Derrick Bradley, wearing a skunk costume, joins local residents as they respond to protestors who oppose the annual ‘Squirrel Slam’ fundraiser in Holley.
Edita Birnkrant, director of Friends of Animals in New York, gathers with fellow protestors at Thomas Street and Public Square in Holley.
The Orleans County chapter of SCOPE (Shooters Committee On Political Education) is also in Holley today distributing buttons.
Photos by Tom Rivers – Hunters walk towards the Holley fire hall with squirrels to be weighed as part of today’s “Squirrel Slam” hunting contest.
HOLLEY – While a small group of protestors stood outside, shivering in the cold and holding signs against a squirrel hunting contest, the Holley fire hall was filled with more than 400 hunters.
They had been out hunting earlier in the day, shooting squirrels. Individuals and teams with the heaviest squirrels won prizes. It’s a tradition Friends of Animals wants to see outlawed.
Friends for the second year targeted the Holley event, questioning why a fire department, with a mission of saving lives, would organize a fundraiser that welcomed participants 12 and older to kill squirrels.
There were fewer than a dozen protestors against the Squirrel Slam at Public Square during a 4:30 to 6 p.m. protest. Edita Birnkrant, director of Friends of Animals in New York, made the trip from New York City. Her organization is against all hunting, but is speficially pushing legislation that would ban wildlife killing contests.
There were fewer than a dozen protestors from Friends of Animals in Holley today for the Squirrel Slam. They group is trying to raise public awareness about its efforts to make wildlife hunting contests illegal as fund-raisers. The group had a designated spot in front of the Holley Hotel where they stood with signs.
Jeanne O’Dell of Pavilion stood with the Friends of Animals, holding a sign. She said it was her first protest.
“Some people might say it’s only squirrels, but it’s still violence,” said O’Dell, 54.
O’Dell said she is an animal advocate. Two years ago she adopted a rescued pit bull. She doesn’t like the Squirrel Slam, partly because it welcomes children to shoot guns.
Holley resident Kerri Neale talked with the protestors while he walked around with a boot, seeking donations for the Holley Fire Department. Neale went out hunting squirrels with a friend earlier in the day. Neale said he shot three. He thinks the push by Friends and some downstate legislators shows a culture clash between upstate and New York City.
“Our cultures are different,” he said. “I can’t tell them want to do with their culture.”
The Holley Police Department designated spots for protestors. Supporters of the Friends of Animals were by the Holley Hotel at left while hunting enthusiasts were across the street at right in back. Another group holding SCOPE (Shooters Committee On Political Education) also protested at right by the former Tagg’s Tavern. That group opposes the SAFE Act, a gun control measure approved by the governor and State Legislature in January 2013.
Neale and Birnkrant exchanged words. Neale told her some Holley residents hunt to supplement their groceries. He noted it is a poor area, something he told Birnkrant well-to-do people in New York City may not realize.
Birnkrant acknowledged there is a disconnect between NYC and upstate. She told Neale she questions why people would want to put guns in the hands of children, which she said desensitizes them to violence and killing.
“Your culture sickens me,” she told Neale.
She complained to him for coming in the protestors’ designated space by the Holley Hotel, saying things to provoke the group. She told him none of the Friends of Animals walked across the street to provoke demonstrators in support of hunting, the Second Amendment and the Holley Fire Department.
Neale said he supports the right to protest, including by the Friends of Animals, although he said the group’s mission is “misguided.”
He said the Squirrel Slam embraced “skillful hunting, not torturing animals.”
Kerri Neale, a Holley resident who hunted squirrels on Saturday, talks with Edita Birnkrant, director of Friends of Animals in New York, during Saturday’s demonstration. Neale, right, solicited donations for the Holley Fire Department. He said he collected about $100 for the Fire Department, including individual cash donations from some of the Friends of Animals representatives.
In talking with Birnkrant, he stressed she and many of the Friends supporters were from New York City.
Birnkrant said the city pays more than its share in taxes, keeping the state going.
“Without New York City, Western New York would fall into Lake Ontario,” Birnkrant told Neale.
She had another exchange with Dan Shuler of Barre. Shuler walked towards her and told her squirrels are just like rats, which are common in NYC.
While they talked, hunters walked by with squirrels on a string. One shouted to Birnkrant that squirrels are “yummy.”
Shuler encouraged Birnkrant to go back to New York City. In front of a Holley police officer, she told Shuler, “I’m a New Yorker. We provide all the funds for your [expletive] little town.”
