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Pride Pak pushing to have new Medina site ready in spring

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 September 2015 at 12:00 am

MEDINA – It may be a vacant field now, but come spring, there will be a 64,000-square-foot vegetable processing facility along Maple Ridge Road in Medina.

That’s the goal by Pride Pak, a Canadian company that is building a complex in Medina for vegetable processing, packaging and distribution.

The company has an aggressive construction schedule in order to have the site in operation by next spring, said Marty Busch, the village code enforcement officer. The company will seek approval for its site plan for the project during the Village Planning Board meeting on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 600 Main St.

The Orleans Economic Development Agency also is crafting a 20-year tax savings plan for the company. Pride Pak would pay 0 percent of the property taxes the first year, and then 5 percent would be added until Pride Pak is paying the full 100 percent after 20 years.

There will be a public hearing at 9 a.m. on Oct. 6 at City Hall about the tax savings plan or a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT). The land for Pride Pak is currently owned by the EDA and doesn’t generate local property taxes.

Pride Pak was looking at the former Worthington Cylinders (Bernz-O-Matic) site, but decided instead to build new in Medina. Busch said the 64,000-square-foot building is just phase one. Pride Pak could expand the complex in three additional phases, Busch advised the Village Board on Monday.

The new building, plus equipment, represents an $11 million investment in Medina, Orleans EDA officials said.

In addition to the property tax discounts, the Town of Shelby is seeking a $734,000 grant through the state Office of Community Renewal to assist Pride Pak with the project. Pride Pak also has been been approved for a sales tax exemption for equipment and building materials, an estimated savings of $280,000.

The company would have 40 employees in its first year, another 40 the second year and would reach about 200 at full capacity, said Gabrielle Barone, EDA vice president for business development.

Besides adding jobs to the community, Pride Pak would benefit the local economy by buying some local produce, and packaging it to be distributed to grocery stores. The company wants to expand its operations from Canada and better serve a large northeastern US grocery chain, EDA officials said.

Jim Whipple, EDA chief executive officer, also asked the Medina Village Board on Monday to help pay for new water and sewer infrastructure for the Medina Business Park. Whipple said it will cost more than $100,000 to have infrastructure in place to serve Pride Pak and other future businesses in the park.

Whipple asked Medina to contribute $50,000 towards the effort. The board said it will consider the request.

County agrees to help towns in big assessment challenges

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 September 2015 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers – The owners of the Orchard Manor Rehabilitation and Nursing Center on Bates Road in Medina are contesting the assessment for the property, claiming it should be assessed at $410,000 and not $4.1 million.

Orleans County legislators agreed to contribute county dollars to fight tax assessment challenges where many thousands of dollars of tax revenue are at stake for municipalities.

The county will only get involved with properties assessed at $3 million or more, and if the owners are seeking at least a 10 percent reduction or more than $300,000 off the assessed value.

Towns handle assessing properties in Orleans County, and those values determine the taxes on the properties for villages, towns, county and schools. However, the towns have the smallest of the tax rates of the local municipalities. The towns also have the smallest budgets for defending an assessment challenge against more well-financed corporations.

The County Legislature voted to help with the tax challenges on Monday. The county is getting involved after two nursing home owners filed legal action to drastically reduce their assessments – and local property tax bills.

The owners of Orchard Manor in Medina are seeking the biggest reduction as a percentage. The 160-bed facility is assessed at $4.1 million – the sale price from 2012. The owners, Global Health Care, say the assessment should be $410,000.

Global Health pays about $225,500 in property taxes with a combined tax rate of about $55 per $1,000 of assessed property. Shelby has less than a tenth of the combined tax rates. The town rate is $3.48, with the county rate at $9.89, the village at $17.13 and the school district at $23.01. (There is also a library tax rate of $1.37.)

The county currently takes in $40,549 in taxes from Orchard Manor at the $4.1 million assessment. If Global Health is successful in reducing the assessment to $410,000, it would pay a tenth in taxes what it does now or $4,055 to the county.

