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UMMC eyes former Pizza Hut site for women’s health center in Medina

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 January 2014 at 12:00 am

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia wants to tear down the former Pizza Hut in Medina to make way for a women’s health facility.

MEDINA – Less than a month after withdrawing its plans to turn a former gas station into a women’s health center in Medina, a Batavia hospital has identified a different site for the project: the former Pizza Hut at 11225 Maple Ridge Rd.

The United Memorial Medical Center will be a tenant at the site. Developer Chad LaCivita is working to acquire the property. The Pizza Hut building will be torn down and a new 4,000-square-foot site will be erected.

Courtesy of smartDESIGN architecture PLLC

Courtesy of smartDESIGN architecture PLLC

UMMC is working with smartDESIGN architecture in Batavia for the the design of the new building and the landscaping for the site. The building will look nearly the same as the project pitched for a former gas station down the road. UMMC withdrew from that project due to some environmental concerns with the site.

The Batavia hospital has been providing women’s health services at 100 Ohio St., space owned by Medina Memorial Hospital. Medina closed its birthing wing in July 2011. UMMC now delivers more than 100 babies a year to Orleans County women.

The site at 100 Ohio St. is cramped for space, said Colleen Flynn, UMMC’s director of community relations.

The new site will have more space for doctors, patients and staff. UMMC provides obstetrics, gynecological care and other health services.

“We need a better place,” Flynn said. “We have a big commitment to providing quality care and improving the physical plant.”

The Batavia hospital recently spent $2 million improving its maternity wing.

The plan for the project was reviewed by the Medina Planning Board on Tuesday and the Zoning Board of Appeals on Wednesday. It goes before the Orleans County Planning Board on Jan. 24. It goes back to the Village Planning Board for a final vote on Feb. 4.

UMMC was looking to turn a former gas station on Maple Ridge Road into a women’s health center, but backed off that site after environmental auditing at the property, the former K & K at 11360 Maple Ridge Rd.

Collins co-sponsors bill that exempts firefighters from ObamaCare

Posted 9 January 2014 at 12:00 am

Press release, Congressman Chris Collins

Congressman Chris Collins (R-Clarence) spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives in an effort to protect local volunteer fire departments from ObamaCare’s expensive and burdensome mandates.

Collins is a co-sponsor of legislation (H.R. 3685, the Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act) which will ensure volunteer service responders are not classified as full-time employees under ObamaCare.

“In November of last year, I wrote a letter to the Acting Commissioner of the IRS seeking a specific exemption for volunteer responders, but my office has yet to receive a reply,” Collins said. “Since the Administration will not correct this disservice to America’s volunteer EMTs and firefighters, we must act legislatively.”

For tax purposes the IRS classifies volunteer emergency responders as employees. With this employee designation, large volunteer fire departments will be subject to the ObamaCare Employer Mandate, forcing them to provide health insurance to their volunteers or pay a significant penalty.

“These unnecessary costs will cripple the strong volunteer fire community that protects Western New York and the rest of the country,” Collins said.

H.R. 3685 is sponsored by Rep. Lou Barletta (PA-11) and is currently in front of the Ways and Means Committee for consideration.

Snowy Owls weather the storm

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 January 2014 at 12:00 am

KENDALL – The sub-zero temperatures in recent days did not scare off the Snowy Owls that have been creating a stir the past month with multiple sightings in Orleans County and other spots in Western New York.

Vince Flow took this picture this morning near Lake Ontario in Kendall. Flow has a zoom lens and he has taken several photos of the owls in recent weeks. He said they like the wide open country in Kendall.

The owls typically nest in the Artic tundra and winter in Canada. Bird watchers believe we are having a historic year with the presence of so many Snowy Owls in the U.S. The owls have migrated into the U.S. in search of food. About 90 percent of their diet is the small rodent lemmings, but the owls also eat mice, voles, ducks, hares and fish.

