Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – An Arc of Orleans County van hit the underpass on Butts Road at about 10:40 a.m. today. The handicapped accessible van was damaged after trying to pass under the bridge with a 7-foot, 2-inch clearance.
The van had several passengers with developmental disabilities. No one was injured in the incident. Orleans County Sheriff’s deputies, the Albion Fire Department and COVA all responded to the scene.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Dylan Hellems speaks about his candidacy for the Board of Education during a forum Tuesday at the LGI room at the high school. Hellems is one of four candidates for one open seat on the Board of Education.
ALBION – The election on Tuesday for the Albion Board of Education includes four candidates seeking one open seat, a five-year term on a nine-member board.
One of the candidates is a high school senior. Dylan Hellems, 18, said he would bring a student’s insight to the BOE, as well as a passion to make a difference in the community.
Hellems will be on the ballot with three other candidates: Steven LaLonde, Kevin Doherty and Anitrice Riley.
Albion had a high school senior win a BOE election in the late 1990s, when Dan Bellor was elected to a five-year term.
In Buffalo, Austin Harig last week nearly defeated Carl Paladino, a multi-millionaire and Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2010. Harig, 18, lost to Paladino by 132 votes for a seat on the Buffalo School Board.
Hellems thanked the other Albion candidates for their community service during a forum on Tuesday, when school officials discussed the district’s proposed budget and other propositions that go before voters on Tuesday.
Hellems said he has had a good experience at Albion Central School, with a week-long trip to Washington, DC as the highlight.
He went to the nation’s capitol with the Close-Up program at Albion High School in late February-early March. That trip fueled a desire to be involved politically. On the Close-Up trip, Helllems met two Albion graduates who work full-time in D.C.
Don Sisson works in the White House as a special assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs. He also worked 10 years for Rep. Louise Slaughter of Rochester.
Sarah Brown Dirkes is the director of External Relations at American Farm Bureau Federation.
Hellems was impressed to see two people from a small town having an impact in DC.
“I want to make a difference,” he said after a public hearing Tuesday on the school budget. “I want to pursue politics and this will be a great place to start.”
Hellems will major in general studies this fall when he starts at Genesee Community College.
Hellems said he is pursuing the volunteer position on the Board of Education to inspire more high school students and recent grads to be involved in local government.
In terms of specific issues, he said he doesn’t support banning books at the school because some topics may be considered too controversial. He also said he would like to see the district work towards a turf field that would require less maintenance and also could be a draw for athletic events.
Hellems will face three long-time district residents, incuding former Board of Education member Kevin Doherty, who is currently president of the Hoag Library Board of Trustees. Doherty runs his own communications company, and is a past superintnedent of the buildings and grounds depaetment at the school district. His six grown children are Albion graduates.
“We clearly have a good school district and what we’re looking to do as they say in 4-H is make it better,” Doherty said.
Steven LaLonde has a doctoral degree in statistics, measurement and evaluation from Syracuse Univeristy. He is a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. He and his late wife, Kathy, raised three children who graduated from Albion.
LaLonde said he wants to give back to the district that provided a quality education for his children. He said he tends to bring people together to develop common ground in working on issues.
Anitrice Riley is a 1993 graduate of Albion. She works as a senior tax servicing specialist. One of her three children has graduated from Albion, and she has two others in the district.
Riley said she wants to see the district work harder to reach students not involved in sports and extracurricular programs.
“Let’s make sure every child has the best access to education,” she said. “Some kids are losing their way.”
Voting on Tuesday will be from noon to 8 p.m. at the elementary school, conference room A.
ALBION – The school district has eliminated 87 positions in the past 13 years, at a time when the student enrollment has shrunk 29 percent or by nearly 750 students.
The district had 2,574 students in 2003-04, but next year’s enrollment is projected to fall to 1,834, a 38-student drop from the current school year. The total number of full-time equivalent positions has fallen in 13 years from 349 to a proposed 262 in the 2016-17 budget, a 25 percent reduction. The district doesn’t plan to cut any teaching positions but will eliminate a full-time clerical job as part of the proposed 2016-17 budget.
