By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 4 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Boy Scouts from troops in Albion and West Barre this morning set 720 flags on the graves of veterans in Mount Albion Cemetery. Scouts work with the American Legion every May to make sure the graves receive flags.
Eight-year-old Devin Marchu, above, places a flag on the grave of William S. Lattin, a World War II veteran, while Anthony Freeman, 10, places flags for veterans in the Civil War section of the historic cemetery on Route 31.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 May 2013 at 5:45 pm
ALBION – Albion police have charged a 20-year-old man formerly from Albion with endangering the welfare of a child after he allegedly picked up a 12-year-old girl after school on Wednesday and took her to Buffalo overnight.
Jonathan Banks may face additional charges and an investigation is continuing, said Tom O’Hearn, a lieutenant with the Albion police. Banks was put in jail in lieu of $2,500 bail this afternoon.
He allegedly picked up Marina Zeppetella after middle school at 2:20 p.m. on Wednesday. Video from the school showed her getting into a car. O’Hearn said police used On-Star and cellular phone tracking to help locate the car driven by Banks.
He dropped Marina off at a truck stop on Route 77, and state police picked her up around noon today.
Marina allegedly arranged for the ride after school by Banks, police said. Albion police issued a missing person alert for the girl at about 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The alert was broadcast throughout Western New York. A motorist on the Thruway called the 911 to report seeing Marina near Route 77.
Marina wasn’t hurt and was dropped off at the truck stop at her request, O’Hearn said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 May 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – A 12-year-old Albion girl reported missing on Wednesday has been found and is safe, Albion police said.
Marina L. Zeppetella was last seen on Wednesday at 2:20 p.m. before a missing persons reported was filed. State troopers pulled over a car suspected in the case on the Thruwaytoday and discovered Zeppetella as a passenger. The car was stopped between Batavia and Pembroke, WHAM is reporting.
Albion police say they will be issuing a news release about the case soon.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 May 2013 at 12:00 am
The tower, nestled in the southeast section of Mount Albion Cemetery, rises 68 feet from the hill it stands on. From the top, which can be reached by climbing the spiral staircase inside, visitors can admire Albion’s countryside and, on a clear day, see clear north to Lake Ontario.
ALBION – For 11 years after the Civil War, Orleans County residents fought to raise money for a memorial to 463 county residents who perished in the war.
Quarrymen cut the stone and hauled it to the heart of Mount Albion Cemetery. The community built a 68-foot-high tower, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, that has endured for nearly 140 years. An 84-step spiral staircase allows people to climb the tower, to enjoy a view above the trees.
The tower is a tremendous achievement, one of our most magnificent sandstone structures – and an overwhelming expression of grief.
The tower was built in stages. Several times, the community ran out of money for the immense project, County Historian Bill Lattin said.
But residents wouldn’t be denied a chance to pay their respects to the fallen. The monument was dedicated on July 4, 1876, the 100th anniversary of the country.
This tower isn’t merely decorative. It’s a memorial to 463 Orleans County residents who died in the Civil War.
I’ve been researching Civil War memorials on-line, and taking pictures of ones from other nearby communities. I want to be respectful and not criticize other memorials. In fact, I admire every one. But I think it’s clear that the Civil War memorial in Albion is one of the most unusual and perhaps most magnificent of them all, especially in a small town.
Many of the Civil War memorials include a plaque with a retired cannon from the war. Kendall has one at Beechwood Cemetery. Bergen has a Civil War memorial with a cannon mounted on a big stone block. The memorial includes the names of the soldiers from the community who died in the war.
Bergen mounted a cannon on a stone block as part of its memorial to Civil War soldiers at Mount Rest Cemetery.
There are a lot of obelisks as monuments. Batavia has a 36-foot-high obelisk with a bronze statue of a soldier in front. A lot of the memorials include statues. Some of them are on stone pedestals that are elevated 50 feet or more above ground. Warsaw in Wyoming County has one like that in the middle of a traffic circle. It’s impressive.
But the Mount Albion tower can be experienced, not just admired. Climb into the tower and you’ll see the names of the local dead carved on nine marble slabs that hang on the walls. Many of the last names, such as Davis and Root, remain in the community.
The Upton Monument in Batavia depicts a Civil War hero and Batavia native, Maj. Gen. Emory Upton. The monument, dedicated in 1919, includes a 36-foot-high obelisk and honors Civil War soldiers and other Genesee County veterans.
A grieving Orleans County didn’t pick the highest-ranked solider from the community and commission a bronze likeness of that solider, and then offer a general comment about how the memorial honors all who died in defense of the union.
