By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 23 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Every school district in Orleans County has at least one person willing to serve as a volunteer on the Board of Education. Residents had a Monday deadline to submit petitions to run as candidates for the May 21 election.
Medina and Lyndonville each have five candidates running, while Kendall and Holley each have one and Albion has two candidates.
Here is a list of the districts and the candidates:
Albion – BOE President Margy Brown of Carlton is running for another five-year term while resident Linda Weller seeks a position. Incumbent Marie Snyder opted against re-election.
Holley – Normally three seats are up for election each year, but this time there will only be one because the BOE is shrinking from nine to seven members. Brenda Swanger is seeking re-election to a three-year term while BOE President John Heise and another incumbent, Dorothy Morgan, are not running again this election.
Kendall – Board member Edward Gaesser isn’t seeking re-election. Martin Goodenberry of Morton is unopposed for a five-year term.
Lyndonville – Four seats are up for election with the top three voter-getters receiving three-year terms and the fourth-place finisher getting a two-year term. Incumbents Terry Stinson, Tara Neace and James Moody are running again. Harold Suhr and Michelle Dillenbeck also will be on the ballot.
Medina – Three incumbents – Wendi Pencille, Virginia Nicholson and John McCarthy – are seeking re-election to three-year terms while David Sevinski and Lori Draper are also running. The top three vote-getters will get full terms while the fourth-leading candidate will receive a one-year term.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 22 April 2013 at 12:00 am
BROCKPORT – A hospital that serves many residents in eastern and central Orleans County announced today it will close its doors next week.
Lakeside Health System was unable to obtain state funding to help fund its emergency room and inpatient services. Lakeside will continue to operate primary care practices, urgent care and a nursing home.
However, it will shut down its acute care services. Orleans residents on the east side will have to drive farther for health care. Local ambulance services will also have longer transport times for patients going to an ER past the east side of the county.
“We have pursued all options,” said Nancy Plews, chairwoman of the Lakeside board. “Despite our best efforts, NYS has concluded that it will be unable to provide sufficient financial support from its Vital Access Provider Fund in order for the hospital to move forward. This is a tremendously sad day for our employees, medical staff, volunteers and our entire community.”
The hospital stopped accepting inpatient admissions on Saturday. This Friday it won’t accept patients in the ER after 2 p.m. The diagnostic, imaging and lab services will cease at 5 p.m.
“Our employees and medical staff have always been our number one greatest asset and we sincerely thank them for their dedication,” said Interim CEO Jim Cummings. “So many of our employees and medical staff have supported and stood by the health system to the end.”
Lakeside is closing the following departments at the end of today’s business day: Wellness, Respiratory, Occupational Health and Physical Therapy. On Saturday, all remaining inpatients will be transferred to area hospitals. Next Tuesday, April 30, the hospital will close.
Decisions related to the ongoing viability of Lakeside’s two primary care practices, Urgent Care in Spencerport and the Beikirch Care Center in Brockport will be made within the next month.
Lakeside officials will meet with the community 6:30 tonight at the Brockport High School LGI Room to address questions.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 22 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Mayor says village faces rising costs, shrinking assessments
MEDINA – Village property owners can expect a jolt to their tax bills for the 2013-14 fiscal year that begins June 1.
The tax rate could jump from $15.81 per $1,000 of assessed property to $17, a 7.5 percent increase, Mayor Andrew Meier said after tonight’s board meeting.
“It’s very demoralizing,” he said. “There’s no money anywhere.”
Medina’s village-wide assessment shrunk about $800,000, down to $165 million. Costs are up with rising contributions to the retirement system, health insurance and workers’ compensation. And revenues are down. The rising costs and declining revenues represent about a $300,000 swing from 2012-13.
Meier said fixed costs – employee benefits and wages – give the village little leeway to make reductions. That’s the same with fuel and many other operational expenses, he said.
Some municipalities with growing tax bases can hold their tax rates steady because bigger assessments sometimes keep pace with tax growth. But in Medina, the assessments are going down village-wide.
