ALBION – Women of the Albion school faculty must have had a party when this photo was taken in the early 1930s.
First row, from left: Gladys Pedler (teacher in charge), Carrie Pratt, Hazel Bergerson (wife of superintendent, with dog), Hazel Ganiard (later married to Charles D’Amico), unidentified, Mrs. Charles D’Amico (his first wife).
Second row: first two are unidentified, Adams (history), Irva Wright-Smith (English), Jesse Valnia (Latin), Ida Larwood, Irene Harrigan (American history and French).
Third row: Stevens, Julia McGuire (business office), unidentified, Christine Filkins (math), unidentified, Mary Ellen Trumble (music), Doris Spierdowis (wife of coach), Sadie Britton (math), Doreen Sundell (art).
Back row: Lillian Achilles (librarian), next three are unidentified, Helena Hogan (English).
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 February 2014 at 12:00 am
State Assemblyman Steve Hawley and Congressman Chris Collins have joined the chorus of opposition to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to provide college resources to some inmates.
Cuomo announced on Sunday the state will expand opportunities for inmates to get college degrees as a way to keep them from returning to prison. The plan would ultimately save tax dollars, the governor said.
He said the state pays $60,000 a year to keep a prisoner incarcerated with a 40 percent recidivism rate. College programs in prison cost taxpayers $5,000 a year per prisoner, and reduce the rates for them to return to crime, he said.
Congressman Chris Collins (R-Clarence) released this statement today:
“The Governor’s latest plan to fund college educations for convicted criminals with New Yorkers’ tax dollars is an insult to law abiding citizens all across our state who are struggling to pay for higher education or find employment in this stagnant economy. This plan is just the latest sign that for a state that is the highest taxed and ranks among the worst in job creation, Albany has its priorities all screwed up.”
State Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R-Batavia) issued this statement:
“The governor’s plan to give free college to convicts is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard during my tenure as an assemblyman. It’s insulting to middle-class Western New Yorkers who are taking on debts over $50,000 to go to college. This plan punishes law-abiding citizens while rewarding criminals. Not only is this idea wrong in principle, but it may cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. We should never ask taxpayers to pay for the college education of convicts while they are taking on debt to pay for their own.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 February 2014 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – David Pawlik, left, is the developer for a new Dollar General on Route 104 in Ridgeway, while Lowell Dewey of C & S Engineers is the engineer for the project. They discussed the site plan for the 9,100-square-foot building during a public hearing tonight at the Ridgeway Town Hall.
RIDGEWAY – The Town Planning Board cast unanimous support tonight for a new 9,100-square-foot Dollar General store at the corner of routes 63 and 104.
The store will be at the northeast corner heading towards Lyndonville. The new store will be owned by Development Unlimited of WNY LLC of Buffalo. It will demolish a house and silo at the corner.
The driveway will be about 200 feet north of 104 on Route 63. The store will have 30 parking spaces, although on average only four or five customers will be parked at the store. Their average shopping time in the store is 12 minutes, said David Pawlik, developer of the project.
He has helped develop 12 other Dollar General stores in Western New York, including a new one in Oakfield.
The building will be split block with a 10-foot-band around the building “for color contrast,” Pawlik said.
Yates Town Supervisor John Belson attended the Ridgeway Planning Board meeting tonight. The Lyndonville community wants the store, he said. It has felt a void since the closing last April of the Pennysaver Market on Main Street.
John Chaplin owns the E-Z Shop in Lyndonville. He asked Pawlik if the Dollar General would compete with existing stores.
Pawlik said that is not the intention, although he said the store will sell tobacco and beer, which is sold at the E-Z Shop.
“We want to build up the community,” Pawlik said.
He would like to start construction on the store in April. He needs to secure a permit from the Department of Transportation for the driveway. The store will likely open in late summer or fall.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 February 2014 at 12:00 am
‘Old-fashioned winter’ drives up costs for salt, OT
Photo by Tom Rivers – A Village of Albion plow truck was out in early February after another snow storm.
The cold and snow hit hard around around Thanksgiving and it has stuck around since, with little breaks in the frigid temperatures.
The unrelenting winter has kept local municipal highway crews busy. Their stockpiles of road salt are shrinking, while costs climb for overtime and fuel for the plow trucks.
“It’s been one of the longest winters that I can remember,” said Ed Morgan, Murray highway superintendent. “It started right after Thanksgiving and it’s been steady.”
Murray typically uses 1,000 to 1,200 tons of road salt a year. The town has already gone through 1,300 to 1,400 tons this winter, Morgan said.
He has 400 left in the highway storage shed. The town might buy another 400 tons, in addition to its stockpile.
The town of Barre has the most roads to work on in the county with 62 miles of town, plus 20 miles of county roads. Barre usually uses 1,200 to 1,400 tons of salt and is up to about 2,100 tons so far this winter, said Dale Ostroski, the town highway superintendent.
