Collins holds Congressional field hearing in Albion

Photos by Tom Rivers – Mark Meyerhofer, director of government relations for Time Warner in Northeast-Western New York, speaks this morning during a Congressional field hearing through the House Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology. Congressman Chris Collins is at right, chairing the hearing.

ALBION – Extending broadband Internet access to 100 percent of the country, including sparse rural pockets currently without the service, needs to be a top priority for the country, said Congressman Chris Collins.

He chaired a Congressional field hearing in Albion today, when industry officials spoke about the challenges in providing coverage in some of the rural areas, and the need to reach “the last mile” so businesses and residents aren’t at a competitive disadvantage.

Collins, R-Clarence, said 97 percent of the 27^th Congressional District has broandband access, but that still leaves about 24,000 without high-speed Internet.

In the U.S., about 98.5 percent have access, but that leaves 4.5 million without the service in the country, Collins said.

“It’s a national priority to get 100 percent coverage,” he said.

Collins held the hearing in Albion, where Orleans County leaders are working with the rural townships to try to quantify who doesn’t have the service and to figure out how to get high-speed Internet along roads that only have a few residents.

A survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2013 found that 69 percent of NY farms have high-speed Internet. That leaves 31 percent or 11,000 farm operations without the service, said Kendra Lamb, who spoke at the hearing on behalf of New York Farm Bureau and Lamb Farms in Oakfield.

High-speed Internet is imperative for many farm operations, for record-keeping, access to databases, and use of precision technology in the field, Lamb said.

It’s also important for retaining residents, she said. Many don’t want to live in areas without the service.

“This makes our rural areas less attractive places for people to live, spurring the brain drain and economic decline some of our formerly thriving small towns in rural New York have experienced,” Lamb said. “A large part of ensuring that our rural areas remain viable and contribute to economic development is making sure every citizen has access to Broadband service.”

Orleans Hub will have more later on the hearing.

After months of miserable weather, spring arrives

Photos by Tom Rivers

An ice storm hit on Dec. 22, knocking power out in about half the county. National Grid crews worked hard to have power restored in time for Christmas.

A frequent sight this winter: a plow truck. This photo from Feb. 5 shows a Village of Albion plow truck on on East Park Street. It snowed about 9 inches that day. The county issued a travel advisory and the governor declared a state of emergency for New York due to the big storm.

An ice storm. A blizzard. And many days in the deep cold, with temperatures in the single digits or below. The winter of 2013-14 was the most miserable that I can recall, mainly because we had so many days in the single digits or below. The low temperatures combined with stiff winds made it feel like Antarctica.

The National Weather Service frequently put out warnings and advisories about dangerous wind chills, flood watches and hazardous weather. The Sheriff’s Department issued travel advisories. The governor declared a state of emergency. Local schools closed.

Today, let us celebrate as we bid good bye to winter. We took its best punches and we’re still standing.

Here are a few photos, looking back on the frozen season.

With some of our recent light winters, we’ haven’t had enough snow to go sledding. That wasn’t a problem this year if you could handle the cold temperatures. In this photo on Dec. 15, Melissa Fromm of Albion heads down the hill at Bullard Park in Albion with her niece Mariah Plain on her back and friend Leah Pawlak on the very top.

The snow and ice is dangerous. On Dec. 17, a Brockport man – Daniel L. Hollaert Jr., 23 – was killed after he collided with a full-size school bus owned and operated by the Kendall Central School District. The accident occurred at about 7 a.m. on Ridge Road.

When the temperatures did warm up, the area was often shrouded in fog. The heavy fog seemed to make prominent landmarks nearly disappear. In this photo on Dec. 20, the Glenwood Avenue canal bridge in Medina has almost vanished from the landscape.

The ice storm on Dec. 22 coated branches in ice, and those branches came crashing down, knocking out power. In some cases, entire trees gave out from the weight of the ice. This tree fell at about 2:35 a.m. on Dec. 22 and crashed into the home of Gary Moore and his family on South Main Street in Albion. The tree crashed on the family car and also torn off some siding and damaged the roof of the Moore home.

The winter landscape included a historic high sighting of Snowy Owls. They typically stay in Canada for the winter, but there were many in Orleans County. Vince Flow of Kendall captured this closeup of a Snowy Owl in Kendall on Christmas.

For three days a cat was stranded atop a telephone pole in Waterport. Jeremy Arnold, owner of JG Tree Service, rescued Nora on Dec. 28. “Everybody says it’s just a cat or an animal, but people get attached to their pets,” Arnold said after getting Nora down and handing her to her owner, Venita Nauden.

Brandon Bias and his friend Jacob Rausch, both 15, made a rink on the frozen Erie Canal just east of the Ingersoll Street bridge on Jan. 4. The two, who both play for the Brockport Eagles hockey team, played together for more than two hours on the canal in Albion.

Peggy Barringer of Albion stopped by Point Breeze in Carlton and Lomond Shores in Kendall in early January and captured images of the ice formations by the lake.

