By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – The Orleans County Health Facilities Corporation, the organization that is working with county officials to find a buyer for the nursing home, said bidders have submitted proposals that would pay off the county debt on the Route 31 site.
That’s all the details the local development corporation will release after meeting Friday to review the offers for The Villages of Orleans, the 120-bed nursing home.
The LDC and county attorneys said specific details of the proposals will not be made public right now because doing so could impact negotiations as well as the purchase price.
“We can say that we have some very strong proposals from highly qualified nursing home operators with successful track records in the long-term care industry and with the New York State Department of Health,” said Russell Martino, chairman of the LDC board. “All proposals submitted satisfy the financial needs of the county relative to the outstanding debt. Based on what we’re seeing, we have some really positive choices to make.”
The county still owes $8 million on a 2006 renovation and expansion project that cost $10 million. Orleans also owes $300,000 from a renovation in 1994. The county is scheduled to be paying on the $8 million in debt until 2026.
The LDC board will interview the potential operators and visit homes they are currently own and operate. The LDC will also study data about the operators provided by state and federal agencies.
The LDC won’t necessarily take the highest bid for the nursing home. Martino has said other factors will be part of the decision, incuding maintaining a partnership with Albion Central School to continue a classroom for high school students at the site.
Completion of the transaction will allow the new provider to begin the process of obtaining a certificate of need from the state Department of Health, a process that can take 12 to 18 months. The county could own The Villages until at least 2015.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Hawley leads SAFE Act forum attended by 200 in Albion
Photos by Tom Rivers – Orleans County District Attorney Joe Cardone, second from left, answers a question about the SAFE Act during a forum in Albion on Monday. He is joined by Chief Deputy Tom Drennan, left, and State Assemblyman Steve Hawley, and Steve Aldstadt, state president of the Shooters Committee on Political Education or SCOPE.
ALBION – If someone in Orleans County is violating New York’s new gun law, the SAFE Act, law enforcement officials told them not to worry unless they are using the gun to commit a crime.
If law-abiding citizens and sportsmen have guns that cosmetically could soon be considered illegal or if they have a gun with 10 bullets instead of the limit of seven, they don’t need to worry that their guns will be seized or that they will be arrested or fined.
That was the message from District Attorney Joe Cardone and Tom Drennan, chief deputy of the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department.
“We won’t be there knocking on your door, I can tell you that,” Drennan told 200 people during a SAFE Act forum Monday night in Albion at the middle school.
Cardone said Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the majority of the State Legislature, in a “knee-jerk reaction,” approved the SAFE Act without thinking through its ramifications, particularly on law-abiding gun owners.
As DA, he is sworn to uphold New York laws, but he is also bound to support the Constitution. Many gun owners believe the SAFE Act violates their Second Amendment rights.
“We’re put in a very difficult position,” Cardone said tonight during a forum.
Mattie Zarpentine, Western NY regional coordinator for New York Revolution, urges gun owners to be more active politically by registering to vote and casting their ballots on election day.
State Assemblyman Steve Hawley coordinated the forum. Hawley opposed the SAFE Act and he has introduced legislation to repeal it. New York should start over in looking for solutions to curb violence in communities by using a legislative process that is open to the public and welcomes input from sportsmen, law enforcement agencies, veterans, businesses and gun owners, Hawley said.
Cuomo pushed through the SAFE Act in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut. The law, which restricts access to guns and ammunition, was passed without a public hearing.
“I say shame on the governor for using people’s emotions to pass his own agenda,” Hawley said.
Steve Aldstadt, state president of the Shooters Committee on Political Education or SCOPE, said at least five lawsuits are trying to block the SAFE Act. Those judicial battles could wage for years.
The best way to combat the SAFE Act is to vote Cuomo out of office during the November 2014 election, said several speakers, including Steve Aldstadt, state president of SCOPE. State Assemblyman Steve Hawley said he is working for a repeal of the SAFE Act. Hawley also said the election next November is likely gun owners’ best hope for changing the law.
