Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R-Batavia) highlighted the newest problem with Gov. Cuomo’s overreaching gun control law as another reason to repeal the measure.
The State Police have confirmed that they will not begin tracking ammunition background checks and purchasing history on Jan. 15 as planned, due to their inability to compile a proper recording system by that time. Hawley pointed to the hang up as further proof that the bill was irresponsibly rushed into law.
“The SAFE Act was forced through so hastily that its authors didn’t even properly consider its impact on the very law enforcement agencies charged with upholding it,” Hawley said. “It is disturbing to think that this would be handled with such little care that a deadline for enforcement would be imposed that our own state police couldn’t be reasonably expected to meet.
“Between all of the amendments, corrections and corresponding protests from law-abiding gun owners, it could not be more clear that the SAFE Act must be repealed. As a co-sponsor of legislation to do just that, I will continue to fight for our constitutional rights and responsible measures to truly strengthen the safety of our communities.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 October 2013 at 12:00 am
The National Weather Service in Buffalo has issued a high wind warning for tonight from 11 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday. The advisory is in effect for Orleans, Genesee, Monroe and Wyoming counties.
Sustained winds are expected from 30 to 40 miles per hour with gusts up to 60 mph.
“Winds of this magnitude may bring down some trees and power lines, resulting in scattered power outages,” the NWS said in an advisory. “In addition, holiday decorations and other loose outdoor items such as trash cans may be blown away.”
The NWS urged residents to take precautions at home and while traveling, and to take preparedness actions.
National Grid urged residents to create an emergency kit with the following:
Water. The American Red Cross recommends one gallon of water per person per day
Food: at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Employees at Five Star Bank in Albion today created a yellow brick road and Emerald City, while dressing as the main characters from the Wizard of Oz.
Branch manager Wendy Hinkley, right, dressed as Oz. Other employees include, from left: Katie Harvey as Dorothy, Amanda Bigley as the Scarecrow, Felicia Dhondt as the Lion, Susan Plummer as a witch and Marilea Greean as the Tin Man.
The bank also has been playing the sound track from the show throughout the day.
“People have just loved it,” Hinkley said.
Orleans Hub welcomes submitted photos from other workplaces that dressed up today. Please send the photos with IDs to tom@orleanshub.com.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 October 2013 at 12:00 am
‘Just Another High School Music’ features improv and comedy
Photos by Tom Rivers – Elijah Van Epps does a Tom Jones routine while Zach Shaffer is the magician David Copperfield, two characters in Albion High School’s latest drama production, “Just Another High School Musical.”
ALBION – The annual fall musical at Albion High School will keep the audience in stitches.
“We wanted to do a farce,” said Gary Simboli, the musical’s director.
Twenty-two students are in the cast and 12 are in stage crew. They created their own blocking and choreography for “Just Another High School Musical,” a show where students are forced to improv because their director abandons the show, leaving students to perform in front of live audience without a director.
Jenna Reigle, left, and Char Olick lead the cast in one of the numbers.
Albion students take the lead with parts of the show, but Simboli provides plenty of guidance and instruction.
“I like the challenge and the fast pace,” Simboli said today during the final rehearsal before the show on Friday and Saturday. There are shows at 7 p.m. both days, plus a noon performance on Saturday at the middle school auditorium.
“Every single student gets their moment when they are genuinely funny,” Simboli said.
At the close of the first act, David Stilwell, left, and Kyle Thaine sing “Intermission.”
Students get to play contemporary high schoolers, and work on their acting and choregraphy.
Simboli says he likes to try more contemporary shows for the fall musical. In the spring, he picks many Broadway classics. The school this spring will perform “The Wiz.”
In one of the sillier scenes, three boys — William Pecorella, Zach Shaffer and Elijah Van Epps — do a spoof on “Little Women.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 October 2013 at 12:00 am
LYNDONVILLE – Some smoke in an art storage room in the primary wing of the Lyndonville Central School triggered a fire alarm and kept students and staff out of the building for more than an hour this morning.
