ALBION – Vendors for the Orleans County Farmers’ Market won’t be selling their wares on Saturday in Albion due to the high winds forecast.
The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory for Saturday from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The winds, forecast for 25 to 35 miles per hour with gusts up to 50 to 55 mph, would be dangerous for the vendors, and could send their overhead tents flying.
MEDINA – A plan for a new Dunkin’ Donuts store in Medina at the southeast corner of Route 31A and 63 cleared another hurdle on Thursday with a vote of support from the Orleans County Planning Board.
JFJ Holdings of North Andover, Mass., is the developer for the project.The company wants to build a 2,000-square-foot store on vacant land owned by Gregory Housel. The project includes 27 parking spaces with most on the west side of the building.
The drive-through includes space for about seven vehicles. The County Planning Board recommended the Town of Shelby Planning Board approve a front setback variance. The town code requires a 75-foot setback. JFJ has proposed a 47-foot setback.
The store will be at a busy intersection with nearby sites that include a gas station hair salon/health food store, an auto parts store, a motel and the Oak Orchard River.
JFJ is also working to build a Dunkin’ Donuts in Albion, right next to the Tim Hortons on Main Street. Both stores are expected to open in early 2014.
Photos by Tom Rivers – Tim Andrus and Rush Outdoors, a TV series on hunting and fishing that appears on seven networks in New York, were in Orleans County on Thursday for a show about the fall fishery. Andrus, a Kent resident, is pictured at the Archer’s Club on the Oak Orchard River.
WATERPORT – When people outside New York State think of New York, they likely first think of a big city with skyscrapers. Tim Andrus and John Lenox want them to think of white-tailed deer, Chinook salmon and the Great Outdoors.
Lenox is co-owner of Rush Outdoors, a television show that focuses on hunting and fishing destinations in New York. The show is wrapping up filming for its second season.
The show was launched last year on one network, Time Warner Cable Sports. Andrus, a Kent resident, is host of the show that has grown to seven networks in New York, with viewers in southern Ontario and Pennsylvania.
“There is so much to offer the outdoorsman in New York State that doesn’t get talked about,” Lenox said.
Rush Outdoors wants to highlight New York as a great place for fishing and hunting. This angler is show in the Oak Orchard River on Thursday.
He mentions hunting and hiking in the Adirondack, Catskill and Allegany mountains. Lake Ontario and Lake Erie offer chances to catch huge fish.
Many of the tributaries on the southern shore of Lake Ontario are popular fishing spots, with large salmon and trout making their annual spawning runs. Orleans County has several tributaries that are popular with anglers. The Oak Orchard River is considered one of the best in the state, Lenox said.
The crew from Rush Outdoors spent Thursday filming in the county, with most of the footage shot from the Archer’s Club along the Oak Orchard River. Lenox said it was ideal with the leaves falling and men in waders reeling in numerous big fish.
The Oak Orchard River in the fall provides lots of good footage for a TV show on the outdoors.
Andrus is the host of the show and he provides the highlights from different areas of the state. He tries to promote outdoors activities during all four seasons. He has highlighted the fall fishery in Orleans County, and also has filmed in the summer from the county – that time on a charter boat.
“This is my passion,” Andrus said. “I love the outdoors.”
Andrus works full-time as a corrections officer at the Orleans Correctional Facility in Albion. He has been fishing since he was a kid when he would rent a rowboat and catch small-mouth bass at Point Breeze.
Now he is having adventures around the state and beyond, inviting viewers to join him while he fishes and hunts.
Lenox said Andrus has proven popular with viewers.
“Tim is one of the most likable people you’ll ever meet,” Lenox said. “He represents the sponsors and the show really well.”
Rush Outdoors wants to show that bountiful fishing and hunting resources in New York, including the stream fishing in Orleans County.
Andrus has contacts in the outdoors industry. He has been on staff with Realtree, a company that sells camouflage products, since 1996. He speaks at events and makes appearances at stores all over the country.
When Andrus and Lenox were pushing to launch the show last year, they needed sponsors. Andrus pitched the idea to Orleans County tourism officials. They signed on. It has proven a good fit, said Mike Waterhouse, the county’s sportsfishing coordinator.
“From the Orleans County standpoint, we were looking to get on television at a reasonable price,” he said.
