ALBION Orleans County expects to start construction on three new radio towers next month. The towers are part of $7.1 million upgrade to the county’s emergency communications system.

The county held a public hearing on the three towers on Wednesday. No one spoke in opposition to the 180-foot-high towers that will go in Shelby, Albion and Clarendon.

One will be on land owned by the town of Clarendon near its highway garage off Route 31A, the other will be next to the county’s Civil Defense Center on Courthouse Road in Albion and the other will be next to the Medina water tank on Route 31A. Medina and Clarendon both agreed to lease the land to the county at no cost.

Orleans County approved a $5 million deal last year with the Harris Corporation to rebuild the county’s emergency communications systems. Harris is reprogramming 1,100 portable radios and upgrading the dispatch center.

The county’s radio system was last overhauled in 1992. Orleans currently has one transmission tower on Countyhouse Road. That’s about 10 miles from the eastern and western ends of the county. Firefighters, police officers, and other first responders for years have complained that the county’s current radio system is often unreliable, particularly on the edges of the county.

The new towers should be up in the spring and the new system could be operational in April, county officials said.

The county was awarded a $2 million state grant towards the project from the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. Orleans has taken out a $4.5 million bond to help finance the costs of the upgraded system.

ALBION – For six months members of the Orleans County Conservative Party have circulated petitions, asking residents to support a repeal of the county sales tax on fuel oil – gas, propane, home heating oil and wood.

On Wednesday, The party’s vice chairman, Paul Lauricella of Lyndonville, handed 97 pages of petitions signed by 1,100 people to County Legislature Chairman David Callard.

The county collects a 4 percent tax on fuel oil and it generates about $3.3 million in revenue for the county, money that helps offset the need for more property taxes, Callard said. The tax on gas raises about $1.8 million while the home heating oil tax generates $1.5 million, according to County Treasurer Susan Heard.

“It’s not an easy problem,” Callard told Lauricella and Al Lofthouse, the Conservative Party chairman. “You’re dealing with very big numbers.”

Lofthouse said the county could find other savings to make it possible to reduce the sales taxes on fuel. The Legislature should try to eliminate the tax out of respect to the “hard-working people” of the county who must buy fuel to travel to jobs and heat their homes, Lofthouse said. The Legislature could try eliminating the tax on home heating oil first, he suggested.

But to do so for home heating oil, taking $1.5 million away in revenue, would force the county to raise taxes by about $1 per $1,000 of assessed property, costing someone with a house assessed at $80,000 an additional $80 a year in property taxes.

The taxes on fuel account for $3.3 million of the county’s $14.9 million total in sales tax.

“I don’t think anybody disagrees with you,” Callard told Lofthouse. “But it’s very difficult to overcome those numbers in savings. We’re sympathetic and we hope someday to do what you’re saying.”

ALBION – The four public libraries in Orleans County are seeking a $1 contribution in the county budget for each resident in the county. That would total $42,883.

Currently, libraries are in the 2013 budget for $10,087. County officials are working on the 2014 spending plan, which should be presented next month.

Libraries could use more money to keep up with the costs of providing computer access, programs, books, magazines and other information for residents, said Susan Rudnicky, director of the Hoag Library in Albion.

She addressed the County Legislature on Wednesday. The county was giving $29,914 to be shared among the four libraries as recently as 2002, but that dropped to $7,480 in 2003. Since then, the amount was raised to $12,587 in 2007, $13,617 in 2010, and then was cut to $10,087 in 2011. It hasn’t changed since then.

Rudnicky said about 40 percent of county households do not have Internet access. Many of the residents in those homes rely on library computers to check email, fill out job applications and for research.

Libraries have experienced a growth in circulation and visits from the public in recent years, following renovations and technology upgrades, Rudnicky said. Medina’s library is currently closed while undergoing a major remodeling. It is expected to reopen on Nov. 1, Catherine Cooper, library director, told legislators.

“I stand behind these people. I urge everyone to support them on Election Day.”
– “Tinker” Young, president of Orleans County SCOPE

ALBION – The president of a pro-gun group, the Orleans County chapter of SCOPE, stood up at today’s County Legislature meeting and urged the public to support the incumbent legislators.

Emerson “Tinker” Young said the current Legislature distinguished itself around the state by renouncing the state’s SAFE Act, which was passed by the State Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January. The Orleans Legislature formally opposed the act and then later called for state legislators and the governor to rescind it.

The 10 towns and four villages in Orleans then followed the county’s lead, making Orleans the only county in the state where every town, village and county elected board opposed the SAFE Act.

“They were already in action standing up for that flag and our Constitution,” Young said. “I stand behind these people. I urge everyone to support them on Election Day.”

Young spoke after Paul Fulcomer, president of the Joint Veterans Council, voiced his displeasure with fund-raising literature by a pro-nursing home group. The door knocker included an image of the American flag. The hole for the door knocker went through the flag.

Fulcomer said proper flag etiquette stipulates the flag shouldn’t be used for advertising.

“You can do any advertising you want but don’t use my flag for it,” said Fulcomer, a Vietnam War veteran.

Young, who’s also a Vietnam vet, said he was “rightly disgusted” by the ad that used the flag.

Dee Smith, a member of the Concerned Citizens of Orleans County, thanked the two speakers for their service as veterans.

“I’m all for the Constitution and doing the right things,” she said.

Smith has been a frequent observer at Legislature meetings since February, when the group voted to form a local development corporation that was charged with selling the 120-bed county nursing home. Smith and the Concerned Citizens don’t want the nursing home to be privatized.

“I’m for keeping the nursing home,” she told the Legislature. “I will continue to push for keeping it and I will buck you about it until the day I die.”

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.”

MEDINA – The plan for a new Dunkin’ Donuts in Medina will go before the Orleans County Planning Board on Thursday.

The board will review the site plan at 7 p.m. in the County Administration Building, and planners will make a recommendation whether Shelby town officials should approve a special use permit and variance for the project at 11378 Maple Ridge Rd.

The review by the county is needed before the Shelby Town Planning Board and also the Zoning Board of Appeals can give a final vote on the project.

JFJ Holdings of North Andover, Mass., is the developer for the project. The company is also working to build a Dunkin’ Donuts in Albion, right next to the Tim Hortons on Main Street.

County planners will look at two other projects on Thursday: an amendment to the Ridgeway zoning map to reclassify 11 Parcels on Ridge Road near Oregon Road from the Rural Residential District to Hamlet District, and an area variance, site plan review and special use permit for kennel in Kendall at 15705 Carr Rd.

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.

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.

Here are our top five articles for the month:

DA-says-he-wont-prosecute-SAFE-Act-against-John-Q-Public.html

Fire-at-Orleans-Pallet-Co-in-Albion.html

Fire-engulfs-big-Albion-warehouse.html

Mustangs-rally-behind-teammates-family-in-need.html

Dunkin-Donuts-will-also-build-in-Medina.html

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.

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.

Rothmund in his July mug shot

Press release
Orleans County Sheriff Scott Hess

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.

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.

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.

Photos by Tom Rivers

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.

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.”