1,000 T-shirts, 5,000 shopping bags donated

Kathy Winans helps Sophia Zambito with her gorilla wig before rehearsal on Wednesday.

ALBION – The drama department used creativity and lots of community support to make the gorilla costumes and the sets for the production of Tarzan, which opens tonight at 7, with shows at noon and 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Each of the 23 gorillas needed about 20 to 30 T-shirts for their costume. The drama department didn’t have the funds to rent gorilla suits for the cast, and those suits also wouldn’t have worked well with the many dancing scenes.

Kathy Winans, the co-director, wanted loose-fitting and sleeveless costumes for the gorillas. She had the idea of cutting up T-shirt in 5-inch strips. She and her many volunteers used a rotary cutter to make the strips. They were sewn onto a mesh shirt underneath.

“The movement gives the illusion of fur,” Winans said.

All of the gorilla costumes have a base of black strips. But Winans didn’t want them to be all black. Each gorilla could pick other colors to help differentiate them on stage. The gorillas have different color highlights, whether purple, white, brown, red, pink, green, yellow, gray, blue and other colors.

Each gorilla costume included layers of 5-inch strips made from donated T-shirts.

(Those colors will help parents and the crowd identify the gorillas during the show. The gorillas will have face makeup on during the shows and would be hard to pick out on stage without the flairs of color.)

Winans needed nearly 1,000 T-shirts to pull off the feat, which includes more T-shirt strands for wigs. The community came through.

“I’d get to school and there would be a bag of T-shirts in my mailbox,” she said.

Each gorilla costume took 10 to 15 hours to make. Winans had her home room students help when they had free time. Winans, a special education teacher, also called on students in her 12:1:1 class to help.

Karen Dibley, the costume coordinator, also was busy formonths making the outfits. Sara Moore, Tara Thom and Marlene Seielstad, parents of gorillas in the cast, also helped make some of the costumes.

Winans started the process last June, after Gary Simboli, the show’s director, announced Tarzan would be the spring musical. Winans checked fabric samples at stores, and didn’t like the price ($18 a yard) or how the cut fabric “moved.”

Provided photos: Students in Kathy Winans’ class are pictured with the cast of Tarzan. The students helped make the costumes and the vines in the production.

It took several months of effort to make the costumes, with the final gorilla outfit finished in February. Winans likes the look of the gorillas.

“I was nervous if it would work,” she said. “But once I saw the colors, I was very excited and knew it would work.”

Saving money on those costumes allowed the drama department to spend more in other areas, particularly for flying equipment, so seven characters could be lifted above the stage. That harness and rigging system cost about $7,000.

These gorillas in the Tarzan show include, from left: Nate Grammatico, Evan Steier, Kate Krieger, Kelsey Froman (a fifth grader in front), Victor Benjovsky, Matilda Erakare and Riley Seielstad.

Simboli had an idea that also took a community effort to pull off. He wanted vines to move on stage and not be stagnant.

He thought tying together plastic grocery bags from Wegmans would do the trick. It took more than 5,000 bags to pull it off with many donated by Wegmans.

The stage crew and Winans’ students also made flowers from shopping bags.

“Pinterest has been our friend,” Winans joked.

Wegmans shopping bags were tied together to create the vines for the jungle scene in Tarzan.

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North Point Chapel will work to preserve building, with bigger focus on serving community

The former United Methodist Church in Albion was vacated two years ago when the congregation left the building. The United Methodists now share a building with the Episcopalians in Albion.

ALBION – The former United Methodist Church building in Albion, a historic site more than 150 years old, will be reopened for church services this Sunday.

The church has been closed for two years since the United Methodists left the building and went to Christ Church, which is owned by the Episcopal church. The two congregations share the site for services.

The United Methodists left their building, facing a daunting challenge, an estimated $1 million to fix a roof that is supported with wooden beams in the sanctuary. The congregation put the building up for sale.

North Point Chapel thinks God still has a plan for the building, which includes many stunning stained-glass windows, a pipe organ and space for more than 250 people.

“I walked in here and I just dropped,” said Mike Outten, pastor of North Point.

It was the windows or the architecture that stunned Outten. It was all of the empty seats. He imagined the sanctuary full of earnest Christians. The church, like so many in the United States, seems way too big for the congregations today.

“There used to be people who sat in these seats and believed in Jesus Christ,” Outten said. “I look around and I see 250 saints singing to God.”

The Good Shepherd Window is stunning ecclesiastical artwork inside the church.

North Point Chapel will open the building to the public for coffee at 10 a.m. this Sunday, followed by a church service at 10:30.

