Public Service Announcement, featuring 4 students and their teacher Zach Busch, perform to enthusiastic crowd at Hickory Ridge

Photos by Tom Rivers

HOLLEY – A rock band with Holley students played nine songs during their first concert in the community on Friday evening at Hickory Ridge Golf & RV Resort in Holley.

The band – Public Service Announcement – includes, from left: Owen Schultz on guitar, Layla Jones on bass, Gabe Lindsay on vocals, Zach Busch (guest guitar player who usually is on drums for PSA) and Aidan Kelley on guitar. Tristan Sanders, drummer for the Moon Hunters, joined PSA for their closing song, “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” by AC/DC.

Gabe Lindsay sings “Big Shot” by Billy Joel. He is joined by his Holley music teacher Zach Busch, also guitarist for the Moon Hunters; Dave Blumrick, bass player for the Moon Hunters; and Aidan Kelley, guitar player for PSA.

Owen Schultz, left, and Layla Jones perform with PSA.

The band members are all students in the school band led by Zach Busch. Schultz will be a senior, Jones will be a junior, and Aidan Kelley is an incoming sophomore. Gabe Linsday, the lead singer, graduated a week ago.

They have been playing together for about a year, doing school events. Friday was a chance to open for the Moon Hunters. Busch has played with that band as a founding member for about a decade.

Schultz traces the formation to PSA to when he performed as a character, Ricky Hawkston, in the school’s music showcase in June 2022. “Hawkston” was picked  for Holley’s mascot, the Hawks. Schultz expanded the band to “Ricky and the Shenanigans” who changed their name to Public Service Announcement.

Busch taught the students rock and roll theory, and stayed after school to help them learn some classic rock songs. Busch ended up joining the band as the drummer.

He told the crowd at Hickory Ridge that he feels like he is living out his favorite movie, “School of Rock,” where actor Jack Black teaches students to write rock songs and perform in a high-octane band.

Schultz said he is grateful Busch helped the band mesh together and took the students seriously as musicians who wanted to learn rock and roll.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Schultz said about being in the band with his friends and their music teacher.

The students are all in the marching band led by Busch, and he would often stay after marching band practice to help them with their rock songs.

“We wouldn’t be where we are without him,” Schultz said.

More than 100 people attended the opening concert by PSA at Hickory Ridge.

Photos by Tom Rivers

HOLLEY – Nick Salvatore, lead singer for Clueless, belts out a rock song on Friday evening at Holley’s Concerts on the Canal series.

Musicians will be performing on Friday evenings beginning at 6 p.m. through Aug. 23.

The lineup for the rest of the series includes:

• July 12: Brick Band
• July 19: Old Hippies
• July 26: Triple Play
• August 2: Michael Zelazny
• August 9: Feedback
• August 16: Ghost Riders
• August 23: Greg Stanton

Clueless performs at Holley Canal Park at 29 East Ave. There were about 75 people at the concert, including a few boaters.

The band includes, from left in front: Nick Salvatore, Gary Tarr and Robert Gallagher. Ritty Right is the drummer.

Daniel Weatherbee grills a hamburger at his new business, The Tugboat Grill. Weatherbee built the trailer that resembles a boat with a grill and refrigerator. He plans to be at the concerts on Friday evenings in Holley, offering burgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken and sausage.

Weatherbee has the Tugboat Grill at Glenside Sales & Service at 56 State St. in Holley from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday.

Nick Salvatore roamed from the main performing area to play the guitar in front of these boaters.

Holley’s concert series is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts, with funds administered by the Genesee Orleans Regional Arts Council.

Arthur Barnes creating farm scene of wheat field, apple orchard

Photos by Tom Rivers

HOLLEY – Arthur Barnes, an artist from Millville near Medina, is in Holley today working on a mural on the back of the Community Free Library.

Barnes put the primer on Sunday for the artwork that will be 25 feet high and 21 feet wide.

On Monday he painted the sky, and tried to blend it in with a mural painted last year by Tony Barry. That mural features the portrait of Holley’s namesake, Myron Holley, and a Erie Canal scene. Holley was an early commissioner for the canal.

Barnes today is painting the tree line and the wheat fields. The bottom of the mural will have more detail and feature an apple orchard.

Tony Barry’s mural is on the left and Arthur Barnes is working on a new large-scale painting on the right side. The project is funded with a $5,000 grant awarded to the library from the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council.

Barnes said Barry had some leftover paint that allowed for a perfect match with the sky.