The County Legislature made a stipulation that it would only participate in the tax challenges if the other municipalities also shared in the fight, with the amount to be spent to be based on the percentage of the municipalities’ tax rates. That would shift most of the financial burden for defending the assessment to the village and school district, which have the higher tax rates.

Shelby town officials have asked the village to join in the fight. The formula voted on by the county would make Shelby pay the least in defending the assessment.

The Village Board has discussed the issue behind closed doors because it is a legal issue. At least one board member questions if the village should join the tax fight because village residents already pay in their town taxes for assessing.

The village receives $70,233 in taxes from Orchard Manor, which pays a $17.13 tax rate per $1,000 of assessed property. If Orchard Manor’s assessment falls to $410,000, it would pay $7,023 in taxes, or more than $63,000 less to the village.

The former county-owned nursing home is now privately owned by Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services LLC. The company paid $7.8 million on for the 120-bed Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center on Route 31 in Albion.

The property went on the tax rolls for the first time this year with a $6,618,900 assessment. Comprehensive is challenging that assessment, filing legal papers saying it should be valued at $2.5 million.

Albion Town Supervisor Matt Passarell said he and James Bell, the town attorney, have discussed the issue and will bring it to the full Town Board soon.

Millville Cemetery adds historic marker, paints chapel

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 September 2015 at 12:00 am

Shelby site is listed on National Register of Historic Places

Photos by Tom Rivers
SHELBY – Alice Zacher, the Shelby town historian, speaks after a new historical marker was unveiled on Sunday at the Millville Cemetery on East Shelby Road.

Zacher wrote the application to have the marker paid for by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.

Shelby Town Councilman Ken Schaal, left, and Mike Fuller, the highway superintendent, remove a cover from the historical marker on Sunday. The town pays for the upkeep of the cemetery. Fuller and the Highway Department installed the marker.

The Millville Cemetery was established in 1871. The cemetery was an early Quaker burial grounds. Back then the graves were close together. The cemetery would take on the rural garden cemetery style, with bigger spaces between graves, towering trees and ornamental grave stones.

The cemetery in 2007 was included on the National Register of Historic Places. Three other cemeteries in Orleans County are on the National Register: Mount Albion Cemetery, Hillside Cemetery in Holley/Clarendon; and Boxwood Cemetery in Medina.

Bill Lattin, retired Orleans County historian, leads about 30 people on a tour of the cemetery.

Lattin praised the Shelby citizens from more than a century ago for creating such a beautiful place. Those residents went to one-room school houses and graduated with eighth-grade educations, Lattin said.

They may not have earned college degrees, but they they knew about the power of trees, a well-designed chapel and an attractive landscape, Lattin said.

“This cemetery tells a lot about the people back then,” he said. “Look at their appreciation of nature and aesthetics. There is no other chapel like this in the world.”

The monuments and Victorian funerary art reflect the prosperity of the community back when it was home to three sawmills, gristmill and turning mill, according to the description of the site on the National Register.

The cemetery is elevated in an otherwise flat area. “The landscaping and roads and the plantings make it an exemplary vernacular rural cemetery,” according the Department of the Interior, which decides whether a site meets the threshold to be on the National Register.

Bill Lattin leads the group on a tour of the cemetery. He discussed many of the Victorian features of the gravestones, the ornamental symbols to reflect mourning and a belief in an afterlife.

Lattin congratulated current Shelby citizens, led by Alice Zacher, for getting the Millville Cemetery on the National Register and for the work in getting the chapel (behind Lattin in the photo) repainted this past August.

“They should be commended,” Lattin said about the Shelby citizens. “You’re carrying on a tradition of aesthetics.”

Lattin has family buried in the cemetery. He noted the names of many family plots, such as Dresser and Pask, that are names of roads in the community.