Mattie Zarpentine of Holley, the Western NY regional director for New York Revolution, urged all gun owners to register to vote and then cast a ballot in the state-wide elections. NY Revolution formed after the SAFE Act’s passage. It worked to secure formal resolutions from the county, and 10 town and four village government boards in Orleans County, the only county in the state where all levels of local government opposed the SAFE Act.
Zarpentine said gun owners, if they turned out in force in the state-wide election, could oust Cuomo from office.
Hawley organized the forum so gun owners could have information about the SAFE Act and its impact on them. But the assemblyman said the law is often vague, creating anxiety and uncertainty for gun owners as well as law enforcement.
“Bad process leads to bad policy and that’s what we have here,” he said.
The law forbids certain features on guns, forces doctors or counselors to report mentally ill patients who own guns, and creates a $500 incentive for people to report SAFE Act law-breakers. Gun owners can also have their names and addresses obtained through public records unless they chose to opt out. Some newspapers have published lists of gun owners and their addresses.
Jim Moore of Clarendon said he opposes the SAFE Act but thinks something needs to be done to reduce gun violence.
Gun owners will have to re-register every five years. It will be harder to pass down guns through the family, and it will be much more difficult to buy ammunition.
“It’s hard to believe they passed this,” said Aldstadt, the SCOPE leader. “There are so many onerous provisions out there that will effect law-abiding citizens.”
Drennan, the chief deputy, said the SAFE Act unfortunately targets sportsmen and citizens who follow the law.
“A lot of this is ridiculous and doesn’t make any sense,” he said about the SAFE Act.
Cardone said some of the SAFE Act provisions stiffen the penalties for criminals who break the law while using a gun. In those cases the law will help put criminals in jail or prison. In those cases, Cardone said, he would use the SAFE Act to prosecute criminals.
But he won’t use it for standalone crimes that involve only the SAFE Act. So far no one in Orleans County has been arrested under the SAFE Act.
“If someone faces other charges they could be charged with the SAFE Act,” Cardone said. “But John Q Public, I’m not going out of my way to make a problem for them.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
Coverage of the massive blaze at the Orleans Pallet warehouse in Albion fueled lots of traffic for OrleansHub.com.
Orleans Hub continues to see steady increases in traffic to the web site. Last month we averaged 3,000 unique visitors per day, which was up 25 percent from the 2,400 average in September.
The total page views jumped 29 percent from 214,640 in September to 277,401 in October. The site went “live” on April 2 has been growing each month.
Orleans Hub also set a new single-day record for traffic on Oct. 17 with 5,898 unique visitors and 17,151 page views. That was the day the Orleans Pallet warehouse burned in Albion. The Hub posted stories and photos soon after the fire alarm and updated the site frequently about the blaze and its aftermath.
However, the fire wasn’t the Hub’s biggest story of the month. An article about Orleans County DA Joe Cardone saying he wouldn’t enforce the SAFE Act on “John Q. Public” generated the most traffic of any article.
Our traffic also has jumped with the addition of Mike and Cheryl Wertman covering local high school sports. The Wertman team started in late August and has been at all five schools on a regular basis.
We get lots of comments form people about the photos on the site. The fall season lends itself to nice photos with all the homecoming sporting events and changing leaves.
I was down at the Oak Orchard River on four occasions, including a fishing tournament at the Archer’s Club. A father and son from Pennsylvania were there all week for a fly fishing tournament. The 8-year-old kid was catching Chinook salmon left and right.
His father kept him out of school for the week and they went fishing together. The boy’s grandfather also joined them at the Oak Orchard.
Shane Smith and his son Ben, 8, of Pennsylvania hold one of the big salmon Ben caught last month in the Oak Orchard River.
I like this picture of the father and son. But I think my favorite shot of the month came on the last day of October. Ann Batt of Albion dressed up as Harry Potter on Halloween. I took this one at an exercise class for senior citizens.
Also on Halloween, Cheryl Wertman took an iconic image of the Medina Mustangs soccer team winning a sectional game in monsoon-like weather in Hamburg. It was windy with torrential rains.
“As a weather event that was one you won’t forget,” Mike Wertman said about the game and downpour. “That was the worst we’ve seen in several years.”
