Photos by Tom Rivers – Cornell University students climbed the Civil War memorial at Mount Albion Cemetery this afternoon.

ALBION – I had the pleasure this afternoon of leading a dozen students from Cornell University on a tour of Mount Albion Cemetery, which I consider one of the great marvels of Orleans County.

I talked about the impressive sandstone structures at the cemetery – the arch, the chapel, the office across the street, and the collection of hitching posts and carriage steps. It all culminates with the 68-foot-high tower at the back of the cemetery.

That tower, built in 1876, is a memorial to the 463 soldiers from Orleans County who died in the Civil War.

Thirty-three Cornell students, pursuing graduate degrees in historic preservation and city planning, have been touring Albion sites and working on preservation projects since Thursday.

The students pose on the sandstone steps leading to Mount Albion Tower.

Todd Sargent, Richard Remley backed for Town Board

ALBION – The Albion Republican Committee interviewed two Town Board members, Matt Passarell and Jake Olles, for town supervisor and the committee decided against endorsing either of them.

The committee welcomes other candidates to come forward to interview for the position leading the town government, said Dawn Allen, the GOP chairwoman. Albion has until May 16 to make an endorsement for someone to run under the party line in November.

She wouldn’t talk about why the committee declined to endorse either Passarell or Olles. She did say the committee wants a candidate who can restore harmony in town hall among the full board and town employees.

The board has been split under Town Supervisor Dennis Stirk, with Olles and Dan Poprawski, who were all elected in November 2011, often siding with the supervisor.

Passarell and Tim Neilans, holdovers from when Judith Koehler was town supervisor, have been critical of the Stirk-led board for giving raises to the town clerk and town highway superintendent. The two also opposed hiring Robert Roberson as attorney for the town. Roberson represented Highway Superintendent Jed Standish in a lawsuit against the town when the Koehler-led board tried to make his position part-time.

Passarell is an Iraq War veteran and VFW commander, who works as quality supervisor for Baxter in Medina. Olles works as a correctional officer. Olles was elected previously under the Democrat Party line.

The committee made two endorsements during its meeting on Tuesday night. Richard Remley, the former owner of a printing company in Albion, was backed for a four-year term as town councilman. Remley also was co-leader of the fund-raising campaign for the new Hoag Library.

Todd Sargent, a village of Albion Department of Public Works employee, also was endorsed for a four-year term.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Demolition work of a sandstone building along the Erie Canal in Albion has been suspended until an asbestos removal permit is secured.

ALBION – The demolition of a sandstone building from 1840 has been halted because the owner of the site hasn’t secured an asbestos removal permit from the state Department of Labor, village officials said.

Dan Dunn of Ridgeway started removing the building last Saturday, but worked was stopped later in the day by Ron Vendetti, the village code enforcement officer.

Dunn has contested he needs a certified asbestos removal company for the work. Dunn, owner of salvage company, believes he can handle the job.

The DOL’s Asbestos Control unit was in Albion today and tagged the building as a “suspended action.”

The building, once used to manufacture carriages more than a century ago, is a “dangerous building,” and needs to come down, Vendetti said. However, Dunn needs to secure a permit from the DOL before removing the 5,000-square-foot building that was last used as a furniture warehouse about a half century ago.

Dunn has said he wants to preserve and resell as much of the sandstone as possible.

Agenda: Glazing windows, mortaring and documenting artifacts

Photos by Tom Rivers – Ke Tong applies shellac to a wooden window from the Pratt Opera House in Albion. Tong and 32 other Cornell University graduate students are working on preservation projects in Albion this weekend.

ALBION – Max Taffet was hunched over at a table this morning, writing down dimensions and details from the Grand Army of the Republic room in the historic Pratt and Day complex on Main Street.

Taffet, 25, is a graduate student in Cornell University’s City and Regional Planning Department. This weekend he and 32 other students are getting a hands-on education

in how preservation can help rejuvenate a downtown.

The students arrived in Albion on Thursday evening and toured the business district, the Erie Canal and some of the historic churches.

“It’s beautiful,” Taffet said about the buildings from the 19^th Century. “This strip here is so rich. It’s gorgeous.”