Last evening was a rare chance for him to be home. The highway crews have been working at all hours of the day, plowing and salting roads.
Ostroski said he has enough salt stored to last until the end of winter.
“We can get through it,” he said.
Some municipalities in the state and outside New York worry they will run out of salt. They are scrambling to get more. February and March often have days with temperatures near freezing, when salt should be deployed.
Local highway chiefs interviewed say they are in “good shape” with their salt supply. Many of the towns entered the winter with deep reserves. The previous two winters were far less demanding, which allowed the salt stockpiles to grow.
Some days have been so cold that towns actually didn’t use salt. When it drops below 15 degrees, salt doesn’t work. It needs moisture to activate, said Roger Wolfe, Yates highway superintendent.
Some of the recent sub-zero days actually were too cold for the municipalities to spread salt, although some use a mix that can be effective as low as 0 degrees.
Wolfe said the towns would have used more salt if the sub-zero temps had been in the teens or the 20s.
Yates has about 500 or 600 tons left for the winter. It plows 72 miles of roads.
“We’ve used more salt than in the previous two years,” Wolfe said.
He is thankful he has salt storage facilities that allowed the town to have a sizable stockpile. Other municipalities in the state have smaller storage sheds, forcing them to do frequent orders for salt. Many salt suppliers are only giving partial orders right now. Companies such as American Rock Salt in Livingston County are trying to serve as many customers as possible by giving them smaller salt orders.
The Village of Albion has used about 1,400 tons of salt so far, about 400 more than in an average winter, said Dale Brooks, the DPW superintendent. The village pays $42 a ton. The municipalities buy the salt on a state bid.
They have to buy at least 70 percent of their contract. In a light winter, like the previous two, the towns and villages will see their stockpiles grow.
They can keep the $42 price for up to 120 percent of their contract. After that, the price increases. Brooks said the village had about 500 tons stockpiled before the winter.
He had hoped to buy 800 tons this winter, but the December ice storms “burned up our salt.”
“We haven’t seen something like this in 15 or 20 years,” he said. “It’s an old-fashioned winter.”
A few warmer days beginning today doesn’t mean the highway crews will get to rest easy. The deep freeze and thaw has cracked roads and created many sizable potholes. The highway superintendents say they will be out with their crews trying to patch some of the roads.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 February 2014 at 12:00 am
Photo from Friends of Animals Facebook page – Protestors were in Holley last February for the seventh annual Squirrel Slam. They will be back again on Saturday.
(This article was updated from an earlier version that stated Friends of Animals isn’t against hunting. The group is opposed to all hunting, said director Edita Birnkrant.)
HOLLEY – Edita Birnkrant doesn’t want to take away anyone’s Second Amendment rights. But she does want to make shooting animals illegal when it’s part of a fund-raiser.
Birnkrant is director of Friends of Animals in New York. She will be in Holley on Saturday for the 8th annual Squirrel Slam. She may be joined by hundreds of FOA supporters from several states.
“We share the landscape with wildlife,” Birnkrant said by phone this afternoon from New York City. “I see this as a crime against nature.”
Friends of Animals plans a peaceful protest near the Holley Firehall from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Birnkrant was in Holley last year for the Squirrel Slam and she said some of the hunters taunted her with dead squirrels, holding them out towards her as they passed by for the weigh station at the firehall.
Police have told Birnkrant the Friends of Animals will be separated from the hunters on Saturday. Police don’t want the hunters walking through a pack of protestors.
This year’s event has the added dimension of the New York Revolution, a group that formed last year after the state passed the controversial gun control measure known as the SAFE Act. The group is expected to be in Holley on Saturday, showing its support for the Second Amendment.
Birnkrant said she doesn’t want to infringe on the Second Amendment.
“We’re not trying to take guns away,” she said. “We think wildlife killing contests should be unlawful. As a society we have to evolve from this.”
The Holley event isn’t the only fund-raiser where participants hunt wildlife. Other events target crows and coyotes. But Birnkrant said Holley’s Squirrel Slam is unusual because it has a fire department as its sponsor and welcomes children as young as 12 to participate.
Participants bring up to five squirrels to the weigh station and prizes go to the heaviest cumulative entry. The event on Saturday, despite little advertising, quickly was a sellout and capped at 650 participants.
The Squirrel Slam generates about $6,500 in revenue for the Fire Department. After it pays out $1,500 for prizes, $500 for food and $440 to Holley for police overtime, Fire Department President Fran Gaylord said the event nets about $4,000.
Friends of Animals plans to present a petition to village and fire department officials, asking that the event be cancelled in the future. Friends has offered to make up the fund-raising loss for the fire department, Birnkrant said.
