This design by the MRB Group in Rochester shows the layout of an improved Yates Town Park.

YATES – Town officials will open construction bids this morning at 10 for an upgrade of the Town Park on Morrison Road. The park is along Lake Ontario.

The state is paying 95 percent of the costs of the project estimated at $2.531 million or $2,404,450. It is part of $300 million in state funding for projects along the southshore of Lake Ontario. (Click here to see a bigger map of the project.)

The local share of the Yates project – $126,550 – will be covered with $26,550 of in-kind services by the town Highway Department and $100,000 in funding by the Lyndonville Area Foundation.

The town is eyeing completion of the project in next September. It would be a big highlight for Yates as the town celebrates its 200^th anniversary in 2022, Town Supervisor Jim Simon said.

After the bids are opened today, they will be reviewed by the town’s engineering firm, MRB Group in Rochester, and then come back to the Town Board for a vote.

During a Town Board workshop meeting on Tuesday, Simon told the other board members the project is on pace to be complete in about a year.

“It’s going really well,” Simon said about the project. “There are no hiccups that I am aware of.”

Photo by Tom Rivers: This photo from Oct. 23, 2019 shows some of the tables along the shoreline at the Yates Town Park.

Some highlights of the project and the estimated costs include an L-shaped breakwater at $640,000; pavilion with bathroom and fire place, $394,000; park activities (kayak boat launch, dock ramp, ADA compliant playground), $266,000; road, parking, pavement, $95,000; stone dust trail with benches, garbage can, bike rack and plantings, $75,000; stormwater, $56,000; electrical, $42,000; erosion control, $41,000; sanitary/leach field, $31,000 and water service, $20,000.

Engineering costs also are estimated at $372,000, with legal and administration fees at $93,000.

Annual operation and maintenance costs with the added amenities are estimated at $3,000 for water and electric service, insurance, bathroom cleaning and septic tank costs and other operation, maintenance costs. However, the town will save $1,500 annually by not needing portable bathrooms at the park. So the net increased operation and maintenance costs will be $1,500 or an additional penny on the town tax rate, according to the town’s calculations.

Simon believes the park will improve the quality of life in the community, improve health and wellness, and boost property values in that part of the community. It could also draw visitors to the community as the only town park along the Lake Ontario shoreline in Orleans County.

Simon said he would like to see the community eventually work to put in sidewalks from north of the village on Route 63 to the Town Park. That would be an ideal link between the village and park for walkers, joggers and cyclists, Simon said.

Gov. Hochul, however, expected to make them mandatory

Photos by Tom Rivers: The Lyndonville Board of Education met Monday evening approved a reopening plan for 2021-22 that makes wearing masks optional for students, except on busses wear the federal government is making them mandatory. Ted Lewis, left, is president of the Board of Education.

LYNDONVILLE – The Board of Education on Monday voted to make wearing masks by students optional, even if the community is in a “red zone” with high Covid community spread.

The board went against recommendations from the State Department of Health, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the federal Center for Disease Control, which are all recommending students, teachers and staff wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.

Lyndonville board members were unanimous in voting to make masks optional for students, saying the choice should be up to parents.

“I understand that this is a complicated issue and people’s opinions vary greatly to the point of anger and frustration,” said board member Susan Hrovat. “I know each person won’t be happy about this. My goal is to allow each parent to make a decision for their child as much as possible. If you choose to mask your children, that is great. If you choose not to, that is your decision as well.”

The board said it expects new Gov. Kathy Hochul will issue a mask-wearing mandate before the start of the school. If she does, that would be the requirement in Lyndonville.

Board member Steve Vann urged the board to vote on the issue on Monday evening and not hold off until hearing from Hochul and the state. He wanted Lyndonville to make its position clear about masks for students.

“Don’t hide from it,” Vann told the other board members. “I think we should vote on it tonight regardless of what the state sends down so all of our constituents know where we stand on the issue.”