Sandy Andrews, a member of the First United Methodist Church in Albion, shovels the steps and sidewalk on Jan. 22, when the temperature peaked at 7 degrees. The church provides a ministry for people taking their driver’s license tests. The drivers and their families are served coffee and provided a warm spot from the cold.

You don’t see this every day: a sun dog. The phenomenon showed up on Jan. 22, appearing like a rainbow. The low-lying sun creates ice halos. Dawn Gardner took this photo in East Shelby on Fletcher Chapel Road at South Woods Road.

There were so many cold days that schools were forced to stay open despite the harsh weather. I took the above photo through the frosted front window of my house on Jan. 23. The Albion school bus stopped to pick up elementary school children.

On Feb. 5 a storm barreled through the county in late morning and all five school districts cancelled after-school activities. Some districts sent students home early. I was out driving that day and it ranks high as the most precarious trip I’ve had in years due to the whiteout conditions. The photo shows Gaines Basin Road looking south from near Ridge Road. Gov. Cuomo has declared a state-wide emergency due the storm.

Some days the winds howled. On Feb. 7, the wind chill was 15 below. This photo was taken on Countyhouse Road near the Ridgeway-Albion town line.

Carl Sargent woke up to another snow storm on Feb. 10. He was out shoveling that morning on Caroline Street in Albion.

The freeze-and-thaw cycle left long icicles hanging from buildings. This picture was taken on Feb. 16 and shows the Center for Workforce Development building on Route 31 in Albion, right next to the GCC campus.

It may have only been in the teens on March 2, but it was still a glorious sunset in Orleans County. This photo was taken on Gaines Basin Road in Albion, looking west along the railroad tracks. The temperatures were forecast to fall to 4 degrees that night.

On March 12 a blizzard hit, dropping about a foot of snow on the county. This photo shows traffic creeping along Main Street in Albion by the Presbyterian Church and the county courthouse.

It looked like a white planet when firefighters, including Dan Strong of Carlton, responded to a chimney fire on Ridge Road in Gaines during the blizzard.

Press release, Congressman Chris Collins

Congressman Chris Collins (R-Clarence) will chair a House Small Business Subcommittee Field Hearing in Orleans County this Thursday. The hearing will examine how the lack of access to broadband Internet service in rural communities impacts the operations of local small businesses and farms.

The lack of access to broadband is a significant issue in several areas of Collins’ Congressional District, including northern Niagara, Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming counties.

“There are many rural parts of our nation, including several communities in my Congressional District, that do not have access to broadband Internet,” Collins said. “This lack of access is a significant roadblock for small business owners and farmers working hard every day to serve their community and grow their businesses.”

The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in the legislative chambers of the County Clerks’ Building at 3 South Main St.

The hearing will include testimony from Kendra Lamb, an owner of Lamb Farms in Oakfield, a representative from Time Warner, a representative from Frontier Communications, and a representative from NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association.

There will also be a stakeholders’ roundtable following the hearing with county officials from Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming and Niagara counties. David Callard and Lynne Johnson, county legislators from Orleans County, are scheduled to be at the roundtable.

“I look forward to talking with key stakeholders about the regulatory factors that lead to the expansion of broadband into rural areas and hear from those affected about how improved access could change their business for the better,” Collins said.

ALBION – The Orleans County Legislature today joined a growing number of county governments around the state that are formally opposing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to expand college programs for inmates.

The governor said the programs will reduce recidivism rates and at $5,000 per inmate are far cheaper than $60,000 taxpayer burden to keep an inmate in prison each year.

The governor announced the plan to boost college programs for inmates last month. Local state legislators – Sen. George Maziarz and Assemblyman Steve Hawley – have denounced the idea. Congressman Chris Collins is pushing legislation that would prohibit the use of federal taxpayer dollars to provide a college education to convicted criminals.

The Orleans Legislature said any state dollars that go to college programs for inmates should instead go to school districts.

“The purpose of prison is to punish those who have engaged in behavior that is morally and legally wrong, dangerous, threatening, or severely antisocial, including murder, rape, theft and distribution of narcotics, among other serious crimes,” according to the resolution approved the County Legislature today.

The Erie County Legislature on Thursday also formally rejected the governor’s proposal. Several other county government bodies have gone on the record against the proposal, which Collins has lampooned as “college for criminals.”

Courtesy of Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority – This is a rendering of the proposed new bus facility on West Academy Street, next to the Orleans County Highway Department. Construction is expected in 2015.

ALBION – Orleans Transit Service is planning big things in 2013, including a new bus shelter by Rite Aid in Albion, one by the County Administration Building on Route 31 and another in Medina.

The agency, part of the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority, also is working towards a new bus facility that would house the OTS operations, including space for 10 busses and a two-bay maintenance wing. That facility would cost about $2 million.

RGRTA has secured federal transportation money for the design phases of the project and is applying for the construction money, Bill Carpenter, RGRTA chief executive officer, told county legislators on March 13.

