By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 October 2013 at 12:00 am
POINT BREEZE – One of the benefits of Point Breeze landing the title as “Ultimate Fishing Town” is all of the free advertising on the World Fishing Network, which runs an annual online contest to declare the top fishing community in the country.
The World Fishing Network has produced a clip about Point Breeze and its fishing prowess. The network interviewed Mike Waterhouse, the county’s sportsfishing coordinator, and Sharon Narburgh, owner of Narby’s Superette and Tackle.
The segment shows local waterways and some of our historic sites and impressive architecture, including the Orleans County Courthouse. (Click here to see the video.)
WFN crew members were in Point Breeze on June 26 to present a trophy to Carlton town officials and a $25,000 check to promote the fishery. Several businesses have already displayed big banners, declaring Point Breeze as the “Ultimate Fishing Town.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Some beef cattle are pictured in Carlton back in April.
The federal budget isn’t the only deadline that passed on Sept. 30 without an agreement in Congress. The legislative body also failed to act on the Farm Bill, which sets the nation’s agricultural policy.
The Farm Bill is usually renewed in five-year agreements. Congress was unable to approve a five-year deal in 2012 and instead opted for a one-year extension. That expired on Monday.
“Only this time, the likelihood of a one-year extension seems remote,” said Dean Norton, the New York Farm Bureau president. “This only raises the uncertainty level on our farms that are looking to plan ahead for next year as the current harvest season enters its final stages. How does any business set a budget, purchase supplies, or make hiring decisions without having some idea of what governmental policies are in place that have a direct impact on what they do day-in and day-out?”
Norton is in Washington, D.C., urging lawmakers to move on the Farm Bill.
“Without it, our dairies are put in an especially vulnerable position if volatile milk prices swing too low,” he said. “This will continue to leave many of New York’s important fruit and vegetable growers without a reasonable safety net as well. In addition, a number of other cost saving reforms and vital programs will be cast aside if there is no movement to secure a responsible farm policy in the next few months.”
The Farm Bill doesn’t just affect farmers. Consumers could see higher prices and reduced access to local food, Norton said.
Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said Farm Bureau members throughout the country are “deeply concerned over the political challenges that are making it next to impossible for Congress to reach a compromise on important legislation.”
Farm Bureau wants to see a Farm Bill that provides a safety net for farm products and other risk management tools as farmers plan for next year’s crop, Stallman said in a statement.
“Farm Bureau is encouraging Congress and President Obama to work together to get the budget process in order, get our national economy back on track and move forward on legislation important to agriculture, such as the Farm Bill, immigration and tax reform and waterways funding,” he said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Massachusetts company expects stores to open in Albion and Medina in early 2014
Courtesy of CHA – JFJ Holdings added a turning lane leading to the drive-through based on a recommendation from the Orleans County Planning Board.
MEDINA – Dunkin’ Donuts is working to bring a store to Medina at the southeast corner of the routes 31A and 63 intersection. The site is outside the village in the town of Shelby.
Brian Bouchard, assistant project engineer for the CHA firm in Syracuse, presented a preliminary plan to the Shelby Planning Board on Tuesday. He expects the formal site plan to go before the Orleans County Planning Board on Oct. 24 with the town giving a final vote in early November.
The site is vacant and would have a 2,000-square-foot building, just like the project in Albion. That site on South Main Street next to Tim Hortons was given a final vote of approval tonight from the Village of Albion Planning Board.
Bouchard said JFJ Holdings will work to close on the property in the next two weeks. JFJ is based in North Andover, Mass. The company owns about 200 Dunkin’ Donuts, Bouchard said.
Both the Albion and Medina sites are close to two state roads. Medina’s would be at the intersection of 31A and 63 while Albion is on Route 98, four buildings north of Route 31.
The Albion site includes a big warehouse just south of the railroad tracks. Charles Breuilly of Albion owns the site. Bouchard said the company will likely have to do some asbestos abatement before the building comes down. He would like the site to be cleared in a month so contractors can work on building the parking lot and the foundation so the shell of the building can be up before winter.
If the weather cooperates, Bouchard said it’s possible the Albion store could open in January. If the weather slows down construction, the store may not open until March or April, he said.
The site includes driveways on Main and Platt streets. The Platt Street driveway will line up directly across a driveway that leads to the parking lot for CRFS.
The site plan was tweaked after last Thursday’s County Planning Board meeting when the board recommended JFJ add a turning lane near the Platt Street driveway. The lane will accommodate cars waiting to turn into the drive-through lane. Planners worried there could be a backup of cars waiting to get into the drive-through.
