The Orleans Hub has published more than 3,000 photos since we went live on April 2.

These are some of my favorites of portraits and personalities that show local folks in our surroundings. The top picture shows Maria Ball, 6, of Medina having fun with sparklers before the fireworks show in Lyndonville on July 4.

Baillie Oberther, 16, of Medina is crowned queen of Dyngus Day on April 1 during a celebration at Sacred Heart Club in Medina. Bonnie Boyd, last year’s queen, passes on the crown. About 200 people celebrated Dyngus Day in Medina. This photo was published on April 2, Orleans Hub’s first official day. It remains one of our favorite photos.

A group of Civil War re-enactors, which marched down Main Street in Medina during a parade on April 27, pause for a ceremony in front of the Bent’s Opera House. That building opened during the Civil War. Medina hosted a Civil War encampment for the first time in April.

Ken Nice, co-owner of Nice Farms in Knowlesville, walks through a fruit orchard along Knowlesville Road on April 30. He is checking how the bees are pollinating the fruit crop. The pink blossoms will bear white nectarines while the white blossoms will be plums. Nice said the blossoming trees are a visual and olfactory feast. “It’s like a perfume factory,” he said.

Bradley Martin and a team of six draft horses harrow a field on Knowlesville Road on April 30. Martin works for a Mennonite-owned dairy farm, part of a growing cluster for Amish- and Mennonite-owned businesses in the Ridgeway and Yates communities. Martin also walked the field, removing big rocks by hand.

George Borrelli is pictured in June, working in his Carlton shop to make metal rings that will be put in hitching posts as part of a project in Albion. Borrelli, a blacksmith, heated the steel to 1,600 degrees so he could bend it into a circle to be used as a ring.

Nick Wright, 11, of Holley is all smiles after plunging face first into a raspberry pie during a pie-eating contest on July 26 at the Orleans County 4-H Fair. The contest is a glorious messy affair.

Alex Graff, a Medina native who now lives in Rochester, may be covered in grease, but he is having a great time during the grease pole championships on July 27 to cap off the Orleans County 4-H Fair.

Steven Papponetti is trying to climb of Graff’s shoulders. Graff and Papponetti are members of the Rough N Ready team. They weren’t able to reach the top of the pole on Saturday. They won on a different day to advance to the finals.

Riley Schillaci of Rochester swallows a flame during the Steampunk Festival on Aug. 31 at the Leonard Oakes Estate Winery in Medina. The event featured several outrageous stunts.

Nelda Callard paints the trim above the side door of a house she and her husband David Callard are working to restore on Temperance Street in Albion. She is pictured in early September. Her husband is chairman of the Orleans County Legislature. The couple worked more than a year fixing up the house on Temperance. The house dates back to the 1840s. It was badly rundown.

Jonathan Judd, 9, of Albion gets his hook ready when Albion Scouts kicked off a new year on Sept. 27 by going fishing. Jonathan was popular among the Scouts because he brought along some extra worms. The group went fishing in an old quarry on Keitel Road. The Albion Sportsmen’s Association owns the old sandstone site.

Young Enterprises employee Shane Swann is on top of the Pratt building at 118 North Main St., coating the roof on Sept. 19. It’s not everyday you get to look down on the lift bridge in Albion.

Ashley Webb, a drum major for Le Roy, leads the band in its performance of “Ashes to Ashes” at Vets Park on Sept. 21 in Medina. Marching bands performed for three hours at Vets Park before judges stopped the Fall Festival of Bands due to the major downpour.

A lone onlooker, a former Orleans Pallet employee, walks the railroad tracks in Albion on the night of Oct. 17 when firefighters were packing up and heading home after six hours of intense firefighting. A huge blaze feasted on Orleans Pallet’s three-story stone warehouse. Most of the building was knocked down by a demolition crew in the following days.

An anguished Fantine (Kaylee Jakubowski) sings, ‘I Dreamed A Dream,’ after she is forced into prostitution. She was among the stars in the Lake Plains Community Players’ production of ‘Les Miserables.’ The famous show became available for the first time this year to adult community theater groups. Lake Plains performed the show in late October.

Nick Condoluci may have the scariest setup for Halloween in Orleans County, a backyard with hanging skeletons, a grave yard, a guillotine and a “Booger Booth,” just to name a few. He is pictured on Oct. 29 by his porch. Condoluci makes most of the props himself, spending much of the winter cutting out and designing tombstones, signs and other scary features, including an electric chair with a buzzer on the seat.

