Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – On the way home tonight I couldn’t help but feel a little spellbound by the moon aglow. I didn’t have a big zoom lens on me so I couldn’t get a super-duper photo.

I think the one of the moon between the front columns of the Orleans County Courthouse was the best I could muster.

The picture of the courthouse, built in 1858, next to the early 1970s jail shows perhaps our finest building next to one of the least attractive municipal structures in these parts. The county has made several energy efficient improvements to the jail this summer. I’ll try to a have a story on that project sometime soon.

Provided photo – The winning team at the Hospice golf tournament shot a 59 during a scramble tournament on July 31 at Hickory Ridge Golf and Country Club in Holley. Pictured, from left, include Steve Hicks, Dan Monacelli, Scott Marsh and Mark Keeler.

Press release, Hospice of Orleans

HOLLEY – Nearly 200 area businesses, more than 100 golfers, and about three dozen volunteers all pitched in to create a successful 17^th Annual Golf Scramble to benefit Hospice of Orleans. The agency netted $15,700, besting last year’s proceeds by more than $2,000.

Hickory Ridge Golf and Country Club hosted the event. Local journalist Tom Rivers (editor of the new OrleansHub.com website and husband of the new Hospice development director Marsha Rivers) served as emcee of the dinner, where the following participants collected prizes for their play: Closest to the Pin: Dale Smith (men), Katie Joslyn (women); Longest Drive: Matt Milliman, Katie Joslyn; Putting Contest: Steve Sommers; Best Mixed Team (score 66): Mark Murphy, Marcia Smith, Dale and Mark Kryzeinski; Best Women’s Team (75): Linda Chrzan, Mindy Warne, Barbara Passarell and Laurie Freeman; Best Men’s Team (59): Scott Marsh, Steve Hicks, Mark Keeler and Dan Monacelli.

“This being my first tournament with Hospice, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Marsha Rivers said. “I was blown away by the sheer volume of contributions from the community cash, goods, services… Our Golf Committee is so dedicated to Hospice and determined to raise the support our patients and families need. It paid off, big-time.”

The president will be in Western New York next week as part of a two-day trip across upstate and Pennsylvania.

He will use venues to tout his agenda for the middle class. I think Orleans County provides an ideal backdrop for the president to make his case for many issues that are part of his agenda, including the immigration reform, a new Farm Bill, a healthy Great Lakes ecosystem and a strong Main Street.

While the president’s staff works to finalize the details of his trip, I would encourage the local officials in Orleans to invite the president to our county. Chris Collins, our Congressional representative, also should advocate the president come to our county.

Obama could begin the day on a charter boat, and try to reel in a 30-pound Chinook salmon. The president could experience one of the Great Lakes in person, learning about the Lake Ontario as an economic driver for the lakeshore counties and also as a vital source of fresh drinking water.

After the fishing trip, he could stop by one of our apple orchards. I would encourage him to try picking apples to get a feel for the hard work needed to harvest the crop. He could meet some of the workers from Mexico and Jamaica who are vital to labor intensive agriculture.

I would encourage the president to then hop on a canal boat in Albion and ride to Medina. He could see small upstate communities along the historic waterway, villages that are trying to reinvent themselves while preserving their past glory. When he gets off the boat in Medina, the president may feel like he is in Disneyland. There aren’t a lot of historic downtowns like Medina, with well-kept buildings that are mostly full of merchants or professionals.

Obama could hear from the small town business owners about the impacts of his health care initiatives. I think he’ll get honest, from the heart answers.

I think a stop in Orleans would be a real eye-opener. Let’s roll out the welcome mat.

ALBION – Sales tax revenue for the first half of 2013 grew 5.7 percent state-wide, but the number is down in Orleans County, according to State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

Sales tax gives a sense of the strength of the economy within a community, and the tax also is used to help pay for government services.

In Orleans, sales tax collections totaled $7,354,995 for the first six months of 2013, compared to $7,446,284 for the first half of 2012, a decrease of 1.2 percent, the comptroller reported.

New York is seeing strong growth in New York City, which grew by 7.5 percent. Long Island’s revenue is up 8.5 percent. The comptroller attributed some of the increases to cleanup and rebuilding efforts following Superstorm Sandy.