Meier believes the village tax rate is driving the decline in the values and assessments of village properties. Just moving across the village line into the towns of Shelby or Ridgeway can slash $12 off the overall tax rate for a property owner, saving a property owner with an $85,000 home about $1,000 a year in taxes.
Meier has been pushing to dissolve the village, believing that would create a tax structure that is more equal for village and town residents, rather than the current disparity. The village has received a state grant to study the dissolution. Meier wants to bring the issue to a public referendum. That could be two years away.
“There are inherent, built-in structural problems with how we provide services and split up how we pay for them,” he said. “It uniquely burdens the village.”
Meier wanted to hire a village coordinator to work on the study and help manage the village government, which has about 50 employees and a $4.5 million annual budget.
But he said that position is unlikely given the village’s financial situation for 2013-14.
“The Village Board needs to decide whether it will budget for it,” Meier said. “If we don’t budget for it, then it won’t be there, unless some other money turns up and I don’t think it will.”
Right now, the budget doesn’t include a village coordinator, a position that could pay $70,000 a year.
The Village Board and department heads are working to finalize the budget for a 7 p.m. vote on Monday at the Shelby Town Hall.
Meier worries the 2014-15 could be even more difficult for village property owners. A new reassessment dropped the village values another 5 percent, but those numbers don’t take effect until the 2014-15 budget. The shrinking tax base will put more pressure on the tax rate.
“The grim reality is we haven’t even taking the hit on the new assessments,” Meier said. “That’s next year.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 22 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – The Genesee County Jail, built in 1902-03, is part of a historic district in Batavia that was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Editor’s Note: Orleans Hub will be featuring buildings made of Medina sandstone that are included on the National Register of Historic Places.
BATAVIA – It looks like fortress. The Genesee County Jail is one of Batavia’s architectural gems. The building on Main Street has five turrets, a raised foundation and quoins made of rusticated sandstone.
Genesee County Historian Sue Conklin suspects there was a friendly rivalry among counties more than a century ago when they built courthouses, jails and other public buildings. Genesee wanted to out-do its neighbors with the jail, and I believe the county succeeded.
The jail is part of the Genesee County Courthouse Historic District that was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The district represents the civic core of the city and includes buildings from the 1840s to 1920s.
The architect who designed the Genesee County Jail also designed the Attica State Prison.
The collection of historic structures includes the old county courthouse, former city hall, U.S. Post Office, The Holland Land Office Museum, a county office building and a Civil War monument. The jail is the only Medina sandstone building in the disitrict. St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which is close by, also is a striking sandstone structure.
I think the jail is the most impressive of all the buildings in Batavia’s historic district. The building was constructed in 1902-03. It was designed by Poughkeepsie architect William J. Beardsley in a Victorian Gothic style. Beardsley also was the architect for the Attica State Prison and many county courthouses.
The county sheriff and his family used to live in the front portion of the jail building at 14 West Main St. The jail had 10 to 15 cells. There were living quarters for the sheriff and a kitchen in the building until the early 1970s, said Gary Maha, the Genesee sheriff.
The sheriff used to live in the front portion of the jail until the 1970s.
Maha started his career in 1967 as a road patrol deputy. He remembers when the sheriff, deputies and jail were all squeezed into the building.
“It was a house and we were cramped like sardines,” he said.
The county put a brick addition on the jail in 1985. There is now capacity for 97 inmates.
For more than 100 years, the Sheriff’s Office was based out of the building. Maha worked out of the site until 2007, when the county built a new office for the Sheriff’s Department. The county’s back-up dispatch continues to use space in the historic building. The Genesee Justice program also has moved in. The jail takes up most of the space.
Maha marvels at the building, and not just the architecture.
“The woodwork inside there, you just don’t see anymore,” Maha said.
Photo courtesy of Genesee County Historian’s Department.
The Albion Fire Department was the first in Western New York with motorized fire apparatus. The Dye Hose Company in 1913 purchased this Thomas Flyer truck. The AFD says it was the first fire truck outside New York City.
