By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 January 2015 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
RIDGEWAY – Tuesday morning Marcus Miller stood and watched his milking parlor go up in smoke and flames. Miller, 34, milked 45 cows in the parlor.
He had built the milking parlor only two years ago on Fruit Avenue.
“It was discouraging for him to watch the barn burn, a helpless feeling,” Miller’s brother-in-law Mark Miller said this morning at the farm.
Many of Miller’s neighbors, including Orleans County Legislature Chairman David Callard, have been shocked to see the quick turnaround at the site.
The burned up milking parlor building has been cleared from the site and the framework for a new building, the same size at 42 by 70 feet, is already taking shape.
About 20 Amish men in the Yates and Ridgeway community have been at the site soon after the fire was under control on Tuesday morning. A group of Mennonites are expected to help on Thursday, and Marcus Miller said about a dozen men are expected Friday and Saturday from Holmes County, Ohio. Miller lived there before moving to Ridgeway three years ago. He is married with two young children.
“I didn’t know how many friends I had,” Miller said this morning, while a group of local Amish worked on the building. Two men had already arrived from Holmes County. “God bless everyone who has been here to help.”
On Tuesday, firefighters were putting out a blaze and venting smoke from a milking parlor at Marcus Miller’s dairy farm. About 24 hours later, in a photo looking at the same spot, the debris had been removed and a new building was already taking shape.
Miller thanked the many volunteer firefighters who contained the fire to the milking parlor, sparing neighboring structures. The firefighters responded to the scene with temperatures at 14 degrees.
It’s colder today with temperatures at the farm at 9 degrees this morning. The wind chill made it feel much colder.
“Everybody has been great around here,” Miller said. “I appreciate the Fire Department and the neighbors. I’m truly blessed to be living in a community like this.”
Miller said the new building could be enclosed by Saturday. Then he will work to have a new milking system in place. He hopes to be milking cows again at the site in about three weeks. Right now, a neighbor is milking Miller’s cows.
His brother-in-law is among the group that responded to the building project. Mark Miller said word quickly spread through the Amish community that there had been a fire at a building that wasn’t insured.
“There’s no sense waiting around,” Mark Miller said. “It’s our Christian duty to do it. It’s one way to show we care. It’s the least we can do for each other.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 January 2015 at 10:10 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
RIDGEWAY – A fire this morning badly damaged the milking parlor at a dairy farm owned by Marcus Miller on Fruit Avenue. Miller is pictured in the top photo, with back to camera. Firefighters are working to ventilate the parlor.
Miller milks 45 cows at the site. He said none of the cows were hurt in the fire. He said he will milk the cows at a neighbor’s parlor in the immediate future.
Fire investigators haven’t determined a cause for the fire, but they suspect a heat lamp, the only source of heat in the milking parlor, is a likely cause.
Miller moved to Ridgeway in 2012. Cornell Cooperative Extension has featured Miller’s farm as an example for pastured grazing.
Firefighters from the western battalion – Ridgeway, Medina, Shelby and Lyndonville – were on scene this morning, with additional mutual aid from Middleport. The dispatch call went out at 7:46 a.m.
It is a bitterly cold morning with temperatures at 14 degrees.
Miller is a member of the Amish community in western Orleans and eastern Niagara counties.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 3 January 2015 at 4:29 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
GAINES – A driver slid off Route 98 in the Town of Gaines, about a half mile north of Route 104, at about 3 p.m. today, one of several accidents after the roads turned slick due to freezing rain.
Dan Ryan, an employee for Waters Autobody and Paint, arrived with a flat bed truck and pulled the car out of the ditch.
The driver of this car, Donald Rosario Jr., was taken by ambulance to Medina Memorial Hospital for minor injuries. Rosario, 22, of Waterport snapped a fire hydrant off when he slid off the east side of the road. The Gaines Highway Department responded to the scene along with emergency personnel and the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department.
Several other accidents have been reported, including on Ridge Road in the Town of Ridgeway when a car hit a pole and knocked down wires. Crews also are responding to an accident in the Town of Shelby on East Shelby Road, where the vehicle went off the road into trees. The driver reportedly has a head injury.
Updated 5:30 p.m.: Additional accidents have been reported on Marshall Road in Ridgeway with a vehicle overturned in a ditch and on Lyndonville Road in Ridgeway with a car in a ditch.
Updated 7:02 p.m.: Additional accidents have been reported on Ridge Road in Gaines between Sawyer and Lattin roads where a passenger reportedly has a broken collarbone, and on Route 31E (Telegraph Road) in Shelby where a vehicle went off the road.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 18 December 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – There will soon be about 250 signs out in Medina, urging village residents not to support dissolving the village government on Jan. 20. This sign is on East Center Street.
MEDINA – Dissolution opponents are stepping up their efforts to sway village residents not to support a dissolution vote on Jan. 20, saying the village will lose critical services and won’t see promised tax savings.