She turned around and walked away. Shuler was standing there with a young boy. Shuler asked if others heard what he heard. He was surprised Birnkrant would swear in front of a kid, a police officer (and a reporter).
Birnkrant earlier in the day presented Police Chief William Murphy with names from 5,500 people around the world in an online petition, calling on Holley to cease the Squirrel Slam.
Animal rights advocates were also in Brockport earlier in the day, protesting the slam.
Photos by Tom Rivers – A big crowd of hunters and supporters of the Holley Fire Department gathered for food, a raffle and the results of today’s Squirrel Slam fund-raiser, a hunting contest with prizes for the heaviest squirrels shot.
HOLLEY – The Squirrel Slam will likely continue next year, but it may have a new name: “The Squirrel Hunt.”
Holley Fire Department officials said the name for the hunting contest – Squirrel Slam – may feed some of the controversy and protests for the event.
“We might change the name,” said Fran Gaylord, Holley FD president. “That might help with the PR.”
Gaylord said the department feels much more support for holding the hunting contest than criticism. The participation level jumped from about 250 two years ago to 950 last year, when the event was first targeted by protestors from Friends of Animals.
The crowd was too big to fit in the fire hall last year for a post-hunt meal, raffles and prizes. This year the department capped it at 650 and it quickly sold out without any advertisement.
“There has been some backlash, but we’ve had a lot of members of our community who are very supportive,” said Fire Chief Peter Hendrickson.
A year ago Holley Fire Department leaders didn’t know what to expect after the Squirrel Slam was put in the bull’s eye of protestors. The department was told 3,000 protestors could be in town for the Squirrel Slam.
Hendrickson received 4,500 emails urging him to cancel the squirrel hunting contest. He received many anonymous threats, he said.
The contest became a media spectacle, drawing national and international attention. Friends of Animals did show, about 20 of them a year ago.
Gaylord said the department isn’t ruffled by all the media attention or the protestors.
“We work well under stress,” he said.
He walked out of the fire hall to size up the protestors, and shrugged his shoulders.
The Holley Fire Department sells tickets for a gun and other prizes inside the fire hall this evening.
“What is there, 8 or 9 protestors?” he said.
Friends of Animals made a late push to attend today’s Squirrel Slam. The group wasn’t sure it was even happening. The Fire Department didn’t advertise it on its web site, with flyers or advertisements. Instead, it spread by word of mouth and was a sell-out with 650 tickets.
“We didn’t want to engage with them this year,” Hendrickson said about the protestors. “We appreciate their position and their protest. It’s their right.”
The department also doesn’t have a problem with supporting a hunting contest as a fund-raiser. Friends of Animals wants to make wildlife killing contests illegal in the state.
“We’re not trying to obstinate, or to (tick) anybody off,” Gaylord said. “We’re not trying to say we’re better than anybody. People have a right to hunt.”
About 200 of the ticket buyers for the Squirrel Slam didn’t participate in the hunting contest today, choosing to buy tickets in support of the department.
Last year, the department’s phone rang off the hook for a week leading up to the Squirrel Slam. Gaylord and Hendrickson said the department might have got 10 calls about the event in the past week.
The fire hall was filled with about 400 hunters after the contest. The event generates about $6,500 in revenue for the department, which clears about $4,000 after it pays for prizes, food and helps with the security costs for the event.
“We have no plans not to do it again next year,” Gaylord said. “Other fire departments have thanked us for standing our ground. Other departments have gun raffles.”
HOLLEY – New York Revolution, a group that formed about a year ago to promote Second Amendment rights, will not be demonstrating Saturday against the protestors of the Squirrel Slam fund-raiser for the Holley Fire Department, said Gia Arnold, a state-wide coordinator for the group.
NY Revolution instead will be holding a voter registration drive at the firehall, said Arnold, a Holley resident.
She issued this statement today after an Orleans Hub article on Wednesday said the group would be in Holley on Saturday.
“New York Revolution will not be demonstrating at the Holley Squirrel Slam,” Arnold said. “The Constitutional organization fully supports the protesters’ right to protest, as well as the fire department’s and hunters’ right to participate in the Squirrel Slam. The organization does plan on running a voter registration table inside of the Slam to promote the importance of voting to the local community as they have done in the past at other events.”
Photo from Friends of Animals Facebook page – Protestors were in Holley last February for the seventh annual Squirrel Slam. They will be back again on Saturday.
