ALBION – Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R-Batavia) will be hosting a free car seat safety check at the Albion Fire Hall this Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. The fire hall is located at 108 North Platt.
“As a father, I can tell you there’s nothing more important about your car than the kids riding in the backseat,” Hawley said. “I would encourage all parents to come down to our car seat check and ensure that their children are as safe as they can be.”
Provided photo – The Mustang Band performs “Miss Saigon” during a Saturday competition at East Rochester.
By Kathy Dreyfus
Publicity chairwoman for Medina Mustang Band
Let the competition begin! The Medina Mustang Band competed for the first time this season on Saturday at Eastridge High School. It was a beautiful evening when nine bands from Western New York performed.
In the Small School 1 category Medina took 2nd place with a score of 75.50 while Eastridge took 1st place with a score of 76.30.
Medina’s show, “Miss Saigon” portrays the smash Broadway musical, an emotionally charged story of an American soldier who meets, falls in love with and marries a Vietnamese girl. Powerful music and thematic drill design bring this show to life.
Medina will next compete on Sept. 20 at the band’s home show, The Fall Festival. Gates will open at 5:30 p.m. and the show starts at 6:30 p.m.
The rest of the Mustang schedule includes Sept. 27 at West Genesee, Oct. 4 at Orchard Park, Oct. 11 at Victor, Oct. 18 at Webster and the finale on Oct. 26 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.
Photos by Sue Cook – Gerald “JJ” Heideman shows off the meat he is making to help Medina LOYAL football and cheerleaders buy new uniforms.
By Sue Cook, staff reporter
MEDINA – Gerald Heideman started his barbecue business back in May 2014. He’d been making barbecue at his own house for three years and the response to his food was enthusiastic.
“Everybody was telling me, you gotta do something with this,” he said. “You got an itch. I never thought it would ever happen. Now I bring my business to other businesses.”
He wasn’t sure if it would amount to anything or if he’d be doing it for very long, but he was injured about a year ago and was unable to return to work at his regular job.
He never earned even a GED and didn’t have much knowledge of running a business, but he wanted to be able to help support his family more. He has three kids: Makayla, 11; Mason, 2; and Kennedy, 1. He also has a fiance of 10 years, Jamie Payne.
“It’s a dream,” Heideman said. “I’ve got to keep on going forward with it. Nobody could tell me no. Once I had a set mind, I was going to do it. I live it. I sleep it. I eat it pretty much every day. I’m not your average person. I’m a rebel.”
On his own, he built his barbecue pits and sales stand. He also completed multiple classes for food safety and other regulations. The regular menu includes baby back ribs, pulled pork, pulled chicken and sometimes more. He usually purchases between $500 to $700 worth of meat for most events.
Heideman doesn’t consider himself to be a chef, but instead prefers the title of pitmaster. He cooks using his self-built old-fashioned offset stick-burner pits.
“There’s adrenaline,” he said of the excitement of his work. “I haven’t opened my pit in four or five hours today and that could be burning on there. It’s a chance I have to take.”
Now he is on call for events and businesses, which means he has no regular location or schedule. He has even booked dates for weddings and parties into 2015.
This year, the Orleans County Chamber of Commerce awarded him with their New Business of the Year Award. He will be presented with the award on Sept. 20 at Tillman’s Village Inn during their banquet as recognition of his hard work and entrepreneurial spirit.
“I never imagined I was going to win the New Business of the Year Award,” he said. “It’s a good feeling. They said I had a run for my money, but that I had such an abundance of nominations.”
Heideman and his daughter Makayla stand in front of his sales stand stamped with the tagline “So good, you’ll try to lick your elbows.”
While he does work to earn a profit, much of his work is also for charity and other good causes, such as a brain tumor removal for a woman he never even met or new uniforms for the Medina football team and cheerleaders. For charity work, Heideman has the customer pay for the meat, then donates all of the money and his time. This often includes a 10-hour cook time, about eight hours of serving and then added time for cleaning the pits after.
