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Judges sentences 2 Orleans residents to state prison

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 March 2016 at 12:00 am

ALBION – Two people were sentenced to state prison this afternoon by Orleans County Court Judge James Punch.

Diane Gallagher of Shelby was sentenced to 3 years in prison, plus 3 years of post-release supervision, for attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree.

Gallagher, 46, of East Shelby Road admitted in a Jan. 19 court appearance to having heroin and selling it on April 2, 2015. She pleaded guilty and faced a maximum sentence of 1 ½ to 8 years in prison. However, as part of a plea deal, Gallagher, a second felony offender, would not be sentenced to more than 3 years in state prison.

Judge Punch gave her the maximum as part of the plea agreement.

Gallagher’s attorney, Mark Lewis, said she has struggled with heroin addiction. She stayed off the drug for three years before a relapse, Lewis said in court today.

“She is addicted to heroin,” Lewis said. “She has a terrible affinity for it.”

Punch said Gallagher sold heroin on multiple occasions.

“You are not the victim,” the judge said. “You are creating multiple victims.”

Punch also ordered Gallagher to pay $180 in restitution to the Orleans County Major Felony Crime Task Force for drug buy money, and also suspended her driver’s license for 6 months.

In another sentencing, a Barre resident was sentenced to 2 years in state prison for violating his probation.

Joseph A. Smith, 21, of Oak Orchard Road was convicted in Ontario County for first-degree sexual abuse on Nov. 15, 2011. He allegedly had sexual contact with a child age 6 for that crime.

He admitted in a previous court appearance to violating his probation by leaving the area in a visit to Alabama without notifying probation, consuming alcohol on another occasion, meeting unsupervised with a 17-year-old girl, contacting a 17-year-old girl through social media, and being discharged from a sex offender program for noncompliance due to the drinking violation.

Judge Punch said those represent “substantial violations” to Smith’s probation and Punch sentenced Smith to 2 years in prison, plus 3 years of post-release supervision.

Smith apologized in court today.

“I am extremely remorseful to my victim,” he said. “I don’t know what was going through my mind.”

Punch said Smith has shown no progress dealing with his issues, has multiple failures on probation, and is a high risk of reoffending.

The judge today also arraigned a Holley man on several drug charges. Christopher J. Price, 28, of 1 Thomas St. was arrested on Feb. 4 and has been in jail since then. He is suspected in the manufacturing, sale and distribution of methamphetamine in the Village of Holley.

He was arraigned on charges of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the fifth degree, two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree, one count of unlawful manufacturing of methamphetamine in the third degree and one count of criminal possession of precursors of methamphetamine.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

$20,000 raised so far for Company F statue of soldier

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 March 2016 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers – The Company F Memorial Committee has this sign out at Rotary Park in Medina, trying to build support for a $90,000 campaign for a bronze statue and other improvements to the memorial at the former Armory in Medina, now the Orleans County YMCA on Pearl Street.

Rendering courtesy of Company F Memorial Committee – A fund-raising effort has started for a bronze statue of a soldier on top of an existing stone monument by the Orleans County YMCA.

Courtesy Medina Sandstone Society – Company F prepares to leave Medina Oct. 24, 1940 for training at Fort McClellan and active duty in WWII.

MEDINA – A group working on raising funds for a bronze statue of a soldier at the former Armory in Medina has reached $20,000 of a $90,000 goal.

The Company F Memorial Committee will accept bids until Friday for the project. A 7-foot-high statue of a soldier will go on top of an existing stone base that is 6 feet, 10 inches in height.

In October 2008, the stone monument was dedicated with plaques listing soldiers who trained at the Medina Armory and fought wars on behalf of the United States. The new fund-raising campaign includes repair two of the panels that were damaged due to vandalism, and making some name corrections and additions, said Bill Menz, the committee chairman. A new 30-foot-high flag pole will also be included.

The Committee has sent out 300 letters to community members, and placed brochures throughout the county. Donations are coming in, including recent checks for $1,000 from the Knights of Columbus Council 651 in Medina (in memory of Michael Mazur) and $1,100 from the Sons of the American Legion Squadron 204 in Medina.