Photo by Cheryl Wertman – A Mustangs midfield duo of Anthony Pane (13) and Scott Barber (8) were drenched during the Oct. 31 soccer game against Newfane in Hamburg.
Wertman has been covering local sports for more than three decades. He said an Albion-Grand Island football game was played in torrential rain about five years ago. That was the last game he can recall in such horrible weather.
The Hub is grateful for the chance to attend these games and events, even when it’s raining. And it’s gratifying to see the community enjoys checking the site for updates on the local news.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Staff with the Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service pose for a picture this morning, their first day back to work since the federal government shutdown started on Oct.1. They work out of a building at 446 West Ave., next to Genesee Community College. Pictured include, from left: Trina Press, a program technician with the Farm Service Agency; Larry Meyer, FSA director; Katie Sommerfeldt, a program technician with the Soil and Water Conservation District, which stayed open during the shutdown; and Clark Moore, a district conservationist with NRCS.
ALBION – For nearly three weeks local federal employees watched the news closely, hoping an impasse would be resolved in Congress so they could return to their jobs.
“The biggest thing was the day-to-day uncertainty,” said Larry Meyer, director of the Farm Service Agency in Orleans County. “We had no idea how long this would be.”
The good news finally came last night, when the Senate and House both voted to end the federal government shutdown and raise the country’s debt ceiling so the U.S. didn’t default.
Meyer and a staff of three other FSA workers were back to work at their Albion office this morning. Meyer promptly removed a sign from the front door that said the office was closed. He ripped up the sign.
The FSA closed during a busy time when farmers are expecting crop payments and loans, about $2 million worth from the Albion office. Meyer said the staff will work hard to get that money out to the ag producers.
A deadline for farmers to report wheat plantings passed on Oct. 10. The FSA didn’t have any staff working to collect the data.
The Natural Resource Conservation Service also was expecting it would be working to sign up farmers and land owners for programs. Clark Moore, a district conservationist in Orleans and Niagara counties, expects deadlines will be extended. He said the timing of the shutdown in October was during a very busy time for his agency.
The Soil and Water Conservation District works out of the building with FSA and NRCS. Soil and Water stayed open during the shutdown because it’s not a federal agency. But many residents drove to the office and assumed the entire site was closed.
The shutdown also halted the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge in Shelby and the town of Alabama. Even the nature trails were off limits. The refuge is back open today.
Meyer has worked 30 years for the federal government and he had never been furloughed until Oct. 1. FSA staff were considered essential employees during the shutdown in the Clinton administration. But this go-round the FSA was deemed non-essential.
Meyer and some of the workers wanted to volunteer to keep programs moving along, but they were told they could face a $5,000 fine and imprisonment if they worked during the shut down.
The non-essential workers were furloughed, but they are expected to have their pay fully reinstated for lost days during the shutdown.
ALBION – A corrections officer in the Orleans County Jail was injured this morning during an altercation with Jeremy J. Rothmund, 30, of Rochester. He has been held in the jail since he was arrested July 2 after allegedly robbing the Bank of America in Albion.
Officer Janet H. Koehler, a 15-year veteran, was injured at about 10:30 a.m. during the altercation. Koehler was transported by Central Orleans Volunteer Ambulance to Medina Memorial Hospital, where she is still being evaluated at this hour. Her injuries are not believed to be life threatening.
Charges against Rothmund are pending an investigation by Sheriff’s Investigator K.M. Strickland Jr. and Jail Superintendent S.D. Wilson.
A separate investigation will be conducted by the New York State Commission of Correction, which oversees the operation of County Jails and Correctional Facilities.
A masked Rothmund took off with about $18,000 from the Bank of America on July 2. He was arrested in Holley thanks to a drive-through bank customer, who provided vehicle identification information to police.
Police said Rothmund was involved in two bank robberies in the town of Greece and another robbery in Monroe County in June.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 15 October 2013 at 12:00 am
John Sawyer died on Sunday after battling leukemia. He was 72.
MEDINA – John Sawyer pulled it off, orchestrating the largest capitol investment in Orleans County – ever.
In 2006, construction started on a $90 million ethanol plant in a former cabbage field at the corner of Bates Road and Route 31A. The facility opened in late 2007.
