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ALBION – The Albion Lions Club on Friday cooked hamburgers and served lunch to local police officers and deputies.

Lions Club member Lloyd Wright is shown at the grill with Albion police officer Chris Glogowski.

The Lions Club wanted to thank the local law enforcement officers for their work in the community.

About a dozen officers stopped by for lunch, which was prepared in Kelly Conrad’s backyard. His son Dan Conrad is a member of the Lions Club.

Lions Club member Mark Johnson greets Orleans County Sheriff’s deputies Brian Marsceill, left, and Jason Barnum.

The officers and deputies signed a poster from the Lions Club.

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Commencement will be virtual on Friday with senior parade in vehicles

Photos by Tom Rivers: Geno Allport hugs his daughter Callie after she graduated in a personalized ceremony last Thursday. The district did personal ceremonies for all members of the Class of 2020 because of the limitations on large gatherings during the Covid-19 pandemic.

ALBION – It was stretched out nearly 35 hours, the personalized graduation ceremonies for 135 members of the Class of 2020.

Albion completed the individual graduations on Saturday. They were spaced out every 15 minutes. It took more than a week to have all the students come through. They brought their families and close friends.

“It made it more special,” said Mekhi Rivera, who received his diploma last Thursday. “My family was right there with me while I walked through the cafeteria, down the hallway and then right up to the stage.”

Photo courtesy of Sue Starkweather Miller: Salutation Katelyn Spierdowis delivers her speech which will be shared online Friday during a virtual commencement. District Superintendent Michael Bonnewell is at left, next to Kathy Winans, the senior class advisor.

The district tried to create an almost-normal graduation ceremony. Pomp and Circumstance was played, High School Principal Jennifer Ashbery announced their names, the grads walked up a riser, then they walked to the center of the stage and Board of Education President Kathy Harling handed them their diplomas.

They smiled for a photo with the BOE president, and then moved down the line to be congratulated by Kathy Winans, the senior class advisor, and then Michael Bonnewell, the district superintendent.

Then the graduates walked down the riser, stopping briefly to get their picture taken by their families.

Callie Allport gets ready to walk up the riser and accept her diploma. From left on stage include Superintendent Michael Bonnewell, Senior Class Advisor Kathy Winans, BOE President Kathy Harling and Principal Jennifer Ashbery.

Geno Allport takes a video of his daughter Callie Allport as she walks down the riser after receiving her diploma.

After they received their diplomas, students returned to the stage for photos with their families.

It some ways, the graduates liked it better than the traditional ceremony, when 2,000 people pack the high school gym and it can feel hectic after the ceremony, with a big crowd gathered on the front lawn of the school.

This year, it is a quieter commencement but it still proved meaningful to graduates.

Callie Allport had her family and close friends at her graduation. She said she would have liked to have her classmates by her side, but having her family up close proved extra special.

Mekhi Rivera is happy after receiving his diploma last Thursday. He is pictured with his girlfriend Mercy Sugar, his mother Sandra Rivera, and brother Israel Florentino.

In many ways, it felt like the usual high school graduation at Albion. But the gym was;t packed. And there weren’t other classmates in the front rows.

Mekhi Rivera misses his classmates. He said he has only seen a few close friends since the school was closed in mid-March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s been hard not seeing my friends and the teachers,” Rivera said.

Mehkyron Drisdom received his diploma last week in a personalized ceremony.

Mekhi’s mother Sandra Rivera has attended several Albion graduations. She appreciates the district’s efforts to have a ceremony for each graduate because a large ceremony isn’t possible during the Covid-19 pandemic. The state has capped graduations at no more than 150 people.

She would have liked her son to have been with all of his classmates and a large contingent from the community.

“This was different,” she said after her son walked the stage. “I like it with the gym full. You can feel the love in the air.”

The district will compile the individual ceremonies and put them together in a virtual graduation to be aired online Friday at 8:20 p.m. That will include the student speeches by Valedictorian Ashlyn LeBaron, Salutatorian Katelyn Spierdowis and Class President Angel Rosario Soto.

The ceremony will be presented after a senior parade in vehicles on the school campus. Seniors will start to line up at 6:30 p.m. at the middle school.

