Photo by Tom Rivers – Concerned Citizens of Orleans County have a float urging the county to keep the nursing home.

ALBION – One float sends the message, “Keep the Orleans County Nursing Home Public.” Another display is strongly in support of Second Amendment rights.

The floats were both in the Murray-Holley June Fest parade last Saturday. Concerned Citizens of Orleans County debuted with its float during Memorial Day in Medina.

“We just want to call attention to the issue,” said Gary Kent, a member of Concerned Citizens of Orleans County.

The group is opposed to the county’s push to sell the 120-bed nursing home, The Villages of Orleans. The County Legislature created a local development corporation and transferred the nursing home to that entity, and charged the group with finding a buyer for the nursing home. Legislators fear projected deficits that could hit $2 million to $4 million at The Villages.

NY Revolution, a grass roots group that formed after the state passed the SAFE ACT in January, has a float in support of the right to bear arms.

Both floats will be allowed in Saturday’s Albion Strawberry Festival, despite concerns from some members of the Albion Rotary Club. I’m a member of the Rotary Club. I joined about 18 months ago. Rotarians have been the chief organizers of the Strawberry Festival the past three years.

The Rotary Club strives to be apolitical. The group doesn’t want politically charged messages at its meetings or events.

The nursing home and Second Amendment floats are designed to influence public policy. They’re clearly political.

A committee of Rotarians and other community members voted to allow the two floats.

To say no to the groups wouldn’t sit well.

“It’s a First Amendment issue, and they didn’t have a problem with it in Medina, Holley or Lyndonville,” Kent told me. “If they’re uncomfortable with it, then so be it.”

Some of the other local parades are organized by municipalities. The Albion parade is technically a Rotary Club event, and that’s why some Rotarians are uneasy about the floats with political messages.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION -Ryan Klatt of Holley performs on East Bank Street today as part of the 27^th annual Strawberry Festival. The festival continues tomorrow with a packed lineup of live music.

Photos by Tom Rivers – Gina Sidari, an Albion first grader, is all smiles at the Seneca Park Zoo today despite the constant rain.

Albion students watch the polar bear at the zoo in Rochester today.

ROCHESTER – Some schools cancelled. Too much rain.

Not the first grade class at Albion. Students, teachers and many of kids’ parents boarded school buses today and spent about two hours at the Seneca Park Zoo. It never stopped raining. Even some of the animals cowered behind their shelters, and didn’t venture into the open.

But first-graders did get to see two elephants, a polar bear, a rhino, seals, wolves and lots of other creatures.

I was able to join the group for the expedition. My daughter is in Mrs. Azzolino’s class.

We all left with soaked feet. I’m glad it wasn’t cancelled.

First-graders in Mrs. Azzolino’s class watch an elephant.

Photo by Tom Rivers – JP Morgan Chase announced today it will close its Albion facility in September, cutting 400 local jobs.

ALBION – Four hundred people in Albion were told today their jobs will be gone in September.

JP Morgan Chase, which runs a mortgage center on East Avenue, announced it will close the site in about 90 days. The company acquired Washington Mutual about five years ago and the center peaked with nearly 1,000 employees.

Chase has been shrinking the site since then. The company said an improving economy means fewer people are behind on their mortgages, making the site in Albion less needed.

“Fewer homeowners are falling behind on their mortgages, so we need fewer employees to assist those who were struggling,” Chase said in a statement to WGRZ in Buffalo. “This shift is good for homeowners and the economy overall. We will work with affected employees to find openings at Chase or other local companies.”

The announcement is bad news for Albion, which was already stung in February when Claims Recovery Financial Services said it would move the bulk of its operations to Medina, where there is more room for the growing company at the Olde Pickle Factory. CRFS plans to keep about 200 workers in Albion while it grows to about 700 workers in Medina in the next year.

