No widespread power outages so far

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Keith Merchant, left, and Tony Navarra, both part of the Buildings and Grounds crew for Holy Family Parish, shovel ice off the sidewalk in front of the Albion church this morning. Most of the churches are closed today.

“This is crazy,” Navarra said about the blast of winter weather.

He is retiring in June after leading the parish’s Building and Grounds Department.

An ice storm warning remain in effect for the county until 2 p.m. Orleans County Sheriff Randy Bower also has issued a travel advisory urging extra caution from drivers until this afternoon.

Many of the trees at Courthouse Square in Albion are coated in ice.

There doesn’t seem to be too much damage from the storm. There aren’t widespread power outages. There are 83 National Grid customers without electricity in Orleans County and they are estimated to be restored by 11 a.m., according to the power company.

Even these birds by the Post Office in Albion are wondering what happened to spring.

The Presbyterian Church in Albion is pictured in the background of this photo.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Travis Downs follows through on a 3-pount shot that went in for the Albion faculty in a basketball game today vs. State Troopers. Downs is a substitute teacher who also coaches football and basketball at Albion. He was the leading scorer for the faculty in a 72-60 loss to the Troopers. The Troopers had a big lead at halftime, and then the faculty were able to get within 5 points before the Troopers pulled away at the end.

The game was a benefit for the Middle School FFA.

Scott Mills, an investigator with the State Police, gives Matthew Bloom a boost while he shoots a basket during a break in the game.

At halftime State Trooper Dave Ziemba and K-9 “Arnie” did a demonstration, showing the dog’s tracking skills.

Ziemba and Arnie are one of the 98 K-9 units for the State Police. Arnie is a narcotics detection dog that also tracks suspects. State Troopers also had a demonstration at halftime on defensive tactics.

Sawyer Green, a member of the Albion faculty, holds her son Hollis, who is almost 2. Green’s husband Josh also played on the faculty team.

Albion teacher Mike Jones, center, joins the faculty in congratulating the Troopers on their victory.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Village of Albion trustees Gary Katsanis, left, and Stan Farone hold the ribbon while Mayor Eileen Banker (in black coat) cuts the ribbon this morning for the expanded Uptown Browsery in downtown Albion. Maureen Bennett, a vendor and member of the Browsery’s board of directors, is up front with Banker. Other vendors in the photo include, from left, in back: Elizabeth Penafiel, Dakota Morasco, Scott Sackett, Linda Carson, Lisa Mannella and Lucy Sackett.

There are 34 vendors in the three Browsery locations. The original Downtown Browsery opened at 14 East Bank St. in 2004 with 13 vendors. Four years ago the Uptown Browsery opened at 118 North Main St. In January, the Uptown Browsery expanded north on Main Street. The two Uptown storefronts are connected with an archway that was used back when the site was a Landauer’s Department Store.

A Ronald McDonald helium balloon tank topper and shroud from 1977 is one of the items for sale in the Uptown Browsery.

The vendors sell vintage collectibles, antiques, upcycled furniture and other items. They share expenses and all spend a minimum of 10 hours in store. The shared workload and expenses have proven a good formula for the vendors, said Maureen Bennett, who sells farmhouse décor and antiques.

The expanded space for the Browsery was quickly embraced by vendors. Bennett said there are still a couple spots if a vendor is interested.

Stan Farone, a village trustee, said the Broswery locations offer a variety of items that appeal to many in the community.

“I encourage people to visit the stores,” Farone said. “People don’t realize what we have here in the downtown.”

A new feature at the Browsery: highlighting a prominent Albionite each month. If people share the same birthday month as the person being highlighted, they get 10 percent off. Lisa Mannella proposed the birthday feature. This month spotlights Sanford Elias Church, who was born April 18, 1815 and went on to be the chief judge on the NY Court of Appeals.

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Attendance for month by far lowest for school this year

ALBION – The school district saw a big drop in attendance during the month of February when the flu and a stomach bug made many students sick in the elementary, middle and high schools, District Superintendent Michael Bonnewell told the Board of Education on Monday.

The district had a 90.46 attendance rate in February, compared to a 92.97 percent rate in February 2017.

Many of the students who missed school this past February were students who rarely miss school. Many of them were out for several days as the flu and a stomach bug took a toll, Bonnewell said.

The district’s attendance rate was at 94.13 percent at the end of January. After February, the rate for the school year fell to 93.52 percent.

The monthly attendance rates this school year started with 96.21 percent in September; followed by 95.53 percent in October; 94.95 percent in November; 94.51 percent in December; and 94.13 percent in January.