Ann Batt of Albion dressed up as Harry Potter for Halloween. She joined other senior citizens in costume during their exercise class at the Albion Academy. The senior citizens have made it an annual Halloween tradition to dress up during their exercise class led by Leslie Allen.

The village of Lyndonville celebrated a holiday event on Dec. 7 that included a visit by Santa Claus. The jolly ole’ elf met with youngsters at the Village Hall. Grayson Voltz of Lockport didn’t take a liking to Santa, who is looking for some relief from Grayson’s mother, Jessica Voltz, a Lyndonville native.

County uses formula to direct sales tax away from municipalities that need it most

Photos by Tom Rivers

Downtown Medina may be a center for commerce, collecting lots of sales tax, but little of that comes back to Medina or any of the villages that are population and business centers.

Orleans County’s four villages, which are desperately in need of revenue, won’t be getting any help from the county with added sales tax. In fact, the county’s sales tax formula will take money away from the villages next year.

That means the villages will likely have to hike property taxes or find more ways to cut costs or reduce services.

The county has budgeted to take in nearly $15 million in sales tax next year. It shares $1,366,671 with the 10 towns and four villages. The county keeps nearly $14 million for itself or about 92 percent of the total haul.

The county has frozen the village and town share since 2001. Since that time the sales tax has soared due to the rising gas prices and other cost of living increases, as well as an invasion of chain stores, including a Walmart Supercenter in Albion.

The county won’t give more to the towns and villages, saying the county needs the money for mandated programs from the state, such as Medicaid. The county will often gripe about the state not increasing reimbursements, but the county hasn’t increased the share to the villages and towns for 13 years now.

When the villages and town make some noise about the unfairness of the frozen rate, the county typically responds by threatening to keep all of the sales tax, cutting the villages and towns entirely. Rather than have an open dialogue about the issue, the county is a bully when it comes to sales tax.

Other counties share far more with their local municipalities. Genesee, for example, does a 50-50 split. That’s the main reason why their town and village tax rates are so much lower, and so much more attractive to businesses and families. Many of the towns don’t collect any property taxes because of all the sales tax they receive based on the generous formula.

Genesee and Orleans have almost the same county tax rates. Genesee will tax its residents $10.04 per $1,000 of assessed property while it’s a $10.11-rate in Orleans in 2014. The Orleans County tax rate isn’t out of line compared to most counties.

It’s our village tax rates, which range from about $14 in Holley to nearly $17 in Albion and Medina, that are far out of whack to most other villages in the state. Lyndonville’s rate at $10.43 is less because it doesn’t have a police department. (The village does contract for police protection.)

The County Legislature meets in the County Clerks Building, another tax exempt property in the village of Albion. The county unfairly uses taxable value to determine sales tax shares to villages and towns.

It would be easy to blame the local village officials for the high tax rates, but it’s really the fault of the county for sharing so little of the sales tax.

And it keeps getting worse for the villages. The county bases the villages’ revenue share based on taxable value. The villages with their shrinking assessments continue to see their amount go down while the towns get more.

In 2013, the four villages collectively received $404,666 in sales tax, which is a paltry amount for all of the services the villages provide with street, police, cemetery, water and sewer duties. The village amount is less than 3 percent of the entire sales tax that comes into the county. But the villages are doing far more than 3 percent of the work by local governments.

The new distribution for 2014, approved Monday by Legislature, cuts the villages down to $400,681. Albion assumes most of that loss with its share down from $180,457 to $176,423.

This formula makes no sense. The revenue share should be based solely on population because people spend money, generating sales tax. To tie it to assessed value isn’t fair, especially for the village of Albion which has so much exempt property with churches and county government buildings.

If the county is adamant it will use property values for the formula, the exempt properties should be assigned values that factor into the formula. The County Courthouse, for example, doesn’t give the village of Albion a boost in the formula. But if it’s value, let’s say $40 million, was factored in the equation, the village would do far better with the formula.

Add up all the churches and municipal buildings, and suddenly the villages are worth a lot more and should get more.

There is a bias against the villages by the County Legislature. The Legislature has historically been made up of legislators who previously served on Town Boards. Few village mayors or trustees have served on the Legislature.

The legislators bring an anti-village mentality that they pick up at the town level. For the first time in several years, there will be legislator who actually lives in a village on the Legislature.