If the parking lot and driveways are congested, JFJ is willing to add a three-way stop near the drive-through to help facilitate traffic flow, Bouchard said. Village officials and the company will see how the site works before committing to the three-way stop.
“If it becomes an issue, we’ll do something,” Bouchard told the Village Planning Board tonight.
The new Albion store will have 30 seats inside, 46 parking spaces, a 230-square-foot freezer next to the building, and a drive-through lane that can accommodate 10 vehicles.
The site plan for Medina will be a little different because the site isn’t as long and narrow as the Albion location. The building, however, will be identical, Bouchard said.
He expects the Medina store will open about a month after Albion.
Former Gov. Pataki, Comptroller McCall will lead effort
Press release, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office
ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo today announced the New York State Tax Relief Commission that will identify way to reduce the state’s property and business taxes to provide relief to New York’s homeowners and businesses.
The Commission will be co-chaired by former Gov. George Pataki and former State Comptroller Carl McCall. The Commission’s recommendations will be due by Dec. 6, for inclusion in the governor’s 2014 State of the State message.
“The responsible budgets and fiscal reforms put in place over the last three years have put the state in a position to seriously tackle the ‘tax capital’ mentality that for too long has driven businesses and families from New York,” Gov. Cuomo said. “The new Tax Relief Commission includes two of our state’s most respected leaders, former Gov. Pataki and Comptroller Carl McCall, as well as other highly-qualified New Yorkers who will examine new ways that we can reduce the burdensome taxes facing our businesses and our families, and by doing so make our state more competitive and fuel economic growth.”
The Tax Relief Commission is in addition to the governor’s efforts to streamline New York’s tax code to make the state more affordable and competitive, ultimately creating jobs and helping grow the economy. The new Tax Relief Commission will collaborate with the Tax Reform and Fairness Commission, launched last December to conduct a comprehensive review of the State’s taxation policy, including corporate, sales and personal income taxation and make recommendations to improve and simplify the current tax system.
The formation of the Tax Relief Commission is enabled by three years of fiscal integrity and responsible budgeting that puts the state in a position to examine new ways to provide tax relief to New Yorkers. Actions taken over the past three years to restore fiscal integrity to the budget process include:
Three budgets that held state spending to 2 percent or below;
• The elimination of automatic inflators that previously accounted for unsustainable increases in Medicaid and education spending;
• Tier VI pension reform that will save taxpayers an estimated $80 billion over the next thirty years;
• A state labor force reduced from 137,000 to 120,000;
• Three responsible state labor contracts that will save taxpayers $450 million.
Building on these fiscal reforms, the governor is charging the Tax Relief Commission with identifying new strategies to deliver tax relief to homeowners, renters, and businesses alike. The Tax Relief Commission’s recommendations may include additional property tax relief, business tax relief proposals to encourage job creation and economic growth, as well as other ideas to reduce the tax burden on families and businesses that will make New York State more competitive with other states.
The governor’s actions recognize that New York has been viewed as a high tax state for too many years, hurting the state’s competitiveness and driving businesses and families from the state.
The members of the Tax Relief Commission include:
George Pataki, former Governor of New York State
Carl McCall, Chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees
Dall Forsythe, former New York State Budget Director
Jim Wetzler, Director, Deloite Tax LLP and former New York State Tax Commissioner
Heather Briccetti, President & CEO of New York State Business Council
Bill Rudin, CEO Rudin Management, President of the Association for Better New York
Jack Quinn, President of Erie Community College
Denis M. Hughes, Senior Advisor at Brown & Weinraub, PLLC
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – The Buffalo Touch, a polka band, performs on Saturday during the annual Accordion Fest, which moved from Hickory Ridge Country Club in Holley to the parking lot next to the Medina Senior Center and the Medina Railroad Museum.
Four groups performed during the festival, which was organized by the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council. In addition to the Buffalo Touch, C’est Bon Cajon Band, Accordions ’Round the World and Roland Demos performed.
The event was part of a busy day in Medina, which also hosted Ale in Autumn, the dedication of a firefighters’ memorial, and the YMCA’s Mud Run.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Site is lone Orleans project recommended for state dollars
Photos by Tom Rivers – The Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council recommended state funding for the Bent’s Opera House, a building in Medina that is mostly vacant but is eyed for offices, a restaurant and performance venue.
