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Nature is reclaiming the Trestle

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 October 2013 at 12:00 am

Photos by Tom Rivers – Vines have wrapped around one of the stone pillars that used to hold up the trestle in Waterport.

Fishermen stand next to the stone bases from the trestle while trying to catch Chinook salmon.

WATERPORT – The massive stone bases that once held up the Waterport Trestle are still visible 20 years after the trestle was dismantled.

But nature is on the offensive, as vines, poison ivy, and trees have migrated to the stone pillars and, in some cases, wrapped around them.

The woods and vegetation by the trestle probably hasn’t been tamed in two decades, when contractors were there to dismantle the steel structure that spanned the Oak Orchard and ran from Park Avenue to Clark Mills Road.

The river, in photos from 20 years ago, looked a little wider. But trees, plants and vines seem to be on the move.

The base of the trestle is nearly obscured in the woods near Clark Mills Road, west of the Oak Orchard River.

“The river is reclaiming its space,” said Brandon Blount, who has been walking the Oak Orchard and woods nearby for about three decades.

Blount, 35, led me on a tour of the Waterport Dam and the nearby woods last Friday. I wanted to see what was left of the trestle, and I was curious to see if there were any remnants of two old bridges that show up in photos from a century ago.

Blount grew up in the area and took a lot of walks as a kid with his grandfather, the late Don “Cookie” Cook, a local outsdoorsman and photographer. Blount is an outdoor photographer himself.

Gary Fleckenstein shared this photo of the Waterport Trestle in the late 1980s, a few years before the structure was taken down. The stone bases remain at the site.

He used to walk across the trestle, which could be a harrowing experience because some of the wooden beams were missing or rotted. There were no railings up there.

Blount remembers the excitement of the adventure on the trestle and walking the grounds below. But now he prefers to walk by the river and explore the woods as a form of peaceful meditation.

Blount remembers when the trestle came down in 1993. It felt like a death in the family, the loss of a treasured and beloved icon for the area.

Blount walks past one of the stone bases of the trestle.

He has kept two iron spikes that he found in the woods from the old railroad that used to pass overheard.

Thousands of fishermen, many from out-of-state, will pass by the stone bases this fall while they try to hook some of the massive Chinook salmon that make their run to the Oak Orchard River to spawn.

Many of the anglers probably are clueless about the history at the Waterport Dam with the former trestle and the hydroelectric power plant that opened in 1920 and remains in operation today.

A lot of fishermen pass by the stone pillars that supported the trestle.The stone bases include Medina sandstone in the middle but the outer piers look like granite.

The stone bases for the trestle are remnants of the site’s former industrial glory, when trains chugged by on the elevated bridge.

It is a fascinating spot down by the dam, and heading a quarter-mile walk going north. The trestle’s base supports run in a line from near Park Avenue to Clark Mills Road.

Most local folks know about the trestle. They don’t need signs and interpretive panels to explain that the stone once held up a steel structure that carried trains across the river.

A view from on top of one of the stone bases that helped hold on the trestle. This photo was taken near the parking lot by the Waterport Dam.

But keep heading north from the trestle and you discover big walls of sandstone that once held up a bridge. One of those stone walls still has an original wooden beam sticking up. This was an old bridge about 100 yards north of the trestle.

Keep walking in the woods and you’ll find the remains of the second bridge. I don’t think a lot of folks know about these.

I should have a story and photos of the bridge remnants later today or tomorrow.

Fishermen make distant trek to Oak Orchard River

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 October 2013 at 12:00 am

Photos by Tom Rivers – Shane Smith and his son Ben, 8, hold one of the big salmon Ben caught today in the Oak Orchard River.

“You have it here in terms of variety, quantity and size.” – – Fisherman Bob Mathieu of Slippery Rock, Pa.

The Oak Orchard River draws a lot of fishermen, but it isn’t nearly as packed as the Salmon River in Pulaski. The Oak Orchard anglers don’t like fishing in big crowds.

WATERPORT – Matty Mathieu puts in on his calendar every year. He will spend a week at Waterport fishing in the Oak Orchard River.

Mathieu, 81, travels from Merced, California. He joins his son and Mathieu’s brother for the fishing getaway.

“If you want to catch big fish this is where you come,” Mathieu said today after a day’s fishing.

His brother Bob told him about the Oak Orchard. They also fish in Olcott and the Salmon River in Pulaski. The south shore of Lake Ontario has many great fishing holes, the brothers said.

They like the Oak Orchard because of the quality of the fishery, and it doesn’t draw nearly the masses that converge at the Salmon River.