Lyndonville and Medina firefighters both investigated the storage room and the entire building, and deemed the site safe, said Jason Smith, Superintendent of Schools.
The alarm went off at 9:12 a.m. Students and staff left the school building on Housel Avenue and went to the former elementary school building while firefighters investigated for about 40 minutes.
Firefighters and the school haven’t determined a specific cause or source of the smoke. The area has been on watch throughout the school day since students and staff returned to the building at about 10:30 a.m., Smith said.
He thanked the firefighters for their response and said students and staff were cooperative during the alarm.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Ray and Linda Burke turn site into “Fairhaven Treasures”
Photos by Tom Rivers
GAINES – The former Swiercznski homestead at the corner of routes 98 and 104 is planned to open on Nov. 29, the Friday after Thanksgiving. The site will be an art gallery and high-end craft co-op.
Ray Burke and his wife have spent about a year renovating and remodeling the 3,040-square-foot house, which was built in 1834.
“This old house was just sitting here,” said Burke. “We’ve tried to bring it up to some level of use and beauty.”
Burke is retired from DuPont in Rochester. The former machine shop foreman said several community members have helped work on the building and brainstorm uses for the site. He praised Gaines Town Supervisor Carol Culhane, in particular, for providing a vision for the site and also a lot of manual labor.
Culhane said the house will be a nice complement to the Cobblestone Society Museum, the Village Inn and other businesses on the Ridge.
“This is the historical crossroads of this community,” Culhane said. “It deserves to be showcased.”
The house has six fireplaces, including a heating pot and Dutch oven in the kitchen. Burke welcomes any historical photos and clues about the site’s past.
He has worked on the property almost every day since last Christmas.
“The more I work on it, the more I like it,” he said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Contractors have the shell of a warehouse knocked down less than two weeks after a massive fire destroyed the three-story building on Hamilton Street and Route 31.
After the fire at Orleans Pallet, the four walls of the structure remained. The east and north walls came down a day after the fire. But the other walls on the south and west sides had to be chipped away by hand. A demolition contractor needed to use a lift for more than a week to manually remove chunks of the sandstone walls.
Most of those pieces have been pushed into the rubble – the twisted steel and charred beams – from the building.
Orleans Pallet owner Shawn Malark has said he wants to save as much of the sandstone as possible for reuse in the community.
The Environmental Construction Group of Albion has been the lead contractor on the demolition. It was assisted by Empire Wrecking of Rochester.
Here is how the building looked on Oct. 18, before demolition crews went to work on the remaining walls from the site, which was built in 1901. The smaller sandstone building won’t be knocked down.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
File photo by Tom Rivers – Jenn Suhr, shown in a pole vaulting competition on May 31 in Lyndonville, has become the most acclaimed American woman to compete in her sport. She will be inducted in the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame today.
BUFFALO – Jenn Suhr will officially join the ranks of the greatest athletes in Buffalo history tonight when she is inducted in the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.
Suhr, who lives in Kendall and Churchville, won the Gold Medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. She holds numerous American records in pole vaulting, a sport she didn’t take up until her senior year at college. At Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, she graduated as the school’s all-time leading scorer in basketball with 1,819 points.
In pole vaulting, she has excelled as one of the few women to ever clear 16 feet. Suhr is still competing and believes she can go higher.
The Fredonia native is married to Lyndonville native, Rick Suhr, who is also her coach.
Another local resident will be inducted in the Hall of Fame tonight. Dick Diminuco of Albion is one of few high school football coaches in Western New York to top 200 career wins. Orleans Hub featured Diminuco in article on Oct. 23. (Click here to see that story.)
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Albion Fire Chief Rocky Sidari and other leaders in the Fire Department gave what they said was a long-overdue message to the Village Board: “Thank you.”
