By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 February 2023 at 4:13 pm
Village officials open to exploring fire district to oversee fire protection for Albion, Gaines
Photo by Tom Rivers: The Albion Fire Department ladder truck was utilized on Jan. 29 for a chimney fire in Gaines at a house at the intersection of Route 279 and Route 104.
ALBION – The Village Board is mulling how to pay for two new fire trucks that together could be close to $3 million.
The Albion Fire Department has been strongly urging the village in recent years to prepare for replacing a ladder truck from 1996 and a pumper from 1992. Another pumper is 16 years old.
Former Fire Chief Harry Papponetti said current estimates for a new ladder truck are $1.7 million and $900,000 for a new pumper. And it could take three or four years for a new truck to get built because of a shortage of materials.
Papponetti and the fire department leaders have suggested a ladder truck with pumper capabilities and a new pumper. Those two truck would replace the ladder truck and the two current pumpers.
The fire department is funded by village taxpayers, with the towns of Albion and Gaines also paying a fire protection contract.
Deputy Mayor Joyce Riley said too much of the department’s budget is on village taxpayers. She would like to see the village pursue Papponetti’s suggestion of a fire district that would include the village and two towns. The contributions to department’s budget would be based on the tax base in each municipality.
Riley thinks it would be a fairer way to finance the department.
The Village Board would like to hear more on the pros and cons of the fire district. It would operate under oversight of elected fire commissioners, instead of the Village Board. The board of commissioners could be set up so each municipality has representation.
The Village Board is looking at the costs of financing the trucks through bonds, including what the annual debt payment would be depending on the duration of the bond and the amount.
Papponetti said the older fire trucks have diminishing value but increasing costs for repairs and maintenance. The ladder truck was recently out of commission for three weeks for a $22,000 engine repair. Papponetti estimated the 27-year-old truck is only worth about $30,000 now.
The cost of the fire trucks has escalated in the past generation. Papponetti said the ladder truck was $525,000 in 1996 and now would be three times that price or even more.
He sees as fire district as a way to expand the tax base in supporting the fire department, giving the volunteers the needed equipment to respond to fires and other emergencies.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 February 2023 at 7:52 am
Stacey Kirby Steward has completed several projects at library
Photos by Tom Rivers: Stacey Kirby Steward was up high on scaffolding in the Hoag Library on June 20, 2020, working on a mural of three swans flying over the countryside in Albion.
ALBION – Stacey Kirby Steward’s artwork has been a part of Hoag Library since it opened on July 7, 2012.
On Feb. 17 at 4:30 p.m., the library will host a reception to celebrate Steward’s artwork and give the public a chance to meet the artist, an Albion native who lives in Spencerport.
Stacey Kirby Steward designed a stained-glass window for the library with a swan.
Her first project was designing a stained-glass window featuring a swan, a gift to the new library from Bill Lattin. The window paid homage to the public library’s first 112 years as the Swan Library, in a former mansion.
The library moved into the new 14,600-square-foot building just over a decade ago. The building is about 2.5 times the size of the former Swan site. It has lots of room for art, and Steward has filled some of those spaces.
In June 2020, she completed a 23-foot-long mural in the Curtis Room at Hoag Library. The library’s main meeting room displays the large painting of three swans soaring over the Albion countryside with the Gaines Basin Road bridge in the background.
The family of the late Marion Moore paid the artist fee for the mural of the swans in flight over Albion. Moore served as director of the Swan Library from 1961 to 1973.
Besides the three swans flying over the Erie Canal, the painting also highlights the farm fields, Lake Ontario and a cobblestone schoolhouse. Steward used a drone to get aerial views of Albion, looking down on the area near the Gaines Basin Road canal bridge.
In her latest project, Kirby painted six paintings of different animals reading well-known books. She showed the animals in their environment, reading the books for inspiration. There are raccoons consulting a cookbook while making a concoction of soup, for example. In another painting, a skunk reads Dale Carnegie’s self-improvement book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
A grant from the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council (GO ART!) funded the project.
