ALBION – The Board of Education tonight approved a $33,551,051 budget for 2014-15 that will not raise property taxes.

The tax levy will remain at $8,439,939, and the tax rate is projected to fall 4 cents from $16.82 to $16.78 per $1,000 of assessed property.

Albion school officials were considering a 1.6 percent tax increase, but they were able to close the gap and not raise taxes.

“We don’t take that lightly,” Margy Brown, the BOE president, said about a tax hike. “Even at 1.6 percent for some people that is challenging.”

Albion raised taxes by 1.5 percent in 2013-14. That was the first increase in seven years.

Albion is down 704 students from 11 years ago and has eliminated 82 positions over that time to reflect the enrollment drop, said Shawn Liddle, the district’s assistant superintendent for business. Those staff reductions have helped the district keep taxes mostly in check for the past decade.

“We’ve been fiscally responsible and conservative,” Brown said. “We’re forward-thinking and we watch the numbers closely.”

The proposed budget will go before voters on May 20, with the polls open from noon to 8 p.m. in conference room A at the Ronald L. Sodoma Elementary School.

The budget maintains current programs. It increases overall spending by 0.6 percent or $202,002. The district will see cost-savings with eight retirements and the turnover of another veteran staff member. They are all planned to be replaced by newer staff at lower salaries.

The budget includes about $130,000 more for computer hardware, software and bandwidth upgrades in anticipation to a transition to on-line testing.

The district will have a public hearing on the budget at 7 p.m. on May 13 in the High School LGI.

Photos by Tom Rivers

Albion native and world-class saxophonist Susan Fancher returned home today to perform in the Eastman at Albion Concert Series at the First Presbyterian Church.

She performed in a concert titled, “Sax Appeal.” She was joined by fellow saxophonist and Eastman professor Chien-Kwan Lin.

Fancher has a doctoral degree in music and teaches saxophone at Duke University.

The Albion High School Saxophone Ensemble also performed in the concert. That group includes Charlyne Olick, Sarah Graham, Matthew Flanagan, Emilie Barleben, Steven Stauss, Laura Flanagan and Nicholas Ettinger.

Proceeds from the concert go to the Albion High School Alumni Foundation for scholarships.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The Cobblestone Division of the Girl Scouts of America is having its annual Cake Auction today from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Elks Lodge on West State Street in Albion.

The cakes are all decorated in a musical theme. There were several Elvis-themed cakes, including the one in the top photo by Lauren Freeman.

Molly Wadhams made this cake, “Shot to the Heart,” by the rock band Bon Jovi.

Rebekah Thompson made this cake, “Pretty Punk Piano.”

Allyson Irwin made a “Guitar Hero” cake.

Lucy Rivers made a cake in memory of Albion band teacher Wayne Burlison, who loved lemon-flavored treats. The cake is in the shape of a saxophone.

Photos by Tom Rivers – Cheyenna Eagle sings during the Albion High School Jazz Ensemble’s concert tonight at the Cabaret at Studio B. Eagle also plays the keyboards for the ensemble.

The Albion High School Jazz Ensemble for the first time in 36 years had a change in venue for its annual dinner dance. The event had always been in the high school gym.

But this time the show moved to the Cabaret at Studio B and Gotta Dance by Miss Amy. The site was more personal and similar to the ambiance of jazz clubs in many big cities, said Jazz Ensemble Director Michael Thaine.

Mike Thaine, Jazz Ensemble director, introduces members of the group.

The concert also shifted away from a dinner to desserts. The Jazz Ensemble performed two concerts today at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

The band dedicated the concert to Wayne Burlison, the group’s assistant director. Mr. Burlison died from colon cancer on March 26. He was 36. The band members wore blue ribbons to raise awareness of colon cancer. The boys also wore blue ties and some of the girls wore blue scarves during the concert.

The Jazz Ensemble performs at the Cabaret at Studio B, which director Michael Thaine said was a better showcase for the students’ skills. The group performed musicial selections inspired by “The Rat Pack” – Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis.

Charlynne Olick plays the alto saxophone for the jazz ensemble.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – About 100 people are sipping wine and having a good time this evening at Holy Family Parish’s first-ever wine-tasting fundraiser.

Eagle Crest Vineyards form Conesus is providing the wine. Deborah Lill, an employee with the Finger Lakes winery, serves up a glass of wine inside the Lyceum, the former St. Joseph’s School on Main Street.