Upstate sales tax growth, meanwhile, was considerably slower. The Mid-Hudson Valley (4.4 percent) and Western New York (3 percent) outpaced the growth in Central New York (2.3 percent), the Capital District (1.2 percent) and the North Country (1.1 percent).

New York’s Southern Tier saw its sales tax revenue drop 3.3 percent. The counties of Chemung (-6.4 percent), Tioga (-5.4 percent) and Broome (-5.1 percent) saw the most significant declines.

“The growth in sales tax revenue is a promising sign for many communities,” DiNapoli said in a news release. “Unfortunately, the economic improvement has been uneven and the trends are headed in the wrong direction for some of our most vulnerable municipalities. Sales tax collections are a vital source of revenue for local governments. Without positive growth during the second half of the year, many local budgets will be under increased pressure.”

Orleans is coming off a year when sales tax grew 1.3 percent in 2012, increasing about $200,000 to $14.9 million for the full year.

Orleans part of multi-county tourism promotion effort

Press release, Genesee County Chamber of Commerce

BATAVIA – In the world of destination marketing, collaboration is key to growing visitation, stretching marketing budgets and showcasing nearby attractions.

The tourism partnership of Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming is pleased to announce the long-standing “Country Byways of the Greater Niagara Region” now also includes Livingston County.

For more than 15 years the tourism promotion agencies in Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties have partnered to promote the three-county area to leisure and group tour travelers.

The three counties are part of the Greater Niagara vacation region, as designated by New York State Tourism. Being more rural than the Buffalo and Niagara partners, the three counties banded together to form a sub-region to better promote unique and complementary tourism assets.

With the addition of Livingston County, not only does that county’s rich rural asset complement this already successful program, but its “Finger Lakes Vacationland” designation by the state offers Country Byways the advantage of pairing two state tourism areas for a product that the traveling public will find as a great resource.

The new four-county program has just produced a comprehensive Country Byways Attractions Map.Visitors now have an easy-to-use reference tool for all of the things to see and do in the GLOW region. Attractions and activities are organized by theme and each section is mapped out for ease of understanding locations and proximity. (Orleans has a section on the site called “Take me to Lake Country.”

The initial 25,000 copies have been printed and distribution has begun. A reprint of 50,000 will be scheduled for February 2014.

In addition to the attractions map, the four-county area has partnered to produce a summer-long commercial on Time Warner Cable; enhanced the www.CountryByways.comwebsite; will attend consumer and trade shows; are partnering on print and online advertising; and has contracted with a group sales representative that is actively developing our rich assets in a design that is attractive to the motor-coach travel market.

Visit www.CountryByways.comto view the online brochure, or send an email to Visit@CountryByways.comto have the printed brochure mailed to you.

ALBION – The Orleans Transit Service, which provided 35,500 rides to county residents in the agency’s 2012-13 fiscal year, will celebrate the first bus shelter in the county on Wednesday.

Orleans Transit Service started about a decade ago in the county. The agency is part of the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority.

The bus agency will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. on Wednesday outside the County Administration Building at 14016 State Highway 31.

RGRTA CEO Bill Carpenter will join local officials, including County Legislator Henry Smith Jr., who serves as the county’s commissioner on the RGRTA board of directors.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Employees at Modern Disposal Service pick up trash last week in Albion.

ALBION – I didn’t realize how good we had it in Orleans County until I moved away about 15 years ago.

In Orleans, I never had to worry about garbage collection. As a village of Albion resident, on the east side of Main Street, the garbage trucks came every Tuesday. Back then, I think we were paying about $140 a year for garbage pick-up. The county negotiated with a trash company and the fee was added to the county tax bill on an annual basis.

About 15 years ago I moved to the village of Bergen where residents had to pay for garbage per bag. I forget what it was: 50 cents to $1 per bag. Village and town residents had different-colored bags. It was a little cheaper if you used regular trash bags and drove the garbage to a transfer station every Saturday. It was far money and a much bigger hassle than the deal in Orleans County.

After about a year in Bergen, I moved to North Chili for three years, beginning about 14 years ago. There, residents had to fend for themselves for their garbage collection. I remember contacting different trash haulers and the prices ranged from $23 to $30 a month (if memory serves me correct). That’s about two to 2.5 times the cost in Orleans County.

