Jamie Dimon closed the doors on Albion in September

A company that dismissed more than 400 workers when it shut down its site in Albion last year paid its chief executive officer $20 million in 2013.

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s CEO, has been paid $70 million the past five years, The New York Times is reporting today.

Chase took over the former Washington Mutual in 2008 and ran a call center for about five years before the company decided to close the Albion site in September. Chase received a generous tax incentive plan that largely spared the company from paying local property taxes during that time.

Village officials have reached out to Chase to provide some community development money. Nothing is official yet, but I’m told the village leaders are optimistic Chase may send some money to Albion.

If the company sent $500,000, or 2.5 percent of what it paid Dimon, it could make an impact in this village of about 6,000 people.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Darien Town Justice Gary Graber speaks with the Albion Rotary Club on Thursday. A past president of the New York Magistrates Association, Graber said current state laws don’t give the court system power to enforce sentences for underage drinking.

GAINES – Gary Graber is the town justice in Darien. It’s a busy job, especially during the summer concert season.

He arraigns many teen-agers for underage drinking and fines them, and sentences them to community service and an alcohol awareness class.

However, about 30 percent of the offenders never show up for court.

“There is nothing we can do about it,” Graber told the Albion Rotary Club on Thursday. “There is no statutory authority to enforce the sentence.”

He is a past president of the New York Magistrates Association, a group representing 3,100 judges in the state. The association has pressed the State Legislature the past six years to approve legislation, giving the court system more authority to enforce the judges’ sentences.

But the legislation – Alcohol Beverage Control Law, 65-C – is being held up in the State Assembly, Graber said.

“It seems like a no-brainer, especially from the prevention side,” he said.

The association wants to have sentences for underage drinking to include a two-hour alcohol awareness class, a fine and community service.

Graber said the Magistrates may go directly to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, seeking his help in the legislation.

“The big thing for us is the underage drinking,” Graber said.

Many communities in the state see a lot of underage drinking cases, Graber said, noting Darien, the Long Island beaches and college towns.

Graber has served as Darien justice for 34 years. He started at age 24 and only had 135 cases in 1980.

“Now it’s 15 times that,” he said.

He is on call 24-7, and does arraignments at all hours of the day. He juggles the demands of the position with his full-time job as a terminal manager for a trucking company in Buffalo.

Dean London gains unanimous backing at GOP caucus

Dean London

ALBION – Republicans tonight gave unanimous support at the party caucus for Dean London, the retired police chief, to serve as the next village mayor.

London retired from the Police Department in April 2011 after a 20-year career, including the last seven years as police chief.

“I’m not afraid of challenges,” London said after the caucus. “I really believe in this community. There’s a lot that can be done.”

Republicans at the caucus also endorsed incumbent Trustee Eileen Banker for another four-year term. The party also backed Stan Farone for a four-year term and Gary Katsanis for a two-year term.

The Democratic Party will have its caucus on Jan. 28. The election is March 18.

London, 48, ran for town clerk in November 2011, losing to Sarah Basinait. He has been working at Baxter Healthcare in Medina in the service department. He said he is eager to return to public service.

“I took a break from that and I’ve missed it,” he said. “I’m not one to sit on the sidelines.”

Banker

London, a resident of Goodrich Street, has served a five-year term on the Albion Board of Education. He also served 14 years on the board of directors for Community Action of Orleans and Genesee, and was involved in the Albion Business Association.

As police chief he was active in the Neighborhood Watch program and worked to secure grants for the police department to outfit police cars with laptops, license plate readers, and a digital fingerprint scanning machine.

Dean Theodorakos, the current mayor, worked closely with London at the end of his career as police chief. Theodorakos said he is confident London can step in at Day 1 and do the job for the community. The village operates on a $6.3 million budget with about 50 employees.

“We had a good working relationship,” Theodorakos said. “He is a great administrator. He’s level-headed and analytical. He thinks things through.”

London and the GOP team said a priority will be working with the state Department of Transportation on a $2 million-plus replacement of the Clarendon Street bridge, a project that has been more on the drawing board for more than a decade. The village has secured 80 percent of project funds through the federal government. The state is expected to pay another 15 percent.

Farone

“The funding is there and we need to see it through,” London said.

