New turf football field among first projects, expected to be ready in fall

Photo by Tom Rivers: The end of the Albion football field is shown last week. The grass field will become turf in a project expected to be ready in time for the fall football season.

ALBION – The Board of Education on Monday evening unanimously approved eight construction bids totaling $19,300,000.

Another bid for $2.6 million is expected to be approved next month, bringing the total to $21.9 million.

That is well in budget and leaves a balance of $1,084,507 in contingencies, said Kevin Donaghue, executive vice president Campus Construction Management which is assisting the district in the bid preparation and oversight of the project.

School district residents on Dec. 14, 2021 approved the $26.69 million capital project that includes all three schools, as well as the bus garage, and new synthetic playing surfaces for football, soccer and softball.

After a design phase for the project and review and approval by the state Education Department, the project went out to bid to contractors. The bids were opened last week and on Monday the board gave its approval, with one more contract needing additional review.

“The big picture is the project is right on budget,” Donaghue told the Board of Education.

The bids accepted on Monday include:

• Site work – $6,295,082 by Diehl Development
• General Trades – $5,441,000 by Javen Construction
• Mechanical – $2,797,700 by T. Bell
• Plumbing – $1,636,300 by Blackmon Farrell
• Playground equipment – $257,027 by GameTime
• Scoreboards – $124,725 by Toth
• BMS (Building Management System) Controls – $339,068 by Day

Day is also the low bidder for access controls at $2,596,942 that is expected to be approved at next month’s meeting. That system will allow badges to lock and unlock doors, and can do a district-wide lockdown of all classroom doors.

Contractors will soon be a presence on campus with most of the work happening after school.

The first projects will upgrades to the district officer, with the district office staff moving to the E wing of the elementary school during the work at the district office.

Contractors also will be pushing to replace the grass field at the football stadium with turf. That effort is expected to start in April with a push to be done in time for the football season in late August-September.

The softball field and varsity soccer also will get turf fields. That will start this year but isn’t expected to be done until 2024. The varsity field is expected to be available this upcoming season, Donaghue said.

He went over the construction schedule during Monday’s board meeting. The schedule includes:

• Site Work – In 2023 the work includes the football field replacement, track resurfacing, multi-purpose field replacement (softball and soccer – starting June 1, 2023 and ending July 15, 2024), elementary school hot water service line, elementary school drop-off loop and sidewalks, elementary school playground fence replacement and high school hot water service line.

In 2024, the site work includes middle school hot water service line, tennis court replacement, middle school drop-off loop reconstruction, concrete sidewalk replacements, playground replacement at middle school, baseball field drainage improvements, JV softball field drainage improvements.

• Construction at elementary school – In 2023, district office renovation, classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at E wing (Nov. 6 to Dec. 1), classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at D wing (Dec. 11 to Jan. 5), crawl space plumbing and hot water heaters, EIFS replacement, carbon monoxide detectors/fire alarm, and electrical abatement and replacements.

In 2024, classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at C wing (Jan. 1 to Feb. 9), classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at B wing (Feb. 19 to March 15), classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at A wing (March 25 to April 19) and classroom doors and plumbing fixtures at G wing (April 29 to May 24), emergency generator replacement, doors/hardware/security enhancements, main office windows and fire shutter, and gymnasium folding partition replacement.

• Construction at middle school (basement) – In 2023, pool deck structural repairs, boiler room abatement and demolition, boiler room plumbing renovations, ad pool pumps.

In 2024, electrical room A/C and auditorium A/C.

• Construction at middle school (first floor) – In 2023, domestic hot water repairs, replace insulated window panels, gymnasium renovations, pool lighting and locker room renovation, replace ANSUL system, exhaust fan and relief air work, flooring abatement, flooring installation, carbon monoxide detectors and fire alarm, and electrical service component replacements.

In 2024, doors/hardware/security enhancements and auditorium AC.

• Construction at middle school (second floor) – In 2023, exhaust fan and relief air work, replace insulated window panels, flooring abatement, and flooring installation.

In 2024, convert lockers into storage rooms, electrical room A/C, auditorium A/C, and doors/hardware/security enhancements.

• Construction at middle school (third floor) – In 2023, exhaust fan and relief air work.

In 2024, doors/hardware/security enhancements.

• Construction at high school (first floor) – In 2023, library door reconstruction, window lintel replacements, domestic hot water heaters and carbon monoxide detectors and fire alarm.

In 2024, replace lockers (with wider units), doors/hardware/security upgrades, gym renovations and gym locker room renovations.

• Construction at high school (second floor) – In 2023, library door reconstruction, window lintel replacements, domestic hot water heaters, and carbon monoxide detectors and fire alarm.

In 2024, replace lockers, doors/hardware/security upgrades, gym renovations, gym locker room renovations, gym HVAC abatement and demo, gym HVAC installation.

