By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 14 December 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Albion FFA members Brian Bentley, front left, and Riley Kelly, unload a tractor trailer full of produce this morning at Community Action of Orleans & Genesee.
The Albion FFA worked with several local farmers to give 19,000 pounds of produce to Community Action. The agency in Albion then shared the produce with food pantries in Albion, Medina, Lyndonville and Holley.
FFA member Kyle Smith hauls a box of eggs to van for PathStone, which has a food pantry in Albion.
This is the fourth year the FFA has teamed with farmers for the food collection and distribution. The output has grown from 3,000 pounds in 2010 to 9,000, 17,000 and now 19,000.
Orleans Hub will have more on this year’s effort later today.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 14 December 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Members of the Albion FFA pause briefly for a group photo by a tractor trailer loaded with 19,000 poinds of food donated by farmers in Genesee, Monroe and Orleans counties.
ALBION – Sara Millspaugh and Kellie O’Hearn, both Albion FFA members, made the phone calls, asking local farmers if they wanted to donate produce to Community Action and local food pantries.
The farmers eagerly accepted, and gave 19,000 pounds of produce – apples, onions, cabbage, potatoes and other fruits and vegetables. The farmers also gave beef, eggs and juice, and the Orleans County Farm Bureau chipped in with $1,000 to buy ham at a discount from Pawlak’s Save-A-Lot.
“They were willing to help,” Millspaugh, the FFA president, said about the food donations.
This is the fourth year the FFA has collected food for Community Action. This year’s effort topped the 17,000 pounds last year, 9,000 pounds in 2011 and 3,000 pounds the first year.
Riley Kelly reaches for a bag of potatoes from Brian Bentley. The two FFA members were busy this morning loading and then unpacking a tractor trailer of food.
Many of the farmers have donated since the first food drive. They set aside some of their harvest for the local food pantries. The FFA connected with some new donors this food drive, and is trying harder to get a variety of fruits and vegetables, Millspaugh said.
This morning the big bounty was dropped off at Community Action on East State Street. The agency will use a lot of the food for its pantry that assists needy families. Many other churches and organizations with food pantries also collected food from the FFA harvest.
“It’s very, very helpful,” said Bonnie Eaton, who works with the food pantry at Calvary Tabernacle Church in Medina. “A lot of people can’t afford to buy apples and fresh produce because it’s expensive.”
Two other churches in Medina – Glad Tidings and St. Peters Lutheran Church – also picked up food for their pantries. Three churches in Lyndonville, the Eastern Orleans Community Center in Holley, two other pantries in Albion and the Lord’s House in Waterport all stopped by this morning to bolster their pantries.
Community Action volunteers and representatives from local food pantries worked with the FFA to unload the truck.
“It will help us to get more fresh food to the community,” said Antonio Duenas, a placement and career services developer for PathStone in Albion. “When the food is fresh, it’s always better.”
The following farms contributed food: Bannisters (Excelsior Farms), Brown’s Berry Patch, CY Farms, Kludt Brothers, Jim Kirby, Kreher’s, Martin Farms, Panek, Patryka Farms, Root Brothers, Steve Nesbitt, Steve Starowitz, Torrey Farms, Triple G and Poverty Hill (the Neal family.)
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 December 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Carson Bader gets ready to fire the puck in the net at the ice rink at Albion Central School late this afternoon. He was playing with his brother Dylan Bader, 15, and their friends Owen Foos, 14; Aleah Foos, 16; and Elliott Foos, 20. More players were expected for a scrimmage.
ALBION – The deep freeze, snow and ice has been eagerly awaited by some local residents. A group of hockey players were out this evening at the ice skating rink at Albion Central School.
The rink is behind the varsity soccer field. It can be reached by following the driveway past the elementary school. The rink froze and hockey players were out today for the first time this winter at the site.
The district lights the rink in the evening and more players were expected for a scrimmage later today.
Aleah Foos is a blur while approaching the net for a shot on goal.