He also wants to work towards upgrading the sewer and water plants.

Banker, 50, has served about four years on the board. She works as chief of staff for State Assemblyman Steve Hawley. She said that position shows her how many state policies hurt small communities like Albion, driving up operating costs and taxes.

“I see how it all trickles down to Albion,” said the Clarendon Street resident.

She wants to keep the Village Board committed to several big projects, including the Clarendon Street bridge and sewer plant upgrades.

Farone, 64, is making his first run for elected office. He is a long-time member of the Albion Fire Department, serving as a past president. He was a co-founder of the Central Orleans Volunteer Ambulance about four decades ago and remains on the group’s board of directors.

Farone worked 33 years for Kodak. He served in the Navy for four years, and also has six years in the Army Reserve. He is a member of the Orleans County Suicide Prevention Coalition.

Katsanis

He would like to see the Village Board establish better working relationships with neighboring town boards. The different boards should get together often and brainstorm ways to bring more tourism dollars to the community, Farone said.

“We need to see what we can do to build up the village and the towns, working together,” he said.

Farone, an East Park Street resident, also would like to see the village push for better sidewalks.

Katsanis, 55, was endorsed to fill the last two years of Fred Miller’s term. Miller resigned last month. He is now a county legislator.

Katsanis lives on North Main Street. He worked in medical data analysis for Strong and then Blue Cross. He managed a staff that stretched from Buffalo to Utica.

“We need to look past the surface issues,” Katsanis said. “We need to be careful and put thought into all of our decisions.”

He has served on a committee helping with recent the $477,000 grant for the downtown.

Katsanis said a “scarcity of money” is a problem for the village and other local governments. He said he wants to talk to stakeholders in the community, to get their ideas and their priorities.

“There are no simple answers,” he said.

ALBION – The Albion Village Board will see a change a leadership on April 1. Mayor Dean Theodorakos isn’t seeking re-election in March, and Kevin Sheehan, a trustee the past eight years, also isn’t running.

Another Village Board member, Fred Miller, resigned last month so he could serve as an Orleans County legislator. Another trustee, Eileen Banker, is seeking re-election in March, but she could have a challenger from the Democratic Party.

There will be changes on the board, and the current members don’t want to be lame ducks, going easy their final 10 weeks or so in office.

Theodorakos identified the upcoming village budget as a priority. The current budget totals $6.3 million and runs until May 31. A new budget needs to be approved by April 30.

It would be a lot to ask a new board to do all of the budget work in one month, when the new members take office on April 1.

Theodorakos wants the current board to have the bulk of the budget work done by March 31, with the new members having a say in the process and finishing up the spending plan.

Village department heads are scheduled to submit their preliminary budgets by Jan. 31. The board will then meet with the departments to set priorities for the departments and perhaps trim the initial requests.

The board also has two union contracts that expire on May 31. The police officers and Department of Public Works both need to negotiate new labor deals with the board.

Theodorakos wants to leave those contracts to the next board.

“It’s silly for us to start it and leave it for somebody else to finish,” he said at Wednesday’s board meeting.

The DPW union sent a letter to the board, asking for an initial meeting about the contract. Theodorakos said the first meeting will be after March 31, when the new administration takes office.

“Realistically it should be the new board,” the mayor said about the contract negotiations. “We want to make the budget the priority.”

Photo by Tom Rivers – Mary Anne Braunbach, left, joined the Albion Rotary Club last week. She is pictured with Susan Rudnicky, director of Hoag Library, and Braunbach’s sponsor for the Rotary Club.

ALBION – The Albion Rotary Club added a new member last week who brings a passion for community service to the club.

Mary Anne Braunbach is a past president of the Cobblestone Society Museum. She remains on the board of directors for the museum. She also is president of the Friends of the Library at the Hoag Library. The group plans events and helps raise money for library programs.

Last year she won a state-wide honor from the Library Trustees Association of New York State. She was the recipient of the “Outstanding Friends Award” for her service to the Albion library.

Braunbach worked more three decades as a teacher and librarian in the Newfane school district in Niagara County. She moved from Lockport back to her hometown of Albion about 20 ago and soon joined the Swan Library Board of Trustees.

