Press Release, Albion Police Department

(Editor’s Note: This article was updated after the initial report had the the wrong date for the drill.)

ALBION – The Albion Police Department will be holding an active shooter/emergency response drill on Tuesday, March 12, at the Albion school district campus.

The drill will involve multiple local law enforcement, EMS and fire service agencies, as well as participation and assistance from state and federal agencies.

The drill will begin around 9 a.m. and is scheduled to last until approximately 2 p.m. During the drill, Route 31 will be closed from Route 98 to Clarendon Street. Residents who live in the area will be allowed to access residences on Route 31 during the drill if necessary.

School operations will be cancelled in each Albion school, however, about 200 school district staff members will be participating in the drill, simulating various roles within the school to allow for a realistic emergency response environment.

An active shooter is an individual actively engaging in life-threatening violence to persons in a confined and populated area. This drill will be one of the largest drills ever conducted in Orleans County and will allow the Albion Police Department and participating agencies to test and evaluate response times, organization and overall readiness for an emergency situation.

The Albion Police Department requests that the area of the Albion school district campuses be avoided during the drill so that it can be conducted as safely and effectively as possible.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – A contractor this afternoon removes tree stumps and packs in dirt on the embankment alogn the Erie Canal Towpath. This spot is in Albion on the west side on the Brown Street bridge.

The NYS Canal Corporation will hold informational meetings next week about next steps for the Erie Canal embankment restoration project.

A landscape architect will be on hand to talk about potential options available to residents and land owners for aesthetic improvements and privacy screening following the removal of tree stumps and other safety upgrades.

The meetings are scheduled from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

• Monday, Feb. 25 – Hoag Library, 134 South Main St., Albion

• Tuesday, Feb . 26 – A.D. Oliver Middle School, 40 Allen St., Brockport

Tree stumps are piled near a pathway by the Brown Street bridge in Albion.

The Canal Corp. is working on phase 2 of the project, removing tree stumps and packing and grading of the embankments where trees were cut down about a year ago.

The state Canal Corp. has hired Hohl Industrial of Tonawanda and Tioga Construction of Herkimer for phase 2, which started in December near Marshall Road in Medina, and has headed east.

Phase 1 work including cutting down and removing trees and mowing brush off the canal embankments in Orleans and part of Monroe counties. The embankment maintenance program will enhance the canal’s safety and security, the Canal Corp. said.

The Canal Corp. said that trees shouldn’t be on embankments because their root systems can cause seepage and potentially lead to erosion and potential embankment failure that can cause catastrophic damage.

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Photos courtesy of Albion Central School

ALBION – A group of fourth-graders participated in an after-school Art History Club with Mrs. Pritchard and Mrs. Prince. The club was sponsored by the Community Schools grant, which provides extended day and week programs and opportunities for students and families.

The top photo includes, from left: Abigail Kipler, Brown’s Berry Patch; Drayson Shonerd, Hoag Library, Alyssa Adkins, Carl I. Bergerson Middle School, and Drew Pritchard, Santa Claus School.

The Art History Club was a fun way to learn about local history and create an art piece. The students researched various local landmarks. Each student then had an opportunity to choose a favorite landmark and design his/her own 16″ x 20″ rendition of their landmark.

Several different mediums were offered (markers, paint, pastels, oils, etc.) that allowed each student to create unique and creative pieces. Mrs. Prince framed each landmark piece.  The artwork will soon be displayed in the elementary school hallway. The pieces are very colorful and a beautiful representation of our historic landmarks.

Brianna Lewis, Ronald L. Sodoma Elementary School; Gloria Cabic, Charles C. D’Amico High School, and Makayla Fidanza, Swan Library.

Erika Hess, Cobblestone School House; Gracie Tardibone, Erie Canal; Rilee Taylor, Cone Zone; and Aliyah Pollock, Downtown Albion Main Street View.

Melia Prince, Cobblestone Church; and Kailyn Smith Holder, Civil War Memorial at Mount Albion Cemetery.

Dulce Sanchez, Oak Orchard River; Analiah Figueroa-Fuentes, Orleans County Courthouse; and Yaritza Fernandez-Perez, Oak Orchard Lighthouse.

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Photo courtesy of Albion Central School

ALBION – Adam Burlison, an Albion sixth-grader, is congratulated by Middle School Principal Brad Pritchard after Adam won the Albion Middle School spelling bee on Wednesday.

Adam topped 20 students in grades 6 through 8 in the Albion competition. He correctly spelled the word “writhing” for his final word to win the spelling bee.