The county has a 30-second commercial that airs on the show and also has been regularly featured as part of Rush Outdoors.
Andrus is pleased with the momentum and growing audience for the show, which is now in 4 million homes in New York.
“Our goal is to go national,” he said.
For more on Rush Outdoors, click here.
Anglers are lined up in the Oak Orchard River by the Archer’s Club.
Press release, Orleans County Undersheriff Steve Smith
RIDGEWAY – Three people were hospitalized this morning following a two-vehicle crash in the town of Ridgeway.
The accident occurred at about 7:50 a.m., in the 11400 block of Ridge Road, just east of Horan Road. Kelly P. Bailey, 51, of Medina was operating a 1998 Jeep SUV travelling east on Route 104. Bailey’s vehicle crossed the center line and collided with a westbound 1998 GMC pick-up truck operated by Debra J. Albone-Gundrum, 62, of Lyndonville.
After the initial collision, Bailey’s vehicle ran off the north side of the roadway and over-turned, coming to rest on its roof. Bailey was trapped in the wreckage for approximately 25 minutes before being extricated by Ridgeway and Shelby firefighters. He was then air-lifted to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester by Mercy Flight helicopter.
Albone-Gundrum (sole occupant) was transported to Medina Memorial Hospital by Medina FD ambulance, as was a front-seat passenger in Bailey’s vehicle, identified as James A. Groves, 43, of Medina.
The cause of the incident remains under investigation by the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office. Witnesses report Bailey’s vehicle operated erratically prior to the crash. The on-scene investigation was conducted by Deputy M.C. Mele, assisted by Sergeant D.W. Covis and Chief Deputy T.L. Drennan.
Photos by Tom Rivers
MIDDLEPORT – The tugboat and a barge rest in front of a canal bridge. That is dominant image of a mural on a Middleport building. The artwork was added to the community just west of the Orleans County line in 2007.
Albion native Stacey Kirby created that mural and two others: a train depot between Main and Vernon streets that was torn down in the 1960s while the other scene depicts the building (in a different era) at the corner of Main and State streets, where the mural is painted.
Above the three scenes Kirby painted the community’s motto: “Middleport, NY a friendly community.”
I was in Middleport last evening to do a story on the Lake Plains Players’ production of Les Miserables. I had a few minutes to spare and wanted to check out Kirby’s artwork. She has some others in this canal village as well.
I’m hoping we can come up with a project for her in Albion. She said she wants to do one in her hometown.
Photos by Tom Rivers
Karen Appleman, left, and Paula Brooks, vendors in the Downtown Browsery in Albion, were among the local merchants that served up big baskets of candy for youngsters this evening.
Albion and Medina business owners both welcomed hundreds of children on the hunt for candy and treats during their annual Beggar’s Night events, which are typically the Friday before Halloween.
Hanna Kumalac, 5, and her brother Traper Croft, 1, were in costume for Beggar’s Night in Albion.
Krantz Furniture added a large Whoville display along the sidewalk as part of today’s Beggar’s Night in Albion.
Matthew Bloom, 3, of Albion dressed as a San Francisco 49er football player for Beggar’s Night.
Linda Smith and her son Ryan serve up treats and cider from Krantz Furniture.
ALBION – The four public libraries in Orleans County are seeking a $1 contribution in the county budget for each resident in the county. That would total $42,883.
Currently, libraries are in the 2013 budget for $10,087. County officials are working on the 2014 spending plan, which should be presented next month.
Libraries could use more money to keep up with the costs of providing computer access, programs, books, magazines and other information for residents, said Susan Rudnicky, director of the Hoag Library in Albion.
She addressed the County Legislature on Wednesday. The county was giving $29,914 to be shared among the four libraries as recently as 2002, but that dropped to $7,480 in 2003. Since then, the amount was raised to $12,587 in 2007, $13,617 in 2010, and then was cut to $10,087 in 2011. It hasn’t changed since then.
Rudnicky said about 40 percent of county households do not have Internet access. Many of the residents in those homes rely on library computers to check email, fill out job applications and for research.
Libraries have experienced a growth in circulation and visits from the public in recent years, following renovations and technology upgrades, Rudnicky said. Medina’s library is currently closed while undergoing a major remodeling. It is expected to reopen on Nov. 1, Catherine Cooper, library director, told legislators.