Other local service clubs are welcome to send news about their clubs to news@orleanshub.com.

Photos by Sue Cook – Eggs collected by Stuart John Flintham are displayed by the entrance of the Hoag Library.

Many eggs in the collection are from birds that are now much more rare because of human interference, such as the black-crowned night heron.

The emu and ostrich eggs are enormous compared to the others in the collection.

By Sue Cook, staff reporter

ALBION – Stuart John Flintham may not be a familiar name, but many who have visited the old Swan Library’s downstairs children section or the new Hoag Library have seen his contribution to our community.

In two glass cases near the entrance of Hoag are dozens of bird eggs that Flintham collected throughout his teenage years at Albion High School and even into his 20s. The eggs have long been popular in the library, with visitors stopping to look at eggs that range in size from small stones to softballs.

Collecting eggs used to be a very popular pastime in the 1800s, Library Director Susan Rudnicky said. During this time there was a considerably sparser population, which meant more areas for birds to nest, she said.

When Flintham collected the eggs, he used a process called egg blowing to remove the insides of the eggs and leave them hollowed out, which leaves a small hole in the shell visible on some in the collection.

Flintham was born in Albion in 1879 and later went on to Cornell and then Yale to earn a master’s degree in forestry, moving on to become a Los Angeles County firefighter.

Changes in farming, fewer or smaller hedgerows, and even clearing land for building diminished the presence of birds over the years. When DDT used to be sprayed to cut down on mosquitos, insect-eating birds would ingest them. When the birds went to lay eggs, the DDT in their systems caused their eggs to be so fragile they would simply collapse causing many birds to become unable to produce new generations.

Rudnicky commented that people often put their own needs and wants before other animals which can cause them to be crowded out of their natural habitats or killed. “We need to have room in our lives for other species,” she said.

While nearly all of the eggs are from local species, there are a few in the collection from outside the area. The ostrich and emu eggs are not local, but are the largest eggs in the collection, each much larger than a baseball. Though the library has only a nest from hummingbirds, their eggs would be the smallest and only about the size of a Tic Tac.

The display cases were chosen specifically for the eggs so that they could be displayed in a well-trafficked area. While the number of eggs in the cases has remained the same from the old library to the new, Rudnicky said more nests are now displayed. They used to be in storage.

County Historian Bill Lattin helped Rudnicky move the eggs to the new library using lunch trays and cardboard can trays. This allowed them to leave the eggs on their individual stands with the paper labels so that nothing became mixed up during the move.

The egg collection makes an excellent teaching tool and Rudnicky offers her knowledge to tour groups that come through. It is especially important since the New York State Legislation made it illegal to collect eggs, nests, and even feathers of birds with laws such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

It is best to leave things as you find them because sometimes even a person trying to help can instead cause more damage than good. “Take only pictures; leave only footprints,” Rudnicky said.

If you bring a picture, you can compare it to what is on display or ask a librarian for help to find a book to learn more. The library does not accept any eggs from old collections, instead keeping the display reserved for only Flintham’s collection.

The Hoag Library is located at 134 South Main Street in Albion. The hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The egg collection is always on display by the entrance.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – John and Sarah Sokolofski of Spun Out Fire Productions in Rochester performed in Albion during the Fire and Ice Festival at Bullard Park on Friday evening.

The married couple  entertained after a pile of Christmas trees burned in a bonfire.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Orleans County Highway Department employees Matt Herman, left, and Paul Gray toss some Christmas trees into a pile at Bullard Park. The trees were at the county nursing home and courthouse. The pile will be set ablaze this evening as part of the first Fire and Ice Festival at the park.

The village of Albion and the Albion Merchants Association are sponsoring the event, which includes a fire performance at 7 p.m. with trained dancers spinning fire on chains.

The Crooked Door is selling pulled pork sandwiches for $5 and hot cocoa. There are other activities for kids organized by Fidelis Care and 4-wheel rides from Jeff Holler.

Bill Mitchell brought along a Christmas tree for the bonfire.

Main Street Store will leave downtown for Legion site

Photo by Tom Rivers – The American Legion has been trying to sell its building at 131 South Main St.

ALBION – A downtown store will be moving south on Main Street to the American Legion building.

