Press release from NYS Department of Transportation
CARLTON A 2-mile section of the Lake Ontario State Parkway closed since the winter will reopen Wednesday at about noon, the state Department of Transportation advised.
The western end of the Parkway has been shut down since Nov. 28. That portion runs between Lakeside Beach State Park and Route 98 in the town of Carlton.
Closing the 2-mile stretch saved an estimated $70,000 worth of maintenance and operating expenses including materials, equipment, and labor, the DOT said. The closure also helped preserve the pavement and the bridges over Oak Orchard Creek.
Some bridge maintenance repairs were made on the bridge over Oak Orchard Creek. The eastbound, right lane over the bridge, will remain closed until further repairs can be made.
During the summer, about 800 cars travel this section of the Parkway every day. The western end of the Parkway is less travelled during the winter months.During the closure, motorists were directed to use Route 18 as a parallel detour route.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Jaylene Dersham, 8, of Batavia waits for her uncle James Soggs of Batavia to put a worm on her hook on Sunday while they were fishing from the pier at Oak Orchard Harbor.
POINT BREEZE – Point Breeze has narrowed the gap, but still trails in a contest to be declared the “Ultimate Fishing Town.”
Cape Hatteras, NC, and Grand Lake, CO, are both ahead of Point Breeze in an on-line contest by the World Fishing Network. On Friday at noon, Point Breeze was down about 3,200 votes to Cape Hatteras. As of 9 a.m. this morning, the Orleans County fishing community was within about 2,000 votes of first place. Grand Lake holds about a 600-vote lead on Point Breeze.
The contest ends on Friday. The winner receives $25,000 to be spent on fishing-related improvements to their port, plus the community will be featured by the World Fishing Network.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – The lighthouse at Point Breeze is a landmark along Lake Ontario and the Oak Orchard River.
Point Breeze is in the running for the “Ultimate Fishing Town,” a contest by the World Fishing Network that ends May 3.
The Orleans County fishing community is currently ranked third with on-line voting, behind Cape Hatteras, NC, and Grand Lake, CO. Point Breeze is ahead of Cocodrie, LA; Waddington, NY; Okeechobee, FL; and Byrdstown, TN.
As of 12:15 p.m. today, Cape Hatteras led with 8,211 votes, followed by 7,542 for Grand Lake and 5,067 for Point Breeze.
The winner receives $25,000 to be spent on fishing-related improvements to their port, plus the community will be featured by the World Fishing Network.
Point Breeze touts its year-round fishery with salmon, brown trout, steelhead and cohoes.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 15 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Town Board may bring in outside firm for reassessments
Photos by Tom Rivers – Michael Risman, an attorney with Hodgson Russ, meets with about 150 Carlton town residents tonight at the Fire Department Recreation Hall. Risman advised the Town Board to freeze the assessments at 2012 levels and bring in an outside firm for re-evaluations.
CARLTON – The Town Board voted tonight to freeze property assessments at 2012 levels, a move that will give the town about a year to have 2,400 properties re-evaluated.
The board may hire a professional appraisal firm to establish values for all the properties in Carlton, services that would cost between $50,000 to $100,000 – “closer to $100,000, in my opinion,” said Michael Risman, an attorney with Hodgson Russ. If the tally is $100,000 that would be an average of about $40 per property.
Risman addressed about 150 people at the Carlton Fire Company Recreation Hall. The meeting had to be moved from Town Hall because of the big crowd.
Many residents have been angry since they received their mail with their new assessments in recent weeks. Many residents said their assessed values went up 20 percent or more.
Betty Sue Miller’s property increased in value 52 percent, according to her 2013 assessment.
“Most of us want to know how we got here with 20, 30 percent increases,” she said at the meeting. “How do we in three years go up 52 percent?”
Carlton resident Woody Baker, standing, was among the residents with questions for Michael Risman, a Buffalo attorney.