Many of these ethanol plants in the Midwest are owned by agricultural conglomerates. Sawyer reached out to a network of friends and farmers in raising the needed money to build the plant, which turns 20 million bushels of corn annually into about 55 million gallons of ethanol.
The plant also captures carbon dioxide and sells that to food companies. Distiller’s grains, another byproduct, is used to fatten up cattle. The ethanol plant has about 50 direct employees but has positively impacted the paychecks for hundreds of people.
The ethanol plant arrived at a time when corn prices took off. Not only did farmers have a customer with an insatiable appetite, but the grain growers were able to get top dollar for their crop. The ethanol plant has led to significant capitol upgrades locally as farmers expanded their grain storage operations.
The project brought Sawyer back to his roots in Orleans County. He had been living in Livingston County, where he farmed 1,500 acres and ran a cold storage business.
The project in Medina was close to his home, and it had rail access as well as close proximity to corn growers, the dairy market and ethanol customers in New York.
Sawyer was born at the former Arnold Gregory Hospital in Albion and grew up in Kuckville. When Sawyer and Western New York Energy committed to Medina, Sawyer built a house in Waterport along Lake Ontario. He looked for ways to give back to community, and donated $100,000 to the new Hoag Library.
“This is a community project and it can serve a lot of people,” he told me in 2012, back when I was working at The Daily News in Batavia.
Sawyer hoped the new library would also trigger other improvements in Albion, especially along Main Street.
He donated to the new residence at Hospice of Orleans, the Orleans County YMCA and was leading the effort to establish a local history museum at the former Swan Library.
Sawyer died on Sunday at age 72. He has been a transformative force around here the past seven years, exuding optimism and faith in the local folks.
He dared the community to dream big, showed us it takes hard work and some friends to make it happen, and then you don’t forget where you came from by giving generously to worthy causes.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 14 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Unpaved public roads in Orleans: Culvert Road in Shelby
Culvert Road in Shelby, as it looks heading north in the fall.
SHELBY – Yesterday I posted an article about Clark Mills Road in Carlton, what I assumed was one of the last few remaining unpaved public roads in Orleans County.
I asked readers to send me information on where more of these roads are located in the county. I’ve received a lot of tips. Looks like there are at least 10 of them.
A couple people mentioned a section of Culvert Road, going north from Route 31A. I was out that way earlier today and I wanted to take a look.
Here’s Culvert Road heading south, not far from the Ridgeway town line.
It’s a glorious fall day and the scene would make for a nice country post card with a field of corn waiting to harvested on one side of the road.
The unpaved section runs about 0.7 mile in the town of Shelby. Once you get to Ridgeway, the pavement begins. If you cross Route 31 going north you will discover one of the great marvels of Orleans County: the Canal Culvert. It is reputed to be the only road that goes under the Erie Canal.
The unpaved section in Shelby is a bumpy ride. But that didn’t stop a delivery truck from roaring past me when I stopped for a photo at about 11:30 a.m.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Video courtesy of United Way of Orleans County
The Orleans County United Way has a new video promoting its fund-raising campaign and also the generous spirit of the community.
The $325,000 campaign was launched last month. The funding goes to 20 local agencies that serve youths, senior citizens, people with developmental disabilities and other residents.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Workers will pay higher deductibles, reducing county’s health insurance costs
ALBION – About 70 Orleans County employees in the Sheriff’s Department will receive 2 percent pay hikes annually over three years.
The workers will pay higher deductibles to their health insurance, which will reduce county health premium expenses, Chuck Nesbitt, the county chief administrative officer, said today.
The savings in health insurance, about $4,000 less for a family premium, will make the contract “cost neutral” for the county when the raises are factored in, Nesbitt said.
The contract runs from Jan. 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2015. The health insurance savings are expected to offset the raises in 2014 and likely in 2015, Nesbitt said today after the County Legislature approved two contracts.
One agreement includes 24 deputies while the other covers 47 workers – dispatchers, corrections officers and civilian clerks. Past county employee contracts generally only included recent or new hires with higher deductible plans. Now all employees, regardless of seniority, are in the higher-deductible plans, which is helping the county offset some of the rising health insurance premiums, Nesbitt said.