Taffet lives in Boulder, Colo., which he says can’t match Albion in historic assets. He joined a few other students in making an inventory of the GAR room. The spot was used as a fraternal organization of Civil War veterans more than a century ago.  The room still includes GAR symbols on the walls that proclaim “Loyalty, Fraternity and Charity.”

Max Taffet, a graduate student in Cornell’s City and Regional Planning Department, catalogs details from the Grand Army of the Republic room in the Pratt and Day complex on Main Street.

Other Cornell students were working today to clean 100 wooden-framed windows, applying shellac, glaze and fresh paint.

Caitlin Kolb, a Cornell graduate student from Nebraska, said she was in awe of the historic fabric in Albion, a canal boomtown in the 1800s.

“It’s pretty exciting to be here and see this,” she said. “In Nebraska, we don’t have such old buildings.”

She drove past the old freight depot on West Academy Street, a building that has long been vacant. Kolb sees potential in that site and the community.

The Cornell students are also removing loose mortar from the walls of the former Pratt Opera House, and will apply new mortar.

Luis Martinez, a student at Cornell University, removes loose mortar inside the Pratt Opera House today. Martinez and other students will re-mortar the walls over the weekend.

The students removed tin from the back stage of the opera house. That revealed signatures of former stars and stagehands who worked in the building. Those signatures will all be documented.

Building owners Michael Bonafede and Judith Koehler welcomed the students for the annual preservation project by the Cornell program. Every year students go to a community for hands-on work. Last year they went to Lyndhurst, an estate along the Hudson River in Tarrytown, NY.

Gina DiBella of Rochester is doing her master’s thesis on historic theaters the canal. She has toured and researched the former opera houses in both Albion and Medina.

“Their rehabilitation can help revitalize the community,” DiBella said. “There are a lot of hidden treasures in these canal communities.”

The students connected with Albion through Katelin Olson, the Albion Main Street Alliance director who is pursuing a doctorate at Cornell.

Students will be in seminars, learning from local contractors, including Jeremiah Knight, Neal Muscarella, Tom Snyder and Mark Scarborough. Local preservationists also will lead students on tours of the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church, Mount Albion Cemetery, Courthouse Square and the Cobblestone Society Museum.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Lisa and Michael Misiak marked 20 years as professional chiropractors today. They gave away free T-shirts and food to many of their patients at Oak Orchard Family Chiropractic.

ALBION – Twenty years ago Michael and Lisa Misiak graduated from Logan College of Chiropractic in St. Louis. The new professionals would marry and build a business in Albion.

They say they are happy they settled in Orleans County, where they are active community members. Their chiropractic offices are part of the couple’s house at 3912 Oak Orchard Rd. That has been convenient while they have raised three children.

Mr. Misiak grew up in Buffalo and first worked in Amherst, “where there are 100 other chiropractors.”

He came to Albion 18 years ago to fill in for Dr. Richard Shraven. Misiak went to the local diners every day and saw many of his patients. He joined the Albion Fire Department and the Elks Club, where he remains a member.

“I liked the way everybody knew each other,” he said. “It was quite different than in Amherst.”

His wife was working in her hometown in Fairview Heights, Ill. She joined Mr. Misiak in Albion more than 16 years ago. She served recently on the steering committee that helped pick the location for the new Hoag Library.

The couple’s diplomas hang on a wall in the waiting area of Oak Orchard Family Chiropractic. They both graduated on April 17, 1993. On Wednesday they celebrated by handing out T-shirts and food to patients.

Both of the chiropractors said they made the right choice with their profession. They work with patients to have properly aligned spines and nervous systems that are free of interference. They have seen patients debilitated by headaches and musculoskeletal imbalances turn into long-distance runners.

“I see miracles every day,” Mrs. Misiak said. “I love watching the body heal naturally without drugs and surgery.”

Mr. Misiak said the couple strives to help people live as healthy as possible. They also promote nutrition and orthotics when needed.

“We can be an intercessor, helping patients to be healthier,” he said.

The couple is looking forward to marking 20 years in Albion.

“We’ll have an even bigger celebration then,” Mrs. Misiak said.