ALBION – For six months members of the Orleans County Conservative Party have circulated petitions, asking residents to support a repeal of the county sales tax on fuel oil – gas, propane, home heating oil and wood.
On Wednesday, The party’s vice chairman, Paul Lauricella of Lyndonville, handed 97 pages of petitions signed by 1,100 people to County Legislature Chairman David Callard.
The county collects a 4 percent tax on fuel oil and it generates about $3.3 million in revenue for the county, money that helps offset the need for more property taxes, Callard said. The tax on gas raises about $1.8 million while the home heating oil tax generates $1.5 million, according to County Treasurer Susan Heard.
“It’s not an easy problem,” Callard told Lauricella and Al Lofthouse, the Conservative Party chairman. “You’re dealing with very big numbers.”
Lofthouse said the county could find other savings to make it possible to reduce the sales taxes on fuel. The Legislature should try to eliminate the tax out of respect to the “hard-working people” of the county who must buy fuel to travel to jobs and heat their homes, Lofthouse said. The Legislature could try eliminating the tax on home heating oil first, he suggested.
But to do so for home heating oil, taking $1.5 million away in revenue, would force the county to raise taxes by about $1 per $1,000 of assessed property, costing someone with a house assessed at $80,000 an additional $80 a year in property taxes.
The taxes on fuel account for $3.3 million of the county’s $14.9 million total in sales tax.
“I don’t think anybody disagrees with you,” Callard told Lofthouse. “But it’s very difficult to overcome those numbers in savings. We’re sympathetic and we hope someday to do what you’re saying.”
Press release, Albion Merchants Association
ALBION – Children 10 and under are welcome to dress as monsters and other characters and then head to downtown businesses for treats.
Beggar’s Night is returning to Albion after taking a hiatus last year. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. on Friday at the Albion Fire Hall on North Platt Street.
The Village and Town of Albion, along with the Albion Merchants Association, are sponsoring Beggar’s Night. Thanks to the efforts of many individuals and groups, including past organizer June Persia, the Albion Police Department, and Auxiliary Police, we are looking forward to a large turnout for the Oct. 25 event.
During this Trick-Or-Treat event, local businesses will provide candy and other treats throughout the downtown area along Main Street and Bank Street. Parents must accompany children on the walk.
This year the route has been shortened but there will still be plenty of goodies! Businesses that fall outside of the planned route will be provided with space downtown to participate. This was done to make the walk safer for the children. Krantz Furniture had added a large Whoville display straight out of the world of Dr. Seuss.
Hoag Library on Friday is also hosting a Halloween party for teen-agers from 6 to 8 p.m. That event is free and includes dancing, refreshments and a costume contest. To register for that event, call 589-4246.
Press release, Albion Main Street Alliance
ALBION – Local tales of dastardly deeds and miserable misfortunes will be told by ghostly guides on Saturday during a Haunted History of downtown Albion.
Community members will portray past residents in a candlelight tour of the downtown. The event runs from 5 to 8 p.m. with tours leaving every 15 minutes from 120 North Main St. The event ends with treats and hot apple cider.
Tickets are $5 each. The Albion Main Street Alliance is planning the event. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 589-2502 or by email at albionmainstreet@gmail.com.
(Editor’s note: Tom Rivers will portray George Williams, the tight rope walker from Brockport who was walking over the Erie Canal in Albion when the Main Street bridge collapsed on Sept. 28, 1859, killing 15 people.)
Photo by Tom Rivers – Tierra Hastings, right, is interning at Hoag Library in Albion with a focus on event planning. She is pictured with Susie Gaylard, an administrative assistant who plans many of the events at Hoag. Hastings has coordinated a first-ever Halloween party on Friday for local teen-agers.
ALBION – Tierra Hastings, a senior at Albion High School, said many of her classmates still like to dress up for Halloween, but they feel like they are too old to go trick-or-treating.
Hastings, 17, is planning a “Spooky Spectacular” party on Friday for teen-agers. They can dress up as their favorite characters and come to what they think may be unlikely place for a party: the local public library.
