Brett Boring says he is responding well to chemo for multiple myeloma

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Brett Boring greets his sister, the Rev. Susan Boring, during a benefit today in his honor at the Albion Elks Lodge.

Brett, 54, was diagnosed on May 10 with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. He said he has been responding well to chemo and is hopeful to have a stem cell transplant.

Christine Robinson looks over some of the baskets up for raffle. There were about 100 items in the basket auction, as well as a 50/50 raffle.

Elks members Mike Jenks, right, and John Spinks, left, were among the volunteers serving up 300 pulled pork dinners at the Elks Lodge. Boring has been a long-time member of the Elks and a current trustee.

“Brett is the kind of person who will do anything and everything to help someone out,” Jenks said.

Brett Boring was happy to see many friends, co-workers and family members, including his former father-in-law, Bill Staub.

Boring works as an electrician at the Albion Correctional Facility. He said he appreciated so many people coming out and contributing to the benefit today. He said he has helped with many of the benefit events over the years that have been hosted by the Elks.

“I’ve done hundreds of these for people,” Boring said. “You don’t realize what it does for people until you are the one that receives the benefit.”

Proceeds from the benefit will help Boring with his medical expenses and long-term treatments.

Chris Wilson sang for about three hours during the benefit today.

Ted Narburgh checks out some of the baskets and gift cards at the auction.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – It was a full capacity crowd for this afternoon’s concert at Hoag Library featuring internationally acclaimed guitarist Muriel Anderson.

About 100 people filled the meeting rooms of the library for the concert, which included a special guest, renowned guitarist Kinloch Nelson.

The free concert was made possible through a state grant administered by GO Art!

Anderson is an award-winning guitarist, harp guitarist, composer, and performer known for her innovative musicianship and engaging live performances. She has performed around the world and is recognized for her ability to blend a variety of musical styles.

First art auction for non-profit set for Sept. 26

Photos by Tom Rivers: Kim Martillotta Muscarella greets people at Friday’s art show at the Marti’s on Main Art gallery. Muscarella has been leading art shows in Albion for nearly 20 years, including the past five years at 20 South Main St., a historic building in Albion that previously was home to the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orleans County.

ALBION – Marti’s on Main welcomed an energetic crowd on Friday evening to the art gallery at 20 South Main St. The show features works by Jill Gussow, Jennifer Hecker and Rosanne Muscari.

This is the sixth of eight monthly art shows at the gallery. There is an opening reception on the third Fridays each month.

Gussow and Hecker were both art professors for Kim Martillotta Muscarella, the director of Marti’s on main, when she was a student at SUNY Brockport. Mascari and Muscarella connected through the Brockport Artists’ Guild.

Jill Gussow shows one of her paintings which include a fabric collage. This one shows a bird in mourning. Gussow has 18 art pieces in the show.

She is now retired as an art professor from SUNY Brockport and the University of Rochester. She taught photo and design classes to Muscarella when she was a student at Brockport.

Gussow appreciates the variety of art displayed at the Marti’s gallery.

“Usually art galleries are sterile, but this is anything but that,” Gussow said. “Kim’s network of artists has really grown.”

Jennifer Hecker is shown with one of her flame-warped glass sculptures. Her works have water themes. She is beginning her 38^th year as a professor at Brockport.

She welcomed the chance to show 12 of her works at Marti’s.

“This gallery definitely has Kim’s flair,” Hecker said. “The energy is just great.”

Rosanne Mascari of Brockport has 18 pieces in the show at Marti’s. Mascari paints abstracts in acrylic.

She has been featured before at Marti’s. She thanked Muscarella for the outlet for artists to display their work.

“This gallery is great because Kim is so great,” Mascari said. “She breathes life into her fellow artists.”

People check out the artwork in this month’s show at the Marti’s gallery.

The art auction on Sept. 26 will have a preview starting at 5:30 p.m. with the auction beginning at 6:30.

The auction features pieces donated by 35 artists. Todd Jantzi of Bontrager Real Estate & Auction Service will be the auctioneer.

The proceeds will help with the operational costs of the gallery as well as programming. Marti’s is now a non-profit organization. For more information on the auction, click here.

‘Socks’ reunites with pot-bellied siblings

Photos courtesy of Stephanie Marquardt: This pig named Socks created a lot of buzz in the Albion community while it was loose for nine days. Socks is now back home with her siblings, two pot-bellied pigs.