(This article was updated from an earlier version that stated Friends of Animals isn’t against hunting. The group is opposed to all hunting, said director Edita Birnkrant.)
HOLLEY – Edita Birnkrant doesn’t want to take away anyone’s Second Amendment rights. But she does want to make shooting animals illegal when it’s part of a fund-raiser.
Birnkrant is director of Friends of Animals in New York. She will be in Holley on Saturday for the 8th annual Squirrel Slam. She may be joined by hundreds of FOA supporters from several states.
“We share the landscape with wildlife,” Birnkrant said by phone this afternoon from New York City. “I see this as a crime against nature.”
Friends of Animals plans a peaceful protest near the Holley Firehall from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Birnkrant was in Holley last year for the Squirrel Slam and she said some of the hunters taunted her with dead squirrels, holding them out towards her as they passed by for the weigh station at the firehall.
Police have told Birnkrant the Friends of Animals will be separated from the hunters on Saturday. Police don’t want the hunters walking through a pack of protestors.
This year’s event has the added dimension of the New York Revolution, a group that formed last year after the state passed the controversial gun control measure known as the SAFE Act. The group is expected to be in Holley on Saturday, showing its support for the Second Amendment.
Birnkrant said she doesn’t want to infringe on the Second Amendment.
“We’re not trying to take guns away,” she said. “We think wildlife killing contests should be unlawful. As a society we have to evolve from this.”
The Holley event isn’t the only fund-raiser where participants hunt wildlife. Other events target crows and coyotes. But Birnkrant said Holley’s Squirrel Slam is unusual because it has a fire department as its sponsor and welcomes children as young as 12 to participate.
Participants bring up to five squirrels to the weigh station and prizes go to the heaviest cumulative entry. The event on Saturday, despite little advertising, quickly was a sellout and capped at 650 participants.
The Squirrel Slam generates about $6,500 in revenue for the Fire Department. After it pays out $1,500 for prizes, $500 for food and $440 to Holley for police overtime, Fire Department President Fran Gaylord said the event nets about $4,000.
Friends of Animals plans to present a petition to village and fire department officials, asking that the event be cancelled in the future. Friends has offered to make up the fund-raising loss for the fire department, Birnkrant said.
Bills in both the State Assembly and Senate call for banning wildlife hunting contests. That doesn’t include fishing derbies. Birnkrant said that her goal is to stop the contests that call for killing of land animals. She doesn’t see the contests as hunting in the traditional sense.
“Most people would be horrified by a dog or cat killing contest because they are pets,” Birnkrant said. “I’m horrified by a squirrel killing contest. They feel pain.”
Friends of Animals is actually against all hunting, but the group’s immediate goal is to see state legislation approved to ban wildlife hunting contests.
Birnkrant said her group hopes to show its opposition to the Holley event on Saturday, and doesn’t want to get into any confrontations with supporters of the Squirrel Slam.
“I would hope it would be pretty uneventful,” she said.
Holley police expects to have at least five officers on duty Saturday afternoon with additional support from the Albion Police Department and New York State Police.
Photo by Tom Rivers – State Sen. George Maziarz has fun answering a quiz about New York State history and facts with Holley third-graders. Maziarz directed $67,800 in funding to Holley to purchase 30 of the SMART Boards.
HOLLEY – Third grade teacher Lynn Vendetti tapped her finger on a white board and the next lesson appeared on the screen, an exercise in math.
The first question was 26 divided by 3. The screen showed 26 images of shells. A student walked to the board and arranged the shells into three rows, moving the shells on the screen with his finger. He had three rows of eight shells each, plus another two left over. His answer to 26 divided by 3: 8 with a remainder of 2.
Vendetti’s class has one of the new SMART Boards in the school district. The whiteboards are far more interactive with students than chalkboards or dry erase boards, said Robert D’Angelo, Holley’s school superintendent.
‘The kids are enthusiastic about engaging with the SMART Board,” D’Angelo said. “They are smiling and they are happy. They love to go up to the SMART Board.”
A third grade student works on a math problem with one of the SMART Boards at Holley.
Vendetti can insert lesson plans into the SMART Board and the information quickly shows on the screen. She doesn’t have to spend time jotting down numbers and information on a chalkboard.
The fast pace with the SMART Board keeps the students engaged, D’Angelo said.
“It has reduced classroom misbehavior,” D’Angelo said. “There is more concentration on learning.”
