By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 May 2019 at 11:33 am
Library’s annual meeting also today with voting from noon to 7 p.m.
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – A new sign is being installed today outside Hoag Library by Toth’s Sports. The company worked with the library to design a sign that matches the building which opened in 2012.
The new sign will have electronic messages to promote programs at the library. This will be a Daktronic sign with high resolution and clarity, Toth’s employees said. The sign is about 4 feet high and 7 ½ feet wide.
The sign should be fully in place later this afternoon. The sign is about $60,000 with a state grant and the Friends of the Library paying for most of the expense.
The base resembles brick but is actually a composition with high-density foam that is a tough and rigid material.
Today is the library’s annual meeting at 7 p.m., where library leaders will discuss the budget and programming. There also is an election from noon to 7 p.m. for three library trustees. Linda Weller, Debbie DiBacco and Maurice Taylor are unopposed in the election.
ALBION – The Albion Police Department with assistance from the Federal Bureau of the Investigation today investigated a Facebook post that threatened violence to an unspecified school. The investigation revealed that an Albion Central School student’s Facebook account had been taken over by an unknown person outside the country in Croatia and that unknown person made the post on the hijacked account.
The FBI believes that the account was taken over by the use of a malware attack on a phone. Similar incidents have occurred throughout the United States.
While we have determined that the posts that were made are not a credible threat the Albion Police will have an increased presence at the Albion School.
The Albion Police Department School Resource Officer worked closely with the Albion school district during the investigation.
The Albion Police would like to remind all residents to monitor their social media accounts regularly and change passwords frequently. Account information should be checked to make sure that the owner’s information is correct and has not been changed. Once an account is taken over it is very difficult to regain ownership.
The Albion Police Department is working with Facebook and the owner of the account to have it taken down.
If any suspicious activity is observed online or in person, we ask that it be immediately reported to 911.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 3 May 2019 at 11:32 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Hannah Brewer, a member of the Albion track and field team, sings the national anthem before Thursday’s home meet vs. Newfane. Brewer sang the anthem at all four home meets this spring. She is in the press box in this photo.
She started singing the national anthem this fall at soccer and football games, and then this winter for a wrestling meet. She sings from memory without the lyrics in front of her.
Albion has students in chorus or the select choir sing the anthem before many home athletic competitions. Brewer is unusual in singing the anthem and then going out to compete in the athletic competition.
“I just like singing a lot,” she said after doing the anthem on Thursday.
Brewer, a sophomore, has competed in the shotput and discus events for track and field since she was in eighth grade.
“I find I get pumped up after singing and I’m in the mood to go throw,” she said.
Brewer, 16, has been in the select choir the past two years as well as the school musicals.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 April 2019 at 8:51 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Contractors haul dirt to the canal embankment on the north side of the Erie Canal near Brown Street in Albion this afternoon.
Trees were removed from this section more than a year ago, and the stumps were also taken out. That left a steep embankment, but the contractor for this phase of the project has been hauling dirt to the embankments to smooth them out.
The Canal Corp. has a goal of having an easy to maintain, mowable slope by the canal. The Canal Corp. said it will be planting shrubs near the top of the towpath, grass and wildflowers on the slope of the embankments and small trees about 25 feet from the slope of the towpath.
The state Canal Corp. has hired Hohl Industrial of Tonawanda and Tioga Construction of Herkimer to remove tree stumps, and do packing and grading of the embankments where trees were cut down in late 2017 and early 2018.
The contractor takes another load of dirt to the canal embankment, west of Brown Street.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 April 2019 at 3:05 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Donna Wodrich dances during a benefit today in her honor at the Elk’s Club in Albion, 428 East State St. Wodrich is battling an aggressive form of breast cancer.
There will be food, bands and raffles until 10 p.m. today.
Donna Wodrich is pictured with her friends and family that are running today’s benefit and jamboree in her honor.
“Donna is very loving and caring,” said her friend, Debbie Hughson. “She loves everyone. She is awesome.”
Bonnie Esford, left, cooks spaghetti and her sister Cindy Schuler prepares salads for the crowd at the Elks Club.
Bonnie Draper sings with The Bandera Band. Other musical guests today include The Distant View Band, These Guys, and Chris Moore. Draper’s husband, Ken Draper, also is the DJ and will be doing karaoke.
Bonnie Draper’s son Ryan Williams is a lead singer with Bandera.
There are many baskets up for raffle at the benefit for Wodrich.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 April 2019 at 8:12 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – Nicole Porter, center, and Katie Zimmerman, both of Oakfield, serve chicken barbecue dinners today during a benefit for Erica Jennings and her family. Erica’s mother-in-law, Tracy, is in back. They were part of a volunteer crew that served 440 dinners before they were all sold out.
Today’s benefit was at the Sacred Heart Club in Medina.
Erica Jennings holds her daughter, Elle. Her husband Thom is next to them. Erica was diagnosed with a brain tumor in December. She has had two extensive brain surgeries, and is undergoing radiation and chemo treatments at Roswell Park in Buffalo.
She and her husband are high school sweethearts from Albion. They have been together for 13 years. They walked across the stage together when they graduated from Brockport State College. Erica is a Spanish and English teacher at City Honors in Buffalo.