Hoag Library executive director Betty Sue Miller, left, and Stacey Kirby Steward last week hold her painting of a beaver building a dam. The beaver consults “Cathedral” by David Macaulay. In this critically acclaimed book, Macaulay uses pen and ink drawings to show the construction of a great medieval cathedral, the imaginary Cathedral of Chutreaux. It is one of six new paintings created by Steward at the library.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 February 2023 at 4:47 pm
Bronze statue honoring Charles Howard to be dedicated June 10
Photos by Tom Rivers: Santa and Mrs. Claus attended the June 2018 Strawberry Festival parade and greeted the crowd along Main Street.
ALBION – Organizers of the Albion Strawberry Festival announced the two-day event will be back June 9-10 with some changes due to the Main Street lift bridge being closed.
The parade route, which used to head north on Main Street over the bridge, will instead turn left on West Bank Street, said June Persia, chairwoman of the festival.
The organizers also are seeking the state Department of Transportation’s permission to close Main Street to traffic from Park Street to the bridge. A detour would be expected to send traffic down East Park Street to work their way over to the Ingersoll Street bridge for those headed north.
A statue of Santa, in clay form, was shown to the Albion Betterment Committee on April 23. The statue will be cast in bronze and is on schedule to be ready in time for the Strawberry Festival.
This year’s festival has a theme of “Here Comes Santa” to celebrate the unveiling on a new bronze statue in the likeness of Santa. It will be in Waterman Park, about a half block south of the canal.
Brian Porter, a sculptor from Pendleton, is creating the statue and it is on schedule to be ready in time for the festival. It will be dedicated on June 10 in honor of the late Charles W. Howard, who ran a world-famous Santa School in Albion from 1937 to 1966, and also operated Christmas Park.
Howard remains a revered figure among Santa impersonators. The Santa School is now in Midland, Mich. and still bears his name.
Volunteers are discussing ways to have more festival fun. Persia said a cornhole tournament on Main Street, near the closed off bridge, is one possibility. Organizers are looking for more activities that would be fun for adults, while keeping the children’s entertainment.
Persia has been helping to plan the festival for the past decade. She looks forward to the two-day event with live entertainment, a food court, arts and crafts vendors, a 5k/8k race, the parade and other activities. This will be the 35th Strawberry Festival.
“I want to see the community come together,” she said about the festival. “I like to see people come into our village. We have a beautiful village.”
A team of volunteers is needed to plan and run the event. More volunteers are welcome Persia said. The planning committee meets twice monthly, alternating every two weeks from a morning meeting to an evening meeting.
The next meeting will be 6 p.m. on Feb. 15 at the Hoag Library. For more information, reach out to Persia at (585) 704-1994.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 February 2023 at 10:44 am
New turf football field among first projects, expected to be ready in fall
Photo by Tom Rivers: The end of the Albion football field is shown last week. The grass field will become turf in a project expected to be ready in time for the fall football season.
ALBION – The Board of Education on Monday evening unanimously approved eight construction bids totaling $19,300,000.
Another bid for $2.6 million is expected to be approved next month, bringing the total to $21.9 million.
That is well in budget and leaves a balance of $1,084,507 in contingencies, said Kevin Donaghue, executive vice president Campus Construction Management which is assisting the district in the bid preparation and oversight of the project.
School district residents on Dec. 14, 2021 approved the $26.69 million capital project that includes all three schools, as well as the bus garage, and new synthetic playing surfaces for football, soccer and softball.
After a design phase for the project and review and approval by the state Education Department, the project went out to bid to contractors. The bids were opened last week and on Monday the board gave its approval, with one more contract needing additional review.
“The big picture is the project is right on budget,” Donaghue told the Board of Education.
The bids accepted on Monday include:
Site work – $6,295,082 by Diehl Development
General Trades – $5,441,000 by Javen Construction
Mechanical – $2,797,700 by T. Bell
Plumbing – $1,636,300 by Blackmon Farrell
Playground equipment – $257,027 by GameTime
Scoreboards – $124,725 by Toth
BMS (Building Management System) Controls – $339,068 by Day
Day is also the low bidder for access controls at $2,596,942 that is expected to be approved at next month’s meeting. That system will allow badges to lock and unlock doors, and can do a district-wide lockdown of all classroom doors.