Many prominent local residents are buried at Millville, including this large grave marker for Arnold Gregory, who left money to start a hospital in Albion. The statue in back left marks the grave for Asa Hill, a Civil War soldier and local farmer.

Disaster loans will be available for farmers in Orleans

Staff Reports Posted 29 September 2015 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers – Bernie Heberle, manager and co-owner of Circle R Fruit Farms in Carlton, holds a deformed apple due to a frost on Memorial Day weekend. Heberle said some of the local apple crop was harmed by the frost, with more damage the farther away from Lake Ontario. Heberle said the deformed apples taste fine, but can’t be sold on the fresh market because of their appearance.

Farmers in Orleans, Genesee, Niagara and Wyoming counties have been declared eligible for disaster emergency loan assistance, effective Sept. 9, due to damages and losses caused by excessive rain, high winds, hail, lightning and a tornado, which occurred between May 1 and July 14.

Family farmers who have suffered physical and production losses due to excessive rain, high winds, hail, lightning, and a tornado may be eligible for loans through the Farm Service Agency.

Proceeds from crop insurance and any FSA programs are taken into account when determining eligibility for physical losses, the FSA said in a news release.

Losses must be supported with documented records. Under the FSA Emergency Loan Programs, farmers may be eligible for production and physical loss loans of up to 100 percent of their actual losses, or the operating loan amount needed to continue in business, or a maximum principal balance outstanding of $500,000, whichever is less.

Farmers must be unable to obtain credit from private commercial lenders. The interest rate on emergency loans is 3.625 percent.

Application for loans under this emergency designation will be accepted until May 9, 2016. The FSA office in Albion is located at 446 West Ave. The office’s phone number is (585) 589-5320.

At child safety seat check, only a few installed properly

Staff Reports Posted 29 September 2015 at 12:00 am

ALBION – Trained police officers checked 26 child safety seats during an event on Saturday and found that only five were properly installed, Albion Police Chief Roland Nenni said.

The Albion Police Department and Orleans County Sheriff’s Office worked together on the child safety seat check event on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot for the Dollar Tree.

This check allowed for patrons to have their child seats inspected by a child safety seat technician. The technicians determined if the child safety seat would provide adequate protection for the child or if a new child safety seat is needed.

With only five seats meeting the safety standards, the technicians then properly installed the seats.

The Albion Police Department received a Child Passenger Safety Program grant from the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. This grant funding allows the Albion Police Department to purchase child safety seats and other related items for conducting child seat inspections.

The funding also can be used to provide child safety seats at no charge to persons who currently have seats that do not meet safety standards following an inspection conducted by a seat technician.

Child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent when used correctly. However, misuse reduces effectiveness, Nenni said. More than 90 percent of child safety seats are used improperly.

The Albion Police Department will continue to address this issue by participating in the New York State Child Passenger Safety Grant Program and conduct safety seat inspection checks, Nenni said.

Residents may call the Albion Police Department at 589-5627 and schedule an individual appointment to have a child safety seat inspected.

Residents give back 630 pounds of pharmaceuticals

Posted 29 September 2015 at 12:00 am

Jail Superintendent Scott Wilson, left, and Sheriff’s Deputy Marty Stirk prepare to transport collected items for destruction.

Press Release, Sheriff Scott Hess
ALBION – The Orleans County Sheriff’s Office is pleased to announce that another successful Household Pharmaceuticals Collection Event was held this past weekend.

During the four-hour detail, which was held at three locations within the county, unwanted and/or expired medications and drug paraphernalia in excess of 630 pounds were surrendered for destruction. This was the most successful collection event, to date.

As in years past, it is anticipated that another collection event will be held in the spring of 2016.

Some of the items are boxed and ready to taken to be destroyed. Residents dropped off pharmaceuticals at the Holley Fire Department, Orleans County Public Safety Building in Albion, and Medina Fire Department.