Molly Wadhams continued one commencement tradition: a photo on the front lawn with the class numbers.

Molly Wadhams would have preferred the big graduation ceremony with all of her classmates. She said the past three months have been difficult for seniors who missed their senior prank, senior skip day, baccalaureate and other time with their friends. She also was looking forward to her final time on stage in a school musical. But the Little Mermaid was also cancelled in April. (Wadhams is majoring in musical theater at Geneseo in the fall.)

Molly Wadhams is happy after receiving her diploma.

She is hopeful the senior prom can still happen. It was scheduled for June 12, but now is scheduled for Aug. 6.

“It has been hard but you can’t change it,” she said about a senior year during a pandemic.

She also liked appreciated that the school changed one policy for the personalized graduations. They let the seniors decorate the mortar boards on the graduation caps. Wadhams’ mortarboard had a musical theme, “End of Act One 2020.”

Her mother Pam Wadhams has had two other children graduate from Albion. As a parent, she wanted Molly to be recognized at graduation with her classmates.

“It’s nice we can do this,” Mrs. Wadhams said about the personalized graduation. “But it is a little sad because her friends aren’t here.”

Molly Wadhams is ending Act One and looks forward to the next chapter in her life.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – A mural of three swans soaring over the Albion countryside was unveiled to the public for the first time today.

The mural is about 23 feet long. It is in the Curtis Room at Hoag Library. That is the main meeting room of the library, which is being used today as a polling site for a primary and special election. The library is closed to the public today except for people voting.

Stacey Kirby Steward, an Albion native, was up high on scaffolding in the Hoag Library on Saturday, working on the mural.

The family of the late Marion Moore paid the artist fee for the mural. Moore served as director of the Swan Library from 1961 to 1973. Albion’s public library was known as Swan Library from 1900 to 2012. The new Hoag Library opened in July 2012.

The mural shows three swans flying over the Erie Canal. The painting also highlights the farm fields, Lake Ontario and a cobblestone schoolhouse. Steward used a drone to get aerial views of Albion last fall, looking down on the area near the Gaines Basin Road canal bridge.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Albion teachers worked in the Community Kitchen on Friday at Christ Church. Della Morales, left, is the high school media specialist. She scoops a serving of ham and scalloped potatoes.

Julie Keller, a second grade teacher, is at right.

“We’ve been looking for more opportunities to let the students we’re still here and we want to be involved with them for a long time,” Morales said.

Albion just recently teachers started volunteering with the kitchen. On Friday, they arrived at 11 a.m. to start preparing a meal for more than 200 people.

This group of five in the kitchen includes, from left: Kelly Uderitz, high school special education teacher, Jay Kovaleski, high school physical education teacher, Chris Keller, middle school English; Dawn Arnold, elementary teacher; and Kelly Adams, whose husband Don is an elementary PE teacher.

Chris Keller, president of the Albion Teachers Association, said the group has been looking for more ways to serve the community.

“We’ve been trying to do more community outreach,” Keller said. “We have awesome people who have just been chomping at the bit.”

He praised the kitchen’s director Faith Smith and her husband Michael for their long-term commitment to preparing the meals and serving the people. Smith, the director the past 11 years, tries to line up donations and secure food to make a well-balanced meal.

Jay Kovaleski, a high school physical education teacher, helps in the kitchen on Friday.

The teachers are going to work in the kitchen the third Fridays this summer. They donated $200 to the kitchen, in addition to volunteering.

Faith Smith, the Community Kitchen director, said the teachers have been a big blessing. They have been prepping, cooking and serving to-go meals.

“They are a great group of people who work very well together,” Smith said. “They not only are giving their time to volunteer but they are also collecting donations for the kitchen.”

She praised them for their efforts on Friday in a hot kitchen, making the scalloped potatoes and ham, and baking brownies.

“They are going above and beyond teaching in the classroom and giving back to the community,” Smith said. “I think what they are doing is wonderful. I am grateful they choose to help and support the Community Kitchen.”

The teachers on Thursday also did a parade through the school district, spending two hours on the road, going by homes in Albion, Barre, Carlton and Gaines.

Betsy Krenning, one of the Albion Teachers Association leaders, said the group with 163 members wanted to let students know they have been missed since the school campus was closed in mid March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Krenning is shown at the Save-A-Lot parking lot while teachers decorated their vehicles.

