By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 February 2014 at 12:00 am
MEDINA – Village planning officials want to update the zoning for the downtown business district to allow for wineries, breweries and micro-breweries.
The village zoning currently doesn’t state that wineries and breweries are an allowed use in the downtown. That doesn’t mean they are currently prohibited. A project would require a special use permit and extra scrutiny under the current code.
The Planning Board has been discussing the zoning change since December. Planning Board members and Code Enforcement Office Marty Busch have reached out to other communities with wineries and breweries in their business districts.
“We’re gathering information and we have some good information coming in,” Busch said at last week’s Planning Board meeting.
He wants to get a sense of sales volume and parking needs at wineries and breweries in downtown business districts.
Planning Board member Todd Bensley said he wants any zoning changes to include provisions against odor and noise that could be a deterrent to other businesses.
“We need to protect the integrity of the downtown business district,” Bensley said. “It can be a positive if it’s done right.”
Busch said the village has been approached about a winery and brewery in the downtown. He also thinks the village should look at allowing wineries and breweries on the Maple Ridge Road corridor.
The state Legislature and Gov. Cuomo last year approved an expansion of the Niagara Wine Trail through Orleans County to Rochester.
“Medina is a in a good place with the expansion of the wine trail,” Busch said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 February 2014 at 12:00 am
Board backs James Bell of Brockport, a ’70 Albion grad
ALBION – The Town Board finally resolved an impasse over hiring a municipal attorney. James Bell of Brockport, a 1970 Albion graduate, was hired at a $25,000 base pay.
Bell will also bill the town $175 an hour for work involving litigation. He works as the Sweden town attorney and also for Orleans County for some legal matters.
The decision at Monday’s board meeting followed three meetings in January when the board couldn’t reach a majority decision for an attorney. The board couldn’t muster three votes to bring back Robert Roberson of Lockport, who served in the roles in 2012 and 2013 at a $36,000 annual pay. The board also considered John Gavenda of Albion and Andrew Meier of Medina.
Board members Dan Poprawski, Richard Remley, Todd Sargent and Town Supervisor Matt Passarell all voted for Bell on Monday. Town Councilman Jake Olles abstained.
The Town Board also recognized members of the Downtown Albion Neighborhood Advisory Committee which volunteered for two years helping with a downtown grant that provided more than $300,000 in matching funds for building projects and nearly $50,000 streetscape improvements that should debut in the spring.
The DANAC members include Clifford Thom Sr., Brad Shelp, Gary Katsanis, Gerald Baehr, Ron Ebbs and Neil Johnson, as well as alternates Kim Remley, Dean Theodorakos and Sue Starkweather Miller.
Passarell thanked the committee for helping to see the grant funds approved for several projects in the downtown.
Kevin Lake, president of the Albion Main Street Alliance, thanked past Town Boards for pursuing the grant and working to approve the projects. Lake said AMSA would like to work on additional community projects for the community with the current Town Board.
“This summer I saw a downtown I’d never seen before with so many lifts,” Lake told the Town Board. “People were busy working on their buildings. That was pretty cool.”
Contributed Story Posted 9 February 2014 at 12:00 am
Provided photo
Agnes Recco is joined at her recent retirement party by Sgt. Michael Christopher, a Corrections Officer in the county jail and president of the union, Local 2966 that represents jail and office employees.
Recco worked 22 years for the Orleans County Sheriff Department front office. Recco, better known to her co-workers as “Aggie,” started on Nov. 9, 1992 and worked until Jan. 3. She served as a civil clerk dealing mostly with billing and civil process.
Her retirement was celebrated in the Sheriff Department’s front office on Jan. 3 with lunch and cake put on by her fellow workers. Also, OCSEA Local 2966 presented Recco with a gift card of $220, which is calculated for $10 for each year of service to Orleans County. Family, friends and co-workers gathered on Jan. 25 at White Birch Golf Course in Lyndonville for her retirement party.
RIDGEWAY – In this scene from around 1910 we see the Ridge Road where it crosses over Oak Orchard Creek at Oak Orchard on the Ridge.
At lower left is the Culvert Road. Just beyond the steel frame bridge with a plank floor is the old Cobblestone Lee Distillery. That’s the building with a high smoke stack.
Looking westward up the hill is a man driving a horse and buggy towards the bridge. At the top of the hill is the old Cobblestone Inn at the corner of the Oak Orchard River Road. This photo was taken by W.C. Eaton of Jeddo.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 February 2014 at 12:00 am
GCC has several Civil War lectures planned through May
Genesee Community College has several lectures scheduled the next three months about the Civil War, including a visit and talk from the director of the film Copperhead.