Minor injuries in Gaines accident on Route 104

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 September 2015 at 12:00 am

Photos by Tom Rivers
GAINES – There were minor injuries in a two-vehicle accident this evening during a downpour. The accident occurred at the intersection of Route 104 and Gaines-Waterport Road (Route 279).

The top photo shows an Albion firefighter sweeping broken glass from the road. The drivers in the accident both declined medical treatment and transport by ambulance.

Dan Morrow, a member of the Albion Fire Department, is out directing traffic in this photo taken at about 7 p.m.

Section of 63 will be closed for month for culvert replacement

Staff Reports Posted 29 September 2015 at 12:00 am

YATES – A section of Route 63, north of the Village of Lyndonville, will be closed to motorists for about a month while a culvert is replaced, the state Department of Transportation announced today.

The culvert carries Route 63 over a creek in the town of Yates. The structure is located between East Yates Center Road and Route 18, approximately one-third of a mile south of the Route 18 intersection.

Keeler Construction of Albion is doing the work on the $392,000 project.

The road will be closed for a maximum of 30 days in an effort to minimize travel disruptions, the DOT said today in an advisory. A posted detour will direct motorists to use routes 104, 269 and 18. The bridge is expected to reopen to traffic in late October.

The existing jack-arch structure was constructed in 1915 and has reached the end of its service life. The new structure will be a precast concrete box culvert with precast concrete wing walls, the DOT said.

Truck hauling corn flips on Murdock Road in Yates

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 September 2015 at 11:38 am

Photos by Tom Rivers
YATES – A 10-wheel dump truck hauling several tons of corn silage flipped over on Murdock Road this morning at about 7:45 a.m.

The driver of the truck suffered back and leg injuries and was taken by Medina Fire Department ambulance to Erie County Medical Center. A state trooper on the scene in Yates said the injuries to the driver were not serious.

The driver had just passed a bend in the road, which was wet from a morning rain. The driver was traveling north on Murdock, just north of the Yates-Ridgeway town line, when he lost control of the vehicle, the state trooper said. The road has narrow shoulders and the truck went into a ditch and flipped upside down.

Lyons Collision in Medina was called to get the truck out of the side of a field and back in an upright position. This photo shows Austin Lyons, left, and Ron Ettinger attaching cables to the truck.

Lyons pulls the truck up out of the ditch. The truck was hauling corn for Kludt Brothers Farms in Kendall. Kludt has a custom harvesting business and had harvested corn from a field for Torrey Farms. Kludt contracted with the truck driver to haul the corn.

Murdock Road was closed while Lyons Collision worked to get the truck safely from the scene. Lyndonville Fire Department was on the scene directing traffic.

Lyons Collision personnel reattach cables and chains after the truck was pulled to its side. The group includes, from left: Austin Lyons, his father Jeff Lyons, and Ron Ettinger.

The truck gets a final pull before its back on all 10 wheels. It took Lyons about 90 minutes to move the truck from the ditch to the road.

Cuomo launches Common Core Task Force

Posted 28 September 2015 at 12:00 am

NY will review learning standard, try to reduce test anxiety

Press Release, Gov. Andrew Cuomo

ALBANY – Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today launched the Common Core Task Force with a diverse and highly-qualified group of education officials, teachers, parents, and state representatives from across New York.

The Task Force is charged with comprehensively reviewing and making recommendations to overhaul the current Common Core system and the way we test our students. The Task Force will complete its review and deliver its final recommendations by the end of this year.

The Task Force will include members of the Governor’s successful New NY Education Reform Commission, which played an instrumental role in developing a blueprint to improve the quality of education for all students through its final report in January 2014. Richard Parsons, who chaired that Commission, will return to lead the Governor’s Common Core Task Force. Mr. Parsons is Senior Advisor, Providence Equity Partners Inc. and former Chairman of the Board, Citigroup Inc.