The Active Hose Company No. 2, another group of Albion firefighters, acquired a fire truck a year later. Henry Hudson is pictured on the truck. The Active Hose Company No. 2, Hart Protective Hose Company No. 3 and Dye Hose Company No. 5 consolidated in 1976 into the Albion Fire Department. The fire hall on Platt Street displays these fire truck photos and many other historical images of the department’s history, which stretches back to 1828.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 22 April 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Albion Town Councilman Matt Passarell said he will run for town supervisor under the Republican Party line by seeking support from the rank-and-file party faithful, rather than relying on the party leaders.
The Albion Republican Committee last week opted against endorsing a candidate for town supervisor. The committee interviewed Passarell and Town Councilman Jake Olles, but decided against formally backing either one.
Passarell said he will pursue the petition process to secure the Republican line. He would need a minimum of 5 percent of the 1,375 registered Republicans in Albion to sign his petitions for town supervisor. That would be a minimum of 69 valid signatures.
“I will be a candidate,” Passarell said.
The state Board of Elections hasn’t established a deadline for those petitions to be due, but they typically need to be filed by mid-July.
Town Supervisor Dennis Stirk, a Democrat, isn’t seeking re-election. Passarell and Olles both are interested in the position.
The Republican committee welcomes other candidates to come forward to interview for the position leading the town government, said Dawn Allen, the GOP chairwoman. Albion has until May 16 to make an endorsement for someone to run under the party line in November.
If the committee bypasses Passarell and endorses someone else, he would set up a September primary if he submits petitions with enough signatures.
The committee did endorse two candidates for Town Board: Richard Remley, a former owner of a printing company in Albion, and Todd Sargent, a village of Albion Department of Public Works employee.
Two state legislators who represent the Brockport community in Albany issued a joint statement this evening following the announcement that Lakeside Health System would begin closing its hospital in Brockport.
Lakeside officials praised the efforts of State Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, and State Assemblyman Steve Hawley, R-Batavia, to obtain state funding to help keep the hospital open. But, the state decided against throwing a financial lifeline to Lakeside.
Here is the statement from Maziarz and Hawley:
“Today’s announcement is unfortunate, particularly after working extensively with hospital administrators, top state health department officials, and neighboring health care providers to continue to keep Lakeside’s emergency department viable and accessible. In the end, Lakeside’s financial hole was just too deep.
“This is a painful setback to improving access to health care in our region, and we know the greater Brockport community will never be the same without its hospital. We will continue working to reopen the Emergency Department at the Lakeside Facility with a neighboring health care provider for Eastern Orleans and Western Monroe Counties.
“Today’s announcement is strictly about finances and demographics.Lakeside has a stellar reputation for patient care, and that reputation has been justly earned by a dedicated staff. We sincerely thank them and salute them for all they have done over the years.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Old play advertisements, programs found from century ago
Photos by Tom Rivers
Programs and advertisements from theater shows in the late 1800s and early 1900s were discovered inside the Pratt Opera House in Albion on Saturday when a tin firewall was removed.
ALBION – The wall is covered with signatures of stage hands, and advertisements from comedy and theater shows in the 1890s and early 1900s. For more than a century, they were hid behind a tin barrier in the Pratt Opera House.
The tin was added around 1910 when the stage was expanded. Many visiting actors and actresses stuck advertisements and promotional cards on the wall behind the stage. They were sort of like business cards from that time. Many of the performers signed their names on cards with their photos and the name of their production.
“This is a treasure that is incredibly rare,” said Mark Scarborough, a professional theater manager and consultant who is working with Pratt owners Michael Bonafede and Judith Koehler. “The tin served as a time capsule that preserved everything.”
The tin was carefully removed Saturday afternoon while 33 Cornell University graduate students were in town, working on preservation projects in the opera house from 1882 on North Main Street. The theater was originally known as the Grand Opera House.
They re-glazed windows and repaired mortar on the sandstone walls of the third-story cavernous room. Bonafede was hopeful something historic would be behind the tin wall, and he wanted the Cornell students to be part of the unveiling.