Menz and the committee want to recognize the sacrifice of local soldiers and their families. The Medina Armory opened in 1901 for Company F, which formed in 1891. It trained at a different location prior to the Armory. In 1977, the National Guard left the Medina Armory, a site on Pearl Street. The site has been used as a YMCA for more than three decades.

Menz was one of the soldiers to train in the Armory. That was for 18 months when he was in the National Guard in the 1950s. He served on active duty in Greenland. He attained the rank of a corporal E-4.

The monument currently includes 550 names of local soldiers who fought in wars on behalf of the United States. The soldiers enlisted and trained at the Medina Armory for conflicts from 1898 to 1945 including the Spanish-American War, Mexican-American, World War I and World War II.

In 2006, a group of Medina veterans, their family members and representatives from the Medina Sandstone Society embarked on a project to provide a permanent tribute to the 550 soldiers from Orleans County and the surrounding area who joined Company F.

After two years of planning, fund-raising and building the monument, it was dedicated on Oct. 14, 2008.

Any donations for the statue can be mailed to Company F Monument, P.O. Box 522, Medina NY, 14103. For more information on the latest efforts to improve the memorial, click here.

Orleans extends contract giving deputies 2% raises in 2016

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 March 2016 at 12:00 am

County also keeps contract with lobbyist at $60K annually

ALBION – Deputies with the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office will be receiving 2 percent pay raises in 2016, according to a contract extension approved last week by the County Legislature.

The agreement extends the existing contract with the Orleans County Deputy Sheriffs Association for one year.

The Legislature last Wednesday also renewed an agreement with Park Strategies in Albany for government affairs services in the state capital.

Park Strategies was hired a year ago for $5,000 a month or $60,000 for the year.
The firm has helped the county connect with state officials, and form a plan for pressing the state for maintaining canal bridges, working on the Lake Ontario State Parkway, and other issues, including grant funding, legislators said.

In other action, the Legislature:

Set a 4:15 p.m. public hearing on July 27 for the review of a county-wide consolidated agricultural district. The hearing will be at the legislative chamber in the County Clerks Building, 3 South Main St., Albion.

Approved spending $22,324 for a new industrial fish grinder at the Orleans County Marine Park. Grinder will be purchased from Corrosion Products & Equipment in Rochester.

Approved a four-year lease for phone systems from American Capital in Lisle, Ill., to be paid $23,863 annually or $89,353 over four years. The lease will allow the county to have a more reliable telephone system, legislators said.

The county also approved an agreement with Time Warner in Buffalo to establish a point-to-point circuit between the Public Safety Building and Clerks Building for five years at annual cost of $13,680. The move will allow for greater telecommunications and data communications between multiple campuses of Orleans County government, legislators said.

Purchased a 2016 Chevy Tahoe for Sheriff’s Office patrols for $45,850 from Joe Basil Chevrolet in Depew, and a 2016 Chevrolet Express Cargo Van for $57,392 from Joe Basil Chevrolet for the county jail for inmate transports.

Authorized the sheriff to seek a $10,000 grant from the State Canal Corporation for marine patrols on the canal from April 1, 2016 until March 31, 2017.

Set Aug. 6 as a household hazardous waste collection day when residents can dispose of aerosol cans, anti-freeze, fluorescent tubes, household cleaners, oil filters, pesticides, poisons and other household hazardous wastes.

Appointed Nancy Mack of Albion to a three-year term on Office for the Aging Advisory Council.

Appointed Julie Christensen, Kendall Central School superintendent, and Darlene Waters of Medina as new members of the county’s Board of Ethics. Their terms run until Dec. 31, 2018.

Wind advisory in effect until 5 a.m.

Staff Reports Posted 28 March 2016 at 12:00 am

The National Weather this morning issued a wind advisory until 5 a.m. Tuesday for Orleans, Niagara, Monroe and Wayne counties.

The Weather Service says winds will sweep through at 30 to 40 miles per hour with gusts up to 55 mph. That could cause minor property damage and isolated power outages.