The board on Monday reviewed a chart that was similar to one used by other districts for wearing masks. The chart was developed with the four other districts in Orleans County and the Orleans-Niagara BOCES.

Although masks are optional inside Lyndonville school, face coverings will be required for students on busses, per a federal directive.

The chart also was going to make wearing masks a requirement in common areas where there are many students. But the board, in a motion from member Steven Vann, changed the draft plan to make masks in those high traffic areas such as hallways as “recommended” rather than required. Vann said Covid needs 15 minutes of exposure to spread and hallways interactions are much briefer.

The proposal also had that masks would be mandated to wear in classrooms if the county was in a red zone with the highest community transmission. (Orleans County is currently in the orange zone for “substantial” community spread, just below the highest level.)

Lyndonville will welcome students back for the first day of school on Sept. 8. The board voted to make wearing masks optional for students, but the state is expected to make them mandatory throughout New York for students.

Vann and the other board members voted to make masks “recommended” inside the classrooms if the county is in a red zone.

Vann said the Orleans County numbers aren’t evenly spread out throughout all communities. He said the cases tend to be lower in Lyndonville compared to Albion and the more populated parts of the county.

The board didn’t have the numbers available during its meeting about Covid cases per school district last year. Jason Smith, the district superintendent, said Lyndonville had its first student test positive in October. Lyndonville saw more cases in December and January, before the cases declined, which very little Covid in May and June, he said.

A state database shows the Covid cases per school district for the 2020-21. Here is the breakdown for each district in Orleans County:

• Lyndonville (enrollment 639) had 20 students test positive for Covid (15 in-school and 5 remote) and 13 teachers and staff. The Lyndonvile students included 17 in junior-senior high school and 3 at the elementary level.
• Albion (enrollment 1,768 students) had 86 students test positive (75 were in-person students and 11 remote-only). Those students included 33 in high school, 26 in middle school, and 27 in elementary school. There were 26 teachers/staff that tested positive.
• Medina (enrollment 1,396) had 87 students test and the state database says 4 were in-person students and 83 were off-site students. Those students included 43 in high school27 at intermediate/middle school, and 14 at elementary school. The district also had 31 teachers/staff test positive for Covid.
• Kendall (enrollment 698) last school year reported 37 students tested positive for Covid with 35 on-site and 2 as remote-only students. That included 19 at junior-senior high school and 18 at elementary school. Kendall also had 4 teachers/staff test positive.
• Holley (enrollment 902) reported 45 students who tested positive last year, including 43 in-person students and 2 who were remote-only. Those students included 34 in junior-senior high and 11 at elementary school. The district also had 17 teachers/staff test positive.

Jason Smith, the district superintendent, encouraged the board to wait on voting about the mask issue until hearing if there will be a directive from the state. But Vann and the board members wanted to go on the record in support of making mask wearing a parental choice.

The district’s reopening plan will continue in-person education for five days a week, just like last year. However, there won’t be remote learning unless there is a documented medical reason for students.

Lyndonville will continue to do daily temperature checks of students, and will use some partitions in classrooms.

The district is waiting for final guidance from the local and state Department of health about quarantining students. One benefit of students wearing masks is there is less chance of students being in a 10-day quarantine if someone next to them tests positive for Covid, Smith said.

He noted of all the students who were quarantined last year after being identified as a close contact of a student who tested positive, none of those students quarantined ended up with Covid.

Lyndonville will have some rapid Covid tests available at school. The district used those last year to test some teachers and staff and Smith said the tests identified one staff member with Covid. Students can also be tested with a rapid test at school with a parent’s permission.

Smith said a message will be sent to the Lyndonville community today with details about the reopening plan for 2021-22.

Hrovat urged the district and community members to “respect the decision” by Hochul and the state if masks are required for students.

She also urged people to tone down the rhetoric with the masking issue.