Ron Maxwell
Ron Maxwell will be in Medina on April 26 during the Civil War Encampment. He will be joined for a lecture by Elba author Bill Kauffman, who wrote the screenplay for Copperhead.
Maxwell is currently promoting the release of the DVD version of Copperhead, a film that explores the right of free speech during the American Civil War. Maxwell and Kauffman will appear at a time to be determined.
The third annual GCC Civil War Encampment weekend will be April 25-27. The event in Medina will include a parade, battles, lectures and demonstrations.
The college is planning other lectures during the 150th anniversary of the war.
“The Civil War Tower in Mt. Albion Cemetery: A History” will be presented by Bill Lattin, Orleans County Historian. The lecture will be 7 p.m. on Feb. 27 at the Albion Campus Center.
The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Mt. Albion Cemetery is one of the most unique physical commemorations of Civil War valor. Standing at the highest point in the cemetery, the monument – a tower – rises through the treetops for a stunning view of the countryside.
Made of Medina sandstone, this tribute remembers the 463 Orleans County men who perished in the war. Lattin will disucss the history of this magnificent historic tower and learn about the challenges faced by those who dedicated themselves to building an iconic monument to those who fell in that great fraternal war.
“Copperheads and the Constitution: Lincoln’s ‘Fire in the Rear’” will be presented by Adam Tabelski, former mayor of Medina, and senior aide to Sen. George Maziarz. The lecture will be 10 a.m. April 11 at the Medina Campus Center.
As President Lincoln searched for ways to take the military offensive and defeat the Confederate army in the South, he had problems back at home. There was, in fact, a jeopardizing ‘fire in the rear’ that needed to be put out: the activism of so-called “copperheads,” who were politicians and others whose beliefs ran counter to the prevailing wartime sentiment of preserving the Unionand, later, freeing the slavesat all costs.
Copperheads sought victories not on the battlefield, but in communities, in the courts, and at the ballot box. This talk will explore their tumultuous history.
The Batavia campus will also host a Civil War Lecture Series the first Wednesday of each month through May. On March 5, GCC Prof. Michael Gosselin will speak – “A Plain Businessman of the Republic: An English Professor Reads Grant Memoirs.” On April 2, Rev. Gary Hakes will talk about religion and the Civil War. Finally, on May 7 Mike “Max” Szemplenski will talk about “Dean Richmond and the Civil War.”
The Batavia lectures will be in the Conable Technology Building in room T102. They are free and open to the public.
Contributed Story Posted 9 February 2014 at 12:00 am
Provided photo
HOLLEY – The Holley Rotary Club is once again assisting a local family that is in need because of a medical problem. The club recently donated $150 in Save-A-Lot gift certificates to help the family during a difficult period. Pictured above is Holley Rotarian John Heise giving the certificates to Holley Central School Social Worker Michaela Lauer, who will give them to the family in need.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 February 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Adam Foley conducts the elementary all-county chorus today during a concert at Holley. The group is singing “Do, Re, Mi.”
HOLLEY – About 650 people packed the Holley High School Auditorium this afternoon for the 2014 Orleans All-County Music Festival.
Today’s concert included the top elementary student singers, the best in the middle school band programs, and the leading singers in the high school choruses for the five school districts – Albion, Holley, Kendall, Lyndonville and Medina.
This is the 60th anniversary of the Orleans County Music Educators Association. Carrie Kozody, a middle school chorus teacher at Albion, is the group’s current president.
Retired Albion band teacher Dale Smalley leads the all-county junior high band during today’s performance in Holley. The band is playing a selection from “Les Miserables.”
Stuart McLean conducts the all-county high school chorus. They are singing “Zion’s Walls.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 February 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – About 200 people attended the annual Father/Daughter Valentine Dance on Friday night at the Albion Elementary School.
The event is organized by Harvest Christian Fellowship in Albion. In the top photo, Jody Neal gets a snuggle from his daughter Kasey, 4, while holding his younger daughter, Adelyn, 2.
The event included several slow dances and some faster paced numbers.
Mark Gregoire of Murray dances to “The Twist” with his daughter Sadie, 6. He was at the dance with three of his daughters.
There are no two ways about it. This is a cute picture taken with that intent. The quality and character of the photo would suggest it was done around 1890.
Arthur Harris, the photographer, lived in Albion around that time. Someone with pen and ink wrote on the back of the picture, “Master Wm. Dawson ‘Two Willies.’” By that we know it is William Dawson in the little sleigh and that the goat was called “Willie” just like “Willie” Dawson.