But what was actually there wasn’t known until the metal was taken down. Bonafede was downstairs, working on the windows when he heard shouts of joy from the upper floor. The students were thrilled to see so many signatures and programs, dated from the 1890s and 1900s.
The theater advertisements still have vibrant colors, and remain largely intact.
“It was very exciting to see,” said Caleb Cheng, a Cornell planning student from near Oakland, Calif. “We saw the ’90s on the programs, and realized it was the 1890s, not the 1990s.”
The theater artifacts will be covered with a clear, fireproof material to be preserved long into the future and also stay visible.
Bonafede was in a buoyant mood Saturday evening.
“No one has seen this in 110 years,” he said. “It’s an incredible discovery.”
Bonafede and his wife are working to have the opera house, largely unused since the 1930s, upgraded to “theater in the rough” shape, which would allow performances without scenery and full-blown lighting effects.
“It will be like vaudeville,” Koehler said. “It will be carried by the quality of the performers.”
She and her husband have acquired curtains that they will soon to put up, and they plan to refinish the floor. They are working with an architect who specializes in historic preservation. Koehler said if they can secure a certificate of compliance, there could be performances in the theater later this year.
For now, they are happy with the discovery on Saturday, which Koehler called “a real gold mine of stuff.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 April 2013 at 12:00 am
District says officers will cost $140,000 for full school year
HOLLEY – School leaders say the first two weeks with security officers in the elementary and junior-senior high schools has been a success, with officers making positive connections with students and staff.
“They’ve transitioned nicely into the building,” said Karri Schiavone, elementary school principal. “They’re in the hallways, the foyer, the bus loop. They’re everywhere.”
The school district hired COP Security Inc. to provide a security presence at both buildings during the school day and also in the evening for extracurricular activities. COP Security is paid $27 per hour for each officer on duty. Holley has an officer working in each school.
The service would cost $140,000 for a full school year with the evening hours included. If officers only work during the regular school day, the cost would be $90,000 for the district.
Dale Barton, a retired Ogden police officer who leads COP Security, told the Board of Education he is pleased with the early success of the program in Holley.
“The officers have been warmly received,” he told the board on March 18. “You guys really have a great school district. We’re pleased to be a part of it.”
The officers are unarmed. One parent told the board he thinks they should have guns. Board President John Heise said that issue will be evaluated in the coming months.
For now, Barton said officers are developing a network with students, which should result in tips, possibly preventing some problems and major incidents in the future.
The officers also will meet regularly with school administrators to review safety protocols.
Schiavone and Susan Cory, the junior-senior high school principal, told the board the security officers are appreciated by staff.
“I love having them here,” Schiavone said. “It’s another set of eyes and ears that isn’t tied down to a classroom.”
The security officers are all retired police officers. They will promote a “positive climate” in the schools, and will help address anti-bullying, prom safety, bicycle safety and other issues, said Robert D’Angelo, district superintendent.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Cornell University students climbed the Civil War memorial at Mount Albion Cemetery this afternoon.
ALBION – I had the pleasure this afternoon of leading a dozen students from Cornell University on a tour of Mount Albion Cemetery, which I consider one of the great marvels of Orleans County.
I talked about the impressive sandstone structures at the cemetery – the arch, the chapel, the office across the street, and the collection of hitching posts and carriage steps. It all culminates with the 68-foot-high tower at the back of the cemetery.
That tower, built in 1876, is a memorial to the 463 soldiers from Orleans County who died in the Civil War.
Thirty-three Cornell students, pursuing graduate degrees in historic preservation and city planning, have been touring Albion sites and working on preservation projects since Thursday.
The students pose on the sandstone steps leading to Mount Albion Tower.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
Volunteers are out picking out garbage and debris along the Erie Canal this morning in Albion and Medina. Colby Ricker, 13, of Albion, left, joins his friend Nate Grammatico, 11, of Albion along the canal between the two lift bridges. Colby’s mother Carolyn also hunts for trash on a chilly and windy morning. Volunteers are picking up garbage between Gaines Basin Road boat launch and the Brown Street bridge. In Medina, volunteers are picking up debris along the Towpath going towards Bates Road. The effort if part of the 8th annual “Canal Clean Sweep.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Todd Sargent, Richard Remley backed for Town Board
ALBION – The Albion Republican Committee interviewed two Town Board members, Matt Passarell and Jake Olles, for town supervisor and the committee decided against endorsing either of them.