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Photo by Tom Rivers: Melissa Barnosky, center, was recognized at Monday’s Albion Board of Education for winning the state title in the American Legion’s oratorical contest. She is pictured with her mother Amy Barnosky, left, and Margy Brown, president of the Albion BOE.

ALBION – Melissa Barnosky will be in Indianapolis this weekend to compete in a national oratorical contest through the American Legion. Melissa, a senior at Albion, became the first Albion student to win the state title on March 3 in Albany.

She has also won the school, county, district and zone competitions. She earned a $6,000 scholarship when she won the state competition. Last year she was third in the state.

Barnosky has an 8-10 minute prepared speech on the U.S. Constitution and citizen duties and obligations to the government. If a contestant goes over or under the time frame, there are penalty points.

Barnosky also has four prepared speeches that are 3 to 5 minutes long on other assigned topics.

Barnosky plans to attend The College at Brockport this fall to major in journalism and broadcasting. She said she enjoys public speaking, researching history and preparing her speeches.

The national competition on April 14-15 includes the champions from the 50 states, plus additional territories and overseas departments of The American Legion.

The top prizes include scholarships of $18,000, $16,000 and $14,000 in the final round of the 81st  annual American Legion High School Oratorical Scholarship Program.

The quarterfinals on Saturday from 9:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. will narrow field from 53 to 9. The semifinals from 3:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday will narrow field from 9 to 3.

The finals will be Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and will be webcast at www.legion.org.

The Board of Education also recognized two other high school students Monday.

• Victor Benjovsky was presented with a Leadership Award. He is the student council president and shared a reflection on the PA system at school on March 14, the one-month anniversary of a school shooting in Florida. Benjovsky invited students to observe a moment of silence in the hallways that day.

• Harrison Brown received the Character Award for his compassion to his classmates, including students with disabilities.

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Albion Police Chief Roland Nenni

ALBION – Since a mass shooting at a Florida school on Feb. 14, Albion police have an increased presence at the Albion school district, with multiple officers visiting the three school buildings.

Officers are building relationships with students, teachers and staff, said Roland Nenni, the Albion police chief.

He addressed the Board of Education on Monday. The Police Department and school administrators have a long history of communication and working together, Nenni said. Many other school districts and police departments around the country don’t have open lines of communication, he said.

“We have a great relationship here and it will continue to grow,” he told the BOE. “We talk and we communicate.”

Michael Bonnewell, the district superintendent, reiterated Nenni’s comments that the district and Police Department work closely together.

“I’m thankful for the great working relationship with the chief,” Bonnewell said.

The five school superintendents in Orleans County have been meeting about once every two months with local law enforcement leaders for about three years. The group recently met with an official from the FBI to discuss mistakes made in the Feb. 14 shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A gunman killed 17 people.

Nenni said law enforcement and school leaders learn from those incidents, and discuss how to better prevent a shooting and how to best respond if it ever happened locally.

Nenni is the commander of the SWAT team in Orleans County. That specialized group has been training for 12 years.

“We’re really ahead of the curve in our county,” Nenni said. “We do a lot behind the scenes and with critical scene management.”

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Shawn Liddle

ALBION – The Board of Education approved a 35,225,625 budget for 2018-19 on Monday evening, a spending plan that reduces taxes by 0.3 percent.

The budget will go before voters on May 15 from noon to 8 p.m. at the elementary school conference room A.

The budget reduces the tax levy by 25,845, from $8,474,939 to $8,449,094. The projected tax rate would decrease from $15.52 to $15.47 per $1,000 of assessed property.

The budget represents the 10^th time in the past 12 years the district has either held the line in taxes or reduced them.

“The district has always been fiscally responsible,” said Margy Brown, president of the Board of Education.

The budget increases spending by 1.2 percent from $34,796,676 to $35,225,625. The district was able to cut taxes despite increases in salaries, benefits and an additional $100,000 for occupational and vocational programs through the Orleans/Niagara BOCES.

Albion is getting a boost in state aid. The district also paid off a bond last year and that reduced the district’s bond payment by $346,950. That drop in a bond payment saved the district 1 percent of its budget.

Albion’s enrollment continues to shrink, from the current 1,815 to a projected 1,776 in 2018-19. The district is planning to eliminate one teaching position in the elementary school, and half a secretary in administration.

Several staff are also retiring and they will be replaced with new hires at smaller salaries.

“It’s no small feat to continue the programs we do with our salary and benefits increases,” said Shawn Liddle, the district’s assistant superintendent for business.

The district will have a public hearing on the budget on May 8 at the LGI in the high school.

The vote on May 15 includes other propositions:

• Authorization to spend $490,000 from the Bus Purchase Reserve Fund to buy buses for the 2019-2020 school year. State aid covers about 90 percent of the costs for new buses, Liddle said.

