By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 October 2013 at 12:00 am
SYRACUSE – The Medina Mustang Marching Band made it five state titles in a row on Sunday by winning the Governor’s Cup at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.
Medina scored 91.50 in the Small School 1 category to claim the title from six other schools in the division as part of the NYS Field Band Conference Championship.
The Medina band has 130 members. This year’s program features an Olympic theme, “The Pursuit of Gold.” Marching band directors Jim Steele and Cheri Pritchard lead the program.
Medina’s 91.50 score topped the following schools: New Hartford, 89.90; East Irondequoit, 86.35; Oswego, 85.15; East Syracuse Minoa, 84.65; Mohonasen, 83.00; and Le Roy, 80.75.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – A Medina man was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in state prison for attempted assault in the second degree.
Leo Woodrich Jr., 50, of North Street pleaded guilty to the crime. He hit his wife in the head with a baseball bat on May 30. He is a second felony offender.
He was sentenced today in Orleans County Court by Judge James Punch.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Free Methodists will meet at library for next 2 weeks
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Members of the Albion Free Methodist Church removed the pews, carpet and platform from the church following a service on Sunday.
The church will spend the next three weeks remodeling the sanctuary at 25 South Platt St., the first Free Methodist church in the world.
The pews, which were purchased about 40 years ago from a church in Greece, are being swapped out with cushioned chairs. Some of the pews have been purchased by members of the church, while others are available for sale to another church.
New carpet will be added and the pulpit will be shifted from the east side of the building to the north wall.
The changes will allow the church to comfortably seat 240 people. Right now there is a space crunch for about 190 people that regularly attend the services.
The church will meet at the Hoag Library the following two Sundays before returning to the historic site on Nov. 17.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – An Albion man was sentenced to seven years in state prison today for second-degree rape.
Scott D. Stanley, 33, pleaded guilty to the crime during a July court appearance. He was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl in his apartment at 220 East State St. between Feb. 1 and Feb. 28, 2011.
As part of a plea deal, Stanley faced two to seven years in state prison. Judge James Punch gave him the maximum sentence today. Stanley will be registered as a sex offender and could face civil confinement when his prison time is over.
Stanley is already a Level 3 sex offender, considered the most serious. He was sentenced to 22 years in state prison by a Genesee County Court judge on Aug. 1. Stanley victimized a 14-year-old girl in Albion and then in Pembroke. He also raped the girl’s 11-year-old sister in Pembroke, according to the Orleans District Attorney’s Office.
The sentence from Orleans County will run concurrent with the Genesee sentence, meaning the seven years won’t be added to 22-year sentence.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – When Paul Mann thinks of historic downtown Albion, he longs for the Main Street of the early 1970s, an image captured in this post card. The photograph shows Main Street, looking north from near State Street.
“Notice the parking meters, awnings, signs, the Rialto Theater,” Mann wrote in an email. “Shell Gas station is now the municipal parking lot. This is the Historic Albion that I remember.”
There is also a nice hitching post in the bottom left corner, in front of the former Swan Library. Mann also notes the photo includes a nice-looking 1969 Plymouth Fury.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Brown’s Berry Patch is selling the new RubyFrost apple that is being released to the public for the first time this fall. Several other local farm markets are selling the apple.
WATERPORT – A month ago local apple growers introduced consumers to the new SnapDragon apple. Those farmers quickly sold out of the variety, which has been promoted heavily in the media.
Growers have another new apple, RubyFrost, which matures later in the season. That apple has been picked and many growers are selling it at local markets. RubyFrost is a red apple that tastes sweet and tart. It is compared to Empire and Granny Smith varieties.
RubyFrost is a hard apple to bite, I can attest to that. I tried one for the first time today at Brown’s Berry Patch. Growers are excited about the apple because it stores well. Nutritionists say it will provide a boost of vitamin C well into winter.
RubyFrost and SnapDragon have been more than a decade in the making. They were developed by Cornell researchers. A new organization that consists only of New York apple growers, NYAG LLC, was formed to sign up farmers to grow the crop on limited acres so there wouldn’t be an oversupply, leading to crashing prices for growers.
The new apples are being released through farm markets this fall and next year. The apples won’t be readily available in grocery stores until 2015 when recent plantings have a full crop.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – An Albion man was sentenced to state prison today for drunk driving and also for selling cocaine in the Albion area.