Courtesy of Wolfpack Multisport: The medal for those completing the Wayne Burlison Colon Cancer Awareness 5K or half marathon on March 25 pays homage to the late Wayne Burlison, an elementary school music teacher at Albion who also enjoyed long distance running. Burlison passed away from colon cancer at age 36 on March 26, 2014.

ALBION – There are two big changes so far for the annual Wayne Burlison Colon Cancer Awareness 5K in Albion set for March 25.

This year there will be an option for a half marathon, and there will be medals for those who complete either course.

Bert Galloman, the race director, teased out the medals on social media last week. In the past, those who finished the race received shirts, hats and gloves.

Galloman wants to recognize the efforts of those who complete the courses, and pursue fitness goals during the winter.

“We are doing medals this year because you never know where someone is in their athletic journey,” Galloman said. “Each race is a way to celebrate their achievement and we want to help grow the community. We also love seeing the joy on athletes’ faces as they cross the finish line and get their medal around their necks – there is no better feeling at the finish.”

Galloman wanted to include the half marathon, a distance conquered several times by Burlison, a former Albion elementary school band teacher who passed away at age 36 from colon cancer on March 26, 2014.

Burlison promoted fitness in the community through a Run for God program that took people from the couch to a 5K in less than three months. He lost more than 150 pounds through exercise and better nutrition.

The 5k course starts on Clarendon Road near the elementary school and goes east on Route 31 to Mount Albion Cemetery. After running in the cemetery, participants come back out on 31 and head back to the elementary school parking lot.

The half marathon also starts ear the school but heads south and then east through some of the country roads on County House and Holley roads. Runners will come back along Route 31, and take a loop through the cemetery.

The medals includes different neck ribbons for those who complete the 5K and those that finish the much longer half marathon at 13.1 miles.

Galloman said the half marathon should provide motivation to keep people moving at longer distances during the winter. He also thinks it will be a nice kickoff to the running season with half marathons in Rochester in April and Buffalo in May.

Erin Smith, a triathlete from Albion, helped plan the half marathon course. It avoids the towpath, which can be muddy or snow laden in late March.

Smith thinks the timing in late March fulls a void in the racing calendar, especially for a longer distance. Lockport hosts a 10-mile race on Feb. 11 and there aren’t too many longer distance races after that before there are several in the spring.

“I’d like to see what we can pull in for the longer distance,” Smith said. “I love this community and I love running, and we’re able to mesh the two together. Hopefully this will inspire people to try to get out and try this half marathon.”

 Proceeds from the race have gone to a memorial scholarship for Albion at Albion Central School and also were used towards a walking trail at Bullard Park.

“It’s such a great cause,” Smith said. “Wayne was such a loved person and this was his most-loved distance.”

For more on the race, click here.

‘It’s just magical’ – library director Betty Sue Miller

Photos by Tom Rivers: This painting shows three raccoons working on a concoction while following a recipe in the popular cooking book, Joy of Cooking. It is mounted on the end of shelf with books in the Home and Family section. The cooking raccoons are one of six new paintings at Hoag Library created by Albion native Stacey Kirby Steward.

ALBION – Walk into Hoag Library and there is an eye-catching painting of a fox reading a book, The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl. It is mounted on the wall between two book shelves of popular new fiction books. The fox’s eyes look up from the page and make contact with the viewer.

Round the corner and there is another painting near the printer across from the tables of computers. That painting shows a skunk engrossed in Dale Carnegie’s self-improvement book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Stacey Kirby Steward, an Albion native who lives in Spencerport, created six paintings of animals engaged in reading. She thought of the books to pair with the animals, with some suggestions from former children’s librarian Theresa Gaylard.

A grant from the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council (GO ART!) funded the project.

Hoag Library executive director Betty Sue Miller, left, and Stacey Kirby Steward hold her painting of a beaver building a dam. The beaver consults “Cathedral” by David Macaulay. In this critically acclaimed book, Macaulay uses pen and ink drawings to show the construction of a great medieval cathedral, the imaginary Cathedral of Chutreaux.

Kirby Steward shows a beaver making an impressive dam with gothic arches. This painting is now mounted over the sink in the children’s library room.

A fox reads The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl. This painting is the favorite for Betty Sue Miller, the library director. She likes the fox’s eyes.

Betty Sue Miller, the library director, said the paintings enliven the library, filling spots where you don’t expect to see artwork. They are very pleasant surprises, she said.

“It’s just magical,” Miller said. “Each book fits with the animal.”

Kirby Steward also created a 24-foot-long mural in the main meeting room of swans in flight over a farm field and the Erie Canal, with the Gaines basin Road canal bridge below.

She also design a stained-glass window for the library with a swan. That was a gift from Bill Lattin for when the library opened in July 2012.

