By Bill Lattin, Orleans County Historian
CARLTON – The Town of Carlton owned this Brockway truck in 1919, when this photograph was taken. The two men in the open cab are not identified. We note a tool box on the running board and hard rubber tires on wooden spoke wheels.
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.
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.
Photo by Tom Rivers – The Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse in Barker, located just west of the Orleans County line, was built in 1875 from limestone. The state acquired it in 1962 and turned it into the Golden Hill State Park.
Photo by Tom Rivers
BARKER – It’s just across the Orleans County line and I think the lighthouse in Barker may be the best one on the south shore of Lake Ontario.
I haven’t scouted out all of these structures but from the pictures I’ve seen some of these sites have fallen into disrepair. Some of them have standalone towers that lack the shock and awe of when the lighthouse and tower are blended into one big structure. That’s the case in Barker with a 70-foot-high lighthouse constructed in 1875.
I wish the powers-that-be had picked Medina sandstone for the lighthouse. But the limestone has proven durable and a good choice.
You may wonder if any of the lighthouses are made of Medina sandstone. I believe there is only one and it’s close by at Charlotte in Rochester. I will have a feature on that site in an upcoming installment in the Sandstone Heritage series.
The Barker lighthouse has been well-maintained by the state. It wasn’t open for a tour when I stopped by this evening. The grounds are well kept. I’m glad the state acquired the site in 1962 and didn’t let this place fall apart. Building a state park as part of the site was also a wise move.
The lighthouse is called Thirty Mile Point because it’s 30 miles east of the mouth of the Niagara River. I would encourage you to stop by and take a look.
For more information, click here to be directed to the state site about Golden Hill State Park.
Photos by Tom Rivers
On Lower Lake Road in Barker, just across the Orleans County line in Niagara County, the corn is looking good at Atwater Farms, a dairy with several grain silos that are rural landmarks.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Employees at Modern Disposal Service pick up trash last week in Albion.
ALBION – I didn’t realize how good we had it in Orleans County until I moved away about 15 years ago.
In Orleans, I never had to worry about garbage collection. As a village of Albion resident, on the east side of Main Street, the garbage trucks came every Tuesday. Back then, I think we were paying about $140 a year for garbage pick-up. The county negotiated with a trash company and the fee was added to the county tax bill on an annual basis.
About 15 years ago I moved to the village of Bergen where residents had to pay for garbage per bag. I forget what it was: 50 cents to $1 per bag. Village and town residents had different-colored bags. It was a little cheaper if you used regular trash bags and drove the garbage to a transfer station every Saturday. It was far money and a much bigger hassle than the deal in Orleans County.
After about a year in Bergen, I moved to North Chili for three years, beginning about 14 years ago. There, residents had to fend for themselves for their garbage collection. I remember contacting different trash haulers and the prices ranged from $23 to $30 a month (if memory serves me correct). That’s about two to 2.5 times the cost in Orleans County.
North Chili residents used several different haulers, and it seemed everyday was someone’s garbage day. We had garbage trucks rumbling through the neighborhood on a daily basis, making stops for trash.
I moved back to Albion about 11 years ago, this time with deep gratitude for the low-cost garbage collection.
The cost has risen to $185 a year per family, which is still a great bargain. When it was $140 a year, gas prices were under $2 a gallon.
The county started negotiating the garbage service for residents about 25 years ago. That move has likely saved each resident at least $100 a year. Long-time residents have saved thousands of dollars over the years because the county bids out the service on behalf of residents.
“We have the buying power of 42,000 residents,” said Chuck Nesbitt, the county’s chief administrative officer. “The sole purpose of us doing this is to save people money.”
The county tends to bid this out in five-year contracts with an option for Orleans to rebid the contract annually. Orleans generally renews it each year.
Modern Disposal Service in Niagara County is the current provider and I think they do an excellent job. Nesbitt said the company has made “a significant investment in staff and vehicles” to serve county residents.
Modern Disposal has invested in trucks and employees to serve Orleans County residents.
If Orleans decided to stop working out the garbage deals and left each resident or municipality to line up trash services, Nesbitt said the costs would go up significantly, especially for the rural residents.
“The people in the country would suffer,” Nesbitt said. “They would pay at least twice the current cost. Grouping everyone together has helped drive down the costs. It benefits the entire county.”
For $185 a year, each household can dispose of an average of six garbage bags a week, plus recycling. Modern will also take a refrigerator, couch or another “white good” once a month.
Residents with complaints about a missed pick up usually call the county offices, which then relay the concern to the garbage company. Nesbitt said his office has some added work because the county is involved in the garbage contract.
He and his predecessor, Stan Dudek, have been asked by other counties and municipalities about the Orleans approach to trash collection. Nesbitt and Dudek have shared with other counties how a county-wide system can save residents a lot of money. But few counties have ever followed the example.
