HOLLEY – The Holley Central School District is in the process of forming a unified basketball team that would include students with disabilities.

Athletic Director Dan Courtney discussed progress with members of the Board of Education during a meeting last week.

Special Olympics unified sports is a national program that pairs people with and without intellectual disabilities on a team to compete. Individuals have to play at least six minutes in every game.

“It’s a state recognized sport,” Courtney said, and added that he recently attended a meeting at Gates-Chili to learn more about the program. He also said Brockport Central School has been very helpful.

“It creates an opportunity for kids who normally would not be part of a team,” he said. “The community gets to see their kids compete and do things against other schools … and it’s an opportunity to have fun.”

Courtney said the program can be funded through grants.

He explained that on a typical team, three athletes with intellectual disabilities are combined with two partners without disabilities. There were six unified teams in Section V last year, Courtney said.

He has worked with the school’s special education department to compile a list of students who could take part.

“I think we would have enough,” Courtney said. “Partners are usually easier to find. They cannot be varsity or JV basketball players. They could run track or play baseball.”

Unified Basketball is considered a boys sport, but Courtney said that’s because it’s easier for girls to join a boys sport than vice-versa.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Board member John Heise said.

CLARENDON – Residents in Clarendon will see a drop in town property taxes in 2016. Members of the Clarendon Town Board Tuesday evening adopted the final 2016 budget, which includes a tax rate of $4.79 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. That’s a drop of 21 cents per $1,000 from the 2015 budget.

“That’s phenomenal,” Town Supervisor Richard Moy said of the decrease.

The budget includes $1.4 million total town appropriations for the General Fund and Highway. Special Districts (water) and Clarendon Fire Department appropriations total $772,715.30.

Moy said the tax rate comes in under the tax cap. Board members approved two revisions to the preliminary budget to accomplish that.

They removed $10,000 from contingency in the general fund, decreasing the line from $64,920 to $54,920 and removed $20,000 from highway funds for general repairs contractual expenses.

In other business, board members discussed amending the town’s zoning ordinance regarding building permits. Currently, no building permit is required if the structure is under 144 square ft. The town is considering changing that to include all new structures in Clarendon.

Moy said problems have arisen with structures being placed on property lines or over property lines. The smaller structures are also assessable, he explained, and requiring a permit would make them easier to find for assessment purposes.

Town Board member Paul Nicosia said bigger towns in the area do not require smaller structures, such as sheds purchased at “big box” stores, to have a building permit, but Clarendon Town Attorney Karl Essler explained that is because with larger populations, it would require more effort from those towns.

He said disputes between neighbors over smaller structures can become expensive for property owners and, “burdensome from a time standpoint for the town.”

Town Board members will work on drafting a proposal for the change before scheduling a public hearing.

HOLLEY – During the upcoming school budget process, Holley Central School District Superintendent Robert D’Angelo says he will work to make sure the cost of unfunded state and federal mandates are clear to board members, taxpayers and particularly local representatives.

D’Angelo presented a four-page list of unfunded mandates to members of the Holley Central School Board of Education during their regular meeting Monday evening. He said he will work with Sharon Zacher, Assistant Superintendent for Business, to “… attach approximate dollars to those mandates… I was surprised that there were four pages. We will then take that information and engage local politicians.”

D’Angelo mentioned State Assemblyman Steve Hawley and State Sen. Robert Ortt as well as Congressional representatives as politicians with whom he will share the information he collects. The school superintendent noted that unfunded mandates are a huge cost for school districts, and although school officials routinely complain, nothing really changes. He hopes his efforts will have an impact.

“Whether the politicians will bite the bullet is another story,” he said. “Those are real figures for us and are a burden on Holley and every other school district in New York State.”

D’Angelo and Board President Brenda Swanger said it would be helpful to involve other local districts as well as the New York State School Boards Association to make sure concerns are heard.

D’Angelo said he hopes the figures Holley compiles and reports to representatives will “solicit some sort of help. It will be interesting to see how it works out.” He added that the unfunded mandates coupled with the state tax cap, “really strangle us.”

Obtaining relief from unfunded mandates would help not only school boards, but also taxpayers, D’Angelo said.

Provided photo, Erika Thorn

HOLLEY – Holley Cub Scout Pack 3062 collected 559 items of food on Saturday during the annual Scouting for Food campaign in the Village of Holley. All of the food was donated to the Eastern Orleans County Community Center. This food will be used to fill the Thanksgiving Holiday food baskets for needy families in our area.

Scouts pictured include, from left: Front row – Dawson Arnold; Middle row – Aro Krueger, Hunter Sommerfeldt and Noah Patten; Back row – Destin Brown, Miguel Vasquez-Pulcino, Aaiden Smith, Ronald Thorn, Grant Smith and Marshall Rubens. Not pictured – Tyler Moore, Kaden Rheinwald, Steven Hein and Zachary Mrzywka.

HOLLEY – Village Board members are sending out a warning: two-hour parking and overnight parking restrictions in the Public Square will be enforced.

Village resident and business owner Dan Seeler spoke to members of the Village Board during their regular meeting Tuesday evening regarding tenants who reside in the Public Square leaving cars parked there overnight.