“I would just ask that we all be kind to one another and respect each family’s decision to carry out the way they choose to protect themselves through this Covid crisis, and we just move forward the best that we can,” she said.

Photos by Tom Rivers

LYNDONVILLE – The former Crosby-Whipple building has been demolished and removed at 30 North Main St. in Lyndonville to make way for a new Dollar General.

These photos show the site on Friday evening. The new store will be next to Johnson Creek. The project includes a retaining wall next to the waterway.

The site will become a 7,600-square-foot Dollar General with 29 parking spaces. The Broadway Group in Huntsville, Alabama is the developer for the project. The 7,600-square-foot store is the smallest model offered by Dollar General. Most of the Dollar Generals are more than 9,000 square feet. The parcel of land on Main Street doesn’t give enough room for the larger size store.

The store will have 8 to 10 employees and offer convenience for Lyndonville shoppers, the Broadway Group told village officials back in March. Dollar General has another store 3.75 miles away at the corner of routes 63 and 104 in Ridgeway.

Market will be open Fridays through October at former Pennysaver site

Photos by Tom Rivers

LYNDONVILLE – Friday was opening day for the new Lyndonville Farm & Artisan Market on South Main Street at the site of the former Pennysaver buiding, which was demolished in March after the roof collapsed due to heavy snow and ice on Feb. 22.

Robert Smith, right, is owner of the property and Deborah Loke, left, is the market manager. She also will be a vendor selling products made with laser-cut wood.

“We want Lyndonville to be a destination and not a pass-through,” Loke said.

There were seven vendors for opening day of the market, which was from 4 to 8 p.m. There are three more vendors signed up and more are welcome, Loke said.

Smith said the loss of the Pennysaver building prompted him to look for other ways to utilize the site. A farmers and artisan market emerged as a great fit for the community, he said. There is room for 18 vendor booths in 10 by 10-foot locations, with space for three food trucks on the east end of the lot.

“It’s created a different set of opportunities,” Smith said at the market on Friday evening.

He would like to see an outdoor café with the space as well. He is renovating two buildings next door and is hopeful one of those buildings will be a café with “grab-and-go breakfasts.”

This sign on Main Street directs people to the new market at the corner of South Main and Eagle streets.

The Webber Building, which is two doors down, is being renovated into retail space on the first floor and hotel rooms upstairs. Work starts Monday to put in the air-conditioning and heating system, with electric starting in September, and then the insulation and drywall. Smith expects that site to open the first quarter of 2022.

There is interest in the two buildings, Smith said, including from an insurance agent and for a collaborative kitchen with demonstrations.

He is pleased with the variety of the vendors at the new market, with coffee and other beverages, produce, books, pizza, kettle corn and an array of artisan creations.

He sees the market serving the Lyndonville community and also tapping into the group headed to the lake on Friday.

James Roberts, owner of Big Bulbs Garlic & Produce Farm in Medina, holds an onion he was selling Friday. Roberts, 36, was making his farm market debut. He has also sold his onions, garlic and other produce at flea markets.

He was pleased with the crowd on Friday. There were about 100 people who stopped by.

Katherine Diegelman of Lyndonville holds her daughter Willa. Diegelman sells products through Usborne Books & More. She sells books for children from birth through the teen years.

“I’ve done pretty well tonight,” she said about the sales at the market. “I like to do events that are local and get these awesome books into homes.”

Press Release, Lyndonville Central School

LYNDONVILLE – Kindergarten and Pre-K registration remains open at Lyndonville Central School

There is still time to register your child for kindergarten or pre-kindergarten for the 2021-2022 school year. If you are a resident of the Lyndonville School District and your child will be 3, 4 or 5 by December 1, 2021, they are eligible to enroll. Space is limited but openings are available for all age groups.

The Lyndonville School District will continue to have full day classes for kindergarten with breakfast, lunch and transportation available for those outside the Village. The five-day-a week PreK program engages students in planned educational activities, play and rest time. Breakfast and lunch are provided, and a new PreK playground was recently installed.