He advances to the regional contest on March 23 at 10 a.m. at Batavia High School.

Adam in 2017 won the Western New York spelling bee in Grand Island, which featured 46 of the top spellers in WNY from grades 4 and 5.

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1,800 cookies, 30 cakes and 500 cupcakes among the items

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Gotta Dance by Miss Amy on Saturday hosted a cookie and dessert stroll, and nine “pop up shop” vendors, all selling Valentine’s Day-themed items. Proceeds from the event will go to Pat Levandowski, an Albion elementary teacher recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

This group is pictured at a table with merchandise to raise awareness about breast cancer. They are from left: Tina Page, Amy Zaccaglino, Stephanie Rustay, Katie Rustay and Amy Luft.

Amy Luft puts some of the desserts in a box for Andrea Neal and her daughters, Kasey and Adelynn.

Amy Luft and her friend Amy Zaccaglino baked and decorated 1,800 cookies, 500 cupcakes and 30 cakes, with the proceeds going to Levandowski.

There was also many baskets to be raffled off in one of the dance studio rooms.

Cole Schmitt was one of the nine pop up vendors. He makes frames, shadow boxes and other items out of repurposed wood.

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ALBION – The Bonfire at Bullard winter event has been cancelled for today due to the small amount of snow.

The event has been rescheduled for Feb. 23, with the same time and event schedule.

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Theresa Norton

ELBA – A mother and her son who were killed in a car accident on Feb. 2 in Elba will be remembered with a vigil at the crash site on Sunday.

The vigil will be at 5 p.m. for Theresa Norton, 53, and her son, Thomas, 22. Family friend Kamryn Nickel urges family and friends to attend the vigil and light a candle in their memory. Nickel said she will bring the candles for the vigil.

Thomas Norton

A GoFundMe on-line fundraiser also has been established to assist the family during this difficult time. Karen Zok sent up the GoFundMe and said Theresa’s husband Roger was in intensive care at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester for several weeks prior to the accident in Elba.

Teresa Norton was driving a 2008 Suzuki northbound with her son at about 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in Elba. State Police say Norton lost control on the snow-covered roadway and slide sideways into the path of a 2011 Chevrolet pickup truck. The Chevrolet struck the passenger side of the Suzuki.

The Nortons were both declared deceased at the collision scene by Karen Lang, Genesee County coroner. The accident happened on Route 98 between Edgerton Road and Batavia Elba Townline Road.

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Ben Franklin, Sally Ride, King Tut among the featured personalities

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Brianna Trejo portrays Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor during a living wax museum at the Ronald L. Sodoma Elementary School today. Sotomayor was confirmed as Supreme Court justice in August 2009. She is the first Hispanic and Latina justice on the nation’s highest court.

Students in Cheryl Rightmyer’s and Shani Faraci’s classes did the presentations on about 40 famous people, most of them esteemed Americans. There were a few people portrayed from outside the U.S., including King Tut, Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Anne Frank, Jesus and some others.

The students also helped make their costumes and brought along props to highlight their character.

The students would sit still almost like statues. After someone pressed a button, the students came to life and portrayed an influential person, either in the past or present. This is the first year the fourth-graders have tried the wax museum. Cheryl Rightmyer, one of the teachers, said she was impressed with the students, how they took on the roles of the characters and built their confidence in delivering a public presentation.

Nicholas Luft is Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a leading author, politician, inventor, civic activist and statesman. As a scientist, he made many discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove.

Brittany Lewis portrays George Washington Carver, an American agricultural scientist and inventor who is best known for his work with peanuts. While a professor at Tuskegee Institute, Carver developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes, as a source of their own food and to improve their quality of life.

Loralei Gailie is Sally Ride, an astronaut, physicist and engineer. She joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983.

Albion parents, school staff and teachers gather round Yaritza Fernandez Perez to hear her portray Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate.

Analiah Figueroa Fuentes picked Julia Child, an American chef, author and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her cookbook and television programs.

Kamryn Simmons is Gloria Steinem, a feminist, journalist and political activist. She became a nationally recognized leader for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

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Photo by Tom Rivers: Michael Bonnewell greets students after the final school bell today at about 2:20 p.m. Bonnewell is filling in as principal while the district looks to hire an interim for the remainder of the school year.

ALBION – The school district’s superintendent is spending the school days out of the district office and at the high school as the principal.