Holley added 30 SMART Boards this year, using $67,800 in funding from State Sen. George Maziarz. The senator secured “bullet aid” earmarks and he directed $67,800 to each of the five districts in Orleans County. It’s unrestricted aid, giving each district the choice to use it how they feel best.
“We’re trying to bring more resources back to the districts,” Maziarz said on Thursday afternoon, when he visited Holley to see the SMART Boards.
State Sen. George Maziarz visits Lynn Vendetti’s third grade class and sees a SMART Board in action. The system includes a microphone, which helps Vendetti to be heard by all students in the class.
The five districts used the funding for different initiatives. Medina used it to fund a police officer to work in the district. Some districts beefed up curriculum development for staff and implemented other security improvements. Holley picked the SMART Boards.
“We wanted to put it in the classroom where it has a direct impact on kids,” D’Angelo said.
Maziarz spent about a half hour with third graders on Thursday in Holley. He used the SMART Board to take a 10-question quiz about New York State history. He was able to see how the questions advanced on the screen, and how he could answer them by tapping one of four answers that appeared on the white board.
“This is great,” he said about the SMART Board. “It’s the way of the world today.”
D’Angelo said Holley would like to add a SMART Board to each classroom in the district. They are about a third of the way there. As the technology advances, D’Angelo said students may be able to dissect frogs in biology class with a SMART Board.
“This is a powerful instructional tool,” he said.
HOLLEY – The Board of Education president expects the school district will reduce taxes in 2014-15, in response to an audit from the State Comptroller’s Office that said Holley’s cash reserves were far too big.
“We plan on reducing them, but we haven’t discussed by how much,” said Brenda Swanger, Holley BOE president.
The district will have several budget meetings in the next two months, and she said a tax reduction will be part of the budget discussion.
She said the district is in a good situation with its fund balance, the rainy day funds a district will sometimes use to cover unexpected costs or drops in revenue.
The State Comptroller faulted Holley Central School for building up surpluses that exceeded the statutory limit by about $7 million.
The comptroller’s office reviewed the previous five fiscal years at the school district and found school leaders regularly underestimated revenues and overestimated expenditures. That created about $6.7 million in surpluses over the five years.
Swanger has been on the board for 10 years. She said Holley was in the red about a decade ago.
“This is much better than having no money,” she said today.
Holley has worked to build up its reserves, particularly to guard against swings in state aid funding, Swanger said. The district took a $1.5 million state aid hit about three years ago and faced other reductions before that.
“The state has clobbered us before with state aid cuts, and we had to lay off people,” Swanger said.
Building a surplus helps protect the district from aid reductions, she said.
“We’re trying to balance that,” Swanger said.
The statutory limit for surplus funds is 4 percent of the ensuing year’s budget or about $920,000 for Holley, which operates on a $23 million budget. The district was over the surplus fund threshold by more than $7 million or 35 percent, according to the comptroller’s report. (Click here to see the report.)
Swanger and Kathy Saville, the district’s business administrator, don’t want to reduce the surplus all the way to $920,000. That would make Holley vulnerable to big tax increases if there was an unexpected equipment failure that needed repair or if the state aid was cut.
“Four percent is on the low side, especially if a heating unit goes down,” Saville said.
The cash reserves at their current level allow the district to avoid some costs for short-term borrowing. Holley was also able to use some of the surplus to front costs for the current capital project. State reimbursements can often take months, Saville said.
With a small surplus, Saville said Holley would have to take on more short-term borrowing, which would include interest and costs for bond counsel and financial management fees.
The board will work with its administrators to develop a long-range plan for reducing the surplus. Saville just started with the district in October, replacing Gene Mahaney who retired. Swanger praised Mahaney for pushing to build Holley’s reserves over several years.
That money put Holley in a strong position for its local share of a $30 million capital project, Swanger said. The surplus could be tapped for cost over-runs or for unexpected costs.
Saville took issue with part of the news article Thursday on Orleans Hub about the audit. She said Holley didn’t move $400,000 from the general fund to a capital fund without the required voter approval, as reported in the article.
The funds were moved with the voters’ blessing, she said. However, the comptroller said the district didn’t always spend the money fast enough. Sometimes money was in the capital reserve account and not spent in a timely manner, she said.
“There wasn’t anything fiscally wrong with the district and there wasn’t a mismanagement of funds,” Saville said.
HOLLEY – The State Comptroller has faulted Holley Central School for building up surpluses that exceeded the statutory limit by about $7 million.
