Touts new state budget in visit to Orleans

Photos By Tom Rivers – Brian Stratton, director of the NYS Canal Corp., went over highlights of the new state budget in a visit to the legislative chambers of the Orleans County Legislature on Thursday.

ALBION – The state budget brings good news to Orleans County residents, with a boost in the minimum wage, a Middle Class tax cut, more aid for schools, and numerous other funding options for municipalities to address aging infrastructure, and spur economic development, the director of the NYS Canal Corp. said in a stop Thursday in Albion.

Brian Stratton met with about 25 local officials in the legislative chambers of the Orleans County Legislature. Stratton and other many of the governor’s cabinet are discussing the new state budget in stops throughout the state. Stratton was also in Seneca Falls on Thursday.

Stratton said the higher minimum wage will benefit the state’s economy and residents. The new budget deal calls for phased in increases that bring the minimum wage to $15 in New York City and $12.50 for most of Upstate by the end of 2020. If the economy struggles, Stratton said there is a safety value “if catastrophic failure.”

He said the economy added jobs after six of the last nine times the minimum wage was increased in New York.

The County Legislature formally opposed raising the minimum wage in a recent meeting.

“That is the great debate: will it move the economy forward or will it have a depressing effect?” David Callard, the Legislature chairman, said on Thursday.

Callard said his top concern remains property taxes. He said the county and local governments have worked to share services, reduce staff and consolidate some departments. He said the state should follow that example.

Stratton said the state has been paring personnel costs.

“We’ve been doing that,” he responded to Callard. “We’ve retrenched, we’ve contracted. We’re all in this together.”

Stratton said the property tax cap, enacted by the governor and State Legislature, tries to limit property tax growth to about 2 percent. Sometimes the cap is lower because it’s tied to inflationary increases. The state has also capped the increase to counties for Medicaid and introduced a new less generous public pension tier that eases some of the financial pressure on municipalities, Stratton said.

He noted the budget includes more incentives for local governments to pursue consolidation to reduce layers of government.

Stratton said New York is in a much stronger position in the five-plus years Andrew Cuomo has been governor. The unemployment rate has dropped dramatically in all regions of the state, and the number of jobs has increased, Stratton said.

The budget includes a $27 billion commitment for infrastructure in Upstate. Stratton expects some of that money will address aging canal infrastructure, including some of the bridges that are more than a century old.

Many of those bridges in Orleans County have reduced weight limits, been closed or limited to one-way traffic. Orleans County officials in recent years have been pressing the state to spend more on repairing or replacing the canal spans.

Ed Morgan, the Murray town highway superintendent, said there are 10 canal bridges in Murray. He told Stratton many of the bridges are not properly posted by the state. He called it a public safety issue.

Dale Banker, the county’s emergency management coordinator, thanked the state for grant funds to help upgrade 911 emergency dispatch centers, but Banker told Stratton more funding would be helpful to make the systems interoperable with nearby counties.

The county also has made maintenance of the Lake Ontario State Parkway a top priority. Kendall Town Supervisor Tony Cammarata said the recreational route is in deplorable condition.

“It’s a horrible stretch of road,” Cammarata said. “The Parkway is the gateway to the east and the west. People aren’t taking it because it’s not drivable. It’s not a convenience issue, it’s a safety issue.”

Stratton said there are “many, many needs” in the state for the infrastructure. The funds haven’t been earmarked yet for projects.

He also highlighted an increase in school funding, a middle class tax cut, $500 million for Broadband, a $100 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative, a poverty reduction initiative, and a $200 million increase to upgrade water and sewer infrastructure.

“With this budget, New York will continue to lead the way forward,” Stratton said.

He also addressed the switch in the canal’s operation and maintenance from the Thruway Authority to the New York Power Authority. Stratton said the Thurway Authority was a great steward of the canal the past 25 years, spending about $1 billion in the 524-mile long system.

The NY Power Authority is a good fit for the canal, where 27 hydroelectric power systems use canal water, he said.

“We think this is a great economic opportunity by partnering with the New York Power Authority,” Stratton said. “The canal is a wonderful historic treasure and economic engine.”

Elizabeth Carpenter of Lyndonville took these photos of the Lake Ontario shoreline on Monday evening, when temperatures plummeted below freezing.

“When the clouds finally cleared out this evening, the shoreline was transformed,” she said in an email. “As much as I hate the cold temperatures, the ice formations were beautiful.”

The stretch of cold will continue for several days. The National Weather Service forecasts a high of 31 and a low of 22 for today, followed by a high of 48 and low near 40 on Wednesday. Thursday will reach 43 degrees with a low of 27.