ALBION – The black pig that was on the lam for more than a week in Albion is back home. The pig named Socks came out of a wooded area last night and reunited with her two pot-bellied sisters.

Stephanie Marquardt said she called out to Socks, a pig that was on Keitel Road near the Route 31 intersection. The pig walked over to Marquardt and stepped into a horse trailer with her sisters.

Socks was sold to another person last Tuesday. That person hit a bump on Lattin Road, the tailgate fell and Socks jumped out of a vehicle and into the countryside.

Socks, right, is happy to be back home with a sibling.

Many people posted pictures of Socks on social media, typically wandering along Keitel Road or Riches Corners Road. The Orleans County Sheriff’s Office posted on social media on Wednesday that it was well aware of the pig on the loose.

“She was just a little home farm piggy and now she has so much publicity,” Marquardt said. “She is the mascot of Albion. Everybody has been stopping me and calling me the pig mommy. We are extremely surprised that are little pig has caused so much commotion.”

Marquardt and her family have been raising pigs in a fenced-in area in their backyard on Lattin Road. They want to keep Socks and will be putting in some fencing reinforcements. She expects to start a GoFundMe if people want to help pay for the stronger fence.

Socks is a four-month-old pig, and weighs about 85 to 100 pounds. Her mother is a Duroc and the father is American Guinea. Marquardt said the pig get top 400 pounds as it gets older.

Marquardt didn’t initially know Socks was on the loose until she saw the frenzy on social media. The pig was supposed to be with a new owner.

Marquardt said Socks seemed to enjoy all the attention and food people were leaving for her. Socks was hard to corral because many people were chasing her, Marquardt said.

She waited until Thursday night when the neighborhood was quiet and she called out to Socks. The pig then emerged from a wooded area.

“She comes when she is called,” Marquardt said.

Albion Village Board considers selling park, relocating statue

Photos by Tom Rivers: The statue of Santa in honor of the late Charles W. Howard is located at Waterman Park on North Main Street in Albion, where there is also a Santa-themed mural and a sleigh. About $100,000 in community donations paid for the statue and mural.

ALBION – A group that has helped raise $100,000 for a bronze statue, large mural of Santa, and other improvements to Waterman Park wants those elements to stay put.

The Village Board is talking about putting the park up for sale with the hope of having food businesses in trailers and other entertainment at the site. Mayor Tim McMurray said it could be a big draw to downtown, helping to feed other businesses.

Selling the small park also would out it back on the tax rolls, generating funds for the village and relieve the village of caring for the site.

But the Albion Betterment Committee wants to make it clear it wants the Santa to remain in the park.

Jerome Pawlak, a director on the Albion Betterment Committee, speaks during the board’s meeting Tuesday in the Hoag Library. Behind him are downtown business owner David Snell, left, and ABC director Gary Kent.

Pawlak said keeping the park with a Santa statue, mural and sleigh creates a synergy as the Betterment Committee works to develop a museum to the Santa School. The Charles W. Howard Santa School was in Albion from 1937 until Howard’s death in 1966. The school continues in his name in Midland, Mich.

Ken Bieber speaks at last week’s Village Board meeting. From left in back include Mayor Tim McMurray and village trustees Greg Bennett and Kevin Sheehan. William Gabalski and Jami Allport also are on the board.

Bieber owns the building on the north side of the Waterman Park. He said making the park available for food trailers could be a big draw. He didn’t want to get rid of the Santa-themed elements celebrating Charles Howard and Albion’s heritage with the original Santa School. He thinks the could be better positioned in Albion with the statue in the sidewalk in front of the future museum, and the mural in a more prominent part of Albion.

“It’s not getting rid of Santa by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.

Mayor Tim McMurray and Deputy Mayor Greg Bennett said village-owned land between the Presbyterian Church and a parking lot also could be a higher-profile location for the Santa statue, mural and sleigh, especially if a Santa House were part of the layout.

“This was never anti-Charles Howard or anti-Santa,” McMurray said at last week’s Village Board meeting.

He said the Santa mural and one on the opposite side of the park featuring quarrymen “fight each other” and aren’t complimentary to each other. He sees the Santa and large Santa mural as “kind of hidden” in the pocket park about a half block south of the canal.

