Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Neal Muscarella, an Albion stone mason, uses a hammer and chisel to face up the top of the base for a new Mount Albion Cemetery sign.

Muscarella has been working on the sign at the entrance of the historic cemetery on Route 31. He put the capstones on yesterday and worked today on some final touches, dressing up the sandstone pieces.

The village of Albion owns the sign and has been working for about eight months to line up stone and contractors to replace the previous sign that was smashed by a driver last December.

Muscarella was able to create a new base for the sign using pieces from the old sign as well as repurposed sandstone curbs that were once in Albion.

ALBION – The village of Albion is raising the water rates by 8 cents per 1,000 gallons to six towns that buy water from the village for water districts.

The new rate will increase 2.8 percent from $2.86 to $2.94. Albion hasn’t raised the rates to the towns in 11 years, Mayor Dean Theodorakos said.

The increase was intended to take effect Oct. 1, but the town of Barre said that didn’t meet the requirement of providing three months notice before a rate increase. Barre Town Supervisor Mark Chamberlain also asked for a meeting with village officials for an explanation about the rate hike.

“At this time, it does not seem feasible for the town to agree to the rate increase without more information and discussion,” Chamberlain wrote to the Village Board on Aug. 8.

The village faces equipment and facility upgrades at the water plant, which is prompting Albion to raise the rates by a modest amount, Trustee Kevin Sheehan said.

The board agreed to delay the rate increase until Jan. 1 for all of the towns it supplies with water. Theodorakos said the village will try to schedule a meeting with the officials from the towns to provide the village’s rationale for the increase. The village supplies water for districts in Carlton, Gaines, Albion, Barre, Ridgeway and Murray.

Photos by Tom Rivers

Gina Sidari, 6, of Albion introduced a line of fashion tonight at the Cabaret at Studio B in Albion, a new venture run by Gina’s mother Amy Sidari.

Gina designed clothes worn during the fashion show by herself and her friends – Isabelle Gray, Julia Fuller, Emily Mergler, and Avery and Willow Gaines.

Proceeds from the fashion were designated for the Central Orleans Volunteer Ambulance.

Julia Fuller of Albion models one of the outfits designed by her friend Gina Sidari.

Kyle Sidari shares a joke as part of a stand-up routine during the fashion show. Carlos Burroughs, left, lets out a chuckle.

Marcy Downey sings “You Make Me Feel So Young” during the Gina Line Fashion Show at the Cabaret at Studio B in Albion, part of Gotta Dance by Miss Amy.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Stephen Rutledge of Albion scrapes off old paint this afternoon on one of the doors facing Main Street at the First Presbyterian Church in Albion. Rutledge will also scrape off the paint on the alcove over the door. He will prime and repaint the doors and alcove on the historic church built with Medina sandstone.

Photo by Tom Rivers – A group of Albion students pose for a photo after a golf tournament Sunday to help them raise money to go on a trip to Italy this spring. About 25 students in the Latin program at Albion are planning to attend the trip. Some of the group includes, from left: Katie Rustay, Bella Prest, Jacob Squicciarini, Drake Arnold, Savanah Wirth, Shelby Restivo and Skyler Smith.

ALBION – When Albion Latin teacher Irene Henion announced last school year she was working on a trip for Latin students to go see Italy, many students and their parents saw the trip as a rare chance for the students to see another side of the world.

Henion tries to take students to Italy once every four years. The trips, including spending money, total about $4,000 per student.

A team of Albion parents and their children have formed a fund-raising group, which has planned several events in recent months. On Sunday, they organized a golf tournament at Hickory Ridge Country Club in Holley.

“It’s the chance of a lifetime for our kids,” said Steve Smith, father of Skyler.

The group has had a yard sale and a booth at the Strawberry Festival. Students also have been serving as hosts at the Cabaret at Studio B at Gotta Dance by Miss Amy. More fund-raisers are in the works.

Currently 27 students are planning on attending the trip, which will feature Florence, Rome, Pompeii, Sorrento, Venice and other spots in Italy and ancient Rome.

“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Stephanie Rustay, whose daughter Katie is Italy-bound. “Every opportunity she can have I want her to take it.”

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Eileen Banker and her husband Dale spent about an hour Sunday morning watering flowers in downtown Albion, as well as planters at Bullard Park and the canal bank. The Department of Public Works waters the flowers on weekdays, but a team of volunteers handles the job on weekends.

