By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Employees at Five Star Bank in Albion today created a yellow brick road and Emerald City, while dressing as the main characters from the Wizard of Oz.
Branch manager Wendy Hinkley, right, dressed as Oz. Other employees include, from left: Katie Harvey as Dorothy, Amanda Bigley as the Scarecrow, Felicia Dhondt as the Lion, Susan Plummer as a witch and Marilea Greean as the Tin Man.
The bank also has been playing the sound track from the show throughout the day.
“People have just loved it,” Hinkley said.
Orleans Hub welcomes submitted photos from other workplaces that dressed up today. Please send the photos with IDs to tom@orleanshub.com.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 October 2013 at 12:00 am
‘Just Another High School Music’ features improv and comedy
Photos by Tom Rivers – Elijah Van Epps does a Tom Jones routine while Zach Shaffer is the magician David Copperfield, two characters in Albion High School’s latest drama production, “Just Another High School Musical.”
ALBION – The annual fall musical at Albion High School will keep the audience in stitches.
“We wanted to do a farce,” said Gary Simboli, the musical’s director.
Twenty-two students are in the cast and 12 are in stage crew. They created their own blocking and choreography for “Just Another High School Musical,” a show where students are forced to improv because their director abandons the show, leaving students to perform in front of live audience without a director.
Jenna Reigle, left, and Char Olick lead the cast in one of the numbers.
Albion students take the lead with parts of the show, but Simboli provides plenty of guidance and instruction.
“I like the challenge and the fast pace,” Simboli said today during the final rehearsal before the show on Friday and Saturday. There are shows at 7 p.m. both days, plus a noon performance on Saturday at the middle school auditorium.
“Every single student gets their moment when they are genuinely funny,” Simboli said.
At the close of the first act, David Stilwell, left, and Kyle Thaine sing “Intermission.”
Students get to play contemporary high schoolers, and work on their acting and choregraphy.
Simboli says he likes to try more contemporary shows for the fall musical. In the spring, he picks many Broadway classics. The school this spring will perform “The Wiz.”
In one of the sillier scenes, three boys — William Pecorella, Zach Shaffer and Elijah Van Epps — do a spoof on “Little Women.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 October 2013 at 12:00 am
LYNDONVILLE – Some smoke in an art storage room in the primary wing of the Lyndonville Central School triggered a fire alarm and kept students and staff out of the building for more than an hour this morning.
Lyndonville and Medina firefighters both investigated the storage room and the entire building, and deemed the site safe, said Jason Smith, Superintendent of Schools.
The alarm went off at 9:12 a.m. Students and staff left the school building on Housel Avenue and went to the former elementary school building while firefighters investigated for about 40 minutes.
Firefighters and the school haven’t determined a specific cause or source of the smoke. The area has been on watch throughout the school day since students and staff returned to the building at about 10:30 a.m., Smith said.
He thanked the firefighters for their response and said students and staff were cooperative during the alarm.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Brown’s Berry Patch and the Albion Rotary Club raised $2,566 for Hospice of Orleans with a 5-kilometer walk and run on Oct. 12. Margy Brown, center, presents a check to Hospice today. She is pictured with Rotary Club President Cindy Perry, left, and Marsha Rivers, director development and community relations for Hospice.
CARLTON – For 17 years the Brown family has organized a 5-kilometer run and walk through their orchards as a benefit for Hospice of Orleans County.
The race has now raised $31,190 for the agency, with the Oct. 12 race netting $2,566.
Margy Brown presented a check to Hospice Director of Development and Community Relations Marsha Rivers today during the Albion Rotary Club meeting. The Rotary Club provides some manpower during the race.
The Oct. 12 race was dedicated in memory of Judy Christopher, a Rotarian and volunteer at many of the Brown’s races.
“She was always a mentor,” Brown told the Rotary Club today. “I had a great deal of respect for her.”
The race T-shirt included an image of a phoenix as a tribute to Christopher, who owned Phoenix Fitness for about two decades in Albion.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Provided photo
MEDINA — Representatives from Monsanto were in Medina last week to present a $25,000 check to the school district for its agriculture program.
The company met with FFA students, district leaders and local elected officials as well as State Assemblyman Steve Hawley.
Medina will use the funds to create a small, self-sustained, on-campus mini-farm with video surveillance; a compost center; a hydroponics system; and organic community gardens at the middle and elementary schools.۬
Medina would like to have some of the projects in place by May, when the community will host the state FFA Convention.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Ray and Linda Burke turn site into “Fairhaven Treasures”
Photos by Tom Rivers
GAINES – The former Swiercznski homestead at the corner of routes 98 and 104 is planned to open on Nov. 29, the Friday after Thanksgiving. The site will be an art gallery and high-end craft co-op.
Ray Burke and his wife have spent about a year renovating and remodeling the 3,040-square-foot house, which was built in 1834.
“This old house was just sitting here,” said Burke. “We’ve tried to bring it up to some level of use and beauty.”