The committee welcomes other candidates to come forward to interview for the position leading the town government, said Dawn Allen, the GOP chairwoman. Albion has until May 16 to make an endorsement for someone to run under the party line in November.
She wouldn’t talk about why the committee declined to endorse either Passarell or Olles. She did say the committee wants a candidate who can restore harmony in town hall among the full board and town employees.
The board has been split under Town Supervisor Dennis Stirk, with Olles and Dan Poprawski, who were all elected in November 2011, often siding with the supervisor.
Passarell and Tim Neilans, holdovers from when Judith Koehler was town supervisor, have been critical of the Stirk-led board for giving raises to the town clerk and town highway superintendent. The two also opposed hiring Robert Roberson as attorney for the town. Roberson represented Highway Superintendent Jed Standish in a lawsuit against the town when the Koehler-led board tried to make his position part-time.
Passarell is an Iraq War veteran and VFW commander, who works as quality supervisor for Baxter in Medina. Olles works as a correctional officer. Olles was elected previously under the Democrat Party line.
The committee made two endorsements during its meeting on Tuesday night. Richard Remley, the former owner of a printing company in Albion, was backed for a four-year term as town councilman. Remley also was co-leader of the fund-raising campaign for the new Hoag Library.
Todd Sargent, a village of Albion Department of Public Works employee, also was endorsed for a four-year term.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Agenda: Glazing windows, mortaring and documenting artifacts
Photos by Tom Rivers – Ke Tong applies shellac to a wooden window from the Pratt Opera House in Albion. Tong and 32 other Cornell University graduate students are working on preservation projects in Albion this weekend.
ALBION – Max Taffet was hunched over at a table this morning, writing down dimensions and details from the Grand Army of the Republic room in the historic Pratt and Day complex on Main Street.
Taffet, 25, is a graduate student in Cornell University’s City and Regional Planning Department. This weekend he and 32 other students are getting a hands-on education
in how preservation can help rejuvenate a downtown.
The students arrived in Albion on Thursday evening and toured the business district, the Erie Canal and some of the historic churches.
“It’s beautiful,” Taffet said about the buildings from the 19th Century. “This strip here is so rich. It’s gorgeous.”
Taffet lives in Boulder, Colo., which he says can’t match Albion in historic assets. He joined a few other students in making an inventory of the GAR room. The spot was used as a fraternal organization of Civil War veterans more than a century ago. The room still includes GAR symbols on the walls that proclaim “Loyalty, Fraternity and Charity.”
Max Taffet, a graduate student in Cornell’s City and Regional Planning Department, catalogs details from the Grand Army of the Republic room in the Pratt and Day complex on Main Street.
Other Cornell students were working today to clean 100 wooden-framed windows, applying shellac, glaze and fresh paint.
Caitlin Kolb, a Cornell graduate student from Nebraska, said she was in awe of the historic fabric in Albion, a canal boomtown in the 1800s.
“It’s pretty exciting to be here and see this,” she said. “In Nebraska, we don’t have such old buildings.”
She drove past the old freight depot on West Academy Street, a building that has long been vacant. Kolb sees potential in that site and the community.
The Cornell students are also removing loose mortar from the walls of the former Pratt Opera House, and will apply new mortar.
Luis Martinez, a student at Cornell University, removes loose mortar inside the Pratt Opera House today. Martinez and other students will re-mortar the walls over the weekend.
The students removed tin from the back stage of the opera house. That revealed signatures of former stars and stagehands who worked in the building. Those signatures will all be documented.
Building owners Michael Bonafede and Judith Koehler welcomed the students for the annual preservation project by the Cornell program. Every year students go to a community for hands-on work. Last year they went to Lyndhurst, an estate along the Hudson River in Tarrytown, NY.
Gina DiBella of Rochester is doing her master’s thesis on historic theaters the canal. She has toured and researched the former opera houses in both Albion and Medina.
