MEDINA – Artist Judith Villavisanis has been working on a book-shaped entrance to the children’s library at Lee-Whedon Memorial Library this week. She is expected to be on site for about two more weeks, creating an entrance with words and illustrations.
“It is an invitation to enter the area and the world of imagination,” said Catherine Cooper, library director. “It will have rich and vivid colors.”
Villavisanis lives in a Florida and is a muralist. She has many Albion connections and submitted a proposal for the project.
The “Storybook Entrance” project is part of the interior renovations in the library. Lee-Whedon leaders expect the entrance will become an iconic part of every child’s experience at Lee-Whedon.
Here is how the entrance looked before Villavisanis went to work.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 November 2014 at 12:00 am
Editorial
Photo by Tom Rivers – This photo shows downtown Albion after a storm barreled through the area in June. Albion is among the top 100 jurisdictions for highest tax rates out of 3,663 in the state.
Orleans Hub reported on Tuesday that several of our local municipalities are among the most tax oppressed in the State of New York. Medina tops the local communities and nearly all of 3,663 jurisdictions in the state for highest tax rate. (Click here to see that article.)
Only Wellsville and a few other Allegany County towns and villages top the $54.13 combined tax rate in Medina. That ranked 13th in the state, according to the Empire Center’s study.
Medina’s overall rate includes $25.63 for the school district, $15.52 for the village, $9.63 for county and either $3.35 for Town of Shelby, according to 2012 data.
Other Orleans communities are close behind Medina. The Village of Holley is 50th overall at $49.98 – $24.94 for school, $12.99 for village, $9.65 for county and $2.40 for town of Murray.
The Village of Albion is 77th at $47.77 – $18.06 for school, $15.92 for village, $9.60 for county and $4.19 for town of Gaines.
You see the report and it’s easy to point fingers at the villages, to blame the village officials for the crushing tax burden in these locales.
But it’s not the villages’ fault. New York gives the villages very little in state aid, while showering cities with funds. Cities get the lion’s share of Aid and Incentives to Municipalities, state funds designed to help preserve the population cores by helping to maintain aging infrastructure and keep up with critical services such as police and fire protection.
Villages have these same issues, but the state turns its back on these communities. To keep police officers, patch pot holes and maintain parks and cemeteries, villages have to pass nearly the full cost onto to village taxpayers. That’s why these tax rates in the villages are so sky high.
Villages get about $5 to $10 in per capita AIM funding. For Medina, that totaled $45,523 for 6,065 people or $7.51 a person. That is far cry from what a similar size city gets. Consider the City of Sherrill in Oneida County. That city actually has half the people as Medina. The city gets $372,689 in state funding or $121.35 a person. Sherill’s combined tax rates are only $32.66, more than $20 less than in Medina.
Cities also have the added benefit of being spared a town tax. Villages not only are deprived of state aid, but a village resident gets double taxed by towns. In Orleans County, if you live in a village you will pay a double-digit tax rate and then pay about $3 to $4 more per $1,000 of assessed property to a town.
It is a crushing burden. These villages are at a major competitive disadvantage in attracting and keeping residents and businesses. Move to a small city or out in the country and you’ll pay far less in taxes.
Consider the City of Batavia. That city of 15,465 receives $1,750,975 in state funding. That helps drive down the city tax rate to $10.52 per $1,000, about half of the combined village/town rates in Medina, Albion and Holley – our local villages that are high on the tax oppressed list.
The bigger the city, the more generous the state is in helping those municipalities provide services and ease the tax burden for residents, who are often senior citizens and lower-income people – the same situation in villages.
Consider the City of Buffalo, which receives a whopping $161.3 million in state AIM funding for 261,310 residents or $617.22 per person. Buffalo’s combined tax rate is only $27.74 per $1,000 of assessed property, about half the rate in Medina.
I fully support the aid for cities, but the state needs to direct similar funding to the villages, or else they will continue to see property values fall and tax rates jump, creating a vicious spiral.
