ALBION – Municipal leaders in Orleans County have been working for three years to persuade Time Warner to run cable for high-speed Internet in rural pockets without the service.

Time Warner has balked at running the cable in some rural areas, saying the potential for few customers at a $10,000-a-mile cost doesn’t make business sense.

But town and county officials think they have found a way around the problem: Go wireless.

Towers carrying antennas and wireless infrastructure may be the best chance to cover the entire county, Shelby Town Councilman Ken Schaal said.

He called the push for county-wide broadband access a top priority – for economic development and to keep and attract residents.

“We need to stop thinking of ourselves as a bedroom community,” Schaal told local government officials March 26 during the Orleans County Supervisors and Legislators Association meeting. “The Internet is the highway of the future. If we can’t get into that jet stream, we’re screwed.”

Orleans has been working on extending high-speed Internet the past three years, but has been stymied by Time Warner’s reluctance to run cable in the lightly populated areas.

Orleans has since partnered with Niagara County officials in looking at the problem. David Godfrey, a Niagara County legislator, said the current setup puts residents without high-speed Internet at a disadvantage. Students can’t complete some of their homework and research without broadband, he said.

“It’s creating discrimination for students, businesses and residents in the rural areas,” he said about those without the service.

Legislator Lynne Johnson, R-Lyndonville, said residents without broadband often can’t complete job applications online. Many companies only accept applications and resumes through their web sites.

“If you live in a rural area in Orleans County (and are applying for jobs), you might as well stay unemployed,” Johnson said during the association’s monthly meeting.

The two counties had been thinking a first step would be a house-by-house survey to see where the service isn’t available. But Schaal and other local leaders now think the push should be focused on how many towers would be needed in Orleans to blanket the county with wireless high-speed Internet. Wireless providers could co-locate on existing cellular phone towers, water tanks, and other tall infrastructure. New towers may also be needed.

David Callard, the County Legislature chairman, said he supports the engineering study that would look at existing topography and vertical infrastructure, and what may be need to be built. Town and county officials think it may cost $50,000 to have a study done.

Once the study is complete, the county could pursue state funding to help pay for new infrastructure. The state has funded broadband projects in other rural communities. Orleans hasn’t been included in that money because it doesn’t have a study, showing what infrastructure is needed to make the service available to all residents.

The county has been working with Evhen Tupis, a rural broadband consultant, on the project. Tupis said the county should still consider a house-by-house survey, checking for the service availability. Ultimately, wireless service providers will want to know the potential market in the county before they commit resources to Orleans, said Tupis, a Clarendon resident.

“If businesses see an opportunity, they could be enticed to come here,” he said.

ALBION – A team trained in assessing hazardous materials has been dissolved due to dwindling members and an infrequent need for their services.

The Orleans County “Special Response Team” formed about a decade ago when the community and country worried about anthrax attacks. Since the Legislature authorized formation of the team in November 2011, the SRT only responded to about five calls in the county, with one a bottle of water in the road that officials feared may have been a hazardous substance.

The team did see more serious incidents, such as a meth lab in Shelby, a chlorine leak in Holley and an acid spill in Medina.

“We don’t have too many hazardous calls in the county,” said Paul Wagner, the county’s emergency management coordinator.

Orleans will now be served by special response teams from neighboring counties. The two trailers, haz-mat suits and other equipment used by the Orleans team will be returned to the state or assigned to a regional consortium to be used by the teams in surrounding counties, Wagner said.

The SRT in Orleans was down to four trained members when the County Legislature voted to dissolve the group on March 13. Wagner said team members needed to keep up with training every year. Many former team members worked outside the county, which made it difficult for them to respond quickly to incidents in Orleans.

The initial push for the team, to respond to potential anthrax calls, is less a concern now after the state and federal government developed a protocol for assessing calls. Wagner said the country about a decade ago was worried about any kind of white powder that may have been anthrax. Many response teams were called to investigate powder in shipping cartons and pizza boxes that proved harmless.

“We’ve developed a much better basis to determine if these things are legitimate,” he said.

All firefighters have some basic training in hazardous materials, Wagner said. A typical firefighter is trained to recognize a hazardous material, secure the site and call for assistance.