“We can all agree that our students deserve every opportunity they can to learn and grow – and having tough, fair standards is crucial to ensuring that they receive those opportunities,” Parsons said. “By performing an in-depth review of everything from curriculum to testing, we can lay out exactly what needs to be done to fix the Common Core.”

Gov. Cuomo believes that the learning standards should be strong, accurate and fair, because having the highest standards is critical to ensuring that students are educated and prepared for their futures in college or the workforce. However, the Common Core program’s flawed rollout by the State Education Department has caused disruption and anxiety that must be fixed, including testing aligned to the standards.

With that in mind, the Governor has charged the Task Force to:

1. Review and reform the Common Core State Standards;

2. Review New York State’s curriculum guidance and resources;

3. Develop a process to ensure tests fit curricula and standards;

4. Examine the impact of the current moratorium on recording Common Core test scores on student records, and make a recommendation as to whether it should be extended;

5. Examine how the State and local districts can reduce both the quantity and duration of student tests, and develop a plan whereby districts include parents in reviewing local tests being administered to analyze those tests’ purpose and usefulness; and

6. Review the quality of the tests to ensure competence and professionalism from the private company creating and supplying the tests.

The Governor has directed the Task Force to conduct its process as transparently as possible and to solicit and consider input from regional advisory councils comprised of parents, teachers and educators across the state.

A new website (click here) has been launched to encourage participation, including by allowing visitors to submit comments and recommendations to the Task Force. The Task Force’s report will be issued publicly by the end of the year so that it can be reviewed by all and changes can be implemented quickly and effectively.

“My goal and I’m sure your goal is to have the best education system in the country for all our children,” Cuomo said during remarks today. “New York must complete a transition into the modern education era and this transition must happen in a way that instills confidence and not anxiety in our students and parents and makes teachers feel supported and rewarded, not criticized. I am eager for the task force to begin its work. I urge parents and educators to participate in the process because this is about our children’s future and their education to determine their ability to compete in the world of tomorrow. They deserve every advantage we can give them. I would do anything for my three daughters and I know you would do anything for your children. So let’s give them a chance.”

Iconic Medina barn is repainted to reflect the past

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 September 2015 at 12:00 am

Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA Chris Panek, an employee with Panek Coatings, gets in position to paint the Gallagher barn on North Gravel Road in Medina this morning.

Panek Coatings expects to finish the job today after using about 100 gallons of paint on the project.

The barn has been a landmark structure on the northend of the village for about 150 years. It is being repainted white with green trim to reflect its history as WM J. GALLAGHER STOCK FARMS.

Here is how the barn looked a month ago, before it was repainted.

The iconic structure was recently purchased by Martin and Jenna Bruning. They are working to make the site available as a events center for weddings, parties and other special events.

Here is how the barn looked late this morning.

The Brunings have been working in recent months to clean up the property, including the landscape and the building. They have two weddings booked for next year at the site.

The Brunings plan to call the site “The Gallagher” and hope to have it available for events in June. The property also includes a stately brick house that the Brunings said would also be available for dinner parties and other events.

Ridgeway replaces culvert on Mill Road

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 September 2015 at 12:00 am

Photos by Tom Rivers
RIDGEWAY – This culvert pipe with a 4-foot diameter will be set in a trench being dug today on Mill Road in Ridgeway.

The Town of Ridgeway Highway Department cut a 7-foot-deep chuck out of Mill Road so the department could replace a rotting culvert. Tim Feldman is in the excavator and Pat Kelly is holding the measuring stick.

The culvert pipe needs to be set at a 180-degree angle, or perfectly flat, to allow for the water to drain easily, Ridgeway highway workers said. The culvert directs water under the road from Johnson Creek.

Ridgeway highway workers started the project this morning and expect to have it done today. In addition to Feldman and Kelly, highway worker John Olinger, right, is pictured at the scene late this morning. The culvert is just east of Murdock Road.

