By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 11 May 2015 at 12:00 am
File photo by Tom Rivers – The Medina Fire Department heads down East Center Street on an ambulance call in January, a call that was outside the village.
MEDINA – The Village of Medina could do better boosting revenue for its ambulance service by getting more uncollected money from patients, and also by insisting other municipalities help pay for the service, according to the State Comptroller’s Office.
The Comptroller’s Office reviewed ambulance service billing records from Jan.1, 2011 to Sept. 10, 2014. It found Medina is due $1,012,326 in outstanding bills from patients, a number that rose each year from $186,125 in 2011, $194,194 in 2012, $241,832 in 2013, and $390,175 in about eight months of 2014.
The Medina Fire Department has been the primary ambulance provider for the towns of Yates, Shelby and Ridgeway since 2007. As part of that contract, the towns were supposed to reimburse the village on a quarterly basis for any uncollected bills for ambulance calls to the three towns. The three towns also agreed to an administrative fee incurred by a third-party billing agent for each bill prepared. That fee is currently $38.25 per bill.
The village never sent the towns an invoice for these bills, the Comptroller’s Office said.
Comptroller staff reviewed the bills and found the three towns owe the village $53,036 for uncollected bills in the three municipalities, plus $21,573 to the billing agent. That $74,609 breaks out to $33,809 for the Town of Yates, $13,935 for the Town of Shelby and $26,865 for the Town of Ridgeway.
The comptroller said the towns need to be billed regularly, and their bills reviewed by village officials. Medina needs to work to ensure “that village taxpayers are not subsidizing the cost of providing ambulance service to the towns,” according to the comptroller report.
Medina Mayor Andrew Meier responded to the Comptroller Office in an April 10 letter that the village works diligently to collect unpaid bills. However, Meier said the village doesn’t want to take residents, including many senior citizens on fixed incomes, to small claims court or subject residents to “significant harassment” from bill collectors, he said.
Medina has an 86.8 percent pay rate, which rates slightly better than average for the 18 municipal clients served by Medina’s ambulance billing provider, Meier said. Medina also receives an average of $434.20 per bill, which is about $20 higher than the municipal average, the mayor said.
The Village Board welcomes contributions from the three towns for the ambulance service, Meier said. However, he said there would be “extreme difficulty” in calculating each town’s share based on the original formula.
“Indeed, the current agreement seems fair in theory, but is unworkable in practice,” Meier said. “The Village has brought this to the attention of Shelby and Ridgeway officials at joint meetings, yet both have indicated an unwillingness to modify the agreement. The Village will continue to address this matter with the towns.”
The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch from 8:15 p.m. until midnight tonight for Orleans and nine other Western New York counties, including Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara and Wyoming.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 11 May 2015 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Orleans County was assigned an A1 rating by Moody’s Investors Service, and that positive rating helped the county secure a 20-year bond for $8.03 million at a 2.81 percent rate.
The county is borrowing the money to replace bridges, culverts, roofs and other infrastructure work. Depository Trust submitted the lowest borrowing rate of five bidders. Depository has bought other county bonds before, said County Treasurer Susan Heard.
She said the county has held a high rating by Moody’s in recent decades, which has resulted in low-financing rates for county projects.
Moody’s said the county has a stable $1.7 billion tax base, showing modest growth of about 1.0 percent annually the past five years.
“The county’s financial position should remain satisfactory given conservative budgeting and the recent sale of the nursing home,” according to the Moody’s report.
Moody’s also said the recent sale of the county-owned nursing home for $7.8 million will allow the county to pay off $7.1 million owed for that facility’s debt. Selling the nursing home also eliminates the potential for county subsidies for the facility. The county had to take $900,000 from the general fund to cover budget shortfalls at the nursing home in 2013, Moody’s said.
The county has a “manageable debt level” and average reserve levels, Moody’s said. The county’s rate could go down if reserves are depleted. The rate could be improved with bigger reserves and significant tax base growth.
Moody’s said the county is challenged by “below average wealth indicators” in the community.