Bills in both the State Assembly and Senate call for banning wildlife hunting contests. That doesn’t include fishing derbies. Birnkrant said that her goal is to stop the contests that call for killing of land animals. She doesn’t see the contests as hunting in the traditional sense.
“Most people would be horrified by a dog or cat killing contest because they are pets,” Birnkrant said. “I’m horrified by a squirrel killing contest. They feel pain.”
Friends of Animals is actually against all hunting, but the group’s immediate goal is to see state legislation approved to ban wildlife hunting contests.
Birnkrant said her group hopes to show its opposition to the Holley event on Saturday, and doesn’t want to get into any confrontations with supporters of the Squirrel Slam.
“I would hope it would be pretty uneventful,” she said.
Holley police expects to have at least five officers on duty Saturday afternoon with additional support from the Albion Police Department and New York State Police.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 February 2014 at 12:00 am
World Life Institute is working with students from China, Brazil, Mexico, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Indonesia
Photos by Tom Rivers – Lifeng Lei, a student from China, addresses an ESL class on Monday, her final day with the group. She is headed back to China after a year in Orleans County, working at Intergrow Greenhouses in Albion and taking classes through the World Life Institute.
The class of ESL students poses for a picture with their teachers on Monday night. Students from six countries as well as Puerto Rico are enrolled in the program. Many of the students work at Intergrow Greenhouses.
WATERPORT – For a decade teachers at the World Life Institute partnered with the Orleans-Niagara BOCES to teach English to Mexican farmworkers.
The program has won state awards, and teacher Linda Redfield has been named the state’s top ESL teacher.
The program has become more diverse in the past year with students from Brazil, China, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Indonesia joining Mexican farmworkers in the classroom.
Many of those students are spending a year in Orleans County, interning at Intergrow Greenhouses. Those students have degrees in agriculture from universities in their home countries.
Students work in the computer lab using the Rosetta Stone program to learn English.
At Intergrow, they learn how to grow hydroponic tomatoes. They learn about irrigation, pest control and plant health, among many issues.
“It has been nice to meet so many new people,” said Oksana Kazakutsa, 26, of the Ukraine.
She will complete her year stay in the U.S. in two weeks. She wants to work in international business, perhaps in food and agriculture.
She praised the teachers at the World Life Institute, and also Dirk Biemans, owner of Intergrow, who welcomes the interns from around the world. Intergrow has 63 acres of greenhouses on Route 98 in Gaines. The company embraces students who want to learn about sustainable agricultural practices.
Oleksii Nepomniashchyi, 27, also is a student from the Ukraine. Like the other students, he works during at the day at Intergrow, and then takes English classes three evenings a week through the WLI, meeting at the Waterport school on Stillwater Road. The students also meet at Hoag Library for classes once a week.
The students have staggered internships at Intergrow so some students have been in the WLI program for several months when newcomers are enrolled.
“They all help each other,” said Linda Redfield, one of the teachers and the program director.
Tiangi Wang, 24, of China shares a slide show about his home country on Monday with other students in the ESL class.
The students share about their culture, sometimes bringing in prepared dishes of favorite foods in their countries. Redfield marveled at how multi-cultural the program has become.
There are 15 students in the program who are interning at Intergrow. Those students all live in Albion. The WLI continues to work with Mexican farmworkers, teaching ESL and helping some prepare for their citizenship test.
Octaviano Gomez, 41, of Medina has worked at local farms for many years. He passed the citizenship test on Jan. 9 and will soon be sworn in as a U.S. citizen.
“The teachers have helped me a lot,” he said on Monday at the school.
He wants to keep improving his skills, especially his English. That’s why he is back at the school.
“I want to learn more,” he said.
Cheryl Lieberman, a volunteer teacher with the WLI, works with a student who is preparing for his citizenship test.
Monica Beck is one of the teachers in the program. She said the students are highly motivated, which makes her job much easier.
“The students want to be here and the teachers want to be here,” she said. “It’s not like regular school where the students would rather be home playing video games.”
One of the students, Tiangi Wang of China, addressed the class on Monday. It was the last class for the 24-year-old. He thanked the group for their friendship and for helping him improve his English. He praised the staff at the school.
‘The teachers put their whole heart into it,” he said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 February 2014 at 12:00 am
No independent candidates step forward; London unopposed
ALBION – Dean London, Albion’s retired police chief, will be unopposed on March 18 in the election for village mayor.
London has been endorsed by both the Republican and Democratic parties. No independent candidates stepped forward by the deadline Feb. 11 to run for mayor or village trustee.
London, a Republican, worked for the Albion Police Department for 20 years before retiring in April 2011. He currently works for Baxter Healthcare in Medina in the service department.
While London is unopposed for mayor, three trustee positions have both Republican and Democratic candidates.
