Library announces extended hours, including on Saturday

Press Release, Hoag Library

ALBION – The Hoag Library of the Swan Library Association has two open positions on the Board of Trustees.

Interested candidates should submit a petition, available at the library circulation desk, signed by at least 20 adults residing in the library service area by 7 p.m. on April 5. Elections will be held May 3 from noon to 7 p.m. with results announced at the Annual Meeting immediately following. All library service area residents are eligible to vote and attend the Annual Meeting.

Also, effective Saturday, March 27, Hoag Library will no longer limit visits to 15 minutes and updated building hours will be as follows:

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday:10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Friday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Saturday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The building is open for browsing, copy/fax/print/scan, and computer lab use (please note that the computer lab closes 15 minutes before the building).

Exciting plans are underway for this year’s 2021 Summer Reading Program ‘Tails and Tales.’ Stay tuned to our website and social media outlets for updates.

Department sending police reform plan to state by April 1

Photo by Tom Rivers: Albion Police Department Sgt. Brandon Annable, left, and Lt. David Mogle are pictured outside the Albion police station on Platt Street.

ALBION – The Albion Police Department is working on a police reform plan and wants to hear from the community how the department can better serve local residents and business owners.

The department has a five-question survey online for people to offer feedback and rate the department’s services. Click here to see the survey.

The Police Department has compiled a police reform and reinvention plan (click here) that needs to be sent to the state by April 1. The plan is expected to be voted on by the Village Board next week.

David Mogle, lieutenant with the Albion PD, said the plan will be a working document that can be modified in the future.

“We expect to build on this,” he said.

Mogle and Sgt. Brandon Annable have been meeting with a committee to discuss Albion PD policies and ways to help the department better connect with the community. One of the survey questions asks if residents would like to see officers at more events in the community.

The committee working with the Police Department already has ideas to help officers connect with the community. The committee has suggested the PD not have tinted windows on the Chevrolet Tahoes driven by officers. Mogle said as those vehicles are rotated out the replacements won’t have tinted windows in the future.

The committee also suggested the Albion PD have more officers spend time in school buildings. The department currently has a dedicated school resource officer, Chris Glogowski. He has worked at the school district since February 2019, with the district contributing $81,250 annually to the village to have the officer dedicated to the schools.

More officers could spend time in the schools with the district’s approval and if it works with the Police Department’s staffing, Mogle said. Those officers could spend part of a shift with the school resource officer, Mogle said.

The Albion PD responds to about 4,000 to 5,000 calls annually. The department at full staffing has 13 full-time officers. It currently is down one officer, and will be at 11 when Police Chief Roland Nenni retires on March 31. The PD runs two 12-hour shifts, the first platoon from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and second platoon, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Nenni has led a department that far exceeds the annual state requirements for training. Albion officers do annual training with firearms, use of force, updates in laws such as bail reform and “Raise the Age,” Emergency Vehicle Operation Course, Stinger Spike Strips (vehicle pursuit termination efforts), administering Narcan, using tourniquets and other First Aid, and defensive tactics, Taser and use of less lethal bean bag shotgun, reality-based training focused on de-escalation, Bloodborne pathogens, and active shooter training.

The department has long banned the use of chokeholds. It has a policy against racial-based profiling. The Albion PD also is looking to add a Racial Justice training, the department states in its reform and reinvention plan.

Even after the plan is submitting to the state, Mogle said the Albion PD intends to meet frequently with the committee to hear if there are community concerns and how they can be best addressed.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The VFW Post in Albion reached its 75^th anniversary on Nov. 19, 2020. The Post hasn’t been able to have a celebration for the milestone due to Covid-19 restrictions and concerns. However, the Post’s leaders on Wednesday acknowledged the 75 years during its monthly meeting.

Pictured outside the Post on Platt Street include from left: Orville Preston, chaplain; Mike Donahue, trustee; Mark Roberts, past commander; Matt Passarell, current commander; Joe Gehl, trustee; Kevin Christy, quartermaster; and Gary Befus, trustee.

The VFW Post works with the American Legion on setting flags on about 2,000 veterans’ graves annually. The VFW also provides scholarships and helps organize the annual Memorial Day observance.

Matt Passarell, the current commander, praised the efforts of the VFW members since the post’s founding. He thanked the current members for continuing to serve at the post and serve the community.

“The 75^th anniversary is an impressive milestone,” Passarell said during Wednesday’s monthly board meeting. “A lot of this can be attributed to people from long ago who wanted a VFW post in Albion.”

The Veterans of Foreign Wars national office recognized the local VFW with a Diamond Jubilee Award on Nov. 19, which was the 75th anniversary of the post’s founding.