Contractors will soon be a presence on campus with most of the work happening after school.
The first projects will upgrades to the district officer, with the district office staff moving to the E wing of the elementary school during the work at the district office.
Contractors also will be pushing to replace the grass field at the football stadium with turf. That effort is expected to start in April with a push to be done in time for the football season in late August-September.
The softball field and varsity soccer also will get turf fields. That will start this year but isn’t expected to be done until 2024. The varsity field is expected to be available this upcoming season, Donaghue said.
He went over the construction schedule during Monday’s board meeting. The schedule includes:
• Site Work – In 2023 the work includes the football field replacement, track resurfacing, multi-purpose field replacement (softball and soccer – starting June 1, 2023 and ending July 15, 2024), elementary school hot water service line, elementary school drop-off loop and sidewalks, elementary school playground fence replacement and high school hot water service line.
In 2024, the site work includes middle school hot water service line, tennis court replacement, middle school drop-off loop reconstruction, concrete sidewalk replacements, playground replacement at middle school, baseball field drainage improvements, JV softball field drainage improvements.
• Construction at elementary school – In 2023, district office renovation, classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at E wing (Nov. 6 to Dec. 1), classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at D wing (Dec. 11 to Jan. 5), crawl space plumbing and hot water heaters, EIFS replacement, carbon monoxide detectors/fire alarm, and electrical abatement and replacements.
In 2024, classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at C wing (Jan. 1 to Feb. 9), classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at B wing (Feb. 19 to March 15), classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at A wing (March 25 to April 19) and classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at G wing (April 29 to May 24), emergency generator replacement, doors/hardware/security enhancements, main office windows and fire shutter, and gymnasium folding partition replacement.
• Construction at middle school (basement) – In 2023, pool deck structural repairs, boiler room abatement and demolition, boiler room plumbing renovations, ad pool pumps.
In 2024, electrical room A/C and auditorium A/C.
• Construction at middle school (first floor) – In 2023, domestic hot water repairs, replace insulated window panels, gymnasium renovations, pool lighting and locker room renovation, replace ANSUL system, exhaust fan and relief air work, flooring abatement, flooring installation, carbon monoxide detectors and fire alarm, and electrical service component replacements.
In 2024, doors/hardware/security enhancements and auditorium AC.
• Construction at middle school (second floor) – In 2023, exhaust fan and relief air work, replace insulated window panels, flooring abatement, and flooring installation.
In 2024, convert lockers into storage rooms, electrical room A/C, auditorium A/C, and doors/hardware/security enhancements.
• Construction at middle school (third floor) – In 2023, exhaust fan and relief air work.
In 2024, doors/hardware/security enhancements.
• Construction at high school (first floor) – In 2023, library door reconstruction, window lintel replacements, domestic hot water heaters and carbon monoxide detectors and fire alarm.
In 2024, replace lockers (with wider units), doors/hardware/security upgrades, gym renovations and gym locker room renovations.
• Construction at high school (second floor) – In 2023, library door reconstruction, window lintel replacements, domestic hot water heaters, and carbon monoxide detectors and fire alarm.
In 2024, replace lockers, doors/hardware/security upgrades, gym renovations, gym locker room renovations, gym HVAC abatement and demo, gym HVAC installation.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 February 2023 at 12:39 pm
Courtesy of Wolfpack Multisport: The medal for those completing the Wayne Burlison Colon Cancer Awareness 5K or half marathon on March 25 pays homage to the late Wayne Burlison, an elementary school music teacher at Albion who also enjoyed long distance running. Burlison passed away from colon cancer at age 36 on March 26, 2014.
ALBION – There are two big changes so far for the annual Wayne Burlison Colon Cancer Awareness 5K in Albion set for March 25.