Republicans have backed incumbent Eileen Banker and Stan Farone for four-year terms. The party also endorsed Gary Katsanis for a two-year term.
Democrats endorsed Terry Wilbert and Patricia Cammarata for four-year terms. Cammarata wasn’t at the Democratic caucus on Jan. 28, but she has accepted the party’s nomination to run.
Democrats also endorsed Sandra Walter to run for the two-year term that fills the vacated seat by Fred Miller. He resigned in December so he could become a county legislator.
The village election will be noon to 9 p.m. at the Village Hall, 35-37 East Bank St.
By Nola Goodrich-Kresse, Public Health Educator for the Orleans County Health Department
Isn’t it fun watching children laughing and smiling? When anyone smiles or laughs in fun it usually lifts the spirit of those who can hear and see the person doing the laughing and smiling.
When someone is having problems with their teeth they don’t feel much like smiling or are embarrassed by the way their teeth or lack of teeth look.
How can you have a better smile? It really starts before you are born by making sure women who are pregnant eat fruits, vegetables and other foods rich in Vitamin D and calcium. Making sure you have good dental care practices before and during pregnancy go a long way in helping your child have strong teeth as they get older.
Taking care of a newborn’s mouth even before teeth are formed can set the stage for continued dental health care. Wiping a baby’s mouth with soft gauze or a clean wash cloth can prevent build up of acid in the mouth from the baby’s food and drink.
Never put a baby down for a nap or to bed with a bottle. Juice, formula and/or breast milk or sugar sweetened drinks causes baby bottle decay which can cause painful dental and tummy problems for the baby.
If your baby must have something to drink give baby a bottle of plain water. As soon as the first tooth appears start using a soft baby toothbrush (talk with your doctor or dentist about whether or not to use toothpaste). Introduce your baby to the dentist between 6 and 12 months of age.
Baby teeth are just as important as permanent teeth. As children get older it may seem a challenge to make sure they keep up with brushing their teeth properly. They may need to see you model good dental health.
Make sure you brush your teeth with your own soft toothbrush (no sharing here!) at least twice a day for about 2 minutes (longer if you have braces or other dental work) and flossing at least once a day. Make sure your whole family visits your dentist twice a year for cleanings and fluoride treatments for strong teeth and to catch any cavities before they get worse.
Consider dental sealants. Dental sealants are different from fillings. Fillings are used to fill in the space from a cavity where the plaque bacteria (the sticky film on your teeth) changes sugar and starch from food and drinks into harmful acids that attack tooth enamel.
Repeated attacks of this acid cause the enamel to break down causing a cavity, which in turn can lead to infections. Proper brushing and flossing helps to remove the acid from your teeth, however teeth that have grooves or deep pits, such as the molars (back teeth) may hold on to the plaque. This is where dental sealants come in to protect the back teeth from decay.
Sealants are easy to apply and only take a few minutes to seal each tooth. A special thin, plastic coating is painted on each tooth after it is cleaned and prepared for the sealant. As long as the sealant remains intact, usually about five years or more, the tooth surface will be protected from decay. Make sure you and your child continue proper brushing, flossing and rinsing as well as visiting your dentist regularly to keep the sealants working to prevent tooth decay.
It is important to protect your teeth no matter how old you are. Having an unhealthy mouth can affect your overall body’s health. Poor oral health, tooth loss and gum disease, can be connected to heart disease, diabetes, cancer and strokes.
Eating healthful foods that have calcium and vitamin D help teeth grow properly. Limit sticky, sweet snacks that encourage the bacterial plaque to make acid attacks on tooth enamel. Talk with your doctor or dentist about fluoride supplements to help build strong enamel.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 February 2014 at 12:00 am
LYNDONVILLE – Only one candidate has stepped forward to run in the March 18 village election.
Charles Covell is seeking the position, 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.
The one-year term for trustee is the only position that will be on the ballot March 18. Polls will be open from noon to 9 p.m. at Village Hall, 2 South Main St.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 February 2014 at 12:00 am
MEDINA – Three incumbents for the Village Board will run without opposition on the March 18 ballot.
Current Mayor Andrew Meier and trustees Patricia Crowley and David Barhite are running under the independent Village Party. The terms are for two years.
Meier works as an attorney and entrepreneur in Medina. He has been leading the push to explore dissolution of the village. Meier expects a dissolution would save village taxpayers significant money. A committee is working with a consultant to determine the savings and how to best fold current village services into the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby, or in other special taxing districts.
Barhite is retired from a career with the Orleans County Department of Social Services. Crowley works as a program coordinator for the Genesee-Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse in Orleans County.
Village Clerk Debbie Padoleski said other residents picked up petitions to run for the Village Board, but none returned them by the Feb. 11 deadline.
The election will be from noon to 9 p.m. on March 18 with voting at the senior center, 615 West Ave.
