By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 March 2014 at 12:00 am
Residents at three villages in Orleans County will go to the polls today from noon to 9 p.m. to elect members to the Village Board. Two villages have mayor positions on the ballot and in both cases the top elected official is unopposed.
In Albion, Dean London has both the Republican and Democratic Party endorsements for mayor. London, Albion’s retired police chief, has been campaigning with a Republican team that includes Eileen Banker and Stan Farone for four-year trustee positions, and Gary Katsanis for a two-year term.
Democrats are running Terry Wilbert and Patricia Cammarata for four-year trustee positions, and Sandra Walter for the two-year term.
Polls are open from noon to 9 p.m. at the Village Hall on East Bank Street.
In Medina, three incumbents appeared to be unopposed. Andrew Meier is running for mayor with David Barhite and Patricia Crowley seeking re-election as village trustees. They are seeking two-year terms under the Village Party.
Michael Sidari and Marguerite Sherman are mounting a write-in campaign for village trustees.
Polls are open from noon to 9 p.m. at the senior center, 615 West Ave.
In Lyndonville, Charles Covell is seeking a one-year as village trustee. Covell, the owner of Creekside Laundromat in Lyndonville, was appointed to the Village Board on Oct. 14, filling a vacancy created when Jim Whipple resigned after moving outside the village. Covell was appointed by Mayor Stephen McAvoy.
Polls are open from noon to 9 p.m. at Village Hall, 2 South Main St.
Holley, the other village in Orleans County, has its election in June.
HOLLEY – Megan Gotte, a registered nurse who lives in Kent, didn’t let a blizzard stop her from providing care last Wednesday. Gotte rode her snowmobile to see a patient in Holley, who had to be seen that night.
Gotte works as an evening nurse for HCR Home Care, which serves patients and families in 19 counties in New York, including 17 rural counties. Gotte works with patients in Orleans and Genesee counties.
“HCR’s rural health care nurses routinely overcome the unique challenges of providing home care to rural residents,” the company said in a statement. “The latest evidence was during the March 12 blizzard.”
In this picture taken in April of 1943, we see Eugene Mahoney and Theresa Peck. He was the chairman and she was the secretary for the Red Cross War Fund Drive in Albion.
They are adding up the totals, which exceeded the quota of $14,500 by $1,150.51. Notice she is using the Burroughs adding machine with roll of paper. This looks pretty antiquated compared to today’s calculators.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 March 2014 at 12:00 am
The photo above shows what I think are cattails by the parking lot at the Holley Elementary School. It only reached about 20 degrees on Monday, but is forecast to peak at 44 today.
The National Weather Service says it will hit 50 on Wednesday. The Weather Service warns the warmer weather could have ice on the move in creeks and rivers in western and central New York, leading to flooding.
The highs will stay above freezing later in the week with 35 forecast for Thursday, 39 for Friday and 38 for Saturday.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 March 2014 at 12:00 am
MEDINA – Two write-in candidates, who announced their candidacies last week, pulled off an upset and beat the incumbent trustees for the Village Board.
Marguerite Sherman received 229 votes and Michael Sidari, 207. That topped David Barhite, 175; and Patricia Crowley, 171.
Barhite and Crowley ran under the Village Party with Mayor Andrew Meier, who was re-elected with 227 votes. There wasn’t a write-in candidate to challenge Meier. However, he did not receive the vote from 180 of the 407 voters in the election.
The terms for the elected officials are for two years and begin on April 1.
Orleans Hub readers have sent in photos of the changing seasons. Rich Miller of Kendall took this photo of the sunrise over Lake Ontario this morning at Cleng Peerson’s Point at the north end of Kendall Road.
Another Kendall resident, Mike Campbell, took a picture of the ice on Bald Eagle Creek in Kendall. The warmer temperatures today snapped some of the ice in local creeks.
Heather Kuepper of Medina took a picture of a full moon over the weekend from Martin Road in Shelby. Thursday is the first day of spring.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 March 2014 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Medina voters on Tuesday elected the following, from left: Marguerite Sherman for village trustee, Andrew Meier for mayor, and Michael Sidari for trustee.