Owen Foos looks for an open player while his sister Aleah provides some pressure.
Hockey players skate and get ready for a scrimmage at the ice rink at Albion Central School.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Firefighters worked more than two hours to free the driver from this vehicle in the bitter cold tonight. This photo was taken shortly after the driver, Scott Kuhn, was extricated.
Press release
Orleans County Undersheriff Steve Smith
MURRAY – Three people are hospitalized tonight following a one-vehicle crash in the town of Murray.
The incident occurred shortly after 7 p.m. in the 16400 block of Lynch Road, just east of the Falls Railroad crossing. A 2000 GMC Suburban, operated by Scott A. Kuhn, 44, of Holley, was travelling east on Lynch Road, when Kuhn apparently lost control.
The vehicle ran off the south of the roadway down a slight embankment. The vehicle over-turned before striking and impaling itself on a tree, coming to rest almost perpendicular to the ground.
Kuhn was trapped in the wreckage for about 2 hours and 20 minutes before being extricated by firefighters from Holley, Fancher-Hulberton-Murray, Clarendon, Albion, Morton and Hamlin. He was then flown to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester by Mercy Flight helicopter.
Two female passengers, ages 13 and 12, both of whom are Kuhn’s daughters, were able to free themselves from the wreckage and were transported to Strong by Monroe Ambulance, with injuries described as “non-life-threatening.”
Slippery road conditions and imprudent speed were contributing factors in the crash. The incident was investigated by Deputy J.J. Cole, assisted by Deputies D.S. Klips and K.J. Colonna, Lieutenant R.E. Perry and Chief Deputy T.L. Drennan. Trooper K.L. Bentley of the State Police – Albion barracks also assisted.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 December 2013 at 12:00 am
Elyse Huffer
ALBION – The driver of the getaway car in a July 2 bank robbery in Albion pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery with the stipulation she serve no more than five years in state prison.
Elyse A. Hoffer, 22, of Rochester will be sentenced by Orleans County Court Judge James Punch on March 3. If he sentences her to more than five years, she can withdraw her plea. She made the plea on Wednesday.
“She was aiding and abetting,” District Attorney Joe Cardone said about Huffer and her role in the robbery. “She drove him there. She knew that.”
Huffer’s boyfriend Jeremy Rothmund, 30, pleaded guilty on Monday to first-degree robbery in Orleans County Court today. The Rochester man will be sentenced to no more than 15 years in state prison as part of a plea deal. He will be sentenced on March 3.
Rothmund and Huffer face charges for additional robberies in Monroe County.
In an Oct. 21 court appearance, Rothmund confessed in court that he robbed the Bank of America in Albion on July 2, showing up at the bank wearing a mask and threatening a clerk with a bomb that later was discovered to be fake.
Rothmund said he told Huffer to park behind the Freeze-Dry building on Route 31 near the railroad tracks while he went to buy drugs. Rothmund returned with a bag full of $18,000. He said he told Huffer to drive fast out of town. (The two were later stopped and arrested in Holley after a resident identified them in Albion and called the police.)
Rothmund in court first said Huffer didn’t realize he was robbing banks, but he said on Monday that she knew what he was doing.
Rothmund and Huffer both faced a maximum of 20 years in state prison but through the pleas will have reduced sentences.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 December 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – It took firefighters more than two hours to free a driver after his vehicle flipped and came to rest on a shorn-off tree.
MURRAY – Firefighters battled brutal cold tonight to free a man who was trapped inside his vehicle after it overturned on Lynch Road.
It took about two hours and 15 minutes to extricate the driver, who was then transported by Monroe Ambulance to the hospital.
After the vehicle overturned, it knocked down a tree. The vehicle came to rest, upside down, on the base of the tree. That stump pierced the windshield and pinned the driver inside the vehicle in 15-degree weather.
The driver was trapped inside his vehicle by the bottom of this pine tree.