Heideman grew up in Lyndonville and attended school there. He has since moved to Middleport, but believes in supporting the county he came from. Aside from one benefit in Niagara County, all of his work is done in Orleans because it’s where his roots are and where he attended school.
“I’m originally from Orleans County,” he said. “That’s family, you know?”
Local businesses have teamed up with BAD-AsH-BBQ. LynOaken Farms, whose owners are old friends, allow him to cut wood from their property for his pits. Payne’s Carpet in Albion has asked him to attract extra business during special sales. Heideman buys the cornbread for his meals from The Bread Basket in Medina when he hasn’t had the time to do it himself on his smoker.
Heideman has future plans for the business if he can find an investor for his work. He would like to add a food truck and maybe expand into steamed and fried foods, plus a vegan menu.
“I’ve got so many ideas that Orleans hasn’t even seen before that I want to do,” he explained of his hopes for the future.
Heideman enjoys running his own business and helping others while also working for himself.
“I love doing it. If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t do it,” he said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – The 6th annual Accordion Fest drew about 150 people to the Medina Theatre this afternoon, the first time that venue has hosted the music festival.
In the top photo, Ted Szymanski plays the accordion for the band, Special Delivery from Buffalo. Dave Miesowicz, left, plays several instruments for the band including alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, and clarinet. The Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council planned the event.
Special Delivery and other musicians proved popular with the crowd, which preferred the polka band over the Buffalo Bills game.
The Accordion Fest included an open mike opportunity and Francisco Rosario was one of the performers. Rosario and his family own Monte Alban and Mariachi de Oro in Medina. Rosario thanked the community for supporting the businesses and welcoming his family.
Jim Kimball, a SUNY Geneseo professor, plays his accordion during the festival today. He also served as emcee for the event.
Case manager at Community Action helps families in need
Photo by Sue Cook – Anni Skowneski stands by the Community Action sign on East State Street in Albion.
By Sue Cook, staff reporter
ALBION – Anni Skowneski, 27, will be receiving the Orleans County Chamber of Commerce’s Community Service Award. The case manager for Community of Orleans & Genesee works with many local families. She was surprised to be recognized by the Chamber.
“I got the award letter and I had to read it four times,” Skowneski said. “I was shocked and humbled. I don’t like to be in the spotlight. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do if it weren’t for all of the people behind me: my husband dealing with me coming home late at night, my director and executive director helping me with these enigmas I deal with every day, the volunteers and the staff. I feel like this award wasn’t just for me. It’s for all the people that helped me to do what I do.”
Skowneski specifically deals with emergency services at Community Action helping people in crisis who have had situations such as a loss of utilities or housing, but even going as far as to help with car repairs or insurance so that a person still has a way to go to work. Everything is dealt with on a case-by-case basis to provide the best solution. She can also provide referrals to other organizations, such as the Department of Social Services.
Provided photo – Anni Skowneski assists with backpack and school-supply drives.
Skowneski also helps with events such as the Easter egg hunt, the children’s carnival in Bullard Park, job fairs, holiday baskets, school supplies, coat giveaways and the Angels in Action program.
“When I was a kid, I wanted to feed the homeless,” she said. “I would beg my parents to let me go feed the homeless. When we would make dinner, I would want them to take me out and find a homeless person so I could give them my dinner.”
“My mom is the coordinator at Eastern Orleans Community Center (in Holley) and she’s been there 14 years,” Skowneski said. “I kind of followed in her footsteps. I’ve lived a life that has made me see poverty first hand, so it gives me that better understanding of the need no matter where you are. Seeing that need has made me want to help others. I’ve always been like that.”
“That’s the beauty of this job,” she added. ” I’ve gotten to see so many youth do such great things. It is absolutely phenomenal. The FFA here in Albion is beyond amazing. The fourth graders over at the Student Leadership Council at the Albion school, they are doing wonderful things.”
Skowneski moved from Steuben County to Orleans in 2000 after her mother came to the area. She is currently a Waterport resident. Skowneski worked at CRFS for a little while, then returned to school to further her career. She went to Genesee Community College for human services.
