Photos by Tom Rivers
Low-lying fog this morning gives Albion a mysterious feeling, especially along the Erie Canal, where this tugboat is pictured near the Ingersoll Street lift bridge. The spire at the First Baptist Church and the top of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on West Park Street are under a shroud of fog, but they remain visible landmarks.
ALBION – The Village Board intends to resubmit a grant to upgrade Bullard Park. The village sought state funds last year for $430,000 worth of park improvements, including two reseeded ball fields, new playground equipment and a 6,400-foot-long hiking trail carved through the park.
The grant wasn’t approved as part of the Consolidated Funding Application process, which places an emphasis on projects with a regional significance.
Mayor Dean Theodorakos on Wednesday said the Bullard upgrades are worth pursuing and would enhance the community. The board is considering paying J O’Connell and Associates of Clarence up to $3,500 to resubmit the grant with some changes. The firm told Theodorakos it has ideas to strengthen the application.
The village could also pay LaBella Associates of Rochester $1,000 to resubmit the grant from a year ago with few changes.
The state hasn’t set a deadline for when the applications are due. Last year the deadline was in early July with the grants announced in December.
Theodorakos said he wants to hear more from J O’Connell and Associates on how the village could improve the grant before committed money to the firm.
Village officials may also seek a grant to replace sanitary sewers on portions of Crimson Drive, Caroline Street, and East State Street between Platt Street and just past Ingersoll Street. The village needs to do an income survey of residents in the project area to see if the majority of residents are low- to moderate-income. That would make Albion eligible for the state grant. LaBella said it would do the income surveys for $500 with Albion also paying the costs for mail.
The board may decide how it wants to proceed with the grants at its May 22 meeting.
Village officials are moving ahead with another project. The board approved paying Chatfield Engineers of Rochester $3,630 for work designing a parking lot on Main Street.
The board wants to expand an existing lot with about 20 spaces to a bigger lot with 40 spots. The lot is located between the Presbyterian Church and the former Sneezy’s Bowling Alley.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Circulation has surged at Hoag Library in Albion since the new site opened in July.
ALBION – A new building with more space for books, meeting rooms and parking spaces resulted in a record-high for circulation for Albion’s public library.
Albion’s library actually closed for five weeks last year, during June and the first week of July, while the library collection and staff moved from the historic Swan Library site in the downtown to a new building on South Main Street. The combination of circulation at Swan and the new Hoag Library totaled 93,089 in 2012, up 20.9 percent from the 77,019 in 2011.
“Isn’t that an amazing jump?” said Susan Rudnicky, Hoag Library director. She provided the data during the annual meeting of the Swan Library Association on Monday.
This year the circulation is growing at a faster rate. It totaled 39,504 for the first four months of 2013, compared to 22,993 in the same period last year, a 71.8 percent jump. Rudnicky expects the library to break the 100,000-barrier in circulation for the first time this year.
“Clearly, we are exceeding our projections,” said Kevin Doherty, the library board president.
The new library increases the space from about 6,000 square feet at the Swan site to 14,600 at Hoag. The new building has eight wired computer terminals plus five laptops. Three meeting rooms are frequently in use.
The library also faces a rising budget as debt payments are due for the project. The library association took out a five-year $600,000 construction loan and borrowed $1.6 million to be paid back over 20 years for the project. The debt service payments will increase from $64,961 in 2012 to $141,000 this year. That is the main reason the library budget will increase from $658,908 to $678,978 in 2013.
The library has cut the staff from 13 to 12 employees, which resulted in a reduction in salaries and benefits from $366,873 to $330,608. The board also trimmed the budget for library materials from $85,396 to $72,000.
The association will see some debt service relief in the coming years once the five-year loan is paid off and the interest shrinks with the other loan as the principal owed is reduced.
“This is the worst we will have it,” Rudnicky said about the debt payments. “It will get better.”
Doherty noted the naming rights for the children’s library are still available for $75,000. That would provide immediate debt reduction for the library.
Albion Central School residents will vote May 21 for a proposition for the school district to collect $654,000 for the library. That covers the majority of the library budget. The $654,000 is up from $641,210 voters approved for the library last year. Voting will be from noon to 8 p.m. in the elementary school conference room A.
Photos by Tom Rivers – Tim Good, a cleaner at The Villages of Orleans, was one of about 50 picketers who lined Main Street in front of the County Clerks Building today during the Orleans County Legislature meeting.
ALBION – In a rally wasn’t as big as advertised, about 50 people stood along Main Street, with most holding signs in support of keeping The Villages of Orleans as a county-owned nursing home.