Community Action of Orleans & Genesee’s offer has been accepted and agency director Ed Fancher expects to formally close on the property in March.

Community Action will move the Main Street Store, a thrift shop that provides job training skills, to the bigger location. It could open in the Legion building in May or June, depending on the pace of the closing on the property.

The Main Street Store uses two storefronts in downtown Albion in a building owned by Nathan Lyman at 49 North Main St.

The move to the Legion site will give the store more room for merchandise and for employees, Fancher said.

“Right now we’re cramped,” he said. “Part of the impetus is there isn’t enough floor space.”

The agency will do some minor renovations to the Legion building to turn it into a store. Fancher said the site will be comparable to a Salvation Army store or a Volunteers of America.

“We train people for employment,” he said.

As a term for the sale, the Legion will be able to stay another 18 months to use the bar in the back of the building.

For more on the Main Street Store, click here.

ALBION – The village of Albion will have its first Fire and Ice Festival on Friday when residents are welcome to bring Christmas trees for a big bonfire.

The event starts at 4:30 p.m. at Bullard Park on Route 31. The bonfire will be behind the back parking lot, between the hill, children’s playground area and the east athletic fields. People can park in the back lot and volunteers will be there move trees to the bonfire area.

“We will encourage people to drop their trees off at the back lot and then park in the main lot, to preserve space,” said Sid Beaty, village program coordinator.

The bonfire begins at 5 p.m. There will be a fire performance at 7 p.m. with trained dancers spinning fire on chains.

The event will feature Crooked Door pulled pork sandwiches for $5 and hot cocoa. There are other activities for kids organized by Fidelis Care and 4-wheel rides from Jeff Holler.

The Fire and Ice Festival will end at about 8 p.m.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Billy Martin’s Cole All-Star Circus returned to Albion this evening and its cast performed many daring feats inside the elementary school gym.

The Amazing Jonathan, “the champion of balance,” is standing on top of eight cylinders in one routine (in top photo).

The Electrifying Francy was featured in several routines, including this one with Hula hoops. She balanced 35 of them at once a little after this photo was taken. The Cole Circus is celebrating its 75^th anniversary this year.

The Lovely Angela performs some aerial artistry. The circus will be in Medina on Friday with shows at 5 and 7:15 p.m. at Wise Middle School.

ALBION – The new owners of the former Chase building in Albion won’t have to pay any property taxes for the site this year, and would save nearly $600,000 in property taxes over the next decade, according to a proposal by the Orleans Economic Development Agency.

231 East Avenue LLC, a company led by Roger Hungerford, purchased the former Chase site for $2.6 million. The firm is investing at least $300,000 in improvements at the property, according to the EDA.

The EDA is proposing a 10-year property tax abatement for the property. There was a hearing on the proposal this afternoon, and only the EDA director and two reporters were there. None of the local municipalities affected by the tax plan showed up to speak either in favor or against it.

The EDA board is expected to approve the incentives during its meeting Friday at 8 a.m. at 121 North Main St.

As part of the tax-savings proposal the village of Albion and school district will each give up about $218,000 in taxes over 10 years. The county will abate about $120,000 in taxes while the town of Albion will give a $36,000 tax break.

The plan abates $592,661 in taxes from the four municipalities. It also establishes a schedule for Hungerford’s company to pay $504,859 to the four entities in payments in lieu of taxes or a PILOT.

The company will pay no taxes this year and will then pay 10 percent of the taxes on a $2.9 million assessment. Each following year another 10 percent will be added.

The site will be the home for Claims Recovery Financial Services, which is moving a workforce of about 700 people to the site with room to grow.

The tax abatement accounts for less than $1,000 per job when divided by 700, said Jim Whipple, EDA chief executive officer. The math works out to $846 per job.

Whipple said that is a good deal for the community. Those employees will spend money locally, generating sales tax for the government and revenue for other local businesses, Whipple said.

The PILOT mirrors the deal for JP Morgan Chase. The EDA in 2011 worked out a 10-year tax incentive where the company, in each following year, was to pay 10 percent more of a $4,046,000 assessment until the PILOT expired in 2021.

The company paid a tenth of that in 2012 and 20 percent in 2013. The PILOT schedule called for Chase to pay 30 percent in 2014.