“Where we moved from there, there weren’t many opportunities for me there. I wasn’t going down a very good path,” she said. “I’m very honest about that. I’ve had my bad choices. I think moving out here helped me turn that around. I fear for where I would have been.”
Skowneski recalled a time after moving to the area while helping at the center in Holley that meant a lot to her and inspired her to help in this area.
File photo by Tom Rivers – Skowneski leads local Boy Scouts on a tour of the food pantry at Community Action. The Scouts helped collect food for the pantry last November. Skowneski is coordinator of the food pantry.
“Being a part of their holiday distributions really opened my eyes,” she said. “A gentleman had come in one year, very upset and emotional that he couldn’t provide Christmas for his children. We had his family adopted for the holiday. The following year he came in and handed us money to help out other families. I was only about 16 years old and I bawled my eyes out. I was so overwhelmed with how he wanted to give back.”
An internship during college brought her to Community Action. In February 2012, the previous case manager left the position and Skowneski was asked to temporarily fill in. On Oct. 9, 2012, after her graduation, she was hired permanently.
Skowneski has received two other big awards from Community Action in her two years as case manager. In April 2013, she received Rookie of the Year. In April 2014, she was given the Patti Rupnig Award for her commitment, professionalism and dedication to helping those in need and going the extra mile.
“I want to stay here in this position. I like what I do,” she said. “I’ve gained quite the rapport with my clients as well as with other agencies. There’s not many agencies out there that do this work. I don’t see myself working with any other population. Some people go into geriatrics or working with children, but this is more broad. It’s a new thing every day and a new client every hour. It’s exciting and I feel like I have so much more to do here.”
File photo by Tom Rivers – Skowneski works with several local community organizations to provide food for families, including the Albion FFA. In this photo from last December, FFA member Riley Kelly reaches for a bag of potatoes from Brian Bentley. The FFA delivered 19,000 pounds of produce to Community Action.
Skowneski is married and has a 2-year-old son named Liam. She would like to see Liam follow in her footsteps and volunteer to help his community and those who need assistance.
“I’m definitely going to instill in him the things that my parents did when I was a child,” she said. “‘Do unto others’ is my biggest one. It’s important that our youth know we have to help each other. We have to teach our youth to help people or else where are we going to be?”
Skowneski says that needs are very high in Orleans County for many assistance programs and that she is very happy to be a part of Community Action. Next year the organization will be celebrating its 50th anniversary.
“There’s a lot of different things I do to help support Community Action because they are a wonderful employer,” she said. “They stand behind me and support me in my endeavors. I will be here as long as they want to keep me.”
She added, “I appreciate the recognition, but I don’t want people to forget that it’s not just me doing this. There’s a huge team behind me helping me to do this.”
Skowneski will accept the Community Service Award on Sept. 20 at an awards banquet at Tillman’s Historic Village Inn in Childs.
Photos by Sue Cook – Nicole Tuohey cuts the paper chain to start the walk. She raised money through her mother Mary Lou’s business, Case-Nic Cookies in Medina, by selling elephant cookies that added a new link to the chain. She raised the money in memory of her grandma and grandpa.
By Sue Cook, staff reporter
MEDINA – The annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Medina attracted more people this year than any other previous year. About 150 people participated in the 2-mile walk that starts in the Canal Basin. The number of teams this year doubled from last year.
This is the 25th year the organization has held a walk in Orleans County. Once the final numbers are tallied, the walk is expected to raise about $15,000, said Lynn Westcott, the director of development for the Western New York Chapter.
“We are here to raise awareness of the disease,” she said in Medina this morning. “We are also here to raise funds to help people who currently have the disease, to help people who are caregivers and to support research to end the disease.”
To add to the awareness of the disease and its impact on the community, there is a Promise Garden. The garden consists of four different colored flowers given to participants that visually show how a person is associated with the disease.
Blue flowers represent a person battling the disease. Purple is for a person who lost their battle with the disease. Yellow signifies a caregiver. Orange is for a general supporter of the cause.
