ALBION – In this picture from 1965 we see officers of the Albion Chapter of the American Red Cross for 1965-1966. This picture was taken at Marti’s Restaurant following the chapter’s annual banquet.
Pictured, from left: Mrs. Melvin Stetson, secretary; Mr. Charles Sweeney, first vice chairman; Dorothy Cliff, executive secretary; Mr. Andrew DeCarlo, third vice chairman; Mr. David Doyle, chapter chairman; and Mrs. Ted Swierczinski, treasurer. Absent from photo: Mr. Curtis Lyman, second vice chairman.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – A visitor at the office for Orleans Hub and the Lake Country Pennysaver created a stir today. Many of the long-time employees at 170 North Main St. can’t recall a tree frog (if that’s what this is) camping out on the wall of the building.
It’s been an interesting year with wildlife on the move with the all of the Snowy Owl sightings in the winter and the two black bears spotted this summer in the county. Now you may find a tree frog nestled at your workplace.
Update 8:54 p.m.
A reader sent a message to say this frog is either a gray tree frog or a Cope’s gray tree frog. The only way to tell for sure is to listen to the frog’s call. The Cope’s gray tree frog has a faster-paced and slightly higher-pitched call than the gray tree frog.
Staff Reports Posted 18 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Brandon Blount-Carpenter
CARLTON – Brandon Blount-Carpenter, a local wildlife photographer, has been intrigued by gray tree frogs the past couple years. He has pictures of them in different colors, including the light green one in the top photo and the gray one below.
“If you handle one it will literally change color right in front of you,” he said. “When they are excited they turn that bright green color.”
Blount-Carpenter sent in these photos after seeing the one on the Orleans Hub of a frog camping out along an office wall outside at the offices for Orleans Hub and The Lake Country Pennysaver at 170 North Main St.
Blount-Carpenter took the top photo in the spring 2012, with the second photo taken this past spring. Both were taking outside by his house in Carlton.
This picture was taken last September.
Blount-Carpenter also has rescued some gray tree frog tadpoles and put them in garden ponds.
“On warmer nights in the spring summer and fall, you can hear them singing. It’s like a chorus out here at night.”
Staff Reports Posted 18 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Provided photos
State Assemblyman Steve Hawley is leading 100 veterans and their family members on the seventh annual Patriot Trip. The group had a busy day of travel, but did stop in Gettysburg.
Veterans, including John Hucknall of Albion, sitting in center, visit Little Round Top at Gettysburg. These rocky hills are the site of an unsuccessful assault by the Confederate troops against the Union on July 2, 1863.
This bronze statue shows Gen. Kemble Warren, the Union general who fought off the Confederates during the Battle of Gettysburg. He is known as the “Hero of Little Round Top.”
The Patriot Trip is heading to the nation’s capitol to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery for the laying of the wreath ceremony for Korean veterans, the Pentagon, and a Sept. 11 Memorial. The group will also meet with Hawley’s son Cooper, an attorney with the Republican National Committee.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 September 2014 at 12:00 am
SUNY Fredonia – A lecture hall in the new Science Complex at Fredonia State College will be named the Kelly Family Auditorium after a gift to the project from Medina native, Dr. Jeffery Kelly.
MEDINA – A Medina High School graduate who has become a prominent organic chemistry researcher is helping his alma mater, Fredonia State College, build a new science complex.
Dr. Jeffery Kelly graduated from Fredonia in 1982. He then earned his doctorate in organic chemistry at the University of North Carolina in 1986.
He heads The Kelly Laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute, one of the world’s largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. The SRI employs about 3,000 people in La Jolla, Calif. and Jupiter, Fla. Kelly works out of the campus in La Jolla.
Kelly also owns two pharmaceutical companies, said his mother, Janice Kelly-Mack of Medina.
“He’s done very well,” she said. “He’s worked very hard.”
Dr. Jeffery Kelly
Kelly returns to Fredonia and Medina three or four times a year to visit family and friends and to attend Fredonia board meetings. He is on the college’s board of directors.
He will attend the Oct. 17 ribbon-cutting for the new 92,000-square-foot science complex, a $60 million project. Kelly donated to have the 120-seat auditorium named for his family. The Kelly Family Auditorium is among many rooms in the new science center that won support from alumni and friends of the college in Chautauqua County.
The Kelly Laboratory discovered the first regulatory agency-approved drug that slows the progression of a human amyloid disease, and has made other breakthroughs.
