By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – A worker was up high on a boom lift at about 2 p.m. today, dismantling some of the Medina sandstone in the corner of where a side wall joined the back wall of the former Albion Cold Storage Company, which burned in a massive fire on Thursday.
Two of the walls of the structure used by Orleans Pallet were removed on Friday. The remaining two walls will be a more delicate takedown, with the corner pieces removed by hand to reduce the risk of the walls toppling and damaging some of the neighboring structures.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Punch wants psychiatric evaluation for Rothmund
Rothmund in his July mugshot
ALBION – A Rochester man confessed in court today that he robbed the Bank of America in Albion on July 2, showing up at the bank wearing a mask and threatening a clerk with a bomb that later was discovered to be fake.
Jeremy Rothmund, 30, admitted the crime as part of a plea deal that would reduce his sentence from a maximum of 20 years in state prison to no more than 15 years.
However, County Court Judge James Punch, after listening to Rothmund, said he couldn’t accept the plea without a psychiatric evaluation for Rothmund, who also confessed in court to robbing two banks in the town of Greece.
Rothmund is being held in a psychiatric facility after attempting suicide in the Orleans County Jail earlier this month. Rothmund on Oct. 16 also injured a corrections officer in the county jail. He hasn’t been charged yet with that crime.
Punch told Rothmund a plea deal for the bank robbery wouldn’t include all of Rothmund’s other crimes.
“You’re not getting a blank check for everything you ever did,” Punch told him.
Rothmund hasn’t been diagnosed with mental health issues, nor is he taking any medications, he told Judge Punch in court today. But Rothmund said he feels stress from the “proceedings” – being in jail and facing a lengthy prison sentence.
In court, he said his girlfriend, Elyse A. Hoffer, didn’t know he was robbing banks. Rothmund said he told her to park behind the Freeze-Dry building on Route 31 near the railroad tracks while he went to buy drugs.
Rothmund returned with a bag full of $18,000. He said he told Huffer to drive fast out of town. (The two were later stopped and arrested in Holley after a resident identified them in Albion and called the police.)
Punch questioned Rothmund about the claim that Huffer didn’t know she was driving the getaway car from a robbery. Rothmund told the judge she didn’t know beforehand if he was robbing a bank, but she later realized it.
Punch said the plea offer was made with the premise that Rothmund was unaided in the robberies. But the judge said Huffer clearly assisted Rothmund, even if she was “tricked.”
Punch ordered the psychiatric evaluation for Rothmund, who is due back in court at 2 p.m. on Nov. 18.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Hawley leads SAFE Act forum attended by 200 in Albion
Photos by Tom Rivers – Orleans County District Attorney Joe Cardone, second from left, answers a question about the SAFE Act during a forum in Albion on Monday. He is joined by Chief Deputy Tom Drennan, left, and State Assemblyman Steve Hawley, and Steve Aldstadt, state president of the Shooters Committee on Political Education or SCOPE.
ALBION – If someone in Orleans County is violating New York’s new gun law, the SAFE Act, law enforcement officials told them not to worry unless they are using the gun to commit a crime.
If law-abiding citizens and sportsmen have guns that cosmetically could soon be considered illegal or if they have a gun with 10 bullets instead of the limit of seven, they don’t need to worry that their guns will be seized or that they will be arrested or fined.
That was the message from District Attorney Joe Cardone and Tom Drennan, chief deputy of the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department.
“We won’t be there knocking on your door, I can tell you that,” Drennan told 200 people during a SAFE Act forum Monday night in Albion at the middle school.
Cardone said Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the majority of the State Legislature, in a “knee-jerk reaction,” approved the SAFE Act without thinking through its ramifications, particularly on law-abiding gun owners.
As DA, he is sworn to uphold New York laws, but he is also bound to support the Constitution. Many gun owners believe the SAFE Act violates their Second Amendment rights.
“We’re put in a very difficult position,” Cardone said tonight during a forum.