The $8.03 million bond will provide $4,963,000 to replace six bridges from 2015 to 2017. Those bridges include two in 2015: a bridge from 1934 over Beardsley Creek on Waterport-Carlton Road in Carlton, and a bridge from 1968 in Barre over Manning Muckland Creek on Oak Orchard Road.
Other bridges to follow include one from 1959 in Kendall on Carton Road over Sandy Creek, a bridge from 1936 in Ridgeway over Fish Creek on East Scott Road, one from 1928 in Ridgeway over Fish Creek on Culvert Road, and a bridge from 1956 in Kendall over Sandy Creek on Norway Road.
The county also plans to replace six culverts for $1,500,000. Those culverts are identified as two on Knowlesville Road in Ridgeway, two on Platten Road in Yates, and two on South Holley Road in Clarendon.
The infrastructure investment plan also includes $1,540,000 in work at county buildings, including two new pole barns for $460,000. Those 60-by-150 foot barns are estimated to cost $230,000 each. One would be used by the highway department and the other by emergency management.
The county also wants to replace the roofs on the County Administration Building and the Public Safety Building, with each at an estimated $510,000.
The remaining project includes a generator for the mental health building for $60,000. That generator will service a new hub for county information technology infrastructure.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 11 May 2015 at 12:00 am
Heritage Hero: Andrew Meier
Photos by Tom Rivers – Andrew Meier is pictured inside the second floor of the Robert H. Newell Building, which is now home to the law offices of Webster, Schubel and Meier. The building’s reuse and preservation is one of several reasons why Meier was awarded a “Heritage Hero” award on April 25 by Genesee Community College.
MEDINA – It was 2004 and Andrew Meier had a new law degree from Syracuse University after earning his bachelor’s at the University of Rochester.
Meier was 24 then and many of his law school friends settled into jobs at law firms in the big cities.
Meier returned to his hometown, working with David Schubel and Norris Webster at their law firm on Main Street. Meier bought a house in Middleport, renovated it and sold it.
He liked that challenge, of bringing life back into an old building.
“I love architecture and I really love old buildings,” Meier said.
The Robert H. Newell Building is now home to several different businesses and uses.
Meier had long admired the Robert H. Newell Building at 113 West Center St. The building for 86 years was home to the Robert H. Newell Shirt Factory, which manufactured custom-made shirts, including for many famous customers, including Winston Churchill and Bob Hope.
The Newell company left the historic building in 2004 and moved to Maple Ridge Road. The business closed in 2007.
The Village of Medina acquired the building after years of unpaid taxes. The three-story site had been neglected and was in disrepair. It was put up for sale in 2005, and Meier bought it. He was 25 at the time.
“It had great bones and potential,” Meier said about the building. “I knew the risks going in. It was an opportunity that came up that I could not pass up.”
He set about the task of methodically renovating and preserving the 14,000-square-foot building that opened in 1876, a site that was a hotel for its first 14 years before it becoming the Newell building.
Meier is pictured at the check-in for the Hart House, a hotel with four rooms plus two lofts for extended stays.
Meier first worked on preparing the Shirt Factory Café in part of the first floor. That business opened in September 2006 after 18 months of renovations.
Meier believed the café fit in nicely with the Newell building, given its close proximity to the Post Office and other downtown sites that are popular with the public.
“I thought it was a quality of life issue and the type of business the community needed,” Meier said. “I thought it would thrive off existing foot traffic and hopefully generate some new foot traffic.”
The café remains in operation today, with Richard Sarrero now owning and running the Shirt Factory.
Bryan DeGraw, back left, talks about mead with people on the Ale in Autumn tasting event in September in Medina. 810 Meadworks is owned by Bryan and Larissa DeGraw and their friend Morris Babcock.
While Meier was working on the space for the Shirt Factory, a yarn store and barbershop moved into storefronts at the building. Meier knew it would take many tenants, with different types of businesses, to make the building viable.