Kelly was recognized with a Fredonia Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award in 2000. He has won numerous awards for his research, including in 2012 when he was the winner of the Murray Goodman Memorial Prize for Biopolymers and the Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry from the American Chemical Society.
ALBION – In this picture from 1904 we see a great view of Main Street in Albion looking north from State Street.
The Swan Library, which opened in 1900, prominently shows here. Odd Fellows had not yet built their temple next to the library. The temple was erected in 1907.
Likewise, the BL & R Trolley Depot behind the library had not yet been built. That occurred in 1908.
Main Street was still unpaved, yet we see improved cross walks. A number of hitching posts appear down the street, most of which are cast iron.
The first house down the street from the library was torn down in 1924 when Will Robson built the Rialto Theatre. Albion got electric street lights in 1890 and we see one of these hanging off cables in the upper left corner of our picture.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Chris Collins (R-Clarence) today released the following statement after voting to support H.J. Res. 124 and the coinciding amendment.
The legislation funds the government, extends the Export-Import Bank’s authorization, and provides the President authorization to combat ISIS.
“Although far from perfect, this legislation takes steps towards achieving a number of necessary initiatives,” Collins said. “Ensuring the government has the funding necessary to operate provides stability for the country. Additionally, extending the Export-Import Bank’s authorization is a big win for small businesses across the country. I have been leading the fight on this topic from the onset, and will continue to push for a long-term reauthorization of the program. This extension allows the Export-Import Bank to continue its operations while Congress considers reforms to the program.
“In our current economic atmosphere, we need to be doing all we can to promote business growth and create job opportunities. Extending the Bank’s charter affords businesses access to services that are vital for their operations.
“In regards to authorizing the President to combat ISIS, we are taking immediate action to destroy a grave threat to our country’s security. The current events in Iraq and Syria prove that the absence of American leadership enables and emboldens our enemies, and puts our country and citizens at risk. It is an unfortunate situation, but America must stand tall and provide the leadership warranted to secure a positive outcome.”
Staff Reports Posted 17 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Upstate Farms
ALBION – An ad by Upstate Farms features Jody Neal sitting in a pickup truck with his daughter, Kasey. Neal is co-owner of Poverty Hill Farms, a dairy farm on West Countyhouse Road in Albion.
His father, Ed Neal, is on the board of directors for Upstate Niagara Cooperative, the parent company of Upstate Farms, which highlighted the ad of Jody and Kasey Neal yesterday on its Facebook page.
“There are so many reasons to support family farmers like Jody Neal and his daughter, Kasey, of Orleans Poverty Hill Farms in Albion. What’s yours?” Upstate asks on Facebook.
Staff Reports Posted 17 September 2014 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Frederick Miller has been found guilty of second-degree murder for killing his girlfriend, Rachel Miller, on March 4, 2013. He faces 25 years to life in prison.
Jurors reached the verdict early this afternoon after beginning deliberations at about 11 a.m.
The attorney for Frederick Miller, 63, offered a defense of “extreme emotional disturbance.” Robert King, the defense lawyer, said Miller wasn’t himself in the months leading up the crime due to a job loss, his mother’s serious illness and a deteriorating relationship with Rachel, his live-in girlfriend.
But District Attorney Joe Cardone told the jurors that Mr. Miller wasn’t suffering from extreme emotional disturbance.
“It was about his extreme arrogance, it was about his extreme selfishness, it was about his extreme narcissism and his extreme need to have control of his life and Rachel Miller,” Cardone told jurors during his closing statement this morning.
Miller is being held without bail and sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 8.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Packing House – The Chamber’s Agricultural Business of the Year – employs 90 workers in peak season
Photos by Tom Rivers – John Russell, general manager and partner at Lake Ontario Fruit, stands inside a new controlled-atmosphere storage building that was constructed last year. The site holds 200,000 bushels of apples and slows down the ripening process say the fruit can be stored for nearly a year.
SweeTangos head down the packing line. Lake Ontario Fruit packs about 1.1 million bushels of apples each year for the fresh market. The state’s total apple crop tends to be 25 to 30 million bushels each year.
GAINES – Lake Ontario Fruit put up another new building this year, this time a 5,766-square-foot storage warehouse. The company also redid its parking lot, which serves 90 employees and tractor trailers delivering apples or taking them packed in boxes to grocery stores.