As enrollment has steadily dropped, the district has pared back staff. That has allowed the district to either cut or hold the line on taxes in nine of the last 10 years, school leaders said Tuesday during a budget hearing.
The proposed $33,890,990 school budget keeps taxes at the same amount, $8,355,939, as the 2015-16 budget.
The district’s rate of reducing staff, 25 percent, doesn’t quite match the reduction in student enrollment, at 29 percent in the past 13 years. Shawn Liddle, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, said teachers and staff have more “extra things” from the State Education Department.
Liddle noted Albion has the lowest per pupil cost at $18,479 of any district in Orleans, where the average is $22,918. The state per pupil cost for 2016-17 is $25,962. Albion is one of 57 districts spending less than $19,000 in the state, out of 669 districts, Liddle said.
The district’s tax rate for the current school year, $16.06 per $1,000 of assessed property, is the lowest of all districts in Orleans, Genesee, Niagara and Monroe counties. The Albion rate is estimated to fall to $15.87 in 2016-17, Liddle said.
District residents will vote on the budget Tuesday from noon to 8 p.m. at the elementary school, conference room A.
Other propositions on the May ballot will include:
Authorization to spend up to $460,000 for buses;
Approval to collect $687,211 for Hoag Library. That is up 1 percent from the $680,411 for 2015-16.
Choosing one of four candidates for a five-year term on the Board of Education. The candidates include Dylan Hellems, Steven LaLonde, Kevin Doherty and Anitrice Riley.
ALBION – Emily Blanchard, a member of the Albion FFA, reads a book, The Apple Orchard Riddle, to second graders at the FFA’s Land Lab today.
FFA high schoolers read the book by Margaret McNamara and G. Brian Karas to second grade classes as part of an ag literacy effort. Normally ag literacy is in March, but Albion pushed it back so students could be out in the orchard in May. The trees should be in blossom later this week.
Alexis Bentley reads the book to students in Lisa Burlison’s class.
These second graders are happy to be outside to hear the story read by Emilie Barleben of the FFA.
Allyson Graham, left, and Mikayla Yaskulski read to these second graders in Jamie Beach’s class.
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – A historical marker for Sanford Church was given a fresh coat of paint by Melissa Ierlan of Clarendon. She put the redone marker back up April 27 with help from Craig Lane. Ierlan has now repainted 15 of the markers in Orleans County.
This marker sits in the lawn at Church’s former home in Albion along Ingersoll Street, near the intersection with East State Street. The house is now a funeral home for Merrill-Grinnell Funeral Homes.
This marker initially went up in 1935Â for Sanford E. Church. He was a prominent force in New York politics about 150 years ago.
In 1841, the son of Albion farmer was elected to the State Assembly at age 26. He did it as a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Whig district. In 1845, he was appointed district attorney of Orleans County, one of the original “Barnburners” of the Democratic Party. He joined the Free Soil Party and spoke at Free Soil Rallies across the country, arguing against the expansion of slavery into the states that were newly forming in the West, according to a biography of Church by Kristin A. Mattiske, written for the Historical Society of New York Courts. (Click here for more information.)
When the Free Soil Party dissolved upon losing the presidential bid in the 1852 election, Church rejoined the Democrats. During the Civil War, Church spoke of states’ rights and maintaining a solid Union. He actively sought volunteers to fight to save the union and when the Orleans County war committee was formed in summer 1862, he was elected chairman.
Politically, Church was elected in 1850 as the state’s lieutenant governor, and was re-elected to the position in 1852. He served as state comptroller from 1857 to 1859Â and was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1844, 1860, 1864, and 1868.
At the convention in 1868, the New York State delegation chose him as its nominee for the United States presidency. Horatio Seymour, the NY governor, ultimately was backed to run against Ulysses Grant, losing to the Civil War hero. Church was frequently mentioned as a potential presidential candidate or NY governor. He didn’t have the personal funds for a major campaign, and didn’t want to cozy up to the Democratic machine, Mattiske wrote.