“You have it here in terms of variety, quantity and size,” said Bob Mathieu, who lives in Slippery Rock, Pa. “It’s a well-kept secret but it’s getting out.”

Melvin McMillion works his way up the river while pulling a string with a Chinook salmon.

The Mathieus are competing in a fly fishing tournament sponsored by St. Mary’s Archer’s Club. It runs until Friday and awards prizes for the biggest Chinook salmon, Atlantic salmon, brown trout and steelhead.

The tournament has 61 participants and the vast majority are out-of-state anglers, with many from Pennsylvania.

Melvin McMillon has been coming up from Yorktown, Pa., for weekly trips for six years. He said the fly fishermen are courteous to each other while they fish by the Archer’s Club.

“It’s fun and down here there is a lot of respect,” he said.

Doug Shiffert drove up from Nazareth, Pa., to fish in the Oak Orchard River.

The fishermen said the fish so far this year don’t seem as plentiful as in the past. They attributed that to the warm fall.

“Once it gets colder, there will be more fish,” said Shane Smith, 38, who drives about 300 miles from near Harrisburg to fish the Oak Orchard.

Smith is part of a three-generation fishing family that makes the trek. His son and father also enjoy the Oak. Shane’s son Ben, 8, was the star today, landing a half dozen 15- to 20-pound Chinook.

Shane has been coming for the weekly fishing outings since 1989. He has made many friends with people all over the country.

“There’s people a lot farther away than us who come here,” he said.

Smith said it’s ultimately about the fishing. He wants to catch big fish.

“We’ve been coming here so long because we always have good luck here.”

The salmon will jump and stop right next to the anglers. The annual fishing run hasn’t quite hit its peak because of the warm temperatures, but there are still a lot of fish in the river.

Navarra family opens liquor store in downtown Albion

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 October 2013 at 12:00 am

Photos by Tom Rivers – Vinny Navarra is pictured inside Main Street Liquor and Wine Discount Store with his daughter Maria Dysard, the business’s manager. The liquor store opened on Monday at 20 North Main St. in Albion.

ALBION – Vinny Navarra and his family have opened a wine and liquor store at 20 North Main St., in a building where Navarra also runs a gym and has space for more tenants.

Main Street Liquor and Wine Discount Store opened on Monday. Navarra’s daughter Maria Dysard is the store manager.

“I like to support the community,” Navarra said at the site today. “We like the people in the village and the county. That’s why we opened the businesses.”

The new store is stocked with local wines – Leonard Oakes Estate Winery in Medina and Schwenk Wine Cellars in Kent – as well as other wines from New York and the United States. Other liquor products are also available.

Navarra has wanted to open a liquor store in the building for many years, including back when he ran Navarra’s Family Restaurant at the site. Back then he didn’t have the space. When he closed the restaurant, the space was quickly used up by Moss Codilis and Claims Recovery Financial Services. They then outgrew the space. CRFS is planning to move 750 employees into the former Chase site in Albion.

Navarra has been upgrading the building, installing an elevator to make 6,000 square feet of space attractive for a business in the upstairs.

Vinny Navarra brought his father’s old wine press into the liquor store. Giuseppe Navarra moved his family from Italy to Albion in 1966.

He and his family opened the Albion Fitness Center two years ago in the building. His daughter also has a business, Second Chances, in one of the suites. She restores primitive furniture and repaints it in that business. Some of her work is on display in the liqur store.

Now Dysard is also managing the liquor store that is open every day except Sunday.

“I didn’t want to see this sit empty,” Navarra said about the space. “And I always wanted to own a liquor store.”

Navarra bought the building in 1990 back when it was a vacant and rundown movie theater. He tried to renovate the building, but he said it was too far gone. He took it down and put up a modern building in 1992. He ran a restaurant in the space for about 18 years.

Navarra said the businesses have all been family projects. The new liquor store includes a wine press that was owned by his father, Giuseppe Navarra, who moved the family from Italy to Albion in 1966.

Navarra has opened the third new liquor store in Orleans County in the past four months. Julie Zimmerman opened Sixes and Sevens Spirits in June in Lyndonville.

Last month, Howard and Clara Lake opened Lakes Wines-N-Spirits on Park Avenue in Medina.

Albion man hospitalized after Shelby accident

Posted 16 October 2013 at 12:00 am

Press release, Orleans County Sheriff’s Department

SHELBY – An Albion man was hospitalized on Tuesday evening following a head-on crash with an 18-wheel tractor-tanker truck.

The incident occurred shortly after 5 p.m. in the 5000 block of South Gravel Road (Route 63) in the town of Shelby. Stephen G. Thomas II, 24, was driving a 1998 Buick sedan north when he crossed the center line and collided with a 2013 International tractor that was hauling a tanker trailer with refrigerated liquid oxygen.

