Photos by Kristina Gabalski – The music room at Holley Elementary School was bustling with activity late Tuesday afternoon as members of the school’s Student Council gathered to make collection boxes for this year’s community project, which will raise funds for the restoration of the historic chapel in Hillside Cemetery in Clarendon.

HOLLEY – Members of the Holley Elementary School Student Council got busy Tuesday afternoon making containers for this year’s community project: raising money for the Hillside Cemetery Chapel Restoration Fund.

The containers – black boxes with a photo of the chapel and a “stained-glass window” decorated by the students – will be placed at local businesses allowing community members to make monetary donations.

Decorated collection boxes line up in preparation for being distributed around the Holley community.

Last year the community project raised more than $1,000 for the Holley Community Free Library roof project. Student Council Advisor Sally Martin says students will be able to place containers themselves again this year.

“Last year we went out and went business to business,” she says, and explains that the students approached business owners themselves regarding to place the containers.

Emma Brady, a 4th-grader at Holley Elementary, holds the collection box she decorated on Tuesday.

Retired Holley art teacher Larry Dabney as well as members of the Clarendon Historical Society attended the workshop to assist students with the project.

“This is great,” Clarendon Historical Society member Erin Anheier said. “It’s really wonderful that the students have gotten involved and that they are thinking about the community.”

Fifth-graders Makayla Evans (left) and Tia Hoffarth (right), members of the Holley Elementary School Student Council, work to decorate collection boxes that will be placed around the Holley community.

Melissa Ierlan is the Clarendon town historian and a member of the Holley Board of Education. She called the project is “cool” and “the kids can see what they are supporting. They can see that they are doing some good.”

The containers are one part of a fund-raising effort by students for the chapel. Additional events may include a read-a-thon or a scavenger hunt. The fundraising effort will continue through the end of the school year.

Members of the Student Council decorate collection boxes for this year’s community project, which will raise funds for the Hillside Cemetery Chapel Restoration Fund.

Holley 6th-grader Thomas Dobri holds the collection box he decorated. The boxes each feature a photo of the Hillside Cemetery Chapel and a stained-glass window decorated by the students. Each stained-glass window has a slightly different pattern.

CLARENDON – The election today includes a three-way race for highway superintendent in the Town of Clarendon.

Larry Swanger, the incumbent, won a Republican Primary on Sept. 10 with four candidates. Swanger is on the ballot today with the Republican, Independence and Reform lines.

He is challenged by Tracy Bruce Chalker (Conservative, Labor Force) and Frederick K. Seeman III (A & K Party).

The other Republican candidates are all unopposed, including Richard Moy for town supervisor, Thomas M. DiFante and Kevin Rombaut for town justices, William Campbell and Allen Robinson for town councilman, and Susan Colby for town clerk.

Voting is from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Town Hall.

HOLLEY – Parents in the Holley Central School District had the opportunity Monday evening to learn more about standards and assessments in New York State during an informational forum at the Middle School/High School auditorium.

Holley School district administrators and Board of Education members attended the forum that was presented by Monroe 2 – Orleans BOCES administrators Dr. Marijo Pearson and Dr. Michelle Ryan.

“There has been confusion around Common Core standards and assessment tests, we want to make sure you understand why they are different,” Dr. Pearson said.

Parents attending received an information packet with Common Core resources for parents, “A Parent’s Guide to Student Success,” and examples of state assessment testing report data for teachers and parents.

Standards and assessments were addressed separately with administrators explaining that current standards help ready students for both college and careers after high school.

Benefits of Common Core learning as well as shifts in standards for English/Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics were explained.

“Standards are not curriculum,” Dr. Pearson noted. “Here in Holley you have the initiative to write curriculum according to Common Core standards. Teachers have autonomy on how it is taught.”

Parents were given specific ways they can help their children meet ELA and Mathematics standards and questions were taken from the audience.

The parent of a sixth-grader asked about a quiz her son had taken on a computer which included a question he got wrong. The question asked the student, “What do you think might happen?”

“How do you get that wrong?” the parent questioned. “My son thinks outside the box.”

Dr. Pearson responded that the student likely needed to make an inference based on the text in the test.

The same parent also expressed dismay that there are fewer textbooks now to reference when helping students at home, and that it can be difficult to see first-hand what they are learning via computer in school.

Another parent noted online resources, such as YouTube searches, have helped him understand how subjects are being taught.

“I ask my kids for key words that the teacher said,” he explained. He then uses those words to search for information and it has proven to be successful.

Holley Elementary Principal Karri Schiavone said parents do have access to materials and tests students are given on computers.

BOCES 2 administrators also alerted parents to a survey being conducted by the State Education Department seeking feedback from parents regarding state standards. The survey can be accessed by clicking here.