Felix Onofre-Rojas, 61, of 14691 Zig-Zag Rd., Albion, was charged with DWI on May 4, when he was stopped with a BAC of 0.21 percent. Onofre-Rojas has a prior DWI on June 24, 2008 in Hamlin.
Orleans County Court Judge James Punch sentenced him to 1 to 3 years in prison for the DWI charge. Onofre-Rojas also was arrested on June 20 and charged with two counts of a criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, four counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fourth degree.
He pleaded guilty to attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and received 1 ½ years in state prison for the crime, time that will run concurrent with the DWI.
Patricia Nava-Chavez, 44, is married to Onofre-Rojas. She also faced several drug charges. Her attorney, Shirley Gorman, argued in court that Nava-Chavez wasn’t involved in her husband’s drug sales.
Police, however, said she was an accomplice in the activity. She pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree. Judge Punch today sentenced her to time served in jail. She had been in the county lock-up since June 20.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – A new bus shelter was installed about two weeks ago on South Main Street, near Route 31. Mayor Dean Theodorakos thinks it was a bad spot.
“It’s a horribly congested intersection,” Theodorakos said.
The shelter is the second one installed in Albion since August. The first one was put by the County Administration Building, well off Route 31.
The Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority and Orleans Transportation Service picked the spots for the shelters. The second one is next to Rite Aid.
Funding for each bus shelter in Orleans County totaled $15,000, and was provided by the Federal Transit Administration.
Theodorakos said the shelter by Rite Aid was approved without input from the village. He said he was surprised the state Department of Transportation allowed it at the location on Route 98. The village has struggled to get approval from the DOT for street-scape improvements and other projects.
“The DOT puts the screws to us on everything but they allow that to happen,” the mayor said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Shawn Malark, a Kendall native, started Orleans Pallet in Albion in 2006.
The company survived a massive blaze on Oct. 17.
Firefighters were quickly on scene and contained the fire to the large warehouse.
ALBION – Shawn Malark is a determined man, and a very thankful person. A large warehouse that he owns in Albion was engulfed in flames on Oct. 17, in one of the community’s largest fires ever.
Malark is thankful the fire didn’t spread. He has kept his company, Orleans Pallet, going and he said he will grow the operations in Albion. The company takes broken wooden pallets and rebuilds them.
Malark’s office is in a structure next to the warehouse that was spared from the fire. He pumped water from his office the day after the fire and was quickly back connecting with his customers. He sat down for an interview last Wednesday.
Q: I’m curious about the history of the company. You started this yourself?
A: I did in 2006. We moved in right here in Albion, NY, and started to refurbish the facility. We were doing a little bit each year.
Q: You worked out of more than just the big sandstone building that burned.
A: There were three buildings. The two that are remaining are the one on West Avenue with all of our recycling equipment and then the building connected to the three-story building that had the fire. We have another custom shop/bathroom-break area that was not harmed at all.
Q: The smaller sandstone building, how old is that?
A: 1901. It was the same extension of the three-story building. We had some water damage in the basement. We’ll have to fully gut that because over 3 million gallons of water drained in there from the fire. We had that completely refurbished as storage but it was completely wiped out.
Q: The big building was that mainly for storage?
A: It was. We had pallets and metal racks that housed some of our pallet components. The main heart of the business is in this building and it had very little impact. None of our machinery or fork lifts, and none of our trailers. One of the advantages of our business is the number of trailers that we own. None of that equipment was harmed. They were all backed up to the loading dock by the fire and I don’t know how they weren’t harmed. It melted all of the siding across the street at Lorenzo’s, but our trailers and the doors and seals were positioned in a way that the walls from the building protected it from the fire. We were very fortunate.
Malark is amazed his trailers full of pallets were unharmed from the fire.
Q: How many trailers do you have?
A: We had about 10 trailers out there, including one that we use for heat-treatment of pallets. Dale Brooks (from the Albion DPW) was huge in the recovery of that after the fire so that the demolition team didn’t do further damage to our property. That trailer is about $40,000 to $50,000. We removed it from the dock so that they could do their demo. That was a huge save right there.