Hastings is an intern at Hoag Library, working with Susie Gaylard to plan events. Hoag tends to focus its programming on children’s activities or local history that is geared towards adults.
Hastings suggested the party for teens, and Gaylard was quick to back the proposal. Hastings has designed the flyers for the free event, and will work with Gaylard to line up refreshments, door prizes and music.
“There will be Halloween music – Thriller and Monster Mash,” Hastings said.
The library is staying open late on Friday for the party from 6 to 8 p.m. Participants must be ages 13 to 18 and they need to register by calling 589-4246. Hastings and Gaylard need to have a sense of how many people are coming so they can have enough food. That’s one of the tricks to planning events: anticipating the crowd.
Once the Halloween party is over, Hastings has other ideas in mind to welcome the teen-age crowd for the library. She is planning movie nights.
“She is going to get kids to come here who don’t normally come here,” Gaylard said.
Photos by Brad London – Ramsey Constructors of Lakeville removes the deck of a bridge today in Carlton.
CARLTON – The smallest of the three bridges over the Oak Orchard River in Point Breeze was removed today by Ramsey Constructors of Lakeville.
The bridge has been closed since December 2011 after an inspection found several deficiencies with the structure.
The bridge over the Oak Orchard River Road is part of an area known as “The Bridges.” Two other bigger bridges that are close by on Route 98 and Route 18 remain open. However, several Point Breeze business owners want a replacement for the smaller bridge to improve traffic flow for the area and provide an alternative in case one of the bigger state bridges is closed.
The state’s current funding formula, which prioritizes bridges with high traffic, makes it unlikely a new bridge will be constructed at the site anytime soon, county officials said.
“We do not feel that the bridge is eligible for any available funding programs at this time,” said Chuck Nesbitt, the county chief administrative officer. “Plans are not currently in place to build a new bridge at the site.”
ALBION Orleans County expects to start construction on three new radio towers next month. The towers are part of $7.1 million upgrade to the county’s emergency communications system.
The county held a public hearing on the three towers on Wednesday. No one spoke in opposition to the 180-foot-high towers that will go in Shelby, Albion and Clarendon.
One will be on land owned by the town of Clarendon near its highway garage off Route 31A, the other will be next to the county’s Civil Defense Center on Courthouse Road in Albion and the other will be next to the Medina water tank on Route 31A. Medina and Clarendon both agreed to lease the land to the county at no cost.
Orleans County approved a $5 million deal last year with the Harris Corporation to rebuild the county’s emergency communications systems. Harris is reprogramming 1,100 portable radios and upgrading the dispatch center.
The county’s radio system was last overhauled in 1992. Orleans currently has one transmission tower on Countyhouse Road. That’s about 10 miles from the eastern and western ends of the county. Firefighters, police officers, and other first responders for years have complained that the county’s current radio system is often unreliable, particularly on the edges of the county.
The new towers should be up in the spring and the new system could be operational in April, county officials said.
The county was awarded a $2 million state grant towards the project from the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. Orleans has taken out a $4.5 million bond to help finance the costs of the upgraded system.
Photo from Wikipedia – Bed bugs are typically active at night when people are sleeping. They feed on blood.
ALBION – They first attracted major notice a few years ago in New York City when bed bugs bit people at night, and infested many city hotels.
The tiny insects, about a quarter inch long, have spread throughout the state, including to Orleans County. A County Health Department official has told village trustee Eileen Banker there is a “huge problem” with bed bugs in the county, Banker said at tonight’s Village Board meeting.
The Health Department has offered to meet with village officials to discuss strategies for combating the pest. The bed bugs are active at night, biting people to feed on their blood.
Village officials and local landlords have been meeting with the Health Department for more than a year, advising tenants and residents on precautions to reduce their risk.
Code Enforcement Officer Ron Vendetti said he currently has 15 reported cases of bed bugs in the village. If an rental is infested and it’s vacant, landlords are responsible for treating the problem, Vendetti said.
He cautioned against putting the blame on landlords. Many of tenants and home owners bring bed bugs into their residences, Vendetti said. Children can bring them home from school or from a friend’s house. Adults can unknowingly bring them in after they return home.
Vendetti suspects some people introduce bed bugs to their homes when they pick up discarded furniture from along the road.