Medina concludes Winter Guard season

Posted 27 March 2016 at 12:00 am

Provided photos – The Medina Varsity Guard is pictured after their performance.

Press Release, Medina Mustang Band

MEDINA – The 2016 Winter Guard season came to a conclusion on Saturday when the North East Color Guard Circuit held their championships at SUNY Brockport.

Forty guard units from Central and Western NY and Canada competed in 8 classifications. The ARC of Yates performed in exhibition. This guard consists of individuals with developmental disabilities but when they get on the floor to perform, their enthusiasm captures the audience’s attention and admiration.

In the Cadet class Medina competed against 10 other guards and came in 6th with a score of 67.44. In the Scholastic A class Medina’s Varsity guard competed against five other units and came in 3rd with a score of 80.92.

The Cadet Guard lines up for the award ceremony.

With the WG season concluding, the band already started practicing for the Spring Street Band season. The band will travel from April 19 to April 24, first to Georgia for a performance at the Westminster Academy. From there the band heads to Florida to perform in the Grand Parade at the Magic Kingdom.

Closer to home the band will compete in the Seneca Falls Pageant on May 21, the local Memorial Day parade, and then at the Gorham Pageant of Bands on June 5.

Y, agencies host family roller skating event

Staff Reports Posted 27 March 2016 at 12:00 am

MEDINA – About 165 school-aged youth and parents had an opportunity to participate in a fun family event during the school break.

The event was possible through a collaboration with Orleans United Drug Free Communities Coalition, the Orleans YMCA, 4-H Senior Council, and Medina Area Association of Churches.

“We tried something a little different and asked skaters to donate non-perishable food items for the two Medina food pantries,” said Pat Crowley, project director for Orleans United DFC Coalition.

Donations were appreciated but not required to skate.

Hannah Heil and Olivia Carter display the 140 cans collected. “We felt it was a great way to give back to the community” said Crowley, pictured in middle.

Robert Batt (right), 4-H Youth Development Educator, and Aeddon Cayea, 4-H Senior Council member, brought educational information with a treasure chest full of prizes youth could win when they visited their table.

Christian Moss and Kaity Howe from Medina both attended the Free Family Roller Skating held on March 23 at the Orleans YMCA and won the iPod shuffles.

In Gaines, first church west of Genesee River served many congregations

By Matthew Ballard, Orleans County Historian Posted 26 March 2016 at 12:00 am

Volume 2, Issue 13

GAINES – Situated on Ridge Road in Gaines, this structure served multiple organizations during its lifetime and is regarded as the first church constructed west of the Genesee River.

As the pioneer settlers arrived in Gaines, cleared land and established farms along the historic route, they sought to establish their community with meeting halls and churches. Roughly 17 years after Elizabeth Gilbert settled her parcel along the Ridge Road near Brown Road, the Congregationalists and Baptists constructed this building to serve as a union meeting house. Each group agreed to share the edifice, holding services on alternating Sundays.

In 1834 the Congregationalists purchased a site on the north side of the Ridge, just east of the Gaines Road intersection. It was at this time that the congregation sold their interest in the building to two men, who later sold their interest to John Proctor.

The Baptists, meanwhile, remained active in the building despite losing a portion of their congregation following the establishment of the Baptist congregation at Albion in 1830. It was not long after this that 13 of the Baptists at Gaines petitioned to start a church at Carlton, an incident that would greatly weaken the original congregation.

The Baptists continued to hold services until approximately 1860 when the building was vacated, remaining inactive until a Free Methodist congregation was established at Gaines in 1868.

Just eight years after the first church in the denomination was constructed at Albion under the pastorate of Rev. Loren Stiles and nearly 10 years after the expulsion of Benjamin Titus Roberts from the Methodist Church, followers of Free Methodism in Gaines purchased the old union meeting house from the Free Congregationalists. The population of Gaines was first served by Rev. George Marcellus who not only oversaw the purchase of the building, but led the repainting of the structure and addition of stained glass windows.