That trailer is used in the heat treatment of pallets that will travel overseas. The trailer heats the wood up to 140 degrees. The core of that wood temperature reaches 140 degrees and it has to hold that temperature in its core zones for 30 minutes. That removes the moisture content from the wood and allows the pallet to be shipped overseas with no concern that there has been any larvae infestation.
Q: So this isn’t simply building and rebuilding pallets in this business?
A: There’s a lot going on. We run our transportation business out of her, our freight brokerage and our billing. We have three separate companies out of here. We’re trying to stay as diversified as possible. We have a lot of hard-working people here.
Orleans Pallet employees Andrew Steffen, left, and Robert Morehouse use a saw to break down some pallets that will be rebuilt with fresh pieces.
Q: How many work here?
A: In Albion we have six. One reason we were doing the demolition into the three-story building was to get that ready to receive more pallets.
When we first moved here we had 20 employees. We moved a lot of work to a second operation in Rochester. But we have some key individuals here and we are looking to really ramp up in Albion.
Q: The Rochester site is similar to Albion?
A: Similar but larger. We can handle more pallets at the warehouse there.
Q: How did you get interested in the pallet business?
A: Working at Eastman Kodak and other companies in injection molding and sheet metal manufacturing, I had a lot to do with ordering. I saw the need for pallets in shipping. Everything is on a pallet for the most part. It’s a very manual and aggressive business with the recycling, recovery and the building of the new. There is some automation in it, but a lot of it is manual and physical labor.
We have great customers. It’s a very interesting and challenging business at the same time.
About 150 firefghters battled the fire at the three-story warehouse, which was built in 1901 and was originally the Albion Cold Storage Company.
Q: The old warehouse seemed a good fit for this business. If you hadn’t come here in 2006, I bet the warehouse would have just sat there.
A: The previous owner was going to let the building fall apart. When we came here the docks were the attractive part. You could put 14 trailers to the dock at the same time. That allows us to keep the floor clean and safe. We don’t have to flood the floor with anything we don’t need. We have the option of keeping it in the trailer. It allows us to stay extremely clean. Not all pallet shops are as clean as we are.
Q: Can you talk about the fire? It’s been reported that you and your father (Rod Malark) were working and a spark from a grinder caused the blaze.
A: On Thursday the 17th I was in the office doing billing and my father was removing some pipe for me. We were trying to expand the use of the three-story building for production and storage. He was removing pipe to allow us to get further into the building with some of the demo we were doing.
He was cutting a hanger that was holding some of the pipes with a grinder, so he could get the pipes down where he could remove them. Maybe he was in there that day for 25 minutes before that happened. When he started to do the grinding, one of the sparks caught either some of the wood shavings that were in the floor as old insulation above him or it got in the wall behind him. He believes it got in the wall behind him. And then it just started to go.
He saw that he had a fire and he started to put water on it. It was not going in the right direction and he came and got me to the second-story floor with him. We got into the area with a couple of extinguishers. We put the second floor fire out. But at that point it had climbed to the third floor. It was about 8 or 9 foot wide, climbing the third story wall. It had also taken about 8 to 10 foot horizontally across the first floor below us.
It happened within minutes. By the time we got out of the second story and on to the ground I called the fire department and they said they had already received 50 phone calls. This is probably in less than 8 to 12 minutes time frame from when my father came to retrieve me out of the office. It just went quick.
The only guys who know what they stopped are the firefighters and the fire chief. If this thing had caught Empire Coating, we would have had a monstrous chemical disaster on our hands with the potential for explosions. The next building down is a grain silo with a grain elevator. That would have caused a huge problem.– Shawn Malark
Q: This is at about 3:45 p.m.?
A: I would say that, and by 4 o’clock the fire department’s people had seen the smoke going.
Q: What did you then do when you knew the fire had spread?
A: We closed doors here. The fire department was shooing us out for safety. We were trying to make any last-minute adjustments that we could to prevent the fire from coming in this building. I think closing those doors saved this building. The fire ripped across the canopy and actually hit a couple pipes. It started to come into the office. Upstairs the smoke damage is pretty bad, but it did not catch the walls.
Once we hit the ground, we talked with the investigators to let them know the condition of the building was, the structure of it and the contents. We let them know we have a 1,000-gallon propane tank in the middle of the yard that is barricaded with some concrete. But that line runs underground and fed the heat-treat trailer.