“It’s definitely an issue but it’s not something you want to start knee-jerking and passing things,” Vendetti told the Village Board.
Mayor Dean Theodorakos said he would invite a public health official to a village board meeting. Vendetti said he welcomes a partnership with the public health department on the problem, but he said it can’t be a village code enforcement issue primarily.
“I want to help, but I don’t want the whole ball of wax,” he said.
Photos by Tom Rivers – Brandon Blount stands by one of the stone walls that once propped up a bridge in Waterport by the Oak Orchard River.
WATERPORT – The former Waterport Trestle is famous locally. Mention the trestle around these parts, and many people will talk about riding their bikes and snowmobiles on the elevated bridge that used to carry trains over the Oak Orchard River. The trestle has been gone for 20 years.
The stone pillars and support bases for the trestle still remain. The stone is massive.
Every fall, hundreds of fishermen pass by the trestle bases along the Oak Orchard River. Stray from the fishing path along the creek and more of Waterport’s history remains in the woods.
The stone supports for a bridge that may have been built in the mid-1800s remain next to the Oak Orchard River, about a 100-yard walk from the Waterport Dam.
Brandon Blount doubts many people venture off the worn dirt paths in one of the area’s most popular fishing spots. Locals and out-of-state anglers will crowd the area by the Waterport Dam trying to hook Chinook salmon. They may venture down a path on the east side of the river to see how the fish how are biting.
Blount, 35, grew up taking many walks in the woods with his grandfather, the late Don “Cookie” Cook, a well-known local wildlife photographer. Cookie also liked the area’s history. He found an eager ear in Blount.
Fishermen seem oblivious to all of the old stone pieces near the Oak Orchard River and their past role in holding up bridges.
About two weeks ago Blount showed me the remnants of two pieces of Waterport history. The Medina sandstone walls remain on the west side of the Oak Orchard River just north of the trestle. The walls were part of a bridge that Blount thinks may date back to the 1850s.
It doesn’t have any steel supports. One of the wooden beams remains. Blount said the old bridges were typically abandoned and left to rot while something new may have been built close by. That’s what happened in Waterport.
Brandon Blount created this map of the area just north of the Waterport Dam. He highlighted the spot of the former Waterport Trestle and two bridges that once spanned the Oak Orchard River. The trestle is the bigger red box on the bottom. An older bridge was north of the trestle and then it was replaced with one farther to the north. Blount used an image from Google Maps to create the map.
The first bridge still has a wall and a beam and a few cast iron pins that helped hold things together. There isn’t a well worn path by this. You have to battle the weeds and dodge the trees.
One of the wooden beams still sticks up. But it looks like the bugs and nature have taken a toll on the wood. This stone wall can be seen on the other side of the river. In fact, several fishermen were wading in the water not too far away, oblivious to the area’s former industrial and railroad mite.
Blount is pictured by one of the support beams that remains from a bridge that was removed long ago from Waterport.
Blount knows some people know about the bridge with the wooden beams. If you have an imagination and wander down the river, you’ll see the stone wall and the beam and you might wonder.
The second bridge is harder to find. A stone wall doesn’t stand right next to the river in plain view. Blount walked through the woods, high-stepping weeds and fallen limbs. It took a couple tries, but then he found a steel girder sticking up in the dirt. Then there were two more of them. A 5-foot-high stone wall, nearly camouflaged by the wilderness, then appeared.
A wall of sandstone is set back in the woods by the Oak Orchard River. Blount thinks it was used to hold up a bridge about a century ago.
Blount suspects this one dates from the late 1800s to early 1900s. There are other stone walls nearby that once held up this bridge that connected Park Avenue to Clark Mills Road. The walls, which tower about 12 feet high and remain solid sandstone structures, are off the beaten path.
“I’ve brought people down here who have lived here their whole life and they didn’t know this was here,” Blount said.
Blount used to venture along the river, trying to catch fish. Now he prefers to go with his camera and very little modern technology.
Nature has reclaimed much of the area around a former bridge in the woods of Waterport.
“This is a great place to go exploring,” Blount said.
Orleans Hub plans to post historical photos of the trestle and the bridges in the future. We get a lot of feedback on the “Vintage Orleans” photos. However, history is more fun to discover on foot. The Hub hopes to share more adventures about local history.