In Orleans, every solider who gave his life is remembered. Rank didn’t give a solider a loftier position in the memorial. I think that’s a radical idea, and different from many of the Civil War memorials.
The Civil War memorial in Warsaw features a statue on a pedestal in the middle of Route 19. There are four cannons at the base of the monument.
The Albion tower is one of only two (I think) made of Medina sandstone. Brockport built a 52-foot-high tower in 1893. The tower has crumbled and today partially stands on Owens Road. Calls to save the tower have met with apathy.
Due to safety concerns, the tower in Albion was off limits in the early 1970s. A group of high school students attended a Village Board meeting when one trustee suggested the tower be torn down. The high schoolers were outraged and spearheaded a “Save a Tower” campaign that raised $30,000 to strengthen masonry joints and repair the staircase. The tower was rededicated on July 4, 1976, the country’s 200th anniversary.
The community raised $30,000 to repair the steps and masonry joints inside the tower in the 1970s.
“We saved something that is really important,” Lattin told me. “Out here in Western New York it is certainly one of the more outstanding monuments.”
Locally, we benefited from the close presence of so many sandstone quarries. That provided a superior building material for the memorial. And we had immigrant stonecutters who could shape the stone. They also loved their adopted country, and wanted to express their gratitude for the soldiers’ sacrifice “in defense of the union.”
Lattin said some communities spent more than Orleans County “with exotic memorials with statuary.”
Nine marble slabs bear the names of Orleans County residents who died in the Civil War.
But our tower shows what happens when regular people get together and give their best. A shared sacrifice resulted in a magnificent monument that should endure for decades to come.
I take visiting friends to the tower, and they are filled with awe when they reach the top. I’ve been asked to give tours of the cemetery recently, showing it off to Cornell graduate students last month and a Rotary exchange group from the Philippines last fall.
They act like tourists at Niagara Falls, especially at the top of the tower. They are overwhelmed, shocked by the achievement from 1876.
This group from the Philippines climbed the top of the tower in October.
We should promote the tower, include it as part of a community marketing plan with its likeness on gateway signs and tourism brochures. It could be the focus on a bigger “Civil War Trail” in Orleans County and perhaps Western New York. If we developed a “Sandstone Trail” with roadside markers of sandstone buildings and quarries in the county, the top of tower should be the iconic symbol for the signs.
The tower is absolutely incredible. No other Civil War tribute, at least locally, quite compares.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 May 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – In December 1810, William McAllister bought 368 acres in Albion, the east side of the village, from the Holland Land Company. The following year he built a log cabin where the current County Clerks’ Building stands next the county courthouse.
McAllister and his wife, known only in historical information as “Mrs. McAllister,” were Albion’s first settlers. In a few months a historical marker, with a log cabin logo, will celebrate their pioneering spirit.
The County Legislature approved the marker to be placed on the lawn in front of the Clerks’ Building, near a sidewalk and parking lot at the southwest corner of the grass.
The Capurso family in Albion is paying for the marker, which will be dedicated during a July 6 event at 1 p.m. There will be a ceremony inside the Clerks’ Building, and the dedication will include musical performances.
“It’s a historic first that has not been commemorated,” said Al Capurso of Albion. “They were the first settlers in the village and the town.”
Capurso tracked down the history about McAllister while reading about pioneer residents in Orleans County in books that were published in the mid-1800s. He also traced records in the Holland Land Company.
Capurso’s wife Chris is the daughter of the late Donna Rodden, a former Albion mayor who pushed to have several sites in the community listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1980s.
“She was very active and interested in historic preservation and she impressed that upon me,” Capurso said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Albion gallery opened five years ago on North Main Street
Photos by Tom Rivers – Susan Rudnicky, Kim Martillotta-Muscarella, Arthur Barnes, Michael O’Keefe, Suzanne Wells, Connie Mosher and Tony Barry.
A group of 17 artists in Orleans County are ready to debut new paintings and other artwork this Friday at a North Main Street gallery.
The Art Circle, a group that showcases its work at Marti’s On Main, will have an opening reception from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at 229 North Main St.
Kim Martillotta-Muscarella opened the gallery five years ago. She devotes seven rooms in her home to showcasing artists in the community.
“She’s the magnet that keeps us all in orbit,” said Connie Mosher, a painter who lives in Gaines.
Kim Martillotta-Muscarella is pictured in the stairwell of her art gallery, Marti’s on Main, in front of paintings by Judy Wenrich of horses on the wall.
The group includes photographers, sculptors, and painters in watercolors, oils and acrylics as well as artists who create collages.
The group gets together to paint and create artwork at least once monthly, and often weekly, during the year.
Tony Barry of Holley likes the energy in the Art Circle.