The service will be in the Sunday School wing of the church, in what was a double classroom. Outten said the space could fit about 75 to 80 people.

He will preach the sermon and the church’s contemporary music team will lead in worship.

“We’re here to meet people where they’re at,” Outten said today, giving a tour of the church. “Jesus didn’t look at people’s exterior, but at their hearts. This building is just a tool. We will show people that we care for them and love them.”

North Point is a new church that has been meeting since last April at the Arnold Gregory Office Complex on South Main Street. About 20 people have been attending services at Arnold Gregory.

The church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention. North Point has the support of the High Point Community Church in Pembroke and the Ridge Wood Bible Church in Lockport on Route 104. High Point is the church that paid for fireworks in Albion on July 5, as well as hot dogs and family activities for four years until 2015.

North Point was active at last year’s Strawberry Festival, running a face painting booth and doing a lot of the garbage cleanup. They were a big boost to the festival’s volunteers.

Outten, a Gasport resident, is a third-generation bricklayer who had his own construction company. Northern Exposures Inc. is now run by his son.

Outten felt a call to the ministry and took on-line theology courses from Liberty University for five years. He did his coursework in the mornings form 5 to 8 a.m., went to work, and did his course reading at night. He graduated in 2014.

He believes in the power of God to transform lives, and neighborhoods. He sees many vacant houses in Albion, or homes in need of significant repair. He would be interested in the church helping with neighborhood revitalization, acquiring some houses, fixing them up, and selling to families.

North Point Chapel will have its first service this Sunday at the former United Methodist Church. The service will be in the Sunday School wing where there was a double classroom. Coffee will be served at 10 a.m. with the service to start at 10:30.

He is open to where God wants to lead North Point. But Outten said he didn’t initially feel that way. He thought his ministry would be in Medina. Outten thought North Point was destined for that village. He would stop in that community, and walk the streets, praying for the residents.

God, however, had a different plan for the new pastor, Outten said.

Two of his sons have taken their driver’s tests in Albion, starting at a spot next to the former United Methodist Church at the corner of East State and Platt streets. Outten’s wife called him both times, to tell him about the glorious church edifice.

North Point is putting down new carpet in the classroom wing of the church. There are about seven rooms that have been repainted, from a light green. Outten also added a quarter-inch of dry wall to cover wainscoting that was cracked.

Two years ago, while their son was taking his driver’s test, Mrs. Outten noticed the church building was for sale. Her husband was reluctant. He was still thinking Medina for the new church.

But he was confronted with a passage from the Bible in Philippians 2:14-16: “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.”

Outten said he needed to “cease his grumbling and complaining” and be open to what God had in store for Albion and the North Point Chapel.

“I realized that God was calling me here,” he said.

Outten looked at sites in Albion for the church. He didn’t want to be in an office building. Other sites, the former OTB and building where NAPA Auto Parts was located on Hamilton Street, seemed too costly, he said.

He was drawn to the United Methodist building. North Point is still waiting for the sale to go through. The two churches have agreed on a price and contract, but a final OK needs to given by the Attorney General’s Office. That was expected in January.

Outten said he has a plan for stabilizing the roof. The sanctuary will be off limits for the short term. First the church is working on the classrooms and office. Outten said the building won’t be forsaken.

“It’s going to be a lot of work,” the pastor said. “God wants us to bring it back. We won’t do it ourselves. The Lord will be our strength.”

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Bloody knuckles, ankle burns – ‘absolutely worth it’

Matilda Erakare, right, speaks with the gorilla Kerchak, Tarzan’s father (played by Victor Benjovsky). The gorillas spend much of the show hunched over on their knuckles.

ALBION – This week’s production of Tarzan by the Albion High School may be the most physically taxing show ever by the school.

Characters move about the stage hunched over, leaning on their knuckles. Many of the gorillas, and Tarzan himself, have developed thick callouses on their fingers, which sometimes bleed.

They have bruises on their knees and burns on their ankles.

“It’s absolutely worth it,” said Matilda Erakare, who plays the mother gorilla, Kala. “We’ve never done a show like this before.”

The cast includes 23 gorillas as well as a Tarzan. When they started rehearsing in January, Director Gary Simboli had them doing the awkward gorilla gait, putting their weight on their knuckles.

Simboli knew that first month would be the toughest for the students, getting their bodies used to the demands of the show.

“They have had to train their bodies for this show,” Simboli said. “They are walking over, hunched over in an awkward gait, while speaking and doing their lines.”

He had students in their auditions try to walk naturally like gorillas.

“I couldn’t do it,” Simboli said. “We started right at the beginning with rehearsals and had them doing what they needed to be doing.”