Mindy Kenward, an Albion fifth grade teacher, drives the truck for the fifth grade teachers during the parade on Thursday.

The ATA also purchased banners that are on the tennis courts, congratulating the Class of 2020.

The group earlier this month also paid for a platter of sandwiches for the staff and The Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center in Albion, and also purchased plants for residents.

The teachers for at least the past five years have had a spot in the downtown during Beggar’s Nite, handing out candy to hundreds of children the Friday before Halloween.

Teachers also have had a booth at the Albion Strawberry Festival, giving out several hundred books for children to read over the summer. This year’s festival was cancelled, but it is expected to be back next June.

Some of the prekindergarten team includes Peggy Lemcke, left, who is retiring as an aide and teacher Jennifer Waters. They had fun during the parade last Thursday.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Christa Construction of Victor has construction equipment and supplies on site for a 40-unit apartment project in Albion.

DePaul Properties of Rochester last year took down three houses on Liberty Street, between the railroad tracks and Beaver Street.

That land will become the DePaul Boxcar Apartments, which will have 36 one-bedroom units and four two-bedroom units. The one bedroom units can have up to two people and the two-bedroom apartments have room for up to four people.

The sign for the project says the new complex should be complete in July 2021.

DePaul will have staff on site to oversee the apartment complex, and also to take residents to appointments with a DePaul van.

DePaul is designing the project to support people with disabilities, including senior citizens and veterans. The organization will do extensive background checks for credit, criminal and sex offender history and evictions.

DePaul is calling the property the Boxcar Apartments to reflect its location next to the railroad.

The new apartments will be created to fill the need for housing for persons earning up to $31,800 for a single person and a family of four earning up to $45,420.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Jim Preston, co-owner of Preston’s Lawncare & Landscaping, works on a new veterans’ memorial at the Courthouse Square in Albion on Saturday morning.

Preston’s brother Aaron put in the stone pavers for the site and Jim is doing the landscaping work.

The Albion Knights of Columbus Council No. 1330 is paying for the memorial, which was approved by the County Legislature last December.

The memorial includes a flag pole, currently flying a POW/MIA flag. A monument and bench will be added to the site.

Jim Preston was joined by his wife Molly and their son Blake with the landscaping work on Saturday.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Stacey Kirby Steward was up high on scaffolding in the Hoag Library today, working on a mural of three swans flying over the countryside in Albion.

The mural is about 23 feet long. It is in the Curtis Room, the main meeting room of the library.

The public will be able to see the finished mural for the first time on Tuesday, with the meeting room used as a polling site in a special election and primary. Voting is from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The family of the late Marion M. Moore paid the artist fee for the mural. Moore served as director of the Swan Library from 1961 to 1973. Albion’s public library was known as Swan Library from 1900 to 2012. The new Hoag Library opened in July 2012.

The mural shows three swans flying over the Erie Canal. The painting also highlights the farm fields, Lake Ontario and some of the cobblestone houses.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Jodi Zeppetella, an insurance agent for Bentley Brothers Inc., carries a box to a trunk during Friday’s food distribution in Albion.

The distribution is coordinated by Community Action of Orleans & Genesee and the Orleans County Office for the Aging.

The groups put a call out for volunteers and Bentley Brothers brought four employees on Friday, including owner Laura Olinger.

The Orleans County YMCA and CRFS also had staff help with the distribution for the first time in Albion. The Y has also been helping with the distributions in Medina.

Laura Olinger, owner of Bentley Brothers, joined in the distribution. She was there with some of her employees including Jodi Zeppetella, Lisa Ray and Brianna Carr.

“I feel the need to give back,” Olinger said. “It’s the right thing to do for our community.”

Next week the Friday distribution will be in Holley for the first time from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at parking lot for Holley Pharmacy and the former grocery store. People are getting three boxes: mixed dairy, cooked meat and produce. Each box weighs about 25 pounds.

Volunteers moved more than 900 boxes of food on Friday in Albion.

This round of food distributions introduces a new state-funded program called Nourish New York. This funding allows Foodlink to purchase local product.

