Village applies for $500,000 grant for Bullard Park

ALBION – Village trustees Eileen Banker and Pete Sidari went door to door on a recent weekend, trying to convince residents to fill out an income survey to see if the village qualified for a federal grant to replace aging sewers.

Banker and Sidari tried to personally get the surveys after mailings to 83 households went mostly unreturned by those residents. The village needed at least 53 income surveys returned to apply for the grant. But Albion fell far short of that through the mailings and door to door outreach.

The two trustees said they heard good feedback from the few residents who were home and answered the door.

The lack of responses prompted the Village Board to withdraw its plan to seek federal funding for new sewers on portions of Crimson Drive, Caroline Street and East State Street. The board expected it would seek a $600,000 federal grant through the state Consolidated Funding Application process.

To qualify for the funds, the village needed to show that the majority of residents in the target area for the new sewers were low to moderate income.

“We’ll have to try harder next year,” said Mayor Dean Theodorakos. “We’ll try it earlier to get people on board.”

The village submitted one grant application this state grant round. The village is seeking $500,000 from the state for Bullard Park, a project that wasn’t approved last year. Theodorakos believes Albion has a better chance this funding round.

The village spent $20,000 last year upgrading playground equipment at the Pee Wee Park section of Bullard and also has $50,000 in a capitol reserve that could be spent at Bullard. He thinks that shows the village is willing to put some of its own money into the park, and not just rely on state funding.

The village wants to reseed two ball fields, add new playground equipment and carve a 6,400-foot-long hiking trail through the park.

ALBION – It seemed easy and cheap enough back in May when Town Councilman Jake Olles first proposed downtown speakers for the village. Olles wanted music piped into Albion’s downtown and he thought the project could be done for about $1,000.

Olles and the Town Board said they would pay for the project with money out of the town’s parks budget. Olles envisioned 10 speakers in the downtown. Wire would run through existing light poles.

The initiative hasn’t proven so easy or so cheap. The light poles are at capacity for wire. There is no room for more wire in the light poles to accommodate the speakers, village officials said.

They have investigated wireless speakers and a music system, and found they would cost about $9,000. The speakers would be loud enough for music to be heard from the courthouse, down Main and Bank streets and to the Erie Canal.

The speakers could also be used to announce parades and other community events.

Village officials want to bring the music to the downtown. They are going to meet with members of the Town Board to discuss how to pay for the system, which will likely include about $300 a year in licensing fees for the music.

The town and village may split the total costs. That will be discussed in an upcoming meeting with representatives from the two municipalities.

“It would be nice to have especially during the holidays and the Strawberry Festival,” said Village Trustee Pete Sidari.

Press release, Hoag Library

ALBION – Hoag Library has been extremely fortunate to get a new legacy gift in memory of Kathryn Mahany Kerrigan. Her husband, Dr. Edward F. Schlenk, has set up a trust in her memory to provide books on women’s health and mysteries for long into the future.

The Kerrigan Trust will provide $1,000 each year to the library for books. This is in addition to the $10,000 for books and $5,000 for the new building pledged by Mrs. Kerrigan during the Capital Campaign in 2010.

Mrs. Kerrigan had a deep interest in this library and its future, dating from her time as a small child, coming to the library every day while her mother was at work (her father died when she was 3 years old), and then walking home at the end of each day with Lucy Fancher, then library director. Kerrigan and Miss Fancher were neighbors, and became friends during these daily visits. Lucy Fancher was library director from 1941 until 1960.

Mrs. Kerrigan died of ovarian cancer on March 17, 2011.