By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – Dave Viterna sings and plays the guitar during a concert by the Dave Viterna Band today at Medina’s Canal Basin. Viterna’s band performed the blues.
Another concert from the Creek Bend Band was scheduled to follow Viterna at 6 p.m.
The back-to-back concerts were part of event called “Bluegrass and Barbecue in the Basin.” Baby Ribs, a Medina restaurant, is serving barbecue chicken and ribs during the concerts. The event was coordinated by the Village of Medina Tourism Committee.
Dave Viterna tunes his guitar in between songs today during a blues concert at Medina’s Canal Basin.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Alice Swett, daughter of Medina industrialist Albert L. Swett, was only 11 when she died. She is buried in the family plot at Boxwood Cemetery in Medina.
MEDINA – Albert L. Swett was one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Orleans County’s history. In 1898, he formed the A.L. Swett Electric Light and Power Company, which brought electricity to Medina.
He built another reservoir in Carlton to provide more power to Orleans County about a century ago.
Swett also ran a massive iron works company, “A.L. Swett Ironworks,” in Medina. A quick search under “A.L. Swett Ironworks” on Google showed a list of heavy-duty items, ranging from manhole covers and barn door hangers to iron ladles.
Medina Historian Todd Bensley and County Historian Bill Lattin led a tour of Boxwood Cemetery this afternoon. They stopped by the massive monument for Swett near the back of the original cemetery. (The burial grounds has expanded east.)
They said Swett was grief-stricken about the loss of his daughter, who was only 11 when she died. When Swett had a reservoir dug in Carlton as part of a power project at Waterport, he named the site in honor of his daughter. That’s why it’s called “Lake Alice.” I didn’t know that story until today.
Mr. Swett lived from 1850 to 1924. His daughter died in 1884.
Albert L. Swett has a massive monument at Boxwood Cemetery in Medina.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Previous sign was smashed by a motorist in December
Photos by Tom Rivers – Neal Muscarella carries a shovel of mortar to help build a new base for the sign at Mount Albion Cemtery. Muscarella located the big piece of stone for the sign and has built the base using stone from the old sign as well as old curbs in the village.
The previous sign at Mount Albion Cemetery as it looked last October. The new sign is a bigger than the old one.
ALBION – After about eight months with no sign leading to Albion’s historic cemetery on Route 31, Mount Albion now has a stone sign matching the sandstone character of the site.
Neal Muscarella, an Albion mason, located the stone for the village, and he has worked to build a sandstone base for the sign. Brigden Memorial in Gaines put the lettering the sign.
It’s been an eight-month ordeal for the village, haggling with a motorist’s insurance company and trying to find enough of the old stone to rebuild the sign.
A driver smashed the sandstone sign outside Mount Albion last December. Village officials didn’t want to put up a wooden sign. They made the extra effort to find a big piece of stone for the gateway into Mount Albion, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Muscarella was able to reuse some of the pieces from the old sign for the base. But many of the pieces were broken. The village Department of Public Works had a pile of old sandstone curbs, and Muscarella was able to cut and face some of those pieces to build a new base for the sign.
The new sign will be bigger than the old one. I give the village a lot of credit for utilizing sandstone for the sign, and not taking the easy way out with a wooden sign. We’re also lucky we still have a guy around like Muscarella, who knows how to cut the stone like the quarrymen from more than a century ago.
Neal Muscarella of Albion builds a wall of sandstone for the base of the new sign at Mount Albion Cemetery. It took the village several months to find the stone to create the sign.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Julie Zimmerman opened Sixes and Sevens Spirits at 2 North Main St. in Lyndonville.
LYNDONVILLE – After working two decades as an office administrator, first for an insurance company in Virginia and then for a fertilizer business in Knowlesville, Julie Zimmerman decided to follow a life-long dream of opening her own business.
The Medina native lives in Lyndonville. She thought there was a need for a liquor store in the community that would also draw customers from along the lake, especially for nearby customers from Barker to Kendall.
She opened Sixes and Sevens Spirits on June 28, offering wines from the Niagara and Finger Lakes wine trails, as well as a selection of rum, whiskey, vodka and other liquor products.
“It’s gone well so far,” she said during an interview at the 2 North Main St. “I thank the community for their support.”
The name “Sixes and Sevens” is an old English expression for being “crazy.” Zimmerman admits some of her friends doubted the wisdom of opening a liquor store in Lyndonville.