Mattie Zarpentine, Western NY regional coordinator for New York Revolution, urges gun owners to be more active politically by registering to vote and casting their ballots on election day.
State Assemblyman Steve Hawley coordinated the forum. Hawley opposed the SAFE Act and he has introduced legislation to repeal it. New York should start over in looking for solutions to curb violence in communities by using a legislative process that is open to the public and welcomes input from sportsmen, law enforcement agencies, veterans, businesses and gun owners, Hawley said.
Cuomo pushed through the SAFE Act in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut. The law, which restricts access to guns and ammunition, was passed without a public hearing.
“I say shame on the governor for using people’s emotions to pass his own agenda,” Hawley said.
Steve Aldstadt, state president of the Shooters Committee on Political Education or SCOPE, said at least five lawsuits are trying to block the SAFE Act. Those judicial battles could wage for years.
The best way to combat the SAFE Act is to vote Cuomo out of office during the November 2014 election, said several speakers, including Steve Aldstadt, state president of SCOPE. State Assemblyman Steve Hawley said he is working for a repeal of the SAFE Act. Hawley also said the election next November is likely gun owners’ best hope for changing the law.
Mattie Zarpentine of Holley, the Western NY regional director for New York Revolution, urged all gun owners to register to vote and then cast a ballot in the state-wide elections. NY Revolution formed after the SAFE Act’s passage. It worked to secure formal resolutions from the county, and 10 town and four village government boards in Orleans County, the only county in the state where all levels of local government opposed the SAFE Act.
Zarpentine said gun owners, if they turned out in force in the state-wide election, could oust Cuomo from office.
Hawley organized the forum so gun owners could have information about the SAFE Act and its impact on them. But the assemblyman said the law is often vague, creating anxiety and uncertainty for gun owners as well as law enforcement.
“Bad process leads to bad policy and that’s what we have here,” he said.
The law forbids certain features on guns, forces doctors or counselors to report mentally ill patients who own guns, and creates a $500 incentive for people to report SAFE Act law-breakers. Gun owners can also have their names and addresses obtained through public records unless they chose to opt out. Some newspapers have published lists of gun owners and their addresses.
Jim Moore of Clarendon said he opposes the SAFE Act but thinks something needs to be done to reduce gun violence.
Gun owners will have to re-register every five years. It will be harder to pass down guns through the family, and it will be much more difficult to buy ammunition.
“It’s hard to believe they passed this,” said Aldstadt, the SCOPE leader. “There are so many onerous provisions out there that will effect law-abiding citizens.”
Drennan, the chief deputy, said the SAFE Act unfortunately targets sportsmen and citizens who follow the law.
“A lot of this is ridiculous and doesn’t make any sense,” he said about the SAFE Act.
Cardone said some of the SAFE Act provisions stiffen the penalties for criminals who break the law while using a gun. In those cases the law will help put criminals in jail or prison. In those cases, Cardone said, he would use the SAFE Act to prosecute criminals.
But he won’t use it for standalone crimes that involve only the SAFE Act. So far no one in Orleans County has been arrested under the SAFE Act.
“If someone faces other charges they could be charged with the SAFE Act,” Cardone said. “But John Q Public, I’m not going out of my way to make a problem for them.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Albion Rotary Club members joined artist Nin Bogue and village of Albion trustee Eileen Banker for a ribbon-cutting Saturday morning for a new mural in downtown Albion in honor of the workers who cut stone in local quarries for about a century.
The Rotary Club is the main sponsor for the project. The mural is in Waterman Park on village-owned land on Main Street, about a half-block south of the Erie Canal.
Bogue, an artist from Lyndonville, created the mural that is 20 feet long and 5 feet high.
Rotary Club President for 2013-14 Cindy Perry, left, is pictured next to Kelly Kiebala, the club president in 2012-13. Bogue cuts the ribbon while Banker stands next to him at right.