“I’m a big fan of Tony’s work,” Barnes said.

This is the sixth mural Barnes has painted in Orleans County. The first five were all Erie Canal scenes. One of those is on display in the Murry-Holley Historical Society.

Arthur Barnes said he would like to have the mural done by the end of July.

“That’s what I’m aiming for but there are many variables with the weather,” he said.

Photos by Tom Rivers

HOLLEY – Andrew Grillo hits a tennis ball to a group of kids at a tennis camp at Holley on Monday. There were about 15 participants on the first day of a tennis camp.

The program is funded with a grant from the U.S. Tennis Association. The camp is usually held in Albion at the school tennis courts, but with those courts under construction Holley is hosting the camp.

The camp is run by the Village of Albion of Albion Recreation Department.

There are two different weeks of camps. This week it runs Monday through Friday except on July Fourth. Next week the camp is from July 8-12, except for July 9.

The camp runs from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. There is no charge to participants.

Basic tennis skills will be taught to the beginners with tennis drills and low-level competitive match situations. Scoring, rules and regulations will be taught along with tennis strategies, said John Grillo, the Albion recreation director ad retired tennis coach at Holley.

There is no pre-registration and participants can still join. Email jgrillo3@hotmail.com if there are any questions.

Orleans expected to go from 3 full-time priests to 2 in near future

Photos by Tom Rivers: Father Mark Noonan, priest for a family of six Catholic churches in Orleans and eastern Niagara counties, met with about 35 parishioners on Wednesday evening for about two hours at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Holley. Father Noonan went over recent data, showing a declining number of priests and church attendees in the 8-county Diocese of Buffalo.

HOLLEY – The numbers at local Catholic churches mirror the challenge throughout the 8-county Diocese of Buffalo: a shrinking number of priests, and smaller congregations and financial resources.

Father Mark Noonan, a priest serving churches in Orleans and eastern Niagara counties, met with about 35 people on Wednesday evening at St. Mary’s in Holley, the first of seven meetings he is holding through Sunday with parishioners at Catholic churches in Holley, Kendall, Albion, Medina, Middleport and Barker.

Noonan is giving the local Catholics a chance to weigh in on a proposal announced last week from the Diocese of Buffalo that would close 34 percent of the churches in the Diocese. The churches in Orleans County are part of a family of churches in Orleans and eastern Niagara. The recommendation from the Diocese is to keep Catholic churches in Medina, Albion and Holley.

“This makes sure there is a Catholic presence within a reasonable geographic distance,” Father Noonan said during a two-hour meeting on Wednesday evening. “I don’t want to lose anything. But what is best for this family of parishes long-term?”

The proposal from the Diocese for ONE Catholic (Orleans and Niagara East) would close St. Mark’s in Kendall and St. Stephen’s in Middleport. St. Joseph’s in Lyndonville was badly damaged in a fire last year and then torn down. The site and the rectory will be sold, and so will the land in Hulberton for the St. Rocco’s Italian Festival.

The Diocese also recommends to move Barker to a different family of churches in Niagara County. That will better align them with churches that are closer to Barker, Noonan said.

Father Mark Noonan said he wants the local Catholic churches to re-engage with the community, especially with its outreach to younger families.

The restructured family of churches will go from seven sites when the family was created to start 2023 to three churches with three priests serving congregations in Medina, Albion and Holley.

Father Noonan said he thinks of the churches locally as “one big family.” He knows some of the Catholics are hurting because their long-term church home has been recommended to close. That includes the church where he was raised: St. Aloysius Gonzaga in Cheektowaga.

“Some of our members in the ONE Catholic community are hurting,” Father Noonan said.

When the Diocese has closed churches before in a downsizing or “right sizing,” Father Noonan said there was a tendency to feel like there had been winners and losers though the process.

“We can’t have that,” he said. “When something is lost, that pertains to all of us. We something is gained, that pertains to all of us.”

Jim Simon of Lyndonville is president of the pastoral council for the family of churches. He said the plan to close about a third of the churches in the Diocese is painful. He is hopeful this will be the last downsizing needed by the Diocese.

“We don’t want to do this again in five years,” he said.

Jim Simon of Lyndonville is president of the pastoral council for a family of churches in Orleans and eastern Niagara counties. He is hopeful the downsizing plan presented by the Diocese will be the last time the organization has to consider closing churches and selling off property. He urged the attendees on Wednesday “to keep the faith and move forward.”