North Chili residents used several different haulers, and it seemed everyday was someone’s garbage day. We had garbage trucks rumbling through the neighborhood on a daily basis, making stops for trash.

I moved back to Albion about 11 years ago, this time with deep gratitude for the low-cost garbage collection.

The cost has risen to $185 a year per family, which is still a great bargain. When it was $140 a year, gas prices were under $2 a gallon.

The county started negotiating the garbage service for residents about 25 years ago. That move has likely saved each resident at least $100 a year. Long-time residents have saved thousands of dollars over the years because the county bids out the service on behalf of residents.

“We have the buying power of 42,000 residents,” said Chuck Nesbitt, the county’s chief administrative officer. “The sole purpose of us doing this is to save people money.”

The county tends to bid this out in five-year contracts with an option for Orleans to rebid the contract annually. Orleans generally renews it each year.

Modern Disposal Service in Niagara County is the current provider and I think they do an excellent job. Nesbitt said the company has made “a significant investment in staff and vehicles” to serve county residents.

Modern Disposal has invested in trucks and employees to serve Orleans County residents.

If Orleans decided to stop working out the garbage deals and left each resident or municipality to line up trash services, Nesbitt said the costs would go up significantly, especially for the rural residents.

“The people in the country would suffer,” Nesbitt said. “They would pay at least twice the current cost. Grouping everyone together has helped drive down the costs. It benefits the entire county.”

For $185 a year, each household can dispose of an average of six garbage bags a week, plus recycling. Modern will also take a refrigerator, couch or another “white good” once a month.

Residents with complaints about a missed pick up usually call the county offices, which then relay the concern to the garbage company. Nesbitt said his office has some added work because the county is involved in the garbage contract.

He and his predecessor, Stan Dudek, have been asked by other counties and municipalities about the Orleans approach to trash collection. Nesbitt and Dudek have shared with other counties how a county-wide system can save residents a lot of money. But few counties have ever followed the example.

“They don’t want the phone calls,” Nesbitt said. “They don’t think they should be involved in the garbage business.”

This grateful resident wants to thank the county officials for the extra effort in managing this program.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – If you’ve driven past the Orleans County Courthouse, you may have noticed a stone marker with a plaque at the corner of East State and Main streets, on the northwest corner of the Courthouse lawn.

I’ve never seen anyone stop to look at the marker. I checked it out and the marker, affixed to a slab of sandstone, commemorates the planting of a new tree in celebration of the country’s 200^th birthday. The tree was actually planted in the fall of 1975, a few months beofre the bicentennial.

The former Orleans County Board of Supervisors picked a tree as a lasting celebration of the country’s 200th anniversary.

Several of our towns have recently marked their 200^th birthdays, with Ridgeway the most recent. That town officially was established in 1812.

Other towns and villages have milestone birthdays on the horizon. I would encourage them to follow the county’s example and plant a tree to mark the occasion.

Photos by Tom Rivers – Dee Adams and Dave Kimball perform last night in Boiler 54 in the back of the former R.H. Newell Shirt Factory.

Last summer Andrew Meier opened the Boiler 54, an open-air music and performance venue in the back of the R.H. Newell Shirt Factory building on West Center Street.

Musicians have come from Ithaca, Buffalo, Rochester and Orleans and Niagara counties to play at the Boiler.

Last night, Dee Adams and Dave Kimball of Buffalo performed for more than two hours in Medina. Adams declared the venue “very special.”

Music lovers can choose from the Shirt Factory Café menu and can also order alcohol.

“You used to have to go to Buffalo or Rochester to hear this caliber of music,” said Judy Clonan-Smith, who is helping to book the bands. “This is such a beautiful setting.”

She encouraged the community to attend the concerts and support live music.

Amy Sidari last month opened the Cabaret at Studio B at Gotta Dance by Miss Amy. She is using one of the studios for an entertainment venue. Albion graduate Jackie Madejski performed Broadway and Pops songs last night. Madejski just finished her first year as a theater major at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Photos by Michael Karcz – Albion resident and college theater major Jackie Madejski performs last night at the Cabarat at Studio B.

Jackie two years ago gave an unforgettable performance as the lead in Peter Pan at Albion.

Sidari wants to showcase local talent and also draw performers from Rochester and Buffalo. She is hoping the cabaret can also boost traffic for other downtown businesses.