After the collision, Thomas’s car ran off the east side of the roadway and came to a rest in a residential yard. Thomas was trapped in the car for about 45 minutes before being extricated by Shelby firefighters. He was then air-lifted to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester by Mercy Flight helicopter.

Shawn W. Scott, 32, of Derby was driving the truck. He was not injured but was transported to Medina Memorial Hospital by the Medina Fire Department ambulance as a precautionary measure.

The truck and tanker is owned by the Linde Group LLC, based in Germany with a local terminal in Buffalo. The tractor sustained heavy damage, however the tank was not compromised, nor was the approximate 800 to 1,000 gallons of liquid oxygen on board.

Representatives of the Linde Group were on scene. There was minimal spillage of diesel fuel and the hydraulic fluid was quickly contained by the fire department.

Route 63 was re-opened to traffic at 8:40 p.m. on Tuesday.

The ongoing investigation is being conducted by Deputy D.S. Klips, who is assisted by Sergeant G.T. Gunkler, Lt. R.E. Perry and Chief Deputy T.L. Drennan. State troopers from the Albion barracks also assisted at the scene.

Government shutdown expected to end soon

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 October 2013 at 12:00 am

WASHINGTON – A budget shutdown that closed national parks and the local wildlife refuge, while putting 800,000 federal employees on furlough including those at the Farm Service Agency, is expected to be over in time for the U.S. to raise the national debt ceiling and avoid a default. That needs to happen by tomorrow’s deadline.

The Senate has a deal to reopen the federal government and avoid a national default and the Republican-majority in Congress is expected to go along with the deal.

House Speaker John Boehner said the Republicans will keep appealing to President Obama to tackle the national debt and ease the financial pain of new healthcare law.

“That fight will continue,” Boehner said in a statement this afternoon.“But blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us. In addition to the risk of default, doing so would open the door for the Democratic majority in Washington to raise taxes again on the American people and undo the spending caps in the 2011 Budget Control Act without replacing them with better spending cuts.

“With our nation’s economy still struggling under years of the president’s policies, raising taxes is not a viable option. Our drive to stop the train wreck that is the president’s health care law will continue. We will rely on aggressive oversight that highlights the law’s massive flaws and smart, targeted strikes that split the legislative coalition the president has relied upon to force his health care law on the American people.”

Hawley will host SAFE Act forum on Monday in Albion

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 October 2013 at 12:00 am

ALBION – Gun owners wondering how New York’s new gun control laws will effect them are welcome to attend a Monday public forum about the issue.

State Assemblyman Steve Hawley and his staff organized the event at the Albion Middle School from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Hawley will discuss the new law that was passed in January by the State Legislature and Gov. Cuomo.

Hawley opposed the law, and every Orleans County elected board at the village, town and county level has formally gone on the record against the new legislation.

Hawley will be joined at the forum by Orleans County District Attorney Joe Cardone, Orleans County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Tom Drennan, and Steve Alstead from SCOPE, the Shooter’s Committee on Political Education.

New bus shelter installed next to Rite Aid in Albion

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 15 October 2013 at 12:00 am

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The Orleans Transit Service and the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority have installed a new bus shelter on Route 98 near the Route 31 intersection.

The new shelter is next to Rite Aid. It is the second one installed by OTS. The first one was added in the summer next to the County Administration on Route 31.

County and OTS officials are planning an Oct. 21 dedication for the new shelter.

“It’s a nice thing for the people who ride the bus,” said County Legislator Henry Smith, who represents the county on the RGRTA board of commissioners.

Quarrymen mural will be installed in Albion today

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 15 October 2013 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – A 20-foot-long mural celebrating the immigrant quarry workers from more than a century ago is being installed this morning at Waterman Park in downtown Albion. (The photo only shows half of the mural.)

Artist Ninandré Bogue of Lyndonville created the mural, which was painted on two 10-foot-long panels. Bogue, left, is pictured with Jay Pahura from the Albion Department of Public Works.

The Albion Rotary Club took the lead on the project that includes funding from the local club, a matching grant from the Rotary District, and additional support from the Orleans County Tourism Department. The Albion DPW provided in-kind services by building the mount that will hold up the mural.

Orleans Hub will have more on the mural later today.

Artist, Rotary wanted to honor community’s quarrymen roots

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 15 October 2013 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers – Ninandré Bogue is pictured in front of a 20-foot-long mural he created in honor of the quarrymen who worked in the Medina sandstone quarries.

ALBION – A mural honoring the workers from local Medina sandstone quarries went up in downtown Albion this morning.