State Assemblyman Steve Hawley said he tried several times to reach Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in recent weeks, to urge the company to stay in Albion. Dimon never returned Hawley’s calls. Hawley was part of a contingent of local, state and federal officials who swayed Chase to stay in Albion after it acquired WaMu.

“I was hopeful they wouldn’t close the Albion site,” Hawley said.

He believes the Chase site and their employees will be attractive for a new employer in Albion.

“It’s a good facility,” Hawley said. “It’s been updated and the employees have marketable skills. They’re hard-working.”

Photos by Tom Rivers – The annual chair auction to benefit Albion’s public library includes 30 chairs painted by local artists. Five of the chairs were used at the former Swan Library. The chairs will be bid on in a silent auction Friday and Saturday at the Strawberry Festival.

ALBION – Buy a funky chair. Honor your parents.

The Friends of the Hoag Library has two fund-raisers at this week’s Strawberry Festival. The group is having its annual chair auction, where local artists paint furniture. There will be 30 chairs up for bid, including five that were used in the former Swan Library.

The chairs can be bid on through a silent auction. The buyers will be picked on Saturday afternoon. The chairs will be at the former Swan Library on North Main Street.

There are about 100 bricks left over from the construction of the library at 134 South Main St. That building opened last July.

The Friends group wants to use those 100 bricks as part of a walkway at the new library. The bricks can be purchased for $65 as memorials.

The Friends will be at the former Swan site on Friday and Saturday to discuss the chair auction and memorial walkway.

The new Hoag Library also is selling memorial bricks for $65 each that will be part of a walkway by the library on South Main Street. Mary Anne Braunbach bought the first brick, in honor of her parents, Joseph and Clara DeCarlo.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Mary Anne Braunbach has been influential in planning and raising money for the new Hoag Library, and helping with numerous other projects at the old and new Albion public libraries.

ALBION – When she was 6 years old, Mary Anne Braunbach would ride her red bike with a basket to Swan Library. She lived a few blocks away on West Academy Street.

Braunbach would take out three books and then head home. She remembers climbing the steep sandstone steps at the front of the library, and then facing the imposing entrance.

“It took everything I had to open that big front door,” she recalled.

By age 7, she would spend two hours most mornings at the library during the summer.

“I just liked to go there, read books and bum around,” Braunbach said.

She went on to work more than three decades as a teacher and librarian in the Newfane school district in Niagara County. She moved from Lockport back to her hometown 18 years ago and soon joined the Swan Library Board of Trustees.

Braunbach has served on the board for 15 years. There was one gap in that stretch. The former board president wasn’t re-elected amidst controversy in the community over where to build the new library.

But Braunbach didn’t let that election loss push her away from the library. She took a year off from the board and re-energized the Friends of Swan Library, planning several events and raising money for the new Hoag Library.

Braunbach’s volunteer commitment to Albion’s public library has attracted the attention of the Library Trustees Association of New York State. The organization last month presented her with the “Outstanding Friends Award,” a state-wide honor.

“She’s done so much for the library,” said Susan Rudnicky, director of the Hoag Library. “Even after there was a change in the board, she kept going. She has worked so hard for the library for a bunch of years.”

Braunbach has since been elected back on the board. Her current term as a library trustee is about to expire. She was ready to step back from the board. But only one candidate ran for four open seats on the library board last month.

Braunbach has agreed to serve one more year. She wants to see some younger people serve on the board, so the organization has their viewpoints and there is leadership in the future for Albion’s public library.

Braunbach and the Friends committed to raising $25,000 for the new Hoag. The group has a room in its honor, which is uses to sell used books and books by local authors. The Friends also sells candy, coffee and has a plant sale. Proceeds are donated back to the library.

The Friends group is raising $12,500 for the library, while Braunbach is matching that money.

She owns a historic downtown building by the canal. Her late father Joseph DeCarlo used that building to run a hardware store. He also was in the plumbing and heating business.

Braunbach lives in a cobblestone house on Densmore Street from 1830 with her husband Ken.