Our local officials need to sound the alarm about this situation and demand equitable treatment from the state. By propping up the cities, the state is picking winners and losers. It’s particularly destructive in small rural counties like Orleans and Allegany where there are no cities. These counties don’t have any population centers with reasonable taxes. Every village is a high-tax environment.
That ultimately chases businesses outside the county, which results in fewer jobs and retail establishments. That means less local sales tax for the counties, which further drives up our property taxes. The vicious cycle continues, with no end in sight unless that state can be fair with the AIM dollars.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 November 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Most of the close parking spaces at the Albion Walmart were occupied, but there will some to be had at the far end of the parking lot at about 6:30 p.m. today.
The store was open for Thanksgiving and offered its doorbuster deals between 6 and 7 p.m., bargains that included 50-inch flatscreen TVs for $218.
Major retailers used to be closed on Thanksgiving but that has changed with many of the stores open today.
There were threats of boycotts from shoppers, but by the looks of the Albion Walmart several hundred people took the opportunity to jumpstart their shopping.
Peebles in Albion also is open today. The store advertised its holiday hours with this sign by Route 31 in Albion.
Press Release, Albion Police Chief Ronald Nenni III
The Albion Police Department hosted and supervised a multi-agency Orleans County Wide DWI Saturation Patrol from 9 p.m. Wednesday to 3 a.m. today.
This type of detail has never been done in Orleans County and combined the law enforcement efforts from every law enforcement agency in Orleans County along with state and federal resources.
The agencies involved consisted of the Albion Police, Medina Police, Holley Police, Orleans County Sheriff’s Office, New York State Police, Orleans County Probation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol.
The detailed results are as follows:
7 DWI Arrests (4 in the Village of Albion, 1 in the Village of Medina, 1 in the Village of Holley and 1 in the Town of Yates).
Traffic Stops: 45
Tickets Issued: 31
Other: 1 Unlawful Possession of Marijuana Arrest, 1 Probation Violator and 1 Warrant Suspect wanted by Livingston County taken into custody.
The Albion Police Department and the other law enforcement agencies are committed to making the roadways safe for all those who travel upon them.
Intoxicated drivers do not follow jurisdictional lines so we decided that we would not either.
The commitment and dedication by the officers who worked the detail undoubtedly saved lives in Orleans County.
A burst of snow is expected this evening in the Niagara Frontier, bringing about 1 to 3 inches to Orleans, Niagara, Genesee and northern Erie counties, the National Weather Service said.
“Expect brief periods of visibility below a half mile which will result in slick roadways and difficult travel,” the Weather Service advised.
MEDINA – After a several-month investigation into the possession, sale and distribution of marijuana in the Village of Medina, two people were arrested and jailed on Tuesday, the Orleans County Major Felony Crime Task Force reported.
The Task Force, along with the Medina Police Department and the Orleans County Multi-Agency Swat Team, executed a search warrant on Tuesday at 915 South Main St.
Police seized approximately 6 ounces of marijuana, cash, scales, packaging and other drug paraphernalia. Police also encountered three young children in the presence of marijuana.
The following were arrested:
Marcus S. Warren, 31, of 915 South Main St., Medina. He was charged with one count of criminal possession of marijuana in the fourth degree, and three counts of unlawfully dealing with a child in the first degree.
Ashlee Waters
He was arraigned by Town of Yates Judge Donald Grabowski and committed to Orleans County Jail on $2,500 bail. He is to appear in Shelby Town Court on Dec. 11 at 9 a.m.
Additional charges for sale of marijuana are pending against Warren, the Task Force reported.
Ashlee J.P. Waters, 25, of 915 South Main St., Medina, was charged with one count of criminal possession of marijuana in the fourth degree, and three counts of unlawfully dealing with a child in the first degree.
She was arraigned by Judge Grabowski and remanded to Orleans County Jail on $1,000 bail. She is to appear in Shelby Town Court on Dec. 11 at 9 a.m.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 November 2014 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Al Capurso of Gaines has created several mini log cabin scenes as tributes to pioneer residents in Orleans County. He is pictured with his latest creation. He has donated the log cabin dioramas to the Cobblestone Museum, Clarendon Historical Society and the Holland Land Office Museum.