Fred Miller, an Albion resident and former village trustee, said he wants to be a voice for the villages. He will be outnumbered 6 to 1 by other legislators with a “town” mentality. I’m not optimistic fairness will prevail.

If the county wanted to throw the villages and towns a tiny life-line, the Legislature wouldn’t cap their share. The county should establish a 90-10 revenue sharing split to start with, rather than the current 92 to 8 percent. That 2 percent difference would sprinkle another $300,000 to the towns and villages, with some of that going to the depleted village coffers.

If the county made that move it would raise the county tax rates by 18 cents. If the villages and towns used some of that small increase for public improvements, it could draw more dollars into the county, leading to more sales tax with the county getting 9 out of every 10 dollars. Ultimately, the county wouldn’t be losing sales tax money by giving the towns and villages a little more.

If the sales tax wasn’t capped, itwould provide incentive for the villages and towns to invest in themselves with downtown, parks and other community development improvement projects.

Right now, the villages and towns pay all the costs for these projects. If a canal project, for example, brings in tourists and spending in the community, that added sales tax all goes in the county coffers.

I propose the county “freeze” its share the next 13 years and give any of the increase to the towns and villages, with the share among them to be divvied based on population. After 13 years, the county could start to receive more, but only if the towns and villages are up to 25 percent of the total haul.

The villages are at a crisis point. Medina is seriously looking at dissolving and having the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway step in and assume the village functions.

If the villages don’t get more revenue, I think you’ll see some eliminate police and other services. The county, in that scenario, would be expected to add deputies to fill the gap.

All of this could be avoided if the county would amend its sales tax formula, and be a partner with the villages as they fight for survival.

Electricity fully restored in Orleans County

Photo by Tom Rivers – Orleans County is now free from the grip of the ice storm that took out power to half of the county at one point. This photo on Sunday shows the First Presbyterian Church of Albion in the background.

National Grid has restored power to every customer – 18,000-plus – in Orleans County, about two days after an ice storm snapped branches, taking down electrical wires all over the county.

The company is reporting that there are no customers without power in Orleans. At 2 p.m. on Sunday about half of the county lacked power, or 8,590 of National Grid’s 18,174 customers in Orleans.

The power company had 96 crews at its peak in Orleans, working to reattach wires and make other power restorations.

The ice storm knocked power out for about 70,000 customers in western, central and northern New York. As of 7:16 p.m., there were 1,354 customers without power and they are nearly all in the North Country with 840 in Lewis County and 480 in St. Lawrence County. National Grid expects everyone to be back on line by 11:30 p.m.

National Grid has fewer than 100 customers without power, about two days after an ice storm snapped big branches and felled numerous trees around Orleans County.

On Sunday afternoon there were 8,590 National Grid customers without power in Orleans. That represented 47.3 percent of National Grid’s customer base in the county.

As of 11:41 p.m. today, there were 92 customers without electricity. The company is working to have them restored today. Of those 92, 76 are in Shelby, with five or six customers without power in Yates, Albion and Clarendon.

Two counties in northern New York still have a lot of people without power. In Jefferson County, 3,846 customers don’t have electricity. National Grid reports it expects them to be back on line by 11:30 p.m. today. St. Lawrence County has 1,185 customers without power.

National Grid made significant progress restoring power in Orleans County today. As of 10:42 p.m., all but 356 customers were back on line.

The power company started the day with 3,275 customers without power. On Sunday there were more than 8,000 with no electricity, or about half of the county.

National Grid had 96 crews in the county today. The company is working to have power fully restored in Orleans by noon tomorrow, the day before Christmas.

Company reports 1,453 still without power in Orleans

Photos by Tom Rivers – A tree crushed this 1995 Cadillac Seville, owned by Shaun Cobb of Albion. The tree damaged two other cars when it fell on Brown Street near the Caroline Street intersection. Cobb has been working to remove the tree by himself.

It shouldn’t be too much longer. That was the message from Paul Wagner, Orleans County emergency management director.

He knows residents want their electricity back on. National Grid has reduced the number of customers without power from 3,275 this morning to 1,453 as of 5:38 p.m. Wagner expects many more will be back on-line before 10 p.m. when National Grid crews will call it a day.

The crews will be back to work in the morning and expect to have power restored to residents by noon.

“We’re nearing the end of the power outage routine in Orleans County,” Wagner told the County Legislature this afternoon.

National Grid has 96 crews working to restore power and reattach lines to houses, Wagner said.