“Their rehabilitation can help revitalize the community,” DiBella said. “There are a lot of hidden treasures in these canal communities.”
The students connected with Albion through Katelin Olson, the Albion Main Street Alliance director who is pursuing a doctorate at Cornell.
Students will be in seminars, learning from local contractors, including Jeremiah Knight, Neal Muscarella, Tom Snyder and Mark Scarborough. Local preservationists also will lead students on tours of the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church, Mount Albion Cemetery, Courthouse Square and the Cobblestone Society Museum.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Demolition work of a sandstone building along the Erie Canal in Albion has been suspended until an asbestos removal permit is secured.
ALBION – The demolition of a sandstone building from 1840 has been halted because the owner of the site hasn’t secured an asbestos removal permit from the state Department of Labor, village officials said.
Dan Dunn of Ridgeway started removing the building last Saturday, but worked was stopped later in the day by Ron Vendetti, the village code enforcement officer.
Dunn has contested he needs a certified asbestos removal company for the work. Dunn, owner of salvage company, believes he can handle the job.
The DOL’s Asbestos Control unit was in Albion today and tagged the building as a “suspended action.”
The building, once used to manufacture carriages more than a century ago, is a “dangerous building,” and needs to come down, Vendetti said. However, Dunn needs to secure a permit from the DOL before removing the 5,000-square-foot building that was last used as a furniture warehouse about a half century ago.
Dunn has said he wants to preserve and resell as much of the sandstone as possible.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Peggy Schreck spends two days a week at Rainbow Preschool
Photo by Tom Rivers – Arc of Orleans County Executive Director Kellie Spychalski, left, congratulates Peggy Schreck on receiving the agency’s “Best Friend” award tonight at Hickory Ridge Golf and Country Club.
HOLLEY – Twice a week Peggy Schreck joins classrooms of 3- and 4-year-olds, singing and playing with children at Rainbow Preschool in Albion.
Schreck spends about 12 hours a week as a volunteer with the students. She brings enthusiasm and a gentle spirit in a role that has endeared her to students, said Kellie Spychalski, Arc of Orleans County executive director.
“She serves almost as a surrogate grandmother for the kids,” Spychalski said tonight when Schreck was honored as the Arc’s “Best Friend,” one of the agency’s top awards.
Schreck has been volunteering with the Arc for about 10 years, first helping to decorate for the annual Signature Series gala. She has served on Arc committees, but she said she most enjoys being in the classroom.
“I have fun,” she said. “The kids are just precious.”
Schreck was looking for a volunteer opportunity about three years ago when she retired after a career as corporate secretary for Medina Savings and Loan.
She believes in the mission of the Arc, an agency that works with residents with disabilities.
“They do good work and they appreciate their volunteers,” Schreck said about the agency.
Spychalski welcomes more volunteers to help at Rainbow Preschool, which serves 300 children in a nursery and preschool programs.
Schreck was honored at the agency’s 33rd annual “Best Friend” dinner. About 300 people attended the event at Hickory Ridge Golf and Country Club.
The Arc presented other awards:
Community Service Award – Samantha Neal for her efforts with the Bagels Group in Orleans County.
Self-Advocate of the Year – Joseph Moltrup, who earned a degree at Genesee Community College, worked at LynOaken Farms and helped his mother at her store, Della’s Chocolates in Medina.
Heritage Award – BMP America in Medina for its years of commitment to the Arc as a sponsor of its golf tournament and other generous donations, including a van for Orleans Enterprises.
Community Worker of the Year – Michael Woodward, who has been a dedicated employee at Avanti Pizza and Grill since 2006.
Enclave Worker of the Year – Anthony Avino, a dedicated employee at Associated Brands.
Mobile Crew Worker of the Year – Tauhna Micek, who is always on time and is always positive.
Orleans Enterprises Worker of the Year – Jon Bombard, a role model to his peers.
Business Partnership Award – Chapin Manufacturing in Batavia, which contracts with Orleans Enterprises for many light packaging jobs.