Firefighters needed to build a support under the vehicle so they could get inside and cut off the steering wheel and work to remove the driver. They set up cribbing with hard blocks of wood, and used steel jack supports to stabilize the vehicle so they could remove the driver.
The mission was complicated by a ditch on the side of the road. That prevented firefighters from bringing down vehicles or equipment to help with the task.
Once the vehicle was stabilized with the cribbing and jacks, firefighters tied a chain around the vehicle and lifted it slightly so the driver could be extricated.
Firefighters take down the jacks and cribbing system after the driver was extricated tonight in Murray.
The driver, whose name hasn’t been released, was taking his two daughters to a dance at Holley. The accident happened just east of the railroad tracks, about 1.5 miles from the school.
The two girls had minor injuries and were taken by ambulance to the hospital.
The fire call went out at 7:10 p.m. The driver was removed from the vehicle at 9:24. Firefighters tried to keep the driver warm with blankets while they were working to free him from the vehicle.
It appeared that about 40 firefighters from several departments were at the scene.
(Editor’s Note: A press release from the Sheriff’s Department says the driver, Scott Kuhn of Holley, was taken by Mercy Flight. I saw him put into an ambulance. Undersheriff Steve Smith confirmed Mercy Flight was used.)
MORTON – The “Chicago Limited” crashed into a string of freight cars on a siding at Morton on Sept. 12, 1912. A switch had been left open on the main track, which caused the derailment.
The fireman was pinned under the engine and scalded to death. None of the passengers were seriously injured although some suffered minor cuts.
Our photo shows the coal car off its carriage and one of the derailed passenger cars. The train was going 50 miles an hour, traveling west when the accident occurred.
The wreckage hit the Murphy Cold Storage, shown here, causing some damage to the building.
It was estimated the accident cost the railroad more than $100,000. This line through Orleans County was known as the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad or “Hojack.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 December 2013 at 12:00 am
200 loaves of Hungarian Christmas bread will sweeten holidays
Photos by Tom Rivers – Hungarian Christmas bread includes old-fashioned bread dough, brown sugar and walnuts.
ALBION – Next to Santa Claus, Debbie Tokotch may be the most warmly greeted person in the Albion area during the holiday season.
Tokotch has made more than 200 loaves of Hungarian Christmas bread that are 12 to 15 inches long. She makes them all my hand, mixing together old-fashioned bread dough, brown sugar and walnuts.
She has been busy baking since mid-November. Today she was out delivering the bread, also known as Kolache. She stopped by the Orleans Hub/Lake Country Pennysaver Office with two loaves and immediately made many new friends in our office.
“A lot of people don’t make the old-fashioned stuff anymore,” she said. “This is something different that people like.”
Tokotch
Tokotch works for Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. in Batavia as an assistant staff accountant. I used to cover WROTB for The Daily News in Batavia. I tried some of this bread at an WROTB board meeting last December. It’s very tasty. I asked Tokotch months ago to keep me in mind with her annual holiday baking.
She said she gets a lot of requests. She likes to make to the deliveries to older people in the community, who have a connection to the old-fashioned breads.
“I try to get them when they are unsuspecting,” Tokotch said. “Most of the people are very grateful.”
Tokotch’s grandmother is from Hungary. She moved to Buffalo and then to Orleans County. She treasured her family recipe and eventually relented and passed it on to her daughter-in-law, Tokotch’s mother.
“Grandma almost didn’t give it up,” Tokotch said laughing today.
Tokotch learned it from her mother. Baking the enormous quantity of bread and sharing the loaves has become a holiday tradition with a growing list.
“I started 10 years ago and it keeps getting bigger,” Tokotch said. “It’s a way to keep family history alive.”
When she retires from WROTB, Tokotch said she might start a bakery locally. That would be in about 10 years. Before joining WROTB in 1994, she worked in the shoe department for Ames.
“A lot of people remember me as Debbie Shoes because I was the person in the shoe department,” she said.
GAINES – Two Albion teenagers are hospitalized this afternoon following a one-vehicle crash in the town of Gaines.
