Photo by Ginny Kropf: The Ryan children enjoy ice cream treats at the new food truck Rush’s recently put at their farm market on Eagle Harbor Road, Waterport. From left are Demetrius, 11; Piper, 5; Devin, 8; and in back, Mary Jane, 12.

WATERPORT – There’s something new in the neighborhood and it’s drawing a lot of attention at Rush’s Farm Market on Eagle Harbor Road.

During the past few weeks, Kenneth Rush decided to do something he has thought about for a couple of years – get a food truck.

“I thought this would be a positive thing to do,” said Rush, who is the fifth generation on the Rush farm. “There’s nothing like it in the neighborhood.”

Nicci Nicholson works in the truck with Ken.

In addition to soft ice cream cones, floats and Sundaes, they sell burgers, hotdogs, French fries, blooming onions and friend pickles.

The Ryan children who live nearby, love to walk to the market for ice cream on a hot day. Mary Jane Ryan, 12, likes the floats, but she is going to try a fried pickle one of these days, she said.

Demetrius, 11, said they sometimes come several days in a row, and hopes there will be more ice cream flavors added.

Rush’s Farm Market is owned by Gregg and Elizabeth Rush. In addition to selling homegrown produce, Elizabeth runs a flower shop on the site.

“The food truck has brought people out of their houses after Covid to share an ice cream cone together,” Elizabeth said. “Grandpa Ken likes to come up and enjoy a hotdog. The truck is a complement to my flower shack.”

The food truck is open from 4 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and noon to 8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Elizabeth said the market expected to have homegrown corn this week.

Photos by Tom Rivers

CARLTON – The Brick Band performed on Tuesday at Oak Orchard Marine Park on Route 98 and some of the crowd left their lawn chairs and danced to some of the band’s well-known country songs.

There was a threat of rain earlier in the afternoon but the concert went on without a drop of rain.

Ryan Klatt is lead singer and guitarist for the band, which has been performing for years in the concerts organized by the Oak Orchard Neighborhood Association.

The concert series started last Tuesday and continues weekly through Aug. 2. The concerts start at 6 p.m. and go until about 8:30.

The lineup for the rest of the summer includes:

• July 12 – Old Hippies playing nostalgic rock and folk
• July 19 – The Who Dats performing dance rock
• July 26 – Feedback playing pop, motown and R & B
• Aug. 2 – Mr. Mustard performing The Beatles, period

Photos by Tom Rivers

CARLTON – Dave Viterna, right, and Marty Hobbs perform “Solitary Man” by Neil Diamond as part of the opening concert for the Oak Orchard Neighborhood Association’s summer concert series.

The Dave Viterna Group performed blues and classic rock for 2 ½ hours for a crowd of more than 500 people.

The attendance at the concert, are well over 500 people, is a record for an OONA concert, said one of the organizers, Tracy Panczyszyn.

The lineup for the rest of the series includes:

• July 5 – The Brick Band performing country, classic rock and patriotic
• July 12 – Old Hippies playing nostalgic rock and folk
• July 19 – The Who Dats performing dance rock
• July 26 – Feedback playing pop, motown and R & B
• Aug. 2 – Mr. Mustard performing The Beatles, period

Kathleen Furlong sells 50/50 raffle tickets. OONA was able to give away $600 from the raffles and keep $600 to help pay for the concerts and support other community causes.

There is a $2 admission charge to attend the concerts.

Don Knapp of the Clarendon Lions Club cooks hot dogs. The Lions have been a long-time food vendor at the OONA concerts. There are several other food and beverage vendors at the concerts.

The Clarendon Lions Club teams includes, from left: Tom Persia, Vivian Ward, Kevin Johnson, Don Knapp, Beth Johnson in back, Roger Boynton, Melanie Adams and Randy Robishaw. June Knapp also was part of the Clarendon group on Tuesday evening.

Paul Czarnecki was popular captain out of Oak Orchard for past 20 years

Provided photos

POINT BREEZE – About 15 charter boat captains filled with people this afternoon for a memorial troll from the Oak Orchard River to Lake Ontario. The charter captains were honoring their friend, Paul Czarnecki, a charter captain the past 20 years at the Oak Orchard.

An Erie, Pa. resident, Czarnecki passed away at age 57 on April 4. He was diagnosed with multiple melanoma on May 18, 2021. He continued to work full-time as a charter captain last summer at Point Breeze, despite almost daily medical appointments for chemotherapy, blood draws and other doctor visits, his wife Christie said.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Paul Czarnecki on Aug. 16, 2015 holds a 29-pound Chinook salmon that won the $4,000 grand prize at the Orleans County Fishing Derby. Czarnecki took a customer, Georgia Barkdoll of McConnellsburg, Pa., out fishing and she reeled in the 29-pound fish, which won the grand prize in the fishing derby.