He envisioned the second floor for professional offices and he found a tenant in the law offices of Webster, Schubel and Meier. The attorneys would move from Main Street to the second floor of the Newell building.
For the third floor, Meier wanted to honor the building’s original use as a hotel. He would create the Hart House with four hotel rooms and two extended stay loft apartments. The Hart House opened in 2012. Meier owns that business which is managed by Kyle Zunner.
The building has space in the back that has hosted outdoor concerts as part of the Boiler 54 performance venue.
Dave Kimball and Dee Adams perform in August 2013 at the Boiler 54 in the back of the former R.H. Newell Shirt Factory.
“That space is one of the most awesome outdoor venues anywhere,” Meier said. “I love it.”
When the barber in the building retired last year, a meadery serving alcohol moved in. 810 Meadworks has proven a draw for people who like alcoholic drinks made by fermenting honey with water and often fruits, spices, grains and hops.
Cindy Robinson, president of the Medina Business Association, marvels at Meier’s transformation for a building that was empty a decade ago.
“He is a visionary on what’s doable in a small town,” Robinson said. “He knew it would take an eclectic mix.”
Robinson owns two historic building on Main Street. Both have been full of surprises, the same with most older historic structures, she said.
“You don’t know what’s under the dropped ceilings and the plasterboard,” she said.
Meier showed faith in the community when he invested in the Newell site, and Robinson believes that example encouraged others to take a chance on Medina, and has been a big part of the downtown revitalization the past decade.
“He was one of the original risk takers,” Robinson said. “He has been a catalyst for the downtown.”
Civil War re-enactors march down Main Street in Medina in April 2013, when the Main Street was closed to traffic for the parade. Meier and village officials have supported many heritage efforts and community projects.
Meier would join the Village Board in 2008 when he was elected as a trustee. He became mayor in 2011. He worries about neighborhood decline and rising tax rates for the Medina community. He pushed for a dissolution of the village, which failed in the public referendum in January.
“Being mayor and serving on the Village Board is a thankless job,” Robinson said. “You do it out of your hearts and your concern for the community.”
As mayor, Meier has been receptive to heritage projects in the community, most notably Genesee Community College’s Civil War Encampments the past three years. Medina closed sections of Main Street to traffic for re-enactment programs and parades.
He is active with the Orleans Renaissance Group and its effort to bring back Bent’s Hall, a three-story structure on Main Street that includes an opera house.
Meier plays the church organ at Trinity Lutheran Church and the Presbyterian Church. He heard about a Cincinnati church, Christ Episcopal Cathedral, that was dismantling an 1968 Holtkamp pipe organ with 1,800 pipes. Meier helped orchestrate bringing that organ to Trinity Lutheran, replacing a much smaller one. The relocated organ debuted on Easter.
Some of the pipes in a Holtkamp pipe organ at Trinity Lutheran Church are pictured in March while the organ was put together inside the Medina church. The organ was moved from Cincinnati.
Meier said he’s grateful to see so many people working on projects in the community, preserving the downtown and promoting many other heritage initiatives, efforts that set Medina apart.
“We got it and few other places do,” Meier about the community’s historical assets. “If you look at Buffalo, Buffalo is on a huge economic upswing right now, and it’s not because of a huge amount of new employment or because Buffalo’s economy has fundamentally changed. It’s because Buffalo has given new life to historic districts and marketing. People want to come to Buffalo. The tourism market is so much stronger in Buffalo right now because of all the preservation activities going on.”
Preservation can draw tourists, and investment, Meier said, and preservation is also the “highest form of green building out there. Building a new building requires harvesting new resources from the Earth whereas preservation is already using those resources that have been harvested and reusing them. The carbon footprint for preservation is very small compared to new builds.”
One of the rooms in the Hart House includes a picture of Bob Hope, one of the prominent customers of the former Newell company.
The older buildings are also “an art form,” Meier said.
“They will stand for centuries if water is kept from them and they are simply maintained,” he said.
Bent’s hosted wine-tastings in its basement
In regards to Bent’s, Meier said many people are working on a plan to revive the building.