In 1870, Church was nominated for Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. He served in the role for 10 years, the second-longest tenure in the court’s history. He and Noah Davis, Jr., a former law partner of his from Albion, would bring down the New York City Tammany Hall ringmaster William M. “Boss” Tweed. Judge Davis presided over Tweed’s trials on charges of conspiracy, perjury, and larceny. On appeal to the Court of Appeals, Chief Judge Church upheld the conviction.
Church died at age 66 on May 14, 1880. An estimated 6,000 people gathered in Albion for Church’s wake and funeral. Church is buried at Mount Albion Cemetery.
“An elaborate marble canopy supported by red granite pillars – a baldacchino – covers his tomb,” Mattiske writes. “In Medieval times, baldacchinos of silk and gold thread were held over honored persons and sacred objects.”
Today, the great-great-great grandson of Judge Church, Sanford A. Church, runs a law office on East Bank Street in Albion and serves as the public defender in Orleans County.
Another historical marker will be rededicated on Saturday in Barre. Town officials will have a ceremony at 2 p.m. at  Elisha Wright’s home at 5544 Eagle Harbor Rd., just south of West Barre. A reception will follow the ceremony at Mulberry Park in West Barre, across the road from the United Methodist Church.
Ierlan also repainted that sign, which also needed to be rewelded.
Provided photo/Lance Anderson – A 10-person cast from the Lake Plains Players will perform Killing Sarah, a murder mystery, at The Cabaret at Studio B on Sunday at 2 p.m.
ALBION – The Lake Plains Players will spend part of Mother’s Day performing a murder mystery show at the Cabaret at Studio B in Albion.
“It’s just what mom wants: a murder mystery,” joked Andy Spragge, director of the show.
The Lake Plains Players, a local community theater group, is trying its first non-musical that includes audience participation. The crowd will have a chance to help solve a murder in the play called “Killing Sarah.”
In the show, the CEO of EastRich Enterprises has died, and four contenders for CEO plot to either woo Sarah, the CEO’s sole surviving heir, or have her killed.
Spragge has been in theater for more than 30 years, performing in many shows with the Players. He is returning to directing after a five-year break.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “I really love the process.”
The cast performed the show Friday as part of a dinner theater at Becker Farms in Gasport. The 2 p.m. show Sunday includes desserts and drinks at the Cabaret, 28 West Bank St., Albion.
The audience are all shareholders in EastRich Enterprises. They will vote for the company’s new leader. Another character in the show will die.
“The audience helps figure out the mystery,” Spragge said. “The audience is integral to it because they are part of the company.”
The show has lots unpredictability due to the uncertainty with audience responses.
“There is a lot of improvisation that goes on,” Spragge said. “There will be some unpredictability.”
Tickets for Sunday’s show are available at the door.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Ben Yazman, Heritage Wind project developer, is pictured by the Barre water tower on Route 98 behind the firehall.
BARRE – Apex Clean Energy last week announced its plan for Heritage Wind, a 200 Megawatt project, the same power proposed for Lighthouse Wind in Yates and Somerset.
Apex put out a map that showed the project focused in Barre but also spreading out into surrounding towns, as far northeast as Fancher and south into Elba.
Apex said today the project will be focused entirely in Barre. Ben Yasman, Heritage Wind project developer, said Barre’s elevation is about 200 feet higher than most of the county. It has access to transmission lines and state roads.
It also is the least populous town in the county with lots of open farmland.
Apex is just beginning the public outreach process. The company expects to have many meetings with town officials and residents in a siting process that could take several years. Yazman said feedback from residents, landowners, town officials and other stakeholders will determine the location and size of the turbines.
“The locations will be dependent on the landowners who want to participate,” he said.
Apex has been meeting with Yates landowners for about two years. The company has fielded questions about the Lighthouse Wind project at its booth at the 4-H Fair. Apex officials were told by several Barre landowners said they would a support a project in Barre, said Taylor Quarles, Apex’s development manager.
The company sees the potential in Barre, which was eyed for a project by Iberdrola before the company withdrew its effort about a decade ago after concerns by the Pine Hill Airport.