The biggest concern was the back of the building at Empire Coating. I was aware of it and the town was aware of it. That was the biggest discussion: how do we stop this thing from getting to Empire Coating. That could have been a very tragic situation for community and that business also.
The fire at Orleans Pallet quickly spread through the building and turned into an inferno, threatening the neighborhood.
Q: I wonder why it didn’t spread? That was a monstrous fire.
A: Partly the building (double walls of sandstone), but the firefighters stopped it from going into two adjacent buildings that are connected with nothing but wood. The fire chief (Rocky Sidari) was unbelievable. When he hit the scene he had so many people going in a controlled direction. He definitely had a handle on it.
Rollie Nenni, the police chief, worked together with the fire department. You never saw anybody who wasn’t in cooperation. There were hundreds of firefighters and volunteers here and it seemed to be very seamless even in a very stressful situation with all the chemicals at Empire Coating and the hazardous materials there. That thing could have gotten all of us in a very bad situation. I definitely owe those guys a humungous debt of gratitude.
Q: I was also struck by the lack of panic, especially at the command center. They seemed very focused with what they were doing.
We will improve the property, and we will definitely grow the business.– Shawn Malark
A: These guys were calm and collected. They have the correct mindset to put themselves in the right frame of mind to protect all individuals and the residents. They had everybody shut their doors and windows and stay inside. Once they were on scene, they got residents out of the area and pushed the scene back block after block.
They ran hose to the canal because they almost ran out of water. There were 3 million gallons that I know of that were put on to the fire.
Had Rocky not gotten everyone going at the same time we may not have been that lucky. The buildings definitely would not have been saved.
I was very impressed by everyone. They are volunteer people risking their lives, not only for the saving of this business, but they way they all worked together. It gives you a good outlook on why the community is still a solid entity. The key heart and soul of the community was definitely present at this fire.
Malark and firefighters worried the fire might spread to the neighboring structures, including Empire Coating and a grain facility, putting residents in danger.
Q: People might be surprised to see the business is still functioning here. You seem to have kicked it into a new gear around here.
A: I’ve tried to keep everybody calm. It’s one day at a time. It’s nothing you can conquer in a short period of time. You try not to think about any of the bad. You focus on what you can do. We’ve always been able to accomplish a lot. That’s the mode we went into as a company.
We wanted to protect our employees and protect our customer relationships. That’s the heart and soul of our business – our employees and our customers for me as the owner of this business.
Q: It seems like a lot of your product would have gone up in flames?
A: We did lose an extensive amount of product. But because we have the trailers and the other facilities, we were always able to have an inventory.
We were very fortunate, when the fire took place the majority of our stuff was in trailers. We did lose quite of a bit of pallets and components, but they were things we had duplicates and triplicates of. Not losing any of the trailers was just a blessing.
Malark is thankful two of his three buildings survived the fire thanks to the quick response from firefighters.
Q: Who would have thought with all of them backed up to the building like that.
A: And loaded with wood. They didn’t have 10 pallets on them, they had 500 to 600. Nothing burns hotter than pallet wood. It’s dry. These guys being able to jump in here and not only fight a building fire, but a pallet fire, it’s impressive.
The only guys who know what they stopped are the firefighters and the fire chief. If this thing had caught Empire Coating, we would have had a monstrous chemical disaster on our hands with the potential for explosions. The next building down is a grain silo with a grain elevator. That would have caused a huge problem.
What these guys did, without having any time to prepare for this at 4 o’clock in the afternoon when pretty much everyone is going home, it was very impressive to watch. They stayed in their positions and never jumped from anything.
They set up and got themselves safe and then everyone started to ask the right questions for anything else they needed to know.
Q: This may sound like a dumb question, but is it hard to watch the building come down and all this ruin in front of you?
A: It is hard. We had a 16,000-square-foot building that was structurally sound other than the interior floors on the second and third floor, which we wanted to move out. We had big plans for it. We were going to have a new roof on it and have an impressive interior storage building and additional manufacturing.
We’ll have to hit the drawing board again. It is devastating because we had the building. It will no longer to ever be able to used in the manner that it had been. From the historic aspect, we’ve had so many people over the years stop by and ask what it’s being used for now. They would take pictures.