The comptroller’s office reviewed the previous five fiscal years at the school district and found school leaders regularly underestimated revenues and overestimated expenditures. That created about $6.7 million in surpluses over the five years.
The statutory limit for surplus funds is 4 percent of the ensuing year’s budget or about $920,000 for Holley, which operates on a $23 million budget. The district was over the surplus fund threshold by more than $7 million or 35 percent, according to the comptroller’s report, which was issued last week. (Click here to see it.)
“Due to these practices, the Board and District officials have withheld significant funds from productive use, levied unnecessary taxes and compromised the transparency of District finances to taxpayers,” the Comptroller’s Office stated.
In addition to the big surpluses, Holley shifted $400,000 from the general fund to a capital fund without the required voter approval, according to the Comptroller’s Office.
The Comptroller’s Office suggested Holley use its surplus to pay off debt, finance one-time expenditures, and reduce taxes. The $400,000 in the capital fund should also be returned to the general fund.
The district will work to implement recommendations in the report, Robert D’Angelo, Holley school superintendent, wrote a Jan. 28 response to Robert Meller, chief examiner for the Comptroller’s Office in Buffalo.
D’Angelo, in his letter, said the district has worked to “have adequate resources to deliver programs that the community desires.” He stressed the Comptroller’s Office found no fiscal misconduct or illegal practices.
Holley has the highest tax rate of the school districts in Orleans County at $25.11 per $1,000 of assessed property. That compares to Medina, $23.85; Lyndonville, $18.41; Kendall, $17.21 and Albion, $16.82.
Kendall had a sizable surplus and voted to cut taxes by $1 million in 2013-14.
Photos by Tom Rivers – Village officials have received postcards with squirrels, stuffed animals of the creatures, and other squirrel merchandise that village officials proudly display on the front desk of the Village Office.
HOLLEY – Residents and Holley natives, in a show of support and perhaps a sign of humor, have been sending the Village Office all kinds of squirrel trinkets the past year, since Holley became famous for its Squirrel Slam hunting fund-raiser.
There are stuffed animals of squirrels, post cards with the animals, a squirrel wearing underpants and other squirrel merchandise on the front desk of the Village Office. All of the items have been given to the village, signs of appreciation for Holley and its commitment to a controversial fund-raiser for the fire department, said Village Clerk Jane Murray.
“The residents have been very supportive,” Murray said.
This one is taped to the wall by the front door.
Some animal rights activists have protested the event, where hunters shoot squirrels and win prizes for the heaviest ones. Activists, including at least one state legislator from New York City, have demanded the Slam be canceled.
Holley officials wouldn’t give in last February and the event went on with a record number of people participating, nearly 1,000. This year’s Slam will be Feb. 22. Participation has been capped at 650 and it’s already a sellout.
Activists are still opposing the event, but it hasn’t attracted the media frenzy like last year.
Holley Police Chief William Murphy will have five Holley police officers on duty on Feb. 22, as well as additional officers from the state police, Orleans County Sheriff’s Department and the Albion Police Department.
Another squirrel photo that hangs in the Village Office.
HOLLEY – The Holley Police Department is losing two of its full-time police officers to other nearby police departments, leaving Holley with only Police Chief William Murphy as a full-time presence.
Jennifer Lloyd is leaving the Holley PD to work for the Geneva Police Department. Another Holley officer, Devon Pahuta, is headed to the Batavia Police Department.
The Village Board voted on Tuesday to hire two part-time officers to help with staffing the department, which will continue to provide police protection, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The board hired Dominic D’Antonio, effective Feb. 19. He will be paid $15.22 per hour. He is a veteran police officer.
Cory Collins was hired as a part-time officer at $10.50 an hour. He starts Feb. 26.
In other action on Tuesday:
The Village Board voted to waive a $19 late fee for the water bill for the First Presbyterian Church of Holley.
The board voted to pay David Nenni, the DPW superintendent, $792.30 for five unused vacation days.
Village Clerk Jane Murray said the next village election will be June 17. Mayor Kenney and Trustees Don Penna and David Dill are all up for election. The terms are for two years. Candidates can pick up petitions at the Village Office beginning April 1.
The board approved a request from Nenni, the DPW superintendent, to add no parking signs near the West Union and Orchard Street intersection and the Franklin and Ray Street intersection. Board members said vehicles have been parked near those intersections, making it difficult for the DPW to plow.
