Photos by Tom Rivers

BATAVIA – Jami Allport, executive director of the Genesee-Orleans Ministry of Concern, speaks to about 130 people on Saturday night during a black tie gala for “The Agency of Last Resort.”

The Ministry of Concern started a gala benefit in 2019 to raise funds for the agency and expand its base of supporters.

The Ministry of Concern has expanded its services for people in need, including reaching out to those who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless.

GOMOC in late March moved into its new offices in the First Presbyterian Church of Albion after 15 years at the Albion Visitor’s Center on the third floor at 121 North Main St.

The Buffalo party band, Captain Tom and the Hooligans, provided high-energy music for the evening. Trevor Jennings, an Albion, is drummer for the band that plays polka, Celtic folk, folk rock and other genres.

These interns, Micky Stowell (left) and Abigail Kinkaid, pull the tickets and announce the winners for about 25 items and baskets up for auction. Jami Allport and her husband Geno are at right.

Chris Forrester was one of the keynote speakers at the event.

One of the keynote speakers during the gala, Chris Forrester, shared how GOMOC was critical in getting her through a rough patch.

“They helped hold me together,” Forrester said, noting former director Nyla Gaylord and board member Sister Delores O’Dowd. “They didn’t judge me.”

Forrester said she was living by the canal bank when GOMOC helped her secure housing, set goals and get back on track.

She is now an active volunteer with GOMOC, and makes it a personal mission to help the local homeless population.

She will drive at night looking for people who are homeless, especially during the cold weather months, and will try to connect them to the warming center or other housing.

Jami Allport, the executive director, said GOMOC assists people in unexpected emergencies, and helps people in other crises, including mental health, domestic violence and addiction.

“We are here to fight alongside people,” Allport said. “Remember, they are people.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Sarah Thom, a member of Albion’s Class of 2024, reads 1 John 3: 1-2 during a baccalaureate service on Sunday evening at the First Baptist Church of Albion.

About 30 seniors attended the service, which is optional. There were 11 local clergy members who participated in the baccalaureate which is organized by the Albion Ministerium. About 180 people attended.

The Rev. Jason Tarnowski, pastor of Community of Hope (Albion Free Methodist Church), gives a prayer of blessing for the graduates.

He asked the students to face the crowd and for family and friends to stretch out a hand to show their support.

In his prayer, Tarnowski asked God “to love, guide and protect these graduates in everything they do. Please watch over them as they move on to new adventures.”

The Rev. Susan Boring, pastor of the Eagle Harbor United Methodist Church, stands with graduates, including Liana Flugel, as they lit candles. The students were told God’s light and love with be with them at all times, even in dark places. Graduates were also offered a cross necklace.

The Rev. Susan Thaine, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, gives a blessing to Auston Johnson.

Jason Anstey performed a trumpet solo, “The Church’s One Foundation.”

Father Mark Noonan, pastor of a family of Catholic parishes including in Albion, gave the keynote address. He said choosing positive words and encouragement builds strong and confident people.

He told the graduates that no matter what happens in their lives Jesus, the Good Shepherd, will always love them.

“Every one of you is a beloved child of God,” Noonan said. “That defines you more than anything else.”

Event raises funds and awareness for Special Olympics

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Albion students in Sheri Berg’s life skills class carried the torch and were part of a law enforcement torch run today in a benefit for the Special Olympics. Here they head up the main driveway leading the high school after being on East Avenue.

This is the second year the torch run was held in Albion. The students ran the first half of the course.

Law enforcement from the Albion Police Department, Orleans County Sheriff’s Office, State Police and DEC joined students on the run which went about 2.7 miles.

Albion Police Chief David Mogle holds the torch while the law enforcement officers gathered near the start line in the village’s municipal lot on Platt Street next to Dubby’s Tailgate.

Turnout was about 40 for the torch run, more than double the debut last year.

“We hope to get even more next year,” Mogle said.

Emily Lanham, an Albion student, takes a turn carrying the torch. She is surrounded by many of her classmates with local law enforcement right behind the students.

Alex Yankevich carries the torch while the group heads down Route 31 past the Cone Zone. Devon Pahuta, a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office, is in back at left.

This group, led by Michele Fitzwater with the torch, passes in front of the Middle School where many students and teachers lined the sidewalk to cheer on the group.

Jeff Wilson, a retired Border Patrol officer, carries the torch while the group runs on Main Street. Wilson is the Western New York director of the law enforcement torch run.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Erin Weese, a senior at Albion, holds the winning poster for the upcoming Albion Strawberry Festival. The 36^th annual festival will be June 7-8 and features a theme, “Out of this World.”