The wine-tasting is a fundraiser for the parish through the Parish Life Committee, which is headed by Jim Adduci. He is pictured waiting to address the crowd. Adduci is also the Parish Council president.

Eagle Crest supplies the church with wine for communion through its O-Neh-Da Vineyard. It supplies many of the Catholic churches in the state with wine. The wine company did its first parish wine-tasting in 2011 after a church was flooded in Binghamton.

That event proved a successful fundraiser for that parish. Eagle Crest has offered to do similar events for other Catholic churches and now does about 25 wine-tastings for churches in the state. The winery will be in Albany on Sunday for a wine-tasting.

“It’s a great way to bring the community together,” said Lisa Woodhams, one of the leaders of the winery.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Last week an Albion company took down a warehouse that ran along the railroad tracks from Main to Platt streets.

Most of the wreckage has been hauled away in the past week. These photos were taken around noon today. The Environmental Construction Group of Albion has been lead contractor on the project.

The warehouse was taken down to make way for a new 2,000-square-foot Dunkin’ Donuts. The new store is planned to have 30 seats inside, 46 parking spaces, a 230-square-foot freezer next to the building, and a drive-through lane that could accommodate 10 vehicles. The property will have exits on both Main and Platt streets.

ALBION – Two Albion police officers arrived at a fire on Washington Street last night and assisted the occupants in getting out of the building, Albion Police Chief Roland Nenni said.

Sergeant William Scribner and Officer Robert Wagner helped an intoxicated individual out of the house, and also woke up a woman sleeping on the first floor and assisted her out of the building. The officers were on scene at about 2 a.m. after getting a call about smoke coming from the house, Nenni said.

The Albion Fire Department knocked the fire down and limited the damage to the second floor of 231 Washington St. There were no injuries, Nenni said.

Susan Fancher – By Marsha Rivers, Eastman at Albion

ALBION When world-class saxophonist Susan Fancher thinks back on her growing-up years in “lil’ old Albion,” she attributes her early success to encouraging teachers, excellent peers, and two highly motivating factors in the life of any kid: Praise and attention.

Albion school music teachers Mike Snyder, Bill Furioso, Sid Bolton and Mike Grammatico “just gave me so much encouragement and confidence,” Fancher recalls. “It goes to show that being a music teacher is more than just teaching an instrument it’s grabbing onto the interest you see in your students and nurturing it.”

Albion Central School announced last week that it is being recognized for the seventh straight year among the “Best Communities for Music Education” by the North American Music Merchants.

Not only did Fancher’s teachers keep her motivated. So did her fellow students several of whom also pursued music careers and her church and community. She gave some her first performances for the congregation of the Barre Center Presbyterian Church and at the Orleans County nursing home.

Fancher also credits her parents, Judy Fancher of Barre and the late Laverne Fancher, for their tremendous support. And she cites her sister Sandy Fancher Bastedo as “one of the most important fellow musicians of my childhood. I grew up listening to her beautiful piano playing and had the good fortune of having her as my accompanist.”

Many of Fancher’s family and friends will be present Sunday to enjoy a decades-more sophisticated performance at the First Presbyterian Church, 29 East State St., starting at 3 p.m.

Fancher will team with fellow saxophonist and Eastman professor Chien-Kwan Lin in the final installment of this year’s Eastman at Albion Courthouse Square Concert Series. Lin’s wife Pi-Lin Ni, who also teaches at Eastman, will collaborate with the sax players on piano.

“I’m really looking forward to coming back and performing for the hometown crowd,” Fancher said. “And Chien-Kwan and I we’re part of this tight-knit group of ‘sax geeks’ from around the world. We’ve talked about playing together for years, and now the stars have aligned for this to happen. It’s going to be so much fun.”

Fancher’s path to professional musicianship took some global twists and turns. Mike Grammatico, who became her main teacher in Albion, accompanied her to the All-State Music Festival her senior year. While she was in rehearsals, he inquired of other New York music teachers about the best colleges for studying saxophone. She applied and got accepted to all four recommendations but landed at Northwestern University in Chicago, mainly because of the excellent financial aid package they offered her.

Chien-Kwan Lin

Fancher jokes that she was “Miss Practicality” and didn’t plan to rely on her music to pay her bills. She started out as a music education major, so she would be prepared to teach, but her love of mathematics led to her first “twist.” After feeling challenged and invigorated by an invitation-only honors calculus course her freshman year, she decided by sophomore year to pursue math even more rigorously, while still studying and performing on sax.

