By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 July 2013 at 12:00 am
GAINES – Two years ago Chris Watt erected a 150-foot-high wind turbine on his farm next to the Watt Farms Country Market on Route 98.
Next month he will go before town officials seeking approval for the project.
Watt believed the town took care of the permitting process properly before the windmill went up in August 2011. His next-door neighbor Mary Neilans and her brother Robert sued the town, claiming proper procedures weren’t followed. The board waived site plan review and didn’t offer residents a chance to comment on the turbine during a public hearing, according to their lawsuit in state Supreme Court.
The town and Watt said they followed the town and state laws for siting windmills for agricultural purposes. State Supreme Court Judge James Punch ultimately decided to put the issue back in the town’s hands. Punch issued a ruling in January 2012, not siding with either party.
Watt was a member of the Planning Board when the project was first approved. He abstained from voting.
The Town Board in January 2012 voted to abolish the Planning Board and shift its duties to the Zoning Board of Appeals. That board will hold a public hearing on Aug. 5 at 7 p.m. at Gaines Town Hall to take comments about the Watt project.
“We’ve done this before,” Watt told the ZBA during its meeting tonight after it set the hearing. “Why do you need to do the same thing again?”
Watt said he met the requirements for setbacks and an environmental impact statement with the project.
“I’m not sure the setbacks were followed,” responded ZBA member Marilynn Miller.
Watt said the project was approved by the town’s code enforcement officer two years ago.
“We’re just following through with the letter of the law,” said ZBA Chairman Michael Grabowski.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – U.S. Rep. Chris Collins discusses legislation and the impact of Obamacare with residents during a “Coffee with Chris” event Saturday at The Village Inn.
GAINES – After six months in Congress, Chris Collins sees the role of conservative Republicans as playing defense in the nation’s capitol, trying to minimize the impact of what he said is a liberal agenda “in the nanny state,” a push to grow government programs and “hand-outs” at the expense of hard-working Americans.
“We’re trying to prevent additional laws like Obamacare and Dodd-Frank,” Collins said Saturday during a “Coffee with Chris” meeting at The Village Inn. The public event was attended by about 30 people, including many local elected officials.
Collins expects Obama will push hard to enact laws that would cut fossil fuels before his term is over. Climate change legislation would cripple the country’s economy, Collins said.
However, he said conservatives shouldn’t be extremists or obstructionists with every proposal. He is trying to take a pragmatic approach so Congress can pass much-needed legislation, including a Farm Bill that would offer a five-year plan for agriculture. The Farm Bill has been stymied over food stamps, which account for about $80 billion of the $100 billion Farm Bill.
Collins also favors immigration reform, but not the plan approved by the U.S. Senate on Thursday. That would allow a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally. Collins said those people can have work permits if they are working in agriculture and other jobs that are difficult to fill with Americans.
But Collins wouldn’t give the people who are here illegally a pathway to citizenship, nor would they be eligible for any government benefits. However, he said he would support the possibility of citizenship for the children of people who came to the country illegally.
Collins said agriculture desperately needs access to foreign workers who can milk cows and harvest crops without the threat of deportation. Farmers can’t find enough Americans to do these jobs. Without legal workers from Mexico and other countries, the nation’s food supply and rural economy is very vulnerable, Collins said.
A group of many local elected officials turned out to hear Chris Collins discuss his first six months as congressman.
Orleans County Legislator Bill Eick, a former dairy farmer from Shelby, said local farmers have been traveling to Washington to lobby for immigration reform for 15 years. Farmers are starting to switch from labor-intensive crops to corn because of the lack of legal workers, Eick said.
“I hope you can get something done,” Eick told Collins about the immigration proposal.
Collins was harshly critical of Obama’s health care plan – “Obamacare is the worst law ever passed.” That legislation is starting to take effect and causing numerous problems, Collins said.
Healthy people are resisting the high-cost of health insurance, while businesses aren’t hiring or have cut hours to stay under thresholds for providing health insurance, he said. That has reduced job opportunities and take-home pay for residents.
“This law is beyond a wet blanket,” Collins said. “It’s destroying people’s lives.”
The congressman also blamed Albany politics for much of the New York state’s economic problems. The growing welfare state in New York has resulted in oppressive taxes, chasing away residents and businesses, he said.
“We are shrinking and shrinking every day, and dying,” he said about the state. “We should be a prosperous, growing area. We have great climate, a lot of water and an educated workforce. But Albany hurts us. Fix Alabany and you would see this state grow again.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 28 June 2013 at 12:00 am
GAINES – U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, R-Clarence, will meet with local residents Saturday from 9 to 10 a.m. at The Village Inn as part of his ongoing “Coffee with Chris” events.
The Village Inn is located at 4369 Ridge Rd. The event is open to public. Collins is expected to give an update about Washington, D.C., and take questions.