To honor Czarnecki today the charter captains took their boats about 2 miles out into the lake, just north of the Oak Orchard Harbor. That is where the lake is about 80 feet deep. Czarnecki would use that spot to put the fishing line in the water. The captains today then went east about 4 miles, to a glass house that is a landmark near the Kendall town line. Czarnecki believed the best fishing was between the Oak Orchard Harbor and the 4 miles to the glass house.

Paul and Dylan Czarnecki celebrate winning the King of the Oak fishing tournament that concluded in September 2020.

The captains offered tributes to Czarnecki on a private channel.

Today was all about paying their respect to a man who loved Point Breeze and worked hard to build up the fishery to benefit other local businesses and charter captains.

“He believed this was the best fishing on the lake,” said David Bonnell, who worked for Czarnecki for the previous five years.

Czarnecki came up from Erie and had his 33-foot-long boat – “Free Spirit” – in the water on April 1. He fished the month of May out of Wilson before shifting the Oak Orchard from June 1 to just after Labor Day.

His customers came back year after year, including some from 35 years ago.

“Paul literally knew everybody,” Bonnell said. “He was the wittiest person.”

Czarnecki made sure his customers had a good time on the boat – and caught big salmon and trout. He would extend the charter and stay out later in the lake to make sure they caught fish, Bonnell said.

Czarnecki and his son Dylan won the “King of the Oak” fishing tournament in 2020. That competition is based on four series with points for the number of fish and their weight. Czarnecki accumulated the most points in taking the title. He and his son, now 12, celebrated by wearing Burger King hats.

Today, Dylan steered his dad’s boat during the memorial troll. Dylan is 12. His younger sister Piper is 8.

Czarnecki was well regarded among his peers for sharing his knowledge and for being a “straight shooter.”

“He was full of knowledge but he didn’t stretch the truth,” one the captains said this evening during a cookout at Ernst’s Lake Breeze Marina.

Czarnecki was built like a lineman. He was 6 foot, 3 inches, a big presence.

“But he was full of heart,” Bonnell said.

Czarnecki was fishing out of Erie but tried the Point Breeze area after salmon and cohoes weren’t being stocked in Erie.

At Point Breeze, he found a fishery that lasted for months with Chinook salmon, steelhead (rainbow trout), brown trout and lake trout. He also discovered a friendly community among the charter boat captains and other local businesses.

“He fished at many places but he really thought this was the best place in the world,” Bonnell said.

The charter boat captains are out lake remembering their friend.

Photos by Tom Rivers

POINT BREEZE – A swan takes off for a short flight in the Oak Orchard Harbor on Wednesday evening at Point Breeze.

This was one of nine swans my family and I counted at the harbor. I didn’t realize there were so many at The Point.

This photo shows five of the swans. There were more but they weren’t close together. They were spread out in the channel.

The area is known for Chinook salmon, brown trout and other big fish, but we should expand the Point Breeze branding to include these majestic birds.

Here are some more photos of the swans at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday.

Provided photos

WATERPORT – Orleans County Tourism received assistance from Brockport State College students and Brookfield Renewable Power to free 18 mature steelhead from one of the overflow pools at the Waterport Dam on Tuesday.

The group was able to electro-fish and seine or net the mature steelhead.

“They were spawned out fish primarily and we did capture at least two smolts that were likely earlier spring stocked Coho salmon,” said Ron Bierstine, owner of Oak Orchard Tackle & Lodge. “The effort was spearheaded by SUNY Brockport Environmental Science and Biology Departments with about 20 of their students.”

Brookfield Renewable Power, owner of the power-generating site, was on hand for a safety briefing and was ready with a fish transfer culvert apparatus that didn’t need to be used.

“We were able to just cradle the fish in a net or seine and I quickly released them back into the turbine (tailrace) channel,” Bierstine wrote in this week’s fishing report from the Orleans County Tourism Department. “Some fish were certainly in rough post spawn state, but every fish I released swam away under its own power – with the chance to get back to the main Lake and recoup.”

Bierstine thanked Brookfield for the allowing access and for the assistance from SUNY Brockport and students.

The group wasn’t able to capture any fish in the main plunge pool at the base of the falls with the equipment they had and the allowable access.

“But I’d count it as a success showing that it can be done and that likely with what we found in the one pool that there are a goodly amount more fish in the other plunge pool,” Bierstine wrote. “So hopefully we can collectively think of ways to capture those fish in the future and can work towards and consider a better remedy to keep fish out of that channel or give them some passage out of there when flows recede so that they don’t become stranded.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

POINT BREEZE – Carl Miller of East Aurora takes his boat out of the Oak Orchard River at the new boat launch at Point Breeze. The site opened to the public on Tuesday, April 27.