Yazman said he wants to alleviate worries from community members, including the airport. It will be part of the company’s public outreach plan and later environmental studies and scoping documents.
“We want to involve the town in this potential project,” said Cat Mosely, Public Affairs manager for Apex. “We see it as a community owned project.”
Apex has already done its public outreach plan for Yates and Somerset, and also submitted a Preliminary Scoping Document. It is working to address environmental concerns and other issues raised for the Yates-Somerset project.
Mosely and Yazman said today the company remains committed to Lighthouse Wind.
The intent to develop the Heritage Wind project shows the company’s commitment to Orleans County and the region, Mosely said. (Apex is also working on a project on Galloo Island near Watertown.)
Yazman said the projects will take years of work. He welcomed residents and government officials to reach out to him. He can be contacted through the Heritage Wind website. Click here for more information.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Residents in the Hoag Library service area on Monday elected Holly Canham and Kevin Doherty to four-year terms as library trustees.
ALBION – Residents elected Kevin Doherty, the Hoag Library president, to another four-year term on the library board of trustees on Monday.
Doherty has served on the board for seven years and has been president for six years, leading the library through a capital campaign and construction of a new facility that opened in 2012.
Voters also elected Holly Canham to a four-year term on the board. Canham is a frequent library user, utilizing the local history resources. She is founding president of the Orleans County Genealogical Society, and remains the group’s president after 16 years.
Canham is retired from working at Chase in Albion. She leads “Family Tree Fridays,” classes on genealogy on the first and third Fridays of the month at Hoag.
“I felt it was my turn to help out,” she said about running for the library board.
She wants to promote the local history resources and help people use those materials in researching their family histories.
Doherty has been an active community member for many years with the Strawberry Festival, 4-H Fair and Albion school district. He owns Doherty Communications.
The new library and a push for programs at Hoag that best serve the community are important as a quality of life issue for the Albion area, Doherty said.
A vibrant library with technology and other resources is part of making the community viable long-term for many young families and other residents when they consider moving or staying in the Albion area, Doherty said.
He is thankful the library has completed the new site, which opened in 2012. Now the focus is on providing the best services to the community, he said.
“The job isn’t done yet,” he said about why he sought another four years on the board.
The nine member board has three vacancies. Two will be filled by the board and Mayor Dean London also can appoint a representative.
Residents in the Albion school district will vote on May 17 whether the district can collect $687,211 for Hoag Library. That is up 1 percent from the $680,411 for 2015-16.
Voting for the library funds is part of the May 17 school vote from noon to 8 p.m. at elementary school.
Photos by Tom Rivers – Charles Howard, founder of Santa Claus School in Albion, died 50 years ago today. This image shows Charles W. Howard on the cover on a report from January 1961 about the previous season at Christmas Park.
ALBION – Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Charles Howard, one of Albion’s most prominent residents. Howard was a farmer and toymaker who started a Santa Claus School in 1937 on Phipps Road in Albion.
He played Santa in the Macy’s televised parades for about 20 years. He established standards for how Santas should look and act with children, principles that are still taught today to Santas around the world.
Howard expanded his school into Christmas Park, a destination for the community that remains a cherished memory for many local residents. After Howard’s death in 1966, the school was moved to Michigan. Today it is in Midland, Mich., and still bears Howard’s name.
Waterman Park has room for a statue of Charles Howard and other displays about the founder of a Santa Claus School.
A committee in Albion has been working for more than a year on a memorial for Howard. The Village Board last week agreed to make Waterman Park, a half block south of the Erie Canal, available for a bronze statue of Howard as Santa Claus. The park will likely include interpretative panels, murals and other displays about Howard and Santa Claus.
The committee will now work on designs of the statue and park, hoping to have them ready for the community at the Strawberry Festival in June.
“I’m excited about it,” Mayor Dean London said on Wednesday when the board voted to back the effort.
The Albion Betterment Committee is taking the lead in a fund-raising campaign that could be about $100,000.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Howard made Santa Claus suits and other Christmas items from Christmas Park in Albion. This picture shows the tag inside a Santa suit.
