Music teacher helped start Albion Running Club

Photo by Tom Rivers – Participants in Saturday’s “Run for Wayne” in Albion will receive a medal for completing the 1-mile walk or the 3.17-mile run. The event begins at 12:01 p.m. at the elementary school, where Burlison was a music teacher.

ALBION – Wayne Burlison was 36 when he was diagnosed with colon cancer in December 2013.

An Albion elementary music teacher, Burlison lived 3 months and 17 days after his diagnosis. Thursday (March 26) was the one-year anniversary of his death.

On Saturday, his friends have organized the first “Run for Wayne,” a 3.17-mile run or walk to raise money for a scholarship in his name. Participants also have the option of a 1-mile course.

Organizers will post signs along the course route with some of Burlison’s favorite sayings, including “Can’t isn’t a word, try again.”

The event will begin at 12:01 p.m. at the elementary school and participants will head east on Route 31 to Mount Albion Cemetery. They will pass Burlison’s grave and then head back to the school.

“It seems very poignant to honor Wayne in this way because running was very important to him,” said Mark Moore, the race director and member of the Albion Running Club.

Nearly 150 people have already registered for the event. Registrations are open up until 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Participants will receive a shirt and medal, with proceeds going to a scholarship in Burlison’s memory. (Click here for more information.)

Provided photo – Wayne Burlison runs in a race. Once he took up running and a eating more nutritious foods, he lost nearly 150 pounds. He became a long-distance runner and also led running programs for beginners in Albion.

Burlison was an active musician performing with many community bands and also participated in many groups at the school district. A concert in January with many of those musicians raised about $7,000 for the scholarship.

Brian Krieger, executive director of the Albion Running Club, expects the Run for Wayne will push get the scholarship funding past the $10,000 goal, including the fund-raising from the concert.

Krieger trained for a marathon with Burlison. The two were close friends. They led the “Run for God” program at the Albion Free Methodist Church, which helped beginning runners go from the couch to a 5K in about three months.

Burlison once weighed nearly 300 pounds and lost about half that weight. He became a big proponent for a balanced life with family, friends and faith, while also embracing fitness and healthy eating.

Krieger and Moore want the “Run for Wayne” to honor their friend, and also provide fitness motivation for people during the winter. The event can give people a training goal during the cold-weather months of January, February and March.

“We want to promote fitness earlier in the season and help kick off the running season,” Moore said.

The run/walk on Saturday will include opening ceremonies with a prayer and message from Lisa Burlison, Wayne’s wife.

“Run for Wayne” is set for a 12:01 start to represent one of Wayne’s favorite Bible verses, Hebrews 12:1: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Keeler Construction has begun demolition of the Clarendon Street bridge in the Village of Albion.

The company has torn off some of the pavement and moved the concrete barriers on the approaches leading to the bridge.

The bridge was originally built in 1976 over the railroad tracks. It will be torn out, the highway embankments will be lowered and the street will be blocked off at a 90-degree angle at Crimson Drive. On the north side, it will also be blocked off with a turnaround spot near Childs Street.

The project is expected to take about three months.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Firefighters were dispatched to an upstairs apartment in downtown Albion at 11:11 p.m. on Thursday. A fireplace was smoky and smelly, perhaps from melting crayons, firefighters said.

The Albion Fire Department ventilated the apartment at 28 East Bank St.

ALBION – Ron Vendetti, the village’s code enforcement officer since 2001, has announced his intention to retire in the village’s 2015-16 fiscal year, which begins June 1.

Vendetti had to notify the village of his intentions by the end of March that he would retire within the next fiscal year.

When Vendetti was hired, he was tasked with pursuing unlicensed cars, property maintenance issues and neighborhood decline. The village has made strides in his 14 years on the job, he said today.

“When I started here we had unlicensed cars in front yards and a lot of property maintenance problems,” he said.

Residents often complained to Village Board members that Vendetti was abrasive and unfair in ticketing residents for infractions. The board even tried to fire Vendetti, but he prevailed in court.

Vendetti acknowledged the code enforcement officer makes many enemies. But he said he also has made friends, working with developers on new projects and reconstruction in Albion, in particular the many new buildings that went up on routes 31 and 98.

He also has pushed the village to create an LDC to focus on distressed properties, and has worked on the downtown concert series and other community projects.

Vendetti also is the code enforcement officer in Murray and Holley, and is managing Holley’s grant program. After he retires, he said he would like to continue in a part-time role in Murray or Holley.

Vendetti said Albion has benefitted in the past 14 years with a strong police department, stepped up efforts for street maintenance and overhauled neighborhood parks, which have helped the quality of life in the community.

Neighbor asks village to clean up site

Photos by Tom Rivers – A sandstone building from 1840, one of the oldest in downtown Albion, has been reduced largely to rubble. However, the site hasn’t been cleaned up after demolition started two years ago.