“I love the people and the group I’m associated with,” he said.
He has a few paintings in the gallery, including a scene from a maple farm.
Martillotta-Muscarella said the community has a lot of talented artists. She wants to promote them. She likes some of the artwork so much she often will buy it when a show is over.
“Kim is definitely a patron of the arts and our society needs more patrons,” said Michael O’Keefe, an artist and attorney from Medina.
The reception on Friday is open to the public.
Medina attorney Michael O’Keefe is pictured with a piece of his art work that will be part of an opening reception Friday at Marti’s on Main, 5:30 to 9 p.m.
These flowering plums at Mount Albion Cemetery are in their blossoming glory at the historic cemetery on Route 31 in Albion. Cemetery workers are busy with other improvements at the site, including new wooden signs that will show the layout of the east and west sides of the cemetery. Kenneth Blank, a cemetery employee, carries stones that he added to a freshly poured foundation for the signs this morning.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
Wendy Hill, an employee at JPMorgan Chase in Albion, peddles a copy of today’s Buffalo News special Kids Day edition this morning in front of Chase’s Albion site on East Avenue. Chase employees are selling the newspapers at several locations in Albion until 11 a.m. Proceeds from the newspaper sales go to Variety Kids of Buffalo and the Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 April 2013 at 12:00 am
State Convention runs from Thursday through Saturday
Photo by Tom Rivers – Officers for the Albion FFA pose by a sign in front of the high school. The group includes, from left: Logan London, Mariah Pepe, Elizabeth Bentley, Riley Kelly, Alison O’Hearn (vice president), Jenny McKenna (president), Abigail Maines, Sara Millspaugh and Kellie O’Hearn.
ALBION – About a year ago Allison O’Hearn was on the phone with eight different hotels in Batavia, checking their availability for 1,100 students and their chaperones for this May 2-4.
It was the first of many phone calls and letters for the vice president of the Albion FFA. O’Hearn and Jenny McKenna, the FFA president, have been lining up judges, sponsors, entertainment and volunteers for the FFA state convention this Thursday through Saturday.
The Albion FFA students will be working on the convention right up until students arrive from throughout the state on Thursday afternoon. Today, the Albion students were filling goodie bags with coupons to local businesses, pens and pamphlets about Albion.
O’Hearn also just finalized plans to have modern farm machinery displayed with some antique tractors.
“We’re going right down to the last minute to make this the best state convention and one that they’ll remember,” O’Hearn said at school today.
FFA advisor Adam Krenning also has been a key leader is assembling more than 150 judges from the community for 26 different competitions ranging from speaking to technical and leadership skills. He has led three orientations for the judges.
Krenning also negotiated with managers for the entertainers, including country music singer JJ Lawhorn who will perform in an outdoor tent behind the school, and Ben Glenn, a chalk artist who was featured when the state convention was in Albion in 2007.
The 1,100 FFA students are coming from 71 different chapters, including students from New York City, the North Country, Hudson Valley, Southern Tier and other parts of the state.
McKenna said she is looking forward to a ceremony on Friday night when first-year FFA students will be presented their blue corduroy jackets. That ceremony will shift to the varsity football field, where fireworks will follow.
McKenna also wanted to show off the Albion community and local agriculture. Students can choose to attend tours of the Neal family dairy farm in Albion, Lamb Farms in Oakfield, Western New York Energy’s ethanol plant in Medina, Intergrow in Gaines, Oxbo in Byron, Post Farms in Elba and the Milton CAT plant in Batavia. Students can also look over the Albion FFA chapter’s new 5-acre “land lab” that was established about a year ago.
Students, when they have some down time from competitions and other events, will be urged to discover the historical assets in Albion as well as the businesses.
“This is one of our focuses to say this is our community and this is what we’re proud of,” McKenna said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 April 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – A movie poster, top left, for the new film, “42,” shows Pee Wee Reese, No. 1, with his arm around Jackie Robinson, No. 42. The movie focuses on Robinson’s 1947 season when he broke the Major League Baseball color barrier playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Two Albion twin brothers, Edward and Jackson Narburgh, watched the movie and were inspired by Robinson’s courage and skills on the field. The brothers also are seniors on Albion’s baseball team that is again competing for a league title.
Edward wears No. 42 while his brother has No. 1. At a recent game, their teammate Steven Stauss snapped a photo that looks strikingly similar to the movie poster.
Edward and Jackson’s mother, Leanne Serrato, has shared the photo on Facebook. She is sad the boys’ senior year is winding down, but happy to see the team doing so well this year. She said the photo reflects the bond they’ve formed on the field.
