Photo by Tom Rivers: Amy Sidari (left), owner of Gotta Dance by Miss Amy, is happy one of her instructors, Adrianna Grieco, will be working as a professional dancer in Tokyo with Disney.

ALBION – Amy Sidari encourages her students and staff to follow their dreams. One of her instructors, Adrianna Grieco, took Sidari’s advice and landed a role as a professional dancer in Tokyo with Disney.

Grieco, 22, worked two full years as a dance instructor at Gotta Dance by Miss Amy in Albion. She was hired while a student at Brockport State College. Grieco in May graduated with a bachelor’s degree in dance and health sciences.

“Our small town has had the opportunity to reap her gifts and now they will see dreams come true, too,” Sidari said about Grieco.

Sidari connected with Grieco after reaching out to dancing department at Brockport State College. Grieco was the first Brockport student to work as an instructor for Gotta Dance.

Sidari said Grieco proved to be dedicated, talented and loving with about 100 students in the two years at Gotta Dance. Grieco led tap, jazz, ballet, hip hop, and strength and technique classes. She worked with dancers from age 4 to teen-agers.

“I loved it here,” Grieco said about her time with Gotta Dance. “If this (Disney) doesn’t take me farther, I’ll definitely be back.”

Grieco is an Albany native. She auditioned for seven hours in Toronto for the role of an aerial dancer for the Disney show. She leaves in January for three months of training with her co-workers. Then it will be six months of performing multiple shows each day. Besides dancing, Grieco will be lip-syncing songs in Japanese.

“I’m very, very excited,” she said at Gotta Dance last week.

She stopped by the studio on East Bank Street to see Sidari and some of her students one last time before she heads out for Tokyo.

“Amy is like a second mother,” Grieco said. “She treats you like family.”

Sidari said two other Brockport dance students are currently working as instructors at Gotta Dance.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Albion teacher Dana Martin boogies on the basketball court with Road Runner, left, and Swoop, two members of the Harlem Wizards. Martin and about 20 Albion school staff members formed the Albion Hotshots and played the Harlem Wizards in a fun basketball game on Saturday. The game ended in a tie, 64-64, with some creative scoring and frequent antics on the court.

Wiz Kids – Keira Lemcke, right, and Rianne Hand – take a warmup lap around the gym just before the start of the game.

These members of the Albion Hotshots – Rachel Curtin (school principal) and teachers Shani Faraci and Joyce Monacelli – cheer on their teammates while they were introduced.

Swoop runs through a fog machine during player introductions. He is the leader of the Swoop Unit of the Harlem Wizards.

The Albion Hotshots, including teachers Tim Archer (left) and Jeff Radder, gets fired up for the game. Radder was nicknamed the “The Lumberjack” by the announcer from the Wizards.

Swoop gets the ball spinning for a young fan. Saturday’s game against the Albion Hotshots was attended by nearly 400 people. It was a fundraiser for the Albion Elementary School PTA.

Swoop has been a Wizard since 2007. Prior to that, he was a showman with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Swoop and the Wizards frequently went into the crowd with zany antics. Here Swoop has inflatables that he pretended were boxing gloves. He gave some of the fans a few friendly jabs while the Rocky theme song played.

Brayden LaMartina and his mother Danielle walk off the court after Brayden won a gold basketball. His mother guessed many of the theme songs for different television shows. Each correct answer moved her son closer to the hoop for a basketball shot.

Sarge tries to distract one of the audience members who was pulled from the crowd for a game on court.

Road Runner and the other Wizards accommodated the autograph seekers during halftime. Kids who attended the game in a costume received a free basketball.

Swoop keeps this boy entertained with some fancy ball handling.

Mattea Woolston was one of the last contestants in game where Swoop made people miss on some of his passes. Here he is doing a slow-motion pass to Woolston.

Swoop takes a selfie with Todd Graham, who had courtside seats. His daughter Julia was one of the Wiz Kids.

Sky-Walker leads an energetic crowd in dancing to the “YMCA.”

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Neal Muscarella, a mason from Albion, repoints mortar on the tower at Mount Albion Cemetery. Muscarella expects to be finished with the job today.

The tower is in the southeast section of Mount Albion. The structure rises 68 feet from the hill it stands on. The tower was completed in 1876 as the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. It is a memorial to the 463 people from Orleans County who were killed during the Civil War.

Muscarella is up high on scaffolding for the project.

This photo was taken looking down from the top of the tower, which has an 84-step spiral staircase.

The repointing should help keep out moisture. Muscarella has done several projects recently at the cemetery, including work on the new front sign and repairs to the stone wall at the memorial pond.

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Photo courtesy of NYS Department of Transportation: The canal bridge on Densmore Road has reopened following repairs.

Press Release, NYS Department of Transportation

ALBION – The New York State Department of Transportation today announced that the bridge carrying Densmore Road over the Erie Canal in Albion re-opened following a six-month closure as part of an ongoing $11 million project to rehabilitate seven Erie Canal Truss Bridges across Orleans County.