Residents first expressed their anger to town officials during last Tuesday’s board meeting. The five Town Board members were unanimous in voting tonight to freeze assessments to 2012 levels. Town Assessor Karen Adams said she supported the decision and would certify the tentative rolls for 2013 at the 2012 numbers.
The tentative rolls need to be filed by May 1. Town Councilman Robin Lake said the board’s decision will give the town time to determine how it will seek to bring accurate and fair assessments to all properties – in 2014.
All towns in Orleans County do town-wide reassessments every three years, with updates annually. Residents challenged many of their assessments in 2010, with 188 going to formal grievances, by far the most in the county.
Risman urged the board to hire a professional appraisal firm that would meet often with residents in public meetings and explain the rationale for determining their assessments.
“You’ll have a process going forward that will work,” he said.
And residents who faced the prospect of bigger tax bills due to assessment hikes can have peace of mind that the increases won’t take effect this year.
Resident Peg Wiley said the town’s current data inventories of properties don’t include some accessory buildings and recent improvements.
“Hopefully we can get a real and good look at what is there,” she said.
Risman said a professional firm would first do data inventories, and they look at real estate sale prices of neighboring properties and each individual site’s sales history.
Carlton has a lot of lakefront along Lake Ontario, Lake Alice and Oak Orchard Creek. The town is rural and there aren’t a lot of property sales to provide “comparables” for sale prices, Risman said.
Unlike suburban towns, where there are blocks and blocks of similar-style houses, the properties fluctuate in size and styles on the same roads in Carlton, Risman noted.
“Carlton is a rather unique town,” he said. “There are different types of agricultural and residential property. It’s not a simple matter of evaluating all of these properties.”
Risman said Carlton isn’t alone in seeing an uproar from residents following a reassessment. Many towns will experience spikes in assessments when a long-time assessor retires and a new one takes over. In Carlton, Leo Spohr retired in 2007. Karen Adams has been on the job since then.
The state Office of Real Property Services used to have a much larger staff with appraisers that could help new assessors, but Risman said the state staff has been drastically reduced in recent years.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 11 April 2013 at 12:00 am
CARLTON – Responding to an outcry from residents over high assessments, the Town Board has called for an emergency meeting on Monday.
The board may vote to freeze assessments based on the 2012 data. Many residents told the board on Tuesday that their new assessments were 20 to 50 percent more than 2012 valuations. Those big assessment increases, which would apply to town, school and county taxes, would force many senior citizens to leave their homes, several residents told the board.
“We got to try to do something,” Councilman Robin Lake said today. “That’s what the people asked for.”
Town Attorney Kathy Bogan is researching whether the assessments can be frozen at their 2012 levels so the new numbers don’t take effect.
Monday’s meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall, 14341 Waterport-Carlton Rd.
“We’ll discuss it and try to figure out what to do,” Lake said.
An Orleans County man escaped serious injury yesterday afternoon after the 18-wheeler he was operating ran off the road & overturned.
The incident occurred shortly after 4:00 P.M., in the 12600 block of Roosevelt Highway (State Route 18), just east of Yates-Carlton Town Line Rd., in the Town of Carlton.
Raymond N. Matteson (Age 30) was operating the tractor-trailer truck east bound of Roosevelt Hwy., when he lost control of the vehicle. The vehicle ran off the south side of the roadway, struck a mailbox, and sheared off a National Grid utility pole. The vehicle continued across an open field and down a slight embankment whereupon it overturned on it’s side. The open trailer contained construction demolition debris, most of which spilled out onto the ground. There was no Haz-Mat issue.
Matteson (sole-occupant) was transported to Medina Memorial Hospital where he was treated & released. Sheriff’s Deputies determined that alcohol was not a contributing factor in the crash, however excessive speed was. Matteson was cited for Unsafe Speed and Unsafe Lane Change. He will appear in Town of Carlton Court at a later date.
The truck-trailer was righted by Lyon’s Collision and towed to their shop in Medina. It was being inspected this morning by personnel from the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). Additional charge(s) may be forthcoming pending the results of that inspection.