“They don’t want the phone calls,” Nesbitt said. “They don’t think they should be involved in the garbage business.”
This grateful resident wants to thank the county officials for the extra effort in managing this program.
Photos by Tom Rivers – The Christ Church Parish used sandstone from Albion to build a massive church in stages on East Avenue.
The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
ROCHESTER – I’ve been hunting down some of the great Medina sandstone structures in Western New York, and I’ve noticed the Episcopal Church consistently embraced our local stone for monumental places of worship.
The Episcopalians were early adopters of Medina sandstone. The Episcopal church in Medina was among the first to utilize the stone, building a church on East Center Street in the early 1830s.
St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo may be the finest church building made of Medina sandstone. (You can read an Orleans Hub article about that church by clicking here.) The enormous church was built from 1849-1851, using stone harvested from a quarry in Hulberton. I hoped Rochester would have a big Episcopal church made of sandstone. The community didn’t disappoint.
Christ Church, an Episcopal congregation at 141 East Ave., was built in stages over several decades from 1855 to 1903. I recently drove by the church on the way to the Strong Museum of Play, which is couple blocks away.
Christ Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008 under the category of architecture/engineering. The church was built in a Gothic Revival style using “rock-faced red Albion sandstone,” according to a description on the National Register. The church has buttresses and flying buttresses.
The first church building was erected in 1855. The Episcopalians outgrew the space and added a building in 1887, with another to follow in 1894. The Johnson Tower, the tallest building, was erected in 1903.
I just showed up unannounced, and was given a tour of the church. It includes many Tiffany stained-glass windows, a 79-foot-high ceiling with an 80-foot-width, making for exceptional acoustics. Eastman School of Music students and professors often use Christ Church for concerts.
The church is committed to being a vibrant parish in service to the community.
“On any given day of the week you may find us carrying hot food from our kitchen to hungry neighbors, or absorbed in the beauty of music and liturgy,” the church states on its web site. “You may find us hosting world class musicians through our partnership with the Eastman School of Music, or pulling stones from our garden beds.
“Whether you are a sojourner passing by or looking for a parish family, it is my sincere hope you will stop by. We would love to host you.”
ALBION – The Orleans Transit Service, which provided 35,500 rides to county residents in the agency’s 2012-13 fiscal year, will celebrate the first bus shelter in the county on Wednesday.
Orleans Transit Service started about a decade ago in the county. The agency is part of the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority.
The bus agency will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. on Wednesday outside the County Administration Building at 14016 State Highway 31.
RGRTA CEO Bill Carpenter will join local officials, including County Legislator Henry Smith Jr., who serves as the county’s commissioner on the RGRTA board of directors.
ALBION – Two departures in the school administration team – one a retirement and the other a vacancy created when an assistant principal took a job in a different district – has resulted in several changes among the Albion’s building and academic leaders.
Kim Houserman retired at the end of June. The former middle school principal was serving as Albion’s coordinator of secondary school programs. He handled some of the mandated teacher evaluations and was also a liasion between the district and the county court system for students classified through Probation as Persons In Need of Supervision.
Jim Wood, the veteran elementary school principal, is leaving that position to assume some of Houserman’s duties. Wood will be responsible for many of the teacher evaluations, which require two to four observations plus a written report. The district has 180 teachers. Building principals and vice principals will also be part of the teacher evaluation process.
Most of the PINS work that was part of Houserman’s job will be assumed by Brad Pritchard, who has been promoted from dean of students at the high school to assistant principal of that building.
Wood’s shift in administration created a vacancy in the elementary school. The Board of Education has hired an administrator from Silver Creek in Chautauqua County to lead the school. Rachel Curtin worked 18 years as a teacher and administrator at Silver Creek. She will have a veteran of the elementary school as her assistant principal.
The Board of Education on Monday named Jennifer Ashbery, the long-time fifth grade teacher at Albion, to be the assistant principal of the elementary school. Ashbery has completed her administrative certification and has worked the previous two summers in an administrative internship through BOCES, said Michael Bonnewell, the district superintendent.
The elementary assistant principal position was available because Bridgitte Griffin left to work in administration at the Rush-Henrietta school district.
There’s another impending change in administration: Maura Pierce will retire in September as the district’s chairwoman of the Committee on Special Education. The district will fill the CSE position with Jessica Beal, who has been working as a special education teacher in kindergarten.
Press Release, Orleans County Sheriff Scott D. Hess
Nineteen people between 18 and 20 years of age have an appearance date in Town of Clarendon Court following their arrests early Sun., Aug. 4, 2013. At about 1:15 a.m., Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a Loud Party/Loud Noise complaint on New Guinea Rd., west of Upper Holley Rd.
The party was located in a wooded area south of New Guinea Rd. Deputies found numerous motor vehicles, a camper, several tents, and a large bonfire. They also found approximately 60 to 70 individuals, most of whom were consuming alcoholic beverages.