• Authorization to create a Capital Reserve Fund with up to $7,195,000 with the funds going to school repairs and improvements.

“The proposition is permission to save, not permission to spend,” Liddle said.

The district could face another capital project in about five years, and setting aside funds in the next few years will allow Albion to have local funds saved for a future project.

• Authorization to collect $714,920 for Hoag Library, which is up 4.0 percent from the $687,211 in 2017-18.

• There are also two seats open on the nine-member Board of Education, with the positions currently filled by Margy Brown and Linda Weller up for election. The seats are for five-year terms. Petitions nominating candidates are due with the clerk of the district by 5 p.m. on April 16. Petitions must be signed by at least 25 qualified voters in the school district.

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File photo: The sun shines through a row of trees near Route 31 at Mount Albion Cemetery in this photo from Nov. 5, 2016

ALBION – The Village of Albion is taking steps to become a Tree City USA Community. The village will be planting trees later this month and will hold an Arbor Day celebration on April 27 at Mount Albion Cemetery.

That 1 p.m. event will include speeches from County Historian Matt Ballard, and three students from Albion Central School. The students will help plant some of the new trees in the cemetery.

The village has received a $950 grant from the NYS Urban Forestry Council. The matching funds will help the village get started on becoming an official Tree City.

The village also is establishing a Tree Advisory Board to help plan tree plantings in the future.

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‘I got this,’ Madison Muckle, 10, says before taking the basketball court

Photos by Tom Rivers: Madison Muckle, 10, played point guard and liked to match up against the other team’s best player on defense.

ALBION – Madison Muckle won’t back down from a challenge, whether it’s cancer or guarding the opposing team’s best basketball player. She also is determined to learn tap and jazz dance and stay on the honor roll.

“I got this,” Madison declared during a recent girls basketball game, when she was asked to play point guard and run the offense.

Madison, 10, is in fourth grade. She played in a travel girls basketball league for fifth- and sixth-graders. She was one of the smallest players on the court, but she emerged a fan favorite with her hustle and fearlessness.

“That Madison has moxie,” my wife told me after one of our games, when Madison chased down several loose balls.

I was the coach for Madison’s team. My daughter Lucy, a sixth-grader, also was on the team. Albion doesn’t have a third and fourth grade team, so we take some fourth-graders. Madison was one of two from fourth grade on the team. She asked her teammates to call her “M & M.”

I didn’t expect her to be such a sparkplug, to be so tenacious on defense and to drive to the basket so hard against players with significant size advantages. The running jumper became her go-to shot.

During a season-ending basketball tournament at Lyndonville on March 10, the opposing team’s coach picks a player from the other team to recognize for hustle. Madison won the award in one of our games.

Madison Muckle brings the ball up the court during a game in February against the powerful Wilson team.

I remembered Madison from a few years ago when she was battling cancer. Every August her father, Kevin Muckle, organizes the Madisonation golf tournament at Hickory Ridge in Holley. They tend to raise about $7,000 to $10,000 and donate to Camp Good Days, the Ronald McDonald House, the Make-A-Wish Foundation or other local families with a child fighting cancer.

“We try to give back to the people that helped us,” said Jaime Allport, Madison’s mother.

Provided photo: Madison shaved her head when her red hair started to fall out from chemo treatments.

There have now been seven Madisonation golf tournaments. Madison was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia when she was 3 years old. The family received the diagnosis on Dec. 27, 2010.

Jaime Allport said her daughter was acting lethargic that December. A lack of pep was unusual for Madison. She had a double-ear infection and was limping around the house. Allport took her to the doctor, and Dr. Satya Sahukar insisted she go to Strong Memorial for more tests.

“Dr. Sahukar moved quickly on it,” Allport said. “We’re very thankful for him.”

On Dec. 27, doctors at Strong determined Madison had cancer and that started 2 ½ years of chemo and treatment, including nine blood transfusions, which Madison called her “Superhero Juice.”

In May 2011, she had her head shaved when her red hair started to fall out. She was bald for about a year.

“She said, ‘It’s just hair, it will grow back,’” her mother recalled.

Madison handled the cancer treatments with courage.

“She is my fighter,” Allport said. “She never gave up.”

Madison also was popular with the nurses and doctors, and made many friends among the other pediatric cancer patients.

“She loved her nurses and doctors,” Allport said. “The staff is amazing.”

The cancer treatments worked and Madison didn’t need a bone marrow transplant. She hasn’t had any side effects since finishing her treatments nearly five years ago.

Her grades are in the 90s, she takes many dance classes, and is a cheerleader, basketball player and is looking forward to the upcoming softball season. She also is a regular at her older brother’s games. Kyle Woolston, 14, plays football, basketball and baseball. When he was in Little League, Madison would run onto the field after a game and zip around the bases.