Lake Ontario Fruit has invested about $7 million in upgrading its facilities on Ridge Road since 2008. The company has added a second packing line, built a new controlled-atmosphere storage and upgraded other equipment.
When the new packing line went in in 2010, the company was able to add about 30 employees. It keeps 12 to 15 workers year-round with employment peaking at about 90.
Workers fills bags and boxes with SweeTango apples. Lake Ontario Fruit packs all the SweeTangos in New York that are grown west of Rochester.
The company is a partnership of several local fruit growers as well as John Russell, the general manager. The packing, storage and sales facility is well positioned to serve the local fruit growers for years to come, Russell said.
The company is being recognized by the Orleans County Chamber of Commerce as the “Agricultural Business of the Year.” It will be honored on Saturday during an awards dinner at Tillman’s Village Inn.
Shane Lewis, the production manager, checks data on the packing line for SweeTango apples on Tuesday. Lake Ontario Fruit has technology, an internal defect sorter, that checks apples for pressure and other quality issues.
Russell said it is a good time to be in the apple business. Customers are willing to pay a premium for apples such as Honeycrisp, and new varieties coming into the market: SweeTango, SnapDragon, RubyFrost and Zestar, with apple breeders working on others as well.
“Customers want apples with different flavor profiles,” Russell said Tuesday at the complex at 14234 Ridge Rd., located about a mile west of Route 98.
The local fruit growers are swapping out some of their trees, removing less popular varieties with the more popular ones. Lake Ontario Fruit then packs, stores and sells the apples, working with New York Apple Sales, Inc. to market the product.
John Russell is pictured inside the new CA storage. Operators lower the oxygen and raise the carbon dioxide, which acts to put the apples to sleep so they can be stored longer.
Lake Ontario Fruit used to contract with other sites to store some of the apples. But the new CA building from a year ago allows the company to keep all of the apples on one site.
The CA also uses the latest storage technology, allowing Lake Ontario Fruit to lower the oxygen and raise the carbon dioxide levels, which slows the ripening process for apples. That extends the time apples can be in storage and allows the company to put them on the market when the command a higher dollar.
This new 5,766-square-foot storage warehouse was constructed earlier this year and is used to store pallets, cardboard and packing supplies. Lake Ontario Fruit now has enough storage space for fruit and equipment to have everything on site at 14234 Ridge Rd.
Bins of apples are stacked high in this storage room, part of the original packing house in 1982. The room uses foam insulation.
The company has worked to implement the latest technology for food quality and safety. When the apples go through the packing line, they pass an infrared defect sorting system that checks apples for pressure, water core problems and any other problems. If the apple doesn’t meet the standard, it is directed off the line.
Lake Ontario Fruit also has the latest in traceability technology. Every apple gets a sticker and that label has information that can pinpoint which farm grew the apple, what day it was picked and from what lot and block.
A truck of Gala apples from Lamont Fruit Farm in Waterport stopped at Lake Ontario Fruit on Tuesday. John Russell and Teresa Cano, who works in quality control, take samples of the truck load. They also put labels on the bins that note when the apples were picked and from what orchard, block and lot.
“Any progressive produce company is doing this,” Russell said about the traceability technology. “We can trace every apple to the individual orchard it comes from.”
That technology will be critical if there is ever a food recall. It also is helpful for Lake Ontario Fruit and its growers, providing information that recognizes farmers for a good job if certain apples are highlighted for flavor, for example.
Russell said there is room for Lake Ontario Fruit to grow. Many of the growers in recent years have planted new trees that will be bearing full crops in the coming years.
‘There are a lot of young trees in the ground,” Russell said. “There is definitely an opportunity with more fresh fruit coming into the market.”
The Lake Ontario Fruit complex appears in the background while bins of Gala apples are on a truck at the site on Ridge Road.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 September 2014 at 12:00 am
File photos by Tom Rivers – The Kendall Junior-Senior High School is eyed for most of the estimated $25 million in a capital project that should start next month.
KENDALL – The school district will open construction bids on Wednesday for a project that will bring the school campus into the 21st Century.
Kendall residents approved the $25 million capitol project in May 2013. The district has been working with the State Education Department since then on the final designs for the work.
The district will open the bids at 2 p.m. on Wednesday with the Board of Education expected to approve seven different contracts at its 7 p.m. meeting on Sept. 24.
The work could start in October in the back cafeteria of the junior-senior high school, as well as some of the underground infrastructure work at the elementary school.