“There are people toiling everyday to bring that project to life and it will come to life,” he said. “It takes a few with the vision to see the potential, and we have those people here. That project could be a real turning point for the village and put us on the same trajectory of what Buffalo is seeing now. It will be a venue unlike anywhere else.”
The Tree Board, Medina Business Association, Orleans Renaissance Group, Medina Sandstone Society and many other groups and citizens are working to better Medina.
“As a village we’ve embraced participation from the community to get projects off the ground, and let them have ownership of them,” Meier said. “There are so many people doing so many things around here.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 May 2015 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Maggie Roberts is pictured with a hanging basket and other flowers in a greenhouse that opened last year at Roberts Farm Market on Maple Ridge Road.
MEDINA It was about 40 years ago when Joan and Ginny Roberts started a roadside stand on Maple Ridge Road. Like a lot of farm families, they wanted to sell some produce directly to consumers.
The family had success with the stand, so much that they started a farm market down the road. Roberts Farm Market has been growing steadily since then. Last year Roberts added a new greenhouse. Three years ago they remodeled the market and expanded its apple cider operation.
The family has also started an annual benefit for the Alzheimer’s Association. It sold hot dogs, chips and soda last weekend, with basket raffles that generated $1,500 for the Alzheimer’s Association. That topped the $1,380 raised in 2014 for the debut benefit.
Maggie Roberts and her husband Gary run the market and have pushed the recent renovations. Mr. Roberts makes the cider for the Roberts farm market and several other farms in the region.
Mrs. Roberts manages the growing garden center. They have four full-time and one part-time employee at the site, which is open from April 1 to Dec. 23, as well as on Tuesdays during the winter for the apple cider customers.
The new greenhouse, at 64 by 96 feet, has ventilation in both sides and vents in the roof peaks. It has an irrigation system that feeds the plants water and fertilizer.
“That has been marvelous,” said Mrs. Roberts. “Before it would take forever to water them by hand.”
The greenhouse also has a heater that is often turned on at night. The greenhouse, with all of its features, has kept the 500 hanging baskets and other flowers looking lush.
The market is next to a U-Pick orchard and those fruit trees were starting to bloom last week.
Mrs. Roberts said the family appreciates the community’s support, since the early days of the roadside stand to the more recent renovations and expansion.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 May 2015 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – One of the barns at Forrestel, a horse-riding camp at 11380 Main St. in Shelby, is pictured this afternoon.
The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for Orleans and other western and central New York counties for this evening and tonight, with thunderstorms expected to roll through the area.
“Some storms may contain heavy rainfall which could lead to localized flooding,” the Weather Service advised.
After a week with temperatures in the 80s, the mercury will drop this week. Monday is forecast for a high of 78 followed by a high of 73 on Tuesday.
The Weather Service says an Arctic airmass will arrive Tuesday into Wednesday with the potential for the temperatures to dip into the 30s on Wednesday. Frost may develop, according to the Weather Service.
Highs are forecast for 55 on Wednesday and 60 on Thursday.
A stone wall is on the perimeter of the Forrestel property.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 May 2015 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Mount Albion Cemetery is always a glorious place, but it is particularly stunning right now with the blossoms out by the arch at the front entrance.
These photos were taken Saturday morning at the cemetery along Route 31. There are other trees in blossom mode in the cemetery. This is a good time of the year to stop by and look around.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 May 2015 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Donovan Braley, 7, a Wolf in Cub Scout Pack 164 in Albion puts an American flag on a veteran’s grave in Mount Albion Cemetery this morning.
Donovan and about 25 Scouts put hundreds of flags on graves for veterans, an annual tradition for Scouts before Memorial Day. They also placed flags for veterans at St. Joseph’s Cemetery.
Zack Baron, 7, carries flags and looks for veterans’ graves in the historic cemetery along Route 31.
Girl Scouts also helped place flags at the graves. Isabel Penafiel is a member of Troop 82252. She is pictured in the Civil War section of Mount Albion.