Personal messages were written on the flowers.
“With this disease, the caregiver plays such a major role because as the disease progresses people tend to rely more on their support systems and the people around them,” Westcott said. “It’s so important for caregivers to be on call and around 24/7, so we like to acknowledge them and help them as best we can.”
Sherry Branciforte, along with other families members, was at the walk in honor of her father Butch. Together, they formed Butch’s Team and raised over $600.
“My dad would do this,” she said. “He did it the first three years that we knew about this and we’ve been doing it ever since in his memory. This is the second year after his passing. I would encourage people to attend support groups.They are very important. Don’t be afraid to join them. They’re a lot more helpful than you know. ”
Branciforte’s sister, Dawn Parker, added, “There’s more Alzheimer’s coming than there used to be. There’s more purple flowers here than there ever have been before. We have to stop this.”
The walkers gathered around for the opening remarks praising their hard work and dedication.
Naomi Strickland and her family were walking for her mother- and father-in-law. She was their caregiver for over three years. She was walking as part of the Fast Fitness team that had over 20 members. A couple of team members personally raised almost $1,000 each.
“It’s to bring support to a good cause,” Strickland said. “I do feel there’s a lot of Alzheimer’s in the nation and I do feel that supporting it will help. How do we know if we may end up with it? Our friends, our family, they need to have a cure for it. Losing someone that had it is sad because you grieved before they were even gone when you were taking care of them.”
The Alzheimer’s Association’s WNY chapter is beginning a support group, which will meet every second Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Hoag Library in Albion.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
The tassels of corn appear as silhouettes in this field along Zig-Zag Road in Albion on Friday evening. Temperatures reached 90 degrees on a humid early September day.
Temperatures are forecast for highs of 70 today and 75 on Sunday with lows down to 52 degrees for both days.
These photos show apples in an orchard at the corner of East State Street and Butts Road in Albion.
The annual apple harvest has begun with some apple varieties.
The moon was out on Friday night. It was also opening day for many Western New York high school football teams, but many had their games suspended due to the threat of lightning.
ALBION – In this photo taken in the late 1920s, we see the interior of the Kenyon Kumfort Kab Kompany in Albion.
This was located at the corner of Liberty Street and Beaver Alley in Albion. Their main line of work was manufacturing truck cabs under contract with the Brockway Co.
These were made of hardwood and covered with sheet metal. Cabs were also made for Mack trucks and fire trucks.
The man at the left is Roy Wyman who died in 1937. Other men in the picture include Walter “Barney” Johnson, John Wells and George Wigley, while others are unidentified.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Photo courtesy of Brittany Kennedy – Brittany Kennedy returned to West Kendall Road home on Aug. 11 to see a black bear by her house. The bear went up on her porch and sifted through a recycling bin and grabbed a coffee can before taking off for the woods. The story about the bear sighting was the most clicked story of the month on the Orleans Hub.
Orleans Hub just completed our 17th month of covering local news and August proved our busiest month for total pageviews.
Readers checked out 454,522 pageviews, which topped the July record of 444,389. Our number of unique visitors each day is holding steady at just over 4,600. Orleans Hub went “live” on April 2, 2013.
We typically post our Top 5 stories of the month but this time we will do our Top 7 because numbers 5, 6 and 7 were nearly tied in pageviews or “clicks” on the headline, numbers that are usually generated through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Shelby firefighter John Miller, 36, was injured in this accident on Aug. 1 near the intersection of Maple Ridge Road and West Avenue.
Photos by Sue Cook – The shop is currently stocked with many autumn items.
By Sue Cook, staff reporter
KNOWLESVILLE – The Knowlesville United Methodist Church opened a new shop today to support their efforts to pay for a new church roof. Co-chairs Linda Baker and Ruth Higgins started the shop together with the blessing of Pastor Chris Wylie and the church’s administrative board.
“We started it to go toward our roof fund for our church,” Baker said. “Once our roof is finished, it will be up to the administrative board of the church to determine where the funds will be needed most or what sort of projects need to be done.”