Some of the Foodlink product also is from the federal USDA’s new initiative called CFAP (Coronavirus Food Assistance Program). In this program, distributors who would normally serve schools, restaurants, and municipal programs are able to pre-pack boxes of perishable product and deliver to distributions being done all over the country, said Melissa Blanar, OFA director in Orleans County.

The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orleans County also is hosting a USDA farmers-to-families food distribution this coming Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the 4-H fairgrounds on Route 31 in Knowlesville. Those 1,200 boxes of produce each weigh about 20 pounds.

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Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The Medina Lions Club presented a $500 check on Friday to the Community Kitchen in Albion. Faith Smith, left, accepted the funds on behalf of the kitchen. She has been the director the past 11 years.

Billy Roman, center, is president of the Medina Lions Club. He is joined by Lions Club member Mary Hare.

Roman said hunger has no boundaries. The Lions Club wanted to help an organization that is serving many in the community.

The kitchen has been serving more than 200 hot meals on Fridays. The kitchen is at the Christ Episcopal Church on West Park Street.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The home of the Pate family on West Academy Street was badly damaged by a fire this morning.

The fire started in the cupola of the house, said Ondrea Pate, who lives in the home with her husband Angelo, their three daughters and grandchildren.

Mrs. Pate said she her loud noises and assumed it was her grandchildren. When she outside she saw what she initially thought was fog. But then realized it was smoke and the upstairs was on fire.

Everyone got out of the house safely.

Flames shoot high from the roof of the house at 19 West Academy St.

Firefighters were dispatched to the scene at 7:01 a.m. Albion, Medina, Barre, Clarendon and Shelby firefighters responded to the scene.

Firefighters check the upstairs of the house. The heat from the fire melted some of the siding.

The home is a grand house across from the former grammar school.

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Summer Reading Program will be online and meeting rooms aren’t available

Press Release, Hoag Library

ALBION – Hoag Library is open to the public as of Monday, June 15, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Patrons are asked to wear a face covering, sanitize hands upon entering the building, and maintain proper social distance. Special accommodations for those unable to wear a face covering can be made by contacting Betty Sue Miller, Library Director at bmiller@nioga.org or (585) 589-4246.

Patrons who do not want to enter the library can utilize “Library-To-Go” to request Hoag Library materials – we are unable to borrow books from other NIOGA libraries. All returned items are quarantined for 72 hours and checked-in fine-free.

At this time all programming, including this year’s Summer Reading Program “Imagine Your Story,” is moved online and meeting rooms are unavailable to the public. Those wishing to participate in Summer Reading can visit www.hoaglibrary.org/summer-reading or join the Facebook group “HLSRP2020.”

Those interested in filling one of the three open Trustee positions are asked to submit a name and address to hoag_library@yahoo.com by 5 p.m. on June 24. Residents in the Hoag Library service area of central Orleans County is required. A special Trustee meeting will be held via Zoom at 7 p.m. on June 24 to review submitted interested forms.

Library services will be unavailable Tuesday, June 23, during the Primary Elections.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION –Albion teachers went on a two-hour parade through the school district today, starting at 7 p.m. They wanted students to know they have been missed during the past three months of at-home learning.

Some of the prekindergarten team include from left: Peggy Lemcke (who is retiring as an aide) and teachers Jennifer Waters and Deanna Moore. They are shown on King Street, near the start of the parade. The teachers decorated their vehicles in the parking lot at Save-A-Lot.

Music teachers Karen Conn, left, and Megan Zambito give an enthusiastic greeting to students who were on Main Street.

A group of fifth grade teachers are part of the group of about 25 vehicles that started from the Save-A-Lot parking lot on Route 31.

Casey Flynn, a foreign language teacher, greets students on the route.

Bruce Blanchard, a middle school social studies teachers, drives a vehicle celebrating history. His wife Jennifer is a special education teacher. She is on the back of the truck with Rich Gannon, a high school social studies teacher.

High school math teachers Amber Sidari, front, and Suzanne Newton dressed as “Pi-rates.”

Megan McDonald is a computer teacher for the district.

The teachers head down Main Street in Albion to Barre. The parade route went through Albion, Barre, Gaines and Carlton.

Some of the Albion Athletics float members include social studies teacher David Skrip and physical education teacher Melody Beecher, who both coach multiple sports for Albion.