Author will share adventures in chronicling Upstate museums

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 January 2014 at 12:00 am

D’Imperio’s book highlights 50 sites, including 2 in Orleans

The cover of “Unknown Museums of Upstate New York” includes a photo of the Cobblestone Universalist Church in Gaines, which is part of the Cobblestone Society Museum.

ALBION – Chuck D’Imperio wanted to highlight 50 museums in Upstate New York, sites that he says are important caretakers of local history and culture.

D’Imperio’s book, “Unknown Museums of Upstate New York,” includes two sites in Orleans County: The Medina Railroad Museum and the Cobblestone Society Museum.

He will be in town on Jan. 25 to talk about the book and his journeys around the state in cataloging the sites. He wrote the book as a guide to 50 “treasures” that tell unappreciated stories of the state’s history.

Bindings Bookstore and Tillman’s Village Inn will host D’Imperio for an evening dining event and book signing.

He has several museums from Western New York in the book, including The Holland Land Office Museum of Batavia, the Kazoo Factory museum in Eden, the Jell-O Gallery in LeRoy, the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum in North Tonawanda, the Elbert Hubbard Roycroft Museum in East Aurora, the Steel Plant Museum of Western New York and the Millard Fillmore House Museum in East Aurora.

D’Imperio will be sign copies of the book at 6 p.m. on Jan. 25. Tickets are available at Bindings Bookstore in Albion, a lily and a sparrow in Medina and Johnathan’s Pastry Shoppe in Holley.

Former Albion mayor won’t run again for elected office

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 January 2014 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers – Ed Salvatore, president of the Albion Exempts Club, serves up a plate of spaghetti during a dinner at the Exempts today. Salvatore volunteers as manager and cook at the site.

ALBION – Ed Salvatore, Albion’s mayor for eight years from 1998 to 2006, won’t seek the position in the upcoming March village election. Nor will he run for village trustee.

“I’m done with politics,” Salvatore said today. “I’m going to hang my political hat up.”

Salvatore the past two months considered another run for Village Board. The mayor’s position and three trustee seats are all up for election.

But Salvatore, 83, said a spot on the Village Board would force him to cut back at the Albion Exempts Club, a social organization of the Albion Fire Department. Salvatore spends about 25 hours a week at the Exempts, managing the site at 143 South Clinton St.

“I don’t want to give that up,” said Salvatore, who has been a member of the Fire Department for more than 60 years, including a stint as fire chief.

Salvatore enjoys volunteering at the Albion Exempts Club, including Thursday spaghetti dinners.

He is president of the Exempts Club and volunteers as a cook for the club’s Thursday spaghetti dinners, which are open to the public. He has filled the Exempts Club with historical photos and artifacts from the fire department.

Salvatore also has served as chairman of the Albion Republican Committee, but he no longer is on the committee.

Both the Democratic and Republican parties will pick their village candidates during caucuses later this month.

Salvatore is spending some of his free time working on the restoration of a boat. He hopes to have it ready for the summer.

“The only sign I’m putting out in my front yard is ‘Gone Fishin’,” he said.

Albion boxer: ‘I learned to punch and not be afraid’

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 January 2014 at 12:00 am

Nick Platt will fight in Saturday’s ‘Battle of Batavia’

Photo by Tom Rivers – Nick Platt took up boxing about a year ago and has lost more than 50 pounds. His father Doug Platt is his coach. They train at Phoenix Fitness in Albion.

ALBION – A year ago Nick Platt was 15 when he tried boxing for the first time. Within 20 seconds, he was punched in the face and his nose was bleeding.

Platt didn’t quit. In fact, he has embraced the sport, dropping more than 50 pounds the past year through exercise, training and an improved diet.

Platt, a Kent resident, won his first sanctioned fight last Saturday in Jamestown. He will compete this Saturday in the “Battle of Batavia,” bouts that feature kickboxing.

Nick brings a 1-1 record into his bout. He lost his debut in September when Nick said he was far too timid.