Sidari and department officials attended last week’s board meeting to thank the village for its support of the department. Besides providing financial resources so firefighters have the needed equipment, Sidari said board members often go out of their way to help the department.
During a massive warehouse fire on Oct. 17, Trustee Eileen Banker was close to the scene, handing bottles of water to firefighters. Other members of the Auxiliary had food and snacks for firefighters, who were on scene for several hours of intense firefighting.
Some the firefighters were there all night.
At 4 in the morning the following day, Mayor Dean Theodorakos showed up with coffee for the firefighters.
“We wanted to thank you for your support,” Sidari told the board.
Sidari noted other village employees assisted the fire department in the aftermath of the blaze. Dale Brooks and the DPW delivered fuel in the middle of the night to keep the fire trucks going.
Trustee Kevin Sheehan praised Sidari and the department for their volunteer efforts in protecting the community’s property and often saving lives.
Banker called the fire department “the backbone of the community.”
“Thank you for thanking us, but right back at you,” the mayor said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Nick Condoluci goes all out in a scary setup
Photos by Tom Rivers
EAGLE HARBOR – Nick Condoluci may have the scariest setup for Halloween in Orleans County, a backyard with hanging skeletons, a grave yard, a guillotine and a “Booger Booth,” just to name a few.
Condoluci makes most of the props himself, spending much of the winter cutting out and designing tombstones, signs and other scary features, including an electric chair with a buzzer on the seat.
“You can’t buy this stuff,” he said. “I think I have the largest Halloween display in Orleans County. No one else does it to this extreme.”
Condoluci created the outdoor setup about five years ago at his home on School Lane in Eagle Harbor. (The first road north of the lift bridge.)
He opens the attractions up for the community each year about a week before Halloween. He has the setup aglow in green, red, yellow and orange lights each night from 6 to 9 p.m. On Halloween some of his friends – “actors” – will be part of the display.
“They are here to scare you,” Condoluci said.
He has turned 1-acre in his backyard into a scare land, with a spooky fake graveyard bearing the names of the people killed in the Salem Witch Trials.
Condoluci, a school bus driver, said Halloween and the display are just a hobby that he enjoys sharing with the community.
“I call it Halloween to the extreme,” he said.
Condoluci said some of the visitors like to pose with the guillotine and the stocks in the backyard. He is happy to oblige any photo requests.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
WATERPORT – When the Waterport Trestle was dismantled in 1995, local photographer Don “Cookie” Cook was there to document the historic removal.
Cook knew the demolition of the landmark over the Oak Orchard River was an event that needed to be recorded for history. He donated the photos to the Orleans County History Department.
Frank Zicari scanned in the images, and shared them with The Orleans Hub. Cook wrote down the dates when the photos were taken and included descriptions from the scenes.
The top photo was taken on Sept. 13, 1995, and shows operator Jerry Weakland and Mark Woodley removing ties from the Hojack Railroad Bridge.
Here are more photos, and Cook’s words:
Aug. 24, 1995 – Looking east, one section is down (the far end).
Aug. 28, 1995 – Down comes another section of the Hojack Railroad Bridge.
Aug. 28, 1995 – Dismantling the Hojack RR Bridge
Sept. 20, 1995 – Jack Weakland of Plastings, Pa. and his son Jerry remove the last Hojack Railroad Tie (610 total were across the bridge) on the west bank near Clark Mills Road. Charles Pelleschi, the landowner from Summerhill, Pa., watches the removal.
Oct. 2, 1995 – Jack Weakland by the bulldozer gives directions as the Hojack Railroad Bridge is winched up at Clark Mills Road one piece at a time.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Team plays Albion teachers in fund-raiser for PTA
Photos by Tom Rivers – A Harlem Wizard named BP cheers on Alyson Snow, 6, of Albion while she balances a spinning basketball in front of a crowd of about 700 people in the high school gym.
Before the game, during the contest and at halftime the Harlem Wizards liked to stop and mingle with the crowd in Albion.