This year there will be an option for a half marathon, and there will be medals for those who complete either course.
Bert Galloman, the race director, teased out the medals on social media last week. In the past, those who finished the race received shirts, hats and gloves.
Galloman wants to recognize the efforts of those who complete the courses, and pursue fitness goals during the winter.
“We are doing medals this year because you never know where someone is in their athletic journey,” Galloman said. “Each race is a way to celebrate their achievement and we want to help grow the community. We also love seeing the joy on athletes’ faces as they cross the finish line and get their medal around their necks – there is no better feeling at the finish.”
Galloman wanted to include the half marathon, a distance conquered several times by Burlison, a former Albion elementary school band teacher who passed away at age 36 from colon cancer on March 26, 2014.
Burlison promoted fitness in the community through a Run for God program that took people from the couch to a 5K in less than three months. He lost more than 150 pounds through exercise and better nutrition.
The 5k course starts on Clarendon Road near the elementary school and goes east on Route 31 to Mount Albion Cemetery. After running in the cemetery, participants come back out on 31 and head back to the elementary school parking lot.
The half marathon also starts ear the school but heads south and then east through some of the country roads on County House and Holley roads. Runners will come back along Route 31, and take a loop through the cemetery.
The medals includes different neck ribbons for those who complete the 5K and those that finish the much longer half marathon at 13.1 miles.
Galloman said the half marathon should provide motivation to keep people moving at longer distances during the winter. He also thinks it will be a nice kickoff to the running season with half marathons in Rochester in April and Buffalo in May.
Erin Smith, a triathlete from Albion, helped plan the half marathon course. It avoids the towpath, which can be muddy or snow laden in late March.
Smith thinks the timing in late March fulls a void in the racing calendar, especially for a longer distance. Lockport hosts a 10-mile race on Feb. 11 and there aren’t too many longer distance races after that before there are several in the spring.
“I’d like to see what we can pull in for the longer distance,” Smith said. “I love this community and I love running, and we’re able to mesh the two together. Hopefully this will inspire people to try to get out and try this half marathon.”
Proceeds from the race have gone to a memorial scholarship for Albion at Albion Central School and also were used towards a walking trail at Bullard Park.
“It’s such a great cause,” Smith said. “Wayne was such a loved person and this was his most-loved distance.”
Provided photos: Albion students in the Interact pack food this morning at the Foodlink warehouse in Rochester. Pictured from left include Maggie Olles, Mia Olles, Meganne Moore, Samantha Basinait, and Shania Mathes.
Posted 3 February 2023 at 7:56 pm
Press Release, Albion Interact Club
ALBION – Five members of the Albion High School Rotary Interact club spent this morning sorting, bagging and boxing over two tons of Empire apples at the Foodlink warehouse in Rochester.
The apples will be distributed to over 800 families in the western New York region, including Orleans County. Genesee-Orleans Community Action benefits directly from Foodlink products.
Interact students also have helped with Community Action’s food distribution in Albion.
This is the 15th year Interact students have volunteered at Foodlink. Interact Advisor Tim Archer said the volunteer effort is a great way for the students to see the cycle of food distribution to needy families in our region.
Tim Archer, Interact Cub advisor, is shown with students Shania Mathes, Samantha Basinait, Maggie Olles, Mia Olles and Meganne Moore.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 February 2023 at 6:41 pm
‘It’s just magical’ – library director Betty Sue Miller
Photos by Tom Rivers: This painting shows three raccoons working on a concoction while following a recipe in the popular cooking book, Joy of Cooking. It is mounted on the end of shelf with books in the Home and Family section. The cooking raccoons are one of six new paintings at Hoag Library created by Albion native Stacey Kirby Steward.
ALBION – Walk into Hoag Library and there is an eye-catching painting of a fox reading a book, The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl. It is mounted on the wall between two book shelves of popular new fiction books. The fox’s eyes look up from the page and make contact with the viewer.