Enoch Martin plays Tarzan. He and all the gorillas get a workout every rehearsal.

Evan Steier plays one of the gorillas. His fingers have developed callouses and many nicks and abrasions. He has stamina as a long-distance runner for the school. But even he said the show is hard on the body.

“It all depends on how much you put into it,” he said.

Simboli said the entire cast has poured themselves into the roles.

Enoch Martin shows his dinged up knuckles before rehearsal on Wednesday.

Enoch Martin plays Tarzan and his hands show the toll of the playing the character. His fingers that look swollen with a host of scrapes and callouses.

Martin said it was a difficult start during the rehearsals, getting used to gorilla gait. But he said his hands and body have adjusted.

The students last week started practicing on the main stage in the Middle School Auditorium. It has a much harder floor than the Large Group Instruction room in the high school. That stage has thicker padding. The main stage in the Middle School has a thinner dance cushion.

With less “give” on the the stage, the gorillas and Tarzan have needed to be strong mentally.

“We’ve never had a show this taxing,” Simboli said. “They are on their hands and knees singing and with the fight scenes.”

The performances are 7 p.m. on Friday, and noon and 7 p.m. on Saturday.

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Mike Condoluci, a maintenance worker for Holy Family Parish, is pictured with one of the corner steeples on the church that was blown off during Wednesday’s wind storm.

ALBION – St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Albion had four corner steeples at the church on West Park Street in Albion.

The powerful winds on Wednesday blew one of the corner pieces off. It crashed to a sidewalk below and ended up in the street.

Holy Family Parish is looking to replace the corner steeple. Mike Condoluci, a maintenance worker, said the piece is smashed beyond repair.

The corner steeple is about six feet tall. It is made out of tin with a wooden framework inside. The base that helped hold the steeple down on the roof also has been damaged and will need some repairs, Condoluci said.

He went up on the roof with Tony Navarra, another maintenance worker, to tie another loose corner piece down more securely with wire.

Condoluci said a new corner steeple will likely have to be made to replace the one that was swept off the roof.

Eliott Neidert took this aerial photo last month with a drone of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church when it had all four corner steeples. The Pullman Memorial Universalist Church is at left.

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$2.5 million project also includes community center

Photos by Tom Rivers: The current fire hall for the Barre Volunteer Fire Company was built as an addition to a schoolhouse in 1960. Firefighters say the site is cramped and many modern fire trucks are too long or tall to fit inside and have to be retrofitted to squeeze into the Barre hall.

BARRE – A proposal for a new firehall that would also have a community center will go before Barre residents in a vote on April 25.

The $2.5 million project would give the Barre Volunteer Fire Company much needed space for fire trucks and the new building would also have a community room with space for 140 people.

The Barre Fire District tried to get the public’s support for a new fire hall on June 4, 2014, but the proposition to borrow $1.4 million was voted down, 249-114.

Fire District officials heard from many in the community that residents wanted a community center to be part of the project, and not just a facility to keep fire trucks, said Mark Farone, one of the commissioners for the Fire District.

The addition of a community center should increase the chances for the project to receive state and federal funding, Farone said. The building would be a designated Red Cross shelter with a full kitchen, four bathrooms total, and a laundry machine.

The space could also be rented to community organizations such as churches, the Red Cross, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

Barre firefighters are pictured in the firehall on Route 98, a building that was constructed in 1960 as an addition on a former schoolhouse, which was built in 1910. This group includes, from front to back: Barry Flansburg, secretary/treasurer for the Barre Fire District; Mark Farone, Fire District commissioner; Bert Mathes, first lieutenant for Barre Volunteer Fire Company; Brian Bentley, third lieutenant; Gary Mufford, commissioner; Jerry Bentley, past chief; and John Egloff, assistant mechanic for Fire Company.

Fire District leaders say the current firehall is outdated for a modern fire department. The four bays in the firehall have doors that are 10 feet tall. Many of the modern fire trucks are 10 feet, 2 inches tall. Barre had to have its most recent fire truck special ordered so it was 9 feet, 6 inches in height. That made the truck more costly, adding about $100,000 to the cost, Farone said.

When some departments fill in for Barre because Barre firefighters are on a call, the other departments often can’t fit their fire trucks inside the Barre firehall.

The fire trucks are bigger these days because manufacturers have combined two trucks into one, such as Barre’s new pumper-rescue truck. Combining the trucks means Barre doesn’t need two crews to go with a truck, just one. Dual-purpose trucks helps with the manpower issues many volunteer fire companies are facing.

It’s a tight squeeze in the fire hall for the fire trucks. The new facility would have five bays and have more space for the trucks and equipment.

