By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 July 2015 at 12:00 am
ALBION – A series of glitches that on some days prevented Orleans County employees from receiving and placing phone calls appears to be fixed, county officials said.
The phone system for about 200 county employees has been hit with two major problems the past three weeks with issues from Verizon, Time Warner and Windstream. Friday was particularly bad, because county employees didn’t receive incoming calls and couldn’t place outgoing calls.
The county works with Windstream, a phone service provider, and uses Verizon. One problem occurred when county employees used the Verizon network to try to talk with someone on a Time Warner network. The calls weren’t going through and neither company wanted to work on it, said Kevin Doherty, who manages the county’s phone system.
That issue was worked out, and so where the other glitches. Doherty has worked on the county’s phone system for 30 years.
He said telecommunications are much more critical to county employees now than three decades ago.
Phone companies tend to put their resources and energy in more populous areas, and that can lead to service problems in rural areas, Doherty said.
“We’re at the edge of service coverage,” Doherty said. “There’s no incentive to invest in rural areas.”
The issues the past three weeks were particularly challenging because Doherty needed to work with more than one company to pinpoint the problems and get them resolved.
The issues did not affect the county’s 9-1-1 system, he said.
Provided photo – Students in the Orleans/Niagara BOCES’s 2015 Licensed Practical Nursing Class all passed. The group includes, from left, seated: Courtney Burdick, Melissa Olles, Raquel Golson and Marissa Catalano. Standing: Ashley Zuercher, Katelyn Fletcher, Nelly Galicia, Jonathon Furlong, Krystina Daniel, Alexander Gow, Amanda Frazier, Stephen O’Brien, Amanda Hyde and Mindy Barber.
Press Release
Orleans/Niagara BOCES
Orleans/Niagara BOCES’s 2015 Licensed Practical Nursing students have achieved a 100 percent pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses.
The state average is 79 percent and traditionally the Orleans/Niagara BOCES LPN classes do pass the exam with above average scores.
“The success of our program is directly related to our teaching staff,” says Nursing Coordinator Karen Kwandrans. “They go above and beyond to make sure that our students are prepared for this test and learn all the skills they need to be successful in this career and anything they choose to pursue in the medical field after this program.”
The class takes 14 1/2 months to complete and is a combination of classroom instruction, lab work and clinical instruction at local hospitals and healthcare facilities.
“It is a wonderful gateway for students to go for their RN degree and beyond,” Kwandrans said. “We have been approached by several schools to observe this program and talk to our teachers. Everyone wants to know what a class that can pass at 100 percent looks like.”
Kwandrans says the demand for nurses is high and she is constantly approached by medical facilities and physician’s offices who want first crack at the school’s graduates.
“Let me put it this way,” she said. “Anyone who has graduated our LPN program, who wants a job, has a job.”
The latest LPN program is getting ready to start up around the end of August at the Medina site located at 4232 Shelby Basin Road and Kwandrans encourages anyone interested to contact her office at (716) 731-6800, extension: 4445.
“It’s not too late to be tested for entrance into our program,” she said. “We have testing dates on July 29, Aug. 6 and Aug. 10. Many of our students qualify for financial aid and loans and our financial aid officer is available to talk to as well.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 July 2015 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – The Albion Rotary Club held its annual Curtis Lyman Memorial Golf Tournament last Thursday, and the club raised about $5,000 that will go towards a van to transport veterans to medical appointments.
The top photo shows one of the vans for veterans in the Lyndonville Fourth of July Parade. David Barhite is pictured in the passenger’s seat.
The Rotary Club last year also used the golf tournament proceeds to give $5,000 for a low-mileage van for Orleans County Joint Veterans Council.
The Veterans Council has five vans that it uses to take veterans to medical appointments. The Council is trying to replace high-mileage vans with low-mileage ones.
“They really have a big need to continually replace those vans,” said Cindy Perry, the golf tournament chairwoman. “It’s a revolving need.”
The Veterans Council acquires and owns the vans, and the VA pays for the gas and maintenance. The service is free to veterans. About 30 residents are faithful volunteer drivers, taking veterans back and forth to medical appointments.
There were about 70 golfers in the tournament at Hickory Ridge Country Club.
The winning men’s team shot a 57 in a scramble. Pictured from left includes: Jeremy Nardone, Erik Lunger, Ray Wager and Brian Klos.
The winning women’s team shot a 70. The team includes, from left: Kelly Froman, Mary Guzik, Barb Budde and Mari Ehrenreich.
ALBION – The union representing corrections officers at the Orleans Correctional Facility recently donated $500 to the Knights-Kaderli Memorial Fund, which assists cancer patients and their families in Orleans County. The fund helps families pay for nutritional supplements and prescriptions, as well as medical supplies and bills.