Graduating three years later with a dual degree in music performance (not education) and math, Fancher faced the next “turn”: An invitation to study sax in Bordeaux, France, which did and loved for a year. There, she met Mark Engebretson, who was to become her partner in life and music. After a brief time putting her math degree to work at a major health insurance company in Chicago and not loving it Fancher returned to Northwestern as Ph.D. math student. A year later, another opportunity found Fancher and Engebretson returning to Europe as husband and wife and musical collaborators.

After two years in Stockholm followed by three years in Vienna, Fancher says she and her husband “finally felt secure in their desire to be professional musicians.”

She laughs about how difficult it was to make peace with that possibility. “We talked about how we didn’t want that freelance life,” she says, “with no money, no security we thought it would be too scary.”

But they lived it and loved it and, Fancher says, “wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Back to the States. Both earned their doctoral degrees in music and now teach Mark, music composition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Susan, saxophone at Duke Univeristy. The couple has a daughter, Eva, and both spouses play in the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, named for the distinctive soil in the area where they live.

Though fully committed to the musical life, Fancher admits she sometimes gets discouragedabout the lack of pay, the long hours of practice, the odd hours of performance.

“But it gives me so much joy to play for people when they enjoy it so much and when it provides therapy for them.”

Fancher recounts a time when a social services worker approached her after Rollin’ Phones sax quartet concert in Sweden. The woman had obviously been weeping and she told Fancher how much she had gleaned from the performance.

“I had a horrible day,” she said. “I had to remove a child from her home and it was awful. I wasn’t going to come tonight. I wasn’t feeling up to it. But I’m so glad I did. The music meant so much to me.”

“When things like that happen,” Fancher affirms, “it’s worth it. Music shows there is still beauty and kindness in the world in a way nothing else can.”

For more information on Sunday’s “Sax Appeal” concert, visit EastmanatAlbion.com. Tickets are available for purchase in Albion at Bindings Bookstore, 28 W. Bank St.; Blooms Flower Shop, 139 S. Main St.; Fischer’s Newsroom, 105 N. Main St, and in Medina at a lily and a sparrow, 510 Main St., and in Batavia at Roxy’s Music Store, 228 W. Main St. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the Albion Alumni Foundation Scholarships. The church is handicapped accessible.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Pastor Jack Laskowski and his wife Debbie cook spaghetti for a dinner at the First United Methodist Church of Albion this evening. The church promoted the meal as “Pastor Jack’s Famous Spaghetti.”

The church has several dinners that are open to the community each year, with spaghetti, chicken barbecue and lasagna on the menu. Laskowski is also the pastor of the United Methodist Church in Holley.

Art Buongiorne, 87, impresses with work ethic

Photo by Tom Rivers – Art Buongiorne of Albion works as a security officer and also does some administrative work for CRFS. He is pictured with Jodi Gaines, the CRFS chief executive officer.

ALBION – He is a friendly face at the entrance for Claims Recovery Financial Services at its East Avenue complex, the former Chase site.

Art Buongiorne is also an inspiration to the staff of 600 workers, a testament to a hard work ethic and a good heart.

Buongiorne works weekends as a security officer for CRFS. He also works during the week at the business, doing administrative work such as printing copies, sorting, collating and other tasks.

Buongiorne is 87. He said he’s been blessed with good health. He credits that to vitamin supplements, exercise and his Christian faith, as well as cutting back on sugar and carbs.

“It’s staying healthy and doing it God’s way,” said Buongiorne, who puts in 40-plus hours each week at CRFS.

He is a Holley native and a World War II veteran. He and Mary, his wife of 65 years, raised six children.

Buongiorne, a former carpenter, was working in security for a Rochester bank until he was 83. He was laid off. He wanted to keep working and was hired about two years ago by G4S, a company contracted for security by CRFS.

Buongiorne works Fridays and Saturdays for that company. He impressed the CRFS staff with his dedication and outgoing personality.

Jodi Gaines, the company CEO, found duties for Buongiorne so he could increase his pay.

“I’m really blessed by it,” he said. “They’ve created a job for me.”

Buongiorne has written three books, and is trying to get them published. In one of his writings, “Faith Builders,” he writes about the power of God. He credits his Christian faith for helping him break away from alcoholism when he was a young man.