Crews will continue to work in wings of the junior-senior high school during the winter and spring, with contractors busy next summer so the buildings are ready for the new 2015-16 school year next September.
The $25 million capitol project will be 90 percent funded with state aid. Kendall’s local share already is saved in a capital reserve account.
The project includes new roofs for both school buildings, as well as energy efficient improvements, heating and ventilation work, and updated security measures. Both sites will also see improvements to parking lots and sidewalks.
The junior-senior high school was built in 1971 in an “open classroom” model that didn’t include contained classrooms. The school includes partitions to try to reduce noise and hallway distractions. A capital project would give all the classrooms four walls and their own doors.
The project makes improvements at the two school buildings, including a reconfiguration of the classroom wings so each room has four walls and a door. That will go a long way to improving the learning atmosphere and security for teachers and students, said Julie Christensen, the district superintendent.
Another classroom disrupter, the cafeteria, will be relocated to a wing of the building occupied by the current weight room and another classroom. Right now, the cafeteria is in the middle of the building.
MEDINA – The United Way of Orleans County has named Marsha Rivers as its new executive director. Rivers will replace Lisa Ireland, who in recent years led the merger of the Eastern and Western Orleans United Way chapters and successfully ran multiple fundraising campaigns.
Ireland is headed to the Rochester Institute of Technology to serve as the director of donor relations and stewardship within the Division of Development and Alumni Relations.
Rivers, a graduate of Roberts Wesleyan College and Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, brings 18 years of communication and fundraising experience to the United Way.
After serving her alma mater for 12 years in admissions, alumni relations, marketing and public relations roles, Rivers returned to work in Orleans County, serving as executive director of the Care Net Center of Greater Orleans and, through the end of September, development director for Hospice of Orleans.
“In Marsha, we have found a well-qualified professional and also a person who is passionate about Orleans County,” said Bill Hungerford, United Way Board chairman. “She’s the perfect fit for the job.”
Hungerford continued by thanking Lisa for her terrific service. “Lisa was a great leader for us the last three years. She brought her passion, energy, enthusiasm and empathy to the underserved in Orleans County. We thank Lisa for her support, leadership, and guidance over the past years and wish her the best as she continues her professional career at RIT.”
Rivers has also served as president of the Human Services Council of Orleans County and is an active volunteer at the Villages of Orleans.
She starts her United Way tenure at a busy time, as the annual campaign begins Oct. 9. Last year, UW set out to raise $325,000 in support of more than 20 local agencies, including the Arc of Orleans, Genesee-Orleans Ministry of Concern, Christ Church Community Kitchen, and YMCA and many others. This year’s goal will be announced at the kickoff event next month.
Photo by Sue Cook – The Medina Board of Education approves the new club during the BOE meeting tonight.
By Sue Cook
Staff reporter
MEDINA – For two years, the students of Medina have been meeting informally in a Gay-Straight Alliance under the supervision of English teacher Karen Jones.
Tonight, the Medina school board formally approved the club, making it official and appointing Jones as the club advisor, while also offering compensation for the position like other teachers receive for advisory positions of after-school clubs.
Up to tonight, Jones was volunteering in the position, but wanted to see the district add the club to the list of officially recognized student activities. Though the school has supported the club, Jones is pleased to see the district validate it as an official school activity.
“It’s a safe place for kids to go after school to talk about common issues,” said Superintendent Jeff Evoy. “One of the main things I’m always concerned with is student safety. I want to make sure all students feel like they belong. I want to make sure all students feel safe in school. I want to make sure all students feel secure in school.”
“It was something a group of students had asked the principal about and the principal said ‘It’s something that we’d like to get started,’ and that’s how it came about,” said Evoy.
The vote by the Board of Education to approve the club was not contested by any members of the board or any members of the community present at the meeting.
“The group is to promote camaraderie,” Jones said. “It helps students not to feel isolated. I know too many people personally that needed this in high school and didn’t have it. I was very happy to step in and provide space for the kids and supervise them.”
The goal of the club has always been to ensure a safe place for students to meet without fear of bullying to openly discuss any problems they are having and to encourage students to support each other as peers. The club encourages discussion of problems that students feel they are facing or would like feedback on, such as relationships and friendships in and out of school.
The group is open for anyone to join and is a mix of gay and straight students. The straight students are referred to as allies. Many of the allies joined the club because they have friends or family members outside of the school that are marginalized and would like to extend their support to their peers in school as well. About 15 to 20 students regularly came to the club last year and Jones expects the number to increase this year.