MEDINA – A nine-county council has reviewed projects throughout the Finger Lakes region, which includes Orleans County, and recommended the state help pay for a new roof for the Bent’s Opera House in Medina. That is the lone project from Orleans to make the list.
The Orleans Renaissance Group wants the Main Street building, built during the Civil War, to have offices on the first floor, possibly a restaurant on the second floor, and a performance hall on the third level. The ORG applied for $500,000. The council didn’t specify a dollar amount when it recommended funding for the project.
Albion sought state funding to upgrade Bullard Park, while the county applied for state dollars for the Orleans County Marine Park. Other communities also sought funding for infrastructure projects. None of those were recommended for funding by the regional council.
The state is pressing communities to come up with projects that would create jobs. Just because the regional council didn’t recommend funding doesn’t mean the other local projects will be denied. And, just because Bent’s is on the list doesn’t mean the state will approve the funding. That announcement should come in December.
The Orleans Renaissance Group wants to restore the Bent’s Opera House, which includes a performance hall.
This is the state’s third year since it established 10 regional councils for municipalities and counties to first submit economic development projects. Orleans County, per capita, has not fared well in the new system. It has received the least state funding the first two years, $716,000, of the nine counties in the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council.
On a per capita basis – the amount per resident – Orleans has been awarded $16.70 per person ($716,000 divided by 42,883 residents). I did a story about this last December when I was at The Daily News in Batavia, comparing how each county fared since the councils were created.
Genesee County actually ranked the worst of the nine counties in per capita funding through the council over the first two years: $15.27. Genesee has 60,079 residents and has been awarded $917,330 in state funds for economic development and community projects.
Genesee, however, could be a big winner this round.
The council has listed the STAMP project in the town of Alabama as a priority. Genesee is working to create a shovel-ready Science Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park. The 1,250-acre site would be used for nano-scale manufacturing.
Orleans County folks should be rooting for this project to come to fruition. If it happens, it would attract hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new high-paying jobs. Some of these new people may snatch up all of the grand old homes in our villages that could use an infusion of dollars.
These new people, with their high-paying jobs, would pump dollars into our businesses. We get the benefits of the STAMP without outlaying any local dollars to make it happen. Thank you, Genesee County, for working on this and investing millions of your own money. If you need water for this site, I think the folks in Medina would be willing to talk.
The regional council also wants to help make the Genesee Agri-Business Park “shovel ready.” That 211-acre site is in Batavia and already is home to two yogurt plants. That project has provided jobs to some Orleans folks while increasing demand for milk from our dairy farms.
Some local officials, including Orleans County Legislature Chairman David Callard, believe the new approach for doling out state dollars hurts the small, rural communities.
The money tends to go to mega-projects that tend to be few and far between in a rural area. The smaller communities also don’t have millions of dollars to plow into infrastructure, land acquisition, engineering studies, etc. (Genesee can pull it off because they get so much more sales tax than Orleans due to the Thruway and all of the Big Box stores.)
In Orleans, we don’t have grant writers on staff and enough other people to help put together projects, and move them along, while also working to line up local dollars.
We could use a community development director in Orleans County to help put together projects that excite the regional council. We need to spend a little to bring in more state resources to move the community forward.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – The economic development agencies for Orleans County and New York State are each providing some help for Claims Recovery Financial Services to move into the former Chase call center and add 150 jobs.
The company already employs about 600 people in Orleans County at the Olde Pickle Factory in Medina and next door to Chase in Albion.
Empire State Development has offered CRFS an $872,500 incentive package to assist with job creation and retention, which includes a $472,500 wage tax credit and a $400,000 capital grant to help pay for new computers, desks and other office furniture.
The Orleans Economic Development Agency approved a $250,000 low-interest loan from the Orleans Revolving Loan Fund. That money will help CRFS with some of the upfront costs for creating the new work spaces. The EDA also will approve a sales tax abatement for the equipment purchases.
The Chase building at 231 East Ave. has been acquired by Roger Hungerford and his development company, Talis Equity. Hungerford owns the Olde Pickle Factory in Medina.
The EDA board of directors hasn’t met to discuss a tax abatement plan for the building, which is assessed at $4,046,000. The EDA approved a 10-year abatement plan for Chase in 2011. That first year Chase didn’t have to pay any taxes to the local governments. With each following year, the company would pay 10 percent more of a $4,046,000 assessment until the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) expired in 2021.
Once Chase shut down the Albion site, the PILOT was cancelled and the property returned to the tax rolls at 100 percent of its assessed value.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
GAINES – They were popular during the Revolutionary War, tall wooden poles typically put up in town squares. They were painted red on top, a sign of defiance against British rule.
