Photos courtesy of Mark Standish

ALBION – Contractors today are working on the Densmore Road canal bridge. The state Department of Transportation is spending $11 million project to rehabilitate seven canal bridges across Orleans County. Crane-Hogan Structural Systems in Spencerport is working on the bridge.

Densmore Road over the canal is the second in a series of seven bridges that are being repaired as part of this project. The bridge carrying Bennetts Corners Road over the Canal in Murray was the first to upgraded. The  seven single-lane truss bridges were constructed between 1909 and 1914.

The work on the bridges includes installing high-strength galvanized steel to replace steel floor systems, low chords, gusset plates, and truss elements. Bridge railing and guide rail on the bridge approaches also will be improved and each bridge will be repainted. The alignments and profiles of the bridges will not change.

The Densmore Road bridge closed on April 15 with the construction expected to take about six months.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Trellis Pore of Albion and members the Trellis Cooper Band performed during Albion’s Canal Concert Series on Thursday.

The concert series is every Thursday, except for July 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the gazebo behind the Albion fire hall. The series continues through Aug. 22.

Many of the concert goers set up chairs near the Albion fire hall where there was food and some shade from the bright sun.

This young member of the band plays the tambourine.

Doug Egling of Albion performs a solo on his saxophone.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Preston Flugel, one of the summer park supervisors for the Village of Albion, pushes a kid in a swing this afternoon at Veteran’s Park at the corner of Linwood Avenue and Brown Street.

Today was opening day of the village’s summer parks program, which is free to children in the Albion school district. The program will have paid park supervisors on duty from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday, until July 26.

Kaitlyn Van Skiver manages to push two young children in the kiddie swings at the park today. There were 40 kids for opening day, which is a big turnout for the first day.

The program includes recreational games and activities. There are arts and crafts, water games, obstacle courses, bowling trips at Oak Orchard Lanes and many other activities.

Kiara Smith offers some pointers to Evan Kirby, 7, in a game of badminton.

The summer parks program is usually based at Bullard Park, but that site on Route 31 is under construction with a new splash pad, amphitheater, bathrooms and other improvements.

The parks program also holds several weekly camps, including next week when there will be wrestling for grades 6-12 at the Albion High School gym from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and volleyball for grades 6-12 at Albion HS gym from 10 a.m. to noon.

Caitlynn Snook was busy pushing kids in swings.

The volleyball camp is led by the High School volleyball coaching staff. Students will learn the basics of volleyball along with skills, drills, match situations, scrimmages and matches. There is no pre-registration and no additional fees required.

The wresting camp is led by Andrew Grillo, a Holley-Kendall wrestling coach, a state wrestling champion and former Brockport State College wrestler. Grillo will be joined at the camp by instructors who are college wrestlers and former high school standouts.

Students will be able to drill techniques, wrestle live and conclude each day with wrestling related games. Inexperienced wrestlers will have an opportunity learn the basics skills in wrestling while the experienced wrestler will expand on what they already know.

There is no pre-registration or no additional costs.

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Photo courtesy of Hoag Library: Patrick Holman of Medina performed a magic show on Saturday to help celebrate the start of the summer reading program at Hoag Library.

ALBION – Local performer Patrick Holman kicked off Hoag’s Library’s Summer Reading Program, A Universe of Stories, this past Saturday with an exciting magic show. Holman entertained about 45 people at the performance, with 24 children registering for the reading program.

There is still time to enroll in the summer reading program. Registration is still open to children and adults, and concludes Aug. 15 with a performance by Buffalo & Brandy and cookout with the Albion Lions Club.

Hoag Library has collaborated with community partners, including local business owners, elected officials, and educators from Albion Central School to bringthis engaging summer program to Albion.

In addition to events at the library, staff will participate in community events, such as the Summer Parks Program, the Orleans County 4-H Fair, and the Albion Summer Festival featuring Rock the Park.

For information on other programs and activities at Hoag Library, visit www.hoaglibrary.com or through Facebook.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Nichols, Long and Moore Construction in Tonawanda puts a new layer of crushed limestone dust on the Erie Canal towpath near Allen’s Bridge Road in Albion today.

The company uses a roller to harden the towpath after the limestone dust was put down. The company was hired for the job after the towpath was beat up from construction equipment as part of the tree removal and embankment maintenance project.

The Canal Corp. had a new layer removed in parts of Albion and Medina when the material wasn’t compacting very well. The new limestone dust is a finer material.

The Canal Corp. and the contractors are working to have the new surface for the towpath ready by July 1. Next month there are two big cycling events that will be passing through on the towpath.

The new surface covers most of the towpath from Medina to Spencerport.

Nichols, Long and Moore Construction is using a paving machine to put down the limestone dust.

A State Canal Corp. employee asked people to please observe the signs that say the trail is closed in some sections so contractors can get their work done.

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ALBION – The Clarendon Road culvert in Albion will be closed for about a month this summer so a new culvert can be installed.

The Town of Albion received a $174,000 grant from the state’s BridgeNY program for the project.

A section of Clarendon Road from Route 31 to Holley Road will be closed beginning July 8. Local traffic will be allowed, including for the elementary school, the Town Hall and Victory Baptist Church.

Construction of the new culvert should take about four weeks, said Mike Neidert, Albion highway superintendent.

The construction bids came in over budget, so the town is doing the project with the Orleans County Highway Department.

The new culvert is expected to be under budget, Neidert said.

Anyone with questions about the project can contact Neidert at the Town of Albion, (585) 589-7048 ext. 16 or email highway@townofalbion.com.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Alec Sherman is pictured with a display about the Albion marching band from 1950 to 1975, when the Purple Eagles were led by his father, Moses Sherman.