All of the nineteen arrested were issued appearance tickets for NYS ABC Law Violation – Possession of Alcohol by Person(s) Under 21 Years of Age. All were residents of Genesee, Orleans and Monroe counties. The property owner, who was not present, was notified and declined to prefer any Trespass charge(s).
The incident was investigated by Deputies D.E. Foeller Jr., A.J. Houghton, J.W. Halstead, & J.J. Cole.
Photo by Tom Rivers
Gene Ott walks his dog, Delia, last night at the Golden Hill State Park in Barker, just west of the Orleans County line. Ott lives in Rising Sun, Indiana. He is on his way to see a friend in New Hampshire. The two served in Vietnam together. Ott said his friend is having health problems.
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – A row of trees on Washington Street at the corner of the property for the Albion Correctional Facility were recently removed so the prison could install new underground water lines, a state Department of Corrections spokesman said.
“Upon completion of the water line, the trees that were removed are to be replaced with hardwood trees,” said Tom Mailey, DOC director of public information.
Press release, Congressman Chris Collins
Congressman Chris Collins, R-Clarence, showed his support for the town of Greece, NY, in the upcoming Supreme Court case, Greece v. Galloway, by signing an Amicus Curiae brief in support of Greece. He is one of 85 members of Congress to file the brief.
Greece v. Galloway, which concerns the religious establishment clause in the Constitution, will be argued this fall.
“It is clear that the Town of Greece has not violated the United States Constitution,” Collins said. “People from all over the world come to this country to escape religious persecution and are entitled to pray together with their communities as they please.”
Starting in 1999, the Greece Town Board began its public meetings with a prayer from a “chaplain of the month.” Town officials invited member of all faiths, and atheists, and welcomed anyone who volunteered to give the opening prayer, Collins said. Two town residents sued, stating the primarily Christian prayers violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
The federal appeals court in New York agreed, because it found that almost all of the chaplains who offered to pray were Christian. Even though people of all faiths were welcome to offer their own prayers, the court found the prayer unconstitutional and the town of Greece was forced to stop.
Orleans County officials are closely watching the case because most County Legislature meetings include an opening prayer. The Orleans Hub talked with county officials about the issue in a May 24 article. Click here to read “Orleans Legislature closely watching Supreme Court case on prayer.”
On Friday, 85 members of Congress filed an Amicus Curiae brief stating the history of religious freedom and the importance of legislative prayer as observed daily on a national level.
“Each legislative day, the Senate and House of Representatives open with a prayer from religious leaders of all faiths, from all over the country,” Collins said. “As our federal legislative bodies welcome all, so did the Town of Greece. We must remain a nation that does not force a religion on any person, but is accepting of those who wish to publicly profess their faith and ask for guidance.”
Town of Greece v. Galloway is scheduled for oral arguments in the Supreme Court toward the end of this year.
ALBION – An Albion man confessed to going to a home late at night on Feb. 1 and brutally beating up a 59-year-old resident at 431 West State St.
Domingo E. Candelaria, 22, of 175 North Main St., pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in Orleans County Court today. As part of his plea he will be sentenced to four years or less in state prison. If Judge James Punch sentences Candelaria to more than four years, Candelaria can withdraw his plea and go to trial. If convicted by the jury, he could face up to seven years in prison. Punch set sentencing for Oct. 21.
Candelaria said he “overreacted” on Feb. 1. He went to the victim’s home at 2 a.m. He was looking for the man’s son. Candelaria said the man’s father, Ronald Hubbard, answered the door. Candelaria said Hubbard had a knife. Police reports have said that Hubbard was unarmed.
Candelaria punched him many times, including several blows when Hubbard was already down, Candelaria said in court.
Hubbard was in the hospital for three weeks and has mild brain damage from the incident, District Attorney Joe Cardone told Punch in court. Hubbard also continues to be plagued by headaches and is lethargic, Cardone said.
Candelaria and the man’s son had a dispute over a woman, police have said.
In another case with a plea today, Michael G. Andre, 23, of West Park Street in Albion pleaded guilty to attempted burglary in the third degree. He will be sentenced Oct. 21 and could face 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison.
Andre confessed in court that he broke into the Presbyterian Church in Albion on Jan. 14. He broke a window in a locked church office and stole a laptop, Cardone said.
By Bill Lattin, Orleans County Historian
This picture was found in a family photo album in 1863. The two teen-agers here are not identified. However, it is safe to say the photo is of the Civil War era considering their appearance.
These two guitarists were photographed in the studio of George P. Hopkins, an Albion photographer who was working locally in the 1860s. The photographer’s name is printed on the back of the picture along with advertising, noting a large assortment of albums and frames are available.
It is interesting to note that playing guitars has never really gone out of style for over 150 years.