In 1982, the people of Gaines and the Cobblestone Society Museum erected a replica Liberty Pole next to Farmer’s Hall on Route 98, just south of Route 104.
I’ve noticed the pole before, but I didn’t know what it symbolized until Saturday, when I stopped by the museum for its “Traders of the Lost Arts” event. A lady demonstrating flax processing clued me in on Liberty Poles. She said they were popular in New England. There aren’t too many around anymore.
The Liberty Pole in Gaines includes a carving of a bald eagle. The pole went up in 1982, “The Year of the Eagle,” according to a marker by the pole.
Congressman Chris Collins, R-Clarence, has asked House leadership to suspend his own pay during the duration of the partial shutdown of the federal government. Late last night, Collins sent a letter to House administration requesting that his pay be withheld for the length of the shutdown.
This comes after Collins announced growing support for his bill that would suspend pay for all members of Congress during a government shutdown. Eighteen members of the House have signed onto the Government Shutdown Fairness Act. Members of Congress are paid $174,000 a year.
“The American people sent us to Washington to do a job,” Collins said. “If we cannot live up to that obligation, we should not be taking a pay check, a pay check that is funded by the taxes paid by our fellow hardworking Americans. If the federal government is shut down, members of Congress should not get paid, and we should not be held to a different standard when it comes to Obamacare, either.”
Last night, Collins voted for a measure that fully funds the government and eliminates any special treatment and exemptions from Obamacare for Congress and its staff, as well as the President and his appointees. The Senate refused to act on the proposal.
“The American people deserve more from their Congress and it is time, as members of Congress, that we put ourselves at the back of the line and put our constituents first.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo has finally signed an expanded Niagara Wine Trail into law, a measure that could be a significant benefit to Orleans County.
The Niagara Wine Trail ran along Route 104 mostly in Niagara County. It reached into Orleans to include the Leonard Oakes Estate Winery near the western end of Ridgeway. But it couldn’t keep moving east, without a change in the state law.
Several groups, including the wine industry, have tried for years to extend the wine trail. The State Senate was the first to go for it, but the Assembly didn’t agree until this year.
The Assembly and Senate both voted in favor of the measure. It seemed a done deal back in June. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature seemed a no-brainer.
This trail is expected to be a tourism boost for Western New York. It will stretch from Niagara Falls through Orleans and into Monroe County. It also will run south from the Falls area into Erie County.
I’ve been watching this for nearly four months now, wondering why it was taking the governor so long, especially with all of his talk about creating jobs, promoting New York and agriculture, and the need for more state attention for Western New York. We lost the summer, a chance to rev up our tourism engine while this sat on his desk.
The governor finally summoned the strength to sign this last week.
The legislation expands and renames the Niagara Wine Trail system. The new configuration, which takes effect immediately, extends the trail across all of Orleans County and into western Monroe County, encompassing more wineries.
We in Orleans can piggyback on this trail and create other trails. A “Cobblestone Trail” on 104 makes a lot of sense. We might consider trails for farm markets, Medina sandstone and perhaps other historic sites.
We can tap into the tourism promotion dollars in Monroe County, Rochester, Buffalo and Erie County. This could be big for Orleans.
The trail will run on Route 104 between the Ferry Avenue/Route 62 intersection in Niagara Falls and Route 390 in Monroe County. That will be known as “Niagara Wine Trail Ridge.”
The complement to the Ridge route is the “Niagara Wine Trail Lake,” which follows Route 269 north from its intersection with Route 104 at the Niagara-Orleans County Line to Route 18. It then runs west to Route 425, then south to Route 62 and along that route until its intersection with I-290 in Amherst.
Seventeen wineries are on the trail now and more are under development. The money to pay for additional signage on an expanded trail system has already been earmarked through a 2011 Regional Economic Development Council Award. The expansion imposes no new costs to taxpayers.
The governor also signed legislation for three other wine trails, giving the state 16 such trails.
The state expanded the “Shawangunk East Wine Trail” in Ulster County. New York established the “Adirondack Coast Wine Trail” that runs from the Town of Peru into the Town of Plattsburgh. The “Chautauqua Wine Trail” will be renamed the “Lake Erie Wine Country Trail.” The route will remain unchanged.
The state also approved new legislation allowing New York wineries to sell wine from roadside farm markets if the product was made within 20 miles of the roadside farm market.