Once the ownership changed, Hungerford was eligible to request a new abatement deal. The new agreement sets the schedule back to 0 percent and this time the assessment is down more than $1 million.

ALBION – The town is without an official attorney because a faction of the Town Board wants to bring back Robert Roberson of Lockport for the job while other board members would prefer a less pricey attorney from Orleans County.

Roberson served as attorney for the town in 2012 and 2013 for $36,000 annually as a base retainer fee. John Gavenda of Albion served in the role before the board two years ago picked Roberson. That board was led by then Town Supervisor Dennis Stirk.

Matt Passarell, the new town supervisor, wants a different attorney, but he needs at least three of the five members of the board to agree to the change. Passarell last week tried to bring Gavenda back at a $25,000 cost, but board members Dan Poprawski, Jake Olles and Todd Sargent wouldn’t vote for Gavenda.

Passarell on Monday said he wanted to appoint Andrew Meier of Medina as town attorney at a base retainer cost of $25,000. Councilman Richard Remley joined Passarell in support of Meier, who also works as town attorney for Gaines, Yates and Kendall.

“Andrew Meier is extremely qualified in municipal law,” Passarell said.

Sargent and Olles both said they wanted Roberson.

“You know what you’re getting,” Sargent said about Roberson.

Olles said he would prefer an out-of-county attorney who may bring more independence. He noted Albion would be Meier’s fourth municipal client.

Meier was at the Albion meeting on Monday. He works with David Schubel in a law practice in Medina. Schubel also works with municipalities.

The $25,000 is more than Meier’s other towns are charged. He is paid $600 a month or $7,200 a year by Gaines and Kendall, and $7,500 by Yates. Albion has about three times the population as each of those towns. Albion also is planning several zoning and policy changes this year as the town works to implement a comprehensive plan.

Meier’s proposal would include the legal work for the zoning changes. He would receive additional compensation for litigation and other “unpredictable” work for the town.

Poprawski looks like the swing vote for attorney. Poprawski didn’t vote on Monday, saying he wanted more time to study Meier’s proposal and compare it with Roberson’s.

Passarell said he didn’t understand the delay. Meier is well-versed in municipal law and will work for less cost than Roberson, Passarell said.

“You want to pay more for an attorney?” he said.

The board will meet again Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. to vote again to fill the position.

ALBION A state Canal Corporation worker was arraigned in Orleans County Court on Monday for allegedly stealing $5,700 of metal from the Canal Corp.’s Albion maintenance facility.

Bruce Rotoli, 55, of Albion has been charged with third-degree grand larceny and third-degree criminal possession of stolen property. He was arrested in May following a four-month investigation by state police, Village of Albion police and the Thruway Authority, which runs the canal system.

Rotoli pleaded not guilty to the crimes in court on Monday. Judge James Punch kept his bail at $2,500. Rotoli is next scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 27.

Police say that Rotoli in the fall of 2012 removed bronze bushing material from the Albion maintenance facility. Rotoli is currently on disability.

ALBION – A company that has added nearly 200 positions since September will receive almost $750,000 in state incentives as part of its expansion in Albion.

Claims Recovery Financial Services agreed to add 150 positions to be eligible for the incentives. The company has already exceeded its commitment to new jobs by hiring 194 people since September.

Just last week CRFS moved more than 200 employees from its site in Medina to the former Chase site in Albion. Roger Hungerford and his company Talis Equity acquired the building from Chase.

State officials on Monday announced the state Office of Community Renewal approved $744,165 to help CRFS with its expansion in Albion. The money is divided with half in a grant and the other half a deferred loan.

The funding is a Community Development Block grant that will be given to the Village of Albion, which serves as a pass through with the money then going to CRFS.

“It is important to mark the final approval of this anticipated funding,” State Sen. George Maziarz said. “This award is a sure sign that the CRFS expansion project is moving forward.The Village of Albion, CRFS, and Talis Equity are all to be commended for their commitment to growing a local business to remarkable heights of success.”

CRFS has nearly 700 employees in Orleans County and is still hiring.

“It’s exciting to see a home grown business be successful and make a commitment to Orleans County,” said State Assemblyman Steve Hawley. “This important expansion will bring further employment opportunities close to home for Orleans County families.”