With the two agreements approved today, all county employees are now under contract until at least the end of 2014.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Orleans County residents won’t be voting on whether or not the county should sell its 120-bed nursing home because such a vote would be illegal.
That was the response from David Callard, the County Legislature chairman, after public calls for a referendum on the issue.
County officials have consulted with legal counsel and opinions from the state comptroller and attorney general.
“It simply can not be authorized because it would be illegal to do so,” Callard said at today’s Legislature meeting.
State statutes don’t specify that a public vote for a nursing home sale is permitted by law. Without the specifics in the law, the county can’t put the matter to a vote, Callard said. The county also can’t expend public money for a referendum that is not permitted or required by state law, he said.
Callard’s statement did not sit well with Dee Smith, a member of Concerned Citizens of Orleans County, a grass roots group that opposes the sale.
“I feel I don’t matter to you,” she told Callard and the Legislature. “I don’t trust you. I don’t have faith in you.”
The county formed a local development corporation to work on the sale of The Villages of Orleans. Proposals are due Oct. 16. The LDC board, led by Russ Martino of Lyndonville, may schedule a meeting for Oct. 18 to discuss the offers for the nursing home.
“I am not looking forward to going into a private nursing home,” Smith told the Legislature. “I’m so disappointed in you people.”
Legislator George Bower was the lone legislator who opposed transferring the nursing home to the LDC in February, and pressing the three-member LDC with finding a buyer for the site.
Bower said the lack of a referendum and a say from residents in the process is “poor.”
Two lawsuits have challenged the legality of the LDC’s formation and other procedural issues. Both times the county has been upheld in State Supreme Court.
Here is the prepared statement by Callard in regards to the referendum:
“It is important to clarify a point that seems to be missing from the discussion on the nursing home. The county government as an administrative unit and political subdivision of the State of New York, does not have the power to supersede or override state laws. There is no authority granted to the county legislature by the laws of New York State to hold a referendum on issues that are not specifically authorized for referenda in state law. We do not have the power to grant such a request.
“It has been consistently held in this State that a municipality may not submit a question to referendum, either advisory or binding, in the absence of express statutory authority. The New York State Attorney General and the Office of the State Comptroller have weighed in on this issue numerous times over the years, rendering opinions which consistently state that referenda which are neither permitted nor required by statute are improper and without effect, and that municipal monies may not be expended for such purposes. Simply put, they are illegal.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – A union representing employees at The Villages of Orleans, the county-owned nursing home, may appeal a judge’s decision last week.
James Punch, acting State Supreme Court justice, sided with the county in a lawsuit that alleged the Orleans County Legislature improperly formed a local development corporation for the purpose of the selling the 120-bed nursing home.
CSEA, the union representing about 130 county employees at the nursing home, is reviewing options and considering an appeal.
“We are disappointed that the judge found the claims in our legal action to be legislative or premature, but that does not mean that our claims are incorrect,” said Cindy Troy, president of the CSEA Orleans County unit. “We will not back down from our belief that the Legislature acted incorrectly, and that The Villages of Orleans must remain public and available to county residents.”
CSEA’s lawsuit sought to invalidate the Orleans County Legislature’s resolution to create the LDC and transfer ownership of The Villages to the LDC.
The union filed the lawsuit last summer on behalf of petitioners Jan Standish and Mary A. Lewis, two union members who work at The Villages and who have relatives living there.
This is the second time Judge Punch ruled in favor of the county in a legal challenge about the LDC formed to sell the nursing home.
“I feel that the judge has once again ruled wisely and justly,” David Callard, chairman of the Orleans County Legislature, said in a statement on Friday. “We felt confident that we had acted appropriately and legally and the court confirmed that.”
Four candidates – Gary Kent of Albion, Jack Gillman of Kendall, Gregory “Emil” Smith of Medina and Linda Rak of Lyndonville – have formed an independent “Save Our Nursing Home” party for the Nov. 5 election. They are challenging Republican-endorsed candidates.