The incident occurred shortly after noon in the 2900 block of Densmore Road, just south of Route 104.
Jenny Lee Ettinger, 19, was operating a 2001 Chevrolet Tracker northbound on Densmore Road when she lost control of the vehicle. The SUV crossed the center line and ran off the west side of the roadway into an apple orchard, coming to rest after impaling itself on a tree. Ettinger was flown to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester by Mercy Flight helicopter.
A male front seat passenger is identified as Austin J. Klein, 17, of Barre. He had to be extricated from the vehicle by Albion firefighters. He was transported to Strong by Central Orleans Volunteer Ambulance.
Slippery road conditions and imprudent speed were contributing factors. The incident was investigated by Deputy E.N. Fuller and Sergeant D.W. Covis.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 12 December 2013 at 12:00 am
‘The hospital is moving in the right direction,’ hospital CEO tells Legislature
ALBION – Medina Memorial Hospital and its parent organization, Orleans Community Health, are making a series of changes in the coming months that will make the hospital stronger and more viable for the future, the hospital’s CEO told Orleans County legislators on Wednesday.
The community can expect a shift to more outpatient care, although the emergency room and inpatient beds will remain.
“Things are looking good,” Dolores Horvath, the hospital CEO and president, told the Legislature. “The hospital is moving in the right direction.”
The hospital is well positioned to serve the county, Horvath said, with health care sites in Medina and a new facility in Albion at the corner of Butts Road and Route 31. The Albion site is increasing services and expects to meet the “urgent care” standard in early 2014. Radiology equipment will arrive this month so that service can be offered in Albion, Horvath said.
The hospital sold the Orchard Manor nursing home earlier this year and is closing a seven-bed psychiatric unit that hospital officials say operates at a $300,000-plus annual deficit.
“We could no longer sustain that,” Horvath said.
Small hospitals are challenged, Horvath said, and some have been unable to survive. Lakeside Memorial Hospital in Brockport closed in April. Lake Shore Health Care Center in Irving, Chautauqua County, is closing next month.
“I’ve been in healthcare for 30 years and I’ve never seen such challenging times as I do today,” Horvath said.
The hospital has a staff focused in getting Orleans Community Health paid for its services through Medicaid, Medicare and the insurance companies.
Horvath said other health care providers are stepping up their efforts to attract Orleans County patients.
The University of Rochester Medical Center bought the former Lakeside hospital and renamed it “Strong West.” The organization has been advertising in Orleans.
United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia also plans to leave the Medina hospital as a tenant and open an expanded women’s health center on Maple Ridge Road.
Medina will lose UMMC as a tenant and could see some of its patients align with the Batavia organization, which would weaken Orleans Community Health.
Horvath asked the Legislature to be strong backers of Orleans Community Health, an organization with a mission to provide healthcare in Orleans County.
“We want you to be viable and strong organization that contributes of the overall viability and strength of the county,” Legislature Chairman David Callard said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 12 December 2013 at 12:00 am
File photo by Tom Rivers – Holley’s Canal Park will be upgraded with help through a state grant.
State Sen. George Maziarz is pleased to see two projects in the eastern end of his Senate district were funded in the Regional Economic Development Council Awards announced on Wednesday.
The state approved $65,776 to the Village of Holley for the Holley Canal Park Improvement Project, which includes improvements to the existing gazebo, pavilions, and stone paths. New elements of the park will include new tree planting, installation of grills and picnic tables, fire pits, and the purchase of new equipment to maintain the park.
“The Holley award will result in lasting improvements to the Canal Park for all to enjoy,” said Maziarz, R-Newfane. “This park will be more user-friendly and accommodating to boaters, bicyclists, and the community at large.”
The Village of Brockport in Monroe County was approved for a $200,000 Main Street Revitalization Project. These funds will assist the owners of mixed-use buildings to complete commercial and residential renovation projects, and perform streetscape enhancements in the village’s downtown business district.