“Don’t Sell Our Soul,” proclaimed a sign held high by Grace Denniston, the retired Office for the Aging director. She praised the nursing home employees for being so public in challenging the County Legislature’s decision to transfer the facility to a local development corporation, the Orleans County Health Facilities Corporation.
“I’ve been in privately owned nursing homes and they’re not nearly as nice as ours,” Denniston said. “I may need this someday for me. You never know.”
The Legislature made the decision in February to transfer the site to an LDC. The three-member LDC will meet at 1:30 p.m. May 15 at the Orleans County Health Department’s Conference Room, 14012 Route 31 in Albion. The LDC will hear a proposal by Harris Beach for legal services and the Bonadio Group for accounting services, as well as consider potential consultants to help with the selection process for a new operator of the 120-bed facility.
Grace Denniston brought along her granddaughter Payton Denniston to show their support for a county-owned nursing home.
Supporters of keeping the nursing home publicly owned filed a lawsuit against the county, trying to bring the sale of the facility to a public referendum. James Punch, acting State Supreme Court judge, said he will make a decision in the matter in about a month.
The nursing home supporters say they will keep going public with their opposition to the LDC and the Legislature’s push to sell The Villages.
Tim Good of Albion has worked as a cleaner at the nursing home for 17 years.
“The residents honestly are like family,” he said today while holding a sign protesting the possible sale. “We have to protect them. They’re my family. That’s why I’m here.”
Gary Kent, a former county legislator, wants more community members to attend the peaceful pickets the second and fourth Wednesdays from 2 to 5 p.m. That’s when the Legislature often meets at the County Clerks Building.
“We’ll just keep calling attention to it,” he said. “I know it’s ambitious but we want to surround the entire courthouse block.”
Courtesy of State Sen. George Maziarz – State Sen. George Maziarz welcomed two Orleans County senior citizens to Albany on Tuesday when they and other “outstanding seniors” from throughout the state were honored in the state capitol during “Senior Recognition Day.” Jim Hancock, left, and Jean Shervin, second from right, were picked as representatives from Orleans for the award. They traveled to the capital with Orleans County Office for the Aging Director Melissa Blanar, right.
They have been tireless volunteers for many causes in Orleans County. Both Jim Hancock of Medina and Jean Shervin can be counted on to pitch in for many community projects.
They have been declared “Seniors of the Year” in Orleans County, and were recognized Tuesday in the state capitol as “outstanding seniors.”
Shervin volunteers at local blood drives for the Red Cross, serves with Hospice of Orleans County, and is active in many local organizations, including The Salvation Army, Community Action, Catholic Daughters, St. Vincent de Paul, the Albion Alumni Foundation, Office for the Aging, Holy Family Church and other community work.
Hancock is retired as director of the Job Development Agency in Orleans County. He volunteers with the Medina Sandstone Society, the Medina Tourism Committee and Canal Task Force, United Way of Orleans County, Medina Lions Club, Medina’s Parade of Lights, as well as other projects.
Photo by Tom Rivers
This double-rainbow appeared at about 8 p.m. today. I was at the Albion Village Board meeting and left the meeting to try to get a picture. I missed the double-rainbow at its peak. One rainbow shows up better than the other in this picture looking at the top of the United Methodist Church on Platt Street.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Samantha Hollenbeck, 13, of Albion is serving as beloved queen in Western New York for the Masonic Lodge. She is the youngest queen ever for Masonic Lodge in WNY.
ALBION – Samantha Hollenbeck, 13, of Albion will spend at least the next year as “beloved queen” of the Triangle program, the youth component of the Masonic Lodge. She is the youngest queen ever for a district that includes about 50 lodges in Western New York.
She could continue in the role after this year if a successor isn’t chosen. Local residents can expect to see her in parades and community events, touting the Masonic Lodge, and its youth programs for boys and girls. She also has made raising money for breast cancer awareness and research, her chosen charity for the year.
“I know people affected by it,” she said Tuesday at her home on Ingersoll Street.
The seventh-grader will be selling popcorn and flowers, washing cars and participating in “Relay for Life” events to raise money for breast cancer research.
She will travel the state in her role as beloved queen, attending Masonic lodges and their events.
Courtesy of Hollenbeck family – Samantha Hollenbeck was installed as beloved queen last month for the Triangle, the youth organization for girls in the Masonic Lodge. She is pictured with her parents, Brian and Dawn Hollenbeck.
Samantha, a cheerleader and member of the National Junior Honor Society, also will lead meetings of the Triangle group sponsored by the Lockport lodge. (Albion doesn’t have a Triangle program.) The group meets every other Saturday at the Akron lodge.
“She is well-grounded and mature for her age,” said her father Brian Hollenbeck, a Mason in Albion the past 12 years. He and his wife Dawn are supervisors for the Triangle.