Father Noonan looked at historical data from the ONE Catholic family of churches in Orleans and Niagara East.

The churches, which used to include a site in Gasport and smaller churches in Albion and Medina, had 14 priests in 1985. There were eight or nine assigned to the area in 2005. Now there are three priests – Father Mark Noonan, Father Paul Ladda and Father Jan Trela.

In the Diocese there were 511 active priests assigned to parishes in the 8 counties. Now there are about 115 assigned to churches. That is projected to further drop to 70 in 2030, and then 38 in 2040.

The weekly attendance at the ONE Catholic churches is down collectively from about 1,600 in 2012 to 1,000 in 2023. In the past year, however, it is up about 100, with Holy Trinity in Medina seeing 10 percent growth a Spanish-speaking Mass at Holy Family in Albion drawing about 50 on Sunday afternoons.

Among the ONE Catholic churches individually, the average weekly Mass attendance so far this year include 165 at St. Mary’s in Holley, 27 at St. Mark’s in Kendall, 270 at Holy Family in Albion (plus another 50 for a Spanish-speaking Mass), 273 at Holy Trinity in Medina, 80 at St. Stephen’s in Middleport, and 121 at Our Lady of the Lake in Barker.

Among ONE Catholic churches, annual baptisms in the past decade are down from 76 to 21, while weddings dropped from 21 to 9, and confirmations also decreased from 119 to 39. There were about 600 children in religious education in 2012. Now it’s about 130, Father Noonan said.

The local churches long-term viability will need more younger families, Father Noonan said. He said the churches need to reach out to those who have stopped going to church, and invite people who haven’t been.

“I want to find new ways to grow,” Father Noonan said. “Our goal is to grow, to grow in our spiritual lives and to reach out to more people.”

He would like to see more Bible studies and small group discipleship programs in ONE Catholic .

At the Holley meeting, two of the parishioners asked that the St. Rocco’s festival grounds not be sold. The site is used for a popular Italian festival the day before Labor Day in a tradition going back nearly 50 years.

Father Noonan said the festival could be at a village park or at the St. Mary’s church property. He said the Lawn Fete at Holy Family also is a popular church festival at the Albion parish property.

“Using St. Rocco’s one day a year doesn’t make sense to me,” Father Noonan said.

The church buildings and properties that are sold will go towards a settlement for victims of sexual abuse by priests. That settlement is in negotiation. About 900 people have claimed they were abused by priests.

One of the parishioners at the Holley meeting said the abuse scandal has driven many from the church.

St. Mary’s in Holley would be the only Catholic church to remain open in eastern Orleans, according to a proposal from the Diocese of Buffalo. St. Mark’s in Kendall is recommended to close.

Father Noonan also held meetings on Thursday at St. Stephen’s in Middleport and Holy Family in Albion, and today at St. Mary’s in Medina.

There are meetings scheduled for Saturday at 9 a.m. at Our Lady of the Lake in Barker, and Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s in Kendall, and then a final Spanish language meeting on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at Holy Family in Albion.

Any counter proposals from the Diocese recommendations must be submitted by July 15. If a family of churches recommends keeping one church open that is proposed to close, the family has to pick a different church to close, Father Noonan said.

“There has to be a one-for-one,” he said.

From the counter-proposals from the families of churches the Diocese is expected to make a final decision in September on which churches will be closed.

HOLLEY – The Board of Education on Monday voted to fill two vacancies on the board.

Jessica Sniatecki and Stephanie Merkley will start July 1 and serve a term until May 20, the day of next year’s election. At that time, their seats and the remainder of their terms will be up for election.

Sniatecki and Merkley both turned in letters of interest when two seats were vacated. Sal DeLuca and Shannon Brett both were elected in May but had to decline the positions.

HOLLEY – Village residents have re-elected Mayor Mark Bower and also kept two incumbent trustees on the Village Board.

The village election was today and all three candidates were unopposed.

Bower received 81 votes. He has been mayor the past two years. The new terms for board members will be four years.

John Morriss received 81 votes for trustee and Jessica MacClaren, 78.

The new terms start on July 1.

HOLLEY – Voters in the Village of Holley go to the polls today to elect a mayor and two trustees on the Village Board.

Mark Bower is unopposed for mayor. He is running under the “Historic Holley Party.” The trustee candidates are both incumbents. Jessica MacClaren is running under the “Four Holley Party” and John Morriss is under the “Family Party.”

Voting is from noon to 9 p.m. in the village office foyer.