He also noted the six fire companies from Wyoming County that volunteered to help with basement pumping and be on standby for other fire calls. They arrived at about 4 p.m. on Sunday and stayed past noon today, easing some of the burden for local firefighters.

The Wyoming departments include North Java, Harris Corners, Perry, North Java, Warsaw and Arcade. A crew from Chili in Monroe County also was on scene in eastern Orleans.

Wagner said he was grateful the storm did not cause any injuries or fatalities.

Orleans County was alive with the sound of chain saws today while workers and residents cut up some of the fallen branches and trees. Bob Dexter works on a limb behind his stepdaughters’ house on East Park Street.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Here is another photo from the ice storm on Sunday, showing the Orleans County Courthouse in the background.

More than 3,000 National Grid customers remain without electricity this morning, and the power company advised the lights may not be back on until noon on Christmas Eve.

The ice storm that broke branches and felled trees, resulting in downed power lines. National Grid has made progress since yesterday when 8,590 of 18,174 customers in Orleans County were without electricity.

There are still 3,152 without power, as of 6:43 a.m. today. That represents 17.3 percent of the company’s customer base in Orleans.

It could be worse. In St. Lawrence County in northern New York, 28.0 percent of National Grid customers, 15,442 out of 55,065, are without electricity.

The company made big strides in Genesee County yesterday. As of this morning, only 82 customers were without electricity just south of Orleans.

Photos by Tom Rivers

National Grid has many crews working in Orleans County, trying to restore electricity to residents after Sunday’s ice storm.

This crew is at work on East State Street in Albion. They are one of 20 crews that drove in from Worcester, Mass., to work in Orleans County.

As of 8:45 a.m. this morning, 3,275 National Grid customers were without electricity in Orleans County.

National Grid expects most of those without power will have it back on by tonight, but some people may have to wait until noon tomorrow, when the county should be fully back on line, said Steve Brady, National Grid spokesman.

National Grid has 2,300 field workers deployed today in western and northern New York, the area’s hardest hit by the ice storm.

The power company is using its own local crews, National Grid crews from other parts of upstate, Long Island and New England, as well as contractors and crews from neighboring utilities, Brady said.

They are backed up by several hundred support personnel doing everything from work planning to customer contact to organizing meals and lodging for out of town crews, he said.

The Village of Albion Department of Public Works marked off a downed wire on Herrick Street.

Photos by Tom Rivers – The crew from Strykersville includes, from left: Brian George, Eric Kirsch and Carol Shaw.

ALBION – Six crews from Wyoming County are heading home this afternoon after spending about 20 hours in Orleans County, pumping basements and responding to other fire calls.

The firefighters responded to a mutual aid call to fire companies in Orleans County which have been busy since an ice storm hit at about 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Many fire companies also responded to a house fire in Holley Saturday night on Orleans-Monroe Countyline Road.

“They have helped tremendously,” said Jeremy Graham, assistant fire chief for the Albion Fire Department. “They gave us peace of mind by being here and gave us a chance to get refreshed.”

A crew from Strykersville pumped 14 basements between 9:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m., and then since 7:30 a.m. today, working mostly around Albion.

Three firefighters from Strykersville responded to the mutual aid call for Orleans County.

“We were fortunate to have some time off from our jobs so we could come down,” said Eric Kirsch of Strykersville.

He got engaged on Saturday. His fiancee gave her blessing for him to help in Orleans for the day.

“She just wants me home for Christmas,” Kirsch said.

The team from the North Java Fire Company includes, from left: Kyle Meyer, Jeremy Boorman, Jim Tuttle and Evan Church.

Firefighters from five other Wyoming County fire departments – Harris Corners, Perry, North Java, Warsaw and Arcade – worked in Orleans, with different crews assigned to the eastern, central and western portions of the county.

The North Java crew stayed in the Albion fire hall and was on standby for any fire calls. The crew responded to an EMS call. Otherwise, they stayed up most of the night playing Uno and Rummy. Their presence allowed Albion firefighters to get a good night’s rest.

Jeremy Boorman, a North Java firefighter, said the Wyoming firefighters were eager to step forward and help while Orleans was plagued with power outages, flooded cellars and downed wires.

“We hope for the same if we ever need it,” he said about the out-of-county mutual aid. “We hope people will come and help us.”

Company reports nearly 4,000 still without electricity

Photo by Tom Rivers – The Albion Rescue Truck is parked in a driveway on West Academy Street while firefighters pumped a basement. Several streets in Albion remain without power.

