Dog saved, home spared thanks to quick thinking

Photo by Sue Cook – Lyndonville Assistant Chief Ben Bane, left, is pictured with Mya Heideman, Alia Childs, Emily Brown and Chief Jason Gerety.

By Sue Cook, staff reporter

LYNDONVILLE – Three Lyndonville girls were recognized by the Lyndonville Fire Department for acting quickly to prevent a house fire.

Mya Heideman, 9, Alia Childs, 10, and Emily Brown, 11, were out last Monday evening when they saw a dog in a home on Maple Avenue with foggy looking windows. They could hear the smoke detectors inside going off. The girls raced home to Alia’s house on adjacent Lynwood Drive and had her mother, Holly Childs, call 9-1-1.

The fire department sent two trucks to investigate. Upon opening the front door, the dog trapped inside ran out. The entire first floor was engulfed in smoke. Their investigation revealed food burning on the stove had accidentally been left cooking by the homeowner. The dog was retrieved later that night, suffering no apparent ill effects from the smoke.

Fire Chief Jason Gerety said the home was very near catching fire and that the girls’ fast response saved the life of the dog, as well as the house. He presented them with framed awards on Friday evening, saying, “Your community thanks you. It could have been a lot worse than it was.”

“You did the right thing,” he continued. “Never hesitate to call 9-1-1 or tell a grown up. If that had gone a little bit longer, that dog wouldn’t have made it out of the house and the homeowner would have been burying her pet. You guys recognized it and did the right thing and I’m proud of you.”

Chief Gerety then suggested that the girls do one more step next time if they ever need to call 9-1-1 again.

“There’s only one thing you might have done different,” he said. “If you think of it, try and grab the house number next time.”

The girls hadn’t thought to get the house number and had described which street the home was on and said it was the “house with the gnomes.” Immediately, the Chief knew which home they were talking about and they went straight there.

Holly Childs, Alia’s mother, said, “I’m really proud of the girls. They acted really fast.”

Homeowner Rose Carter was in attendance at the award ceremony. She shares the home with her fiance, Eric Morton, who was not home at the time of the incident.

“I left chicken on the stove and forgot about it and went to Lockport,” Carter said. “When I came back the fire company was there. They said these girls, heroes of mine, rescued the dog. They called 9-1-1. These are my heroes right here. I can’t thank them enough.”

The girls all agreed that it felt really good to be called heroes. Their advice to anyone that ever thinks there might be a problem like a fire is to just call 9-1-1.

YATES – The state Department of Environmental Conservation is testing wells on Ward Road after residents complained cow manure contaminated their water supply, Town Supervisor John Belson said this afternoon.

Residents attended Thursday’s Town Board meeting to voice their concerns about the manure. A dairy farm spread on Ward Road and then a downpour hit in late August, causing significant manure runoff, Belson said.

The manure washed into ditches and Johnson Creek, and residents fear some of the manure got into their wells, Belson said.

There are five houses on Ward Road, which is located off Alps and Platten roads. They have shallow wells, Belson said. The town does not have a public waterline along the road.

Belson said samples have been taken of the well water. The DEC and the Orleans County Department of Health are both investigating, he said.

Provided photo – Greg Ahlquist, the 2013 New York State Teacher of the Year, addresses Lyndonville teachers last Thursday during a staff development day to kick off the new school year.

Press release
Lyndonville Central School

LYNDONVILLE – Greg Ahlquist, the 2013 New York State Teacher of the Year, a last Thursday with Lyndonville Central School District teachers. Superintendent Jason Smith invited Mr. Alhquist to address the staff on the topic of Growth Mindset relating it to education.

Mr. Ahlquist, who teaches Social Studies at Webster Thomas High School, shared the findings of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, who believes that every person has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.

“Basically if you are a fixed mindset you believe that intelligence and talent create success without effort. The person thinks this is who I am and what I do,” Mr. Ahlquist explained. “In a growth mindset, people believe with time and effort you can enhance your abilities. If you can instill a growth mindset into your students you can develop their love of learning and it will help them with their motivation and productivity.”