Holley’s terms of office used to be for two years but this election they will be for four years. The board voted to increase the terms on Jan. 10, 2023. This is the first election it takes effect.

Bower was elected mayor in June 2022. He is a retired school administrator. MacClaren is a fourth-grade teacher in Brockport. Morriss is a retired teacher and former Murray town supervisor.

Leigha Walker, ‘our angel,’ praised for doing compressions on man who had heart attack

Photos by Tom Rivers: Holley school district leaders present “Soaring to New Heights” awards to Leigha Walker, a Holley senior, and teacher Renee Wolf. From left include district superintendent Brian Bartalo and Board of Education President Anne Winkley. Walker performed compressions on a man who went into cardiac arrest and crashed into a pole outside the Brockport Subway where she works. Walker received training in CPR at Holley in a class taught by Wolf.

HOLLEY – The school district this evening presented a “Soaring to New Heights” award to Leigha Walker, a Holley senior who rendered aid to a man who had a heart attack.

The district also recognized Renee Wolf, teacher of the class where students learn CPR, the Heimlich maneuver and first aid.

The wife and two sisters of Jack Brennan also attended the Board of Education meeting in Holley to show their appreciation for Leigha and her teacher. Brennan, 67, of Brockport is the man who had a heart attack and became unconscious on June 9. He crashed into a pole outside the Brockport Subway where Leigha was working.

She heard the crash and immediately called 911 at about 10 a.m. Leigha grabbed a wooden rod so a bystander could break the passenger window of Brennan’s pickup truck and then unlock the vehicle.

Leigha and co-worker got Brennan out of the truck and onto the ground. Leigha checked his vital signs. When the Brockport Fire District ambulance pulled up, a medic urged someone to start CPR.

Leigha did more than 30 compressions to keep Brennan’s blood moving. Then the Brockport ambulance personnel used an AED to get Brennan’s heart restarted. He was then transported by ambulance to a hospital.

It was an intense 12 minutes or so. Then Leigha went back to work for four more hours.

“Leigha is our angel,” said Kathy Conner, one of Brennan’s sisters.

Leigha Walker is joined by the family of Jack Brennan, a man she provided aid to on June 9. From left include Brennan’s wife Caroline Rodriguez, and Brennan’s sisters Maureen Close and Kathy Conner. They attended an award presentation for Walker at the Board of Education meeting this evening.

Brennan is now in stable condition and will have open-heart bypass surgery tomorrow.

His wife, Caroline Rodriguez, said Brennan is very fit. He works out, runs regularly, and stays busy in retirement, sealing driveways and painting. For the past 25 years he has been a softball umpire in Section 5, and has done games where Leigha was the catcher for Holley, with Brennan only a few inches behind her, calling balls and strikes. He also is a volleyball referee.

Brennan has run many marathons. He had already knocked out a 1 ½-mile run the morning of June 9 before he was stricken with a heart attack.

Rodriguez said Leigha’s actions and those of other bystanders saved precious minutes for the medics who arrived later.

“They got him out of the truck, set up and she started CPR,” Rodriguez said. “Those were critical moments when every second counts.”

Leigha has been featured in the media in the past week, including the Orleans Hub, Rochester television stations and has been widely praised on social media.

She prefers to keep a low-profile, said Brian Bartalo, the district superintendent.

“Leigha is a very humble and kind person,” Bartalo said this evening, in presenting her with an award from the district. “I know she doesn’t want this type of attention.”

Provided photo: Leigha Walker is the catcher for Holley’s varsity softball game. In this photo Jack Brennan is the umpire.

The district also presented an award to Renee Wolf, teacher of the Sports, Safety and Fitness class where students learn CPR and other first aid.

Leigha was one of 15 Holley students to take the class last year and become certified in CPR.

Wolf learned CPR when she was 15. But she has never needed to use it. Wolf is also Leigha’s soccer coach on a team that won Sectionals and advanced to the state tournament.

“Leigha is a great young woman,” Wolf said. “I’m super proud of her. She doesn’t want the attention. She just thinks it’s something anybody would do.”

Bartalo said the elective class led by Wolf will stay in Holley, “so more kids can help their community.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

HOLLEY – Holley Elementary School celebrated Flag Day in a big way on Friday with its patriotic parade from the school down North Main Street, to Route 31 and the Public Square before gathering for a ceremony in front of the Murray-Holley Historical Society.