The ceremonial ribbon includes four different colored ribbons that were interwoven to symbolize the four main countries – Ireland, Poland, Italy and Britain – where immigrants came to this area to work as quarrymen.
The project included a matching grant from the Rotary District and some support from the Orleans County Tourism Department.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Karen Watt, co-owner of Watt Farms Country Market, addresses the crowd this morning before the start of the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk at the farm on Route 98 in Albion.
Larry Montello, front center, waves while he joins other walkers at the start of the walk at Watt Farms. Montello was part of a team from Community Action that walked in memory of Kathy LaLonde.
ALBION – Karen Watt took a walk through the orchards of Watt Farms today, carrying her 1-year-old grandson Evan on her back.
Watt is thankful for the chance to be a part of his life. About a decade ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She credits breakthroughs in research for improved treatment. Otherwise, the cancer might have killed her long before Evan was born.
“It’s precious the time I have with him as a grandmother,” Watt told a big crowd of several hundred people at today’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk at Watt Farms. “I wouldn’t have it without those who went before me.”
Watt and her husband Chris have hosted the Making Strides walk for nine years now. It has become a mega-event, drawing about 800 people who raise about $50,000 for the American Cancer Society in Western New York.
Jeanne Wormuth, a breast cancer survivor from Elba, is pictured with her husband A.J.
Some of that money supports research, and some goes to patients and their families battling the disease. Watt lamented the loss of “two pillars of the community,” who recently died from cancer. Kathy LaLonde of Albion was an active community volunteer. She was 54 when she died on Oct. 6.
Judy Christopher, another Albion community volunteer and business owner, was 70 when she died on Aug. 3.
Friends and family of LaLonde and Christopher both formed groups to walk the orchard today and raise memory of the two women. LaLonde was a grant writer at Community Action before taking a job at Brockport State College.
Annette Finch, a former co-worker of Kathy LaLonde at Community Action of Orleans and Genesee, wore a shirt in memory of LaLonde during today’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk at Watt Farms Country Market in Albion. LaLonde died from cancer on Oct. 6.
Although she stopped working at Community Action about a decade ago, many of her former co-workers showed up in force today, wearing T-shirts in her honor.
“She was an integral part of Community Action,” said Annette Finch, director of community services for the agency. “We just loved her to no end.”
LaLonde was instrumental in starting the Angels in Action program, which has built a big network of volunteers and supporters for the agency and its clients.
The Community Action staff walked in memory of Kathy LaLonde.
Christopher lived in Albion and Carlton. “The Ladies of the Lake,” a group of about 35 of her friends and neighbors, all walked the orchard in Christopher’s memory this morning. Many wore a sticker with her saying to “Keep Moving.”
Karen Blank, owner of the Whole Approach in Holley, worked for Christopher when she owned Phoenix Fitness, a health club in Albion. Blank formed a team from her Holley gym in honor of Christopher.
“We’re here because of the loss of our beautiful friend Judy Christopher,” Blank said. “This is a cause that is near and dear to most women’s hearts.”
Jeanne Wormuth of Elba attended the walk a year ago when she was in the throes of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She returned today as a cancer survivor. She wants to help raise money for research.
“I benefitted from the past people and the advances in treatment,” she said.
Kathy Williams, a breast cancer survivor for 13 years now, urges a crowd of several hundred people to keep advocating for cancer research through private donations and government funding.
The walk today included teams from CRFS in Albion and Medina, the Holley Fire Department, and Albion, Kendall, Byron-Bergen and Elba central schools, as well as numerous other groups.
Elba and Byron-Bergen have a combined football team. The 38 players and their coaches joined for the walk today. One player had a father die from cancer and other players have parents fighting the disease.
Coach Mike Cintorino said the group raised more than $1,500 for the Cancer Society.
Members of the Elba Lancers were part of today’s breast cancer walk at Watt Farms.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
A crowd of several hundred people gathered this morning at Watt Farms Country Market on Route 98 in Gaines for the 9th annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.