They are hoping to attract customers from outside their own congregation. The new business is called The Abundant Harvest Cafe, Pie & Gift Shop. The Knowlesville Church will be changing their name soon as they join forces with the Millville Church to become the United Methodist Church of the Abundant Harvest.
“We urge people just to come in, sit down, rest awhile, have a conversation and goodies and then just look around at our little shop here,” Higgins said.
“It’s just a place for people to come and have fellowship,” added Baker.
During this year’s Lenten season they made the gift store an official part of the fellowship hall. Baker and Higgins had cleaned out and painted a former front office. A volunteer helped them set up shelving and displays. The items sold vary depending on the season and holiday and are handmade, store-bought or gently used.
There are five freezers stacked with frozen pies.
The church has sold pies before at their different events, but they decided to sell those throughout the year starting this week. Customers can come in and enjoy coffee and sweets, then provide a donation back to the church and are able to buy frozen pies. The pies are handmade by members of the congregation and then frozen. Customers receive the frozen treat with baking instructions. The pies come in 13 flavors.
“We sell a lot of pies at holiday time,” Baker said. “When we sold pies during our Lenten fish fry people were saying that it was great they didn’t have to wait until Thanksgiving.”
The church also sells their apple butter, which is normally made for their Apple Festival in October.
“We do have other people that work with us that help us set things up,” Baker said. “It’s all volunteer. We have someone that helps us with our advertising, another person set up the display for us. As far as the handmade stuff, there’s several people that have donated things. People also donate their time working in shifts. It’s almost like our whole congregation is involved.”
The congregation consists of about 50 members who have used their various talents to help the shop with set-up and operation.
“We have the support of everybody in our church. We couldn’t do it without that,” Baker said. “We may be in charge here, but we’ve had so much help just making pies in the last couple weeks with people just peeling apples or bagging the pies. It takes a lot of hands to make light work.”
The church’s fellowship hall is located at 3622 Knowlesville Rd., behind the Ridgeway Volunteer Fire Company. They are open on Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and extra hours during church events.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Spychalski
HOLLEY – The school district welcomes residents to apply for a vacant position on the Board of Education.
Kellie Spychalski, the board’s vice president, resigned during the Aug. 18 BOE meeting. Her terms runs until June 30, 2015.
The board wants to appoint someone to fill the vacancy. Residents are welcome to send letters of interest in the position to Connie Nenni, District Clerk at 3800 North Main St. Rd., Holley, NY 14470 or email the letter to cnenni@holleycsd.org. Monday is the last day to apply for the volunteer position.
“The Board and entire Holley community wish to thank Kellie for her hard work and dedication, as well as her many years of service to the students, staff and school community,” according to a statement on the Holley district web site.
Spychalski resigned due the demands of her job as executive director with Opportunities Unlimited in Niagara County, said BOE President Brenda Swanger.
Spychalski left the Arc of Orleans County last year to take the position in Niagara County. She worked for The Arc for 21 years. She has been commuting from Holley to Niagara Falls.
“She was a great addition to the board,” Swanger said. “She is a very respected professional woman who loves the kids.”
The BOE appointed Robin Silvis to vice president of the board during the Aug. 18 meeting.
Provided photo – Greg Ahlquist, the 2013 New York State Teacher of the Year, addresses Lyndonville teachers last Thursday during a staff development day to kick off the new school year.
Press release
Lyndonville Central School
LYNDONVILLE – Greg Ahlquist, the 2013 New York State Teacher of the Year, a last Thursday with Lyndonville Central School District teachers. Superintendent Jason Smith invited Mr. Alhquist to address the staff on the topic of Growth Mindset relating it to education.
Mr. Ahlquist, who teaches Social Studies at Webster Thomas High School, shared the findings of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, who believes that every person has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.