Photo by Tom Rivers
Photo by Tom Rivers – The Clarendon cabin (above) bears the name of the town’s founder, Eldredge Farwell, who discovered Clarendon in 1810 while looking for his brother Isaac’s lost horse. He traced Isaac’s footprints along the border of Sandy Creek and was impressed with the waterfalls in Clarendon.
Photo by Tom Rivers
GAINES – In the spring Al Capurso was out in his backyard with a knife, cutting down thick grape vines that were wrapped around trees.
Capurso studied the thick vines and noticed they bore semblance to mini logs. His mind and hands started working, and began building a small log cabin. It sits on a shelf in his kitchen, a tribute to pioneer residents who settled in the area about 200 years ago.
Capurso has a strong interest in the county’s pioneer history. He and his family put up a historical marker on the Courthouse Lawn last year for William McAllister and his wife, who were Albion’s first settlers in 1811, building a log cabin where the current County Clerks Building stands.
Capurso also did the research and convinced the local and federal governments to name Gilbert Creek in Gaines and Carlton in honor of another pioneer.
With the grape vines, Capurso cut them in 7 and 9 inch chunks and created a mini log cabin. He notched the wood, made a roof out of bark, and put in windows and doors. He added corals for livestock, a swing for children, and a wood lot. He even planted trees around the sites.
It takes Capurso about a month to make the scenes, and he has donated three of them to historical organizations. As he makes them, he finds himself transported to about 200 years ago, when the area’s first settlers were tasked with surviving in the wilderness.
“Everything back then was ‘make do,'” he said. “You made do with what you had.”
Capurso has given log cabin dioramas to the Holland Land Office Museum in Batavia, the Clarendon Historical Society and the Cobblestone Museum.
Farwell saw the waterfalls as a potential source of power for business. He moved his family to Clarendon in 1811 and built saw and grist mills. The town was originally named Farwell’s Mills but was renamed to Clarendon. Farwell was from Clarendon, Vermont.
Farwell also had six children when he moved to Clarendon. Capurso added a swing by the miniature cabin.
“I dedicated this one to children who grew up as pioneers in the wilderness,” he said on Tuesday at his Gaines home on Route 279.
Capurso is a volunteer at the Cobblestone Museum. He gave the museum a cabin that made in honor of John Proctor.
John Proctor is often referred to by historians as the Paul Revere of Ridge Road. On a December night in 1813, he rode by horseback on the Ridge from Gaines to Clarkson to warn of the approach of British and the Indians after the burning of Lewiston.
The following morning he joined a regiment that was headed to Lewiston. The regiment would capture the enemy quartered at Molyneaux Tavern. A historical marker on a large stone on Route 104 shares the story of Proctor. The stone is on the south side of Ridge Road, a few houses west of the Route 98 intersection.
Capurso would like to build a full-size replica cabin as a tribute to the pioneers. That would be about 20 feet by 20 feet. He would need to find a site and volunteers for the project.
ROYALTON – A Medina resident who allegedly caused a standoff with police in September, forcing Ridge Road to be blocked off for several hours, faces new charges after an alleged incident on Tuesday in the Town of Royalton in Niagara County.
State Police in Lockport arrested Gerardo Quiros, 28, of Ridge Road in Medina, for burglary in the second degree, a class C felony; grand larceny in the fourth degree; criminal mischief in the third degree and criminal contempt in the first degree, class E felonies.
Troopers responded to a report of a violation of an order of protection in Royalton. The investigation revealed that Quiros enter the protected person’s residence and caused damage to personal property and stole property from the residence.
Quiros was arrested and then arraigned before a Town of Lockport judge who remanded him to the Niagara County Jail on $30,000 cash bail. He is scheduled to appear before the Town of Royalton Court on Dec. 11 at 5 p.m.
Quiros faces charges of menacing and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree for the Sept. 24 incident in Ridgeway.