It was up since 1901, and a lot of residents worked here for the different companies or they purchased things from here or stored things here over the years as the building changed hands. We’ve had a lot of people coming here to give the building one last look. It’s a building they’ve known their entire life.
Q: You will stay here in Albion?
A: Absolutely. We will clean the property up. We will improve the property, and we will definitely grow the business.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – The Rev. Randy LeBaron sits in one of the pews at the Albion Free Methodist Church. The pews will be moved out after today’s service and replaced with cushioned chairs. The church will meet the next two Sundays at Hoag Library while the sanctuary is remodeled.
ALBION – In 1859, the Rev. Loren Stiles was kicked out of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Albion for his radical preaching. He railed against pew rental fees, the oppression of slavery and other social ills in the late 1850s.
Stiles helped start a new denomination, and it built its first church across the street from where he was ousted. From that first congregation in Albion, the Free Methodist Church has grown to more than 1,000 churches in the United States.
The first church continues to draw a crowd. In fact, the church in Albion is feeling some growing pains. Most of its Sunday services are at near capacity with about 190 people attending on average. That has prompted church leaders to look for ways to add seats so more people can attend services comfortably.
The church has decided to remove the wooden pews and replace them with 240 cushioned seats. The pulpit will also be shifted from the east side of the sanctuary to the north side.
“This is simply cosmetic,” said the Rev. Randy LeBaron, the church pastor the past 10 years. “We’re not changing who we are as a church.”
The pews are not the originals. The congregation bought them about 40 years ago from a church in Greece. One original pew from more than 150 years ago remains in the sanctuary and it will stay in the church. Some of the current pews are being purchased by church members, and other pews will be available for another church to buy.
The pews will be moved out after today’s service. The church will meet at the Hoag Library the following two Sundays while the sanctuary is remodeled. Besides the chairs and pulpit, new carpet is part of the improvements.
“A lot of people have noted that this is a good problem to have,” LeBaron said about the space crunch. “But a good problem still needs a solution.”
The church will have a celebration and dedication service on Nov. 17, its first Sunday back in the church following the sanctuary changes. LeBaron noted other recent upgrades for the building include a new roof and handicapped accessible entrance for the basement.
“We love the fact that we’re in the first building,” he said. “But we want to make it 21st century practical. We don’t want to abandon the building.”
The church has services on Sundays at 9 a.m. with Sunday school at 10:30.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 October 2013 at 12:00 am
United Methodists worked three years to transform site
Photos by Tom Rivers – The Medina United Methodist Church celebrated its first service in the former Apple Grove Inn this morning. The church extended the west wall to accommodate the sanctuary.
MEDINA – A three-year journey ended today for the United Methodist Church when celebrated their first service inside the former Apple Grove Inn.
The church bought the landmark building for $100,000 at an auction. Most of the building was gutted, walls were taken out in some spots and new ones put in. The west end of the building was extended to accommodate the sanctuary.
Tony Hipes, the church pastor, leads the group in prayer before they go inside to dedicate the building.
It was a lot of work, and church members did the bulk of the construction, painting and carpeting themselves. Today, the congregation of about 50 people had a final service at their building at 222 West Center St. Then they walked or drove a mile down the road to the former Apple Grove.
The revamped site has cushioned chairs and much more modern look. It’s all on one floor and includes a commercial kitchen and reception area that the church wants to make available to the community for wedding receptions and other parties.
“A lot of the Grove is still here,” said Matt Brueckner, a church member who spearheaded the construction project. “We just made it better.”
Pastor Tony Hipes and church members, including flag holder Dan Wilson, walked about a mile today from their old church building to the newly remodelled former Apple Grove Inn.
The church paid contractors for plumbing, heating, electrical and air-conditioning. But members took on most of the rest of the work.
“We just broke the building into sections,” said Brueckner, who became the building project chairman and construction manager, often putting in 50 to 60 hours a week on the project.
The church spent about $875,000 total for the project. If it had hired out all of the work, it would have cost about $2 million.
The reception area will be open to the public for parties and other events.
At the conclusion of today’s final service at the church at 222 West Center St., the church’s home since 1876, members carried Bibles, a cross, offering plates, banners and other sacred elements from the church to the former Apple Grove.
“I think what we’ve done here is have one foot in the past and the other in the present and future by having a modern-looking church,” Brueckner said.