The group was determined to have a site for Howard on Main Street, seeing a statue as a boost for other downtown businesses.
Three municipalities in Orleans County plan to enact six-month moratoriums on mobile home construction outside of mobile home parks.
Location has generally been limited to mobile home parks, but new state legislation allows construction of manufactured outside of designated mobile home parks as long as a manufactured home “is aesthetically similar to site-built single-family homes in a residential district,” and is deemed a single-family home by the local government’s zoning law, according to the state legislation.
The villages of Albion and Holley, and the Town of Murray want a six-month moratorium on mobile home construction outside designated parks so those municipalities can work on amending their zoning ordinances. The Orleans County Planning Board backed those efforts by the three municipalities.
The Planning Board on Thursday also recommended the Town of Clarendon approve a permit for a home occupation at 4257 Hindsburg Rd., which is in a residential/agricultural district.
Erin Neale wants to operate a firearms sales business from the site. He sold firearms from the site from 1999 to 2009. He wants to reopen the business with the same setup.
The gun shop would be set back about 500 feet from Hindsburg Road in a detached structure east of Neale’s house. In addition to selling rifles, pistols and shotguns, Neale plans to sell black powder, ammunition and accessories.
ALBION – Bank of America is adding a drive-through ATM in Albion. The new feature won’t be at the bank’s site. It will be across from Bank of America at Dunkin Donuts.
The Orleans County Planning Board supported the project during its meeting on Thursday. The ATM will be at the southeast corner of the Dunkin Donuts lot near the entrance by Platt Street. It will have room for three vehicles, will be lighted and will have a monument sign noting the ATM.
Bank of America doesn’t have room for a drive-through ATM at its site, said Ron Vendetti, village code enforcement officer.
The bank will continue to run a walk-up ATM at its Main Street location.
The project needs two variances, and the County Planning Board recommended Albion approve both. The village code requires room for five vehicles in a drive-through, but this proposed ATM has room for three vehicles. Planners said the ATM “is not expected to be a substantial traffic generator.” The walk-up ATM at the bank also will ease some pressure on the drive-through ATM, planners said.
The village code allows one freestanding sign per commercial property and this will have two with the Bank of America ATM and Dunkin Donuts.
Planners said the new sign noting ATM should be located in a way that doesn’t obstruct sight lines for vehicles attempting to exit the property.
ALBION – The Village Board adopted a $6,633,734 budget for 2016-17 that will reduce taxes, slightly, for village property owners.
The village’s tax rate will drop from $17.75 to $17.66 per $1,000 of assessed property. The amount of taxes to be collected will also drop 0.4 percent from $2,497,252 to $2,487,946, which is a $9,305 reduction.
Mayor Dean London and the board unanimously approved the budget on Wednesday. London said department heads deserve credit for presenting “realistic numbers” and working with the board to prevent a tax increase.
London said the village is “thinking outside the box” to try to bring down taxes. Albion Police Chief Roland Nenni, for example, also serves as Holley’s police chief in an agreement that brings in revenue for Albion. Other village personnel also work with Holley’s sewer plant, and Elba’s water and sewer.
The budget also stops a downward slide in overall assessments in the village. After several years of a declining tax base, Albion grew by $190,060 to $140,880,321. That represents only a 0.13 percent growth, but it wasn’t a decrease, village officials noted on Wednesday.
Other good news in the budget, according to Clerk/Treasurer Linda Babcock: the village is only using $193,000 from reserves or its fund balance. She thinks that is the lowest level in many years. In the 2015-16 budget, the village used $248,000 from its fund balance, which was down from the $300,000 in fund balance in 2014-15.
BARRE – Town Supervisor Mark Chamberlain said he is just learning this week about Apex Clean Energy’s new plan for a 200 Megawatt wind energy project focused in Barre and stretching into Elba, Albion and other neighboring communities.
Apex made the announcement on Wednesday. The company sent a letter to Barre town officials earlier this week, requesting a meeting to discuss the project.
