By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 December 2014 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – This photo shows corn waiting to be harvested in early September along Zig-Zag Road in Albion.
KENDALL – Matt Kludt and Kludt Farms have won the New York crown for biggest corn yield.
Kludt’s per-acre yield of 281.5 bushels won the non-irrigated, no-till/strip-till category. Two nearby farms finished second and third with R.L. Jeffres & Sons, Inc. in Wyoming at a 269.2 yield and RY Properties in Pavilion at 264.9.
The National Corn Growers Association announced the state and national awards today. One farm – Randy Dowdy of growbigcorn.com in Valdosta, GA – topped 500 bushels for the first time in the contest’s 50-year history. Seven farms topped 400 bushels in the national contest, all with entries from irrigated fields.
“While this contest provides individual growers a chance for good-natured competition with their peers, it also advances farming as a whole,” said Don Glenn, chairman of NCGA’s Production and Stewardship Action Team. “The techniques and practices contest winners develop provide the basis for widely used advances that help farmers across the country excel in a variety of situations, including drought. This contest highlights how innovation, from both growers and technology providers, allows us to meet the growing demand for food, feed, fuel and fiber.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 December 2014 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Fran Nayman had an annual holiday tradition: He would buy baskets full of jams, jellies, apple butter, salad dressings and other goodies from Watt Farms Country Market.
He did it again this year, paying for 27 of the baskets. They are at Watt Farms, paid for and waiting to be picked up at 3121 Oak Orchard Rd.
Nayman died in a fire on Friday at his small engine repair shop. He was 76.
Watt Farms doesn’t know where the gift baskets were destined. Karen Watt said Nayman would typically buy 25 to 30 gift baskets each holiday season for friends.
She would like people who normally received the baskets from Nayman to stop by the farm market on Route 98. The farm market will close for the season after Monday. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until then. For more information, call Watt Farms at (585) 589-8000.
WATERPORT – This snapshot was taken in September 1963 at the dedication of the water treatment plant on the Wilson Road in the Town of Carlton.
Using the old Albion bandstand for a stage, we see Mayor John D. Robinson giving a speech. A number of dignitaries are seated behind him including Assemblyman Alonzo Waters of Medina in the light-colored coat.
A winter weather advisory is in effect until 7 p.m. today when the area is expected to be hit with freezing drizzle, the National Weather Service in Buffalo reports.The weather advisory includes Orleans County and parts of western, central and northern New York.
The freezing drizzle and light snow could create some slick spots on untreated surfaces, the Weather Service said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 December 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – There will soon be about 250 signs out in Medina, urging village residents not to support dissolving the village government on Jan. 20. This sign is on East Center Street.
MEDINA – Dissolution opponents are stepping up their efforts to sway village residents not to support a dissolution vote on Jan. 20, saying the village will lose critical services and won’t see promised tax savings.
About 20 people, many of them village employees, met to distribute yard signs and talk strategy on Tuesday night at the Knights of Columbus. The group said they expect to soon have 250 signs out against dissolution.
They will be going door to door, and may put out a mass mailer.
Cindy Troy, president of the CSEA union for Orleans County employees, was at the meeting in Medina. She wants to see the village government stay intact.
“You can lose the things that make you identifiable as a community,” she said. “The Village of Medina could lose control over things they hold dear. They have a density of population. They have needs the people in the country do not.”
She worries if the dissolution goes through, other local villages will follow.
“We as a whole community need to be concerned about this,” she said about the dissolution vote. “Medina won’t be the last to look at it.”
A second anti-dissolution sign also has been put out.
A dissolution plan put together by a committee with help of a consultant suggested many of the village services be taken over the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway. The committee also proposed a new debt district, two lighting districts, a water/sewer local development corporation, and a new fire district. Ridgeway would take over a town police force that would be contracted to include Shelby, according to the committee’s report.
Mike Maak, a Medina firefighter, said there is no guarantee the town officials would put that plan in place. He is among the dissolution opponents.
The dissolution plan sees $277,000 in cost savings and $541,000 in additional state aid for $818,000 in overall benefit. But with combined budgets of more than $10 million, the $277,000 is seen as a small amount in operational savings.
Village Trustees Mike Sidari and Marguerite Sherman both oppose the dissolution. Sidari is running a Facebook page – “Medina, This Village Matters.” Sidari also is helping to get anti-dissolution signs to residents. He said some of the signs have been stolen or damaged.
