Press release, RGRTA

ALBION – The Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority and Orleans Transportation Service celebrated the installation of a new bus shelter on Monday at the corner of South Main Street and West Avenue in the village of Albion.

RGRTA CEO Bill Carpenter was joined by RGRTA Commissioner Henry Smith, Jr., Orleans County Legislature Chairman David Callard, OTS Manager Mike Patterson and Jake Olles, the Albion deputy town supervisor.

Other RGRTA executives include Director of Regional Operations Ray LeChase and Chief Operating Officer Daniele Coll-Gonzalez also attended the ribbon-cutting. RGRTA installed its first bus shelter for the county in August by the County Administration Building.

“OTS provides quality, convenient and affordable transportation to over 35,500 customers annually,” said Carpenter, the RGRTA leader. “By adding this new shelter and the one installed in August, we are reinforcing our commitment to modernize our infrastructure to ensure our customers will no longer have to wait for the bus in the rain and snow.”

The OTS bus stop serves the shelter on a fixed route 11 times per day.

Funding for the bus shelter in Orleans County totaled $15,000, and was provided by the Federal Transit Administration.

ALBION – An Albion man who went to a home late on night on Feb. 1 and brutally beat up a 59-year-old resident, causing severe injuries, was sentenced to four years in state prison on Monday.

Domingo E. Candelaria, 22, of 175 North Main St., was sentenced to four years in state prison and three years of post supervision. That was the maximum sentence possible as part of a plea deal in August.

Candelaria pleaded guilty to second-degree assault. Candelaria said he was heavily intoxicated when he “overreacted” on Feb. 1. He went to the victim’s home at 2 a.m. He was looking for the man’s son. Candelaria said the man’s father, Ronald Hubbard, answered the door.

Candelaria then punched him many times, including several blows when Hubbard was already down.

“You beat the heck out of this guy,” County Court Judge James Punch said during the sentencing. “He was doing nothing to deserve the beating you gave him.”

Hubbard was in the hospital for three weeks and has mild brain damage from the incident, District Attorney Joe Cardone said. Hubbard also continues to be plagued by headaches and is lethargic, Cardone said.

Candelaria and the man’s son had a dispute over a woman, police have said.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Two of the remaining walls from an Orleans Pallet warehouse in Albion are still standing after a massive fire on Thursday.

A demolition crew is shown in this photo taken from Washington Street at about noon today. The demolition specialists are bringing boom lifts to Albion so people can remove pieces of the remaining corner walls by hand.

The demolition experts worry that pushing a section of the wall could cause the whole thing to topple, said Ron Vendetti, the village’s code enforcement officer.

“They’re going to try to limit the damage,” he said about the towering walls’ impact on other buildings very close nearby. The two standing walls have “significant cracks,” Vendetti said.

The Albion Environmental Group is the lead contractor on the demolition. Vendetti said he expected the boom lifts would be on site this afternoon and the demolition would soon start on the two remaining walls.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – A worker was up high on a boom lift at about 2 p.m. today, dismantling some of the Medina sandstone in the corner of where a side wall joined the back wall of the former Albion Cold Storage Company, which burned in a massive fire on Thursday.

Two of the walls of the structure used by Orleans Pallet were removed on Friday. The remaining two walls will be a more delicate takedown, with the corner pieces removed by hand to reduce the risk of the walls toppling and damaging some of the neighboring structures.

Photo by Tom Rivers

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Albion Rotary Club members joined artist Nin Bogue and village of Albion trustee Eileen Banker for a ribbon-cutting Saturday morning for a new mural in downtown Albion in honor of the workers who cut stone in local quarries for about a century.

The Rotary Club is the main sponsor for the project. The mural is in Waterman Park on village-owned land on Main Street, about a half-block south of the Erie Canal.

Bogue, an artist from Lyndonville, created the mural that is 20 feet long and 5 feet high.

Rotary Club President for 2013-14 Cindy Perry, left, is pictured next to Kelly Kiebala, the club president in 2012-13. Bogue cuts the ribbon while Banker stands next to him at right.

The ceremonial ribbon includes four different colored ribbons that were interwoven to symbolize the four main countries – Ireland, Poland, Italy and Britain – where immigrants came to this area to work as quarrymen.

The project included a matching grant from the Rotary District and some support from the Orleans County Tourism Department.