The festival committee picked the theme as a tie-in to all the hoopla around the solar eclipse on April 8. Weese created a poster with aliens and a spaceship. The poster will be displayed around the community to promote the two-day event which includes live music, arts and crafts vendors, food, a parade and other entertainment.

Brynn Dugan holds her poster that came in second.

Krystlin Platt created this poster that came in third place.

The Strawberry Festival also named the royalty for the event. Pictured from left includes royalty chairwoman McKenna Boyer; Allyson Bruski, princess; Anthony Napoli, prince; Lucy Rivers, queen; and Julia Button, queen.

They will be part of the parade on June 8 and serve as ambassadors for the event. See New York With Us (a travel website headed by Peter Bartula of Waterport) sponsored the royalty. The royalty needed a character reference from an Albion teacher, and needed to list some of their activities at school, ways they help their family and the community, and also tell about a person who inspires them.

Anthony is a seventh-grader who plays soccer and tries to helps his neighbors. He said soccer star Lionel Messi inspires him.

Allyson is a seventh-grader involved in soccer, basketball, swimming and softball, as well as FFA, the Yearbook Club and Multicultural Club. She enjoys helping her family, and said her older sister inspires her.

Julia, a sophomore, plays varsity soccer and track and field. She is in the Drama Cub, Select Choir and is helps her family with chores and jumps in for community events, including the Easter egg hunt, church basket auction and modified track meets. She picked her brother Hayden as her inspirational figure.

Lucy, a senior, plays varsity soccer and tennis, and also has been involved in the drama program, Student Council as president, high school band, Girl Scouts, The Class of 2024 vice president and Rotary Interact president. She works at Walgreens, and helps her family and at community events, including annual garbage pickups along the railroad tracks. She said her brother Reuben is an inspirational person with a kind heart.

Keith Palmer creates images from wood-cut printing; Lift bridge print is fundraiser for Care Net

Photo by Tom Rivers: Albion native Keith Palmer holds a framed print of the lift bridge on Main Street in Albion that he made using a micro-chisel to carve into wood. He has 20 of the limited edition prints for sale with the proceeds to be given to Care Net of Greater Orleans. He is shown in Care Net’s Long Haul Gallery which opened a year ago.

ALBION – Since he retired as superintendent of Elba Central School about five years ago, Keith Palmer has moved from Albion with his wife Diane to Washington, DC to be closer to their adult children.

Palmer also has explored his artistic passion that he had sidelined during an busy career in public education. He also was a principal at Kendall and Pembroke.

Palmer took a silk-screen class in Washington, D.C. and enjoyed the class but his apartment in D.C. is too small to have equipment for silk-screen printing.

He then tried a wood-cut printing class at the Smithsonian. Palmer found he had a knack for using a micro-chisel to carve into wood in an old-time artform going back many centuries. Wood-cut printing also can be done at his kitchen table so space isn’t an issue.

“You need a steady hand and patience,” Palmer said.

He was back in Albion on Tuesday to drop off a framed print of the Main Street lift bridge in Albion. It will be sold by Care Net of Greater Orleans as a limited edition fundraiser. A framed print is $450, with the 10-inch by 22-inch print $300 without a frame.

Palmer spent about 175 hours on the project, carving the tiny details, including the lines between some of the sandstone blocks near the lift bridge. Once Palmer is done delicately carving into the wood, he puts ink on the surface and then prints it on paper, using the back of a spoon to press the paper against the carved wood block.

Care Net opened the Long Haul Gallery a year ago and the art work is sold to benefit the center. Wende Swick, the Care Net director, said the gallery so far has raised about $4,000 for Care Net, while also displaying some impressive works by artists.

Palmer was asked by his friend Marc O’Hearn to create a piece for Care Net. Palmer already is building a reputation in DC for his prints. He has been featured in the Washington Printmaker’s Gallery at Georgetown. One of his prints of his son Ryan’s cat was featured to promote an arts festival in Georgetown.

Palmer graduated from Houghton College with a teaching degree, and minored in art. He said he is grateful to use his art to help a cause in Albion.

“We like the city, but Albion will always be home,” Palmer said.

The Care Net center offers pregnancy testing, education and limited ultrasounds. Besides pregnancy testing and support, Care Net also offers STI testing and parenting classes for both males and females. Care Net also gives out material aid such as diapers, wipes, blankets and clothing up to size 24 months, when available.

File photo by Tom Rivers: David Warren of Kent plays Taps during a memorial service at Mount Albion Cemetery for the Albion Fire Department on June 6, 2019.