He will then join Ridgeway town officials for a bicentennial celebration at the Ridgeway Town Hall. That event begins at 10:30 a.m. at 410 West Ave., Medina.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 23 June 2013 at 1:14 pm
Photo courtesy of Cody Weese Posted 23 June 2014
GAINES – A black bear was spotted along Route 279, north of Route 104 today around 6 p.m. Cody Weese took this picture of the bear near an airfield. It then went into the hay field to the west.
Bear spottings seem to be on the rise in Western New York. One bear was killed in Springville earlier this month after it was struck by an SUV.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation reports there are about 8,000 black bears in the state, with nearly all in the Southern Tier. However, 10 to 15 percent live in Central and Western New York, according to The Buffalo News.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
GAINES – The Proctor Brook is swollen with water after hours of heavy rain this morning. The creek is threatening to touch a row of historic buildings on Route 98 in Childs that are part of the Cobblestone Society Museum.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 13 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – The Sanford family in Gaines proudly displays a collection of gas pumps and other gas station artifacts that were amassed by Roland and Elma Sanford on Gaines Basin Road.
GAINES – Julie and Scott Sanford will be working in their yard or out in the barn when the cars pull up by the side of the road. Folks come out with cameras, questions and sometimes a sense of awe.
“People stop all the time,” Julie Sanford told me earlier this evening, when I came over to do a story on her son Allen. He is working on his Eagle Scout project. (I’ll have an article on that a little later.)
The Sanfords have about a dozens old gas pumps sprinkled around their property. One still shows the price of a gallon of gas: 35.5 cents.
There are oil cans and other gas station artifacts from about a half century ago.
Scott’s father Roland and his late mother Elma collected the gas pumps. Once they retired from teaching, they went for drives in the country – on a mission. They found many of the old pumps in fields and ditches. They rescued them, cleaned them up and proudly displayed them on their Gaines Basin Road property.
“They’re all original,” Julie said.
She said there is a growing number of gas pump aficionados. Many want to buy the old pumps, but the Sanfords won’t sell them. Each one represents a story, and an adventure for Roland and Elma.
“They would love to talk and meet with people,” Julie said.
Brad Sanford poses with an old gas pump rescued and preserved by his grandparents, Roland and the late Elma Sanford.
Replicas of the old pumps are popular, she said. Books are written about the original gas pumps, and the different styles and companies.
Roland’s son Scott has followed suit with his father’s obsession. He is working to restore one in the barn.
Roland and Elma also saved a number of other local automobile-related artifacts, including old signs for Routes 31, 63 and 98. The family hobby has rubbed off on Allen, the Boy Scout. A musician, he named his band, “Route 98.”
Allen Sanford holds an old Route 98 sign that his grandparents saved.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – The Cobblestone Society Museum has been awarded a matching grant to survey the roof and tower of the Cobblestone Universalist Church, a building from 1834 that is part of the museum near the intersection of routes 98 and 104.
GAINES – The most prominent building in the Cobblestone Society Museum, the Universalist Church from 1834, needs roof and tower repairs.
The museum has received a matching $1,000 “Sacred Sites Grant” from the New York Landmarks Conservancy. The grant will go towards a survey to determine the repairs needed for the roof and tower.
The church is used for a variety of historical programs, services and weddings every year.
“Preserving this unique piece of cobblestone heritage is vital for future generations to enjoy,” said Deborah Brundage, the museum’s director. “The Cobblestone Society wishes to thank The New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Program for their support in this endeavor.”
The eight-building museum was established in 1960 to preserve the oldest cobblestone church in North America and to collect and disseminate information on cobblestone masonry construction.
In 1993, the U.S. Department of the Interior declared the collection of buildings a National Historic Landmark, the only historic site in Orleans County with this designation.
A cobblestone house from 1836, which was once owned by the famous publisher Horace Greeley, is next to the church.These two buildings are furnished to show how they would have been used in the 1880s. A few buildings east on 104 sits a one-room cobblestone schoolhouse from 1849.
The museum also includes four wooden buildings on Route 98, just north of 104. They include a blacksmith shop, print shop, harness shop and an exhibit hall of 19th century farming tools. A brick house from 1836 also serves as a resource center on the 1,200 cobblestone buildings in North America.
The museum opens its season June 23 and runs until Sept. 1. It’s open every day but Monday during the summer. For more information on the museum, click here.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 April 2013 at 7:55 pm
Garage and contents melt from blaze on 104
Photos by Tom Rivers – Albion firefighter Jared Thomson hoses down the smoky ruins of a garage on Ridge Road in the town of Gaines. (Thomson is wearing Brandon Zwifka’s turnout gear.)
GAINES – The garage is a total loss, with tools, four-wheelers and a tractor all destroyed from a blaze late this afternoon.