He favors putting the land up for sale, giving the opportunity for a more dynamic asset in the downtown while also putting the site back on the tax rolls.

An Orleans Hub article on Aug. 13 about the possible sale of the park last month drew nearly 300 comments on the Orleans Hub’s Facebook page with many opposing the sale, and urging the board to try to fill vacant storefronts instead.

“I think that the park is fine just as it is for now,” village resident Jason Dragon posted. “The expense is very low, and it provides a nice visual contrast for the downtown area. I can’t see how privatizing it will add value given that is has been a challenge to utilize many of the other downtown buildings for decades.”

Phil Schening said selling the park and making it available for business would be a good move.

“Clear it out and let food trucks set up there to draw people downtown, permits required with a time frame so more than one get a chance to sell,” Schening wrote.

This photo taken from a window of the Pratt theater shows Waterman Park. Besides the Santa statue and mural, there is a mural depicting quarrymen and a n interpretive panel highlighting the historic districts in the community.

Lori Laine has been active in promoting the Santa projects in Albion. She said she might try to buy the land if it is put up for sale so the statue could stay there.

McMurray said if the idea advances, with the land going for sale, he would have Bieber share his plan in detail and disclose the renderings. McMurray believes the community would rally behind Bieber’s ideas.

“Once you see a visual, I promise you you’ll say, ‘Give me a shovel and I’ll dig it up,’” McMurray said.

If the land is up for sale, McMurray said it would likely have to go to the highest bidder.

Bieber was at the Betterment Committee’s board meeting on Tuesday and heard the group’s strong opposition to relocating the Santa elements. He said he doesn’t want to push a project without community support and would be fine with the spot staying as a Santa-themed park.

Betterment Committee members said there are many unknowns about the village’s talk to sell the park. Can the village simply list it for sale and sell it, or does it need the State Legislature’s permission to sell a park? ABC members said municipalities often need the state’s OK to sell parkland.

Also, would the state Department of Transportation even allow the statue to be situated in the sidewalk? The DOT in past has allowed temporary items in the sidewalk, but not permanent things.

Photo from Orleans County Sheriff’s Office

ALBION – A black pig is on the loose in the Abion area, and sightings of this pig have frequently been posted on social media in the past week. This morning the pig was spotted close to the Keitel Road and Route 31 intersection.

The Orleans County Sheriff’s Office is well aware of this pig and are trying to corral it.

“The Orleans County Sheriff’s Office has received multiple reports of a pig loose in the Town of Albion,” the Sheriff’s Office posted on its Facebook page. “Numerous attempts were made to contain the pig. The Sheriff’s Office and owners are aware, and are working to resolve the matter.”

Photos courtesy of Albion Central School

ALBION – The school district gathered on Friday for a group photo to celebrate 150 years of the school district. This year there are 1,649 students and 278 staff members.

The district did a similar photo 25 years ago, gathering on the football field, for a group photo. That time it was for the 125^th anniversary.

The district will be celebrating the milestone anniversary throughout the year, especially during homecoming on Oct. 5 through Oct. 10, the 150^th day of the school year and with other activities.

One of the teachers, Tim Archer, is working with students on a 150^th anniversary booklet about the district that was established in 1876.

Photos courtesy of Mike Thaine

ROCHESTER – The choir at the First Presbyterian Church of Albion sang the national anthem just before the Rochester Red Wings game on labor day, Sept. 7.

The Red Wings would go on to defeat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, 3-1.

The choir received an enthusiastic response from the standing-room only crowd, with one long-time usher remarking that it was one of the top anthem renditions of the season, one of the church members said.

Pictured from left in row one: Anna Symons, Martha Batt, Annette Mannella, Pastor & Choir Director Sue Thaine, Amanda Krenning-Muoio and Jeanine Baron.  Second row: Donna Eisermann, Maggie Martin, Kevin Gardner, Tod Symons, Erin Moody, Alec Sherman and Shirley Mazourek-Murray. (Missing from photo: Sharon Anderson and Marietta Schuth)

The choir’s performance was projected on the ESL Ballpark’s Jumbotron scoreboard.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The Albion Village Board on Wednesday issued a proclamation declaring September as National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The board presented the proclamation to Tina and Jeremy Neal, who are the parents of Byron Neal, at age 8 on April 14, 2023 after a brave battle with cancer.