She has been busy this week with the Friends group. She is helping to organize the annual chair auction. Those chairs are painted by local artists and will be sold during the Strawberry Festival.

She also is taking an inventory and pricing items from the Swan. Some of the old collectibles and antiques will be sold during the festival.

“I’ve been a friend of the library since I was 5,” Braunbach said.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Our Light of Victory now owns St. Mary’s, which was closed by the Catholic Diocese in 2007.

Albion has a reputation, in a good way, for the seven historic churches that are part of the Courthouse Square, a cluster of about 30 buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places.

The former St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Brown Street doesn’t get the same recognition as a historical and community treasure, but the site should be considered on par with the churches by the courthouse.

I think the former St. Mary’s, built by Polish immigrants, may be most striking of all the Albion churches. It opened in 1893, predating some of the churches on the Square.

The Catholic Diocese closed the church in 2007. Our Light of Victory acquired the church and has Sunday services there.

I’d like to see a historic marker prominently placed on the property, honoring the Polish families who sacrificed and gave generously to build this church.

Matt Ballard has developed a wonderful web site, www.albionpolonia.com, that details the history of the church and many of Polish families who were drawn to Albion the late 1800s.

I passed by the church today. I had to stop and take a picture.

Photo by Tom Rivers – The Three Little Maids performed in the Pratt Opera House last September. The group includes, from left: Maarit Vaga, Marsha Rivers and Kristi Phillips.

ALBION – Singers, dancers and theatrical performers – 115 people in all will take to the outdoor stage Saturday night to cap the Strawberry Festival.

Theatre on Main Street will be offered for the first time in the festival’s 27 years. A 20-by-24-foot stage will be set up on West Bank Street near Gotta Dance by Miss Amy. Local talent will perform from 7 to 10 p.m.

The initiative is a first of its kind between the National Park Foundation and the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. They contributed grants to pay for the stage. Other local sponsors, including Albion Main Street Alliance and Five Star Bank, also helped bring the event to Albion.

“It’s going to be a family-fun event with a lot of local talent,” said Michael Bonafede, one of the coordinators of the event.

The National Park Foundation and Erie Canalway reached out to Albion for the theater program. The groups wanted a theatrical show with a historic theater as a backdrop.

Initially the program was targeted for Main Street, but it proved too difficult to shut down a state road for most of the day. Crews will start working Saturday morning to set up the stage on West Bank. The stage will have a canopy.

Bonafede and his wife Judith Koehler own the Pratt Opera House on Main Street. They have been working to restore the site from 1882, and expect to have a certificate of occupancy this fall as a “theater in the rough.” The National Park Foundation wants to see historic theaters rejuvenated, Koehler said.

Saturday’s program will provide a venue with a professional sound system. Spectators can watch the show in a historic downtown district. Some chairs will be available, but spectators are urged to bring a lawn chair.

The performers include: the Albion men’s and women’s select choruses, Spotlight Dance Company, The Bent Theater presents ‘The A List,’ Dance Reflections by Miss Heather, Lisa’s Dance Boutique, Erie Canal Sal, Dance Reflections, The Pratt Theater presents ‘Three Little Maids,’ Gotta Dance Academy and Performing Arts, and a Full Cast Fun Finale.

Photo by Tom Rivers – This bust and antiques, collectibles and other items from the former Swan Library will be for sale during the Strawberry Festival on Saturday.

ALBION – Century-old wicker chairs. Display cases for DVDs. Busts and collectibles from the 1800s and early 1900s.

They’re all for sale as Swan Library officials work to empty the historic building at the corner of North Main and West State streets.

Albion’s public library moved up the street last July to the new Hoag Library. The Swan site is being eyed for use as a local history museum.

Swan Library leaders want to remove some of the pieces that are taking up space at the Swan site. Some of the Swan furniture and most of the collection was moved to the new building. But not all of the furniture and collectibles were needed.

Community members are welcome to look over the items for sale on Friday. They will be sold on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. People are also welcome to come inside and tour the former library during the festival June 7-8.