Arlande Fenelon, a native of Haiti studying hydroponic tomatoes in Albion, joins a multi-congregation church music festival this afternoon at the First Baptist Church. About 30 people sang together in the service directed by Katie Robinson, owner of Katherine’s School of Music in Albion and the organist at First Baptist Church.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 April 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION Michelle Toenniessen said she needed closure. On Friday, she worked her last shift as a nurse at Lakeside Memorial Hospital in Brockport, which is closing after six decades and laying off 200 employees.
She and Dawn Amico, another nurse at Lakeside, put a notice on Facebook they would be at the Crooked Door Tavern in Albion on Friday evening to reflect on Lakeside’s closing. Toenniessen thought maybe a dozen of her co-workers would show up.
About 100 Lakeside employees came with heavy hearts, including CEO Jim Cummings.
“It was very cathartic – We all needed it,” Toenniessen said. “It’s been very sad for the employees and community. Everybody tried so hard to keep it open.”
Toenniessen of Albion worked at Lakeside for 24 years. She loved her job.
“There’s a different atmosphere in a small community hospital,” she said. “I knew all of my co-workers by name and I knew most of my patients and their families. We had the opportunity to get very involved with our patients and to know them.”
Toenniessen and her co-workers were hopeful the hospital would stay open in a reduced form. Lakeside officials had sought permission from the state Department of Health to keep open the emergency room and five in-patient beds, which would have been a drop from 61 beds.
The organization also sought a $5 million life-line from the state, but the money was denied. On Monday, Lakeside officials announced the hospital would close on Friday.
“It was a big shock,” Toenniessen said.
Lakeside is the second small-town hospital she has worked at and watched close. She spent her first three years as a nurse at Arnold Gregory Memorial Hospital in Albion.
Toenniessen has accepted a job at Beikirch Care Center nursing home, which is owned by Lakeside. The organization will decide soon whether it seek a buyer for that facility and an urgent care center in Spencerport. Toenniessen will work as a nurse on the rehab floor at Beikirch.
“It’s a big change, but I have a job and I’m thankful for that,” she said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
John Bennett, executive director of the Genesee-Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, shows off the agency’s new community meeting room during a meeting with the Orleans United Drug Free Communities Coalition earlier this week. GCASA spent about $850,000 to revamp the former Knights of Columbus hall at 249 East Ave., Albion. The agency added a 200-square-foot addition to the 8,800-square-foot building, and also put in a new parking lot.The community meeting room is in the former basement. Bennett said Behavioral Healthcare Magazine will feature the adaptive reuse project in an upcoming issue. He welcomed other organizations to use the room. “We want it to be a regional resource,” he said. There are 18 GCASA workers at the Albion site, offering preventive services and serving about 600 people in treatment each year.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – The former Agri-Business Child Development is a vacant 5,000-square-foot structure on West State Street. Village officials are debating a plan to turn the site into 10 “efficiency units” that would each have their own bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.
ALBION – It has sat vacant for at least three years and village officials question if a 5,000-square-foot former child care center would ever be used as a residential site for families, the building’s current zoning.
Agri-Business Child Development vacated the premises several years ago for a new building, “Grace’s Place,” in Holley at the Holley Business Park.
Albion resident Linda Smith has presented a plan for the Albion building at 448 West State St., next to the Elks Lodge. Smith would like to carve the building into 10 “efficiency units” that would each have their own bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.
That would not be permitted under the site’s current residential zoning, which allows for single or multi-family housing.
“Ultimately, you’d like to see R-1, but what do you do with the property?” Mayor Dean Theodorakos asked Village Board members on Wednesday.
The village could create an overlay district allowing for an adaptive reuse of the site, said Code Enforcement Officer Ron Vendetti. Smith would then have to apply for a special use permit for her project, and neighbors could weigh in during a public hearing.
“We have a property that isn’t occupiable,” Vendetti told the board on Wednesday. “What do you want to do with it?”
Village attorney John Gavenda said Smith’s plan has already worried neighbors, and prompted a potential homebuyer in the neighborhood to back out of a sale. He said the project is contrary to the recently approved Albion comprehensive plan that is against “high-density housing” in the village.
Trustee Kevin Sheehan said he has fielded phone calls from residents, including leaders of the Elks.
“There’s some concern in the area,” he said.
The village intends to send letters to neighbors on the street, informing them of the possible use for the building. The Planning Board is expected to discuss the zoning change and Smith’s proposal during its 7 p.m. meeting on May 15 at the Village Hall.
Smith has revised an earlier proposal for the site. She initially suggested turning it into a boarding house with 20 units. Residents would have shared bathrooms and kitchen space in that scenario.