Photo by Tom Rivers – The state Department of Transportation will meet with the Albion community on April 24 to discuss plans to replace the Clarendon Street bridge.

ALBION – State Department of Transportation officials will update the community next week on plans to replace the Clarendon Street bridge.

The 6 p.m. meeting on April 24 will be at the village office, 35-37 East Bank St. Village officials and the DOT have been discussing the bridge replacement for about a decade. The Village Board voted, 3-2, in January to move ahead with the project.

The project is an estimated at $2 million. The federal government is expected to pay 80 percent, with the state 15 percent and the village the remaining 5 percent. However, the village has to front all the money and wait to be reimbursed.

The 40-year-old bridge was built over the railroad tracks on the Falls Road Railroad, which runs from Lockport to Brockport.

The new bridge will be higher than the current one, which will require longer approaches and some property acquisition. DOT officials are expected to talk about the land acquisition process as well as the design for the new span.

Photos by Tom Rivers – The praise team at the Free Methodist Church in Albion leads the congregation in singing today at the remodelled sanctuary, which includes a platform and two projectors from the ceiling.

ALBION – After holding church services the previous two Sundays at the Hoag Library, the Albion Free Methodist congregation returned home today following extensive remodeling in the sanctuary.

The pews were removed from the church following a service on Oct. 27. The carpet was ripped out. The sanctuary was repainted, new carpet was put down and 220 cushioned seats were added by today.

The sanctuary also changed from facing the east wall to facing north. A platform was built, and a sound booth was created out of a former closet.

The Rev. Randy LeBaron preaches today in the Albion church after the Free Methodists had church the previous two weeks at the Hoag Library. LeBaron led the church in a dedication service for the redone sanctuary.

The church made the changes after the previous setup became crowded. By shifting to the layout and adding individual chairs, rather than pews, the church was able to boost capacity by about 50 people.

Church members did about 90 percent of the work of the remodeling themselves.

The Albion church is historic. It’s the first one in a denomination that has grown to more than 1,000 churches in the United States since its original in Albion more than 150 years ago.

The Free Methodists in Albion have worked on the building over the years, including putting on an addition about 30 years ago.

The Rev. Randy LeBaron is pictured in the church last month before the renovations.

District is only one in GLOW with NAMM recognition

Photo by Tom Rivers – Albion High School students perform Beauty and the Beast in March, one of two full-scale musicals put on by the district. High school musicians put on 60 different performances during the school year with drama, instrumental and vocal concerts.

ALBION – In an era of tight school budgets and packed student schedules, Albion Central School and students from elementary, middle and high school are making music a priority.

The district, for the sixth straight year, has been named a “Best Communities for Music Education,” one of 307 in the country to receive the designation from the North American Music Merchants. About 2,000 districts applied for the honor.

“Our kids commit to the program because they enjoy it,” said Michael Thaine, the high school band teacher.

He leads five different instrumental groups, and advises students who direct four others. In all, Thaine said high school musicians in drama, instrumental and vocal groups perform 60 times during the school year.

“Our philosophy is we need to be out performing,” he said. “That’s how you build performers. It’s not just band and chorus and a musical once a year. In Albion, our kids are performing all the time.”

Thaine and the music teachers also have added a faculty recital to the school’s performing calendar. Thaine, an Albion graduate, said the teachers are committed to the program. Most of them are Albion alumni. If they didn’t graduate from the program, they live in the district.

“We all have a vested interest,” Thaine said.

The high school puts on two musicals a year and two talent shows. There are 126 people in chorus. Students also perform in men’s and women’s select choruses, also well as solo festivals.

“It really is a nice recognition,” Gary Simboli, the musical director and vocal teacher, said about the NAMM honor.

Albion is the only school in the rural GLOW counties – Genesee, Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming – to receive the award this year. Several nearby suburban districts – Brockport, Hilton, Akron and Clarence – earned the recognition.

NAMM said its Best Communities designation “recognizes collaborative, from-the-ground-up efforts of teachers, administrators, students and parents who continually work to keep comprehensive music education as an integral part of the core curriculum.”

Mary Luehrsen, NAMM Foundation executive director, said there is overwhelming research showing that music education leads to higher overall student performance and success in life.