“I wanted to own my own business and I think there is a need for it in the community,” Zimmerman said.
She has been drawing customers from the many campgrounds near the lake, as well as local clientele who previously were driving to Medina, Albion or sites in Niagara County.
Zimmerman, 43, moved back to area in 2005 after 16 years in Virginia.
“I missed the small town atmosphere and I missed the snow,” she said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Kristina Martin, 21, competed in today’s 5-kilometer race in Bergen, which drew elite runners from across the state. Martin finished in 18:45, a blistering pace.
BERGEN – Before her final season as a long-distance runner in college, Kristina Martin wanted to see how she fared against some of the fastest women in the state.
Martin didn’t win today, but she ran a fast 5K in Bergen, finishing the course in 18:45.
The 21-year-old is a captain of the cross country team in Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. She is one of the school’s top runners. She wants to see the team reach Nationals this fall.
“I want to give it my best because it’s my senior year,” Martin said today after the Jenny Kuzma Memorial Run today. The race has become one of the premier 5Ks in the state.
Martin’s team has been close to qualifying for Nationals. She believes the team has a good shot this year with a strong returning corps, plus some newcomers.
She played soccer in Holley before switching to cross country her junior and senior years. She emerged as a star and went on to Allegheny, where she was Newcomer of the Year for the Division III North Coast Athletic Conference as a freshman. In college, the course is 6 kilometers and she runs it in about 23 minutes.
Kristina is majoring in history with minors in political science and American studies. Her parents, Jeff and Clara Martin, have both started running in recent years.
“It’s a nice way to spend time by myself and forget about the stresses of school,” she said.
Kristina was picked as Allegheny’s athlete of the week in January. To read that article from the college, click here.
ALBION – This interior photo shows the Post Office in Albion, perhaps around 1920.
The Post Office was located on the north side of East Bank Street in the Kinmont Block between Platt and Ingersoll streets. From here the Post Office moved to the Orleans Hotel block about 1930.
In 1937, the present U.S. Post Office was built on Main Street at the corner of West State Street.
Employees shown in this picture, from left to right, include: Frank Tripp, Leon Gilbert, Daniel Hanley, Postmaster unidentified and Charles Patton.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Jake Hayes of Albion performs “Make Them Hear You,” a song from Ragtime, during “A Night of Broadway” at St. Mary’s Athletic Club tonight in Albion.
Matt Mayne sings “Purpose” from Avenue Q during tonight’s debut show from JMS Productions, an event directed by Nick Russo and Shellene Bailey, both of Albion.
ALBION – St. Mary’s Athletic Club has long been a host for Little League baseball games and volleyball matches. Tonight, the Moore Street site was filled with the sounds of Broadway.
Albion resident Nick Russo, who has 12 years experience working in professional theater in Western New York, directed his debut production tonight for the newly formed JMS Productions. He planned the show with Shellene Bailey of Albion. She was one of six performers who sang popular songs from several Broadway shows.
“We wanted to bring the arts here,” Russo said before tonight’s show. “We’re talking about doing more in the future.”
Russo grew up in Albion as “a Simboli kid.” He was part of the high school musicals led by Gary Simboli, the long-time musical director.
Russo knew there was a lot of talent in the community. “We put out a call and we got an absolutely stellar response,” he said.
Jake Hayes auditioned and landed one of the spots in the cast. Hayes has been performing for Albion audiences since he was in the middle and high school musicals. The 23-year-old earned a marketing degree from Pace University in Manhattan.
He is happy to be home and have a venue to perform. He said the middle and high school musical program has developed many performers in the community who would welcome a chance to return to the stage.
“I love singing and performing,” he said. “And this is a way to give back to the community.”
The group will be back at St. Mary’s for another performance of “A Night On Broadway” at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $10 and are available at the door.
Victoria Barbis, left, and Shellene Bailey were part of a group that sang “21 Guns” from American Idiot during a show at St. Mary’s Athletic Club tonight. The group will return 1 p.m. Saturday for another performance.
Orleans part of multi-county tourism promotion effort
Press release, Genesee County Chamber of Commerce
BATAVIA – In the world of destination marketing, collaboration is key to growing visitation, stretching marketing budgets and showcasing nearby attractions.
The tourism partnership of Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming is pleased to announce the long-standing “Country Byways of the Greater Niagara Region” now also includes Livingston County.