Note on this cold winter day the little chap is covered up with a fur robe as he holds the reins to the harnessed goat. Notice the outhouse behind the goat in our scene.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 February 2014 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Today is National Wear Red Day, and people are encouraged to wear the color to help raise awareness about heart disease as the leading cause of death for men and women.
On Thursday, members of the Albion Rotary Club wore red. Rotarians are pictured next to their sign by Tillman’s Village Inn. Cindy Perry is the club president. She also is the director of health education, wellness and outreach for Orleans Community Health.
The Orleans Community Health Foundation will be posting photos of workplaces in the county that are dressed in red. To check those photos, click here.
The Courthouse dome also was red on Thursday night in honor of today’s effort. County employees have been encouraged to wear red, and donate $5 to the American Heart Association if they dress in the color. The Chamber of Commerce also is encouraging its members to dress in red that day.
Perry said heart disease is often a “silent killer” without noticeable symptoms. Heart disease is the cause of death for 38 percent of women, she said.
Orleans County has some of the worse health statistics in the state. The annual County Health Rankings report places Orleans 52nd out of 62 counties for overall community health.
Orleans fares particularly bad with a high smoking rate, 29.9 percent of adults compared to 16.2 percent state-wide. There are 63 percent of adults in Orleans who are overweight or obese, compared to 59 percent in the state.
Workers are putting up the 180-foot-high radio tower in Shelby on Route 31A next to the village of Medina’s water tank. Gary Hill took this photo of Patriot Towers workers on Thursday. They are using a crane from CP Ward in Rochester.
The first of three new radio towers has been built as part of the county’s new radio system. The first tower was constructed on West Countyhouse Road in Albion. A tower will also be built in Clarendon near the highway garage on Route 31A.
The towers are part of $7.1 million upgrade to the county’s emergency communications system. The project is rebuilding the emergency communications system, including 1,100 reprogrammed portable radios and an upgraded dispatch center.
This four-generation portrait was taken around 1870. From left to right: Robert Anderson, 1787-1873; Nahum Anderson, 1809-1893; George Anderson, 1839-1912; and Robert Anderson, 1864-1955.
Robert, at far left, was the second supervisor of the Town of Gaines and the first Chairman of the Orleans County Board of Supervisors in 1825.
According to family legend, Nahum Anderson was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. They lived in the large cobblestone house on Ridge Road about a quarter mile west of Gaines Basin Road. In 1859, Nahum added the cobblestone wing to the west end of the original house for himself.
The younger Robert moved away and died in Tacoma, Wash. The first Robert fought in the American Revolution and is buried in the graveyard behind the Gaines Congregational Church. He is the great-great-great-grandfather to County Historian Lattin. George Anderson’s sister Phoebe married B.M. Lattin in 1860.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 February 2014 at 12:00 am
Wind chill advisory issued for Saturday
Photos by Tom Rivers
The bitter cold that has gripped Western New York in recent days will continue Saturday. The wind chill could plummet to 15 degrees below zero, prompting a wind chill advisory for Orleans County and several other Western New York counties. The advisory is in effect until 9 a.m.
Saturday’s temperature will peak at 18 degrees. It is forecast to reach 23 degrees on Sunday.
The photo above shows a barn shrouded in snow this afternoon. The scene is near the intersection of West Countyhouse and Townline roads in Ridgeway.
This photo shows a barn and a snow-covered corn field along West Countyhouse Road, south of the fairgrounds near Townline Road.
This portion of Culvert Road near Route 31A in Medina is closed during the winter.
Provided photo – The Villages of Orleans Health & Rehabilitation Center has this sign along Route 31 in Albion.
Press release
Orleans County Health Facilities Corporation
ALBION – The Orleans County Health Facilities Corporation announced on Thursday that The Villages of Orleans Health & Rehabilitation Center has been acquired for $7.8 million.
Principals of Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services LLC, who recently purchased three Catholic Health facilities in Buffalo, will eventually operate The Villages under Comprehensive at Orleans LLC.
Orleans County Health Facilities Corporation board members Richard DeCarlo Sr., Russell Martino and Richard Moy stated, “The sale of The Villages to Comprehensive will not only allow for continued excellent care of our residents but will also provide additional annual tax revenues for the county, town and school district.”
The Villages operating debt is expected to be reduced to $7.1 million by the end of 2014. This purchase agreement will more than satisfy the outstanding debt and “exceeds the market value of $6.5 million suggested by the senior housing specialists we consulted at Marcus & Millichap,” added Martino, chairman of the HFC, which is a local development corporation.
He also emphasized, “Comprehensive showed considerable flexibility in negotiations with regard to our county’s unique needs. This is a win-win for our community.”