The Harlem Wizards played the Albion All-Stars, a group of teachers and administrators. When one teacher made a jump shot, teacher Alec Sherman raised both arms in the air from the Albion bench. The event was a fund-raiser for the Elementary School PTA.
ALBION – Recently the Five Star Bank building at the northwest corner of Main and West Bank streets in Albion was freshly repainted. (Click here for a previous article.)
In this photo from about 1890 we see much more detail in the architecture. Here the brick has not yet been painted, which is in contrast with the decorative stone trim, making the building much more lively than today.
This large three-story block was built in 1882 by William G. Swan and boasted two-story corner tower. To the right appears the Sickels Block, which conformed in the same style known as Eastlake.
The corner store was operated by George Barrell, a druggist – hence the mortar and pestle symbol on a post in front.
The name James Bailey & Son appears on the awning next door where they operated a grocery store. These store fronts are now all a part of Five Star Bank.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 October 2013 at 12:00 am
The Orleans County Farmers’ Market was going to end its season in Albion last Saturday, but the market day was cancelled due to high winds.
Farmers aren’t going to call it a season yet. They will be back for a final day this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Save-A-Lot parking lot.
Vendors will also be in Medina in the Canal Basin from noon to 5 p.m. on Thursday for the last time this season. Trick-or-treaters are welcome to stop by around 5 to visit the farmers, said Ann Nice, one of the vendors.
“We continue to have plenty of farm fresh fall produce and products,” Nice said. “Thank you to all our customers. We look forward to growing for you in 2014.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – The county jail received about $1 million in improvements that should mostly pay for themselves in increased efficiency costs, county officials said.
ALBION – The county has completed about $1.5 million in energy conservation upgrades, work that officials expect will pay for itself in the coming years through increased energy efficiencies.
Most of the work, about $1 million worth of projects, was focused at the county jail. But the initiatives included energy upgrades at the County Clerk’s Building, Courthouse, highway garage, mental health building, nursing home, public safety building, central hall (treasurer’s office) and veterans office. In the six of the nine buildings, new more energy-efficient lights were installed.
The county spent $1,474,371 for the projects. State and federal grants paid $111,200. The upgrades are expected to reduce the county’s utility bills by $63,853 a year at the current market prices, said Keith Krug, the project manager from Wendel Energy of Buffalo.
The projects could pay for themselves in about 15 to 20 years with the reduced energy costs.
Wendel worked with county officials, especially highway superintendent Jerry Gray, for about two years in making the improvements. The highway department helped bring the projects in under budget by $82,000, Krug told legislators.
“Jerry Gray and his staff are the most committed DPW department we’ve ever worked with,” Krug said. “They did everything on time. In the end you were able to do more with your dollar.”
The improvements have given the county jail extended life by at least another 20 years, and stopped the pressure from the state Department of Corrections to build a new facility, legislators said.
“The $1 million in jail improvements saved the county $30 million by not having to build a new jail,” Legislator Lynne Johnson said.
Wendel did an energy audit of 10 county buildings about two years ago and worked with the county to identify projects that would have a payback through grants and energy savings.
The jail on Platt Street, built in two stages around 1970, was crowded and falling into disrepair mainly due to water infiltration. The state was pressuring Orleans to build a new facility.
But a series of improvements, plus a drop in the inmate population, have quieted talk that the jail is inadequate.
The jail used to have a problem with water infiltration from the roof, with a leaking expansion joint the main culprit. But contractors put on a new tiled roof and sealed the expansion joint. The roof is on top of a rubber membrane with a drainage system.
The jail also has a new boiler system, and a series of energy efficiency improvements, including new caulking around about 100 windows and also on the seams of the building. Crews sprayed insulation inside the concrete panels on the building.
The project upgraded showers and gate motors in the cell blocks. The showers now have water timers and a raised concrete pad on the floor, which will reduce water migration.