From include village trustees Jami Allport, William Gabalski, Jeremy and Tina Neal, Mayor Tim McMurray, and trustees Greg Bennett and Kevin Sheehan.

“Village of Albion residents are urged to recognize the impact of pediatric cancer on families within our community and honor the children in our community whose lives have been cut short by cancer,” the proclamation states.

Tina Neal thanked the board for issuing the proclamation and showing support for the families who have lost children to cancer. The Neal family is active in C.U.R.E. Childhood Cancer Association.

The proclamation states National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is a time to honor children and families affected by this deadly disease and to rally support for ground- breaking research that can save kids’ lives.

The American Cancer Society states that in 2025 about 9,550 children in the United States under the age of 15 are expected to die from cancer.

In the Rochester region, 61 local children have been newly diagnosed with cancer, and 5 have relapsed and 5 children have died from the disease in 2025.

“Although cancer is pernicious and complex, National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month challenges us to change the numbers; we must remain vigilant to improve these statistics and press forward,” the proclamation states.

Photos by Tom Rivers: Brennan Moody played the role of John the Baptist in Albion’s production of Godspell in March 2018. That musical started with Brennan singing, “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord.” Brennan died in a car accident on June 18, 2019, about a week before he was to graduate. The Albion Village Board on Wednesday voted to name the amphitheater at Bullard Park in Brennan’s honor.

ALBION – The amphitheater at Bullard Park, which hosts numerous bands and musical performers each summer, will be named in honor of the late Brennan Moody.

Brennan was 17 when he died in a car accident on June 18, 2019, 10 days before he was going to graduate from high school.

Brennan starred in the school musicals and was very active in the band and chorus programs.

Jack Burris of Albion and former village resident Thom Jennings first suggested naming the amphitheater for Moody about seven years ago. About 3,000 people backed an online petition for the idea.

Burris attended Wednesday’s Village Board meeting and again pressed the issue. He reminded the board of the strong support for naming the amphitheater for Brennan Moody, and said Brennan’s life continues to inspire people today.

The board unanimously agreed. Mayor Tim McMurray said the village will have a plaque at the amphitheater in honor of Moody.

Brennan’s father, Erin, has been among the performers at the amphitheater as a lead singer with the band Eclipse.

In Brennan’s honor, there is an annual scholarship given to two graduating seniors who have been active in the school’s music program and also show genuine kindness to everyone they encounter.

The Class of 2019 also dedicated a memorial bench in honor of Moody at the high school near the band and chorus rooms.

The bench includes lyrics from the song, “No One Is Alone” from Into the Woods. Brennan played the role of the prince in that show on the Albion stage during the spring of 2019.

Highway 31 closes out Albion’s summer concert series on Aug. 26. The amphitheater, which was constructed in 2019, will be named in honor of Brennan Moody.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Mike McFarland, who writes under the name Thomas McFarland, holds a copy of his fourth book, The Quarry. The story is set in Albion in 1959.

ALBION – Mike McFarland has written a fourth novel, and this one is more of an homage to a childhood in Albion where children would roam in the neighborhoods, including exploring some of the old quarries. He would swim in the Peck’s quarry on Keitel Road, a site “that was packed on the weekends.”

McFarland, who writes under the name Thomas McFarland, has written “The Quarry.” It is set in the summer of 1959 when a 14-year-old is killed headed home from Peck’s quarry.

McFarland writes about a kid who overhears two men from West Virginia on a lunch break. The men are discussing the murder. A local police officer is able to piece together the clues and solve the crime.

McFarland names the officer Nowak. He is based on a Nowicki who McFarland knew on Knapp Street, where many Polish immigrants and their descendants lived.

McFarland, 83, is retired from a career in sales and also in managing hotels in Rochester. He wrote three historical novels previously.

The Horns of the Buffalo: A Novel of the Zulu War of 1879 highlights a tragic six-month war between the British and the Zulu in 1879.

In Rivers to Cross, McFarland’s book is set in the Civil War and features Tomas Corliss, who is wounded in battle and comes home to find his dreams shattered. He heads west to recover and somehow finds himself in post-war Texas where the great cattle drives to Abilene are just underway.

Donnybrook is a novel set in New York City during the draft riots of 1863.

