans #1 (emergency management director), the top dog in charge of keeping us safe in case of disasters.
Other mayors have moved out of the village. Why single out her? If you don’t like the way things are, then maybe you should move out. I would be glad to sit down, one on one, to debate these issues.
Last week I read the press release from the Albion Police Benevolent Association that harshly criticized Albion Mayor Angel Javier Jr. I’d like to offer some comments.
It seems perfectly reasonable for a new mayor to look into how our tax money is being spent. There are about 1,674 taxable parcels in the Village of Albion with an average assessment of $87,099. That is not a very large tax base. Our village tax rate is higher than that of any other village in the 3 adjacent counties. Indeed, this appears to be the same for every other village in Orleans County.
When this story first arose it was not apparent to me what the proper method is for calculating overtime for an 84-hour bi-weekly schedule. I spent a few days reading up on this topic, but I still don’t know. I would say though that it should not be enough to just trust the word of someone else who says they know, or to just ignore the question and keep paying the higher rate. This whole problem could have been avoided if the people who came up with it would have generated thorough documentation and supplied references to appropriate sources – with enough detail so that any new person to village government could understand.
I looked on the village website for the police contract, but I couldn’t find it. I shouldn’t have to go to www.SeeThroughNY.net to find it. I also could not find the union PowerPoint presentation, the Bonadio Group report, or the settlement. If you want people to be trusting of government and avoid issues like these then everything should be out in the open. The police union press release made a lot of accusations but did not provide references that we could check.
One item that was very unsettling was the accusation that $714,000 was owed to the police. I’d say that that is a sign that the police contract needs to be rewritten at the earliest opportunity. The contract mentions 2 officers on duty at all times, 6:00 shift start times, and officers being ready to work at the start of the shift. That sets a very high staffing level for such a small village and exposes its taxpayers to unnecessary overtime payments. I don’t mind paying a person if they are doing extra work that needs to be done, but I’m not excited about paying extra in taxes due to unnecessary contract rules.
We should remember that villages are a completely optional form of local government. And many villages do not have police forces or other services. We pay the same county tax rate as everyone else in Orleans County, so village residents should have the same access to the Sheriff and other county services. The village police force does not have to operate by itself and be as expensive as it currently is.
Orleans County is run by Republicans at every level of government and has been for some time. I’m at the point where I strongly suspect that many people who run our local governments in Orleans County are in cahoots to keep taxes inside villages high and taxes outside villages low.
Many people have had a job and/or role in village government and at some point move outside the village and not pay village taxes. One example would be our ex-mayor, Eileen Banker. She was a strong supporter of the village having a police department that is second to none with local control and fast response times. It doesn’t look that great to then build a brand-new home in Carlton. I’ll admit that the home is very beautiful, and it has a beautiful view of the lake. But I can’t quite square how she now will be able to make do with a slower response time from the Sheriff.
One other point of note is the $2 million project that was mentioned on Thursday, January 5 on Orleans Hub. That project strengthened 1,500 feet of shoreline and is right across from her new home. Local politicians love to criticize New York State, but they were happy that the state paid 95% of this project’s cost. There was no talk of becoming part of Pennsylvania on the day that project was announced.
It was no surprise that Carlton did not pick up the other 5% – it was the County. So, us taxpayers in the villages help keep lake homes safe from flooding. They seem to get us every time. I don’t expect the county to help pay for any project inside a village any year soon. We can’t even get them to share sales tax fairly.
The villages in Orleans County need to be much more affordable so that people will build beautiful new homes right here.
I am writing today in reference to the “press release” from the Albion Police Benevolent Association (PBA) regarding the resolution of the past pay dispute, recently resolved.
Recognizing that, at its core, the basic problem was how to equitably correct a longstanding accounting error, I was surprised and disappointed to read a public statement rife with character assassination, unfounded assumptions, and statements of uncertain veracity presented as truth. As a village resident I found the tone disturbing and unhelpful in moving the village forward into the new year.
In the Orleans Hub (July 18, 2022) it was reported that representatives from the Bonadio Group informed the Village of Albion that, in fact, Albion Police officers had been overpaid $236,000 over a five-year period.
This was uncovered during a budget review by the new mayor. The article indicates that Mr. Javier at that time contacted several outside agencies to help resolve the issue. He apparently felt as mayor that he had the duty to ensure financial responsibility on behalf of the taxpayers. That an accounting error occurred is, to my knowledge, not in dispute.
Unfortunately, the discovery of payroll discrepancies and the effort to correct them was characterized as “an ill-conceived escapade of attacking Village of Albion police officers.” Again, the authors of the press release indicate that upon taking office in April, 2022, the Mayor “set off on an ill-fated attack on the Albion police officers.”
I fail to see how an accounting correction constitutes an attack on one’s own constituency. Mayor Javier likely knew when he initiated the payroll audit that he had kicked a hornets’ nest, but believed setting things right was the only option available.
Ultimately, the dispute was resolved because of the power of the union and fear of continued litigation. To say that the PBA was “forced” to pursue several legal actions (creating leverage for the payroll situation) is at best a mis-characterization. That the village was looking at $714,000 in liability is a specious claim, based on an “investigation” done by the union.
The fact of “past practice” is the best argument for resolution in favor of the union members. Since officers had been through 160 payroll cycles with no apparent harm to the general well-being, an argument that there was no pressing reason for reconfiguration would be reasonable.
I believe that the mayor, for his part, felt he was performing due diligence on behalf of the taxpayers. That an issue already resolved should be the focus of continued acrimony is a sad result of public discourse that often descends into personal attack. I believe we can all be better than that.