The 20-foot-long painting is located in Waterman Park next to Conrad Cropsey’s building.

“There is an emotional connection with these guys,” said artist Ninandré Bogue of Lyndonville, who created the mural. “There are roots in this community where people are still connected with these workers.”

While Bogue installed the mural with help from the Albion DPW this morning, one quarryman descendant, Vinny Navarra, stopped by and gave the painting his endorsement.

The installation created a buzz on Main Street with some merchants walking over to check it out.

“It gives some eye candy to a place that is a little stale,” said Mike Barnard, owner of Albion TV and Computer. “It certainly can’t hurt.”

Barnard said he knows there are many old quarries around Albion, but he didn’t know the history, the thousands of immigrants who came to the Orleans County to work with the stone. The biggest groups of immigrant stonecutters and quarry workers came from Italy, Poland, Ireland and Britain.

“I knew we had some sandstone history, but I honestly didn’t know much about it,” Barnard said.

These workers use pry bars in a quarry scene created by Nin Bogue.

Bogue looked at photos of the workers and quarries from more than a century ago to try to get ideas for the mural. Most of those photos showed workers in a posed position, resting big sledgehammers on boulders.

He used a book in Italian, that showed workers in quarries in Italy, to see how many of the jobs were done. Bogue said the jobs were dangerous, and they required strength and skill. He noticed many of the workers in the historic photos appeared to be teen-agers, or even younger.

One worker holds a spike while the other hits it with a hammer. Bogue said the workers split the stone by creating a line of holes about a foot apart and 12 inches deep. Holding the spike was a dangerous job, costing many workers their fingers.

The Albion Rotary Club pushed for the mural and lined up the funding with money from the local club, the Rotary District and the Orleans County Tourism Department.

The Albion Department of Public Works provided in-kind services. The DPW built the support structure to attach the mural.

The village and Rotary Club considered attaching the painting to Cropsey’s building, but that wouldn’t have been a good fit with some loose mortar and vinyl siding. Other sites were considered, but the village and Rotary Club preferred Waterman Park.

That spot about a half block south of the Erie Canal is eyed for a quarryman memorial, including a bronze statue of one of the immigrant workers. That project is in the early stages and will likely take at least a $100,000 fund-raising effort from the community to become a reality.

Most of the old photos of the quarry workers show them posed with big sledgehammers by sandstone boulders.

Rotary wanted to highlight the community’s quarrying roots with the mural, while utilizing art for a community beautification project. I’m a member of the Rotary Club and have been working on this project.

I’m hopeful we can lay the groundwork for the statue and start the fund-raising campaign for that early next year. If we can get a good start on the fund-raising, I think we’d have a good chance for a matching state grant.

We could make a compelling case that the statue and a quarrymen heritage site would be a tourism draw, would be an attraction for canal users and would give the downtown business district a boost. We’ll keep chipping away at that project.

Right now, we should celebrate the mural, which utilizes the talents of a local artist while honoring the people who were instrumental in building Albion and the other villages and hamlets in Orleans County.

We’re planning a ribbon-cutting for the mural on Saturday at 10 a.m. That will also serve as a kick off for a shopping tour with many Albion businesses from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. That event includes a raffle and prizes.

Bogue puts the finishing touches on the mural, securing it to its Main Street location this morning.

Lightning hit Jamestown sandstone church on Sept. 1

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 15 October 2013 at 12:00 am

Photos by Tom Rivers – The northeast corner of the bell tower at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was hit with lightning last month, leaving a gap in the turret (the one with the white lines through it). The church is seeking estimates for a repair.

JAMESTOWN – One of the great churches of Western New York that was built with Medina sandstone was hit by lightning on Sept. 1.

The bolt of power took a chunk of sandstone out of a turret in the tower at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Jamestown. The church has taped off a section near the tower, warning pedestrians of danger from up high.

I encountered this church on Sunday while in Jamestown. It is an impressive structure. This is the first Medina sandstone church that I’ve seen with a four-faced clock tower up high. It’s Jamestown’s version of Big Ben.

But the lightning strike causing some electrical problems that stopped the clock at 5:50 p.m. The church bells also now malfunction.

The tower is part a magnificent church complex that was built from 1892 to 1894. The church dominates a city block at 410 North Main St.

Linda Dawson, a junior warden at the church, told me St. Luke’s is working with its insurance company to get estimates for the repairs.

The heat from the lightning may have weakened some of the sandstone, causing some of the sand veins to melt in a glass-like material “making the stone more brittle than before the lightning,” she said.

For more on the church building, click here.

The church is located in the heart of Jamestown at 410 North Main St.