With his latest novel, McFarland enjoyed reminiscing about growing up in Albion and the summer when he worked for the Kirby Brothers on their tomato farms. It was a dry summer, McFarland recalled, and he was busy moving irrigation pipes, cutting hay, and picking cherries and tomatoes. He was paid 10 cents a basket.

He picked with migrant workers and some local residents. The tomatoes were a huge crop locally back then with the tomatoes destined for the canning factories in Albion.

“They were hard to pick,” McFarland said about tomatoes. “You had to bend way over to get them. The best pickers were on their knees and then went along. It was the one year I worked all summer on a farm. I realized I didn’t want to do that again.”

McFarland now lives in Brockport. He worked about a year on the latest novel, which is about 200 pages. He includes cultural references from the 1950s.

“I do it for the fun of it,” he said about writing. “It’s a story. It’s fun remembering this stuff.”

He is working on his next novel, this time about a serial killer and the troubles in Northern Ireland during the reign of Boston gangster Whitey Bulger.

Photos by Tom Rivers: Firefighters stand under a giant American flag that was hoisted above Main Street by the ladder trucks from Medina and Murray on Sept. 11, 2024.

There will be Sept. 11 remembrance services on Friday in Albion and Brockport on the 25^th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Orleans County will be holding a service on the courthouse lawn beginning at 6 p.m.

Scott Schmidt is the keynote speaker for the service. Schmidt, the Orleans County chief coroner and a funeral director for Mitchell Family Cremations and Funerals, spent three weeks with the federal DMORT team after 9/11 and assisted in collecting and identifying remains, and interviewing family members searching for loved ones.

The terrorists attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and injured more than 6,000 others. Terrorists crashed two planes into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the other into a field in rural Shanksville, Pa.

The service will include a welcome message from Lynne Johnson, chairwoman of the Orleans County Legislature; and opening and closing prayer from David Fish, pastor of the Barre Center Presbyterian Church; a timeline of Sept. 11 by Justin Niederhofer, the Orleans County emergency management director; and a gun salute from the Honor Guard of the American Legion and VFW.

Doug Egling will play “America the Beautiful” and the crowd will join in singing, “God Bless America.”

In Brockport, there is a Firefighters’ Memorial Monument at 237 South Main St.

That location is the setting for a day of reflection and remembrance on Sept. 11.

The schedule in Brockport incudes an opening ceremony at 8:30 a.m., ringing of the bell at 8:47 a.m., and a closing ceremony at 6:30 p.m.

An Honor Guard will stand vigil throughout the day, paying their respects to those who were killed.

A “Ring of Gold” will replace the Honor Guard for a moment of silence prior to the closing ceremony at 6:30 p.m. The Ring of Gold includes personnel from various agencies.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Kids are full of energy this morning as they left school buses and headed to the Ronald L. Sodoma Elementary School in Albion.

Albion, Holley Kendall and Lyndonville all have their first day of classes today while Medina starts the school year on Wednesday.

These kids head to the Albion school this morning just after 9 a.m.

NY’s Haunted History Trail brings busload of people to sites in WNY

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Brian Cano of Staten Island led a group of 23 people on a paranormal exploration on Sunday night at the Pratt Event Center.

The group arrived by bus as part of a two-day journey around Western New York on the NYS Haunted History Trail.

Cano is shown on the stage of the former Pratt Opera House. On the walls are old play advertisements and programs from theater shows in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The wall is covered with signatures of stage hands, and advertisements from comedy and theater shows. For more than a century, they were hid behind a tin barrier in the Pratt Opera House.

Brian Cano started hosting paranormal TV shows back in 2002 with “Scared in Staten Island.” He said there has been growing interest and acceptance of the paranormal, partly through the popularity of shows such as “Ghost Hunters.”

He led people over two days to several sites in Western New York on the Haunted History Trail. Before coming to the Pratt on Sunday night, the group was at the Buffalo Naval Yard touring a WWII ship.

Cano said the Haunted History Trail highlights interesting places and communities, and isn’t just for people interested in paranormal explorations.

State tourism officials offered the bus tour for the first time, and 23 people signed up.

“Some are just curious, and others are more investigation minded,” Cano said.

Michael Bonafede gave the group some background on the three buildings they would be touring. Bonafede and his wife Judith Koehler have worked more than 20 years of restoring the Pratt Event Center and turning the site from near vacancy to buildings with many tenants.