For more than 15 years the tourism promotion agencies in Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties have partnered to promote the three-county area to leisure and group tour travelers.
The three counties are part of the Greater Niagara vacation region, as designated by New York State Tourism. Being more rural than the Buffalo and Niagara partners, the three counties banded together to form a sub-region to better promote unique and complementary tourism assets.
With the addition of Livingston County, not only does that county’s rich rural asset complement this already successful program, but its “Finger Lakes Vacationland” designation by the state offers Country Byways the advantage of pairing two state tourism areas for a product that the traveling public will find as a great resource.
The new four-county program has just produced a comprehensive Country Byways Attractions Map.Visitors now have an easy-to-use reference tool for all of the things to see and do in the GLOW region. Attractions and activities are organized by theme and each section is mapped out for ease of understanding locations and proximity. (Orleans has a section on the site called “Take me to Lake Country.”
The initial 25,000 copies have been printed and distribution has begun. A reprint of 50,000 will be scheduled for February 2014.
In addition to the attractions map, the four-county area has partnered to produce a summer-long commercial on Time Warner Cable; enhanced the www.CountryByways.comwebsite; will attend consumer and trade shows; are partnering on print and online advertising; and has contracted with a group sales representative that is actively developing our rich assets in a design that is attractive to the motor-coach travel market.
Visit www.CountryByways.comto view the online brochure, or send an email to Visit@CountryByways.comto have the printed brochure mailed to you.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
HARTLAND – I headed home from Barker early this afternoon and took a different route, this time going south on Carmen Road, looking to connect with 104.
I stumbled upon a one-room schoolhouse made of cobblestones in 1845. The building was used as a school for more than a century until 1947. It was later a residence, but is now owned by the Hartland Historical Society.
I also noticed a nice cast-iron horse as a hitching post in front of the building.
This site is on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s at the corner of Carmen and Seaman roads.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Fishing is Orleans County’s biggest tourism draw, generating about $12 million of the $23 million tourism pie. The photo shows an angler at Point Breeze.
A new report about tourism dollars state-wide and per county shows New York is on an upswing growing 6.2 percent for $92 billion in visitor spending in 2012 , following an 8.3 percent gain in 2011.
However, Orleans County’s revenue barely budged, going from $21.01 million in 2011 to $21.13 million in 2012, a 0.1 percent increase, according to the state report prepared by Tourism Economics.
Orleans ranks at the very bottom state-wide among 62 counties for visitor spending. Tourism represents one of the best options for the county to stir business activity for many merchants. The visitor spending also represents outside money and isn’t merely redistributing existing dollars in the community. We should make growing tourism revenue a top priority for the county.
I think Orleans could do much better, given our dynamic and world-class fishery, our historic and agricultural assets, and our location near Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
I strongly recommend the county work to develop a Sandstone Trail featuring our best sandstone structures, including the 68-foot-high Civil War memorial in Mount Albion Cemetery.
I think there are two factors that hurt us. We don’t have a chain hotel and many potential guests won’t consider a stay-over without a room at an established chain. County officials have tried for years to make the case for a small hotel to set up here. That would keep more visitors in the county longer. We draw people for day trips, but then the majority have to sleep in another county.
The outside counties use what could be our “bed tax,” money that could be directed to more promotion of our attractions. Genesee County boasts more than 1,000 hotel rooms. Many Orleans visitors end up staying in Batavia hotels. Genesee also has Darien Lake Theme Park and the Thruway corridor that draw mobs of people into their county.
Genesee takes in about $400,000 in bed tax to promote its tourism assets. That’s about 10 times what Orleans collects. (The bed tax is a 4 percent tax on lodging – hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts.)
Genesee saw its visitor spending jump 9.4 percent last year, from $81.9 million to $89.6 million. That tourism spending means more in sales tax, which can help offset property taxes.
We may not be able to sway a Holiday Inn Express-type hotel to open in Orleans anytime soon. The Orleans Economic Development Agency commissioned a study a few years ago, and the consultants found then there weren’t enough people and tourists to warrant a small hotel.
A second factor hurting our tourism numbers is a shortage of staff working to promote the county’s resources. The county is sorely understaffed in its tourism department. Wayne Hale is the tourism director. He also manages the Marine Park and is the county’s Planning Department director. Last year he semi-retired, but is still juggling three big jobs in a part-time role.