Simboli said the music program is strong in all Albion school buildings. The middle school puts on a full-scale musical, and its students perform with the marching and jazz bands.

Elementary music teachers also lead students in performances throughout the year. The parents of the elementary musicians deserve praise as well, Thaine said, because the parents drive the students to practices before school.

Photos by Tom Rivers

Gregg Albertson, an Albion graduate, sings during a concert tonight with the Golden Notes, an A Cappella group from the College of Saint Rose in Albany. The group performed in the Albion Middle School auditorium. The Brick City Singers, an all-male A Cappella group from the Rochester Institute of Technology, also performed. That group includes Albion graduates Robbie Stilwell and Geoff Symonds. The concert also included the Albion High School Men’s Select Chorus. In the photo below, Steven Musso, a co-musical director for the Golden Notes, sings a solo. Albertson is at the far right.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Village Hall, at right, on East Bank Street is part of a historic downtown business district. Village officials say they want to see the Albion Main Street Alliance continue efforts for downtown revitalization.

ALBION – Before Mayor Dean Theodorakos and the Village Board commit more money to the Albion Main Street Alliance, they want assurances the organization will be viable now that it doesn’t have a paid director.

Before AMSA can give those guarantees, it would like a funding commitment from the village, so AMSA can then reach out to other private investors in the organization.

“The past has been good,” Theodorakos told AMSA board president Maarit Vaga and former president Michael Bonafede on Wednesday. “Now, what about the future?”

The two AMSA leaders said the organization’s fate, and its ability to push for downtown revitalization, may hinge on the village’s level of support. The village designated $10,000 a year to AMSA the past four years, but hasn’t set aside money for the group in the 2013-14 budget, a spending plan that needs to be approved by the end of the month. The village also contributes $5,000 annually with in-kind services.

“Whether the village will support us is critical to our survival,” Vaga told the board.

Katelin Olson, the group’s executive director for three years, resigned on April 1 because AMSA didn’t have money to keep paying her. She has offered to stay on as a volunteer interim director, and work to close out a $477,000 state grant for downtown building and street-scape improvements.

AMSA could continue as a volunteer-only organization, but that would significantly limit the group’s impact and ability to implement a four-point approach for downtown, Vaga said. AMSA was formed after Albion was picked a “Main Street” community in late 2008 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Theodorakos said he strongly backs the National Trust model for revitalizing Main Street through organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring.

AMSA has been working to implement the four-point plan, and those changes haven’t always been well received by some in the community, Bonafede acknowledged.

“Change can be difficult and we’ve brought in a lot of change,” he said.

The community is seeing the fruits of AMSA’s labor with the downtown improvements and an organization of dedicated community stakeholders, including many business owners and residents, Bonafede said. AMSA counted 6,050 volunteer hours in 2012, and 20,000 since the group formed in late 2008.

He asked what more AMSA could do to win financial support, and good will from the board.

“What is the standard we’re judged by?” he asked. “In our minds there is nothing more that we could have done.”

Village officials, including Code Enforcement Officer Ron Vendetti, said “politics” has hurt AMSA’s reputation.

But Bonafede said that was “rubbish.” Community leaders and public officials who sometimes don’t get along often get past that and become friends not long after.

“Personality clashes” shouldn’t get in the way of working for the community, Vaga said.

Vendetti wants AMSA to continue, but he said the group needs to work closer with the village.

Vaga urged the board to be a “cheerleader” for AMSA, to counter some of the naysayers and “misinformation” in the community. And she asked the board to give AMSA some money, which will help the group have more credibility to then seek private funding and other grants for community projects.

AMSA has been hurt by the public funding cuts. The town had been giving $10,000 annually to AMSA but stopped in 2013. The organization also received $10,000 a year its first three years – 2009 through 2011 – from the local development corporation of the Orleans Economic Development Agency.

Albion is one of about 3,000 “Main Street” communities in the U.S. Many of them receive their municipal funding from their local village or city, Bonafede said.

Vaga said the group wants to continue to work for community good.

“We all believe in what could happen in Albion and what Albion could be,” Vaga said. “That is what we’re chasing.”

The mayor said an AMSA funding request will be considered by the board before the budget vote later this month.