The Pratt Event Center is made up of three interconnected historic buildings, including the former Grand Opera House, the Day and Day Building and the Stone Building. The site features a preserved Grand Army of the Republic meeting room where Civil War veterans from three Orleans County brigades gathered from 1884 to 1930.

The Pratt has hosted paranormal investigations the past five years. Albion resident D.J. Button leads the groups. He has EMF readers, light balls and motion sensors.

Button leads group tours throughout the year, with October and November the busiest months. Click here for more information on the Pratt paranormal tours.

Michael Bonafede shows the group Beaver Alley, a sandstone paved street next to the Pratt Opera House.

The Gold Medal Flour mural was added to the building at 120 North Main St. The tried to replicate a Gold Medal Flour sign from the early 1900s.

The building from 1882 has an intact GAR Room used by the Grand Army of the Republic, and many programs and posters from performances at the opera house, as well as several other artifacts.

Photos courtesy of Taylor McCabe

The group on the Haunted History Trail gathered in a circle on the stage of the Pratt Opera House before their paranormal investigation on Sunday night.

The group is shown in the Grand Army of the Republic room where Civil War veterans would meet regularly.

Some of the group in the theater saw shadows moving in the rear of the opera house where John Pratt is often believed to come up the back stairs and toward the stage. Many felt energy or presence on stage during their circle around the Ghost Light. Others also heard words related to performances, one observer said.

In the GAR room, they received direct responses through paranormal equipment to questions pertaining to the time period in which the room was used by soldiers, the observer said.

For more on the Haunted History Trail, click here.

District will have 2 security staff on duty during school day

Photo courtesy of Albion Central School: from left include Kevin Parker, Joseph Fuller, Randy Hoke, Shawn O’Mara, Joe Robinson and Jeff Gifaldi.

Press Release, Albion Central School

ALBION – Albion Central School is proud to share that it will be working with COP Security to oversee districtwide safety and security operations for the 2026-27 school year.

The COP Security team is composed of both retired and current law enforcement officers, as well as U.S. military veterans, bringing extensive experience and specialized training to enhance safety at Albion schools.

With the new partnership, campus security presence will increase from one to two security team members on campus during school hours. There are a total of six security team members assigned to the Albion district. They will be present at Back-to-School Night for students and families to meet and address any questions.

“As we head into a new school year, safety is always of highest priority,” said Mickey Edwards, Albion district superintendent. “We look forward to welcoming and working closely with our new security team to maintain a space where students and staff feel protected and at ease, allowing for their focus to remain on learning, leading and growing.”

COP Security, founded in 1998, takes pride in providing comprehensive security solutions, having served private and public area schools throughout the western New York area for 15 years.

“We understand that a secure learning environment for students and staff is paramount and we are committed to ensuring that their well-being is always at the forefront of our efforts,” said Shawn O’Mara, COP Security Director. “We thank Albion Schools for trusting us and look forward to building strong relationships and a welcoming atmosphere within the school community.”

The District previously utilized the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office for their School Resource Officer services, as well as Albion Police Department, and sincerely thanks them for their many years of trusted partnership.

Meet the COP Security team assigned to Albion schools:

• Kevin Parker – a U.S. Navy veteran and retired Orleans Correctional Facility employee, he is involved with several community organizations.
• Joseph Fuller – a retired Albion police officer, Fuller served as K9 handler, and Albion School Resource Officer for five years, and retired with the rank of sergeant. He holds several law enforcement certifications.
• Randy Hoke – a retired Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy, he served as community relations deputy, criminal investigator and retired with the rank of sergeant. Hoke holds several law enforcement certifications and is threat assessment certified.
• Shawn O’Mara – He has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience. O’Mara is a retired Gates Police Officer and has served as Director of Security for Holley and Wheatland School Districts as well as Trinity Private Schools. He is a federal instructor for active shooter training and holds several law enforcement certifications.
• Joe Robinson – a retired Greece Police Officer, he served in the supervisor role as first line sergeant. He currently serves as a part-time officer with the Avon Police Department. He holds several certifications under the NYS Department of Justice.
• Jeff Gifaldi – a retired Orleans County Sheriff’s Deputy, he served 25 years, holding titles of undersheriff and criminal investigator. He holds several law enforcement certifications.