“You are encouraged to fill that out,” Dr. Pearson said.

Dr. Ryan observed that the way New York State education reforms came out all at one time with new standards, new assessments and new teacher evaluation was “probably not the smartest way to do it.”

Parents were also provided with information on various assessment tests including formative, summative, benchmark and state assessments as well as data reports regarding state assessments.

“Data can create conversation, that’s what’s important about data,” Dr. Ryan said. “If we don’t assess, we’re not going to know if they learned it. Assessment has become a bad word. It really isn’t a bad word. We have to assess to know how we are doing.”

Photos by Kristina Gabalski

HOLLEY – The Holley Elementary School Library is currently filled with Halloween pumpkins that are bursting with personality. The library is hosting its 2nd annual “Book Character” Pumpkin Decorating Contest. (The top photo shows Junie B. Jones, which was made by a third-grader.)

Holley Elementary Library Media Specialist Julie Bader says winners will be announced on Friday. The contest is open to students and their families and follows the theme of “My Favorite Book Character.” Classrooms can also participate in the contest.

In a first grade entry, mini pumpkins are used to create Eric Carle’s “Very Hungry Caterpillar.”

The entries this year, “have exceeded my wildest dreams what they have come up with,” Bader says.

She explains the contest encourages reading favorite books as well as discovering new characters students may not have known before. It also reaches out to families and parents in hopes that they will work along with Bader to instill a love of reading and literary characters in students.

A pre-K entry features a classic children’s book character: Humpty Dumpty.

No carving of pumpkins is allowed. Participants paint, decorate and embellish their creations with a wide-range of artistic materials.

First, second and third prizes will be awarded for Pre-K- first grade; second through third grade; and fourth through sixth grade.

This pumpkin goes pink as Wilber from Charlotte’s Web in an entry by a fourth-grader.

A sixth-grader utilizes a pumpkin turned on its stem end to create a zombie fish character.

This entry by a Holley fifth-rader features innovative use of props to create the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz.

A pre-K/Kindergarten entry features mini pumpkins decorated as Ten Little Ladybugs.

HOLLEY – What began as a snag in late August has now become an impasse in talks between the Village of Holley Development Corporation (VHDC) and the EPA over the turn-over of eight “Diaz homes” in the village.

“This LDC is not a dumping ground,” VHDC President Daniel Schiavone said during the board’s meeting Monday evening. Schiavone reported details regarding a conference call he was on with the Village of Holley attorney and EPA officials over the EPA’s insistence that lead abatement in the homes be completed by a certified lead abatement contractor rather than by the property owner.

“The news is grim,” Schiavone said. “We are at an impasse.”

The VHDC has not signed the most recent agreement to take ownership of the homes due to wording in the agreement requiring the certified lead abatement.

Schiavone has said the cost of the abatement threatens the future ability of the VHDC to sell the homes. Additionally, the VHDC Board has learned that lead abatement contractors will not provide an estimate of the cost of the work until a survey of the properties is done to access the situation. That cost will be approximately $5,500, Schiavone says, money neither the VHDC nor the EPA has budgeted.

“As the president of the LDC, the last thing I’m going to do is get us into a position where we own the homes and can’t afford to get them cleaned up so we can sell them,” Schiavone said during the meeting.

Several of the homes are valued at less than $25,000 and with the cost of lead abatement potentially reaching $10,000-$15,000, Shiavone said he has told the EPA, “… the bottom line is that this (lead abatement) costs a lot of money, we are not going to be able to sell the homes.”

He explained that officials at the EPA are working to find a federal agency that might be able to fund the lead survey, but noted he has been surprised by, “…how uniformed EPA people are about lead clean-up. I think they are learning as they go along.”

Schiavone said eventually tearing down the homes is not out of the realm of possibility, noting the EPA is currently working to tear down the former Diaz facility in the village.

“The EPA still wants us to take these homes,” he said, and added that he understands the desire of the EPA to, “leave a trail clean for people who are going to live in these homes… but we have to reach the middle ground of reasonableness (regarding the lead issue).”

Schiavone noted that EPA officials are concerned about code violations which could become an issue the longer the properties sit vacant. Members of the board suggested that they try to contact the office of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer to see if he could be of assistance in resolving the lead abatement issue.

“Right now, everything is on hold,” Schiavone said.

Board members do no plan to meet again until January.

HOLLEY – The Community Free Library is planning an upcoming survey to find out how people in their circulation area get information.

Library Board President Barb Kerns last week advised the Holley Village Board of the survey. Kerns explained to trustees that the library officials want to use tax money efficiently and the survey will help them to do that.

“Sometimes we have programming with more people than we can cope with, sometimes no one shows up,” she said. “We want to have programming people want and will attend.”