If the county devoted more resources to heritage tourism, it could create a package featuring the historic churches, including a stop at Christ Church in Albion, which has a 150-year-old pipe organ.
Genesee has three full-time people devoted to tourism promotion.
“Wayne has been instrumental through the years,” said Sharon Narburgh, owner of Narby’s Superette and Tackle at Point Breeze. “He has done a hell of a job, but there is only so much time in the day.”
Narburgh credited the county for creating a part-time fishing coordinator position about two decades ago. Mike Waterhouse is currently serving in the role. Narburgh said the county needs more people working on tourism promotion, helping to develop a plan for drawing more people to the county, and keeping them here longer.
“You need a person to coordinate all of this,” she said. “Right now we don’t have the people to do things the way they need to be done.”
Genesee is a bigger county than Orleans, about 60,000 people compared to the 42,000 people here. Genesee is about 1.5 times more populous, but they are bringing in four times the tourism spending.
Wyoming County would make for a better comparison. I would assume Orleans would draw more in visitor spending because Wyoming seems more remote. Both counties have about 42,000 people. We also have Lake Ontario, the Erie Canal, and a wealth of Medina sandstone and architectural wonders.
But Wyoming generates far more in visitor spending, $35.7 million in 2012 compared to the $23.1 million in Orleans. Our local government leaders should commit the needed resources to tourism promotion. It’s an investment that would bear big returns.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Lois McClure, a floating museum, is traveling canal this summer
Photos by Tom Rivers
Jean Belisle, a member of the nine-person Lois McClure crew, talks about the helm, which he said was nicknamed a “shin splinter” by crew members. The Lois McClure is traveling the canal this summer. The boat is a wooden replica of a canal boat from the 1860s.
Visitors flock to see what the boat looks like below deck.
The Lois McClure docked in Medina today and was open for tours from 4 to 8 p.m. The boat heads east on Friday for an event in Brockport. The schooner is a full-scale replica of an 1862-class sailing canal boat. It was constructed by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vermont and launched in 2004.
The Orleans County Farmers’ Market planned several activities for children and families today at the Canal Basin in Medina. Cousins Kadinz Sager, 9, and Melodee Sager, 5, both of Medina pose by a cutout with a farm theme.
MEDINA – This photo circa 1910 shows the Medina baseball team. It certainly represents a multi-racial group working together in a team effort more than 100 years ago.
Some of the players’ names have been written on the photo, but in no order. Those identified include: C. Bradly; F. Charles, SS; Myron Post, Mgr.; Bob Johnson, C-Field; Pete Slatterly, Catcher; Pitcher H.D.; L. Johnson, R-Field; and Ed Collins, 2nd Base.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 August 2013 at 12:00 am
11 people baptized in Lake Ontario
Photos by Tom Rivers
Eleven people from the Albion Free Methodist Church were baptized this evening in Lake Ontario.
The group included Sue Kissel, shown in this silhouette. She is pictured with pastors John Keller, back right, of the Northgate Free Methodist Church in Batavia and Kevin Eccles, a pastor at the Albion Free Methodist Church.
The baptismal service was at Lighthouse Christian Camp next to the Golden Hill State Park in Barker.
Kyle Holz, 26, of Kent walks out of the lake after being baptized with Keller and Eccles in the water. Holz’s fiancée Jessy Woolston, 26, also was baptized. Kyle’s brother Cory, 21, also made the public act of faith.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 August 2013 at 12:00 am
A Holley resident is now leading the Orleans County Fishing Derby. Foster Miller caught a 34-pound, 13-ounce Chinook salmon. That fish knocked a 31-pound, 11-ounce Chinook off the top of the leaderboard.
The derby runs until Aug. 18 and includes $8,800 in prizes, including $4,000 to the angler who catches the biggest fish.
The other top fish in four categories include: Chinook, 31 pounds and 11 ounces by Julie Schaeffer of Sligo, Pa.; Rainbow trout, 13 pounds and 10 ounces by Dean Kapoika of Greenburg, Pa; and Brown trout, 15 pounds and 8 ounces by George Barkdorl of McConnelisburg, Pa. There are no names yet on the leaderboard for lake trout.
The Albion Rotary Club sponsors the derby. Anglers compete for the biggest fish caught at Lake Ontario and its tributaries from the Niagara River to the Genesee River.