Round the corner and there is another painting near the printer across from the tables of computers. That painting shows a skunk engrossed in Dale Carnegie’s self-improvement book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Stacey Kirby Steward, an Albion native who lives in Spencerport, created six paintings of animals engaged in reading. She thought of the books to pair with the animals, with some suggestions from former children’s librarian Theresa Gaylard.
A grant from the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council (GO ART!) funded the project.
Hoag Library executive director Betty Sue Miller, left, and Stacey Kirby Steward hold her painting of a beaver building a dam. The beaver consults “Cathedral” by David Macaulay. In this critically acclaimed book, Macaulay uses pen and ink drawings to show the construction of a great medieval cathedral, the imaginary Cathedral of Chutreaux.
Kirby Steward shows a beaver making an impressive dam with gothic arches. This painting is now mounted over the sink in the children’s library room.
A fox reads The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl. This painting is the favorite for Betty Sue Miller, the library director. She likes the fox’s eyes.
Betty Sue Miller, the library director, said the paintings enliven the library, filling spots where you don’t expect to see artwork. They are very pleasant surprises, she said.
“It’s just magical,” Miller said. “Each book fits with the animal.”
Kirby Steward also created a 24-foot-long mural in the main meeting room of swans in flight over a farm field and the Erie Canal, with the Gaines basin Road canal bridge below.
She also design a stained-glass window for the library with a swan. That was a gift from Bill Lattin for when the library opened in July 2012.
Lattin assisted Kirby Steward in installing the paintings today. They were added to walls and book shelves. They are in unusual shapes, especially a 10-inch by 36-inch painting of a bald eagle in a pine tree, reading Frederick Douglass’s autobiography. That painting is next to the biographies near the computer lab.
A skunk seeks self-improvement and reads Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Kirby Steward said she enjoyed thinking of the scenes in the paintings, and how they could be used to add to the library experience at the Hoag.
She received very positive feedback from library users today while she and Lattin mounted them.
She likes that they are located in unexpected places.
“You walk around the corner and you’re surprised,” she said.
There will be a public reception in the near future to celebrate the new paintings. Kirby Steward and Miller also said more could be added in the future showing other animals reading books.
This painting of cardinal rebuilding a nest is at the end of one of the book shelves. It quotes lines from “Surviving” by Maya Angelou.
Where the winds of disappointment
dash my dream house to the ground
and anger, octopus-like wraps its tentacles around my soul
I just stop myself. I stop in my tracks
and look for one thing that can
help me.
A bald eagle reads the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. This painting is 10 inches by 36 inches and is by a shelf in the biography section.
Bill Lattin helped Kirby Steward install the paintings. Lattin said the library features many art pieces. Lattin, a former art teacher at Albion, is pleased to see the library partner with Kirby Steward for one-of-kind art.
Miller said she will submit the project to the American Library Association to highlight for other libraries.
“No other library has this this,” she said. “No other library has someone like Stacey.”
Photos by Tom Rivers: This group was out this morning with temperatures in the teens pumping gas for people at the Crosby’s at the corner of routes 98 and 31. Pictured from left include Gary Westlund, Gary Kent, Phil Brady and Tim Tierney.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 February 2023 at 2:55 pm
ALBION – A dedicated group of volunteers is nearing 20 years of pumping gas for free at the Crosby’s in Albion at the corner of routes 98 and 31.
The gas pumpers are there on Wednesdays from 9 to 11 a.m., and they are there in snow storms, bitter cold and punishing heat.
Besides pumping the gas, the volunteers will walk the customer’s cash inside to pay the bill. The group even offers a discount on the gas, with the 10 cents off per gallon paid by the Albion Betterment Committee. Many people decline the discount and that money, usually 50 cents to $1, is donated to PAWS Animal Shelter. Some of the customers also will chip in extra for PAWS.
The Betterment Committee is recent years has donated about $800 annually to PAWS through the donations or declined discounts from gas pumping.
Phil Brady pumps gas for a Crosby’s customer this morning. Brady has been volunteering on Wednesday mornings for about five years.
Gary Kent, one of the Betterment Committee directors, pushed to start the gas pumping back in 2004. He was looking for ways to make the community more senior-friendly.