“In special commemoration and grateful recognition of its seventy-five years of exceptional service to the nation and its veterans throughout its seven and one-half decades of dedicated support for the programs and purposes of the Veterans of Foreign Wars,” the citation read.

Harold “Hal” Roesch, II, commander-in-chief of the national VFW, sent a letter of congratulations to the VFW.

“The members of VFW Post 4635 are a pillar of support for Albion, New York,” Roesch wrote in his letter. “Year after year, you have provided superb public service to others. You provide an invaluable network of service to those who have borne the battle, as well as to their families, and you advance the health and well-being of those who bear the burden of defending our nation and our way of life.”

VFW leaders pause for a prayer during Wednesday’s monthly board meeting.

Marciano, Toale elected trustees in Medina

Photos by Tom Rivers: Zack Burgess sings with his band Zero tonight at Maison Albion where many of his friends and family surprised him with a celebration. Burgess was elected to the Village Board today.

ALBION – Zack Burgess was elected to the Village Board today, getting 76.6 percent of the vote in a victory over Joe Martillotta, 111 to 34.

Burgess, 31, becomes one of the youngest elected officials in Orleans County. He has been active in the village, serving as co-chairman of the Rock the Park Music Festival at Bullard Park. He works as a sales representative at Bentley Brothers.

Burgess, who was endorsed by the Democratic Party, said he knows the current Village Board members and many of the village employees through Rock the Park. He presented plans to the board for that music event many times in recent years and also connected with village department heads on the music festival, which was a fundraiser for the park.

He has attended recent Village Board meetings, and also went to several back when he was in high school and Martillotta was his social studies teacher. Martillotta, who is now retired, required students to attend local government meetings.

Burgess said he welcomes feedback from village residents on how the village government can best serve the community.

“I want people to feel comfortable talking to me,” he said. “I want to be as accessible as I can to the people in the village.”

Burgess said it was humbling the past month to see so many signs in yards, with people showing support for his election.

“I’m super appreciative of everyone who put out a sign,” he said.

Burgess was given a surprise party tonight at Maison Albion on West Countyhouse Road. Laura Olinger, president of Bentley Brothers, organized the celebration. She appreciates a new generation stepping forward to help lead the community.

The turnout for the election was low with 145 out of 2,970 eligible voters or 4.9 percent. That was still nearly three times the turnout in the last election in September, where the top candidate had 54 votes.

Burgess starts the three-year term on the board on April 1.

Dylan DeSmit, left, joined Zack Burgess and the band Zero in performing music and having some fun tonight at Maison Albion on West County House Road.

• MEDINA – In the other village election in Orleans County, two trustee candidates in Medina were unopposed for two-year terms. Jessica Marciano received 59 votes and Owen Toale, 48. They ran together on the “Accountability Party.”

ALBION – When school was closed suddenly last year to in-person learning, and there wasn’t a prom or typical graduation ceremony, community members responded by adopting seniors and giving them gifts to help them feel appreciated during a difficult end of their school year.

The Adopt A Senior effort is coming back for this year’s class, which experienced the disruption of their junior year and have now gone through a senior year with no homecoming, no senior tea, and scaled down activities. Seniors are on a hybrid schedule, attending in-person classes two days a week or going fully remote.

Plans for the prom and commencement remain up in the air as the district waits to see if the state eases restrictions on crowd sizes.

One of the parents of the Class of 2021 is managing the Adopt-A-Senior program, seeking to provide a “morale boost” for the 140 students in the class.

Adopters of a student can expect to spend about $25. They will be randomly paired with a senior, who will provide a list of interests and future plans.

People who want to spend more or give gifts to a senior they know are still welcome to do that outside of the Adopt-A-Senior program. People are welcome to adopt more than one senior.

The adopters will be notified privately which senior they have adopted, and the seniors’ information will only be shared with the adopters. The program will only go forward if there are adopters for all students.

If you are interested in adopting a student, or multiple students, you can send a private message on the Adopt-A-Senior Facebook page or by emailing albionseniors2021@gmail.com.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Sarah Mathes of the Albion Rotary Interact Club has to-go meals ready on Friday at the Community Kitchen at Christ Church. Allison Mathes is in back.

The kitchen has had a very busy year since last March, serving 19,000 meals to go or an average of 380 a week from 4:30 to 6 p.m. That includes about 30 to 50 meals each week delivered to shut-ins by Faith Smith, the kitchen’s director, and her husband, Michael.