The walk in its first eight years raised $225,000 for breast cancer research and assistance for patients.
OrleansHub.com will have more on the walk later today.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – The back wall of Orleans Pallet on Friday, soon before it was knocked down by a demolition crew.
ALBION – When the demolition crews arrived Friday afternoon to knock down the back wall of the Orleans Pallet building on Hamilton Street, I wondered if the sign way up at the top of the warehouse could be spared.
The site was originally called the Albion Cold Storage Company and the Medina sandstone sign faced the railroad tracks. This was a popular site for shipping products in the early 1900s.
The demo crews had a shovel and pushed in the wall. If the sign survived, it would be by chance.
I stopped at the site yesterday, and there was the sign, face up in a pile of rubble. It was snapped in half.
It would be great for the community if the sign could be displayed somewhere in public. I think it would be a nice heritage piece for the Albion Fire Department, which fought the blaze at the warehouse on Thursday, and prevented the fire from destroying more property.
Maybe the sign, and the other half, could be at the fire hall and displayed as part of an exhibit of notable fires in the community.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – About a century ago it was touted in advertisements as “one of the largest and best refrigerating plants in the U.S.”
That was the bold proclamation in 1905 when the Albion Cold Storage Company was featured in a souvenir book of Albion businesses.
Orleans County Historian Bill Lattin dropped off a copy of the photo and the book following Thursday’s fire at the building. Frank Zicari of Albion also emailed Orleans Hub the photo from 1905, four years after the plant opened. It towers three stories above ground and also appears to include a basement.
The structure has been declared a total loss after being engulfed in flames on Thursday. Demolition crews are expected to knock down the remaining walls soon. Two of the walls were pushed over in the piles of smoldering rubble on Friday.
In the photo from 108 years ago, hundreds of apple barrels are stacked outside. The advertisement notes the building had a capacity for 75,000 barrels of refrigerated space and 25,000 barrels of dry storage.
“We use carbonic acid gas for refrigeration,” the company states in its ad. “There is no danger in case of leaks either to the fruit or persons who might be in the rooms.”
Lattin notes the cold storage had a very loud steam whistle that is pictured left of the smoke stack at right. The whistle went off at noon.
“It could be heard for miles around,” Lattin said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Will Francis of the Albion Fire Department keeps a steady stream of water on the smoking ruins of a warehouse that was owned by Orleans Pallet. The site went up in flames on Thursday. This photo was taken at about 11 a.m. today.
Small fires continue to flare up at the site due to the hot smoldering piles. Firefighters say the twisted metal, wooden beams and now piles of sandstone have created a barrier from getting water on some of the fires that erupt in the bottom of the piles. Two of the three-story sandstone walls have been knocked down, beginning on Friday. Two remain standing.
Matt Francis, Will’s brother, was in charge of this hose for another flare up in the smoking remains of the warehouse.
The massive three-story structure was built in 1901 as the Albion Cold Storage Company. Half of a stone sign is setting in the rubble. The sign faced the railroad tracks on the north side of the building. A stream of water from one of the hoses is directed over the sign and at one of the smoldering piles.
Firefighters on the scene said the smoldering ruins with the jagged metal sticking up reminded them of the piles of rubble from the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Older firefighters said the scene looked like the aftermath of World War II bombing.
Orleans Hub has tried to talk with Shawn Malark, owner of the building and Orleans Pallet. I didn’t speak directly with him today but his employees said the company will continue and will keep its customers happy. The company rebuilds wooden pallets and has many customers in the agricultural industry.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Renee Ebbs, right, and Andrea Coccitti whip up cotton candy during today’s Country Fair at the First United Methodist Church of Albion.
The church put on its annual Country Fair, an event that features numerous baked goods, food, gift baskets and other items.
The church, which faces some uncertainty over the future of its building at the corner of Platt and East State streets, wants to continue the annual event, although it could be at a different location in the future.