Civil War veterans have flags by their graves in Mount Albion.
The Scouts and their leaders are pictured by the Ingersoll Fountain in front of the chapel in Mount Albion.
By Matthew Ballard, Orleans County Historian Posted 9 May 2015 at 12:00 am
GAINES – On June 1, 1980 the Cobblestone Society formally dedicated the newly relocated Farmer’s Hall situated on Route 98 just south of Route 104.
The occasion was marked by a farmers’ parade from Gaines to Childs, which ended at Tillman’s Village Inn. Following the dedication ceremony in front of the Hall, attendees enjoyed a little fun and fellowship at the museum.
This picture shows Charlie and Jean Shervin “cuttin’ the rug” at the festivities following the dedication. The photo was taken in front of Radzinski’s H&A located where Crosby’s gas station currently sits.
The brick building in the background was part of the brick house that now serves as the Cobblestone Museum’s resource center. This portion of the building and the old liquor store attached to the front of the house were both removed after the museum purchased the building in 1998.
In its 55th year, the Cobblestone Museum will open this Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., a fantastic opportunity to tour seven historic buildings, including the Farmer’s Hall, which celebrates its 160th birthday this year!
File photo by Tom Rivers – The Farmer’s Hall (the yellow building) is pictured with other historic buildings – the harness and print shops – this past February.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 May 2015 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Congressman Chris Collins meets with Medina firefighters, including Captain Jonathan Higgins, on Thursday. Collins toured the firehall and saw how the bigger fire trucks barely fit into the building.
MEDINA – The Medina Fire Department welcomed Congressman Chris Collins to the fire hall on Main Street on Thursday, a building that is tight for space for fire trucks, ambulances and other equipment.
Captain Jonathan Higgins told the congressman the Fire Department is the primary ambulance provider for western Orleans County, and is increasingly called to the Albion area and eastern Niagara County.
“We’re the hub for the surrounding departments,” Higgins told Collins.
The department’s call volume has jumped from about 300 a year a decade ago to 2,986 in 2014, the most ever in the department’s history.
The fire department has an aging equipment fleet, with a ladder truck at 20 years old, a fire engine/pumper at 25 years old and another engine/pumper at 8 years old, Higgins told Collins.
The department has four ambulances and should replace one every year. It last replaced one in 2013.
Higgins said the department and Village Board are sensitive to the tax burden on village residents. Medina village residents pay the highest combined tax rate for village/town/county/school taxes in the Finger Lakes Region.
The Fire Department is pursuing federal grants to help add two paid firefighters to ease overtime and ensure reliable service to the community. The Fire Department is also seeking about $90,000 in federal funds to replace fire hoses, nozzles and a thermal imagining camera.
“We’re trying to exhaust every option possible before we have to go to the local taxpayers,” Higgins said.
Collins said he and his staff would connect the department to funding options, and monitor the current grants that have been submitted.
Congressman Chris Collins meets with Medina firefighters in their cramped fire hall on Thursday.
Higgins said the department should be looking to replace the ladder truck. That could cost $1 million, compared to $500,000 about 20 years ago. Medina’s fire hall gives less than a foot of clearance from the top of the current fire truck. The new ladder trucks are taller and wouldn’t fit in the fire hall unless the truck was customized. Higgins said that would drive up the costs of the ladder truck.
A better option may be putting on a taller truck bay next to the existing fire hall, Higgins said. But that would have a cost and would have to meet historic preservation standards because the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The space for ambulances also is a tight fit as those vehicles get bigger.
Collins noted how compact the vehicles were inside the building. “You’re double-stacked in here,” he said.
Higgins said the space and financial issues are difficult to solve for the village, which he told Collins only receives a tiny amount of state aid compared to similar size-cities. The small share of state revenue plus local sales tax shifts most of the tax burden on the village residents, Higgins said.
“We have huge issues here, but we can’t go to the taxpayers and ask for more money,” Higgins told the congressman.
Collins also spent time on Thursday on the Iroquois Job Corps Center in Shelby and the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge in Basom.