Many regulars come on Wednesdays, even those with nearly full tanks. They like to see the group of volunteers, and they appreciate not having to step outside in the cold I the winter or the heat during the summer.
“I don’t mind helping out the community,” said Phil Brady, who has been coming most Wednesdays the past five years. “It’s a nice way of giving back.”
Many people still don’t know about the gas pumping volunteers, and the discounts on Wednesday mornings, Brady said. There are people every week who are surprised when the volunteers step forward offering to pump the gas or walk the cash to the store.
Tim Tierney retired in 2015 after a career as a civilian employee at the Orleans and Albion correctional facilities. He started volunteering with gas pumping in 2016. He is there about 80 percent of the Wednesdays.
“You get a lot of people who are happy,” Tierney said about the motorists. “They appreciate not having to get out of their cars and pump the gas or swipe their cards.”
Today in the bitter cold, the volunteers offered to pump gas for younger drivers, especially if they didn’t have on gloves or a hat.
Gary Westlund drives about 40 minutes from near North Chili to be there on Wednesdays to pump gas. Westlund, a former Albion resident, welcomes the chance to be with his buddies – the other gas pumping volunteers.
He has been very reliable on Wednesdays for about 15 years.
Westlund, a retiree from Rochester Products (General Motors), said there are many regulars who come on Wednesdays for a fill-up, even if they didn’t drive much in the past week.
He knows many people look froward to seeing a friendly face on Wednesdays.
Gary Kent, one of the directors with the Albion Betterment Committee, said he appreciates the dedicated group who shows up regardless of the weather on Wednesdays to pump gas.
Westlund was recruited by Kent to be part of the gas pumping team. The two like to joke with each other throughout the morning. They met playing softball together.
“He couldn’t hit a lick but he was a pretty good outfielder,” Kent said, needling Westlund. Kent is a retired Kendall social studies teacher who also coached the varsity baseball team.
Kent laughed when he recalled last summer going up to a car but the driver requested Westlund handle the gas pumping. Westlund likes to wear shorts during the warm weather.
“She told me I don’t want you, I want the one with the nice legs,” Kent recalled this morning, laughing.
Kent said Clarence Winkelmann, Joe Gehl and Mike Wright also have been steady volunteers in recent years at the gas pumps.
This postcard, dated 1911, shows the swing bridge on Main St., Albion which was demolished in 1912.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 January 2023 at 6:56 pm
By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian
Illuminating Orleans, Vol. 3 No. 4
ALBION – Albion’s Main Street bridge across the Erie Canal is a significant structure on Route 98, a busy north-south road.
The swing-bridge, photographed above, built in 1871, was replaced in 1913-14 by the lift bridge currently under repair. The Barge Canal Improvement Project 1905-1918, which widened the existing canal to accommodate larger, taller barge traffic, necessitated the replacement of the swing bridge.
Then, as now, the bridge project was a cause of inconvenience to many. Newspapers followed the project closely, as the following extracts show:
Orleans Republican, Nov. 20, 1912: Work has begun on the temporary bridge* at Main St. It should be made wide enough to carry the traffic properly and to hold up the new fire truck and fire engine. (*A temporary bridge was necessary as the Ingersoll Bridge was not built until later)
Orleans Republican – Dec. 4, 1912: The old swing bridge was finally demolished last Friday. The work of blasting out the concrete wall and the stone pile which supported the bridge is progressing rapidly.
Orleans Republican– Dec. 18, 1912: The Cooper Company* has installed a bright electric light with reflectors to aid in night work on the canal at Main Street. (W.S. Cooper Barge Contacting Company)
This May 1913 photo shows the new lift bridge trusses in place.
The new lift bridge was 132 ft. in length and had a span of 116 ft. It was built between 1912-1914 by the Lackawanna Bridge Company of Buffalo and I.M. Ludington’s Sons Inc. of Rochester, NY.