Matthew and Crystal Hand and their kids let the teachers know they were missed and appreciated during the past three months of learning at home.

Art teachers Tina Burgett, driving, and Melissa Prince had fun in the parade.

The Seibert family set up in the parking lot at Save-A-Lot to take in the parade and to thank teachers for their work this year. Pictured from left include Tim and Mia Seibert and their son Thailer.

Fifth grade teachers in the parade include from left: Meghan Kania, Dana Martin and Robin Bower. They are shown headed down East Park Street.

The procession of about 25 vehicles moves down East Park Street, and then would turn on McKinstry Street. It concluded at Save-A-Lot parking lot.

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District had 3 times as many voters as last year

ALBION – The school district’s $36,841,032 million budget passed overwhelmingly, 1,327 to 321, and district voters elected John Kast, Chris Kinter and Kurt Schmitt to the Board of Education.

The district counted absentee ballots today and announced the results tonight. The 1,648 votes for the budget was about three times as many as the 562 who voted for the budget during the last election on May 21, 2019.

This year’s election was done with absentee ballots due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The $36,841,032 school budget is up 3.62 percent or $1,285,522 from the $35,555,510 in 2019-20. However, the budget keeps the tax levy at $8,449,094 in property taxes, the same as in 2019-20. This is the 12th time in the past 14 years the school district has either kept taxes flat or reduced them.

The district’s state aid includes $250,000 for a Covid response. With students out of in-person school since mid-March, some students are expected to need academic intervention services next school year to help catch up. The district is expecting it will need to hire more staff to help students after this prolonged time out of school.

The budget also includes funding for a superintendent’s search with Bonnewell to retire on June 30, 2021. The Board of Education would like to have an interim superintendent to start the school year with Bonnewell switching to a different administrative role in evaluating teachers.

Albion also is budgeting $85,200 for its share of a grant program to replace school doors and add more security cameras. That expense depends on Albion receiving a COPS grant that covers 75 percent of the cost.

• Proposition #2 (Bus Purchase) – 1,314, Yes; 328, No.

The proposition authorizes the district to spend up to $525,000 from the Bus Purchase Reserve Fund to purchase buses for the 2021-2022 school year.

• Proposition #3 (Hoag Library) – 1,128, Yes; 518, No.

This proposition would allow the district to collected $713,000 for Hoag Library. That is down from the $714,920 in 2019-20.

• Board of Education election results, with three seats available:

1. John Kast, 945 votes. He will serve from the election until June 30, 2025.

2. Christopher Kinter, 780 votes. He will serve from July 1, 2020 until June 30, 2025.

3. Kurt Schmitt, 759 votes. He will serve the remainder of a term through June 30, 2021.

4. Marlene Seielstad, 626 votes

5. Joyce Riley, 614 votes

6. Gregg Boose Sr., 426 votes

7. Kevin Doherty, 375 votes

Boose and Riley are current board members. Chantelle Sacco is finishing a five-year term and didn’t seek re-election.

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Residents in the villages of Albion and Medina are annoyed about fireworks being set off in recent days and weeks.

It’s a problem in other communities, too, Medina Mayor Mike Sidari posted on Facebook today.

He said the Medina Police Department has arrested one person so far due to the fireworks displays.

Sidari urges people to call the police at 585-798-5602 if they know who is setting off the fireworks, where they are being set off or where they are being sold.

Albion Police Chief Roland Nenni said fireworks are becoming a problem. The ony legal fireworks in the state are “sparkling devices that are ground-based or handheld devices that produce a shower of colored sparks and or a colored flame, audible crackling or whistling noise and smoke.”

Firecrackers, aerial fireworks and those that make noise from an explosion are not legal to use or possess, Nenni said.

“We usually allow for a not as strict enforcement approach around the 4th of July, but there have been excessive uses of them for the past several weeks,” he said. “The main issue that we are seeing is that certain people are not just using loud illegal fireworks for a one time ‘show,’ they are doing them days on end and causing annoyance to neighbors and others.”

Albion police officers have been instructed to charge persons who are creating a nuisance with them. Charges can range from violation noise level charges to misdemeanor unlawful possession of fireworks.

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