Kerns said those who complete and return the surveys will be entered into a drawing to receive a $50 Walmart gift card.

The survey will be conducted during the month of November with a Dec. 5 deadline to return surveys, Kerns said. She explained that the library is placing surveys and return boxes in local restaurants and community newsletters and asked the board if surveys could be placed in the next village mailing.

Village Attorney John Sansone recommended that the survey not be placed in a village mailing because the village has never included flyers from non-profits in mailings in the past, and that doing so would set a “dangerous precedent.”

Trustees offered advice and assistance regarding having the survey placed in local publications, placing e-surveys via social media and passing along surveys to the Office for the Aging.

Kerns thanked board members for their suggestions and said she would return to share information garnered from the survey. She noted the local library provides a fantastic source of information for residents.

“Local taxpayers have always provided support and we feel sad when they don’t know about something,” she said.

Kerns added that a second survey is planned in January regarding the perception of library programs and services.

In other business last week, board members unanimously passed a resolution approving the lease of space at the Police Department to the Holley Joint Fire District. Under the agreement, the Holley Joint Fire District will lease office space and two bays at the Police Department on Thomas Street.

The lease has been approved by both the Village Board and the Fire District and the resolution passed Tuesday gives the Board of Trustees’ consent to enter into a lease for the space and authorizes Mayor John Kenney, Jr. to sign the lease.

File photos by Tom Rivers – U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer met with local officials in August 2014 at the former Diaz Chemical site on Jackson Street in Holley. A cleanup stalled at the property, but will soon begin.

HOLLEY – The cleanup and remediation of the former Diaz Chemical property on Jackson Street has slowed in recent years, but will soon commence with the remaining structures from Diaz knocked down.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency will remove the buildings from October through December so the agency can implement soil cleanup and groundwater remediation plans, said Mike Basile, EPA spokesman.

The agency will discuss the upcoming project on Wednesday morning during a meeting with media.

The EPA said previously it would cost $14.5 million to knock down the remaining buildings at the former Diaz Chemical site and also remove the soil of contaminants.

The federal Superfund program didn’t have the money to move the project forward. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer visited the Diaz site last year and said he would push the Superfund money for the project.

The EPA already removed processing buildings and barrels of chemicals about a decade ago from Diaz. But Schumer said in August 2014 the site is still dragging down Holley, creating a blight in the community.

“This is not a health emergency but it’s an economic crisis,” he said then.

The remaining buildings at Diaz are in rough shape and are mostly fenced off from the public.

Diaz operated in Holley, working out of a former Duffy Motts site from 1974 until declaring bankruptcy in 2003. The EPA has been the caretaker of the property since then and spent $12 million taking down some of the buildings and removing barrels, pipes and some contaminants. But some buildings remain, as well as contaminated soil.

The south side of Jackson Street, Diaz’s production area, will be rid of the buildings. One warehouse from Diaz, however, will remain on the north side of the street, Basile said.

“We’re normally not in demolition mode at the EPA,” he said this morning.

However, the buildings are not in good shape and their removal is needed to address soil contamination at the site, Basile said.

Diaz had an accidental release in January 2002, and some chemicals landed on residential homes and yards. Eight homeowners moved out and didn’t come back. The EPA took possession of those houses and had them cleaned, but they’ve sat empty and off the market for a decade. Village officials are trying to work out a deal with the EPA so the homes can be put up for sale.

The EPA has supplies and equipment on site for the takedown of the buildings, which should be complete by December. The EPA said it has an air-monitoring program to ensure that dust suppression operations are working.

Once the buildings are down, the EPA plans more work for the site, including moving a 12-inch water main from the center of the site to along Jackson Street and South Main Street. This work is anticipated to start in spring 2016, the EPA said.

Part of the EPA’s proposed cleanup plan involves heating the soil to break down contaminants. The design of an in-situ thermal treatment system is on-going, the EPA said. The agency anticipates that design of the cleanup work for the soil will be completed in December 2016.

Photos by Kristina Gabalski
HOLLEY – It’s Homecoming weekend in Holley. A parade was Friday evening, starting on Geddes Street and heading down Route 31 to High Street and the old bus garage lot.

Residents lined the Village Square as the parade began. High School and Middle School dances were held Friday evening and Saturday’s events include a slate of Homecoming games beginning at 9 a.m. with girls modified volleyball vs. Kendall. At 1:30 pm it’s boys varsity football and varsity cheerleading vs. Oakfield/Alabama.

This year’s homecoming parade theme was “A Night at the Movies.” Here the Freshman Class presents their float: “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”

The Sophomore Class had a “Batman” theme.

The Juniors float featured a “Grease” theme.

Seniors wrapped up the parade with their “Star Wars” float.