Orleans firefighters will attend funeral for Bergen EMT

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 September 2015 at 12:00 am

Local fire departments have been filling in for Bergen FD

BERGEN – Orleans County firefighters have been filling in at the Bergen Fire Hall so Bergen firefighters could attend calling hours for Barry Miller, a Bergen emergency medical technician who died in route to a call in Riga last Wednesday, Sept. 23.

Miller was a passenger in an ambulance heading east on Bovee Road on the way to a call when the vehicle collided with a slow-moving backhoe, which also was travelling east on Bovee.

Miller, 50, was a long-time volunteer with the Bergen Fire Department. He was also a Genesee County coroner, a Bergen town councilman and the owner of Miller’s Millworks in Bergen.

There were calling hours on Sunday and today at the Bergen United Methodist Church for Miller. Shelby firefighters filled in at the Bergen firehall today from 6 a.m. to noon, with Holley filling in from 4 p.m. to midnight.

Clarendon firefighters will staff the Bergen fire hall from 6 a.m. to noon tomorrow, with Kendall and Fancher-Hulberton-Murray filling in from noon to 4 p.m.

“We’ve tried to do what we could,” said Dale Banker, the Orleans County emergency management director.

The funeral for Miller will be 11 a.m. Tuesday at Pearce Memorial Church in North Chili.

Albion and Barre are expected to send a contingent of firefighters to Miller’s funeral, Banker said.

Sheriff candidate forum scheduled for Oct. 21

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 September 2015 at 12:00 am

ALBION – Two local groups have organized a candidate forum with the three people seeking to be the next sheriff of Orleans County.

Don Organisciak, Randy Bower and Tom Drennan are all scheduled to be at an Oct. 21 candidate forum. They will have an opportunity to give opening and closing statements, and respond to questions from the public.

“We want educated voters,” said Mattie Zarpentine, one of the forum organizers. “That’s our goal.”

Zarpentine, a Holley resident, is regional director for New York Revolution. She worked with David Thom, chairman of Orleans County SCOPE (Shooters Committee On Political Education), to set up the forum.

The three candidates are all vying to replace Scott Hess, who is retiring from the job on Dec. 31. Zarpentine said it has been a heated campaign that has generated lots of public interest.

Organisciak is a retired Medina police investigator who is running with the Democratic Party line. Bower, a public safety dispatcher, won the Republican primary over Drennan. Bower also has the Conservative Party line.

Drennan, chief deputy for the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office, has the Independence and Reform party lines.

“I would like people to go to the polls and know their candidates,” Zarpentine said. “It’s different when you get to see them face to face. You really get to know them which is important because one of them will be your sheriff.”

The forum will be Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. at the Albion Elks Lodge in Albion at 428 West State St. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

The election is Nov. 3.

Medina drains big water tank for inspection

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 September 2015 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – The big 3-million gallon water tank on Route 31A is being drained so inspectors can check the tank for structural deficiencies.

Crews started draining the tank this morning and it should be empty of water at about 3 a.m. Tuesday (Sept. 29), said Peter Houseknecht, Medina Department of Public Works superintendent.

The tank has interior cracks that were identified in a previous inspection when the tank was full of water. Draining the tank will give inspectors a better chance to assess the tank, which was built in 1959 on Route 31A.

An engineering report from June said the village could spend $600,000 to $1 million in repairing the tank and making improvements to give it at least another 20 years of use.

The village is seeking state and federal grants and assistance to help upgrade the tank. Houseknecht is hopeful grants through the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the state Environmental Facilities Corporation can bring the village’s costs down for a rehab of the tank.

A report from Larsen Engineers said the village needs to at least fix the interior cracks and put in a mixing system. To build a new tank would cost $2.5 million or more, according to the Larsen report.

Houseknecht said the village will tackle tank upgrades next year. There is some concern about another harsh winter and the toll that weather could have on the concrete tank, he said.

The tank should be refilled in two to three weeks. Houseknecht said it is a reserve supply for village residents and businesses. Having the tank off-line won’t have much impact on water pressure, he said.