Corrections officers are pictured with Mary Zelazny, one of the leaders of the fund. The corrections officers include, from left: Kenny Gold, Matt Lamar and Craig Stalker.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 July 2015 at 12:00 am
File photo by Tom Rivers – Margy Brown (center), race director for a 5K at Brown’s Berry Patch, is pictured with the winners of the race last October: Dana Phillips of Lyndonville and Paul Glor of Rochester. The race will have a new identity in October as the Brown’s 5K Cross Country Run and Memory Walk.
WATERPORT – The Brown family will continue to host a 5-kilometer walk and run to benefit Hospice of Orleans.
The family in the spring announced it was closing its popular retail farm market with a gift shop and playground. That site was a big draw for more than 30 years. The family retired from that side of the business.
The Browns continue to operate their fruit farm, and sell berries, apples and other produce.
The family in 1996 started a 5K to benefit Hospice. The race typically attracted 75 to 100 participants.
The Browns will keep the race going, and it will be known as the Brown’s 5K Cross Country Run and Memory Walk. Margy Brown has been the race director since 1996 and has turned over nearly $35,000 in proceeds from the race to Hospice.
“We believe in Hospice,” she said. “You never know how important Hospice is until it touches you as a family.”
Brown said Hospice has stepped up its services for the community, particularly with a residence that opened almost three years ago on Route 31 in Albion. That building includes eight residential suites for Hospice patients.
Jack Richardson of Albion nears the finish line with his grandson, Chad Hardy, during last October’s 5K at Brown’s. Richardson, a retired pastor, runs many local 5-kilometer races.
She has made some changes in the race. Instead of a 10 a.m. start, it will begin at noon. Runners and walkers will meet at the main building and parking lot for the former retail site. There will also be a 1-mile walk option.
She has partnered with the Albion Running Club to help manage the race. The Running Club organizes three races: The Run for Wayne in March, The Strawberry Festival Race in June, and the upcoming Metro 10.
The Running Club also leads exercise programs, and will kick off another 12-week Run for God program this Saturday with the culmination to be the race at Brown’s.
The Run for God is designed to take people from the couch to a 5K, to help them gradually build up to completing the 3.1-mile distance by training over three months. The Run for God starts at 8:30 a.m. this Saturday at the Albion Free Methodist Church.
Brown would like to boost participation to well over 100 for the event in October. She welcomes participants to walk or run the course, and to do it memory of a loved one.
More information about the race should soon be available on the Running Club website.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has directed that flags on state government buildings be flown at half-staff beginning Wednesday in honor of the victims of last week’s shooting at the Navy Operational Support Center in Chattanooga, TN. Flags will remain at half-staff until sunset on Saturday.
“Last week’s horrific shooting in Chattanooga claimed the lives of some of our nation’s bravest young men,” Governor Cuomo said. “While nothing can replace the lives that were lost, we will be neither defined nor divided by this kind of senseless violence – instead, we remember the courage and selflessness of these five service members with gratitude. On behalf of all New Yorkers, my thoughts and prayers are with the families of these fallen heroes.”
Earlier today, State Assemblyman Steve Hawley urged Cuomo to lower the flags.
“While the entire nation mourns the unnecessary death of these brave members of our military, I believe Gov. Cuomo should direct that all flags in New York State are lowered out of respect,” Hawley said. “There are so many military members here in New York State, and so many military families, to me it is the right thing for the governor to do – to show solidarity and respect for the nation during this difficult time.”
By Kristina Gabalski, Correspondent Posted 21 July 2015 at 12:00 am
Photos by Kristina Gabalski – A group of busy volunteers and 4-H’ers makes pies in the Trolley Building on the Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds on Saturday. Pie-making volunteers met four times over the past two months to assemble and freeze pies to be baked and sold by the slice at the Leader’s Pie Stand during fair week, July 27-Aug. 1.
KNOWLESVILLE – Visitors to next week’s Orleans County 4-H Fair will get more than a tasty treat when they stop by the Leader’s Pie Stand. Those pies also support the 4-H youth program.
Thanks to the efforts of 4-H’ers, families and volunteers, slices of pie sold this year have been made by hand instead of being store bought.
For many years, 4-H families were able to bring pies made at home for the stand, but three years ago, County Health Department rules changed, meaning that pies donated to the stand had to be baked in a Health Department-approved kitchen.
The result was a challenge for volunteers and 4-H families and disappointing for fairgoers who wanted to find homemade pie at the stand.