The principals for Comprehensive – Joshua Farkovits, Bernard Fuchs and Mordy Lahasky – will now face a rigorous New York State Department of Health licensure process to operate the 120-bed nursing home in Albion.
Once the review is complete and approval is granted by the state, which could take up to a year, The Villages of Orleans will become a privatized nursing facility owned and operated by Comprehensive at Orleans LLC. County officials indicated no transfer would take place prior to Jan. 1, 2015.
While change of ownership can create angst for residents, their families and employees, Lahasky indicated he and his partners were immediately “…very impressed by the facility and, more important, by the people at The Villages of Orleans, staff and residents alike. The Villages is a gem – it is clearly a well-run facility and we intend to keep it that way. Our aim is to provide even more support and enhance the services offered at the facility.”
“We are committed to providing high quality health care and a quality workplace for employees,” said Farkovits. He added Comprehensive’s principals have “long standing and good working relations with 1199 of the SEIU and a history of working with existing employees to achieve outstanding outcomes.”
The company looks forward to working with the workforce in Orleans County because they have demonstrated “such dedication” to caring for residents of The Villages and “so much pride” in the facility and region.
Members of the LDC requested the purchase agreement state that current employees hired by Comprehensive “will not be subject to salary cuts or reduced Paid Time Off (PTO).”
Noting that a NYS DOH study projects the county’s need for more nursing home beds will reach 360 by 2016, Legislature Chairman David Callard said, “Under the leadership of Comprehensive, we are more optimistic that the needs of our community can be met, well into the future. I am pleased with the way the LDC managed the process and look forward to a smooth transition and fiscal solvency for Orleans County.”
“First impressions are everything to me,” said Karen Wygal, director of nursing at The Villages. “Their facility that I toured was pristine. To me, that is an indicator as to how well the needs of the residents are being met. The staff was welcoming and very engaged with the residents. The high level of care demonstrated in the specialized units was extremely impressive.”
The privatization of The Villages brings back into focus mounting challenges for county-owned nursing homes all over in New York State: rising costs and the increasing costs of public employment.
“Even with reforms and the addition of programs, costs have continued to increase at an alarming rate, while Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement levels failed to keep pace,” Callard said.
LDC member Richard DeCarlo Sr. said, “We could not, in good conscience, allow this to go on. Comprehensive was no stranger to these concerns, having worked with other county-owned nursing homes, and they were accommodating to our needs. Comprehensive committed to maintaining ownership of The Villages for a minimum of 10 years.”
The Chicago-based firm of Marcus & Millichap was hired to market and sell The Villages. Senior housing specialist and broker Joshua Jandris said, “Comprehensive’s reputation exceeds industry standards.”
He went on to say Farkovits, Fuchs and Lahasky “…showed tremendous interest in the residents and the community and were also very attentive to the specific needs of the county.” Jandris added that the men are respected nursing home operators and are known for investing in their employees and supporting the operational needs of each facility.
Richard Moy of the LDC expressed the same sentiments about Comprehensive. Moy observed, “They all seem to be committed 100% to the success of their facilities and particularly invested in the communities. In fact, they willingly agreed to continue the nationally-recognized Community-as-School program as well as provide meals for Orleans County Hospice.”
According to Farkovits, “Our desire is to augment the existing programs at The Villages and add more specialty services to cater to the growing needs of the community. We plan to enhance the health care options for the residents in and around Orleans County.”
Martino, Moy and DeCarlo also believe Comprehensive has a proactive approach to “optimizing the facility’s potential.”
Both parties were motivated to work out the terms of Comprehensive’s offer. Lahasky made it clear throughout the process, “We will do whatever needs to be done to make sure each resident has the benefit of the all the assets and unique specialty services that Comprehensive has to offer. Simply put, we are confident that together we will all be able to continue to serve the people of Orleans County – quite well.”
Contributed Story Posted 7 February 2014 at 12:00 am
Provided photo
Albion Mayor Dean Theodorakos pulls the winning ticket this afternoon for a county employee who dressed in red as part of National Go Red Day. Nadine Hanlon, clerk of the County Legislature, holds the basket full of tickets.
Orleans County employees raised $865 by paying $5 each to wear red to promote awareness about heart disease. Each employee that participated was eligible in a drawing for a $50 gift certificate for a night out.
Mayor Theodorakos pulled the winning ticket for a $50 gift certificate to Albion’s Crooked Door Tavern. Jim Noreck, assistant superintendent of the Buildings and Grounds Department, was the winner.
All proceeds will be donated to the American Heart Association to help the ongoing research to eliminate cardiovascular diseases and stroke, the country’s No. 1 and No. 4 causes of death, respectively.