National Grid has made progress restoring electricity to several areas of Orleans County. About 4,500 customers have had their power return since 2 p.m.

The company reported at 7 p.m. that 3,912 customers remained without electricity. At 1:55 p.m., there were 8,590 customers with no power, nearly half of the county.

Genesee County has 483 customers without power and Monroe County only has 178 off-line right now, according to National Grid. Niagara County also has been hit hard by the ice storm. There are 6,467 customers without power, as of 7 p.m.

Help arrives from 6 Wyoming County fire companies

Photos by Tom Rivers – Albion Fire Chief Rocky Sidari, left, and firefighter Gary Rowley are outside 311 West Academy St., Albion, while the basement is pumped this evening. The Albion Fire Department responded to 64 calls by about 5 p.m., including many calls to pump basements.

Orleans County firefighters have been responding to calls since 2 a.m., nonstop requests to have basements pumped and tree limbs removed.

With thousands of residents still without power, firefighters expect they will continue to be busy, especially with basements filling with water because sump pumps aren’t working without electricity.

“Until we get the power back on we’re chasing cellars,” said Jesse Babcock, fire chief for the Barre Fire Company.

About two thirds of Barre has been without power.

Fallen branches, toppled trees and downed wires have littered much of the county.

“It looks like a war zone out there,” said Dan Morrow, a member of the Albion fire police.

He was out for hours trying to direct people away from dangerous spots with wires and limbs in the road.

“The worst part is people don’t use common sense,” he said about some of the motorists.

Albion Fire Department Captain Jared Hapemen, right, and his brother Jason pump out a basement on West Academy Street in Albion this evening. The department has been responding to calls since 2 a.m.

Albion was up to 64 calls at about 5 p.m. for pumped basements, tree limb removal and downed wires.

Orleans County has been hit particularly hard by the power outages with about half of the county losing electricity.

The state Office of Emergency Management activated mutual aid for Orleans, requesting assistance from firefighters from other counties. At about 4:30 p.m., a caravan of six fire trucks or rescue vehicles from Wyoming County arrived at the Albion fire hall.

Wyoming firefighters will be here until noon tomorrow responding to calls around county. They will relieve firefighters who have been responding to calls since the middle of the night.

The Wyoming departments were sent to Ridgeway, Barre, Albion and Holley.

William Dake, a Castile firefighter, rode down in the Perry fire truck. He is ready to spend the night and tomorrow morning in Orleans, responding to calls.

“This is what firefighters do, we help each other, ” he said.

Dake was Castile fire chief when a massive blaze broke out in the Castile village hall on Oct. 2, 2012. Firefighters from five counties and 50 fire companies responded to that fire.

“We’ve had people help us and it’s time for us to repay,” Dake said.

Firefighters brought six fire vehicles from Wyoming County, including this truck from the Harris Corners Fire Department, to assist Orleans County firefighters.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Ice encases these berries on the bush in front of Mike and Cheryl Wertman’s home in Medina.

The ice storm has caused power outages in western, central and northern New York, but no county has been hit as hard as Orleans.

There are 8,590 National Grid customers without power in Orleans. That represents 47.3 percent of National Grid’s customer base in the county.

Two other counties – Niagara and Jefferson – have more customers without power, but their percentage of the county without electricity isn’t as high as in Orleans.

Jefferson County in the North Country has 22,379 customers without power, or 40.6 percent of the county, according to a National Grid report at 1:55 p.m.

Niagara has 14,104 customers without power, or 17.4 percent of the 81,097 total.

Other nearby counties haven’t been hit nearly as hard as Orleans with power outages. Genesee has 1,657 customers without electricity, or 6.2 percent of the 26,584 in the county. National Grid has power out for 5.4 percent or 1,094 of its 20,205 customers in Monroe County.

Erie County has 1.5 percent of its National Grid customers without power, or 4,226 of the 279,517 total.

Firefighters pumping basements, removing limbs

Photo by Mike Wertman – The North entrance to Lakewood Village in Medina was flooded this morning due to an overflowed drainage ditch.

Widespread power outages remain in Orleans County about 12 hours after the brunt of the ice storm hit during the night.

National Grid reports that 8,590 homes are without electricity as of 1:55 p.m. That is nearly half of the power company’s 18,174 customers in the county.

Firefighters have been busy pumping flooded basements and removing tree limbs from roads, a dispatcher said from the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department.

All of the roads are open in the county.

“There aren’t any serious problems,” the dispatcher said.