“It’s a dream,” Miller said about the new boat launch. “The ramp is well drained. The ramps are longer. It’s so much better.”

The project was $627,000 and was 95 percent funded through the state’s Lake Ontario Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative (REDI).

Carl Miller pulls his boat out of the water. He went fishing with two others and they caught a few brown trout and a lake trout on Saturday.

During the historic flooding of 2019, the previous boat ramp was submerged, preventing access to the floating docks, and forcing the boat launch to be closed.

The new launch is raised about 2 ½ feet and will be more resilient in case of flooding and higher lake levels, said John Papponetti, the county’s DPW commissioner.

Other resiliency measures implemented in this project include:

• Installation of new boat ramp and abutment above high water level;
• Sloping of roadway to the new boat ramp; and
• Regrading remaining portion of roadway.

CARLTON – The Orleans County Planning Board on Thursday voted in favor of the site plan and a special use permit for a new 2,200-square-foot pole barn for Captain’s Cove on Route 18, overlooking the Oak Orchard River in Carlton.

George Lacey, owner of the business, plans to demolish a building that is currently used for a store and replace it with a 55-by-40-foot pole barn that would be set farther away from Route 18.

Lacey said it will be an upgrade for the business, and also be safer for traffic and customers by creating more parking and moving those spaces farther from the road.

He modified the site plan for the new building since it was originally presented in November to now meet setback requirements for the town of Carlton. The setbacks include 75 feet in the front, 80 feet in rear, 80 feet on left and 240 feet on right.

Lacey plans to disturb half an acre of a 3-acre lot. The building will meet the state energy code requirements by having an updated heating system and some solar arrays, the Planning Board said.

Lacey, owner of Captain’s Cove since 2015, used to have the store down by the Oak Orchard River but that building was flooded and badly damaged in 2017 when the water levels were at all-time highs. Lacey took down that building and raised the parking area by the river. He relocated the store to a house that is more than a century old on the upper bank.

The former house isn’t well suited to be the store, which is why Lacey is taking it down and building a new structure.

“I see a lot of potential there,” he said about the Point Breeze area. “But we need to be forward-thinking. I’ve been trying for 18 months to build a simple pole barn.”

Lacey said he hopes to see others invest in the Point Breeze community.

“The area needs improvement,” he told members of the County Planning Board. “Small business feeds on small business.”

In other action, the Planning Board:

• Recommended the Town of Murray approve a special use permit and the site plan for a 27,500-square-foot building at 15631 Lynch Rd.

Sam and Son wants to use the building with nine truck bays and 33 parking spaces for employees, customers and guests. Sam and Son primarily works with constructing and expanding electrical substations and installing transmission line poles.

• Recommended the Town of Clarendon amend its zoning text to allow more than two travel trailers, campers and recreational vehicles on a private lot but only for special events – weddings, graduation parties, family gatherings. Those vehicles can be parked overnight for a period not to exceed 14 days in a calendar year.

• Voted in favor of a request from the Town of Gaines for a 6-month moratorium extension on the installation of freestanding and ground mounted solar energy systems.

Photo by Tom Rivers

CARLTON – About 140 baskets are ready in the Cartlon Rec Hall for a benefit today for BJ Aina and his family. Doors open at 1 p.m. and the raffle ends at 6 p.m.

Provided photo: BJ Aina and his wife Amy are shown with their sons, Hank and Hoyt.

The 500 tickets for a pulled pork dinner have already sold out but people are still welcome to try to win a basket or stay for the four bands that will be performing from 6 to 11 p.m. No one under 21 will be allowed inside after 6 p.m.

Aina, 42, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on Feb. 9 from a medical condition called AVM (arteriovenous malformation). Aina was unaware he had the condition.

He is currently in a rehab facility run by Strong Memorial Hospital that gives speech, occupational and physical therapy.

He and his wife Amy have two sons, Hank and Hoyt. Mrs. Aina showed her husband a video of all the baskets in the raffle, and other items and food. He was stunned.

“All of this for me?” he told her.

Aina is part of a big family and he well connected locally as an enthusiastic hunter and outdoorsman. He works at Flower City Glass.

“He knows so many people,” said his brother, Tyler. “It’s amazing to see how everyone came together.”

BJ looks forward to coming home. He has been hospitalized or in the rehab unit for care for nearly 60 days.

“He is doing a lot better,” his brother said.

BJ’s wife said he is making progress. She said she appreciates the response from the community.