About 500 students were joined by teachers and parents in the parade. This was the 67^th annual Flag Day celebration. The parade and ceremony started in 1957,. The school presents citizenship awards for each grade level.

Brian Bartalo (left), the district superintendent, rides with Don Penna, a maintenance supervisor. They are playing music from the golf cart, including “This Land is Your Land” and “Born in the U.S.A.”

Bartalo, who is retiring June 30 after six years as Holley superintendent, said the Flag Day ceremony is a big highlight in the school year.

“I have never seen anything like it until I came here,” Bartalo said about Holley’s Flag Day celebration. “Patriotism and love of country is evident here.”

These elementary students walk along Route 31 through the Public Square.

Fifth-grader Olivia Rebis wore red, white and blue while serving as one of the student emcees during the ceremony. Grayson Kelley, another fifth-grader, also was an emcee. They are joined up front by principal Karri Schiavone, left, Brendan Keiser, the district’s director of teaching and learning, and Sal DeLuca, vice president of the Board of Education.

The elementary band and chorus performed several patriotic songs.

Principal Karri Schiavone presented the Catherine B. Press citizenship awards went to fifth-graders Mya Gerringer and Chase Lasher. These students demonstrate honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility and courage. Schiavone will start as Holley’s district superintendent on July 1.

Good Citizens from last year’s Flag Day ceremony were able to walk near the front of the parade, wearing their “Good Citizen” shirts.

Opening celebration, dedication Mass set for July 11

Press Release, Orleans Niagara East Catholic Community

HOLLEY – The Orleans Niagara East Catholic Community (ONE Catholic) has announced that the opening and dedication of the Saint Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center will take place at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Holley on July 11 at 4 p.m.

“The St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center in Holley will be the 8th center in the Diocese of Buffalo,” said Father Mark Noonan, Pastor of ONE Catholic. “We are grateful to be able to serve families by providing material, emotional and spiritual support to mothers, fathers and families in need during and after pregnancy.”

The July 11 opening celebration will begin with a dedication Mass at 4 p.m. in St. Mary’s Church, followed by the blessing of the new center in the St. Mary’s Parish Ministry Center next to the church. A reception will follow, and all are welcome.

The namesake of the outreach center, Saint Gianna, was born in 1922 in Milan, Italy.  As a young woman she became a pediatrician and wife. She and her husband, Pietro, had three children, and yet Gianna was able to balance the demands of motherhood, wife and doctor.

In 1961 she became pregnant with their 4th child, but learned early in the pregnancy that she had cancer. Gianna, herself a doctor, refused to take any steps that would place her child in danger. Accepting the risks that carrying her child to term meant for her, she insisted in the days prior to giving birth, “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child – I insist on it – save him.”

On April 21, 1962, Sr. Gianna gave birth to her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, and despite all efforts to treat St. Gianna, she passed away a week after giving birth. She was canonized a Saint by Pope St. John Paul II on May 16, 2004.

The daughter for whom she gave her life, Gianna Emanuela Molla, will be attending the dedication Mass and opening on July 11 in Holley.

“We are so incredibly blessed to have St. Gianna’s daughter be a living witness to the heroic virtue of her mother at our dedication and opening,” said Kathy Schumacher who, with her husband Bob, are directors of the center. “We hope to provide a caring and compassionate atmosphere to assist families from pregnancy through the first years of life.”

Once the Holley center is established, ONE Catholic plans to open a satellite office to meet with families at Holy Trinity Parish in Medina.

Leigha Walker to be recognized by Brockport Fire District for quick response

Photo by Tom Rivers: Leigha Walker is shown today outside the Holley Junior-Senior High School, where she is an honors student and three-sport varsity athlete.

HOLLEY – Leigha Walker, 18, is used to staying calm and being decisive in stressful situations.

Leigha is a three-sport athlete at Holley, a team captain. She also rides horses. She can decide in a millisecond whether to pass the ball or fire off a shot, or whether to guide a sprinting horse to the left or right an obstacle.

Provided photo: Leigha Walker juggles a busy school schedule with shifts at the Brockport Subway. She has worked there since February. On Sunday she did CPR on a man who was unconscious after crashing into a support beam in front of the Subway.

On Sunday morning, while working at the Brockport Subway, she faced a life-or-death situation. She had just put bread in the oven at the Subway at 10 a.m., when a man crashed his blue pickup truck into a support beam for an overhang outside the Subway.

Leigha immediately called 911. Then she ran outside the store to check on the man. Two customers and a co-worker joined her. Another driver got out of his car.