Madejski was accompanied on piano by Gary Simboli.

ALBION – Orleans County officials will head to court on Tuesday for the initial court appearance in a new lawsuit filed by the CSEA employees union, which seeks to stop the county’s push to sell The Villages of Orleans, a county-owned nursing home on Route 31.

A previous lawsuit filed by citizens in the county failed to sway Acting State Supreme Court Justice James Punch. And two other lawsuits in other counties filed by the CSEA also failed to convince judges.

Orleans County officials have declined to publicly comment on the latest lawsuit, filed July 10. (Click here to read an earlier article from Orleans Hub on that lawsuit.)

However, I talked with county officials, and they are confident the county’s decision to create a local development corporation, charged with finding a suitable buyer for the nursing home, will be upheld. They point to two cases in other counties.

In Onondaga County, a judge in May rejected the CSEA’s lawsuit trying to block the transfer and eventual sale of Onondaga County’s Van Duyn nursing home. (Click here to see an article from the Syracuse Post Standard about the lawsuit.)

State Supreme Court Judge Donald Greenwood ruled against the union. CSEA argued the county acted illegally when it transferred the nursing home to a county-created development corporation as an interim step toward selling the home.

Onondaga County officials said the nursing home faced multi-million-dollar annual deficits. That’s the argument presented in Orleans County, where county leaders say the nursing home could approach $2 to $4 million annual deficits.

CSEA has filed a notice of appeal in the Onondaga case.

In Saratoga County, a State Supreme Court judge last month dismissed a lawsuit by CSEA trying to prevent the county from selling the publicly owned Maplewood Manor. The union contested the county illegally transferred a county asset to the LDC while the nursing home remained a public use.

Supreme Court Justice Robert Chauvin ruled that CSEA had no grounds to sue over the county’s privatization plan.

“The factual allegations within the petition do not set forth any alleged illegal actions,” Chauvin wrote. “The allegations within the petition fail to establish any basis of standing and fail to present a justiciable controversy or otherwise set forth a basis for relief.

(Click here to see a report from The Ballston Journal.)

The union is considering an appeal in that case.

Bower of Holley is the current vice chairman

HOLLEY – Twice a week George Bower babysits his only great-grandchild.

“I absolutely love it,” Bower said. “It keeps me young.”

Bower, 76, relishes time with his family. He has been a steady presence at Holley school events for years, cheering on his grandchildren who play soccer, basketball and other sports.

He has tried to balance his family life with a career at Kodak and public service. He was a Murray town justice for 21 years before he was elected to the Orleans County Legislature in 1989. At nearly 24 years on the Legislature, he is the longest-serving member of the group, with Chairman David Callard two years behind.

But Bower, the Legislature’s current vice chairman, last week notified his colleagues and Republican Party leaders he won’t run again this election.

“It was really hard for me to get out,” Bower said on Wednesday. “But there comes a time. I’m fortunate I have really good health and I want to spend more time with my family.”

He plans to take more short trips with his wife Sandy, the county’s retired personnel director. Bower also wants to tend to a vegetable and flower garden.

He will continue to be a regular at Sam’s Diner in Holley, where he meets friends for breakfast almost every day.

He said he is proud of improvements to county facilities during his time on the Legislature. He noted the transformation of a former furniture store on Route 31 into the public safety building. The county has also upgraded its animal shelter, put on an addition and renovated the historic courthouse, and made a $10 million renovation and addition to the nursing home.

Bower last month was the lone legislator to oppose forming a local development corporation to be tasked with selling the 120-bed nursing home.

“Selling the nursing home that really bothers me,” he said. “That’s not the direction I think we should go.”

Bower was praised by Ed Morgan, the county GOP chairman, for his independence on the seven-member Legislature.

“Nobody agrees all the time,” Morgan said. “George would certainly speak when he has a concern on an issue.”

The GOP will endorse a candidate for the county-wide legislator position next month. The candidate has to live on the east side of the county in either Clarendon, Murray or Kendall. Morgan said John DeFilipps, a Clarendon town councilman the past decade, is interested in the part-time position.

Photos by Tom Rivers – The former McKenna and Orleans Sanitary landfills were built next to the Erie Canal in Albion, between Densmore and Transit roads.