Chamberlain said he hadn’t heard any talk of the project until this week.
“This is the first that the community has heard of it,” he said this afternoon. “This has all come very quickly and very fast.”
Barre was considered for a wind energy project about a decade ago, but the developer backed off after concerns turbines would be sited too close to the Pine Hill Airport.
Chamberlain said the Apex project appears to be away from the airport, with the new focus apparently in southeastern Barre.
Apex is proposing a project in Yates and Somerset that would include up to 71 turbines that would peak at 620 feet high. Those turbines are about 200 feet taller than the ones proposed in Barre a decade ago. Apex hasn’t detailed the size of Barre turbines.
There is a big change, compared to a decade ago, with the new “Heritage Wind” project proposed for Barre: the Article 10 process. That gives the majority of the siting power to state officials.
“It takes town input out of it,” Chamberlain said.
Apex said today it will have many public meetings with officials and residents in Barre, Albion and the rest of the project area.
“This is a process that has just begun, and we are reaching out to various stakeholders simultaneously, including officials with the Town of Barre, the Town and Village of Albion, Orleans County, and many others,” said Cat Mosely, Public Affairs manager for Apex.
Press Release, NYS Department of Transportation
GAINES – The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is advising motorists today a portion of Route 98 (Oak Orchard Road) in the town of Gaines, Orleans County, will be closed to traffic for up to two weeks beginning Monday, May 9, while a deteriorated culvert under the highway is replaced.
The culvert is located midway between Route 104 (Ridge Road) and the intersection of Route 279 (Gaines Road) and East/West Bacon roads.
A posted detour will direct traffic to use Route 279 (Gaines Road) and Route 104 (Ridge Road) to bypass the work site.
The schedule calls for the road to be re-opened by approximately May 23.
This work is being coordinated with a planned paving project on Route 98 between Route 31A (W. Lee Road) in the town of Barre through the town and village of Albion to Route 104 (Ridge Road) in the town of Gaines this summer. The construction schedule is yet to be finalized.
Photos by Tom Rivers – The County Administration Building on Route 31, behind The Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center, could have an addition to make room for relocated county offices.
ALBION – Orleans County legislators are expected to vote this afternoon to hire a firm to look at putting on an addition to the County Administration Building.
The county may shift several offices to the addition, including the Board of Elections and Public Health Department, which is leasing space from Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services. Comprehensive purchased the former county-owned nursing home for $7.8 million in January 2014. The county has been leasing space from Comprehensive for Elections and Public Health because those offices are part of the nursing home complex.
Public Health leases space next to the former Orleans County Nursing Home on Route 31 in Albion.
The county could also shift information technology (currently in Treasurer’s Office), the legislative chambers (in County Clerk’s Building), the county’s administrative office (also in Clerk’s Building) and create large multi-use rooms to accommodate training for large groups, conference rooms and offices.
A resolution at today’s 4:30 p.m. meeting calls for paying the Wendel firm $30,000 for a feasibility study for an addition to the County Administration Building.
David Callard, the Legislature chairman, said the feasibility study will look at many options with a goal for improved efficiency in county operations.
He said moving Elections and Public Health from leased space will free up money that could go towards the addition, perhaps making the project cost neutral to county taxpayers.
Board of Elections uses part of a wing in the former county-owned nursing home.
Callard said he and county offices have looked at existing buildings, including sites in Albion’s historic downtown, but those sites wouldn’t improve efficiency of the county government operations by being “in remote locations.”
Moving out county staff from space owned by Comprehensive could allow that company to add services, Callard said, suggesting assisted adult care.
If the Legislature and its staff also move to a new addition at the Administration Building that would free up space for the Real Property Tax Services Department to move from the building’s basement to upstairs, Callard said.
If the Legislature leaves the Clerk’s Building, an iconic historic structure next to the courthouse, Callard said the community can be assured the building will remain well cared for by the county.
“We aren’t letting that building go, ever,” he said.
He said nothing is set with the addition and which offices might go there.
“There’s all sorts of variables,” he said. “We’re just exploring the possibility of consolidation.”