The driver, an older man, was unconscious at the wheel. But the truck was locked.

Leigha ran back in the store to get a wooden rod used to prop open the back door when employees take out the garbage. That rod was used to smash in the passenger side window. Another man reached in and unlocked the vehicle cutting his arm from the jagged glass.

Another Subway employee grabbed the driver and pulled him out of the truck. Leigha had his feet. They set him down carefully. Leigha rolled up a blanket as pillow underneath his head.

He gasped for air. She checked his vitals. He had a slight pulse.

Firefighters soon arrived from the Brockport Fire District. While they were getting out an AED, a firefighter urged someone to do CPR.

Leigha started doing compressions. She is certified in CPR. She did at least 30 compressions.

Then the medic from the fire district shocked the man with the AED. Monroe Ambulance arrived and transported him to a hospital.

The whole response took about 12 minutes, from the 911 call to the man being taking away by ambulance. Leigha put her headset back on and was greeted with irate customers who were in the drive-through, angry about the wait. They didn’t realize what was going on.

Leigha took their orders, pulled the bread out of the oven and worked four more hours.

Later, she received a message from the driver’s brother-in-law, thanking her for his quick action. He told her the man is alive, recovering in an ICU.

Leigha received another message from the man’s granddaughter, thanking her for making a difference for her grandfather.

Leigha is still processing what happened. It was all so fast.

“I just jumped into action,” she said today during an interview at the school. “It helps to know he is doing OK.”

She is grateful she received training in CPR at Holley. It was part of the Sports, Safety and Fitness class taught by Renee Wolf, who is also Leigha’s soccer coach.

Leigha was one of 15 Holley students to take the class last year. She is certified in CPR. She also learned the Heimlich maneuver and other first aid.

Jose Medina, chief of the Brockport Fire District, said Leigha improved the outcome for the driver in the accident. She and the other people got him out of the truck, saving firefighters time in the response. And the CPR also was likely critical, Medina said.

“The measures that she and other people took made a difference in him being alive,” Medina said.

The chief said if there are bystanders at a scene they are typically gawking, and not offering any assistance.

The Brockport Fire District wants to recognize Leigha for her “outstanding acts.”

Medina said he was able to do life-saving CPR on a person a couple years ago. He was trained to do it and felt like it was his responsibility as a firefighter.

He was amazed on Sunday to see a high school student working at Subway step forward and render aid.

Leigha is planning to attend Morrisville State College to play soccer and study equine management. The response on Sunday makes her want to take more EMT classes so she can better respond if there is ever an incident at a horse show or in the horse barn.

Dan Courtney, the Holley assistant principal, said the district feels very proud of Leigha and her response. Holley has been offering the CPR training through the Sports, Safety and Fitness class for about a decade.

“With CPR you never know if you’ll need it,” Courtney said.

Leigha had this advice for others: “Learn CPR.”

HOLLEY – The school district is looking to fill two vacancies on the Board of Education after two recently elected members notified the district they won’t be taking the volunteer positions when the terms start on July 1.

Sal DeLuca Jr., the board’s vice president, was elected to a three-year term on May 21. But he is not going to take the new term.

Shannon Brett was elected to a two-year term but was informed after the election that she would have to give up a security position in the district if she takes go on the Board of Education. Brett, a retired Sheriff’s deputy and investigator, wants to stay in the security position in Holley because she said she has built many strong relationships with students, teachers and administrators. She doesn’t want to commute a half hour to another district.

The BOE will fill the two vacancies by appointment. Candidates will be considered and possibly interviewed, according to a notice from the district.

For more information about the duties of being on the BOE, click here. For further questions contact District Clerk Connie Nenni at 585-638-6316 X: 2003 or cnenni@holleycsd.org.

Photos by Tom Rivers

MURRAY – A train from Genesee Valley Transportation hit a flatbed tow truck at about noon today. The truck from A & M Transmissions and Complete Automotive Center had just left a parking area north of the railroad tracks when the truck stalled on the tracks as a train was rounding the bend to the east.

The train hit the front side of the truck which then was pushed into a railroad crossing sign, knocking it down.

A state trooper on the scene said the driver of the truck initially was “shaken up” but is OK. No one else was injured  and no violations will be issued, the trooper said.

The train is expected to be stuck on the tracks, blocking Fancher Road (Route 387) for extended period of time while GVT waits for a mechanic to fix an air leak in the engine.