Buongiorne also writes about Italians who settled in the Holley area and became very successful as entrepreneurs and public servants. Buongiorne includes Jodi Gaines, the former Jodi Penna, in that book he has titled, “The Italians and Why They Came.”

“Art has been a great addition,” Gaines said. “He is hard-working and dedicated.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Four of the Pinewood Derby cars zoom down the track on Saturday as 25 Scouts in Pack 164 competed in their annual Pinewood Derby at St. Joseph’s Lyceum.

The cars near the finish line and several Scouts are into the action, including James Michael Beach (left in back), Jacob Foote (back center in blue Scout uniform), Declan McCue and Jonathan Judd (right). Judd was the overall winner. Parents include Brian McCue (left), Jason Foote (in red) and Jeff Baron.

Eric Brown, right, and his son Harrison were starters at the derby. Harrison’s brother Jeffrey was one of the competitors and made it to the finals.

Several parents were stationed near the finish line to help determine the winners.

Scouts who took home trophies and awards include, front row, from left: Aaron Flanagan, best in den for Tigers; Xavier Penafiel, best in den for Wolves; Austin Narbugh, best in den for Bears. Back row: Donavan Braley, second overall winner; Jacob Foote, third place overall; Jonathan Judd, first place overall, Cubmatser Mike Beach (in back); Jeffrey Brown, most original car; and Sawyer Braley, best in den for Webelos.

Photos by Tom Rivers

During the Empty Bowls event on Thursday, these Albion seventh graders – Evan Allen (left), Connor McQuillan (center) and Alex Rustay – dressed up to send a message about local hunger.

Albion seventh-graders have been doing the “Empty Bowls” project for six years. Students research local hunger and visit Food Link in Rochester. They learned that one of of four people have an insecure food supply locally.

They also each create a bowl in art class, learning pottery from teacher Kamie Feder.

The bowls were sold for $5 each on Thursday with the proceeds going to Community Action of Orleans and Genesee. The fund-raiser usually raises about $1,000 for Community Action.

Students made about 170 bowls. Each student wrote a note about hunger that was placed on each bowl.

Photos by Tom Rivers

A long warehouse that stretched along the railroad tracks from Main to Platt street in Albion has been reduced to piles of debris. The top photos were taken at about 3 this afternoon.

The Environmental Construction Group of Albion worked on the project this week with a lot of physical changes at the site in the past two days.

JFJ Holdings of North Andover, Mass., plans to build a new 2,000-square-foot Dunkin’ Donuts at the site, right next to Tim Hortons. The new store would have 30 seats inside, 46 parking spaces, a 230-square-foot freezer next to the building, and a drive-through lane that could accommodate 10 vehicles.

The property will have exits on both Main and Platt streets.

The photo directly above shows how the property looked last year before the demolition crews arrived.

The two photos directly above show the site this morning at about 9:30 when big sections of the warehouse were still standing. The photos are from Platt Street looking west toward Main.

Lynnette Schumacher charged with grand larceny

Lynnette Schumacher

Press release
Albion Police Chief Roland D. Nenni III

ALBION – Lynnette A. Schumacher, who was listed Friday morning as a missing person from the village of Albion, was located in the city of Rochester today shortly before 1 p.m.

Schumacher was located when she called the Monroe County 911 center to inquire as to if she was a wanted person. The Rochester Police Department responded and located Schumacher in the 500 block of Broad Street.

The investigation by the Albion Police Department revealed that Schumacher had taken a car from an acquaintance in the village of Albion and then disposed of the car in Rochester because of narcotics activity she was involved in.

Schumacher was taken into custody by the Rochester Police Department and then turned over to the Albion Police Department. Schumacher was charged with Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle 2nd and Grand Larceny 4th. She was arraigned in the Town of Albion Court where bail was set at $1,000. Schumacher in currently being held in the Orleans County Jail and is to return to Town Court on Tuesday.

The vehicle stolen by Schumacher has not been recovered and is believed to still be in Rochester. The stolen vehicle is as follows: 2006 Suzuki Frenza 4 door color Black with NYS Registration FCE-2528.

The investigation was aided by several reports from civilians providing information based on the media reports they had seen. The Albion Police would like to thank the media and the public for their assistance.

If anyone has additional information as to Schumacher’s activity over the past several days or the whereabouts of the stolen vehicle, please contact your local 911 center or the Albion Police at 585-589-5627.