30 jobs expected at site owned by Orleans EDA since 2002

Photo by Tom Rivers

A warehouse on McKinstry Street in Albion, which has sat mostly vacant the past 11 years, will be upgraded and turned into a site for electronics recycling. The company expects to add 30 jobs in the next three years.

ALBION – A Canadian company is working to acquire a long-vacant warehouse on McKinstry Street with plans to upgrade the property and turn it into a base for recycling electronics.

The company, BOMET Recycling, Inc., intends to hire 30 people for the site within three years. The company is led by Zhan “Bo” Zhang of Cambridge, Ontario. BOMET recovers metals from electronics and other recyclable materials and reported a $25 million revenue for its operation based in Canada, according to a report from the Orleans Economic Development Agency.

The Orleans EDA owns the property at 152 McKinstry St. The agency’s board today accepted a $176,000 offer from BOMET to buy the 52,000-square-foot property.

The company will spend about $700,000 in addition to the purchase price by replacing the roof, making other building upgrades and buying equipment for the Albion operation.

The EDA board also approved tax incentives that will save the company $94,347 over 10 years. The company will pay $61,034 in local taxes over the next decade as part of the tax agreement approved today.

The site currently isn’t generating any property tax for the village, town, school or county because the EDA has owned the property.

The EDA board approved a 10-year phase-in for property taxes. The company will have the full $13,563 abated the first year. Each year after that it will then pay 10 percent more of the taxes on a $300,000 assessed building until it’s at the full 100 percent.

BOMET also was approved for an $18,000 sales tax break and $1,750 abatement from the mortgage tax.

The change in building ownership will take a burden off the EDA. The agency purchased the warehouse and adjoining parking lot for $527,000 in February 2002.

At that time Washington Mutual was in expansion mode in Albion. The company needed lots of parking, and some local officials hoped WaMu would quickly run out of space at the former Dime Bank complex on East Avenue.

The EDA saw an opportunity next to WaMu with the warehouse and the agency bought it.

The parking lot has proven a need for WaMu, and its successor, JP Morgan Chase. But the big warehouse has been an albatross for the EDA, consuming about $25,000 to $30,000 in annual interest payments plus another $10,000 in utilities, lawn care, sprinkler inspections and other costs, said Jim Whipple, the EDA chief executive officer.

BOMET will have access to 15 of the parking spaces as part of the deal with the EDA. Whipple said he expects the deal to close soon with work starting on the building in the summer.

Photos by Tom Rivers – Village of Albion officials filed a court order on Wednesday for Dan Dunn, owner of sandstone building at 125 Liberty St., to take the structure down within 30 days.

The sandstone building from 1840 was once a base for constructing carriages.

The 5,000-square-foot building has a collapsed roof and floors.

ALBION – A sandstone building that has been a dominant presence along the Erie Canal since 1840 needs to come down in 30 days, Village Code Enforcement Officer Ron Vendetti told the owner on Wednesday.

Vendetti said the building, once used to manufacture carriages more than a century ago, is a “dangerous building.” The 5,000-square-foot building was last used as a furniture warehouse about a half century ago. The roof and floors have collapsed in the building, which is missing several windows.

Dan Dunn, owner of a salvaging company in Medina, owns the building. He said he is working to bring down the dilapidated structure. He will try to preserve and resell as much of the stone as possible.

“I’ll try to get it done and make everybody happy,” Dunn said.

The Albion Historic Preservation Commission approved a hardship case for Dunn in January and voted in support of the building’s demolition.

Dunn said he has been delayed because of the costs of asbestos removal. Certified asbestos removal contractors say removing that from the roof and floors will cost $16,000 to $20,000. When he purchased the building last year, he thought he could remove the asbestos himself.

Dunn has made a career out of reclaiming materials that would otherwise be trashed. He didn’t want to see that fate for the old building, which borders the Erie Canal at 125 Liberty St.

“These days they’re so quick to demolish things and send them to a landfill,” he said. “I like that stone and that building has an awful lot of history.”

Dunn said he will try to recoup as much of the demolition and asbestos removal costs as possible with the resale of the sandstone. He doubts he’ll be able to recover his costs. Village officials say the land at 125 Liberty St. is coveted by the state Canal Corporation, which has a complex next door.