MEDINA – Two candidates who last week announced a write-in bid for Village Board pulled off the upset victory, saying their campaign struck a chord with village residents who have wanted more information about a possible village dissolution.
“We want some transparency in village government,” said Marguerite Sherman, who won a trustee position along with Michael Sidari.
Sherman was the top vote-getter on the day with 229 votes followed by 207 for Sidari. They won two-year terms to the Village Board, outpolling incumbents David Barhite, 175; and Patricia Crowley, 171.
Barhite said a mailer to village residents from the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby on Friday played a factor in the victory for the write-in candidates. Town officials offered their opinions on scenarios should the village dissolve, saying Medina would see a reduction in services.
The taxpayer-funded letter, and its timing right before the village election, infuriated the Village Board, which fired off its own news release on Saturday.
The letter from the towns created some fear in residents, village officials said, and the voters responded at the polls. Barhite said a dissolution plan isn’t finished yet. He didn’t think the village should have commented on the plan until it was complete.
Once the document is accepted by a Dissolution Committee, public hearings will be set and residents can weigh in on the proposal, Barhite said.
Sherman and Sidari said the village should have shared more about possible dissolution scenarios, and looked at the pros and cons of dissolving the village, rather than focusing on possible tax savings. Sherman, a special education teacher at Medina and member of the Village Planning Board, worries dissolution will result in a reduction in services to village residents.
“I want to preserve our village and the services,” she said tonight after the election results were announced. “But we have to keep an open mind.”
Sherman said the write-in campaign quickly picked up momentum after last week.
“It raised an awareness with the public,” she said. “I feel like they’ve only been presented with one side of the issue.”
Sidari is an active member of the Medina Fire Department. He works as the food service administrator for the Orleans Correctional Facility. He will retire from that job next week.
Sidari said he is leaning against dissolution, but he wants to see the final plan and hear from the public about the issue.
“I want to make sure the facts being put forward are true,” he said.
The Dissolution Committee has identified about $1 million in tax savings to the Medina community through a dissolution. The village services would be folded into the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway, with special districts or other entities as possibilities for fire protection, debt, water, sewer and lighting.
Meier was re-elected to another two-year term as mayor. He sees dissolution as a way to reduce the village’s “crushing tax burden” while maintaining current services.
Officials from the two towns see the village dissolution as a cost shift to Shelby and Ridgeway. Meier said there is a great disparity in tax rates between the village and towns, and that difference is unfair to the village and is a disincentive to investment in Medina.
The village’s assessments have been shrinking in recent years while the tax rate goes up. That is a big problem to solve, he said.
The community has assets: a vibrant downtown business district and a community of wonderful people, Meier said.
“I look forward to working with them,” he said about Sherman and Sidari. “I think they are fair-minded people.”
Congressman Chris Collins (R-Clarence) will chair a House Small Business Subcommittee Field Hearing in Orleans County this Thursday. The hearing will examine how the lack of access to broadband Internet service in rural communities impacts the operations of local small businesses and farms.
The lack of access to broadband is a significant issue in several areas of Collins’ Congressional District, including northern Niagara, Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming counties.
“There are many rural parts of our nation, including several communities in my Congressional District, that do not have access to broadband Internet,” Collins said. “This lack of access is a significant roadblock for small business owners and farmers working hard every day to serve their community and grow their businesses.”
The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in the legislative chambers of the County Clerks’ Building at 3 South Main St.
The hearing will include testimony from Kendra Lamb, an owner of Lamb Farms in Oakfield, a representative from Time Warner, a representative from Frontier Communications, and a representative from NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association.
There will also be a stakeholders’ roundtable following the hearing with county officials from Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming and Niagara counties. David Callard and Lynne Johnson, county legislators from Orleans County, are scheduled to be at the roundtable.