Please call or email the school at (585) 765-3122 or esmith@lcsdk12.org. You will need to provide your name, address, child’s name and child’s date of birth. More information can be found by clicking here.

LYNDONVILLE – The Lyndonville community is welcome to attend an ecumenical service at 4 p.m. on Aug. 14 at the Lyndonville Presbyterian Church, 107 North Main St.

“Many in the village are feeling grief from several years of sadness that has befallen this community,” said Martha Mitchell, pastor of the Lyndonville Presbyterian Church. “We have lost too many to accidents and natural causes.”

Many residents have lost loved ones due to Covid-19, she said.

“Covid also made many elderly or people who live alone feel a real sense of sadness because they were, in fact, even more lonely,” Mitchell said. “Some have lost jobs or have struggled with the effects of having to cope with remote learning for their kids. For whatever reason, the last two years have taken a toll on peoples’ mental health.”

Mitchell will be joined in leading the service by the Rev. Craig Rhodenizer from St. John’s Lutheran Church and Pastor Olga Gonzalez from Lyndonville United Methodist Church.

“It will be non-denominational and just a lovely way to bring everyone together, give them a time to share their grief and to restore hope,” Mitchell said.

The 4 p.m. service also will include information about purchasing a memorial brick at the Yates Community Library as part of a memorial garden at the library.

Photos courtesy of Kathaline Woodruff

LYNDONVILLE – The band Blue Sky performs Monday evening outside the Yates Community Library at the library’s new back patio.

The library is hosting several concerts this summer on Monday evenings. The concerts receive some state arts funding through the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council.

Blue Sky kept the crowd entertained on Monday evening.

The concerts begin at 6:30 p.m. The schedule the rest of the summer includes:

• Aug. 9 – Eagle Creek
• Aug. 16 – Mr. Mustard
• Aug. 23 – Laces Out
• Aug. 30 – Barker Community Band.

The public is welcome to bring a lawn chair or blanket, even a dinner picnic for the events.

Celtic Spirit performed on the lawn behind the library on July 26. The pipe band mixes traditional bagpipe music with various modern instruments, in its own unique arrangements.

The Old Hippies performed on July 19.

The library at 5 p.m. on Aug. 9 also is hosting a book discussion led by Anne Smiley about the three-volume graphic memoir, March, which is about the late Congressman John Lewis and his experiences as a leader in the Civil Rights movement.

The library’s book club, “Renegade Readers,” is reading March and will be participating in the discussion.

LYNDONVILLE – The Lyndonville community will be putting up banners of local soldiers next year, with the portraits on utility poles from just before Memorial Day to just after Veterans Day.

Lyndonville joins a growing list of communities to embrace the banners of Hometown Heroes. Holley, Medina and Albion have them, and many other communities around the state do as well.

Valerie D. Wells, a Lyndonville native, is coordinating the effort in Lyndonville. She said American flags will stay on much of Main Street. She expects some of the Hometown Heroes will be part on Main Street and also be included on Maple Avenue, Willowbrook Drive and Lake Avenue.

The banners will cost $200 each, and that includes hardware so they can be attached to the utility poles. The Lyndonville Area Foundation will set up an account for the funds, Wells said.

“The Lyndonville community should feel great pride in honoring our veterans in this noble way for many years to come,” she said.

The banners are expected to be up for three years and then will be given to the family. They will be in a different location each of the three years, Wells said.

For more information on how to purchase a banner for next year, contact Wells at (585) 339-8500 or by email at vwells022@gmail.com.

LYNDONVILLE – The Orleans County Planning Board is recommending the Village of Lyndonville approve the site plan for a new farm and artisan market in Lyndonville at 29 South Main St.

Robert Smith, owner of the property, wants to have the market on Fridays, from 4 to 9 p.m. The market will be on the now vacant site where the Pennysaver stood.