The display at Hoag Library includes trophies, programs, photos, a band jacket and vinyl records of band concerts.

This display will be up until Thursday. The library rotates exhibits. Betty Sue Miller, the library director, was in Sherman’s marching band. She urged Alec to put together the display.

“I thought it was a neat look back at time,” Alec said about the exhibit.

Moses Sherman is shown in action leading the Albion marching band. This photo is from the early 1970s.

Sherman grew up in a small town in Vermont. He earned a degree at Ithaca College and first worked at Tully, a small school district in Central New York. He was hired at Albion in 1950 and stayed until 1975. He finished his career in Massena in northern New York.

Sherman passed away in 1997. His father had tremendous pride in the Albion band, Alec said.

The band performed all over New York, including about 30 times each summer at fire department parades and community festivals. A highlight for the band during Sherman’s tenure was a week-long trip to England in 1972. More than 100 students performed in London. The band also performed in Montreal and Toronto.

Moses Sherman’s trumpet is part of the display at the library.

“He taught them life lessons about dedication and preparation,” said Alec, who is a retired U.S. history teacher at Albion. He also coached basketball, softball and track.

Alec also played in his father’s bands. Alec played the cornet, a small brass instrument like a trumpet. He graduated in 1968 and saw first-hand his father’s devotion to the music program.

A trophy and band jacket are in the exhibit.

Alec Sherman is selling digitally remastered albums, ranging from 1964 to 1974, of the band’s concerts. Sherman has recordings from eight spring concerts, which were typically two-hour events.

The remastered CDs are available for $35 each and Sherman uses the proceeds for $500 annual scholarships given each year in memory of his father (to be awarded to a graduating senior who is active in the band program) and also for Alec’s mother, Margaret McKirdy Sherman, who was a teacher at Albion. Her scholarship is a humanitarian award going to a graduate with a record of community service.

For more information about the CDs, contact Alec Sherman at alecsherman1950@gmail.com or click here for more information on the Albion Alumni Foundation website.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Rianne Hand, 8, of Albion sits on the new Buddy Bench at Veteran’s Park at the corner of Linwood Avenue and Butts Road in Albion.

Rianne is a first year Brownie in Troop 82036. Her older sisters, Samantha and Allie, are in that troop, which donated the Buddy Bench for a Silver Award project for six Cadette Scouts. The troop is led by Crystal Hand, mother of the three sisters.

The Scouts used proceeds from cookie sales over two years to pay the $670 cost for the bench. If people are feeling lonely, they can sit on a Buddy Bench and a friend is encouraged to go sit with them.

The bench is at Vets Park for most of the summer and will be moved to Bullard Park later this year. Bullard is currently under construction. The summer park programs will be based out of Vets Park this summer.

Mayor Eileen Banker, right, joined the Girl Scouts in a ribbon-cutting this afternoon. The Scouts include, from left: Olivia Miller, Allie Hand, Katelyn Kowalski, Lucy Rivers, Eowyn Pate, Samantha Hand and Maia Pate.

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Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – This group of Albion community members took orders for 500 T-shirts that say, #Albion Strong with a purple eagle, the Albion school mascot.

Proceeds from the sale of the shirts will go to the Moody family, who are grieving the loss of Brennan Moody, 17, from a car accident. Brennan was a very well-liked Albion student who was to graduate on Friday with about 150 other classmates.

The volunteers took orders for the shirts today at Bullard Park from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. D.J. Button of Digital Ink Arts in Albion is pushing to have the shirts ready to be distributed at the park on Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m.

There will be another delivery at Bullard on Sunday, June 30, from 2 to 3 p.m.

Kelly Brannan headed the effort to have the shirts made in time for Friday’s graduation. Brannan’s son Gage is an eighth-grader with Brennan’s brother Jackson.

“We just wanted to bring the community together,” Mrs. Brannan said.

There may be an additional order for shirts at another time.

Many people also donated today to the family of Sean Weis, who was seriously injured in the accident.

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D.J. Button of Digital Ink Arts has designed shirts and will have them available by Friday, when the Class of 2019 graduates from Albion.

ALBION – The community is rallying to support the Moody and Weis families.

Brennan Moody, 17, died in a car accident on Tuesday on Eagle Harbor Road. One of his best friends, Sean Weis, was badly injured in the crash and is at Erie County Medical Center.

Community members are organizing fundraisers to assist the two families.

• Today at Bullard Park from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. orders will be taken for “Albion Strong” T-shirts. The shirts are $15 and Digital Ink Arts in Albion will have them available on Thursday, June 27, at Bullard from 6 to 7 p.m. There will be another delivery at Bullard on Sunday, June 30, from 2 to 3 p.m. All proceeds from the T-shirt sales are going to the Moody family.

There will also be collection jars on tables at Bullard to help the Weis family with medical expenses.

• There is also a meal train for the Weis family. People can sign up to provide meals by clicking here. Pam Parker is the organizer. She reports that Sean is out of intensive care and is now in a regular room at ECMC.

• On Monday, June 24, Jimmy Z’s Plates and Shakes on Main Street in Brockport will donate 20 percent of sales to the Moody family for customers who mention Brennan. That fundraiser goes from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

• Red Check Rustic will also donate 20 percent from its sales on June 29 to the Weis family. Red Check Relic has a monthly market behind the Pratt Building in Albion. The market meets in the back of Beaver Alley and North Liberty Street and includes crafters, vendors and a food truck.

• There will be an “Albion Strong” benefit with a chicken barbecue begins at 3 p.m. on Aug. 11 at The Gallagher, a barn and event center at 244 North Gravel Rd. in Medina. For more information on that event, contact albionstrongtogether@gmail.com.

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