ALBION – Mary Anne Braunbach said two years is long enough for the village to move on cleaning up the rubble and remains of a sandstone building originally constructed in 1840.

Braunbach owns a building near the ruin at the corner of Beaver Alley and Liberty Street. She said the “pile of rocks” drags down the appearance of the entire downtown historic district, which is included on the National Register of Historic Places.

“Two years of patience is more than any taxpayer should have to bear,” Braunbach told the Village Board on Wednesday evening.

Dan Dunn of Ridgeway started removing the building in April 2013, but work was stopped because Dunn didn’t secure an asbestos removal permit from the state Department of Labor.

Dunn contested he needs a certified asbestos removal company for the work. Dunn, owner of salvage company, believes he could handle the job.

The DOL’s Asbestos Control unit tagged the building as a “suspended action.”

The building, once used to manufacture carriages more than a century ago, was deemed a “dangerous building” when it was standing and the village wanted it to come down. Dunn needed a permit from the DOL before removing the 5,000-square-foot building that was last used as a furniture warehouse about a half century ago.

Dunn took down some of the structure and removed some of the stone. But some of the rubble and his equipment remain on site.

Village Attorney John Gavenda said the village has taken Dunn to court to have him clean up the site, but the rubble remains.

Village officials say it would cost abut $16,000 to pay a contractor to remove the remaining debris. Braunbach urged the village to hire a contractor to get the job done, and try to recoup the costs from Dunn or by selling the land.

“It comes down to the village’s budget. Do we have the money?” Gavenda asked the board.

Village trustees are working on the 2015-16 budget, which must be approved by May 1.

“My personal opinion is that is a mess and we should clean it up,” Trustee Gary Katsanis said.

Here is how the building looked about two years ago before demolition started.

Trustee Eileen Banker didn’t want to see the village expend public resources cleaning up sites and buildings that are abandoned. She said there are 47 vacant houses in Albion and she worries the village could be stuck with some of them.

David Snell, a local real estate broker, said neighborhoods and the community suffer from buildings and sites left to rot.

“We’re suffering,” Snell said. “These homes are a cancer on our village.”

The Village Board said it would know more on May 1, after its new budget is in place to see if it has money to address the clean up of the Dunn building and address any of the housing issues.

Braunbach said putting off the cleanup another year isn’t an option. She wants the village to address it soon – or she may take legal action.

“We may include it in the budget,” Banker said. “We’ll do our best.”

Photo by Tom Rivers – The village created this “pocket park” on Main Street after the former Waterman building burned down in the 1980s.

ALBION – A downtown business owner has suggested the Village Board pave over a small park in the downtown and turn the space into parking.

David Snell owns Peter Snell Realtors, two buildings south of Waterman Park. He said 6 to 8 spots could be created from the park. Those spaces would be a big lift to merchants nearby, who only have a few close spots on their side of the street for customers, Snell told the Village Board on Wednesday.

“We have a desperate need for it,” he said about the parking.

Snell said there are only three spots on the east side of Main Street, between the park and Bank Street to be shared by four businesses. Many potential customers, especially for a drive-up business like Fischer’s Newsstand, keep driving if there isn’t easy parking available, Snell said.

Snell also suggested the village push the state to allow angled parking on Main Street to create more spaces. Village officials doubted that would happen because the state doesn’t want vehicles backing into a state road.

“We need to get creative because the state is killing us and other small villages,” Snell said. “We can’t accept ‘No.’ The state says you can’t do it but that will kill us.”

This postcard from the 1970s shows how the Waterman building looked. It’s left of the Briggs Building, the tallest one on the block.

Snell thinks paving the park might be the best answer. Or the village should consider selling that land to a developer with the stipulation a new building be constructed that would match the historic flavor of the downtown.

He also urged the village to consider incentives for building owners that invest in apartments in the upper floors. The village shouldn’t just raise the assessments for those projects, forcing the building owners to pay more in taxes, Snell said.

He praised the village for marking parking spaces in a back lot between East Bank Street and the canal. Additional spots in that lot could be made available behind a building owned by Bill Wittman. Village officials said they would pursue an easement from Wittman, and would mark the spots with paint.

Village trustees said they wanted to talk with Snell more about his other ideas. Dale Brooks, the DPW superintendent, said he would reach out to the state Department of Transportation to see if angled parking could be an option.

ALBION – Dollar Tree will open a store in Albion at the former Ames Plaza, with a likely opening on June 1, Code Enforcement Officer Ron Vendetti said.

Dollar Tree used to have a store in Medina. There is one in Brockport. The company will use about 9,000 square feet in the plaza, which is home to Pawlak’s Save-A-Lot, Save On Beverage Center and Peebles.

Dollar Tree will go before the Village of Albion Zoning Boards of Appeals to seek a variance for its signage. Otherwise, the property is zoned commercial and the store fits the zoned use, Vendetti said.