ALBION – The Albion Fire Department welcomes the community to attend the department’s annual memorial service at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Mount Albion Cemetery.

The service will be at the fireman’s memorial on the west side of the cemetery near the front by the koi fish pond.

The department will remember about 150 of its firefighters who have passed away since the department’s formation in 1831.

The memorial pond was dedicated to the Albion firefighters in 1983, when Donna Rodden was the mayor.

A bell will be rung when each name is announced.

Photo courtesy of Isaac Robinson

ALBION – The honor guard is shown at Mount Albion Cemetery by the Civil War veterans’ section this morning.

The rain may have forced organizers to cancel the Memorial Day parade and an outdoor service, but the honor guard still went to 10 different sites – at cemeteries and monuments – to pay their respects to veterans.

The Honor Guard includes members of the American Legion and VFW in Albion. They went to the VFW Post, the monument at Veterans Park (at Linwood and Brown), old St. Joseph’s Cemetery on Brown Road, new St. Joseph’s Cemetery on Route 31, Mount Albion Cemetery, the Fancher War Memorial, Otter Creek Cemetery, Waterport Cemetery, Carlton Cemetery and concluded at the American Legion.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Jane Holland, left, and her sister-in-law Carol Bergeman were in Albion this afternoon, delivering geraniums at Waterman Park where there is a bronze statue in the likeness of Charles Howard in a Santa suit.

Holland of Williamsville is Howard’s granddaughter. Carol of Lewiston is the wife of Holland’s late brother, Charles Bergeman.

Holland said her grandfather, who ran a school for Santas in Albion from 1937 to 1966, loved having red geraniums around his Albion home.

Holland and Bergeman wanted to bring the flowers today in memory of Charles Howard and also Charles Bergeman. The younger Charles was in Albion on June 10 last year when the bronze statue was dedicated in honor of Charles Howard. Bergeman was a model for artist Brian Porter to create the cheeks for the face of the statue.

Bergeman later that month was diagnosed with cancer. He passed away at age 64 on Oct. 31.

Carol Bergeman chats with Gary Derwick of the Albion Betterment Committee while they planting geraniums at the park with a Santa theme on Main Street in Albion.

“We wanted to add some color and help make it pretty for the summer months,” Bergeman said. “The elves left the flowers.”

Albion Betterment Committee directors, from left, Gary Kent, Joe Gehl and Gary Derwick helped Holland and Bergeman get the flowers ready today.

The site includes a large mural of Santa in sleigh flying over downtown Albion and the Courthouse Square. Stacey Kirby Steward created that 24-foot-long mural in 2018.

Historic cemetery would otherwise run out of space in 10-15 years

Photos by Tom Rivers: Jason Zicari, the superintendent of Mount Albion cemetery, stands on farmland that will become part of an expanded Mount Albion Cemetery. The Village Board submitted a purchase offer at $7,000 an acre for about 30 acres. A final survey needs to be done for a precise measurement of the land south of the current cemetery.

ALBION – Mount Albion is running out of room for new gravesites. The historic cemetery on Route 31 is on pace to run out of gravesites in about 10-15 years, said Jason Zicari, Mount Albion’s superintendent the past 28 years.

The Village Board has approved a purchase offer to acquire about 30 acres of farmland south of the cemetery at $7,000 per acre. That cost at about $210,000 will come out of a cemetery fund and won’t affect the village’s general fund.

A final survey is being done to determine the exact acreage – which will be multiplied by $7,000 for the final cost.

“We have secured the property,” Zicari said. “That’s the main thing and we did it at no cost to the taxpayers because this is coming out of the cemetery fund.”

He expects the 30 acres would be developed in phases, and may not be needed for at least a decade.

Mount Albion started the Deerfield section in 2001 with space for about 1,200 grave sites. There are only about 300 to 400 left.

The cemetery opened in 1843 and has about 20,000 gravesites on about 80 acres. The cemetery does about 75 burials a year and sells about 50 to 60 gravesites annually.

When Mount Albion was nearing capacity in 2001, it opened the new Deerfield section with about 1,200 gravesites. There are about 300 to 400 left there. Zicari also said there are undeveloped areas in the Mapleview section in the southwest corner and near the pump house in the front of the cemetery on the west side.

There are also many unclaimed graves sprinkled throughout the cemetery including in the older sections on the east side. Zicari said some families would buy many plots but didn’t always need all of them. Some people have preferred a plot in the older section where the spot may be high on a terrace or near a tree.