Samantha joined the Triangle three years ago and established friendships with the other girls, while memorizing the different rituals that are part of the meetings.
She wants to see the group work hard for the community, and also have fun. This summer she is planning social events with the Triangle girls and the DeMolays, the boys youth program. They will play laser tag, go to the aquarium in Niagara Falls and the zoo.
Samantha said the youth groups typically take the summer off, but she wants them to stay connected in July and August.
The Hollenbecks are active members of the Masons. Mr. Hollenbeck first joined in Albion. His wife recently became a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic organization for women. The couple has 14 children.
Their son Matthew, 25, is a Mason in Albion. He is currently stationed in Seattle with the U.S. Army. Nicholas, 23, is a past leader of the DeMolays youth group, which is based in Albion. Andrew, 16, is currently in the DeMolays Charity Lodge.
Two of Samantha’s younger brothers – Thomas and Conner – will join the program next year.
“We’ve never forced any of our kids to do it,” Mr. Hollenbeck said. “They see the good we do and the fun we have and the friends we make. We’re trying to make a difference in the community and in ourselves.”
Photo by Tom Rivers – East Bank Street in Albion will be closed off on Sundays this summer for a farmers’ market from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
ALBION – The village will close off East Bank Street between Main and Platt on Sundays for a new farmers’ market that will run the third week of June until October.
“The idea is to bring people downtown and to promote the community,” said Ron Vendetti, the village code enforcement officer who will serve as the volunteer market manager.
The market would be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Vendetti said a church and Phoenix Fitness are the only sites open on the street during that time.
He doesn’t see the new farmers’ market as a competitor with the one on Route 31 at the Save-A-Lot parking lot on Saturdays. He would like to model the downtown market after the one in Brockport.
However, he doesn’t want to charge the $250 vendor’s fee that Brockport bills farmers. Vendetti would like to have a much-lower fee to encourage participation from vendors.
He will send out letters soon to farmers to encourage them to sell produce from the downtown location that will be barricaded off for five hours on Sundays. The entire block may not be closed off, depending on how many vendors join the market.
Photos by Tom Rivers – Knights of Columbus members in Albion are pictured with Scouts and their leaders on Tuesday when the K of C presented $1,800 to the Scouting organization. Pictured, front row, from left: Rebecca Flanagan, president of Venturing Crew 164; Nicole DeCarlo, advisor of Venturing Crew; Aaliah Knickerbocker, a Webelo; Steve Karas, K of C grand knight; and Bob Ballard, deputy grand knight. In back: Carl Laubacher, past grand knight for the K of C; Justin Kirby, assistant Scoutmaster; Freeman Lattin, senior patrol leader for Troop 164; Rob Seymour, Cubmaster; and Matt Ballard, K of C member.
The Knights of Columbus in Albion shared its fund-raising success with three Scout groups and also the religious education program at Holy Family Parish. The Knights had an annual Palm Sunday chicken barbecue and raised $1,800 for Pack 164, Troop 164 and Venturing Crew 164. They each were given $600 from the K of C.
The Knights used other fundraisers to buy a 40-inch LED television with a Blu-Ray player for the religious education program at Holy Family Parish. The TV will be used during faith formation classes and youth group social events.
The Knights of Columbus purchased this TV with Blu-Ray player for the religious education program at Holy Family Parish. Pictured, from left: Carl Laubacher, past grand knight; Steve Karas, grand knight; Nancy Sedita, religious education director; Matt Ballard, K of C member; and Bob Ballard, deputy grand knight.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Gertie Albano is pictured inside her shop, Gertie’s Groovy Garments, at 107 East Bank St., Albion.
ALBION – Gertie Albano knows about the financial pressure of trying to provide a teen-age daughter with the latest styles.
Albano said Orleans County parents may feel they need to pay big dollars for trendy clothes for their daughters while driving to malls near Rochester and Buffalo.
Albano has opened a new store that offers fashion at affordable prices. Gertie’s Groovy Garments has dresses, blouses, shirts, pants and other clothes for girls and younger women. Albano sells everything for $19.99 or less. Most items are $12.99.
“I’m sure there are parents who don’t want to drive to malls or put it on charge cards,” Albano said today at the store, 107 East Bank St.
She also sells prom dresses and jewelry, all for less than $20.
Albano, a Waterport resident, worked in local child care centers for several years. She bought fashionable clothes for her daughter through wholesalers. Albano had to buy the clothes in bundles of six. She gave one item to her daughter and then sold the other five at clothing parties. That went well enough to convince Albano to open her store on April 1.
“We don’t have enough variety in this town,” she said. “I like individuality.”
Gertie’s is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, contact Albano at 205-5236.