Work by Megan Swan and Kim Martillotta featured this month

Photos by Tom Rivers

Megan Swan, who just graduated with an art degree from Brockport State College, created the above pictured works that are part of an exhibit at Marti’s on Main.

ALBION – A new exhibit at Marti’s on Main features the work of Megan Swan, a local resident who just graduated from Brockport State College with an art degree.

The gallery at 229 North Main St. includes Swan’s ceramics, sculptures, paintings and black-and-white photography.

The community is welcome to visit the gallery and meet local artists during a reception Friday from 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Kim Martillotta grew up seeing this house on Route 98 that was owned by a family friend, Fred Ferris.

The gallery’s owner, Kim Martillotta, also is displaying some of her new work, including a painting of house that used to stand on Route 98 at the current Oak Orchard Estates. That house was owned by Fred Ferris, who worked for Martillotta’s father, Mimi Martillotta. He owned the Gulf gas station that is now the Yellow Goose on Route 98.

Martillotta has other paintings and collages she is presenting publicly for the first time.

She said she is inspired by Swan’s pottery and ceramics. Martillotta would like to raise money for a kiln that could be used by local artists. Martillotta is the leader of

The Art Circle Group, which meets regularly at the Marti’s gallery.

Martillotta made this three-dimensional collage that she entitled, “Circle of Life.”

80 people have participated in ‘Run for God’

Photo by Tom Rivers – Some members of the Run for God group at Albion Free Methodist Church get ready for a 5-kilometer run on Sunday. The group will be running in Saturday’s Strawberry Festival race at 8 a.m. That includes 5k and 8k options.

ALBION – They get together every Sunday and often on Fridays, supporting each other in prayer, and then lacing up their running shoes for a jog along the canal.

The Albion Free Methodist Church has a “Run for God” group that meets regularly to run. But before they do, the group’s leaders share a short Bible lesson and then take prayer requests.

About 80 people have participated in Run for God during the 12-week program that culminates on Saturday at the Strawberry Festival in Albion. Many of the runners will complete the 5-kilometer or 8-kilometer course. (To sign up for the race, click here.)

It will be the first race for the many in the Run for God program, which starts with walking and then adds jogging. The group ranges in age from 6 to 82.

“For beginners, it’s easier to start in a group,” said Sheila Lemcke of Albion. “I like the accountability.”

Lemcke, 35, started running a year ago. It was difficult at first, but now she loves it.

She is part of a contingent from the Cornerstone Church in Hulberton that is running the program with the Albion church. Most of the Run for God participants aren’t members of the Free Methodist congregation.

Lemcke’s mother-in-law Peggy has been a committed participant. She has opted against running, but has picked up her walking pace.

“It’s not predicated on how fast you go,” said Brian Krieger, one of the program’s leaders. “Everyone goes at their own pace.”

The church first started Run for God last year and 35 people finished the race. Many of those runners kept running during the summer and 11 of them ran a half marathon together in September.

“You’re running with a group of people,” Krieger said. “You’re not on your own.”

Morris Taylor allegedly robbed Albion pizzeria in February

Morris M. Taylor

Press release
Albion Police Department

ALBION – An Albion man was charged with robbery on Tuesday after he allegedly was armed with a knife and robbed a pizza delivery person outside Mark’s Pizzeria in Albion.

That robbery allegedly occurred on Feb. 28 at the pizzeria, 171 South Clinton St. After the robbery, Morris M. Taylor, 23, allegedly left the area with $300.

Taylor, a resident of 239 East State St., was charged with the crime on Tuesday. The Orleans County Major Felony Crimes Task Force developed information in the case that led them to the suspect.

Surveillance was used by law enforcement to locate Taylor in the town of Batavia, where he was taken into custody. Taylor was arraigned in Albion Town Court and placed in Orleans County Jail on $25,000 bail. He is to appear in court at 10 a.m. on Friday.