The church choir leads the congregation in singing “Spirit of the Living God, Fall Afresh on Me.”
Orleans Hub will have coverage later of the final United Methodist church service at 222 West Center St.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Sid Beaty dressed up as SpongeBob SquarePants and helped plan the Beggar’s Night event Friday in downtown Albion. She is pictured with her dog Archie, named for the family’s seasonal home on Archbald Road.
ALBION – The two-month trial run is over. Sid Beaty is hired.
The Village Board voted to add Beaty to the village staff as a program coordinator, working to promote businesses in the community in the downtown and on Route 31.
She worked two months for free with local businesses, planning events, including a shopping tour and Beggar’s Night event that was on Friday. She also has been developing a concert series for next year and submitted a grant to the local arts council to help pay for the entertainment.
“All the feedback we’ve got has been very positive,” said Mayor Dean Theodorakos. “She is truly an asset and it would be great to keep her.”
The board voted last week to hire Beaty as an independent contractor for $10,000 a year. She will be paid about $800 a month beginning Nov. 1 and the position will run until May 31, when the village fiscal year ends. Theodorakos and the board said they would look at continuing the position in 2014-15 based on the village budget talks in April. Beaty works out of the village office.
Carolyn Ricker, president of the Albion Merchants Association, urged the board to bring her on staff to help coordinate some of the events in the community.
Beaty, in the part-time role, wants to look at other longer-range projects in Albion, including the possibilities of historic walking trails, a downtown farmers’ markets and other events to promote the community.
“We’re trying to draw people down here to increase the critical mass for the businesses,” Ron Vendetti, the village code enforcement officer, told the Village Board. “If you want viable businesses here you have to help them.”
Beaty is working on events for the upcoming holiday season as well as helping with the Christmas decorations for the downtown.
Beaty dressed as SpongeBob SquarePants on Friday as part of the Beggar’s Night. She isn’t a stranger to the area. Her parents, Anne and Bruce Beaty, have a cottage at Point Breeze. She is the granddaughter of the late Dick Eddy, a long-time community leader in Albion. Beaty is named for Dick’s father, Sid Eddy.
She earned a degree in city and regional planning from Cornell University in May 2012. She sees a lot of potential in Albion, especially Main Street and the downtown area, which is named to the National Register of Historic Places.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – The Medina United Methodist Church had its final service this morning at 222 West Center St. The church will continue to own the property and use it for a childcare site. A Spanish-speaking congregation, River of Living Waters, also will continue to use the building.
MEDINA – Many of the members of Medina United Methodist Church were married at 222 West Center St. Their children were baptized there.
Today, the church said good-bye to the building. The congregation held its final church service at the site.
“I’m going to miss this building,” member Bill Dunn told the church during the farewell service this morning. “It’s meant a lot to me. But the people mean more.”
Pastor Tony Hipes leads the church in a farewell service at the Medina United Methodist Church today. The church is leaving the structure which is in deteriorating condition.
The church has spent the past three years and $875,000 to transform the former Apple Grove Inn into a modern church home. After today’s service, church members walked or drove a mile down the road to the former Apple Grove, where they celebrated their new home.
Tony Hipes, the church pastor, wanted members to give the old church, built in 1876, a fond farewell. The church moved to acquire and renovate the former Apple Grove, wanting a modern one-story building that would be more accessible for the community.
The church was built in 1876 and originally had a steeple. It toppled after a wind storm in 1889.
The site, which includes a large reception area and commercial kitchen, also will allow the church to host receptions and community events.
“It’s a church for everyone,” Hipes said during today’s service. “Hopefully many people in the community will join us.”
The older church building needed lots of repairs, particularly with the masonry on the brick structure. The building wasn’t energy efficient.
Church members carried Bibles, crosses and other treasured church artifacts up to the congregation’s new home following a service today.
However, it’s not in danger of collapse. The church will continue to run a childcare site from 222 West Center St. The building will also be available for a Spanish-speaking church, the River of Living Waters.
Hipes told the congregation to treasure their memories from the older building, and to look forward to the new memories awaiting them in the former Apple Grove.
After the service today at 222 West Center St., members of the Medina United Methodist Church walked a mile on West Center Street to their new church home at the former Apple Grove Inn.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Joe and Sue Fertitta have begun the process of turning the old stone store building, currently an eyesore at the corner of routes 31A and 237 in Clarendon, into an attractive asset for the town.