Barre has about 40 active firefighters who responded to 209 calls in 2016. There are also another 60 people who are social members or active in the Ladies Auxiliary.

The Fire District is the taxing authority for the Fire Company. The fire company provides the personnel, and the fire district finances the trucks and equipment. The current firehall is owned by the Fire Company. The new one, if approved by residents, would be owned by the Fire District.

The district currently pays an annual fee to the Fire Company for using the old firehall. That payment would instead be used as the debt payment for the $2.5 million facility, which would be paid over 30 years.

The annual debt payment is expected to be about what the Fire District is currently paying the Fire Company. (The Fire Company’s members would decide the fate of the old firehall. It could be put up for sale and could be used as an auto repair garage or for another business, past chief Jerry Bentley said.)

The Fire District needs voter approval before it can proceed with likely grants for the project, as well as construction bids.

There are currently low-interest rates for borrowing, and a lender would agree to a 30-year arrangement for a new building, said Barry Flansburg, the Fire District secretary/treasurer.

If the project is voted down, Flansburg fears firefighters will be stuck trying to upgrade the current building,, without a low-interest loan stretched over three decades. Instead, it would likely take a loan to be paid in a short-term loan. That could actually result in a higher annual cost for taxpayers, while firefighters are still tied to an undersized facility.

This shows the layout for the proposed new building and the parking lot. The site would be on Route 98, north of the current firehall. The proposed new building would be on the west side of Route 98, a little north of the Barre Town Park.

The Fire District has the land secured for the project. keeler Construction owns the vacant land, north of the current fire hall.

Firefighters are holding open houses to discuss the project every Tuesday at the current fire hall from 6 to 8 p.m. until the vote on April 25. The Fire District is working on the final arrangements for the vote with the Orleans County Board of Elections. Flansburg said the voting time will be announced soon.

If the project passes on Aril 25, Flansburg said design, approvals and permits would take about six months. Construction could start in the spring of 2018.

A letter to the community from the Fire District and Fire Company says the truck and equipment storage is similar in size to 2014 proposal but now includes community center and additional parking. The letter states the following positives with the proposed new building:

• Centrally located along Route 98;

• 5,700 square feet of space for fire truck and storage area with five truck bays, a private office for the fire chief, dispatch office, equipment storage, breakdown, lockers, laundry, kitchenette and a bathroom;

• 3,300 square feet for community center with full kitchen and bathrooms that can be used for disaster relief/emergency shelter and also for community meetings;

• Masonry construction with insulated metal siding and standing seam metal roof;

• Energy-efficient design with radiant floor heating system;

• Asphalt parking and driveways with overflow stone parking area;

• Concrete pads in front of overhead doors;

• Onsite utilities (septic, water, electric, gas, storm water);

• Grant applications are in progress and will be submitted with voter approval of the project.

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Some opponents more than 2 hours away

ALBION – A realignment among the Class B football teams in Section VI football will have the Purple Eagles taking some distant treks to play some of their opponents this fall.

At least three of the teams now in Albion’s division are two hours or more away by bus – Dunkirk, Olean and Fredonia/Westfield/Brocton.

Albion games at Dunkirk and Olean on Friday nights will have the Purple Eagles returning home about midnight on those game days, District Superintendent Michael Bonnewell told the Board of Education on Monday.

He has crunched the numbers for the travel time for the teams and he said the new configuration of the divisions puts Albion at a disadvantage with much longer drive times. It isn’t fair to the Albion players or their families that have to make the long hauls, Bonnewell said.

It also tough on bus drivers who start the day early on morning bus runs.

He would prefer Albion play opponents that aren’t so far away.

“They need to fix this,” Bonnewell told the Board of Education. “This is a problem. This isn’t the right way to deal with kids.”

Section VI grouped the 18 Class B teams in three divisions, with the six largest schools by enrollment in B1 – East Aurora/Holland, Pioneer, Cheektowaga, Burgard/MST, Lew-Port and Maryvale.

Albion is among the group of the second-largest schools that also includes Dunkirk, Olean, Springville, Depew and Fredonia/Westfield/Brocton.

The six schools in the smallest division include Medina/Lyndonville, Barker/Roy-Hart, Newfane, Alden, Tonawanda and Lackawanna.

The B2 schools are spread out from each other and have to drive 1,834 miles over two years travelling to each division opponent. Albion has to drive 420 of those miles, according to Bonnewell.

The B1 (large schools) have to drive 862 miles over two years and the B3 (smallest schools) have to go 872 miles. The B2 schools are driving more than twice as far as the B1 and B3 schools.