Photos by Tom Rivers – Mary Ann Tillman, vice chairwoman of the Ladies of Charity, holds Polish bread, part of the display of baked goods for sale at today’s Lawn Fete in Albion.

Linda Chrzan practices the wine toss, one of the games at today’s Lawn Fete. Chrzan will be serving beef on weck from noon to 5 p.m.

ALBION – The Polish bread is baked, an array of 50 themed baskets packaged, and an assortment of children’s games await.

It’s the annual Holy Family Parish Lawn Fete. The event begins at noon today and runs until 5 p.m. at the Elks Club grounds at 428 West State St.

“It’s a way to get your parish and the community together for fun,” said Sue Starkweather-Miller, the themed basket coordinator.

She thought an autographed team jersey signed by all of the players on the Western New York Flash soccer team may prove to be the most popular item. That jersey includes the signature of Rochester star Abby Wambach.

The Ladies of Charity and other parish members have been busy preparing ethnic foods for today’s event, including beef on weck, Italian sausage, hots, goulash, pasta fagioli and fried dough.

Ulises Mendoza, 17, of Albion is pictured with a themed basket from the Western New York Flash, a professional women’s soccer team.

Previous sign was smashed by a motorist in December

Photos by Tom Rivers – Neal Muscarella carries a shovel of mortar to help build a new base for the sign at Mount Albion Cemtery. Muscarella located the big piece of stone for the sign and has built the base using stone from the old sign as well as old curbs in the village.

The previous sign at Mount Albion Cemetery as it looked last October. The new sign is a bigger than the old one.

ALBION – After about eight months with no sign leading to Albion’s historic cemetery on Route 31, Mount Albion now has a stone sign matching the sandstone character of the site.

Neal Muscarella, an Albion mason, located the stone for the village, and he has worked to build a sandstone base for the sign. Brigden Memorial in Gaines put the lettering the sign.

It’s been an eight-month ordeal for the village, haggling with a motorist’s insurance company and trying to find enough of the old stone to rebuild the sign.

A driver smashed the sandstone sign outside Mount Albion last December. Village officials didn’t want to put up a wooden sign. They made the extra effort to find a big piece of stone for the gateway into Mount Albion, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Muscarella was able to reuse some of the pieces from the old sign for the base. But many of the pieces were broken. The village Department of Public Works had a pile of old sandstone curbs, and Muscarella was able to cut and face some of those pieces to build a new base for the sign.

The new sign will be bigger than the old one. I give the village a lot of credit for utilizing sandstone for the sign, and not taking the easy way out with a wooden sign. We’re also lucky we still have a guy around like Muscarella, who knows how to cut the stone like the quarrymen from more than a century ago.

Neal Muscarella of Albion builds a wall of sandstone for the base of the new sign at Mount Albion Cemetery. It took the village several months to find the stone to create the sign.

Photos by Tom Rivers – Jake Hayes of Albion performs “Make Them Hear You,” a song from Ragtime, during “A Night of Broadway” at St. Mary’s Athletic Club tonight in Albion.

Matt Mayne sings “Purpose” from Avenue Q during tonight’s debut show from JMS Productions, an event directed by Nick Russo and Shellene Bailey, both of Albion.

ALBION – St. Mary’s Athletic Club has long been a host for Little League baseball games and volleyball matches. Tonight, the Moore Street site was filled with the sounds of Broadway.

Albion resident Nick Russo, who has 12 years experience working in professional theater in Western New York, directed his debut production tonight for the newly formed JMS Productions. He planned the show with Shellene Bailey of Albion. She was one of six performers who sang popular songs from several Broadway shows.

“We wanted to bring the arts here,” Russo said before tonight’s show. “We’re talking about doing more in the future.”

Russo grew up in Albion as “a Simboli kid.” He was part of the high school musicals led by Gary Simboli, the long-time musical director.

Russo knew there was a lot of talent in the community. “We put out a call and we got an absolutely stellar response,” he said.

Jake Hayes auditioned and landed one of the spots in the cast. Hayes has been performing for Albion audiences since he was in the middle and high school musicals. The 23-year-old earned a marketing degree from Pace University in Manhattan.

He is happy to be home and have a venue to perform. He said the middle and high school musical program has developed many performers in the community who would welcome a chance to return to the stage.

“I love singing and performing,” he said. “And this is a way to give back to the community.”

The group will be back at St. Mary’s for another performance of “A Night On Broadway” at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $10 and are available at the door.