“The awards announced today will help launch key community development projects in our canal villages,” Maziarz said. “These awards go to show that projects in rural areas can have just as much merit as those in suburban and urban regions. The funded projects will help transform the quality of life for local residents.”
Orleans Hub will have more stories on the grants and how Orleans County is faring on a per capita basis to other nearby counties. We would like to see more on these funds go to projects in Orleans County.
ALBION – The Albion Police Department has been honored with the 2013 Community Traffic Safety Platinum Award by the America Automobile Association.
The nationally recognized AAA Platinum Community Traffic Safety Award is the highest award AAA can bestow on any Police Department. It’s awarded to departments that have developed and maintained traffic safety initiatives in their communities and who have shown success in those initiatives.
The Albion Police Department has used programs such as Buckle Up New York, Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, Stop DWI and the Child Passenger Safety Seat Program to enforce vehicle and traffic laws as well as to educate and assist motorists.
Throughout 2013 the Albion Police Department conducted several targeted details that focused on specific areas of safety for both motorists and pedestrians. These details were done in non-traditional ways to increase their effectiveness.
This is the third consecutive year that the Albion Police Department has received the Community Traffic Safety Platinum Award.
The Albion Police Department is dedicated to making our highways and streets safer for all who use them. Throughout the holiday season we will continue our efforts by adding more patrols and details.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 12 December 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – In 1830, when Orleans County’s government was led by a Board of Supervisors, the county leaders passed a resolution making care of the local poor a county responsibility.
Al Capurso, a Gaines resident, believes that resolution commits the county to owning and maintaining the nursing home. Last month he met with county legislators and the county attorney, and asked them to research the issue.
County attorney David Schubel reviewed the resolution and social welfare responsibilities for the county.
Schubel said other resolutions about the nursing home have superceded the 1830 resolution, including one from last February when the Legislature voted to create a local development corporation. The LDC became owner of the nursing home and has been working to sell the site.
The Legislature’s creation and use of the LDC has twice been held up in court after state Supreme Court challenges by residents and the CSEA union.
“The judge says we were lawful,” Schubel said during Wednesday’s Legislature meeting. “The judge says we did proper legal actions.”
Capurso said the judge wasn’t presented with the 1830 resolution as part of the lawsuits. Capurso believes that resolution may have resulted in a different decision from the judge.
In 1830, the Board of Supervisors voted: “Resolved, That the distinction between the town and the county poor be and the same is hereby abolished, and that the expense of maintaining all the poor shall be a county charge.”
The county created an alms house that took in local poor and infirm. That site was a social services function and not a medical facility like the current nursing home, which is licensed by the state Department of Health, Schubel said.
“To tie (the nursing home) with the alms house is a stretch beyond any rational basis,” Schubel told Capurso.
The attorney said the 1830 resolution is now “irrelevant.”
Capurso is a member of the Concerned Citizens of Orleans County, a group that has fought the Legislature on its push to privatize The Villages of Orleans, 120-bed facility of Route 31 in Albion.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 12 December 2013 at 12:00 am
The House of Representatives approved a budget deal today that cuts about $23 billion from the federal deficit over 10 years and also holds off the threat of a possible government shutdown until 2015.
U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, R-Clarence, backed the measure, although he said it fell “painfully short” in reining in the costs of entitlement programs.
The deal passed the House 332-94 and now heads to the Senate.
Collins issued this statement:
“Tonight I voted in favor of the congressional budget compromise that passed the House with strong bipartisan support. This agreement is far from perfect, but it does reduce our deficit by $23 billon and locks in discretionary spending at levels below what the House GOP budget called for. In addition, the agreement cuts spending in a smart, targeted away and avoids the pain caused by the President’s sequester, especially for our brave men and women in the military.”
“This agreement, however, falls painfully short in its total lack of entitlement program reform. It is my hope that as we move into a new year, the President and Congress can find the political courage to address this critical issue to ensure that Social Security and Medicare are strong for both current beneficiaries and future generations.”