“It’s just in the Square,” Seeler noted, “but it does affect the small businesses.”

Beginning Nov. 1, overnight parking was prohibited in the Public Square and Trustee Connie Nenni related that Holley Police intend to enforce the restriction as well as the two-hour limit.

In other business, trustees approved the purchase of alarm systems for the Water Department and the Department of Public Works. The alarms will be placed at the pumping station, the Glidden well and the DPW building.

“This related to Homeland Security,” Trustee Skip Carpenter said of the alarms for the Water Department. “This is our water.”

The cost of the alarm system at the pumping station is $1,987; at the Glidden well, $1,390; and at the DPW, $1,900.

Trustees also approved an additional $29.95 monthly fee for maintenance monitoring for the Glidden well.

Additionally, trustees tabled spending $10,000 to purchase a mobile reading unit for the Electric Department, as Matt Campbell, superintendent of the village’s Electric and Water departments, was unable to attend the meeting.

Trustee Skip Carpenter reported that Holley has borrowed the same type of automatic reader from the Village of Churchville and the high-tech equipment has been a huge time-saver.

“Now, it takes us one-half to three-quarters of a day (to take readings),” Carpenter said. “This (the automatic reader) takes 15 minutes. We used Churchville’s this month and it works really well.”

Carpenter further explained the same reader can be used for water readings, but the village would have to purchase transponders for water meters. He noted the transponders are about $70 a piece, but a grant might be able to help with the cost. Reading water meters now takes two days, he said.

Trustee Connie Nenni questioned the need for the new equipment, noting the village hasn’t had it’s current equipment for very long.

“Maybe we should wait a month and talk to Matt,” she said. “This is a lot of money.”

Mayor John Kenney agreed. “We can wait a month to talk to Matt directly,” he said.

“I think this is where we should go,” Deputy Mayor Brian Sorochty said of the new reader, but also questioned what would be done with the readers the village currently uses.

Carpenter said the new mobile reading unit would be better and more efficient that the readers currently in use and the expense of the new automatic reader has already been budgeted.

HOLLEY – Members of the Holley Village Board are reaching out to state and federal representatives in an effort to convince the Environmental Protection Agency to drop its insistence that the eight “Diaz homes” in the village undergo certified lead abatement. The EPA wants that done as part of an agreement that would turn the homes over to the village for eventual sale.

Holley Mayor John Kenney said the village sent letters Monday to the Army Corps of Engineers/EPA, Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressman Chris Collins, State Sen. Robert Ortt, Assemblyman Steve Hawley and Orleans County legislators John DeFilipps and David Callard.

Members of the Village Board discussed the letters during their regular meeting Tuesday evening.

Talks between the Village of Holley Development Corporation and the EPA have been at an impasse for months over the lead abatement issue and now Mayor Kenney says the letters seek, “assistance in dealing with the EPA’s stance on lead abatement in the Diaz homes.”

The mayor said he is concerned over the insistence by the Army Corps of Engineers/EPA regarding the homes. Officials there recently requested

that the village shut off electric to the homes, a move village board members worry will lead to their deterioration.

The Village HDC has been charged with working to acquire the homes and then decide how best to sell them to get the properties back on village tax rolls. Dan Schiavone, president of the board of directors of the VHDC, has said the corporation is not a dumping ground. The expense of the certified lead abatement process would make it difficult to sell the homes, several of which are valued at less than $25,000, Schiavone said.

Deputy Mayor Brian Sorochty said during Tuesday’s Village Board meeting that the VHDC has worked hard to come to an acceptable agreement. “The LDC has done what they can do,” he said.

As of Tuesday evening, Mayor Kenney said the village has not received any response from the EPA.

Eladio Wattles

HOLLEY – A Holley man has been jailed on $20,000 bail after allegedly breaking into a Holley apartment and threatening a resident on Saturday night, Holley Police Chief Roland Nenni said this afternoon.

Eladio A. Wattles, 18, of 74 West Albion St. has been charged with burglary in the second degree (C felony), menacing in the third degree (B misdemeanor) and criminal mischief in the fourth degree (A misdemeanor).

Holley Police were dispatched at about 10 p.m. Saturday to 32 East Avenue in Holley for an unknown type of disturbance.

Prior to officers arriving on scene the Orleans County 911 Dispatch Center received additional information from the person reporting the incident that a person had forced his way into an apartment at the location and that a firearm had been discharged at the suspect, Nenni said.

Holley Police arrived on scene along with deputies from the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office and a trooper from the New York State Police. Wattles was observed exiting the apartment and was taken into custody.

The investigation revealed that Wattles came to the location because of an ongoing dispute with the apartment tenant. Wattles allegedly broke two windows at the location and then gained entry into the apartment via one of the windows.

Wattles then threatened the apartment tenant, causing him to retreat to a room inside the apartment, Nenni said.

When Wattles continued to threaten the apartment occupant, the occupant fired a shotgun at Wattles. Wattles was not hit by the shotgun blast and then attempted to run from the location, at which point he was taken into custody by Holley Police, Nenni said.

Wattles was arraigned in the Town of Murray Court and committed to the Orleans County Jail on $20,000 bail. He is to return to the Town of Murray court on Nov. 12.

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.

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.”