That structure had its roof collapse on Feb. 22 from heavy snow and ice. The building from 1899 also had suffered deterioration with its support beams. The building was knocked down in March.

Smith, a Lyndonville native who now lives in Palm Springs in California, used Zoom video conferencing to attend Thursday’s Orleans County Planning Board meeting. He is redeveloping other Main Street buildings.

With the former Pennysaver site, he said there will be room for up to 18 vendor booths in 10 by 10-foot locations, with space for three food trucks on the east end of the lot. He will provide electric hookups for the food trucks, as well as port-a-potties on the 4,000-square-foot site.

He wants to make the market available on Fridays from Memorial Day to October.

“We think this is a good opportunity to bring people into the village,” Smith said. “On Friday night people are headed to the lake. This will be a chance for them to pick up provisions and a meal.”

Lyndonville students also are expected to provide entertainment on some of the market days.

The County Planning Board encouraged the Village Planning Board to seek more information on whether the booths will be set up and taken down weekly, or if they will be permitted structures. The board should also see if there is a parking plan for the vendors’ vehicles and the market visitors, county planning officials said.

ALBION — The Orleans County Planning Board will meet at 7 p.m. on Thursday and among the proposals will be a farm and artisan market in Lyndonville at 29 South Main St., the former site of the Pennysaver.

The structure had its roof collapse on Feb. 22 from heavy snow and ice. The building from 1899 also had suffered deterioration with its support beams. The building was knocked down in March and the site is now vacant.

In other referrals for the Planning Board on July 22:

• Request for site plan review in Albion for a proposed 9,000-square-foot addition to an existing manufacturing facility at 4015 Oak Orchard Rd.

• Request for site plan review and a special use permit in Kendall for a 5 mega-watt solar farm at 1771 West Kendall Rd.

• Request for site plan review and a special use permit in Ridgeway for a recreational pond under 1 acre at 2901 County Line Rd.

• Request for permit and site plan review for another recreational pond under 1 acre at 3117 Knowlesville Rd.

• Request for site plan review in Ridgeway for 73-foot diameter by 32-foot high tank storage for chemical bulk storage at 3956 Allis Rd.

Contributed photos

LYNDONVILLE – Demolition has begun to take down the Crosby-Whipple building at 30 North Main St. in Lyndonville.

These photos are from behind the Main Street site, with the sided part of the building close to Curley’s Bar.

The site will become a 7,600-square-foot Dollar General with 29 parking spaces. The Broadway Group in Huntsville, Alabama is the developer for the project.

The 7,600-square-foot store is the smallest model offered by Dollar General. Most of the Dollar Generals are more than 9,000 square feet. The parcel of land on Main Street doesn’t give enough room for the larger size store.

Gerald ‘Bud’ Hamann, whose remains were recently identified in Philippines, survived 60-mile Bataan Death March, succumbed to dysentery

Photos by Tom Rivers: The portrait of Gerald “Bud” Hamann is positioned near his grave spot at Lynhaven Cemetery during a service today for him. His remains were recently identified in a mass grave in the Philippines. Honor Guard members from Orleans County are in the background.

LYNDONVILLE – Nearly 79 years after his death in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, Gerald “Bud” Hamann was given a service at Lynhaven Cemetery today.

Hamann survived the arduous Bataan Death March over 60 miles on foot, and then a 25-mile ride standing up in a boxcar packed with fellow soldiers who were prisoners. When he finally made it to the prisoner of war camp at Cabanatuan, Hamann would die from dysentery on July 25, 1942.

He was thrown in a mass grave with over a 100 other soldiers. His remains were positively identified after a niece, Kathy Kage, submitted DNA through ancestry.com.

Scott Goetze, a member of the American Legion in Lyndonville, presents an American flag to Mary Francis, niece of Gerald “Bud” Hamann. Francis traveled from Montana for the service today in honor of her uncle.  Family also attended from Seattle, Minnesota, South Carolina, Texas, Florida and Fort Drum near Watertown in northern New York.