“I learned to punch and not be afraid,” he said this evening at Phoenix Fitness, where he trains with about a half dozen other regulars in the Charisma Boxing Club.

David Gates is the owner of the club and Phoenix Fitness. He also is one of the coaches. Nick’s father Doug Platt also coaches the boxers and has them running at least twice a week to build their endurance. They train at least two other days a week.

Nick was about 200 pounds a year ago. He’s now down to 148.

“I was short and fat,” he said. “I wasn’t active. I ate unhealthy and I never worked out.”

Nick is on the short side for his weight class. But he holds his own.

“He has good defense and relentless pressure,” his father said.

Nick and his father said the sport is safe. The boxers wear padded head gear, mouth guards and padded gloves. Doctors are at all of the bouts and perform physicals before and after the fights.

Nick will be in a three-round bout at Saturday’s kickboxing event at the Clarion in Batavia. The fights start at 6:30 and tickets are available at the door.

Doug Platt, marathon runner and former boxer, would like to see Albion host a boxing event in the future. He is encouraged by the growing number of participants in the Charisma Boxing Club.

“We’d like to see it become one of the premiere boxing clubs in Western New York,” Platt said.

The club has three coaches with John Weber also working with the athletes.

Nick expects to fight regularly at events throughout Upstate New York. He wants to compete in the Junior Olympics in February in Niagara Falls.

He tried baseball and other local youth sports, but he said it wasn’t until he tried boxing, even after that initial bloody nose, that he enjoyed a sport.

Now the junior at Albion is highly motivated, running 4 miles and putting 2-plus hours in the gym.

“It takes a lot of endurance to get hit and to fight for three rounds,” he said.

Man admits selling drugs with mother

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 January 2014 at 12:00 am

ALBION – A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty in Orleans County Court to helping his mother sell hydrocodone and acetaminophen, a narcotics combination.

Josh Nichols could face up to 2 ½ years in state prison after pleading guilty on Monday to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree. The judge may decide against state prison and could sentence Nichols to up to a year in the county jail or a lesser sentence.

Judge James Punch will sentence Nichols on March 24 at 2 p.m.

Nichols told the judge he collected money for the hydrocodone combination for his mother, Theresa Nichols. Her son had the drugs on a porch in Albion at 209 North Main St. and directed the buyer to the product.

Theresa Nichols last month pleaded guilty to attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree. Nichols, 51, could face up to four years in state prison for selling hydrocodone and other prescription narcotics. She will be sentenced on Feb. 24.

Another one of her sons, David Nichols, also pleaded guilty on Dec. 16 to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree. Nichols, 28, admitted to trying to sell prescription narcotics that were rolled into cigarettes.

He could face 1 ½ to 4 years in state prison as a second-felony offender. He will be sentenced on Feb. 10.

In other cases in County Court:

• Kenneth Vanduzer, 25, of Rochester pleaded guilty to petty larceny. He was originally charged with third-degree grand larceny after he took his truck from Orleans Ford in Medina following $11,000 in repairs he didn’t pay for in November 2012.

The charge was reduced after Vanduzer paid restitution. He has no prior criminal history.

• Syed Baity, 19, of 221 Commercial St. in Medina was sentenced to 1 to 3 years in state prison after he violated probation in June 2013.

Baity and two other teen-agers were in a stolen vehicle when they were involved in a high-speed chase in Batavia with city police. Baity was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, second-degree obstructing governmental administration and unlawful possession of marijuana.

Judge Punch recommended shock camp for Baity’s incarceration.

• Alexander Gelo, 22, of Brockport pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree. He could be sentenced to up to six months in jail and five years probation for selling cocaine in Murray on Dec. 1, 2012. He will be sentenced on March 24.

• Jorge Villanueva-Ledesma, 34, of Zig Zag Road pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree. He was among 13 people arrested on various drug and immigration charges in June after an eight-month, multi-agency investigation into the sale of drugs in the Albion area.