Lattin assisted Kirby Steward in installing the paintings today. They were added to walls and book shelves. They are in unusual shapes, especially a 10-inch by 36-inch painting of a bald eagle in a pine tree, reading Frederick Douglass’s autobiography. That painting is next to the biographies near the computer lab.

A skunk seeks self-improvement and reads Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Kirby Steward said she enjoyed thinking of the scenes in the paintings, and how they could be used to add to the library experience at the Hoag.

She received very positive feedback from library users today while she and Lattin mounted them.

She likes that they are located in unexpected places.

“You walk around the corner and you’re surprised,” she said.

There will be a public reception in the near future to celebrate the new paintings. Kirby Steward and Miller also said more could be added in the future showing other animals reading books.

This painting of cardinal rebuilding a nest is at the end of one of the book shelves. It quotes lines from “Surviving” by Maya Angelou.

Where the winds of disappointment

dash my dream house to the ground

and anger, octopus-like wraps its tentacles around my soul

I just stop myself. I stop in my tracks

and look for one thing that can

help me.

A bald eagle reads the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. This painting is 10 inches by 36 inches and is by a shelf in the biography section.

Bill Lattin helped Kirby Steward install the paintings. Lattin said the library features many art pieces. Lattin, a former art teacher at Albion, is pleased to see the library partner with Kirby Steward for one-of-kind art.

Miller said she will submit the project to the American Library Association to highlight for other libraries.

“No other library has this this,” she said. “No other library has someone like Stacey.”

Provided photos

ALBION – Orleans County Deputy Sheriff Matt Prawel, Albion’s school resource officer, lets sixth grader Anthony Napoli try on a vest during a visit last week to Tim Archer’ s citizenship class in the middle school.

Deputy Prawel was joined by Deputy George Barton and Sgt. Adam Hazel in discussing training, tactics, jurisdiction and cooperation with other agencies. Barton and Hazel are both members of the county’s SWAT team.

The law enforcement officers also discussed the 911 dispatch center, road and marine patrols, weapons and equipment, and Otto, the county’s K9.

Tim Archer, teacher of the citizenship class, is at left. He is joined by Deputy Prawel, Deputy Barton and Sgt. Hazel.

“It was a great couple days for the students to learn from and appreciate our local law enforcement,” Archer said.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The truss on the west side of the Main Street lift bridge is hoisted this afternoon at about 2:30. The first one was removed with a crane at about 11:45 a.m.

Both trusses have been set on a cradle on the north side of the canal where they will be either rehabilitated or the corroding steel will be taken off and replaced with new high-pressured beams and other steel.

The state Department of Transportation is having a major overhaul of the bridge from 1914. It last received extensive work in the 1980s and has had frequent repairs since then, said Jon Long, engineer in charge for the state DOT.

Editor’s Note: Matt Ballard, a former Orleans County historian, thinks the removal of the bridge today is more likely the first time there hasn’t been a Main Street bridge over the canal since 1859. When the 1914 bridge was built, there also was a temporary bridge in place to allow for some traffic.

Ballard suspects Albion last didn’t have a bridge across Main Street after the bridge collapse on Sept. 28, 1859. That day there were 250 people crowded on the bridge, and five horses. The crowd assembled to watch a tight-rope walker west of the bridge. He took a few steps on the tight rope and then the bridge collapsed, killing 15 people.

Here is how the bridge looked this morning before the trusses were removed. This is looking west from the Ingersoll Street bridge.

Clark Rigging & Rental used a big crane with a 400-ton capacity to lift the trusses, which each weighed an estimated 53,000 pounds.

Here is the scene soon after the second truss was removed this afternoon.

The rebuilt trusses are expected to be put back across the canal in August or September, with additional work on the bridge to follow. The bridge closed to traffic in November for the 18-month rehabilitation project. A similar effort will start in April in Brockport.

The state DOT is paying $28.3 million to contractors for the two projects.

Crane-Hogan Structural Systems of Spencerport is general contractor for the project, with BVR Construction Company in Churchville hired as a subcontractor for the structural steel work on the bridge rehabilitation.

Here are some other photos this afternoon during the removal and lifting of the second truss.

The trusses had to be cut free from the lifting frame at each end of the bridge.

The 115-foot-long truss is lifted over the control tower and wires stretched across the canal.

The lifting of the trusses drew many onlookers throughout the morning and afternoon.

Ken Pettine and Junior LaMartina of Albion missed the first truss in the morning but they camped out in the village parking lot by the canal for about an hour to watch the second truss be removed.

“It’s amazing to see what they do,” Pettine said. “These guys were unbelievable. They know exactly what they are doing.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – A 53,000-pound truss from the Main Street lift bridge in Albion was moved to land just north of the canal today.

The much-anticipated project had been delayed by windy conditions in recent days. Today there is barely any wind and Clark Rigging & Rental was able to use a big crane with a 400-ton capacity.