Democrat and Chronicle – May 16, 1913:ALBION BRIDGE AT LAST LOWERED
After removing about fifteen tons of cement block chips from the two sixty-ton cement counter-balance weights of the new electrically operated lift bridge at Main Street over the Erie Canal here, the bridge was finally lowered this afternoon about 3 o’clock with the two 12 horsepower electric motors installed west of the operator’s tower on the towpath side of the canal.
Orleans Republican– May 28, 1913:BRIDGE IN USE
The new lift bridge over the canal on Main Street was lowered for the first time on Tuesday afternoon of last week and traffic over the “raging Erie” was resumed in a straight line after many months of circling over the temporary structure.
The first vehicle to cross was a delivery auto driven by H.T. Stockton and other conveyances, as well as foot passengers who scrambled to be “one of the first” to walk over the new bridge.
The bridge is several feet higher than the old swing bridge and at present the approach on either side is very steep and abrupt. We hope this will soon be remedied.
As is often the case with technology, there were some glitches at the beginning which caused problems:
Democrat & Chronicle– June 10, 1913:APPOINT TRAFFIC OFFICER – To Watch Canal Bridge at Albion During Rush Hours
A new position has been created at the Main Street Lift Bridge over the Erie Canal by the appointment of Paul Kaneski, of this village, as temporary traffic officer at that time. He will be on duty ten hours each day and evening, working at such times that traffic is heaviest and will prevent fast driving of automobiles and horse drawn vehicles.
Albion’s new lift bridge, July 31, 1913.
Democrat & Chronicle, July 13, 1913: ALBION BRIDGE IS SPUNKY – Goes Up in the Air and Refuses to Come Down for an Hour
Traffic across the Erie Canal in this village was at a standstill for about an hour on Saturday afternoon during the rush hour, when the Main Street electric lift bridge refused to work after being elevated to let a boat pass through.
The bridge has given considerable trouble in being operated and experts who have charge of that work for the state have failed to remedy the defect.
Electrician Paul R. West, of this village, was summoned after the bridge had been set out of service for an hour and discovered that a piece of cement which had been dislodged and had fallen back of a break band causing it to fail to release. He removed the chip, and the bridge was lowered.
Buffalo News, July 28, 1913: BOATS RAM BRIDGE
The new $40,000 lift-bridge which spans the Erie Canal in Albion was damaged Saturday when three heavily laden lumber boats crashed into it. Bridgetender Martin Lucas stated that the bridge would not lift, and the barges were carried downstream by the current.
Democrat and Chronicle, May 31, 1915: ALBION AUTOS CAUGHT AS BRIDGE IS RAISED
At noon on Saturday, Frank Lund and family of West Gaines, were driving over the Main Street bridge when the bridge started to rise, as Mr. Lund contends, without the customary bell signal having been sounded. As the car left the south end of the bridge, the auto dropped about three feet in front, leaving the rear part suspended on the bridge, breaking the crank casing. The bridge was lowered, and the car moved off.
Also, on Saturday, a woman driving on Main Street was part way on the bridge when it raised and left her machine partly on the ground and partly on the bridge which was lowered, after being raised several feet.
As we observe the dramatic images of the removal of the Main Street Bridge trusses this past week, we can but marvel at the accomplishments of the original bridge building team.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 January 2023 at 8:48 pm
Provided photos
ALBION – Orleans County Deputy Sheriff Matt Prawel, Albion’s school resource officer, lets sixth grader Anthony Napoli try on a vest during a visit last week to Tim Archer’ s citizenship class in the middle school.
Deputy Prawel was joined by Deputy George Barton and Sgt. Adam Hazel in discussing training, tactics, jurisdiction and cooperation with other agencies. Barton and Hazel are both members of the county’s SWAT team.
The law enforcement officers also discussed the 911 dispatch center, road and marine patrols, weapons and equipment, and Otto, the county’s K9.
Tim Archer, teacher of the citizenship class, is at left. He is joined by Deputy Prawel, Deputy Barton and Sgt. Hazel.
“It was a great couple days for the students to learn from and appreciate our local law enforcement,” Archer said.