Along with his PowerPoint, Mr. Ahlquist shared remarks his students made in his Advanced Placement World History, European History and Holocaust elective classes about what they were most proud of at the end of the class. The responses ranged from the funny, “I didn’t cry,” to “I realized that I am smarter than I thought and I can do this.”

Mr. Ahlquist explained that if a student is of a fixed mindset they feel judged and evaluated where growth mindset students are always looking for ways to improve.

“It is our responsibility as educators to change what they believe about themselves and education,” he said. “Praise effort, not achievement.”

Mr. Smith said he is very grateful for the time that Mr. Ahlquist with his teaching staff.
“He is an exceptional educator and his message of moving students from where they are to whom they can be is a very important one to have reinforced at the beginning of the school year,” Smith said. “It falls in line with our Vision statement to being committed to continuous improvement of student learning and it was very generous of Greg to share his knowledge and insights with us.”

YATES – A fire destroyed a home on Goodwin Road in the town of Yates on Tuesday afternoon and also resulted in the deaths of five dogs inside the house, Walter Batt, Orleans County fire investigator, said this morning.

The cause of the fire is undetermined while fire officials await testing results, Batt said.

The fire broke out at about 4 p.m. at 1877 Goodwin Rd. The house is owned by Diana and Antonio Lopez. No one was home when the fire started.

The house was a total loss and was torn down last night, Batt said.

Photos by Sue Cook

LYNDONVILLE – A team of volunteers installed a playground by the Lyndonville school campus on Housel Avenue today. The playground used to be used by the elementary school on Main Street, but that building was closed about two years ago.

About 30 volunteers worked with the school district, PTA, town and village to move the playground. The district also worked with Parkitects on the project. Ben Frasier, a Lyndonville graduate, headed up the effort for Parkitects.

“We do community builds like this all the time, but normally the stuff is new,” he said. “This is the first time where we had to rip out the equipment like yesterday.”

A team of volunteers spent today assembling a playground.

“What was great was the village, the town, the county, the school district all helped out,” he said. “Everybody pitched in to make this happen, and then seeing all the community volunteers was great. It’s great to have everybody involved in my hometown.”

Volunteers spread out wood chips on a finished portion of the playground. They finished putting up the equipment by 2 p.m. and spent the afternoon moving stone and woodchips.

Photos by Tom Rivers
YATES – J.C. Miller Co., a general store on Millers Road in the town of Yates, has an array of solar panels on the roof of the business in the northwest corner of the town.

The property also has a hitching post made of Medina sandstone as well as a hitching rack.

Jonas Miller runs the store with his wife. He put up the historic hitching post last year. He acquired it from a customer as part of the payment towards new gutters in another business venture headed by Mr. Miller.

He said some of his customers with horse and buggies at the general store will use the hitching post that was originally made more than a century ago.

He put up the solar panels in December 2012, the first member of the local Amish community to embrace the technology. Solar energy is popular in many other Amish settlements.

LYNDONVILLE – The playground from the now-closed elementary school on Main Street will be moved today and reinstalled by the school playground on Housel Avenue on Saturday.

The school district, re-established Lyndonville PTA and other community members will dissemble the playground beginning at 8:30 a.m. today. The volunteers expect they will be reassemble the playground from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Lyndonville is working with Parkitects, Inc. on the project. The project manager for that company is Ben Frasier, a Lyndonville graduate. The Lyndonville Area Foundation provided $7,500 for the project.

Construction materials were donated by local businesses, including Orleans Construction Company (geo-textile fabric), Shelby Crushed Stone (stone), Evan’s Ace Hardware (concrete) and Medina Hardware and Lumber (concrete). The Village of Lyndonville and Town of Yates also will provide manpower and equipment.

Photos by Tom Rivers

YATES – I’ve been on the lookout for dirt roads in Orleans County and noticed Hall Road in the town of Yates. This one isn’t too far from the village of Lyndonville. It’s a north-south road about a mile east of Route 63. It cuts across Route 18.