Thom said he and his wife appreciate the strong support from the family. They saw classmates and teachers today who they hadn’t seen in more than a decade.
“They’re all people we’ve known our entire lives,” he said. “They’re all our friends.”
Elle chases after a balloon held by her grandmother Angie Graham of Albion.
Dave Dewing, left, and Mike Zeliff flip some chicken halves outside Sacred Heart.
The benefit included 119 baskets to be raffled off.
In addition to the basket raffles, there were 19 big-ticket items and a silent auction, which included signed Buffalo Bills jerseys by Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas and All-Pro LeSean McCoy.
Thom’s father Thom Jennings is a music writer and musician with lots of connections with professional musicians and their promoters. Today’s benefit included signed music items from national artists such as Foreigner, Black Sabbath (with Ozzy Osbourne), Toto, Mountain, Todd Rundgren, The Black Keys and others.
John Dady and his daughter Mara sang several Irish tunes. Several musicians performed during the benefit, including Bruce Wojick & Jamie Holka, Josh Cogovan, The Triple Play Band, and Alona, Joey G, and Trellis Trio.
Elle is held by Trellis Pore, one of the musicians during today’s benefit. Elle charmed the crowd throughout the afternoon.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 April 2019 at 11:57 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – A section of Butts Road, from Route 31 to East State Street, was closed on Thursday so the railroad bridge can get worked on.
Genesee Valley Transportation Company, based in Batavia, is making masonry and steel repairs to the bridge. GVT owns the Falls Road Railroad, which goes from Lockport through Orleans County to Brockport.
GVT reopened Keitel Road on Thursday after working on the bridge there for about a month.
Butts Road is expected to reopen to traffic in mid-May.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 April 2019 at 2:54 pm
ALBION – The Village Board on Wednesday accepted a proposal from a Trumansburg firm to do a tree inventory and develop a forestry management plan for the village.
Davey Resource Group will be paid $41,450 for the project. The village received a $38,260 state grant for the tree inventory and management plan.
Davey will create a GIS-based inventory of trees, planting sites and stumps along 37 miles of public rights-of-way within the village line. DRG’s urban foresters will locate about 5,000 sites in the village and record specific information about each site for the database.
For each site, Davey will detail the address, species, tree size, multi-stem tree, condition, maintenance needs, defects, tree risk assessment and rating, residual risk, overhead utilities and date of inventory.
The report on the tree sites will be accessible to the village in a computer software program known as TreeKeeper, offering immediate access to tree data to the Department of Public Works.
Once the inventory is done, Davey will develop a management plan for the village, including the trees at parks and Mount Albion Cemetery. There will be hazard rating to identify trees that should be removed and spots identified for new trees to be planted.
The village received the grant from the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Urban and Community Forestry Program.
The village will be given a recommendation for diverse tree plantings that would thrive in the village. A variety of trees would also protect the village from losing a large percentage of trees to blight.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 24 April 2019 at 9:01 pm
A Buddy Bench like this one will be paid for by Girl Scouts in Albion.
ALBION – The Albion Village Board has approved a Buddy Bench to be paid for by Girl Scouts in Troop 82036.
The Scouts are using proceeds from cookie sales over two year to pay the $670 cost for the bench. It will go at Vets Park this year and likely be moved to Bullard Park next year.
Bullard will be under construction this year and the summer park programs will be based out of Vets Park, which is located at the corner of Linwood Avenue and Brown Street.
The bench will be powder-coated in blue and will say Buddy Bench. The Girl Scouts presented the proposal to the Village Board this evening, and the board approved the bench with Jay Pahura, the DPW superintendent, to decide on the placement.
The Girl Scouts are doing the bench as part of the requirement for a Silver Award for six Cadette Scouts.
The Albion school district last year adding five of the benches in the elementary school, inside the building at the playgrounds.
If people are feeling lonely, they can sit on a Buddy Bench and a friend is encouraged to go sit with them.
File photo by Tom Rivers: Elliott Neidert, left, and Preston Flugel, who were seniors at Albion last year, are shown in June 2018 putting a clear-coat finish on a Buddy Bench for the elementary school. Students in the high school woodworking class made five of the benches, and third-graders in Sheryl LeBaron’s and Maggy Orbaker’s classes painted the benches purple and art teachers decorated them.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 24 April 2019 at 8:06 pm
ALBION – The Village Board approved a $6,873,243 budget this evening that increases the amount to be collected in taxes by 3.72 percent or by $97,847, from $2,632,569 to $2,730,417.
The tax rate will increase by 7 cents from $17.73 to $17.80 per thousand dollars of assessed property. That rate increase is 0.4 percent.
The rate would have been higher the village’s tax base grew by 3.3 percent or $4.9 million to $153.4 million.
Mayor Eileen Banker said the Village Board worked diligently with department heads to put together the budget. The village fiscal year starts June 1.
The budget includes $3,822,953 in the General Fund (compared to $3,791,527 in 2018-19), $1,627,104 in the Water Fund (compared to $1,699,282 in 2018-19), and $1,351,007 in the Sewer Fund (compared to $1,277,023 in 2018-19).