Today, with his family from many states gathered in Lyndonville, Hamann was praised and mourned for his life.

“We are here to celebrate a life of heroism,” said State Assemblyman Steve Hawley.

Hamann and his American regiment helped the Filipino people and then was subjected to “one of history’s most horrific wartime occurrences,” Hawley said.

An estimated 500 to 650 American troops died in the Bataan Death March, when they were denied food, given little water and often beaten or killed with bayonets if they fell out of line or for no reason at all. Filipino troop deaths totaled 5,000 to 18,000 in the march.

Assemblyman Steve Hawley said the Hamann led “a life of heroism.”

After the march, the survivors were packed into sweltering railroad boxcars and taken another 25 miles to a prisoner of war camp. Hamann survived that. At the camp, however, he was the 29^th man to die on July 25, 1942 due to illness, and the 1,187th prisoner to perish.

His death was recorded by a fellow soldier on the backside of a label from a can of condensed milk. Hamann’s fellow soldier wrote he died at 7 p.m. at Cabanatuan on July 25, 1942. He died in barracks # 4, in POW Camp # 1, Cabanatuan.

“How do we know that?” said Matthew Atkins, a chaplain with the 10^thMountain Division at Fort Drum. “Because these heroic men loved one another enough to record it. Because of them, despite their conditions, despite the cruelty, despite the inhumanity, they would not be abased. Each one mattered. Each life sacred. Each brother, inestimably valuable.”

Hamann and his regiment were lacking in food, ammunition and weaponry. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, crippling the U.S. Pacific operations on Dec. 7, 1941, Japan then turned to the Philippines.

Matthew Atkins, a chaplain with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, speaks at the service today for Gerald Hamann. The soldiers with Hamann on the Bataan Death March cared for each other in the face of brutal inhumanity, Atkins said.

The overmatched U.S. and Filipino forces would hold off the Japanese for nearly four months until surrendering on April 9, 1942.

Those four months altered the Japanese timetable in the war, and that extended time made a difference for the Allies who would emerge victorious, said Atkins.

But April 9, 1942, the day of the surrender, may have been “the most brutal time for any soldier every wearing the American uniform,” he said.

The soldiers, already starving and weakened, would be subjected to “unthinkable brutality.”

Early enlister

Hamann enlisted in New York National Guard on Jan. 17, 1938, when he wasn’t quite 18. He asked to be released from National Guard early so he could enlist in Active Duty with Army.

He was stationed 14 months in Hawaii and then was sent to the Philippines, arriving in Manilla in April 1941. It didn’t seem too dangerous of an assignment, Atkins said.

Gerald Hamann’s grave stone notes he is the “beloved brother of Geraldine Kage.”

But then Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, and 10 hours later the Japanese would attack U.S. military installations in the Philippines. Hamann and the 31st Infantry Division were suddenly in an active combat zone.

Hamann had a twin sister at home, Geraldine. She was married to Herman Kage, who was fighting Germans in Europe.

When a telegram arrived from the War Department, she couldn’t bear to open it, not knowing if it was the worst news about her husband or brother.

Hamann’s grave stone at Lynhaven notes he was the brother of Geraldine.

His remains haven’t been released yet. His family said they are grateful for the military’s efforts to identify and honor him.

Atkins said the U.S. military is committed to trying to identify as many soldiers as possible, and to bring them home.

He noted that Hamann comes from a family where at least eight members have served in the military since World War I. He comes from the town with “a statistically huge veteran population.”

Hamann may not have died in “a blaze of glory” but he and the other soldiers in the Bataan Death March and the POW camps showed each other love while suffering “day after day, mile after mile, indignity upon indignity,” Atkins said.

“We are horrified, and our sense of humanity wounded by the misery that CPL Hamann and so many others endured,” Atkins said. “And we are astounded by their character. These were men of honor, who fought valiantly with next to nothing, endured unspeakable conditions.”