Photos by Tom Rivers

Russ Martino, a member of the Lyndonville Lions Club, leads the crowd in doing the motions to the song “YMCA” during a concert by Crash Cadillac. The band from Buffalo performed at the Yates Town Park along Lake Ontario at the end of Morrison Road. Martino was the town supervisor when Yates created the park about seven years ago. Current Town Supervisor John Belson, center, and Jeff Johnson join in the dance.

Don Vaccaro, guitarist and singer for Crash Cadillac, leads the band in singing “Sweet Caroline” during a concert this evening at Yates Town Park.

Wes Bradley, left, and other Lyndonville Lions were called up by the band and asked to lead the crowd in the song, “YMCA.”

About 200 people attended the concert at the park by the lake. The Lions Club and Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council both sponsored the event.

Photos by Tom Rivers

YATES – The Lyndonville Shoe Tree has been a craze since 1986 when the late Earl Baun helped a girlfriend get rid of about eight to 10 pairs of shoes. He threw them into the trees at the corner of Foss and Lakeshore roads.

Baun started a popular tradition in the Lyndonville community that shows no signs of slowing down. I stopped by the row of four ash trees this evening on a way to a concert at the Yates Town Park.

The Shoe Tree is a whimsical attraction, with hundreds of shoes nailed to the trunks of the trees or dangling from branches high above.

The Shoe Tree is featured on Web sites and was included in a 2008 book called “New York Curiosities.”

Press release, New York State Police

LYNDONVILLE – Two people were injured in an ATV accident at about 11:37 p.m. on Saturday.

Troopers from the State Police in Albion responded to an Orleans County Sheriff’s Office dispatch of an ATV accident on Lake Shore Road in the Town of Yates.

Investigation shows that the operator Derrick A. Harmer, 44, of Lyndonville was traveling westbound on Lake Shore Road at a high rate of speed and lost control of the ATV on wet roads.

The ATV overturned and came to rest right side up in the opposite lane. Both operator and passenger Laura A. Harmer, 49, of Lyndonville, were ejected from the ATV with neither wearing a helmet.

Derrick Harmer suffered head injuries and was transported by Mercy Flight to Erie County Medical Center and is currently listed in critical condition.

Laura Harmer was transported to Medina Memorial Hospital by Medina Ambulance and later transported by Mercy Flight to ECMC. She has been treated and released.

Derrick Harmer has been charged with ATV Violations with other charges pending.

Photos by Tom Rivers

LYNDONVILLE – Young Explosives once again put on a big fireworks show at Lyndonville to cap off the Fourth of July celebration. The Lyndonville Lions Club is the main organizer for the annual festival with help from several other community groups and the Village of Lyndonville and Town of Yates.

The top photo was during the fireworks finale with a big crowd in the school’s sports fields.

People gathered on Main Street, watching the fireworks over the dam at Johnson Creek.

These people watch from a sidewalk along Main Street by Johson Creek.

The pond at Johnson Creek provides a reflection of the fireworks.

Many people brought their own lawn chairs or blankets and settled in for the show.

Before the fireworks, four Albion friends played with sparklers, including from left: Kendall Derisley, Olivia Krenning, Olivia’s brother Seth Krenning, and Kendall’s twin sister Paige Derisley.

A long line of people wait to buy funnel cakes and other treats before the fireworks show.

Tom Zangerle, left, and the “Happy Ending” band played before the fireworks. The band had its own lighting display.

Photos by Tom Rivers

LYNDONVILLE – Sometimes it’s hard to just pick one picture. Last night around midnight I picked pictures from the Lyndonville fireworks. I liked the ones with the reflection over the Johnson Creek pond in front of the school, but I only used one from those, wanting to get other angles and scenes.

After looking through the reflection pictures this afternoon, I think a lot of them are worth sharing. So here are some more.

We do sell prints of Hub photos. Click here for more information.