This road goes along the southern perimeter of the cemetery. The land the village is to acquire is on the other side of a row of trees and brush.

The new land is next to the southwest corner of the cemetery. Zicari said it should be fairly easy to expand, running paved paths by clearing out some of the hedges.

Once the deal is closed, the village can begin to plan for the future expansion.

“We will do it in phases,” Zicari said. “But that is all to be determined.”

This site rendering from Fagan Engineers in Elmira shows how trucks would turn and enter the site to make deliveries.

ALBION – Dollar General is looking to build a new 10,640-square-foot store in the village on Route 31 across from the high school.

The store would be next to the Cone Zone ice cream business, next door to the east. The Broadway Group LLC from Huntsville, Ala. would demolish an existing building, which recently sold used cars, and put up the new store.

The Orleans County Planning Board this evening recommended the Village of Albion approve a variance request for the parking spaces for the store.

The village code requires one spot for every 200 square feet for a retail store. The Dollar General would need 53 parking spots under the village code, but The Broadway Group sought a variance to allow for 35 spaces. The site is already tight for space and many of the customers come and go fairly quickly, said Dan Strong, a member of the County Planning Board.

Strong, a former Town of Albion code enforcement officer, is handling the code enforcement duties for the project because the village code officer, Chris Kinter, is the owner of the site for the proposed store at 327 East Ave.

Dollar General said the store size proposed for Albion typically have 32 parking spaces. The company could add more, but that would result in more pavement and less green space, the Broadway Group wrote in its request for a variance.

Dollar General will provide a more detailed description of the store’s appearance and parking lot lighting when it seeks site plan review and a special use permit. First the company wants to make sure it will have a variance to have fewer parking spaces required in the code.

Dollar General sells general merchandise and food. It used to have a store in Albion on Route 31 across from the former GCC campus. The former Dollar General building is now used by a bottle redemption business.

Dollar General has several stores in Orleans County: 11273 Maple Ridge Rd., Medina; 11349 Ridge Rd. in Ridgeway; 30 North Main St. in Lyndonville; 16684 Route 31 in Holley; and 16669 Roosevelt Highway in Kendall.

Photo from Albion Central School: Wayne Wadhams, right, is congratulated by Mickey Edwards, the Albion school district superintendent, for being recognized by the New York State School Board Association.

Press Release, Albion Central School

ALBION – Wayne Wadhams, president of the Albion Board of Education, has been recognized by the New York State School Board Association for being an active member in workshops and other programs.

Albion Central School Superintendent Mickey Edwards presented Wadhams with a certificate of recognition during the May 6 BOE meeting. Wadhams has earned a Level 4 Lifetime Achievement Award through the NYSSBA Board of Excellence Recognition Program.

“We are grateful for Wayne’s continued dedication to, not just the Board, but the district as a whole,” Edwards said. “We are honored to have him as a leader in our district and as a role model for our Purple Eagles.”

The NYSSBA program is designed to acknowledge members who strive to continually expand their knowledge and skills through NYSSBA trainings, workshops, events and activities.

For this achievement, Wayne is awarded a certificate for a free registration to NYSSBA’s annual convention, a commemorative plaque and an executive pen set.

Editor’s Note: Wadhams retired in June 2017 after a career as a technology teacher and coach – football, track and field, and girls basketball. Wadhams started his teaching career at Albion at the former Waterport Elementary School.

He also has served on the board for the Orleans/Niagara BOCES and was a member of the Leadership Orleans Class of 2022.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Albion police officers Alexandra Reigle and Jacob Cotriss were recognized during the Village Board meeting on Wednesday. They are shown with Trustee William Gabalski, left, and Deputy Mayor Joyce Riley.

The Village Board declared the day as “Blue Heroes Day” in honor of the two officers who tried to save a man in a burning trailer at Oak Orchard Estates on April 15.

Reigle and Cotriss arrived on the scene at about 11:45 p.m. on April 14 before firefighters. The two officers weren’t wearing protective gear to withstand the fire but still tried to get the man out of the trailer.

William E. Christy, 68, died in the fire at his home at 30 North St. Neighbors also tried to get him out but the trailer but they were unable to break through windows and locked doors.

“These two young officers put their lives on the line for the community,” Riley said.

Reigle and Cotriss both were presented with framed proclamations from the Village Board. The board declared “Blue Heroes Day” in honor of the two officers and urged “all citizens to thank them for their tireless efforts dedicated to serving our community and its citizens.”

The board states in the proclamation it wants to “recognize the heroic efforts out forth by these officers to save a life that was lost in a fire.”