Villanueva-Ledesma could be sentenced to up to 2 ½ years in state prison on March 24.

Publio Barcenas, 52, of Zig Zag Road also was charged in that investigation. He pleaded guilty on Monday to seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and could be sentenced to up to a year in jail.

3 school districts close with more cold today

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 January 2014 at 12:00 am

Three of the five school districts – Holley, Lyndonville and Medina – are closed today due to the single-digit temperatures in the morning with the wind chill making it feel 5-below.

Rainbow Preschool in Albion, Gaines Country Preschool in Gaines, Orleans County Christian School in Medina and the Orleans-Niagara BOCES outside Medina have also closed today.

Albion and Kendall school districts are open.

Conservative Party leaders speak against tax-saving deals for companies

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 January 2014 at 12:00 am

ALBION – Orleans County Conservative Party leaders blasted tax-saving plans for two projects in Orleans County, deals that will result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in in less tax revenue for local municipalities.

That’s how Al Lofthouse, Conservative Party chairman, sees it.

“You’re raping the taxpayer,” he told county legislators at today’s Legislature meeting. “It’s thoroughly disgusting.”

Lofthouse opposes a tax abatement deal for the Wegman Group, a real estate company from Hilton that wants to develop the 400-unit Cottages at Troutburg.

The Orleans Economic Development Agency has crafted a 10-year tax savings plan for the 126-acre site in the northeast corner of Kendall along Lake Ontario. The plan only applies to the land. Any new seasonal cottages will be taxed at 80 percent of their value.

The land is currently assessed at $1,305,200. The EDA proposal would save the company more than $200,000 over 10 years.

“You’re taking public money and giving it to private companies,” Lofthouse said.

The land, a former Salvation Army camp, was tax exempt for about 40 years and didn’t generate any tax revenue for the local municipalities until very recently, said Gabrielle Barone, vice president of business development for the EDA.

She said the project could boost the town’s tax base by $30 million when it’s fully developed. She told Lofthouse to look at the PILOT in the early stages of the project as a small investment for the bigger return later as the cottages are built.

The EDA will have a public hearing 9 a.m. Jan. 15 at the Kendall Town Hall for the Troutburg tax abatement plan

Paul Lauricella, Conservative Party vice chairman, also said he opposed a sales tax exemption for Claims Recovery Financial Services, which could spend up to $4,430,000 for new equipment, machinery and furnishings as part of its relocation and expansion into the former JP Morgan Chase call center on East Avenue.

The company won’t have to pay sales tax on any of those purchases, a benefit that could save the company up to $354,400 because of the sales tax exemption. Both the county and state won’t collect $172,200 each in sales tax if CRFS spends $4.43 million for equipment and furnishings in its expansion and relocation. The sales tax abatement was approved last month.

The county didn’t give away the sales tax because it’s money that was never received, said Chuck Nesbitt, county chief administrative officer.

CRFS has about 600 employees in the county now and plans to add 150 more as it moves into the former Chase site. The company was being wooed by economic development agencies to expand in Texas. The company, led by Albion resident Jodi Gaines, picked Albion to grow.

“The sales tax abatement helped them to stay in Orleans County,” Barone said.

Constitutional talking points

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 January 2014 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Marisa Hanlon, a junior at Kendall, delivers a speech about the Constitution during today’s Orleans County Legislature meeting. Hanlon last month won the county’s American Legion Oratorical Contest. She will compete in the district competition on Sunday in Kenmore.

Participants have to deliver 8- to 10-minute memorized speeches about the Constitution. Hanlon spoke about how the Constitution excluded African-Americans and several amendments were needed for African-Americans to have equal rights.

Legislature Chairman David Callard is pictured in back listening to Marisa. Her mother Nadine Hanlon is the Legislature clerk. She is pictured at right.

Marisa is president of the Student Council in Kendall, plays varsity soccer, is a member of 4-H and is a dancer. She serves on the Orleans County Youth Board as a youth representative.