The incident was investigated by Deputy D.S. Klips, assisted by Deputy T.N. Tooley, Sergeant G.T. Gunkler, and Lieutenant C.M. Bourke. The Sheriff’s Office received assistance from Carlton & Lyndonville firefighters.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – The Carlton Town Board told nearly 100 residents on Tuesday that the board will investigate if assessments can be frozen from 2012 instead of implementing new numbers that board members say are often too high for many properties. The board includes, from left: Dana Woolston, Joyce Harris, Town Supervisor Gayle Ashbery, Robin Lake and Jim Shoemaker.
CARLTON – Angry and worried town residents packed the Town Hall to complain on Tuesday about new assessments that some residents say exceeded 25 percent.
Nearly 100 people attended the Town Board meeting, asking town officials to either bring in an outside assessor to go through the values assigned to 2,400 properties or freeze the values from 2012 for this year.
“There’s something definitely wrong here or all these people wouldn’t be here tonight,” resident Kathy Luescher told the board.
Another resident, Ken Lonnen, said the high assessments will result in bigger town, county and school tax bills for Carlton residents, forcing many out of the town.
“Where’s all this money supposed to come from?” Lonnen told the Town Board. “People don’t have the money to pay it. You’re literally killing Orleans County.”
Photo by Tom Rivers – Carlton resident Ken Lonnen tells the Town Board that high assessments will drive many residents out of their homes.
Board members agreed there is a problem with the assessments. They said they would look at seeing if the numbers could be frozen from 2012 for this year. The board said it would update the community during a 7 p.m. meeting April 25.
“Not only do we have some that are too high, we have a ton that are too low, and we’re paying for that,” said Town Councilman Robin Lake. “There’s no rhyme or reason to it.”
Robert VanWuyckhuyse said he is the too-high category. His property on Sawyer Road went up 26 percent in value with the new assessments. All he did was add a flag pole to the property.
Some properties with improvements didn’t see their assessments go up very much or at all, VanWuyckhuyse told the Town Board.
“You have a lot of unfairness with this system that she’s got,” he said about Town Assessor Karen Adams.
She didn’t attend Tuesday’s meeting, but several residents complained about the assessor. They said there were problems with the assessments in the last town-side reassessment in 2010. Nathan Lyman, an Albion attorney, represented many residents in assessment challenges then.
Photo by Tom Rivers – Albion attorney Nathan Lyman, who has represented many residents in assessment challenges in Carlton, tells the Town Board the assessment process is flawed in Carlton.
Carlton had 188 residents file formal grievances in 2010, when most other towns in Orleans had about four assessments that went before the Board of Assessment Review, Lyman said.
“In all due respect, I think you have a problem with your assessor,” Lyman told the Town Board. “I think the system is being gamed. It’s a problem for your citizens and you need to take a look at it.”
The town-wide assessment data isn’t public yet, and residents said they want to be able to look at “comparables” that should help determine accurate assessments. Residents have been checking with each other, and they said some properties are up as high as 40 to 50 percent while others dropped 10 percent or more.
And this is in a town where the real estate values are stable, at best, resident Karen O’Brien told the board.
“We live in Carlton, Orleans County,” she said. “Don’t tell me the property has increased. Our property values are not going up. They’re going down.”
A Waterport man is under arrest in connection with the death of his housemate early this morning.
Frederick C. Miller (Age 61), is charged with Murder in the 2nd Degree, in connection with the death of Rachel A. Miller (Age 53), whose body was found along Oak Orchard River Rd., approximately 150 yards west of the residence they shared at 1542 Oak Orchard River Rd., Town of Carlton.
There was some type of physical altercation between the two Millers that apparently began inside the residence, and then moved outside and down the road to the area where she was located. A passing school bus driver observed her lying roadside and called 9-1-1 shortly before 7:00 A.M.
Rachel Miller’s body has been removed from the scene and transported to the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office in Rochester, for autopsy.
Frederick Miller is scheduled for an appearance in Town of Carlton Court later today.
This investigation by the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office and the New York State Police Forensic Identification Unit is continuing.