Photos by Tom Rivers – The back wall of Orleans Pallet on Friday, soon before it was knocked down by a demolition crew.

ALBION – When the demolition crews arrived Friday afternoon to knock down the back wall of the Orleans Pallet building on Hamilton Street, I wondered if the sign way up at the top of the warehouse could be spared.

The site was originally called the Albion Cold Storage Company and the Medina sandstone sign faced the railroad tracks. This was a popular site for shipping products in the early 1900s.

The demo crews had a shovel and pushed in the wall. If the sign survived, it would be by chance.

I stopped at the site yesterday, and there was the sign, face up in a pile of rubble. It was snapped in half.

It would be great for the community if the sign could be displayed somewhere in public. I think it would be a nice heritage piece for the Albion Fire Department, which fought the blaze at the warehouse on Thursday, and prevented the fire from destroying more property.

Maybe the sign, and the other half, could be at the fire hall and displayed as part of an exhibit of notable fires in the community.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Firefighters use the ladder truck from the Clarendon Fire company this morning to keep water on the smoldering ruins at the warehouse on Hamilton Street. Empire Coatings Inc. is next door and visible below the firefighter on the ladder.

ALBION – A fire broke out at Empire Coatings Inc. in the middle of the night in the exhaust vents of a building next door to a warehouse that was engulfed in flames on Thursday.

The fire at Empire Coatings was on the roof and was quickly knocked down by firefighters who were already on the scene because of the smoldering ruins of the warehouse.

“The flames were shooting out of the roof,” said Rocky Sidari, fire chief for the Albion Fire Department.

Sidari credited the fast action from firefighters for containing the fire.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Renee Ebbs, right, and Andrea Coccitti whip up cotton candy during today’s Country Fair at the First United Methodist Church of Albion.

The church put on its annual Country Fair, an event that features numerous baked goods, food, gift baskets and other items.

The church, which faces some uncertainty over the future of its building at the corner of Platt and East State streets, wants to continue the annual event, although it could be at a different location in the future.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Will Francis of the Albion Fire Department keeps a steady stream of water on the smoking ruins of a warehouse that was owned by Orleans Pallet. The site went up in flames on Thursday. This photo was taken at about 11 a.m. today.

Small fires continue to flare up at the site due to the hot smoldering piles. Firefighters say the twisted metal, wooden beams and now piles of sandstone have created a barrier from getting water on some of the fires that erupt in the bottom of the piles. Two of the three-story sandstone walls have been knocked down, beginning on Friday. Two remain standing.

Matt Francis, Will’s brother, was in charge of this hose for another flare up in the smoking remains of the warehouse.

The massive three-story structure was built in 1901 as the Albion Cold Storage Company. Half of a stone sign is setting in the rubble. The sign faced the railroad tracks on the north side of the building. A stream of water from one of the hoses is directed over the sign and at one of the smoldering piles.

Firefighters on the scene said the smoldering ruins with the jagged metal sticking up reminded them of the piles of rubble from the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Older firefighters said the scene looked like the aftermath of World War II bombing.

Orleans Hub has tried to talk with Shawn Malark, owner of the building and Orleans Pallet. I didn’t speak directly with him today but his employees said the company will continue and will keep its customers happy. The company rebuilds wooden pallets and has many customers in the agricultural industry.

‘Once it sparked there was no stopping it.’

Photo by Tom Rivers

Photos by Tom Rivers: A huge fire on Thursday broke out in a warehouse that was very close to Empire Coatings, Inc. Firefighters kept the blaze from spreading.

ALBION – Long before it was engulfed in flames on Thursday, Rocky Sidari and Albion firefighters worried about the three-story warehouse at Route 31 and Hamilton Street.

The structure is snug in a commercial district, and stands only a few feet away from Empire Coatings, Inc., a painting company that uses chemicals.

“We actually talked about this building all the time,” said Sidari, the Albion fire chief. “I always said if it burns while I’m chief I know exactly what I’m going to call. We knew when it went up it was going to be an exterior attack with ladder truck operations and that’s basically what we did. There was no interior on it, obviously.”

Firefighters from four counties used at least five ladder trucks to spray water on the building. Sidari said firefighters were told not to get too close to the structure, in case it toppled.

He was particularly worried about the east side of the warehouse next to Empire Coatings, Inc. That business uses chemicals and volatile compounds as part of its painting operation.