Two other Democratic Party candidates, Fred Miller of Albion and Dave Schult of Waterport, also say they oppose selling the nursing home.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 4 October 2013 at 12:00 am
Orleans County is part owner of the race track
Photo from Batavia Downs’ Facebook page – Batavia Downs has been teasing images of the new $27 million expansion and renovation project through its Facebook page.
BATAVIA – Orleans County residents may not realize that our county is part owner of Batavia Downs, which today at noon will open its doors to the public following a $27 million expansion project.
The Downs is owned by Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., which was formed 40 years ago when 15 counties and the cities of Rochester and Buffalo entered the OTB business.
At one time, OTB parlors were a booming business, but the expansion of state-sanctioned gambling as well as a downturn in horse racing fans has put OTB parlors in a deficit. The New York City OTB has gone out of business, unable to make money anymore.
Western OTB is the only regional OTB in the state that owns a race track. Western OTB bought Batavia Downs in 1998. It seemed a doomed venture. But 10 years ago the state allowed video gaming machines (which look a lot like slots) in the race tracks. That has proven a major bonanza for WROTB. The video gaming more than offsets losses at OTB parlors and in running live horse racing meets. Some of those profits trickle down to Orleans County.
Orleans and other member counties should reap more money now that Batavia Downs has expanded the gaming floor and improved the amenities at the rack track on Park Road.
I covered Batavia Downs for about a decade for The Daily News in Batavia. There were times the organization was in financial crisis. But video gaming, where customers lose more than $40 million a year in Batavia, has proven a life-saver for WROTB, which shares about half of the revenue with the state.
I won’t be able to stop by Batavia today, but I hope to get out for the formal ribbon-cutting on Oct. 17. I’m not a gambler myself, but it is quite remarkable to see the resurgence of this old race track. If I were a betting man, I would have predicted the building would have been razed to make way for a Big Box store.
The Downs has steadily grown its business while competing against fancier Indian-owned sites in Niagara Falls, Salamanca and the Turning Stone resort in Verona. Those sites give a much smaller percentage of the profits to the state.
New York has embraced gambling, without much protest from its residents. If gambling and casinos are going to be here, I support Batavia Downs getting some of the action and investing in a local site and employing local people. Some of the profits are divvied up to WNY counties that badly need the money.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 4 October 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – Orleans County officials reported today that the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the county in a lawsuit brought by the CSEA union, claiming the county improperly formed a Local Development Corporation that was tasked with selling the county nursing home.
This is the second time Acting Supreme Court Judge James Punch ruled in favor of the county in a legal challenge about the LDC formed to sell the nursing home, The Villages of Orleans.
“I feel that the judge has once again ruled wisely and justly,” David Callard, chairman of the Orleans County Legislature, said in a statement this afternoon. “We felt confident that we had acted appropriately and legally and the court confirmed that.”
The County Legislature, in a 6-1 vote, created the LDC on Feb. 27. Only Legislator George Bower opposed it, saying the Legislature had previously said it wouldn’t consider selling the facility until 2014.
The Legislature in a super majority vote is moving to sell the 120-bed Villages of Orleans because of the prospect of deficits that could top $2 to $4 million.
Four candidates have formed an independent “Save Our Nursing Home” party line to challenge to the incumbent Republicans in next month’s election. Those candidates say the county has overstated the potential losses and hasn’t work bring more revenue to the facility while reducing costs.
Chairman Callard has stated the best way to preserve the nursing home for the community is to sell the site so it can be run by a private operator. That would ensure a high quality of care for residents, while maintaining jobs and preserving programs, “without dire financial consequences to the taxpayers.”
CSEA represents 135 county employees at The Villages. The lawsuit alleged the county improperly formed the LDC – the Orleans County Health Facilities Corporation – and the county’s fee title is invalid. The suit alleges other “arbitrary and capricious actions” and wrongdoing by the county, including efforts “to circumvent the stringent requirements of public health law.”
The lawsuit noted that the union has a two-year contract running until Dec. 31, 2014. The Legislature in September 2011 also passed a resolution saying the nursing home would remain a public facility, subject to public governance, until at least the end of 2014, according to the CSEA suit.