“Basically if you are a fixed mindset you believe that intelligence and talent create success without effort. The person thinks this is who I am and what I do,” Mr. Ahlquist explained. “In a growth mindset, people believe with time and effort you can enhance your abilities. If you can instill a growth mindset into your students you can develop their love of learning and it will help them with their motivation and productivity.”
Along with his PowerPoint, Mr. Ahlquist shared remarks his students made in his Advanced Placement World History, European History and Holocaust elective classes about what they were most proud of at the end of the class. The responses ranged from the funny, “I didn’t cry,” to “I realized that I am smarter than I thought and I can do this.”
Mr. Ahlquist explained that if a student is of a fixed mindset they feel judged and evaluated where growth mindset students are always looking for ways to improve.
“It is our responsibility as educators to change what they believe about themselves and education,” he said. “Praise effort, not achievement.”
Mr. Smith said he is very grateful for the time that Mr. Ahlquist with his teaching staff.
“He is an exceptional educator and his message of moving students from where they are to whom they can be is a very important one to have reinforced at the beginning of the school year,” Smith said. “It falls in line with our Vision statement to being committed to continuous improvement of student learning and it was very generous of Greg to share his knowledge and insights with us.”
Press release, Orleans County Undersheriff Steve Smith
CARLTON – A Webster motorcyclist is dead following a collision late this afternoon between his motorcycle and a pick-up truck.
The incident occurred at about 5:50 p.m. on Roosevelt Highway (Route 18) at intersection with Harris Road in the Town of Carlton.
Daniel H. Thering, 26, was driving a 2014 Kawasaki west on Route 18 when he rounded a curve and struck the passenger side of a 2013 Toyota Tacoma truck that was turning left onto Harris Road from eastbound Route 18. The truck was well into the turn when the collision occurred.
Thering was pronounced dead at the scene by Orleans County Coroner Charles Smith, and transported to the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office in Rochester.
The operator (sole occupant) of the truck is identified as Debra K. Shaw, 58, of Lockport. Shaw was treated at the scene by personnel from Central Orleans Volunteer Ambulance and released.
Preliminarily, it appears that the motorcycle was being operated at an excessive rate of speed. The on-scene investigation was conducted by Sergeant D.W. Covis, assisted by Deputy D.S. Klips, Deputy T.C. Marano, Lieutenant C.M. Bourke and Chief Deputy T.L. Drennan. Carlton firefighters also assisted at the scene and Lyndonville FD assisted with traffic control.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 September 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
WEST SHELBY – It was about 35 years ago when Rob and Marcia Cook’s daughter Carrie came home with a tiny tree in a coffee cup. She got the little tree on a field trip.
The Cooks planted the white pine in their back yard on Salt Works Road. They would plant hundreds of other trees on what had been a hay field.
But about a year ago Mr. Cook noticed disease was killing some of the trees, including the one he planted with his daughter. The Cooks took down some of the trees, not wanting the disease to spread and wipe out all of the trees.
But they were reluctant to remove white pine their daughter brought home from school. They cut down most of it, but left an 8-foot-high stump. A wood carver put their last name in it and fashioned a sculpture of a green heron. Those birds are frequent guests in their back yard. The family lives near the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.
“It’s sentimental,” Mr. Cook said about the tree. “We wanted to keep it.”
I met the Cooks last week when I went to their house to get a picture of Kay Van Nostrand visiting Mrs. Cook’s mother Adelia Hellert. The Cooks have an impressive property, a nature wonderland.
Mr. Cook said residents from the Orchard Manor often come out to sit near his back yard pond and to listen to the birds. The harsh winter killed many of his fish in the pond, but he is restocking and looking forward to welcoming more guests, especially his 11 grandchildren.
ALBION – In this post card from the late 1920s, we see a view of the Lone Star Inn. It was originally a farm house for the Thurston family located on Gaines Basin Road across from it now the Orleans Correctional Facility.
In the early ’20s, Lewis Sands transformed this into a very fine restaurant where the elite dined. It was destroyed by fire in November 1930.
New York State then purchased the property and moved houses and barns onto the land, then using it as a state farm for the Albion State Training School.