Repairs included replacing the flooring system, low chords, gusset plates and truss members with high-strength galvanized steel to raise the legal weigh limit on the bridge and provide continued safe access for residents, local farms and businesses in the area.

The bridge carrying Densmore Road over the Erie Canal was the second in a series of seven canal bridges to close for repair as part of this project. The DOT has also reopened the Bennetts Corners Road bridge in Murray after repairs.

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Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Where’s Waldo? Today he is on East State Street in Albion, between the Orleans County Courthouse and the Albion Free Methodist Church. He has already been in several spots in Albion the past week.

Waldo was created by Matt Hand, his wife Crystal and their daughters. The Hands each year have created a scarecrow for Albion’s scarecrow contest in the downtown. Last year they made a Pennywise scarecrow from the movie It. The first year for scarecrow in 2016, the Hands made a witch hanging sideways from the light pole on Main Street.

The family helped organize the scarecrow contest for the Albion Merchants Association about a week ago.

Last year, Pennywise was moved around town and Matt wanted a traveling scarecrow again this year.

Waldo isn’t just roaming a few blocks. He has been in the downtown, on Route 31 and near Walmart before his stop by the Courthouse today.

Matt said he wanted a friendlier scarecrow this year that schoolkids could look for on their bus rides.

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East High students visit local dairy farm, Mount Albion

Provided photos

ALBION – These East High students from Rochester met some of the farm animals at Poverty Hill Farms in Albion on Wednesday. The Neal family gave students a tour of the dairy farm, which also has some pigs. The students were also offered ice cream.

The East High students visited Albion in a cultural exchange program that has been going on for the past decade through the Rotary Interact Club. A group of Albion students will spend a day later this school year at East High School.

The Rochester students also spent part of the day at Charles D’Amico High School in Albion and went to Mount Albion Cemetery, where they climbed the Civil War memorial tower.

Tim Archer, Interact Club advisor in Albion, said the cultural exchange days help the Rochester and Albion students learn from each other and get past stereotypes of life in rural and urban areas.

The East High and Albion students are pictured with some of the farm machinery at Poverty Hill Farms on West County House Road.

Jody Neal, one of the farm co-owners, leads the group through one of the barns for the cows.

Jody Neal gives the students a tour of the milking parlor.

An East High student befriends one of the calves at the dairy farm.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Gary Rowley of the Barre Volunteer Fire Company helps Boyd, a kindergarten student, spray water at a target this morning outside the Ronald L. Sodoma Elementary School.

Barre, Albion and Carlton firefighters led students on several stations to learn about the different equipment, tools and apparatus firefighters used to respond to emergency calls.

The visit from the firefighters caps fire prevention week. Firefighters also have a contest to emphasis fire prevention. One student from each grade will be picked (from PreK through grade 5) to ride to school in a fire truck. One student will be selected from each grade who creates the best poster or display about fire prevention.

Students check out the rescue boat for the Carlton Volunteer Fire Company.

Carlton firefighters Ryan Woolston, center, and Ferdinando Papalia, left, talk about the rescue boat and also the rescue truck and some of the tools on each one. Woolston told the students the rescue truck is used to go in the woods for some calls, and also has extrication equipment to help people trapped in a car accident.

Barre firefighter Mark Farone assists Nova, a kindergartener, in spraying the water from a hose.

Fred Piano of the Albion Fire Department gives students a tour of the ladder truck. The students were able to climb inside the truck.

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ALBION – The school district has shortage of substitute teachers and substitute teachers’ aides, an issue that is prevalent throughout the region, said Michael Bonnewell, the district superintendent.

The Board of Education wants to see the extent of the problem of Albion, and asked Bonnewell to put together a report for how often substitutes are unavailable as teachers and aides.

Bonnewell said a tight labor market with a low unemployment has made it challenging for districts to have enough substitutes.

“The reality is there are not enough people signing up to be substitutes,” Bonnewell said at Monday’s Board of Education meeting. “People are employed so they’re not waiting for their phone to ring for a job.”

The issue was raised at Monday’s board meeting when the board followed the Albion Teachers Association in agreeing to modify the ATA contract with the district. The change will allow teachers to put off contractual prep time during the school day to fill in where a substitute teacher or aide is needed. The teachers will be paid $25 per hour when they give up the prep time during the school day.

Albion has boosted the sub pay in recent years. The district has raised the hourly pay for teacher aides from $10.40 an hour in 2017-18, to $11.10 an hour last school year to $11.80 in 2019-20, partly to reflect rising minimum wage rates.

Certified substitutes are paid $100 a day this year, the same as in 2018-19. The year before that, certified subs were paid $95. Noncertified substitutes are paid $5 less per day.

Kathy Harling, the Board of Education president, said the district should consider adding more teachers’ aides.

Bonnewell said a full-time aide cost about $50,000 with benefits, salary and retirement, and that would only fill one aide. He said there are usually three or four substitute teacher aides needed each school day.

In addition to the report about percentage of unfilled classes that need substitutes, the board wants to see the attendance overall rates for teachers and teachers’ aides. Higher attendance from staff would also reduce the need for substitutes, board members said.

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