Sidari and Maak both would like to see the village push for other revenue without disrupting the village government and services. They want to see Medina press for more state aid and county sales tax dollars. Maak said the village should work to become a city, which would significantly boost its state aid and also spare village residents from paying town taxes.
The state hasn’t allowed a new city since the 1950s. Medina Mayor Andrew Meier sees little chance in the state approving Medina as a city, and the county has shown no openness to giving more local sales tax to villages.
Dissolution is one way to secure more state aid, and also run a more efficient local government, said Meier, who is part of the “One Medina” group that would ultimately like to see the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway merge into one town – “Medina.”
“One Medina” has had many signs out for months. The group also has a Facebook page with Dean Bellack and Meier fielding questions from the community, and trying to provide them with answers.
Meier sees dissolution as a way for village residents to shape their destination, without pleading for aid from the county and state, assistance that Meier thinks is unlikely to materialize if the village government remains. The state is providing incentives for dissolution, but gives very little to villages for “Aid and Incentives to Municipalities.” Most villages get less than $10 per person in AIM funding, while the state gives most cities at least $100 per person.
Maak thinks the county and state could be swayed to share revenue with the village.
“We haven’t tried,” he said about that effort. “With dissolution, we’re cutting our nose off to spite our face.”
Owen Toale, a former village trustee, believes the village and towns of Shelby and Ridgeway could reach sizable tax savings by sharing services and consolidating services. He faulted the village for setting a dissolution vote while there was still the prospect of shared services for the trio of municipalities.
“One Medina pushed for the vote while they were still in the middle of the (shared services) process,” Toale said. “That to me is poor.”
He is helping to get out the anti-dissolution signs.
“I’m interested in helping my village,” said Toale, a retired newspaper publisher.
Many village residents have been called in the past two weeks by PAF Opinion Research in Albany. The firm asks a series of questions about dissolution, seeking residents’ opinions.
Meier and “One Medina” say PAF makes many misleading statements. The firm, in a taped phone call to a local resident, says it was hired by “one of the larger unions in the state.” CSEA has denied hiring the firm. Orleans Hub hasn’t been able to verify who hired the firm.
In phone calls to village residents, PAF tells villagers that they will lose their local police. The service might be picked up by the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department, but response times will more than double. PAF attributes that claim to Meier.
The mayor said he never said that. He was on the Dissolution Committee that recommends a town-wide police force.
PAF makes a number of claims about the future of the village in a dissolution goes forward. The firm tells villagers there won’t be any tax savings if the village government dissolves.
“In villages that voted to dissolve themselves, the promised property tax savings never happened,” a survey worker told a village resident in a phone call. “Does hearing this make you lean against dissolving Medina or for dissolving Medina?”
A CSEA representative said the union didn’t put out the phone messages. However, the union said it knows about the phone calls and sees them as a way to gauge public opinion, and not influence village residents with their vote.
Meier has decried the calls as “push polling,” an attempt to intimidate and confuse residents into voting against dissolution.
ALBION – Mike Paduchak was honored for more than 40 years of service on the board of directors for Community Action of Orleans & Genesee.
Paduchak served as the board chairman for several years in the 1980s. Monday was his last meeting as a member of the board. State Assemblyman Steve Hawley stopped by the meeting at Hoag Library to present a citation, expressing appreciation for Paduchak’s service.
A World War II veteran, Paduchak also served as Kendall town supervisor and was a member of the former Orleans County Board of Supervisors.
His daughter, Nadine Hanlon, also serves on the board for Community Action.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 December 2014 at 12:00 am
2 others arraigned for crimes at County Court
ALBION – A Medina man who has been in jail on $125,000 bail for allegedly being part of a burglary now faces an additional charge of intimidating a witness.
Jason Wills, 28, of Church Street in Medina was arraigned on the new charge on Monday in front of Orleans County Court Judge James Punch.
Wills is one of four people who have been charged with breaking into a house in Albion on East State Street on May 19. The defendants allegedly also caused property damage and attacked one of the residents, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
One of the accused, Stormy Osby, 18, of Medina pleaded guilty. In court, she said Wills was involved in the break-in. Wills was in court at the time and allegedly threatened Osby.
Wills already faced charges of second-degree burglary, criminal mischief in the fourth degree and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child for the alleged crime.
His attorney Zachary Mauer asked Punch to reduce bail from $125,000 on Monday. Mauer said Wills never entered the house during the burglary. Wills is also a life-long resident who has always appeared for his court dates, Mauer said.
