news

State teacher of the year helps Lyndonville kick off school year

Posted 5 September 2014 at 12:00 am

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.”

Holley looks to fill vacancy on Board of Education

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.

Motorcyclist killed in Carlton accident

Posted 5 September 2014 at 12:00 am

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.

Tree transformed in West Shelby backyard

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.

Accordion Fest moves to historic Medina theater on Sunday

Staff Reports Posted 4 September 2014 at 12:00 am

File photos by Tom Rivers – The Buffalo Touch, a polka band, performs last October during the Accordion Fest. The band played under a tent next to the Medina Senior Center. Sunday’s concert will be inside the Medina Theatre.

MEDINA – The Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council 6th annual Accordion Fest on Sunday is moving to a new location, the historic Medina Theatre at 603 Main St.

The program runs from 1 to 5 p.m. and features several bands playing accordions and concertinas from diverse musical traditions. A donation of $5 is requested, with guests 18 and under admitted free, plus the opportunity to win prizes from Roxy’s Music.

The festival last year was outside under a tent in the parking lot next to the Medina Senior Center. Previously, the festival was at Hickory Ridge Golf Course in Holley. It will play for the first time in the Medina Theatre, which opened last year after extensive renovations.

“The theater is such a cool venue,” said Karen Canning, the GLOW traditions program director and coordinator of Sunday’s event. “By moving it inside we also don’t have to worry about the weather.

The Accordion Fest is presented by GO ART! and Roxy’s Music Store with support from Medina Sandstone Trust, the Orleans County Legislature, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Accordions ‘Round The World will start off the festival at 1 p.m. This will be a presentation of diverse music from Irish, Eastern European, Polish, German and Italian traditions.

SUNY Geneseo Professor of Music Jim Kimball will lead this session, which features musicians Ted McGraw and John Ryan (Irish), Alex Alexandrov (Eastern European), Ken Machelski and Casey Kliszak (Polish), and Pat Gambacurta and Frank Reino (Italian), each performing on their own finely crafted and often unique instruments. The performers collectively illustrate the extensive travels of the accordion through many cultures of our world, especially in folk music.

They’ll be followed by a Roland digital accordion demo at 2:30 p.m.

A debut performance of Roxy’s Accordion Band comes next at 2:45 p.m., followed by additional soloists, duets, trios, and open mike. Over the past year or so, accordion players have been gathering at Roxy’s event center in Batavia once a month to share tunes, conversation and sometimes a workshop on particular techniques of the instrument. The gathering attracts a range from beginners to seasoned players to professional musicians, all enjoying the common interest in accordions and concertinas.

An informal band, led by Deanne Hardy, has recently formed from the group, which offers all ability levels to play together in an all-accordion ensemble. Any player is welcome to attend and offer a tune for the open mike segment, as well.

The Fest will conclude with a mini concert (and dancing) at 4:00 p.m. by Special Delivery, a versatile band from the Buffalo area that advertises “everything from ethnic to alternative.” Longtime polka musicians Mark Kohan, Dave Miesowicz, Ted Szymanski, Jay Skiba, and Tom Goldyn offer their considerable talent not only with Polish favorites and polkas, but also with a variety of danceable music including swing, oldies, Latin and blues.

The accordion is a reed instrument developed in Germany in the 1820s. After traveling around Europe, it became popular in New York by the 1840s. As it moved through Europe, its form and sound changed in response to different musical cultures.

Accordions utilize a “free reed” system to produce their sound, similar in concept to the metal reeds in a harmonica, where the player blows air across the reed to produce musical notes. The accordion was the technical marvel of its day, and its portability enabled many an immigrant to carry his music along with him to New York, Louisiana, Argentina, Mexico, Asia and the Middle East – virtually everywhere.

Medina woman honored for volunteer efforts

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 4 September 2014 at 12:00 am

Kay Van Nostrand named to SUNY Brockport’s ‘Hall of Heritage’

Photo by Tom Rivers – Kay Van Nostrand, right, visits with Adelia Hellert last week in Shelby. Van Nostrand volunteers with several community groups, including Hospice of Orleans as a direct care volunteer.

MEDINA – She is a committed volunteer for many local causes and Kay Van Nostrand’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by her alma mater.

Van Nostrand, a retired Medina teacher, is active with Habitat for Humanity, Hospice of Orleans, the Lyndonville Presbyterian Church as well as the Presbytery of the Genesee Valley.

In recognition of her humanitarian efforts, Brockport State College has named Van Nostrand to its “Hall of Heritage” – a Hall of Fame for alumni. Van Nostrand graduated from the college in 1964 and then worked as an elementary school physical education teacher, retiring in 1997.

Van Nostrand said she enjoys giving back to the community. She has been involved with Habitat since soon after the organization started in 1992. It has worked with residents to build 12 new houses and do two extensive rehabs in Orleans County. She is currently the group’s president.

She is a long-time member of the Lyndonville Presbyterian Church, serving as an elder and clerk of the Session. She has served as moderator of the Presbytery and on numerous committees for Presbytery.

For the past 11 years Van Nostrand has volunteered with Hospice of Orleans as a direct care volunteer. She visits people for about two hours once a week. She was named the agency’s Volunteer of the Year in 2009.

Van Nostrand has been visiting Adelia Hellert weekly, and those visits are important for Hellert and her family.

“We sit and talk,” Mrs. Hellert said. “We’re so much alike.”

Hellert was suffering serious health problems. She has rebounded and is in Hospice’s transitions program for people who are home-bound but not facing a terminal illness.

Van Nostrand brings a listening ear and also likes to share news from around town, Hellert’s daughter Marcia Cook said.