Michael Bonnewell has been serving as principal since Jan. 14. Matthew Peterson left Albion to start as principal at Oakfield-Alabama Central School. That school is closer to Peterson’s home.

Albion is looking to hire an interim principal for the rest of the school year with a new permanent replacement to start in July. The search for the next permanent principal will start in March.

Until then, Bonnewell is doing two demanding jobs. He said he enjoys being in the school with the 550 students in grades 9 through 12. He high-fived many of them when they headed out of school today after the final bell of the day at 2:20 p.m.

“I love being with the kids,” he said today.

He usually stops by the district office before getting the high school around 7 a.m. He is back at the district office at 3, and often works late into the evening.

Bonnewell also is available throughout the day when he in the principal’s role if there is an issue for him to handle as superintendent.

He might be doing the two jobs for a while. The potential interim candidates for principal are retired and many are spending the winter in Florida or don’t want to return to full-time work.

Bonnewell said the district isn’t rushing to have an interim principal in place.

“We have to have the right person who is appropriate and beneficial to our school,” he said. “The principal needs to support kids and teachers and make sure the building operates as a benefit to kids.”

Bonnewell is in his ninth year as Albion superintendent. Before Albion he worked at the Schroon Lake school district in the Adirondacks. That district only has about 200 students. Bonnewell was the district’s superintendent, K-12 principal and also served as the business administrator.

Before Schroon Lake, he was principal of Honeoye Middle-High School.

Bonnewell said he has enjoyed getting to know many of the Albion High School students better the past month.

“Our students are vibrant and caring, and being with them reminds me how privileged I am to work with them each day,” he said in a letter to parents.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – This pine tree toppled at about 10 a.m. on Caroline Street in Albion today. High winds have taken down several trees, including that landed up against a house on Taylor Road in Clarendon.

Dawn Voorhees of 310 Caroline St. had just put a flag out on her front porch when the pine tree fell. It pulled the electric and cable wires off her house. She was thankful the tree didn’t make a direct hit on her house or porch.

National Grid reports that 493 customers in Orleans County have had their electricity knocked out due to the high winds. That’s out of 19,423 National Grid customers in Orleans. The company is estimating power will be restored at 3:15 p.m.

The county is under a high wind warning until 5 p.m., with some gusts expected to hit 60 miles per hour.

Here is another photo of the pine tree that fell on Caroline Street in Albion this morning.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Some crab apples by the western entrance of Mount Albion Cemetery are pictured today. The ice-coated landscape has proven popular in photos on social media in the local community.

Warming temperatures overnight should melt the ice. Here are some more ice photos. (I couldn’t resist.)

These branches at Mount Albion are hanging in there with the Ingersoll Fountain in the background.

Icicles hang off the Ingersoll Fountain.

The stone dog at Mount Albion has a coating of ice (and a nice collar).

These big trees have held their ground at Mount Albion, Albion’s historic cemetery on Route 31.

There were a lot of branches down at the cemetery.

The street signs at the cemetery have icicles hanging down.

Down the road from Mount Albion is St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery. This bench was hit with freezing rain which turned into icicles and ice.

The statue of Jesus at St. Joseph’s also was covered in ice.

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Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – This tree fell on a trailer on Bayberry Lane at Oak Orchard Estates in Albion at about 7:45 p.m.

The tree didn’t appear to cause much damage to the home of Tim and Linda Good. Mr. Good said there wasn’t any damage inside the trailer.

He said he expects they will stay there tonight with the tree being removed on Thursday.

“It sounded like it was raining and then there was a boom,” he said about the tree falling. “It sounded like a jet was flying over our house.”

Good went outside to see a tree had fallen.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t be this,” he said.

Harry Papponetti, Albion’s fire chief, said no other trees fell in Albion, although lots of branches and wires came down. Papponetti said he is concerned about more trees falling overnight due to the soft soil and ice-coated branches.

There were several trees that fell around Orleans County today including some that blocked roads in Clarendon on Orleans-Monroe Countyline Road and in Murray on the same road, as well as Horan Road in Medina.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – It’s been a tough day to get around outside with roads, sidewalks and driveways covered in ice. Even the Ronald McDonald statue outside the Albion McDonald’s is coated in ice with some long icicles.

Here are some other photos around Albion.

A branch is pictured across from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Albion on West Park Street.

The neighborhood watch sign on West Park Street

A railing in front of the Post Office in Albion

The County Courthouse looms in the back of this photo of a tree on Main Street.

Icicles hang low on this vehicle at the Post Office.

The intersection of South Main and East Park

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