Photo by Tom Rivers – This sign will be used by Concerned Citizens of Orleans County to stress that residents’ annual garbage collection fees are about three times what they spend in taxes to support The Villages of Orleans, a county-owned nursing home.

ALBION – A group of Orleans County residents opposed to sale of the county nursing home are going to press their case to the public, the county Legislature, and may even use the court system to stop a possible sale.

Concerned Citizens of Orleans County met for the first time on March 12, following the Legislature’s Feb. 27 decision to form a non-profit local development corporation tasked with finding a buyer for the 120-bed site in Albion.

“We will have a presence at Legislature meetings, and we’ll be working to organize our friends and neighbors,” said Gary Kent, a member of the group and a former county legislator.

He was joined by about 30 other residents in the meeting March 12 at the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church. The group already has prepared signs noting that garbage collection in the county – at $185 a year – is about three times what the average taxpayer will pay in 2013 to support The Villages of Orleans.

Chris Loss intends to be a vocal opponent to the nursing home sale. Her late mother, Jean Bistoff, received better care at The Villages than she did at a privately owned nursing home.

“There were major differences in the care,” Loss said.

The county has budgeted for an $825,000 deficit for the nursing home in 2013, and that includes using $1.6 million in reserve funds. Legislature Chairman David Callard worries the taxpayer subsidy for the nursing home will jump once the reserve funds are depleted. Taxpayers could be paying to $2 million to $4 million annually towards the nursing home in the near future, he said.

Concerned Citizens say taxpayers owe it to the senior citizens to maintain The Villages as a publicly owned facility. And Loss is skeptical about the grim fiscal prediction from the county. Reimbursement rates and other state and federal support could be increased, softening the local share for the nursing home, she said.

“They’ve floated these numbers before,” she said about the prediction for big deficits. “They don’t know what the shortfall will be. I’m willing to have my taxes go up. We owe it to our seniors.”

Photo by Tom Rivers – Peter Troy, author of “May the Road Rise Up to Meet You,” discusses his book at Hoag Library in Albion on March 8, part of a three-day visit in the area. About 100 people attended the author talk in Albion. Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties have organized “A Tale for Three Counties” the past 11 years, the second-longest running program of its kind in the state.

ALBION – The meeting room was packed with nearly 100 people to hear author Peter Troy discuss his novel, “May the Road Rise Up to Meet You.” The big crowd for the March 8 event at Hoag Library shows just how popular “A Tale for Three Counties” has become.

The community reading project is a partnership among 19 public libraries in Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties, as well as Genesee Community College and other sponsors. The program just wrapped up its 11th year, the second-longest community reading project in the state and 10th longest in the country, said Susan Rudnicky, library director at Hoag.

Other communities will pick a book to read, but the author typically doesn’t join for a discussion. With the “Tale,” Troy and past authors meet with readers in Batavia, Perry and Albion or Medina. (The Tale discussion in Orleans County used to be at Lee-Whedon Memorial Library in Medina, but Albion’s new public library now can accommodate a big crowd. The two libraries expect to take turn hosting the event in the future.)

“It has a really loyal following at this point,” said Catherine Cooper, Lee-Whedon library director. “Meeting the author adds a dimension and enriches the experience.”

The program has expanded from its infancy to a partnership with GCC, where 21 classes read the book. Troy praised the three counties for putting on such a vibrant program.

“You can’t beat this,” he told the crowd at Albion.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Peter Troy, author of “May the Road Rise Up to Meet You,” signs a copy of the book for 10-year-old Megan Smith during an author visit March 8 at Hoag Library in Albion. Megan is the daughter of Jason Smith, superintendent of the Lyndonville school district.

The Tale committee tries to pick up-and-coming authors. Troy’s debut novel is set in the Civil War and tells the story of an Irish immigrant named Ethan, a photographer and soldier. Other characters include a refined Spanish woman and two slaves.

Tom Zangerle of Medina has read all 11 Tale books since the 2003 debut of “Peace like a River.”

“I absolutely look forward to it every year,” he said. “Everybody has time on those dull gray days of winter to sit down and read a book.”