Madison Muckle is shown at a recent dance class in Albion. She takes several classes led by Rachael Blair at Spotlight Studio.

April 10, 2018 will be a big day for Madison and her family. That will be the five-year anniversary of her last chemo treatment. She hasn’t had any issues or relapses since then.

Allport knows other families haven’t been as fortunate. Many of the children in the hospital with Madison didn’t survive.

Madison, even at age 10, has set a career goal of becoming a doctor and working with children, helping them to overcome an illness.

“When she was going through it, it never phased her,” Allport said. “As she gets older, she realizes how serious it was.”

Allport said the 2 ½ years of fighting cancer has given her daughter plenty of toughness, and also made her more sensitive to others.

“She is definitely more outgoing from being in the hospital so much and meeting the other kids, and making friends,” Allport said. “She also has become very determined. She is strong.”

Madison’s father is working on the next Madisonation golf tournament in August. For information about the tournament, click here.

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Provided photos

ALBION – A big tree came down today on East State Street at about 1:45 p.m., without hitting any houses. It also spared a historic hitching post from ruin, to the relief of homeowner Karen Manella.

She owns the house at 427 East State St. and enjoys the many historic features of Albion, including the hitching post and carriage step in front of her house.

“I like historical stuff,” Manella said. “I’m interested in history and the history of my hometown.”

The tree fell parallel to the street, and avoided the houses nearby. The tree was briefly on fire. Manila said her house wasn’t damaged except for the spots where utility wires were pulled from the house.

Powerful winds have knocked down many trees and power lines today, and tipped over tractor trailer trucks. A high-wind warning remains in effect until 11 p.m.

Photos by Tom Rivers

The tree pushed hitching post but didn’t break it. The tree landed on the carriage step, which has the name “T. Bell” carved in the block. Mr. Bell built the house in about 1870, Manella said.

The carriage step wasn’t damaged. Village of Albion Department of Public Works employees said the carriage step actually held a section of the tree up, making it easier to cut the tree into pieces.

The Village DPW worked this afternoon to clean up the fallen tree and remove it from the street. The DPW will work on removing more tree roots and reset the sidewalk and hitching post.

The village has many historic hitching posts and carriage steps, relics from the horse-and-buggy days more than a century ago. Albion may have more hitching posts and carriage steps than any other community.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Eileen Banker takes the oath of office today while her grandson, Connor Wlliams, holds the Bible. Linda Babcock, the village clerk/treasurer, administers the oath to Banker, who was elected on March 20.

Banker was previously on the board for eight years as a trustee. She succeeds Dean London, who didn’t seek re-election.

Eileen Banker smiles while her grandson, Connor Williams, holds the Bible and she says the oath of office.

Banker works as the chief of staff for Assemblyman Steve Hawley. She said the board will be especially busy the next month putting together the village’s budget for 2018-19.

Banker and the two other victors from last month’s village election – Stan Farone and Gary Katsanis for village trustees – were all sworn into office at 6 p.m. today. Then the Village Board held its organizational meeting and approved a list of appointments, including.

• Banker named Gary Katsanis as deputy mayor. She had served in that role the previous four years.

• Appointed Linda Babcock as village clerk/treasurer, registrar of vital records and the fair housing officer, all for two-year terms;

• Named Mary O’Sullivan as the deputy clerk/treasurer and deputy registrar of vital records;

• Reappointed John Gavenda as village attorney for two years;

• Named Christine Buongiorne to another five-year term on the Village Planning Board;

• Appointed Chris Kinter to a five-year term on the Zoning Board of Appeals;

• Named the following to the Recreation Committee: Carly Ward, Michael Beach, Terry Wilbert, Saul Harrison, Annette Finch and Bernie Baldwin;

• Appointed Kim Pritt to the Historic Preservation Commission;

• Elissa Nesbitt was appointed as the mayor’s representative to the Hoag Library board of directors;

• Named the following to the Grievance Committee: Carol Tibbits, Pam Davies and Lisa Hicken;

• Appointed Ron Vendetti to serve as the village’s disaster coordinator;

• Named The Daily News of Batavia as the official newspaper to carry legal notices;

• Set the mileage reimbursement rate at 50 cents.

(Editor’s Note: An earlier story had Kim Pritt as the mayor’s representative on the Hoag Library board. Elissa Nesbitt will serve in that role for the mayor.)

Stan Farone, a village trustee the past four years, signs the oath of office for a new four-year term.

Gary Katsanis says the oath. He was previously on the board and is returning after a two-year break. He and Farone were both elected as trustees on March 20.

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