Burke is retired from DuPont in Rochester. The former machine shop foreman said several community members have helped work on the building and brainstorm uses for the site. He praised Gaines Town Supervisor Carol Culhane, in particular, for providing a vision for the site and also a lot of manual labor.
Culhane said the house will be a nice complement to the Cobblestone Society Museum, the Village Inn and other businesses on the Ridge.
“This is the historical crossroads of this community,” Culhane said. “It deserves to be showcased.”
The house has six fireplaces, including a heating pot and Dutch oven in the kitchen. Burke welcomes any historical photos and clues about the site’s past.
He has worked on the property almost every day since last Christmas.
“The more I work on it, the more I like it,” he said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Contractors have the shell of a warehouse knocked down less than two weeks after a massive fire destroyed the three-story building on Hamilton Street and Route 31.
After the fire at Orleans Pallet, the four walls of the structure remained. The east and north walls came down a day after the fire. But the other walls on the south and west sides had to be chipped away by hand. A demolition contractor needed to use a lift for more than a week to manually remove chunks of the sandstone walls.
Most of those pieces have been pushed into the rubble – the twisted steel and charred beams – from the building.
Orleans Pallet owner Shawn Malark has said he wants to save as much of the sandstone as possible for reuse in the community.
The Environmental Construction Group of Albion has been the lead contractor on the demolition. It was assisted by Empire Wrecking of Rochester.
Here is how the building looked on Oct. 18, before demolition crews went to work on the remaining walls from the site, which was built in 1901. The smaller sandstone building won’t be knocked down.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
File photo by Tom Rivers – Jenn Suhr, shown in a pole vaulting competition on May 31 in Lyndonville, has become the most acclaimed American woman to compete in her sport. She will be inducted in the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame today.
BUFFALO – Jenn Suhr will officially join the ranks of the greatest athletes in Buffalo history tonight when she is inducted in the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.
Suhr, who lives in Kendall and Churchville, won the Gold Medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. She holds numerous American records in pole vaulting, a sport she didn’t take up until her senior year at college. At Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, she graduated as the school’s all-time leading scorer in basketball with 1,819 points.
In pole vaulting, she has excelled as one of the few women to ever clear 16 feet. Suhr is still competing and believes she can go higher.
The Fredonia native is married to Lyndonville native, Rick Suhr, who is also her coach.
Another local resident will be inducted in the Hall of Fame tonight. Dick Diminuco of Albion is one of few high school football coaches in Western New York to top 200 career wins. Orleans Hub featured Diminuco in article on Oct. 23. (Click here to see that story.)
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Albion Fire Chief Rocky Sidari and other leaders in the Fire Department gave what they said was a long-overdue message to the Village Board: “Thank you.”
Sidari and department officials attended last week’s board meeting to thank the village for its support of the department. Besides providing financial resources so firefighters have the needed equipment, Sidari said board members often go out of their way to help the department.
During a massive warehouse fire on Oct. 17, Trustee Eileen Banker was close to the scene, handing bottles of water to firefighters. Other members of the Auxiliary had food and snacks for firefighters, who were on scene for several hours of intense firefighting.
Some the firefighters were there all night.
At 4 in the morning the following day, Mayor Dean Theodorakos showed up with coffee for the firefighters.
“We wanted to thank you for your support,” Sidari told the board.
Sidari noted other village employees assisted the fire department in the aftermath of the blaze. Dale Brooks and the DPW delivered fuel in the middle of the night to keep the fire trucks going.
Trustee Kevin Sheehan praised Sidari and the department for their volunteer efforts in protecting the community’s property and often saving lives.
Banker called the fire department “the backbone of the community.”
“Thank you for thanking us, but right back at you,” the mayor said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Nick Condoluci goes all out in a scary setup
Photos by Tom Rivers
EAGLE HARBOR – Nick Condoluci may have the scariest setup for Halloween in Orleans County, a backyard with hanging skeletons, a grave yard, a guillotine and a “Booger Booth,” just to name a few.
Condoluci makes most of the props himself, spending much of the winter cutting out and designing tombstones, signs and other scary features, including an electric chair with a buzzer on the seat.
“You can’t buy this stuff,” he said. “I think I have the largest Halloween display in Orleans County. No one else does it to this extreme.”
Condoluci created the outdoor setup about five years ago at his home on School Lane in Eagle Harbor. (The first road north of the lift bridge.)
He opens the attractions up for the community each year about a week before Halloween. He has the setup aglow in green, red, yellow and orange lights each night from 6 to 9 p.m. On Halloween some of his friends – “actors” – will be part of the display.
“They are here to scare you,” Condoluci said.
He has turned 1-acre in his backyard into a scare land, with a spooky fake graveyard bearing the names of the people killed in the Salem Witch Trials.
Condoluci, a school bus driver, said Halloween and the display are just a hobby that he enjoys sharing with the community.
“I call it Halloween to the extreme,” he said.
Condoluci said some of the visitors like to pose with the guillotine and the stocks in the backyard. He is happy to oblige any photo requests.