‘They need to fix this. This is a problem. This isn’t the right way to deal with kids.’ – Michael Bonnewell, Albion superintendent

Section VI went to a strictly enrollment size for determining the six divisions. The combined teams don’t reflect the actual total enrollment. For example, with Medina and Lyndonville, Section VI determines the enrollment by counting the numbers of students in grades 9 through 11 at Medina – 378 – and then adding 20 percent of Lyndonville’s enrollment because Lyndonville is classified by the state as a Class D school. Instead of counting all 153 Lyndonville students, only 30.6 or 31 are included for determining school size or 409 total for the Medina/Lyndonville team.

Larger schools in a merged team count a higher percentage: 30 percent of Class C schools, 40 percent of Class B and Class C, 40 percent of Class A, and 50 percent of Class AA, according to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association.

Albion’s enrollment is 446 for the three grade levels, and for the purpose of determining its division in Section VI. That makes Albion bigger than the combined Medina/Lyndonville team which has an actual enrollment of 531 but counts as 409 because Lyndonville is only factored at 20 percent of its enrollment.

It’s similar with the combined Barker and Roy-Hart team. The two districts together have 500 students in grades 9 to 11 but is considered 380 with the reduced percentage applied to Roy-Hart.

“I understand the size issue,” Bonnewell told the Board of Education. “But they’re not using real numbers. It’s based on a formula.”

Albion will play both Medina/Lyndonville and Barker/Roy-Hart in interdivisional contests in 2017. (The Medina/Lyndonville team beat Albion in 2016 by a score of 48-6, and Albion defeated Barker/Roy-Hart, 46-7.)

Randy Knaak, Albion’s athletic director, said he has reached out to the Section for an extra home game for the Albion varsity due to the longer travel. He also is asking that the starting time for jayvee games be pushed back from 10 a.m. to 11 or noon because Albion has to leave early in the morning for those Saturday games.

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ALBION – An organization proposing a 50-unit housing project on Liberty Street will be seeking local approvals for the project in the coming months and also will be pursuing state funding.

DePaul Community Services, Inc. wants to build the project on Liberty Street, between the railroad tracks and Beaver Street. DePaul needs to remove three houses that are on that section to make room for the housing project.

Photos by Tom Rivers: Gillian J. Conde is Vice President for DePaul Properties in Rochester. She addressed the Albion Rotary Club last week.

DePaul is designing the project to support people with disabilities, including senior citizens and veterans. The organization will do extensive background checks for credit, criminal and sex offender history and evictions.

DePaul can refuse applicants based on information in the background checks, said Gillian J. Conde, Vice President for DePaul Properties in Rochester.

The organization is proposing 46 one-unit apartments and four that would be two-bedroom. Conde said only a few children would likely live at the site.

“We thought this would be ideal,” Conde told the Albion Rotary Club last week. “We wanted to give people a nice, new option.”

The apartments aren’t a public housing project. Conde said they are “middle market housing” with one-bedroom apartment rent at $600 a month and two bedrooms at $700. That includes utilities, basic cable, WiFi and laundry.

“In Upstate New York, one of the big things going on is our housing stock is aging,” she said.

The Liberty Street project would be a big lift to that neighborhood and the village, Conde said.

The project would be similar to a DePaul site in Batavia that serves low-income residents, including people with mental health issues. Conde said DePaul would like to partner with local agencies, such as the Orleans County Mental Health Department, to connect tenants to services in the community.

DePaul would have some services on site, and staff will be there 24 hours a day. DePaul would have a van on site to transport tenants to medical appointments. Half of the apartments would be ADA-compliant and the other half would be adaptable for people who may need the apartment to be handicapped accessible.

The two-story building in Albion would have parking on site as well as green space. The old beech tree by Beaver Street also would stay.

Conde said the local approval process would also likely include a plan for DePaul to contribute money to the local governments in the form of a PILOT or payment in lieu of taxes.

File photo: Two of the houses that would be demolished on Liberty Street are vacant and obscured by vegetation.

Gov. Cuomo on Sept. 13 announced state funding for DePaul in Albion to provide services in supportive housing to “vulnerable populations.”

Conde said DePaul is now seeking state assistance to help pay for the construction of the housing. DePaul is pursuing projects in all four rural GLOW counties – Genesee, Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming.

Conde said most of the state housing grants have been concentrated in cities.

“We wanted to see if we could get some of these dollars in rural communities because rural New York has been neglected,” she said.

DePaul also has been sampling the site for environmental contamination. The project would ensure any pollutants are removed.

“This would be a perfectly clean site,” Conde said. “There is a very high standard for a residential site.”

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