“They lived the most arguably difficult days with principle. In their suffering, they did not surrender their souls.”

Family members attend the service at Lynhaven Cemetery today. The Honor Guard does a 21-gun salute for Hamann. Bogan & Tuttle Funeral Homes assisted the family in arranging the service.

‘Among the finest men this country has ever produced’

Hamann and the soldiers on the march, later in the railroad boxcars and then in the POW camps would share bread crumbs and rice, and care for each other.

Atkins quoted lines from America the Beautiful:

“O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,

Who more than self, their country loved

And mercy, more than life.”

“Perhaps no collective in American history has embodied that verse more than the soldiers from Bataan,” Atkins said.

The service today for Hamann is “a day of sorrowful remembrance, and grateful thanksgiving.”

Hamann died nearly 79 years ago.

“Many of you still mourn over what might have been – the life Gerald should have lived,” Atkins said. “There is no way we can know what might have been in Gerald’s life – and we are left to judge the whole by its quality of humanity in sacrifice as opposed to its quantity of days. By that standard, CPL Gerald Hamann was among the finest men this country has ever produced.”

Mary Francis, niece of Hamann, thanked the Honor Guard, American Legion members, speakers and others for their presence today at the service.

“Thank you for acknowledging the sacrifice of my mother’s brother,” Francis said.

Preston Kage, a relative from Minnesota, plays Taps during the service today at Lynhaven.

Gary Befus, leader of the Honor Guard, presents the family with three spent shell casings that represent service, honor and duty.

Steve Goodrich, American Legion commander in Lyndonville, presents an American flag to Kathy Kage, one of Hamann’s nieces, today at the family home on Church Street. Goodrich presented the flag after the service at the cemetery. Kage submitted DNA that provided a match to her uncle’s remains in the Philippines.

Lyndonville native survived Bataan Death March, but died from dysentery in POW camp

LYNDONVILLE – The family for the late Gerald Hamann and the local veterans’ community will have a service for the World War II soldier on Tuesday morning, more than 75 years after his death.

Hamann survived the Bataan Death March but would then die of dysentery at a prisoner of war camp. He was buried in a mass grave with at least 100 other soldiers.

His remains were never positively identified until recently when his niece, Kathy Kage, submitted DNA into the ancestry.com database. Kage, a Lyndonville native who now lives in Texas, was contacted by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which is tasked with identifying and repatriating the remains of fallen US service members.

Hamann was positively identified from Kage’s DNA file. Kage and other family members for Hamann will be giving him a funeral service at Lynhaven Cemetery at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

“It is quite significant that they can bring these men home,” said Steve Goodrich, commander of the Houseman-Tanner American Legion Post in Lyndonville.

Photos by Tom Rivers

LYNDONVILLE – A tree is a silhouette in front of the Lyndonville school while multiple fireworks lit up the sky during a fireworks show on Sunday night

The Lyndonville Lions Club hires Young Explosives for the show, and it is one of the biggest displays in Western New York.

Last year’s fireworks show was cancelled due to ovid-19 restrictions on social gatherings. This year the restrictions were lifted with rising vaccination rates and declining Covid cases.

Fireworks are reflected in the water at the Johnson Creek pond in front of the school on Sunday night during a 40-minute fireworks show.

The fireworks explode in the sky with the steeple of the Lyndonville United Methodist Church in the foreground.

Food vendors were busy in the school parking lot, including this one serving funnel cakes.

Fireworks are launched from the back of the school property near the softball field.

The top of the Presbyterian Church is shown with fireworks going off in the background.

Henry Symmons, 13, of Albion twirls a sparkler before the fireworks show.

Fireworks are reflected in the back of a truck parked on the school campus near the baseball field.

Another photo shows the reflection in the water at Johnson Creek. That spot near the backyard of the Yates Community Library is a popular place to watch the fireworks.