Given the additional charge, Punch said he would keep bail at $125,000. The judge said he would likely have to recuse himself from the intimidation charge because the crime allegedly happened in the courtroom in front of Punch. The judge said he didn’t hear Wills make the alleged threat.
In other cases:
A Byron man was arraigned for second-degree assault after allegedly striking a victim in the head with a bottle on Sept. 14 in the Town of Murray.
Gregory Vogt, 27, of Cook Road was given a day to post $1,500 bail or else report to the jail.
“This was a completely unprovoked attack on the victim,” said Assistant District Attorney Susan Howard.
The judge issued an order of protection for the victim in the case.
Phillip Barsonti was arraigned for violating his Probation after allegedly pushing and shoving someone in the Town of Barre on Nov. 11.
Barsonti, 33, no address available, was charged with second-degree harassment and second-degree criminal contempt. The judge increased Barsonti’s bail from $500 set in the Barre court to $2,500.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 December 2014 at 12:00 am
Dr. Jamal Janania worked at Albion Urgent Care Center
ALBION – A doctor who joined a new Albion healthcare site when it opened in November 2012 has had his medical license revoked by the state Department of Health.
Dr. Jamal Janania no longer works for Orleans Community Health and its Albion Urgent Care site, OCH officials said today. They said they would not comment further on the matter.
Janania had his medical license revoked last month after state DOH officials deemed he was guilty of professional misconduct for fraudulent practice, filing a false report, and violations of education law.
Janania has had a license in New York since Nov. 2, 2009. He began work at the Carthage Area Hospital in June 2009. He was twice suspended for failure to complete patient records. He was terminated from Carthage on Sept. 7, 2011 for record keeping, tardiness and absences, according to the DOH report on Janania.
He then worked at Mountain Medical Services in northern New York from January 2012 to May 2012 and was terminated for record keeping, “and time and attendance issues,” the DOH said.
He also sought a medical license in Kansas in 2006 but was denied in March 2008 for failure to meet licensing requirements, the DOH said.
When Janania sought work at Lewis County General Hospital on April 30, 2012, and then at Oswego Hospital on June 11, 2012, he did not disclose his past terminations, nor did he reveal his medical license application had been denied in Kansas, according to the DOH. Janania also was licensed to practice medicine in Florida in 2012.
When he applied to Orleans Community Health in October 2012, he disclosed in his application he had prior employment suspensions, but did not disclose he had been terminated.
In a hearing with DOH officials, Janania said he was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder in 2005, and that ADD affected his record keeping. He said the ADD did not affect his performance in practicing medicine.
The DOH also faulted Janania for not disclosing he had a license in Florida in his job applications in 2012. He called that an “oversight,” according to the DOH report.
The DOH hearing committee ruled that Janania committed fraudulent practice. “(Janania) intentionally and repeatedly misrepresented and concealed information from potential employers in an effort to mislead them about his professional history and qualifications.”
The doctor was found to have filed a false report based on lies in his employment history on job applications, the DOH said.
Janania was found guilty of violations in education law for failing to disclose his employment terminations and the reasons for those dismissals when he applied for other jobs.
The DOH committee said misrepresentations in a job application “brings into question his reliability in matters more directly related to patient care.” The committee also said poor record keeping is poor patient care.
ALBION – In this vintage photo from 1938 we see an Albion High School agriculture class out in the field inspecting a fruit tree.
Left to right: Douglas Strickland, Floyd Stymus, Joe Sheeler, Bill Boyce, Hamilton Anderson, Norm Lacey, Royce Poelma, Jay Buckland, John Carr, Bill Ferris, John Dahlquist, William Baccaccio, George Kirby, Merton Belson, Dan Sheeler, Roger Van Aernum, Lee Ward, and Frank Christopher.
The Ag teacher was William Sherman. Info on the back of this snapshot indicates it was taken by “Edwin V. Quagliana, 28 W. Bank St., Albion, NY.” Also included is “1938 Ag Class in North Orchard Bill Sherman Teacher.”
ALBION – Meredith Patterson of Albion won the Orleans County American Legion Oratorical Contest on Saturday. She is pictured with Steve Goodrich, left, of Lyndonville who is the county Legion commander. Brandon Nunnery, right, of the Lyndonville Post serves as chairman of the oratorical contest.
Patterson won the 77th American Legion Orleans County Oratorical Competition. She competed against students from the other school districts in the county.
Participants delivered an 8- to 10-minute speech without notes about the Constitution.
Patterson will now advance to a regional competition in January.