ALBION – State and local environmental officials should soon have some answers about the contaminants – if there are any – in the Orleans Sanitary Landfill.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation will do a comprehensive test of groundwater at about 25 spots on the 35-acre OSL, which closed about 20 years ago. The DEC also will test water at the manholes were the landfill was being pumped.

A fund that paid to have leachate – garbage juice – pumped, hauled and treated at the Albion sewer plant was depleted in 2009. Since then, the landfill hasn’t been pumped.

Local and state officials want to know if the water at the site is dangerous, just in case the liner fails or the water spreads off site.

The DEC has hired a contractor to sample water for metals, volatile hydrocarbons, turbidity and other characteristics.

“When you test at a landfill there’s not any one thing you’re looking for,” said Dan Schuth, manager of the Soil and Water Conservation District in Orleans County.

The site was built to accept municipal waste so there shouldn’t be dangerous chemicals and pollution at OSL. However, a previous operator was fined for accepting garbage after hours.

“They will do a broad test of the water so we know what’s there in case it leaches out,” Schuth said.

He credited local state legislators for pressing the issue with the DEC to do the testing. A local citizens’ group, Stop Polluting Orleans County, also has been lobbying for the testing and for maintenance at the site.

A closed gate near Transit Road blocks access to the McKenna Landfill, which is a Superfund site. Neither McKenna or the Orleans Sanitary Landfill are currently being pumped of leachate.

Not only is OSL no longer being pumped, but the neighboring McKenna Landfill, an 18-acre site that is on the Superfund, also stopped being pumped about two months ago. The site will continue to have monitoring wells checked, Schuth said.

The state DEC wants to study the water quality at McKenna over a year to see if it’s necessary to continue pumping the leachate from the landfill and having it treated off site.

Albion town officials have been approached by Richard Penfold from Blasdell about a new landfill in the community, a project that was first proposed by Waste Management in the mid-1990s. The DEC approved a permit for Waste Management, but the Town Board later rejected the project, a decision that was upheld in court.

As part of its proposal for a new 78-acre landfill, Waste Management offered to take care of OSL and McKenna. Waste Management was leasing the property from John and Irene Smith, the former OSL owners, but that lease ended in 2011 and the site is back in the hands of the Smith’s bankrupt estate.

Ongoing care for the landfill should fall on the owners, DEC officials have said, but the Smiths declared bankruptcy.

Holley’s proposal for Downtown District also approved

ALBION The Orleans County Planning Board is supporting two projects in the town of Gaines – a farm labor project and art co-op.

The board on Thursday also backed a new Downtown District in the village of Holley and recommended the village revise its zoning text for downtown parking requirements.

In Gaines, Ray Burke is working to convert a single-family house at the corner of routes 98 and 104 into a co-op for high-end crafters and artists. Burke plans to add a driveway to the south of the building that will be accessible to Route 98. He is planning a parking area for 14 vehicles at 14386 Ridge Rd.

Burke is seeking a permit to run the business in the town’s commercial and historic overlay district. The Gaines ZBA will meet 7 p.m. Aug. 5 to vote on the project.

Burke and a group of volunteers have been working on the 3,000-square-foot house, which was built around 1840, for several months. He would like to be open “Fair Haven Treasures” in the fall, but that may be too ambitious, Burke told Gaines officials on July 2.

County planners said the project is “well-suited” for the Commercial/Historical District and has potential to complement the Cobblestone Society Museum complex.

Planners also supported Oded Kalir’s plan to add farmworker housing in Gaines at 13105 Eagle Harbor-Knowlesville Rd. Kalir, a fruit grower from Brockport, wants to convert an existing single-family house into farmworker housing. The house currently isn’t in an agricultural district but Kalir has applied to have it added to County Agricultural District No. 3.

Because the project isn’t in a certified ag district, he needs a permit. The house sits in a neighborhood with productive farmland, barns and other residences, planners noted.

In Holley, the Village Board has proposed a Downtown District that would include the Public Square, Thomas Street for numbered addresses 1 through 12, and the numbered addresses on Geddes Street Extension.

The zoning restrictions in the district will be similar to a Commercial District, except the downtown has more limited signage options and residential uses are not allowed in the first floor. Residential uses in the Downtown District will not be required to provide a minimum number of parking spaces. Residents may be authorized to use a municipal parking lot, according to the proposal.