The students who originally wanted to form the club had approached Jones and asked if she would be willing to lead it.
“I’ve always tried to create a safe space,” she said. “I make sure students in my classroom know that they can’t use any sort of derogatory language against other kids. These students felt safe enough with me to ask about having these meetings.”
The club has already participated in a GSA conference in Hamburg with over 200 other students. They also celebrate Wear It Purple Day, which is an event against bullying in any form against anyone. Teachers and students outside the club also participate by wearing purple to show that they want Medina to be a safe, supportive environment. The students have also done the Day of Silence where they do not speak during an entire day, symbolically supporting students who feel silenced by bullying.
Evoy is pleased to see Jones acting as the club advisor and commented, “She does a wonderful job. She’s dedicated to all children and she’s outstanding. I’m glad that this club will formally be in existence.”
Medina is the second school in Orleans County to currently have an active GSA club. Holley school also has an active club.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
GAINES – Eileen Sorochty is out today weeding a garden in front of Farmers’ Hall at the Cobblestone Museum.
Sorochty is training to become a master gardener, a role that requires at least 50 hours of community service each year. She is pulling Bishop’s Weed from the garden. The weed was crowding out some Daylilies.
Sorochty of Albion is retired from Brockport State College. She worked as an administrative assistant in the college advancement department.
She also is helping the Cobblestone Museum with another garden near the bathrooms behind the Cobblestone Universalist Church.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Frederick Miller
ALBION – Jurors are deliberating whether Frederick Miller will be convicted of second-degree murder or a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend Rachel Miller.
Jurors began deliberations at about 10:50 a.m. following closing summations from District Attorney Joseph Cardone and Miller’s defense attorney, Robert King.
Miller admitted in court on Tuesday that he killed his live-in girlfriend. However, his attorney contends it wasn’t murder because Miller was suffering from an “extreme emotional disturbance” due to the loss of work, the serious illness of his mother and “a relationship that was falling apart.”
While Rachel Miller, then 53, was getting ready for work on March 4, 2013 at their Oak Orchard River Road home, Miller went into the bathroom and stabbed her in the neck with scissors. He then stabbed her in the torso and in the back.
She fled the house. Mr. Miller, then 61, stayed inside, but then went outside and found Rachel lying down in the snow. He snapped off a metal “Posted” sign and beat her with it.
Miller’s actions – the multiple stab wounds – are consistent with “snapping,” his attorney said.
“What happened to her is horrible,” King told jurors this morning. “It was a great tragedy. It wasn’t a murder. He was acting under extreme emotional disturbance.”
King cited the testimony of the medical examiner who said he had never seen a murder with a sign post. Very few deaths are caused from stab wounds from scissors, King said today.
He held up the scissors and the sign post for the jury to see.
“These are not murder weapons,” he said. “Any reasonable person knows this is not how you kill someone. These are what was in front of Fred Miller when his world came crashing down.”
Cardone urged the jury to return a conviction of second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Miller wasn’t emotionally disturbed, Cardone said.
“This case is entirely about control,” the DA said. “It is entirely about maniplulation.”
Miller was angry when Rachel wanted to spend Easter in Georgia with family, with Miller left behind. She angered him when she brought home baby chicks on March 3, the day before she was killed. And Miller testified he was mad when she took a long shower that morning.
“It wasn’t about extreme emotional disturbance,” Cardone said. “It was about his extreme arrogance, it was about his extreme selfishness, it was about his extreme narcissism and his extreme need to have control of his life and Rachel Miller.”
Miller twice made the choice to murder Rachel, first by stabbing her with scissors and then by beating her with the sign, Cardone said.
“He killed her twice,” Cardone said.
Miller then left Rachel lying in the snow, without a shirt, for the world to discover. She was found by a school bus driver.
“He stayed in the house and left her out there as a trophy,” Cardone said.
Miller refused to be examined by a psychiatrist. His attorney said Miller didn’t want to tell the worst day of his life to a stranger. Miller was honest with the jury on Tuesday, in reliving that day and sharing his financial woes and other disappointments, King said.
“He told you what went through his mind and how terribly sick he was,” King told the jury.
Cardone said Miller killed Rachel to have “the last word.” But now the jury gets a chance to speak, the DA said.
“Ladies and gentleman you have the last word,” he said. “You have the responsibility to find him guilty of murder.”