The fire melted some of the shingles off the house at 13113 Ridge Rd. The flames could have spread.
“When you have a chance to save the house or save the garage, you save the house,” said Paul Wagner, the Orleans County emergency management coordinator.
Fire officials said there didn’t appear to be any interior damage to the home owned by Glenn Woody. But his garage was gone.
The house is located near Allens Bridge Road. Firefighters responded from Albion, Barre, Carlton, Lyndonville and Medina.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 April 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – The community is invited to a 2.62-mile run/walk on Route 98 tonight, a trek that will begin near the parking lot at Watt Farms, head north 1.3 miles and then return to the Five Corners. The entire route is blocked off because of the construction at a culvert just south of Route 104.
Jack Burris measured the distance this morning while out for a morning jog. He noted the distance was exactly one tenth of a marathon. The “Boston Marathon HOPE Run/Walk” begins at 7 p.m. Burris said it will give a chance for grieving people to connect and be inspired.
Burris is one of the leaders of a “Run for God” group at the Albion Free Methodist Church. About 60 people are in the program, training for the 5-kilometer race at the Strawberry Festival on June 8.
Everyone is welcome tonight and participants can park in the lot at Watt Farms at 3121 Oak Orchard Rd.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
A group of runners and walkers head up Route 98 near Watt Farms Country Market on Wednesday, two days after bombs killed three people in Boston and wounded nearly 200 others.
About 30 runners and walkers gathered for a 2.62-mile trek tonight along Route 98 in Gaines between the Five Corners and just south of Route 104, where the state Department of Transportation has closed the road due to a culvert project.
Jack Burris of Albion organized the “Boston Marathon HOPE Run/Walk,” which was exactly one-tenth of the marathon distance.
Tabitha Sauls of Albion was among the group that laced up her sneakers. She and five of her friends decorated fluorescent pink shirts in memory of the victims at the Boston Marathon bombing. And then they walked up 98 and back.
“I’m thinking of the people who lost loved ones,” she said. “I’ve suffered a loss. I know exactly how they feel.”
Two participants, Jerome and Teresa Pawlak, bottom, have a son, Kevin, who finished the Boston Marathon on Monday. Mr. Pawlak attended the race to watch his son, who crossed the finish line about two hours before the bombs went off.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 12 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Company will add 25,200-square-foot CA storage
GAINES – A fruit-packing company owned by local farmers is planning a $3 million expansion with a new controlled-atmosphere storage building.
Lake Ridge Fruit could break ground on the 25,200-square-foot building next week, said John Russell, general manager and partner for the company at 14234 Ridge Rd. The addition will boost Lake Ridge’s storage capacity by 200,000 bushels a year.
“This is driven by the need to stay ahead of the curve and be at the leading edge of the industry,” Russell said today.
Many of Lake Ridge’s member growers have recently planted more acres of popular apple varieties, such as Honeycrisp and SweeTango. The new CA storage will help keep those apples fresh after harvest. Russell also said Lake Ridge has been renting some storage from other companies and won’t need to do that after the expansion.
The addition is expected to be ready for this fall’s apple harvest. Lake Ridge will add one position as part of the project. The addition will retain 60 other full-time positions.
“It’s an employment keeper,” Russell said about the addition. “It will allow us to keep jobs.”
Lake Ridge did a $3 million project in 2010 that added storage space and a new packing line. Russell said the company, which formed in 1982, is determined to stay at the forefront of the industry.
The Orleans Economic Development Agency today approved a tax incentive plan that will save the company $202,406 over 10 years. Lake Ridge will receive a 50 percent property tax abatement on the new addition for the first year, and then will pay 5 percent more until the building is at full taxable value. That will save the company $83,164 in property taxes in the next decade.
Lake Ridge is agreeing to pay $196,570 in “payment in lieu of taxes” for the new building over the next 10 years to the town, county and Albion Central School.
The company also has been approved for a sales tax exemption on $1,207,010 in equipment costs, which will save Lake Ridge $96,561. The company also was approved for a $22,681 “Buy Orleans” incentive.
As part of the PILOT and tax incentive deal, Lake Ridge also agreed to pay the EDA $56,380 for administration services or 2 percent of the overall costs.
“This is another great agricultural project for our county,” Jim Whipple, Orleans EDA chief executive officer, told the EDA board of directors.
Beginning in early April work will begin on Route 98 in Gaines. The culvert is located south of Route 104. The road will be closed for approximately two months. A posted detour will direct motorists to utilize Route 279 and Route 104.
Beginning in mid-summer, work will begin on the Route 237 culverts in Byron. Both culverts are located between Cook Road and North Byron Road.
The road will be closed through the end of October. A posted detour will direct motorists to utilize North Byron Road to Route 98 to Route 31A.
A local detour for passenger cars will be posted utilizing Cook Road and Searls Road to North Byron Road.