The 115-foot-long truss on the east side rises in the air above the truss on the west side.

Before the truss was picked up by the crane, an employee with BVR Construction Company in Churchville cut the end free on the north side. BVR is doing the structural steel work on the bridge rehabilitation.

The truss is slowly lifted above wires and the tower, to be set on land on the north side of the canal.

The truss is set on a cradle where BVR can more easily work on replacing the bottom steel beam. Most of the diagonal steel beams also will be replaced. The top beam doesn’t need to be replaced and is in good shape because it doesn’t have much exposure to road salt.

Click here for a short YouTube video of the truss being hoisted in the air.

Jon Long, engineer in charge for the state Department of Transportation, said the trusses will be worked on over several months and expected to be reset over the canal in late August or September. At that point they will have new steel on the bottom and most of the diagonal pieces.

BVR will also put in new stringers, a new deck (flooring system) and cross beams and the bridge will be repainted.

Crane-Hogan Structural Systems in Spencerport is the general contractor for the project and will be doing the concrete work on each side of the bridge, as well as ordering the materials for the project.

BVR is a subcontractor doing the structural steel work. O’Connell & Electric will be doing the electrical work, which is primarily with the lifting system.

The 18-month rehabilitation project started in November. The Brockport lift bridge on main Street will be getting a similar overhaul with that bridge expected to close in April. It also will be taken apart and moved offsite on land for most of the repair and replacement work.

DOT staff and many of the workers took videos of the truss being removed at about 11:45 a.m. The other truss is expected to be lifted this afternoon.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – One of the big beams on the Main Street lift bridge is moved to a spot on land, north of the canal in Albion this morning.

The much-anticipated removal of trusses and beams is happening today. Clark Rigging & Rental has a crane in Albion with a 400-ton capacity.  Windy conditions in recent days delayed the truss removal, but today there isn’t much wind so the work is proceeding.

The beams and trusses are expected to be removed by late this afternoon.

The trusses, the long horizontal steel going across the canal, each weigh an estimated 53,000 pounds. This isn’t one of the trusses, but one of the cross beams.

The crane has a 257,000-pound counterweight.

Construction workers cut through the steel to take apart the bridge today.

There is a live stream of the bridge available by clicking here.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – A large crane is in place north of the Main Street lift bridge in Albion. The contractor for the project, Crane-Hogan Structural Systems in Spencerport, and the state Department of Transportation are planning for Friday to lift the bridge from its current spot over the canal to land north of the site.

The lift has been delayed due to weather. It was planned for earlier this week.

Crane-Hogan is doing a major rehabilitation of the bridge that was originally built in 1914. The span has been closed since Nov. 14 for a major rehabilitation project expected to last 18 months.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Thrive Foods is looking to make a $3 million upgrade at the Freeze-Dry facility on Route 31 in Albion.

Company looks to invest $3 million in Albion, add 45 jobs

ALBION – The Orleans County Legislature is supporting an application for a $675,000 grant to assist with a $3 million expansion at Freeze-Dry in Albion, a company that was recently acquired by Thrive Foods.

Thrive is looking to invest in new dryers, machinery and other equipment, as part of a plan to expand operations at 111 West Ave., and add 45 employees as part of the first phase of growing in Albion, said Gabrielle Barone, vice president of the Orleans Economic Development Agency.

“This is concerning a wonderful project that I think will make everybody very, very happy,” Barone said during a public hearing on Tuesday about the application.

The county will apply for the grant funding from the state Office of Community Renewal. The Orleans Land Restoration Corporation, which is under the EDA umbrella, will assist the county with the application.

Barone said she is hopeful for a quick turnaround from the state, perhaps in three to four months on whether the funding is approved.

Thrive Foods in early September announced it acquired Freeze-Dry, which operated for the past 20 years in Albion at the former Lipton’s plant. Freeze-Dry Foods specializes in freeze-dried products, including pet treats, proteins and ingredients. The products have a shelf life of up to 25 years because Freeze-Dry eliminates moisture and oxygen, while preserving nutrients, flavor, taste, color and aroma.

Thrive Foods recently expanded into a new facility in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Now the company wants to upgrade the Albion facility.

“Hopefully there will be a need for additional phases to follow,” Barone said at the public hearing.

ALBION – Many people were hoping to see history today with the lifting of the Main Street bridge by crane, and seeing it moved to land north of the canal.

Onlookers will have to wait a little longer because the lift has been pushed back due to the weather today with snow in the forecast.

The state Department of Transportation said the bridge lift will likely be later this week but doesn’t have a set date yet.

Crane-Hogan Structural Systems in Spencerport is general contractor for the project and has brought in a very large crane to move the trusses of the bridge.

The company will be doing a major rehabilitation of the bridge from 1914. The span has been closed since Nov. 14 for a repair project expected to last 18 months.