She is grateful for Van Nostrand. When she comes over, Cook uses the time to go shopping and run errands.

“It lets me take care of me, too,” she said.

Van Nostrand said the volunteer roles have all enriched her life, helping her make new friends and improve the quality of life in her community.

DA says no charges will be filed against Albion Gun Shop, customers

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 4 September 2014 at 12:00 am

However, guns with bullet buttons will need to be modified

ALBION – Orleans County’s district attorney says Joe Palumbo, owner of the Albion Gun Shop, and 164 customers who purchased AR-15 guns don’t need to worry about facing charges for violating the SAFE Act, the state’s gun control measure approved in January 2013.

Palumbo has been worried since Thursday when the State Police demanded he turn over records of customers who purchased the AR-15. State police believe the gun, which requires a tool to release a bullet button, violated the SAFE Act. Police wanted a list of customers who bought it from Palumbo and he reluctantly turned over his records.

The issue has ignited a firestorm among Second Amendment supports and gun rights advocates. They are planning a rally 6 p.m. on Monday outside Palumbo’s store at 203 Hamilton St.

Joe Cardone, the county DA, believes a solution has been brokered where gun owners and Palumbo will be in compliance with the law without anyone being arrested.

The bullet buttons can simply be filled with epoxy, rendering them useless. Gun owners will have to crack open their AR-15 guns to reload.

“Putting epoxy where the bullet button is will make the feature unusable,” Cardone said this afternoon. “It is a simple and quick modification.”

Palumbo said many customers have been bringing in their guns and voluntarily having Palumbo fill the bullet buttons with epoxy since news broke the state police acquired the store’s records. Palumbo said it takes about five minutes to fill the holes with epoxy.

“I’ve been doing them all day,” he said at about 2:30 p.m. today.

He spoke with Cardone about the solution to complying with the SAFE Act. Palumbo said he wants the state police to put that in writing so he and his customers don’t have to worry about being charged with a crime under the SAFE Act.

“I’d totally be open to that,” he said about the solution using epoxy for the bullet buttons. “But I want it to be in writing. Right now nothing has been set in stone.”

Lone Star Inn offered fine dining before it burned down in 1930

Posted 4 September 2014 at 12:00 am

By Bill Lattin
Orleans County Historian

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.

Community connects with war orphans in Waterport

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 4 September 2014 at 12:00 am

Photos by Tom Rivers

WATERPORT – Alima, 10, is from Ingushetia, a Russian Republic. She is one of five war orphans spending the summer in Waterport through the Project Life program run by the World Life Institute. She is pictured with Grace Denniston from the Carlton United Methodist Church.

For several years the church has bought double-sided blankets for the children in Project Life. The church has also donated money and bikes to the program, and offered hay rides to the children.

“We’re very mission minded,” Denniston said. “We care about people.”

Mohammed, 12, from Afghanistan ties together a double-layered blanket on Wednesday with Penny Wilcox from the Carlton United Church Methodist. Several church members brought the blankets and helped students in Project Life tie the blankets together. The children will take the blankets home with them to Afghanistan or Ingushetia.

Mohammed has a rare blood disorder where his body doesn’t produce enough red blood cells. He needs transfusions every two weeks.

Liuba, a university student with a linguistics major in Russia, is volunteering for two months with Project Life. She is pictured with another university student Khava, left, and Dorothy Follman of the Carlton United Methodist Church.

Khava’s cousin was in the program in 2010. She volunteered this summer to give back to the program. Khava, 17, is an economics and finance major in Russia.

Liuba, 20, was in the crowd when representatives from Project Life visited her university, talking about the program about two years ago on its 15th anniversary.

“They showed pictures of the kids and it was really touching,” Liuba said.

She and Khava have helped Project Life volunteers by attending art and English classes, going on field trips together (including Washington, D.C. and Baltimore), and providing social support.

Liuba said the program gives the children an advantage when they return home by knowing English and seeing the world.

Liuba said the experience has opened her eyes about Americans.

“I had a stereotype that American people can be rude but I haven’t experienced that,” she said. Liuba also spent two days in New York City, “which was a dream of mine.”

Nasratullah, 12, of Afghanistan works on his blanket. He was in the program in 2013 and is the first returning child since it started in 1997. He came back mainly for ongoing eye treatments. He has retained much of his English and seems more confident this year, said Linda Redfield, Project Life coordinator.

Roza, 9, of Ingushetia works on a blanket with Jackie Fleckenstein. Roza and the other children in the program have all lost parents due to wars and conflicts in their countries.

Project Life students are pictured with their blankets after working on them with volunteers from the Carlton United Methodist Church.

Other churches and community groups also contribute to the Project Life program, which is designed to give the war orphans respite and peace in the countryside.

About two weeks ago Project Life children spent the day with the TGIF youth group at the First Presbyterian Church in Albion. The children tried on costumes, went canoeing and kayaking, and enjoyed a picnic along the Oak Orchard River.

“This is relationship building and nurturing care,” said Redfield, the program coordinator. “The children are exposed to many people coming to them with kindness and that’s never forgotten.”

Heat wave continues, with temps near 90 on Friday

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 4 September 2014 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers

This photo shows rocks getting splashed by Lake Ontario. The picture was taken Monday evening at Hamlin Beach State Park.

It will be another hot day in Western New York today with temperatures forecast for a high of 86.

It will be hotter on Friday with temperatures near 90, according to the National Weather Forecast.

The temperatures will feel more fall-like over the weekend with highs forecast at 69 for Saturday and 70 for Sunday.