“I look forward to talking with key stakeholders about the regulatory factors that lead to the expansion of broadband into rural areas and hear from those affected about how improved access could change their business for the better,” Collins said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 March 2014 at 12:00 am
Pembroke will host the memorial from June 11-15
Photo by Tom Rivers – Members of the Medina VFW and the Ladies Auxiliary are helping to bring “The Moving Wall” to Pembroke on June 11 – 15. Several veterans’ organizations in Western New York are helping with the project, giving donations and manpower. Pictured outside the Medina VFW on East Center Street include, from left: VFW member Kim Lockwood, VFW Ladies Auxiliary President Cindy Harris, Ladies Auxiliary Secretary Donna Little and Mike Little, VFW senior vice commander.
MEDINA – When the call went out in the veterans’ community about bringing “The Moving Wall” to Pembroke, the Medina VFW was quick to answer.
The VFW gave $1,000 to the effort and the Ladies Auxiliary also agreed to give $1,000. The wall, a memorial to 58,000 Americans killed in the Vietnam War, will be at the Pembroke Town Park from June 11 to 15.
“We want people to pay their respects to the guys,” said Mike Little, the senior vice commander for the VFW in Medina.
Local veterans will provide an honor guard for the memorial, which stretches about 200 feet. The Moving Wall has been in Genesee County before, in 1996 and 2010. The memorial typically spends about a week at each location and moves around the country.
Little has seen it before, and he wanted it to return to the area. The Oakfield-Alabama American Legion is taking the lead on bringing the wall back to Western New York.
To help raise money for the project, the Medina VFW Ladies Auxiliary this Saturday will host a “Spring Fling Vendor Faire” from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The VFW at 216 East Center St. will have about 20 vendors inside and the Ladies Auxiliary will be serving food.
Cindy Harris, the Ladies Auxiliary president, said this is the latest fundraiser planned by the group to meet its $1,000 goal for The Wall.
“It won’t be that far away,” she said about the memorial. “Pembroke is right down the road.”
VFW member Kim Lockwood has connected with many of the vendors and lined up donations for a Chinese auction on Saturday. She has seen The Wall in Washington, D.C. She wants other people to experience the memorial, and pay their respects to the veterans.
“It’s so long,” she said about The Wall. “It goes on forever.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 March 2014 at 12:00 am
Residents will get an $800,000 tax cut
Photo by Tom Rivers – This tree stands by the Holley Elementary School with the Junior-Senior High School in back.
HOLLEY – The Board of Education will cut school taxes by 10.6 percent or $800,000, according to a $25 million budget that was approved during tonight’s board meeting.
The tax cut would reduce residents tax rate from $25.11 to a projected $22.44 per $1,000 of assessed property. The 2014-15 budget goes before voters on May 20.
“We’re giving some money back,” said Brenda Swanger, the BOE president.
The district is responding to a state comptroller’s audit in February. The report said Holley’s cash reserves were too big. (Click here to see the report.)
In addition to cutting taxes, Holley is paying down $975,000 in debt. That will reduce Holley’s debt and interest payments in the immediate future.
Holley may also pay for new school buses from the surplus rather than borrowing money, said Kathy Saville, the district’s business administrator. The Board of Education also voted tonight to create a $2.5 million capital reserve fund. Some of the surplus could be moved into that account near the end of this school year.
Holley is raising its budget from $22,976,429 to $25,070,000 with the accelerated debt payments causing most of that spending increase. The BOE also plans to add four instructional staff to help bolster students’ academic performance, Swanger said.
The statutory limit for surplus funds is 4 percent of the ensuing year’s budget or about $1 million for Holley, according to the comptroller. The district was over the surplus fund threshold by more than $7 million or 35 percent, according to the comptroller’s report.
Holley is working to reduce the surplus to about 6 to 7 percent of the budget. Saville doesn’t want to go all the way down to 4 percent or $1 million.
“One million dollars doesn’t even get you through one payroll,” Saville said.
Holley collected $7,541,779 in taxes in the 2013-14 budget. The tax levy will drop to $6,741,780 as part of the proposed budget.