Victoria Barbis, left, and Shellene Bailey were part of a group that sang “21 Guns” from American Idiot during a show at St. Mary’s Athletic Club tonight. The group will return 1 p.m. Saturday for another performance.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Dave Conlon sits on a historic carriage step that he said he was pressured to move out of the right of way by state Department of Transportation officials. State Assemblyman Steve Hawley says historic carriage steps and hitching posts can stay as long as homeowners sign off on taking liability for them.

ALBION – The state Department of Transportation isn’t forcing homeowners with historic hitching posts and carriage steps to remove the horse-and-buggy artifacts from the public right of way, State Assemblyman Steve Hawley said today after speaking with DOT officials.

The DOT, however, wants property owners to sign off on liability in case the hitching posts’ damage someone’s property or injure a person.

Hawley checked with the DOT about the issue after an article on the Orleans Hub on Sunday detailed the Conlon family’s experience with the DOT. Dave and Grace Conlon of Albion said the DOT forced them to move a carriage step and hitching post from near the corner of Linwood Avenue and North Main Street.

Mr. Conlon, 84, said the DOT told him he needed to move it or the DOT would have the pieces moved and then bill him.

Other property owners in Medina and Le Roy have told The Orleans Hub that the DOT has pressured them to take out hitching posts and carriage steps by the road in the right of way.

Hawley said DOT officials assured him they aren’t targeting the artifacts.

“They are not being told they have to remove them nor does the DOT plan to remove them,” Hawley said.

However, the DOT wants it in writing that property owners will assume liability for the artifacts in case there is an accident or incident, Hawley said.

The assemblyman said he wants the posts and steps to stay put. He said they are part of the historical fabric of the communities.

“It is obvious from my point of view and everyone else’s that they are a historic marking from years past,” he said.

11 people baptized in Lake Ontario

Photos by Tom Rivers

Eleven people from the Albion Free Methodist Church were baptized this evening in Lake Ontario.

The group included Sue Kissel, shown in this silhouette. She is pictured with pastors John Keller, back right, of the Northgate Free Methodist Church in Batavia and Kevin Eccles, a pastor at the Albion Free Methodist Church.

The baptismal service was at Lighthouse Christian Camp next to the Golden Hill State Park in Barker.

Kyle Holz, 26, of Kent walks out of the lake after being baptized with Keller and Eccles in the water. Holz’s fiancée Jessy Woolston, 26, also was baptized. Kyle’s brother Cory, 21, also made the public act of faith.

ALBION – Two departures in the school administration team – one a retirement and the other a vacancy created when an assistant principal took a job in a different district – has resulted in several changes among the Albion’s building and academic leaders.

Kim Houserman retired at the end of June. The former middle school principal was serving as Albion’s coordinator of secondary school programs. He handled some of the mandated teacher evaluations and was also a liasion between the district and the county court system for students classified through Probation as Persons In Need of Supervision.

Jim Wood, the veteran elementary school principal, is leaving that position to assume some of Houserman’s duties. Wood will be responsible for many of the teacher evaluations, which require two to four observations plus a written report. The district has 180 teachers. Building principals and vice principals will also be part of the teacher evaluation process.

Most of the PINS work that was part of Houserman’s job will be assumed by Brad Pritchard, who has been promoted from dean of students at the high school to assistant principal of that building.

Wood’s shift in administration created a vacancy in the elementary school. The Board of Education has hired an administrator from Silver Creek in Chautauqua County to lead the school. Rachel Curtin worked 18 years as a teacher and administrator at Silver Creek. She will have a veteran of the elementary school as her assistant principal.

The Board of Education on Monday named Jennifer Ashbery, the long-time fifth grade teacher at Albion, to be the assistant principal of the elementary school. Ashbery has completed her administrative certification and has worked the previous two summers in an administrative internship through BOCES, said Michael Bonnewell, the district superintendent.

The elementary assistant principal position was available because Bridgitte Griffin left to work in administration at the Rush-Henrietta school district.

There’s another impending change in administration: Maura Pierce will retire in September as the district’s chairwoman of the Committee on Special Education. The district will fill the CSE position with Jessica Beal, who has been working as a special education teacher in kindergarten.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – A row of trees on Washington Street at the corner of the property for the Albion Correctional Facility were recently removed so the prison could install new underground water lines, a state Department of Corrections spokesman said.

“Upon completion of the water line, the trees that were removed are to be replaced with hardwood trees,” said Tom Mailey, DOC director of public information.