CLARENDON About two years ago the Town Board nearly unleashed the wrecking ball on a prominent building at the corner of routes 237 and 31A.
The building, a former store that dates back to 1836, had fallen into disrepair. Neighbors complained about rodents from the structure as well as its dilapidated appearance.
During a July 2011 meeting, some residents asked the structure to be torn down. The town owned it because a previous owner stopped paying taxes on the property.
But a small group of residents saw potential at the site. They asked the board for time to clean up the property and work to find a buyer.
A new owner, with a track record of reviving worn-out structures, is now working on the Clarendon Stone Store. Joe and Sue Fertitta expect to have the project done next summer, with a tenant living in the upstairs and the first floor available for offices.
Besides gutting and renovating the building, the couple plans to put on a front porch to match the building’s original look.
“A lot of people have helped to make this happen,” Town Supervisor Richard Moy said Friday during a celebration at Town Hall.
Town Supervisor Richard Moy, right, presented the keys of the Clarendon Stone Stone to Sue and Joe Fertitta on Friday. The couple also was presented a souvenir T-Shirt from the town’s bicentennial. An image of the store is on the back of the shirt. Mrs. Fertitta is holding the couple’s granddaughter, Jazlyn.
He presented the keys to the building to the Fertittas. He also gave them a shirt from the town’s bicentennial, which has an image of the stone store on the back.
“This shows it can be done,” said Erin Anheier, chairwoman of the Old Stone Store Preservation Committee. “These buildings can be saved.”
The town established the Old Stone Store Preservation Committee to work on the project. Anheier connected with the Landmark Society of Western New York, which hired a firm to do an engineering report on the structure. Community donations helped pay for the study that showed the structure was still solid.
Anheier and the committee were also successful in getting the building, one of the oldest stone commercial buildings in the area, on the state and national registers of historic places.
“To see a stone store building from the 1830s is extremely rare,” said Caitlin Mieves, a preservation planner with the Landmark Society.
A historic photo shows the Clarendon Stone Store back in its heyday.
The building was last used as a store in 1975. It not only served as a hub for commerce for nearly 150 years, but was the center of the community from a social aspect, Mieves said.
She praised the town for giving the building a chance for a new life, and for the group of volunteers for spearheading the project.
The local committee and Landmark Society worked with the town to find an owner for the building. The property is being transferred to the new owners for only $1. But the new owner needed to submit a plan so the building would resemble its original splendor.
This rendering shows how the former Stone Store building in Clarendon should look after renovations and upgrades, including a new porch. (Bryant Design Studios)
The Fertittas of Parma have revived many structures that were in a state of ruin, including a condemned house on Bennetts Corners Road in Clarendon. Melissa Ierlan, the town code enforcement officer, reached out to the Fertittas.
“This is a walk in the park compared to what we’ve done before,” said Mrs. Fertitta.
She and her husband have already hauled out two dumpster loads of garbage and debris from the building.
They have made a few exciting historical finds as well, she said. They took out the drop ceiling in the first floor, which exposed the original wooden beams in the building. They have found a black-and-white photo from a previous owner, Wes Potter.
They also discovered his daughter Stephanie’s school identification card, from the 1955-56 school year at St. Mary’s Catholic School. Three old buttons have also turned up. Mrs. Fertitta showed off the relics to town officials on Friday.
“We love doing this,” she said about rehabbing buildings.
Sue Fertitta shows three buttons and a school identification card from 1955-56 for Stephanie Potter, daughter of the building’s previous owner.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 October 2013 at 12:00 am
188 years ago the canal opened, turning Orleans County into a hot spot
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – The Erie Canal opened 188 years ago. It was a marvelous day.
The new man-made wonder ran 363 miles, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean, greatly reducing the time and cost of shipping goods and personal travel.
Gov. DeWitt Clinton rode a canal boat from Buffalo to New York City to celebrate the new waterway. He convinced the state Legislature in 1817 to commence on the monumental task of digging a 40-foot-wide ditch that would be 4 feet deep.
The canal would turn Orleans County and several of its villages and hamlets into thriving communities.
I took the photo of the flag this evening in Albion with the Ingersoll Street lift bridge in the background. Here’s wishing the canal many more years of good health.