Mayor Dean Theodorakos said he would like to see the land be redeveloped.

“It’s great location along the Erie Canal,” Theodorakos said.

ALBION – Registered sex offenders will be allowed to attend school events, but they will not serve as official school volunteers or chaperones.

The Board of Education made that decision on Monday following two months of review of district policy.

The district will not ban parents and students’ family members who are registered sex offenders from attending school events that are open to the public.

However, if they are registered as a Level 1, 2, or 3 sex offender, they will not be supervising students or providing care for them.

Volunteers and chaperones also will need to complete applications that will be reviewed by district staff. The applicants need to state whether they are a registered sex offender. Those answers will be verified by the district, which has access to a state sex offender database.

School officials have been debating the issue the past two months. A parent to an Albion elementary student showed up at a field trip in October, meeting the class for a tour of a local farm. The parent was a Level 2 sexual offender.

In January, other parents realized that a sex offender was at the school trip in October. The issue became fodder for a Rochester radio station, and the district was questioned about its policy.

The district can’t outright ban sex offenders from the school grounds when those people are trying to attend a school function involving their own children, said Michael Bonnewell, the district superintendent.

“We’ve done everything we can within the law and addressed the parents’ concerns,” said Margy Brown, president of the Board of Education.

Board also urged to prohibit smoking on all town property

ALBION Citing “confusion” in a resolution from a month ago about the state’s new gun control laws, the Albion Town Board weighed in on the issue again on Monday.

This time the board mustered three votes to formally go on the record against the SAFE Act, which has been opposed by most counties in upstate New York.

At last month’s meeting, Town Board members Dan Poprawski and Jake Olles voted against the SAFE Act while Tim Neilans and Matt Passarell abstained from a vote. Town Supervisor Dennis Stirk voted against opposing the SAFE Act.

After the meeting, Stirk realized by casting a negative vote, which he thought was opposing the act, he actually voted in support of the gun control measure.

“I accidently opposed it,” he said, acknowledging the mistake.

He put the issue on the agenda again on Monday, and this time the board secured three votes opposing the SAFE Act with Neilans and Passarell again abstaining.

Passarell said the resolution is symbolic. He noted the Orleans County Legislature already voiced its opposition to the state legislation.

“It really should be done at the county level,” he said about the resolution. Nearly all upstate New York counties, including Orleans, have gone on the record opposing provisions of the SAFE Act and the lack of public input in the legislation.

The legislation has been criticized for being open to interpretation, for requiring seven-magazine rounds when few currently exist in New York, and for requiring documentation of all ammunition sales in the state – “a significant unfunded mandate on business,” according to the resolution.

Another topic from last month’s meeting – the town’s smoking policy – was also debated again on Monday.

Kevin Keenan, program coordinator of Smoke Free NOW, asked the Town Board to reinstate a smoking policy that banned smoking inside town vehicles, and on town property, including the outside grounds and parking lot.

Stirk believes that policy would be impossible to enforce, especially when people come to the Town Hall for court. Many of them often take smoke breaks inside their vehicles.

Keenan said the policy could be tailored to allow for smoking inside private vehicles. Town Highway Superintendent Jed Standish last month said he should be allowed to smoke inside his town-issued highway truck.

But Keenan urged the board to not allow smoking in a publicly owned vehicle. Standish could have passengers or another town employee may someday drive that truck, Kennan said.

Neilans, Passarell and Town Councilman Dan Poprawski voted to support reinstating the full smoking ban last month, but Stirk then tabled the vote for more study of the issue.

He postponed a vote on the matter again on Monday, wanting one more month to consider Keenan’s information.

Keenan noted there is a baseball field behind the town building and an elementary school playground across the street. If town employees were allowed to smoke outside on town property, they may be visible to children, Keenan said.

“It’s a social modeling issue,” Keenan said. “There’s an image you’re trying to project.”

He praised the Village Board for banning smoking about two years ago at all village-owned parks. He urged the Town Board to take a similar no-tolerance policy.

“You’re taking a step backwards,” he said about the current policy, which allows smoking outside on town property. “You’re going in the wrong direction.”