The warehouse had been vacant for many years until Shawn Malark bought it and used it to store wooden pallets. Malark is the owner of Orleans Pallet, which rebuilds pallets for farmers and other businesses.

The blaze at the site yesterday, caused by a spark from grinder, quickly spread as the fire feasted on all the wood and the wooden beams in a building constructed in 1901. The initial fire call went out at 4:10 p.m. and some firefighters were on the scene within a few minutes.

“We had plenty of manpower on scene,” said Paul Wagner, Orleans County’s emergency management coordinator. “But once it sparked there was no stopping it.”

The inferno spewed dark smoke that could be seen from Batavia, Spencerport and Lake Ontario. After the fire was doused after about six hours, many veteran firefighters called it the worst they had seen in Albion. The fire at the former Avon Automotive in 1999 also was a huge blaze.

Sidari helped put out the Avon fire in a rubber injected molding plant at the corner of Route 31 and Platt Street.

“I think this was worse than Avon because of the chemicals involved and all the structures in close proximity,” Sidari said. “With Avon you had a couple of houses close by. It was up fast and down fast. This one lasted a lot longer and there were a lot more things to deal with.”

Contractors and the state Department of Labor are expected to be on site this morning to develop a plan to knock down the warehouse, which remains a threat to fall on neighboring structures.

The old warehouse will be knocked down soon. It was originally the Albion Cold Storage Company.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Workers from the NAS Sign Company in Buffalo are in Albion today working on the signs for the new Advance Auto Parts. The store will be located in a former Rite Aid store at the northeast corner of routes 98 and 31.

Advance Auto has painted parts of the building and put new blacktop in the parking lot.

On Wednesday, Advance Auto announced it was getting bigger by acquiring General Parts International, a privately held parts maker, for $2.04 billion in  cash.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The back wall of Orleans Pallet by the railroad tracks and the east side of the building have joined the smoldering rubble after being knocked down by contractors late this afternoon.

Those walls were the most worrisome from a safety standpoint, especially the east wall. Firefighters worried the towering wall might topple onto Empire Coatings, Inc.

Environmental Construction Group in Albion is leading the demolition of the three-story Medina sandstone warehouse that burned Thursday.

The thick sandstone walls have been credited with containing the blaze and helping to reduce heat to the neighboring property owned by Empire Coatings.

Firefighters have also stayed on the scene since about 4 p.m. A crew from the Shelby Volunteer Fire Company was on scene when I stopped by at about 7 p.m. They were keeping the hot pile doused with water.

Contractors are expected to work over the weekend on knocking down the other walls.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – OrleansHub.com is on the scene of a major fire at Orleans Pallet Co., located at the corner of Hamilton Street and West Avenue in Albion. The firefighters battling this blaze are worried about the nearby businesses containing chemicals and volatile materials. They are spraying water on the roof of Empire Coatings, a paint shop, to keep it cool.

Check back later for more details on this developing story.

ALBION – Firefighters on the scene of a major fire at Orleans Pallet Co. have blocked off the area within a half-mile radius of the building at the corner of Hamilton Street and West Avenue. Route 31 has been blocked, west of Route 98.

Paul Wagner, Orleans County Fire Coordinator, is concerned that if the building collapses on nearby Empire Coatings, there could be an explosion, due to the chemicals and volatile materials inside that building.

Firefighters have asked that Albion residents keep their windows and doors closed as a precaution.

Photos by Tom Rivers – Firefighters are using two ladder trucks to keep down embers and hot spots in the smoldering ruins of the Orleans Pallet at the corner of Hamilton Street and Route 31 in the village of Albion. These photos were taken at about noon.

ALBION – A massive Median sandstone warehouse, a landmark structure along Route 31 for more than a century, may not be standing by the end of the day.

Demolition contractors are mobilizing and expect to start knocking down the walls of the Orleans Pallet building this afternoon.

Contractors are expected to start on the east side of the building, next to Empire Coatings Inc. That business hasn’t been able to fully resume work operations today because of the unsteady sandstone wall next door.

Police Chief Roland Nenni said the village and contractors want the wall to be safely knocked in on the pile of debris as soon as possible so Empire can fully run its operations.

“They will take down enough of it to make it safe,” Nenni said at noon.

Environmental Construction Group in Albion is lead contractor for the demolition. A contractor from Rochester is helping with the project and is expected on site at about 1 p.m.