Before the pandemic the kitchen was serving about 150 meals a week. The dining room has been closed for in-person dining since last March 7. Smith, the kitchen’s volunteer director since 2009, is hopeful the Covid restrictions will be eased soon and people can return to eat the meals at the dining.

Dalton Dexter, a member of the Interact Club, retrieves some of the meals on Friday for people who stopped by the side door of Christ Church, which hosts the kitchen. Faith Smith, the kitchen’s director, is in back at left talking with Della Morales, the high school media specialist.

Della Morales, right, prepared a vegetarian lasagna in spinach alfredo sauce for the dinner on Friday. She is with Interact Club members, from left: Lily Mathes, Sarah Mathes and Dalton Dexter.

The meal also included a brownie with green frosting for St. Patrick’s Day.

The kitchen also receives donated items that people can take home, including bread, muffins, produce, butter, salad fixings and other food.

The second Friday of the month includes volunteers from Albion Central School. Teachers, staff and students prepare and serve the meals the second Friday.

The Albion and Medina Lions Clubs take care of the first Friday, Holy Family Parish does the third Friday and the Albion Free Methodist Church is on duty for the fourth Friday. The West Barre United Methodist Church does the fifth Friday.

“I am the director of Christ Church Community Kitchen but without the help and support from the entire community this kitchen would not be where it is today!” Smith said. “Thank you to all who volunteer and donate to help keep this kitchen open and serving everyone in need.”

For more information about the kitchen, check the group’s Facebook page or email Smith at communitykitchen2009@gmail.com.

Participants in colon cancer awareness event will be released in groups of 25 every 10 minutes

Photos by Tom Rivers: Runners take off at the start of the Run for Wayne on Clarendon Road in Albion on April 22, 2017. This year’s event is scheduled for March 27.

ALBION – Last year’s Run for Wayne in late March was cancelled at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This year the race will go on, but in a way to spread out the runners and walkers on a 3.17-mile course that starts on Clarendon Road, goes along Route 31 to Mount Albion Cemetery and then comes back on 31 to the elementary school parking lot.

The race started in 2015 to honor the memory of Wayne Burlison, an Albion elementary music teacher who died at age 36 from colon cancer on March 26, 2014.  The “Run for Wayne” is now known as the Wayne Burlison Colon Cancer Awareness 5K, which highlights the second leading cancer death among men, but is often treatable if detected in the early stages.

This portrait of Wayne Burlison was displayed on a tree along the course in Mount Albion during the 2016 race.

The race is slighter longer than a typical 5K at 3.17 miles. Burlison lived 3 months and 17 days after he was diagnosed with colon cancer.

Bert Gallmon, one of Burlison’s friends, is managing this year’s race. Gallmon is releasing the participants in groups of 25 every 10 minutes, with the first group starting at 1 p.m., then additional groups at 1:10, 1:20 and 1:30. Participants can also complete the distance virtually at another location.

The race usually has about 100 participants. Click here to sign up in one of the four different groups on March 27. Race-day signups should also be available, Gallmon said.

Proceeds from the race in the past have gone towards a scholarship in Burlison’s name and also towards a new running/walking trail at Bullard Park that hasn’t been built yet.

Burlison was active in several musical groups in the community and also helped start the Albion Running Club. He lost more than 150 pounds through better nutrition and exercise and completed a marathon and half-marathons.

Thom and Tracy Jennings of Albion used downtime from Covid to develop new venture

Photos by Tom Rivers: These bagels are fresh out of the oven on Friday night. Thom and Tracy Jennings use the certified commercial kitchen at the Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds to make about 400-450 bagels each week.

Thom Jennings measures cinnamon while making a batch of Papa Thom’s Rockin’ Bagels on Friday night. He started the business about a year ago with his wife Tracy. It quickly outgrew their kitchen at home in Albion.

ALBION – Last April, more than a month into the Covid-19 pandemic that closed schools to in-person learning, Thom Jennings was bored with more time on his hands than usual.

Jennings works as a social studies teacher. He also was performing stand-up comedy routines and writing music reviews for the Niagara Gazette.

But last April his schedule slowed down and he was watching a lot of the Food Network. One episode showed someone trying to make bagels.

Jennings watched the show with his wife Tracy, who loves to bake and experiment in the kitchen. She suggested her husband give bagel-making a try. Never, he replied.

But soon after, when he his wife was out of the house, Jennings made a batch of plain bagels. He didn’t think it would be too difficult. He worked at a Rochester restaurant as a young adult and felt comfortable making bread and had plenty of experience with yeast. He also grew up in Brighton where there are many bagel shops.

When Jennings pulled the bagels out of the oven for the first time, they were a disaster to behold. They were comically flat.