Acting Supreme Court justice James Punch dismissed the case on Tuesday. Orleans Hub didn’t hear about this until late this afternoon and was unable to get a copy of Punch’s written decision. The Hub should have more on this next week.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 September 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Two 2010 Dodge Caravans recently replaced older vans in the Orleans Joint Veterans Council’s fleet of vehicles that are used to take veterans to medical appointments. Pictured, from left, include sign maker Greg Stanton, program coordinator Gloria Kuhn and Paul Fulcomer, the county’s Veterans Service Agency director.
ALBION – Nine months ago the Orleans Joint Veterans Council put the word out that its fleet of vans was getting old. Many of the six vehicles were well past 100,000 miles.
The council sent out 150 letters, asking for help to replace some of the aging vans. One anonymous donor offered to give a 2010 Dodge Caravan to the council instead of trading it in. Many people also stepped up with financial support. That allowed the council to buy another low-mileage Dodge Caravan.
That has made it a little less stressful for the volunteer drivers and their passengers. The “new” used vans are less likely to break down on a trip to the Buffalo VA.
The council acquires and owns the vans, and the VA pays for the gas and maintenance. The service is free to veterans.
The two new vans have decals advertising the transportation service for veterans. Greg Stanton of Stanton Signs designed and put on the decals. Stanton, a veteran, has been going to the VA in recent years. He praised the quality of care.
He said more veterans should pursue medical care through the VA, which is no charge to veterans.
“At the Batavia and Buffalo (VA), everybody welcomes you,” Stanton said.
But getting to the appointments can be a challenge for many elderly vets, or younger veterans who may not drive or who battle disabilities.
In 1996, the council started the volunteer-run transportation service. That first year about 200 veterans were driven to medical appointments, mostly in Batavia and Buffalo.
The organization now has six vans that delivered 1,015 veterans to appointments in 2012, taking them to Batavia, Buffalo, Canandaigua, Syracuse and Bath. The council has eight volunteers scheduling rides and 22 driving the vans. They put in 5,210 volunteer hours last year.
Gloria Kuhn, the volunteer coordinator, praised the office crew and drivers for their dedication.
“We have a wonderful program here,” she said. “We’re very proud of what we do.”
The council welcomes more volunteers. Owen Toale, a retired newspaper publisher with 27 years in the military, started volunteering a few years ago. He often drives a van twice a week. He said it is very rewarding to help the vets access needed medical care.
Toale helped rally donors to replace two of the vans. He said the council needs to work on raising money to replace more vans in the near future.
For more information on the program, call (585) 589-2856.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 24 September 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – The former Chase site in Albion closed earlier this month after laying off about 400 people. County officials are optimistic the site will soon be utilized by another company.
New data from the state Department of Labor shows Orleans County has one of the highest unemployment rates in upstate, and the report is based on August numbers, before JPMorgan Chase shut down its Albion call center that employed about 400 people.
Orleans County’s 8.4 percent unemployment rate is only topped in upstate by St. Lawrence County, 9.1 percent; Oswego, 8.8; and Montgomery, 8.5. New York City has an 8.7 percent unemployment rate with Bronx County, at 12.0 percent, the highest in the state.
The job picture in Orleans is worse than similar-size nearby rural counties. Genesee has a 5.8 percent unemployment rate, while Wyoming is at 6.6 and Livingston, 6.7.
Orleans is in much better shape than a year ago when it had an 11.0 percent unemployment rate in August 2012. It’s also slightly better than July 2013 when the rate was 8.5 percent.
Orleans County officials are optimistic the Chase site will soon be reused. I noticed several contractors are working at the site this week. The county’s economic development officials said they can not offer any specifics about the site’s future due to confidentiality agreements.
The site is in good shape and accommodated 1,000 workers only a few years ago. There is also readily accessible parking for several hundreds cars.
State-wide the latest unemployment report shows the private sector job count increased by 126,800 from August 2012 to August 2013. The state’s unemployment rate was 7.6 percent in August 2013 and the economy added 22,700 private sector jobs, bringing the job count to a record high, according to the Department of Labor.