Alexis Brege, 13, proudly displays a blueberry pie she made during the July 18 Pie Making Workshop at the fairgrounds. Alexis will be able to enter the pie in the fair before it is taken to the Leader’s Pie Stand and sold by the slice. In addition to making pies for the Leader’s Pie Stand, the Pie Making Workshop was an opportunity for 4-Hers and their families to learn pie-making skills.
“The first year, we bought 90 percent of the pies,” says Jennifer Batt, who helps to organize volunteer staffing for the stand and has worked as “project manager” to bring the number of “homemade” pies back up to 100 percent.
The 100 percent goal has been accomplished through a series of four pie-making workshops held on Saturdays and Sundays in June and July at the Trolley Building kitchen at the fairgrounds. The Trolley Building kitchen is Health Department approved.
During the workshops, pie crust was made, rolled out, with fruit fillings prepared and pies assembled before being frozen. The pies will be baked fresh throughout the fair.
Batt says last year, the “homemade” to purchased pie ratio was about 50/50.
“We won’t have to buy any this year,” she says, and notes that as of the final pie-making workshop July 18, 75 pies had been assembled. About another 45 pies will be made before and during fair to make sure there is an ample supply and variety for hungry fairgoers.
Fruit was donated for the effort by local growers. Rock Ledge Farm in Medina donated cherries; HH Dobbins Cold Storage in Lyndonville donated apples; and Brown’s Berry Patch in Waterport donated elderberries and blueberries.
Because pies are frozen before they are baked, freezer space was also an issue in meeting the goal.
A blueberry pie awaits its top crust.
At the end of June, Orleans County Cornell Cooperative Extension Program Director Jennifer Wagester sent out an email to 4-H families and leaders seeking the loan or donation of a freezer to help hold the growing number of pies. Just three hours later, a 4-H family had donated a large chest freezer to help in the pie effort.
All proceeds from sales at the Leader’s Pie Stand go to fund 4-H activities and award trips – none of the proceeds are used for administrative costs or operating expenses, Wagester said.
The Leader’s Pie Stand will be open from noon to 10 p.m. from Tuesday through Saturday during the fair.
A blueberry pie with a crumb crust made awaits wrapping and boxing before it is frozen in advance of next week’s fair.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 July 2015 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Drew Goodwin, an employee with Premier Sign Systems in Rochester, runs pennants from the new Dollar Tree store to a light post in the parking this morning.
The store opened at 9 a.m. It’s in the Route 31 plaza that includes Pawlak’s Save-A-Lot, Save On Beverage Center and Peebles.
Contractors worked in recent months to ready 9,000 square feet of space for Dollar Tree. This is the store where the items are $1.
Employees said they weren’t able to speak with media or allow photos inside. Questions were referred to the company’s corporate offices in Chesapeake, Va.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 July 2015 at 12:00 am
ALBION – A Holley man, who admitted he broke into a Holley residence last November, was sentenced to 2 to 6 years in state prison today.
Christopher D. Helsdon, 25, in May pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary. He faced a maximum 2 1/3 to 7 years in state prison. Judge James Punch gave him a little less than the maximum.
Helsdon, in a previous court appearance, said he was on heroin when he entered an unlocked Holley house on Nov. 12. Although under the influence of the drug, Helsdon said he was aware of what he was doing.
He said he stole items with the intention of selling them to a pawn store so he could buy heroin.
In another sentencing today, Curtis Stipp, 23, of Middleport was sentenced to weekends in jail over the next 60 days as well as five years of Probation.
Stipp in April pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree. He admitted he had “100-some” pills of oxycodone and intended to sell them on Nov. 22, 2013.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 July 2015 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
MURRAY – Dustin Clark of Phelps and his modified tractor, “Policy Peddler,” pull a 40,000-pound sled along a dirt track in Murray on Sunday.
Clark finished fifth in the modified class with a pull of 243.0 feet. He was one of about 50 competitors in the Murray Tractor Pull, which is a sanctioned event by the Empire State Pullers.
Dustin Clark has his helmet off after competing. The Murray course on Groth Road attracted about 1,000 fans for the two days of tractor pulling on the weekend.
Two young fans, with their ears covered from the roaring noise, watch Rick Krause of Ashland, Ohio, compete in the modified class.
Krause and “Unfinished Business” won the modified class with a pull of 336.11 feet.
Mark Cole of Pavilion competes with “The Gambler” in the modified class. Cole was sixth with a pull of 200.0 feet. He was the “Puller of the Year” from 2009-2012 for the Empire State Pullers.
Lloyd Christ rides a Kubota and checks on the race on Sunday. Christ built the course for the tractor pulling event on Groth Road about 15 years ago. He also competes in the heavy superstock class.
His son, Scott, also competes and won the the super farm class on Sunday.