Friday will be colder with a high of 34 and a low of 21, followed by a high of 30 and low of 21 on Saturday, and a high of 37 and low of 28 on Sunday, according to the Weather Service.

The snow this week, which blanketed the area with at least a foot of snow, created a landscape covered in white. Several people sent photos to the Orleans Hub of the winter wonderland.

Pamela Moore sent in the top photo from Tuesday of a barn on Gillette Road in Barre. “You can always find some sort of beauty even through a storm,” she said.

Kristina Gabalski, an Orleans Hub correspondent, took this photo of a snowman on Wednesday morning in front of a home on South Main Street in the Village of Holley.

Gabrielle Davis took this picture on Tuesday of a snow-covered Kenyonville Road in Gaines. She said the road with all of the snow was “so peaceful.”

Robyn Ottaviano of Medina sent in these photos of the Medina Waterfalls taken on Monday.

Donna Erneweintook this picture on Sunday of Lake Ontario from the Shadigee in Yates.

Gary Wood of Allen Road in Albion took this picture of the sunrise on Monday.

Rick Baase of Kent snapped this photo of the Oak Orchard Lighthouse at Point Breeze just before sunset on Feb. 15.

Photos by Doug Boyer
WATERPORT – Doug Boyer took these photos of an eagle eating a Canada goose at Lake Alice on Saturday morning.

Boyer was surprised to see a hawk keep trying to steal a bite.

POINT BREEZE – Doug Boyer took these photos today of long-tailed ducks known as oldsquaw, which are medium-sized sea ducks.

The ducks are migratory in the winter with some coming to the Great Lakes. For more information, click here.

File photo by Tom Rivers  – A fisherman walks along the west pier at Oak Orchard Harbor in this photo from May 3, 2015. Microbeads are seen as a threat to fishing industries in the Great Lakes.

President Barack Obama on Monday signed legislation banning products containing plastic microbeads, an effort that was championed by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY.
Plastic microbeads are found in personal care products like facial scrubs, body washes, hand cleansers, and toothpaste. These products are designed to be rinsed down the drain, but the microbeads are too small to be captured by wastewater treatment plants.

They subsequently have been found in large bodies of water across New York State, where they concentrate toxins and can be ingested by birds and fish, posing serious environmental and health risks, Gillibrand said.

In an April 2015, a report released by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office found that microbeads were present in 74 percent of water samples taken from 34 municipal and private treatment plants across New York State.

“I am pleased that President Obama signed our legislation to federally ban plastic microbeads in personal care products,” Gillibrand said in a statement today. “This new law gives us a powerful new tool in our efforts to clean up New York’s waterways. These tiny pieces of plastic have the potential to cause serious ecological damage, hurt our fishing and tourism industries, and they have already polluted our drinking water supply. By removing products containing plastic microbeads from the marketplace, we can now begin to focus on cleaning up the mess they caused.”

The plastic microbeads could have a devastating effect on the state’s fish populations, hurting the commercial and recreational fishing industries, tourism industry, and the general economic wellbeing of the state’s coastal communities.

The states of Illinois, Connecticut and California have already banned plastic microbeads in consumer products, with legislation being considered in several other states, including New York.

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Orr

POINT BREEZE – Jennifer Orr of Albion didn’t expect to take her kids to the beach today, but that is what she did with temperatures at 72 degrees and lots of sunshine.

She was at Point Breeze with her kids when they decided to make their own version of a snowman in the sand.

There is still no sign of snow in the forecast. There is, however, a chance for strong winds. The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory for Orleans County and much of Western New York from 4 p.m. today until 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Normally I’d expect to see snow on the ground with a trip to the Post Office on Dec. 10, but today it was roses.

An Orleans Hub reader told me I had to see the flowers in bloom on the south side of the Post Office on Main Street in Albion. I stopped by today and there they were, looking like it was spring.

I also saw bins full of apples in an orchard today and Mennonites working on a barn-raising in Knowlesville. (They asked that I not take their picture.)

The Erie Canal also is nearly empty of water. This picture shows a dock on the Albion-Eagle Harbor Road, just west of the Village of Albion.

The Orleans County Tourism Department reports that the drained canal has given the local fishery a boost, raising water levels and increasing flows in the local tributaries.

The temperatures will continue to be unseasonably warm with highs of 57 on Friday, 60 on Saturday, 63 on Sunday and 67 on Monday.

Photo courtesy of Curtis Beecher

CARLTON – Curtis Beecher, an employee at the Lynn-Ette and Sons farm in Kent, took a picture this morning of a Snowy Owl on some of Lynn-Ette’s farm equipment. The owls have returned for another winter in Orleans County.