“The first ones were just horrible,” he said. “I became obsessed with mastering the bagel instead of the bagel mastering me.”

Jennings tried again and again and by the third batch felt like he was getting a knack for it. He started giving the bagels to friends. He received good feedback.

“This was never on my radar,” said Jennings, 54. “I never envisioned myself as a bagel maker.”

Tracy Jennings sprinkles cheese on Jalapeño cheddar bagels that were made Friday night. Papa Thom’s currently offers about 12 different types of bagels.

He had a feeling the bagels, made in small batches and without preservatives, would be popular in the Albion and Orleans County community.

He secured a home processor’s license from the state that allowed him to sell the bagels. The business by July outgrew his home kitchen.

“We were baking all night because there was only so much oven space,” he said.

Jennings told people he baked the bagels while listening to some of his favorite bands and musicians. He decided to make a small business out of it, and called the bagel making enterprise, Papa Thom’s Rockin’ Bagels. He is “Papa Thom” to four grandchildren.

He guarantees not only a great-tasting bagel, but that they are “born” to music. The label on each batch notes which band or musician was on while Jennings made the bagels. On Friday, the bagels were born to music by the Grateful Dead.

Thom Jennings works on the dough for the bagels while his wife boils and bakes the bagels. Thom wore a tie-dyed shirt on Friday while playing Grateful Dead music.

Thom and Tracy have been making the bagels since last summer at the commercial kitchen at the Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds. The couple arrive Fridays around 6 p.m. and typically are there to 1 or 2 in the morning. Then it’s an early morning Saturday to make deliveries from Rochester to Middleport. Most bagel-making nights they are joined by assistant Zoe Seniuk, 16, of Albion. She has joked she wants to start her own bagel enterprise some day called “Zoe Doughy.”

The label of this order of bagels note they were made on March 5 while being “born” to Grateful Dead music.

The Papa Thom’s business has taken off so much that they have added Thursday evenings to bake the bagels. Papa Thom’s is now making about 400-450 bagels a week and they are booked for orders about a month out. They currently offer bagels in the following varieties:

Traditional – plain, everything, sesame, onion, garlic, poppy and cinnamon raison.

Specialty – Asiago cheese and sundried tomato, everything inside and out, pumpernickel rye, Jalapeño cheddar, Rosemara (rosemary olive oil and sea salt).

The bagels sell for $7 a half dozen or $12 for a dozen. Thom and Tracy continue to experiment with flavors and recipes. They made a red-and-blue Buffalo Bills bagel for the weekend when the Bills faced the Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC Championship on Jan. 24.

Thom Jennings sets some of the bagels in the boiling water on Friday. Each side is boiled for about 90 seconds.

Jennings continues to work as a social studies teacher in Buffalo and Mrs. Jennings works at the Iroquois Job Corps in Shelby, where she is the data integrity records manager.

The couple has a good system in the kitchen. Thom experiments with the recipes and makes the dough. Tracy does the baking, boiling each side of the bagels for about 90 seconds and then baking them in the oven for about 24 minutes.

The Jennings said they have made many new friends through Papa Thom’s, including the the owner of HeBrews 5:9, a coffee shop in downtown Albion that sells about 10 dozen of the bagels each week.

“My hope is it will become a family business,” Mr. Jennings said. “We like to take our time on it. It’s not like we’re a bagel factory.”

They also take requests from customers on new flavors and bands to listen to while the bagels are being born. One customer recently requested Frank Zappa.

“Everything we’ve done has come from customer feedback,” Jennings said.

For more on Papa Thom’s, click here.

Thom and Tracy Jennings shape the bagels before they were boiled and then baked.

Organization moves ahead with expanded services, key capital projects

By Mike Pettinella, GCASA Publicist

ALBION – The Genesee/Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse is excited about the construction of a 25-bed women’s residence to be located in Albion.

John Bennett, GCASA executive director, said the agency is hoping to have its state Department of Health contract within weeks, with construction bids to go out in November.

“Ten of the units will have the capacity to house women with children,” Bennett said. “It’s sorely needed as there aren’t that many programs around that offer services to women and their pre-school age children, which is a significant barrier for women to receive the intensive-type treatment they may need for addiction.”

He said that there are only two programs west of Albany that assist women and children in this way.

“Our percentage of female population has gone up over the years. I think when we wrote the grant it had gone up over 12 percent in a three- or four-year period – up to the mid- or high-30’s,” he advised.

Editor’s Note: Mayor Eileen Banker said the apartments will be built close to the Orleans Community Health site east of the village near Butts Road.