The new bus garage would be built next to the Orleans County Highway Department’s garage on West Academy Street, where OTS currently rents space. Moving OTS out of the highway facility will free up room for county personnel and equipment. The buildings and grounds department about three years ago merged with the highway crew.

OTS, meanwhile, is working to boost ridership 6 percent from the 35,500 during its 2012-13 fiscal year, said Mike Patterson, OTS manager.

The agency has nine employees and operates on a $570,684 budget. Fares and contracts cover $86,825 of the budget. A local mortgage tax generates $118,894 for OTS, while government aid makes up the difference.

County Legislator George Bower said he doesn’t think the mortgage tax should be used to support OTS. But Carpenter said the state has allowed that tax to help support public transportation. He said RGRTA has secured $371,997 in other funding – three times the mortgage tax – to provide the service.

OTS runs a fixed route schedule in Albion and Medina. It goes off those routes with a Dial-A-Ride service, as long as reservations are made 24 hours in advance. Patterson said OTS is looking at changing the fixed route in Albion to run by the new health care center on Butts Road. Several riders each day go to the center owned by Orleans Community Health.

Revenue falls 7% in first two months

ALBION – Orleans County’s sales tax revenues are down 6.9 percent for the first two months of the year, resulting in $141,356 in less tax revenue compared to January and February numbers in 2013.

The county uses the sales tax to help fund local services and to reduce pressure on property taxes.

While Orleans is down, state-wide the numbers are up slightly from $3.958 billion to $3.981 billion for the two months, according to the state Department of Taxation and Finance.

Orleans County took in $14.82 million in sales tax in 2013. The county was one of 14 in the state that saw a decrease in sales tax revenue in 2013. In Orleans, the sales tax dipped by 0.56 percent or $82,873, falling from $14,902,778 in 2012 to $14,819,904 last year.

County officials this year budgeted for a tiny increase, $25,000. But so far the county is off that pace, receiving $2,051,872 in January and February, compared to $2,193,228 during those months in 2013.

A travel advisory from the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department, saying there should be no unnecessary travel, remains in effect as of about 6:30 this morning.

The advisory is expected to be lifted soon.

The National Weather Service warns about bitter wind chills this morning with temperatures in the single digits. Today is forecast for a high temperature of 18 degrees. The Weather Service says it will reach 46 degrees on Friday.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Some of the Self Advocate All Stars at the Arc of Orleans County met on Tuesday at the Hoag Library for their monthly meeting. The front three include, from left: Amber Smith, Vice President Leslie Swanson, and President Robert Greer.

ALBION – Four years ago the Self Advocate All Stars were successful in swaying the Orleans County Legislature to officially oppose the “R-word.”

Legislators in May 2010 took a stand, telling local, state and federal governments to no longer use the word “retarded” in describing people with developmental disabilities. The R-word is a “vicious slang” that is insulting and hurtful to people with developmental disabilities and their families, legislators said in their resolution four years ago.

The issue was pushed then by the Self Advocate All Stars, who say they continue to be bullied by some in the community who use the R-word in name-calling.

“We don’t like being called the R-word,” said Gladys Hopper of Albion, one of the All Stars. “There is a community-wide problem with bullying,”

The All Stars are raising their profile this year with plans to be part of the parades at the Albion Strawberry Festival and Holley’s June Fest.

The group will have several fund-raisers, including car washes. They also want to reach out to others in the community with disabilities, welcoming them to become an All Star.

“We want more members,” said Jonathan Doherty, the group’s fund-raising chairman. He was one of the founding members in 2006.

The group has a pressing goal: restore funding for a recreation program in the Arc. That funding, for a few thousand dollars, was cut.

The program helped pay for outings for disabled residents to go to the bowling alley and the mall, and also to attend concerts and sporting events.

“It means a lot for me to get out and meet other people in the community,” Hopper said Tuesday during the All Stars’ monthly meeting at the Hoag Library.

All Stars include residents who live at home with their families, in apartments with supportive services or in Arc residential homes.

“We want to show the community we’re just like everybody else,” said Vickie Randall, the group’s advisor.

The Orleans County Sheriff’s Department has lifted the travel advisory as of 9 a.m. this morning.

Though the snowfall has ended, bitter cold temperatures and winds persist as Orleans county residents return to work and school. The National Weather Service is forecasting today’s high will be near 18, with wind chill values as low as -5 degrees.

Julie Miller of Barre took this photo at 10 a.m. of a farm on Eagle Harbor Road. The sky was dark and the onslaught of snow had just begun.

Nola Goodrich-Kresse took this picture at Shadigee, the beginning of Route 63 North in Lyndonville. It was windy before the snow started falling.

Jason Jones took this picture of the Walsh Hotel in Medina while blizzard-like conditions descended on the area.

Dave Ingerson took this picture of the intersection of South Main and Route 31A in Medina. The roads were so bad the county issued a travel advisory and Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for Orleans and several other counties.