The Gaines Free Methodist Church was served for a number of years by pastors from the church at Kenyonville, until that congregation disbanded. At that time, the Gaines congregation purchased a house located along a north-running lane behind the church for use as a parsonage. During the nearly 50 years that the church was active, those in attendance received the word of God from a prestigious lineage of preachers in the denomination.

Samuel K. J. Chesbrough, regarded as the co-founder of Free Methodism, served two terms as pastor of the church. The congregation was also led by Joseph Goodwin Terrill, a contemporary of John Wesley Redfield, as well as the future first president of Greenville College, Wilson T. Hogg. Alanson Kimball Bacon, a local resident who lived in the cobblestone home constructed by his father on Brown Road, stepped in to fill the vacant pulpits of the local Free Methodist churches at Albion and Gaines.

According to Helen Allen, the last service held in this building was probably July 6, 1917. Around 1921 one of the last surviving trustees of the church, Robert Woolston of Carlton, sold the building to John Bauer. The building was later converted for use as the Gaines Town Hall and Highway Department.

Police say no child abduction attempted in Holley, just misunderstanding

Staff Reports Posted 26 March 2016 at 12:00 am

HOLLEY – There wasn’t an attempted child abduction in Holley on Thursday. Instead, Police Chief Roland Nenni says the incident was a misunderstanding.

The driver of a black vehicle has been identified. After interviewing the driver and female passenger of the vehicle involved, police determined the incident was not an attempted abduction, Nenni said.

The driver of the vehicle startled the child with a horn as the child was walking near the roadway. The driver then returned to where the child was walking, stopped the vehicle and made an attempt to apologize for startling the child. The child became scared and assumed the driver was attempting to abduct him, Nenni said.

The Holley Police Department has interviewed all involved and confirmed that this incident was not an attempted abduction and was instead a misunderstanding on the child’s part, Nenni said.

Without assistance from the media, the driver of the vehicle would not have been identified and case would have remained active and open, the police chief said.

The names of those involved will not be released due to the age of the parties involved in the incident.

Albion makes it 9 straight years as Best Community for Music Education

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 25 March 2016 at 12:00 am

File photos by Tom Rivers – The Albion Marching Band performs at last June’s Albion Strawberry Festival.

ALBION – The Albion music program has again made a national list of schools with music programs cited for excellence by the North American Music Merchants.

NAMM has named Albion and 475 other school districts in the country as a “Best Communities for Music Education.” Albion has made the list the past nine years.

The NAMM organization gives out the award to recognize districts that make music a priority, especially in an era of tight school budgets and packed student schedules.

Nathaniel Trembley played Ugly, a misfit rejected by his siblings for his unusual appearance in Albion High School’s production of “Honk!” during last year’s high school spring musical. Albion will perform Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat April 8-9.

Albion runs an active music program in the elementary, middle and high schools. The high school puts on a full-scale musical and students also perform in several different instrumental and choral groups. In all, high school musicians perform numerous times during the school year.

Just last week, 468 kids in grades 3 through 12 sang in a district chorus concert.

The middle school puts on a full-scale musical, and its students perform with the marching and jazz bands. Elementary music teachers lead students in performances throughout the year.

The NAMM Foundation wants to single out districts for outstanding efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, students and community leaders who have made music education part of the core curriculum.

The schools recognized by name represent 3.5 percent of the nation’s 13,515 school districts.

To see the list of school districts recognized by NAMM, click here.

Holley Police investigating attempted abduction of boy, 12

Staff Reports Posted 25 March 2016 at 12:00 am

Image of car in attempted abduction/Holley Police Department

HOLLEY – The Holley Police Department is investigating an attempted abduction involving a 12-year-old boy that occurred at approximately 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Public Square, Police Chief Roland Nenni said.

A white male was operating a smaller, dark-colored 4-door vehicle with a chrome grill and license plate possible containing the letters and numbers (HCS10). The driver approached a child and attempted to get the child into the vehicle. There was also a white female passenger in the vehicle, Nenni said.

The vehicle was last seen eastbound on Route 31 from the Public Square.

The driver is described as a white male with red hair in his 20s. He was wearing a black sweatshirt. The passenger is described as a white woman with black hair wearing a white T-shirt.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Holley Police by calling 911.