Return to ‘in-person’ status

As more people get vaccinated and, hopefully, as the Covid-19 infection rate continues to subside, Bennett is increasingly optimistic that all of the agency’s services soon will be returning to “in-person” status.

“The Recovery Station (on Clinton Street Road in Batavia) is open to the public two days a week and our residential program is fully open because we had limited beds for a while,” Bennett said. “We’re starting to do more in-person counseling and actually look to resume in-person group (sessions) by springtime.”

Bennett also mentioned that transportation of clients is starting to pick up and, “as always, our peer recovery advocates are available at all times to help those in need.”

GCASA has expanded its programming through the awarding of grants and is looking forward to embarking upon significant capital projects to provide essential services.

Making room for a detox center

One of the major projects slated for the Genesee County campus on East Main Street is the construction of a 20-bed detoxification facility.

“Work has finally started on the new detox center which will be attached to the existing Atwater Home residential building. This project will have 16 detox beds and four swing beds for a total of 20 beds,” Bennett offered. “The four swing beds can be used as transition beds from detox to another residential setting and/or as overflow for Atwater.”

Bennett said the detox center originally was scheduled to open in December of this year but in all likelihood won’t open until the beginning of 2022.

Supportive living gets a boost

Last month, it was announced that GCASA will receive $250,000 from the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative for an additional 10 units (beds) to go toward operating costs of its supportive living program. This means that the agency will have 15 units in Genesee County to go along with its two units in Orleans County.

ESSHI funds are earmarked for operation of the program, Bennett said.

“The home that we are renovating for this is 99 percent completed and ready to be used for the ESSHI grant,” Bennett said. “This five apartment unit will become permanent housing for individuals who have substance use disorder in the family. It can be a family member who has SUD or the individual who needs housing.”

Bennett underscored the demand for suitable housing for the population that is served by GCASA.

“Having adequate housing, jobs, daycare, food and balanced sober recreational activities can have a huge impact on the outcomes for persons and families dealing with SUD,” he explained. “By building more permanent housing, GCASA is addressing the social determinants of health that can make a difference in person’s recovery.”

Renovations at The Recovery Station

Bennett said GCASA has received several bids to complete the Phase II renovations of The Recovery Station (the old Bohn’s Restaurant). This project will create office space for eight employees of the Genesee Prevention Education department – who will relocate from the East Main Street office — as well as a laundry room, new bathroom and small meeting room.

“A final Phase III project for The Recovery Station will be completed at a future date and will include rebuilding the commercial kitchen, creating storage and two small additional offices,” he said. “This has been an amazing reuse of an old commercial building.”

Another project focuses on renovation of the kitchen space at GCASA’s childcare center on Harvester Avenue, said Bennett, adding that childcare will resume within the month or as soon as the renovations are complete.

Hotline is there in a crisis situation

He mentioned the GCASA peer hotline is available “24/7 for people in crises.” Calls coming into 585-815-1800 will trigger response from the agency’s trained peer recovery advocates.

In closing, he said that the addition of these new programs and projects has increased the organization’s size by close to 40 percent over the past five years.

“All the credit goes to our staff, who have tirelessly worked through this pandemic to serve our communities,” Bennett said, noting that most GCASA employees have been vaccinated.

ALBION – The Village Board last week putting in a four-way stop sign at the intersection of Ingersoll Street and Linwood Avenue. There is currently a stop sign going north-south at the intersection.

Soon there will be stop signs going east-west at the intersection north of the Erie Canal on the east side of the village.

The Village Board had a public hearing last Wednesday on the new four-way stop. Mayor Eileen Banker said some residents in that neighborhood have complaints that traffic is too fast in that area.

“This will slow people down,” she said.

In other matters during the meeting last week:

• The Village Board received a letter from the American Legion asking if there would be a Memorial Day parade this year. Last year’s parade and community observance was cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The village is waiting to see if the restrictions will be further eased by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the State Department of Health.

“I’d hate to not have it,” Banker said about the parade. “We’re waiting on the governor. That’s what it’s come down to right now.”

• Adam Rush, chief operator of Albion’s water plant, said the village will be seeking bids to replace a 1 million gallon water tank on Route 98, near Watt Farms Country Market in the Town of Gaines. The current tank is about 60 years old.

Engineers said it should be removed and replaced with a new concrete tank. Rush said the estimates are for $1.2 million to replace the old tank with a new one.

A state grant is expected to help with some of the costs of the project.

• Village Clerk/Treasurer Linda Babcock notified the board by letter she is eligible to retire in the fiscal year. She has served in the position since 2007 and has worked for the village since 1986. She said she expects to retire in April 2022.