About 20 people, many of them village employees, met to distribute yard signs and talk strategy on Tuesday night at the Knights of Columbus. The group said they expect to soon have 250 signs out against dissolution.
They will be going door to door, and may put out a mass mailer.
Cindy Troy, president of the CSEA union for Orleans County employees, was at the meeting in Medina. She wants to see the village government stay intact.
“You can lose the things that make you identifiable as a community,” she said. “The Village of Medina could lose control over things they hold dear. They have a density of population. They have needs the people in the country do not.”
She worries if the dissolution goes through, other local villages will follow.
“We as a whole community need to be concerned about this,” she said about the dissolution vote. “Medina won’t be the last to look at it.”
A second anti-dissolution sign also has been put out.
A dissolution plan put together by a committee with help of a consultant suggested many of the village services be taken over the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway. The committee also proposed a new debt district, two lighting districts, a water/sewer local development corporation, and a new fire district. Ridgeway would take over a town police force that would be contracted to include Shelby, according to the committee’s report.
Mike Maak, a Medina firefighter, said there is no guarantee the town officials would put that plan in place. He is among the dissolution opponents.
The dissolution plan sees $277,000 in cost savings and $541,000 in additional state aid for $818,000 in overall benefit. But with combined budgets of more than $10 million, the $277,000 is seen as a small amount in operational savings.
Village Trustees Mike Sidari and Marguerite Sherman both oppose the dissolution. Sidari is running a Facebook page – “Medina, This Village Matters.” Sidari also is helping to get anti-dissolution signs to residents. He said some of the signs have been stolen or damaged.
Sidari and Maak both would like to see the village push for other revenue without disrupting the village government and services. They want to see Medina press for more state aid and county sales tax dollars. Maak said the village should work to become a city, which would significantly boost its state aid and also spare village residents from paying town taxes.
The state hasn’t allowed a new city since the 1950s. Medina Mayor Andrew Meier sees little chance in the state approving Medina as a city, and the county has shown no openness to giving more local sales tax to villages.
Dissolution is one way to secure more state aid, and also run a more efficient local government, said Meier, who is part of the “One Medina” group that would ultimately like to see the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway merge into one town – “Medina.”
“One Medina” has had many signs out for months. The group also has a Facebook page with Dean Bellack and Meier fielding questions from the community, and trying to provide them with answers.
Meier sees dissolution as a way for village residents to shape their destination, without pleading for aid from the county and state, assistance that Meier thinks is unlikely to materialize if the village government remains. The state is providing incentives for dissolution, but gives very little to villages for “Aid and Incentives to Municipalities.” Most villages get less than $10 per person in AIM funding, while the state gives most cities at least $100 per person.
Maak thinks the county and state could be swayed to share revenue with the village.
“We haven’t tried,” he said about that effort. “With dissolution, we’re cutting our nose off to spite our face.”
Owen Toale, a former village trustee, believes the village and towns of Shelby and Ridgeway could reach sizable tax savings by sharing services and consolidating services. He faulted the village for setting a dissolution vote while there was still the prospect of shared services for the trio of municipalities.
“One Medina pushed for the vote while they were still in the middle of the (shared services) process,” Toale said. “That to me is poor.”
He is helping to get out the anti-dissolution signs.
“I’m interested in helping my village,” said Toale, a retired newspaper publisher.
Many village residents have been called in the past two weeks by PAF Opinion Research in Albany. The firm asks a series of questions about dissolution, seeking residents’ opinions.
Meier and “One Medina” say PAF makes many misleading statements. The firm, in a taped phone call to a local resident, says it was hired by “one of the larger unions in the state.” CSEA has denied hiring the firm. Orleans Hub hasn’t been able to verify who hired the firm.
In phone calls to village residents, PAF tells villagers that they will lose their local police. The service might be picked up by the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department, but response times will more than double. PAF attributes that claim to Meier.
The mayor said he never said that. He was on the Dissolution Committee that recommends a town-wide police force.
PAF makes a number of claims about the future of the village in a dissolution goes forward. The firm tells villagers there won’t be any tax savings if the village government dissolves.
“In villages that voted to dissolve themselves, the promised property tax savings never happened,” a survey worker told a village resident in a phone call. “Does hearing this make you lean against dissolving Medina or for dissolving Medina?”
A CSEA representative said the union didn’t put out the phone messages. However, the union said it knows about the phone calls and sees them as a way to gauge public opinion, and not influence village residents with their vote.
Meier has decried the calls as “push polling,” an attempt to intimidate and confuse residents into voting against dissolution.
Contributed Story Posted 26 November 2014 at 12:00 am
Contributed Photo – LONG-TERM LOYALTY – Brad Balschmiter, veteran maintenance superintendent at Shelridge, was honored this year for 30 years of unbroken certification by the Golf Course Superintendents Assoc.of America. He attended a special awards luncheon. Balschmiter uses his “off season” period each year to attend technical courses. Certified superintendents are required to get 150 hours of professional development every five years in their career.
Shelridge Country Club ended its 2014 season this month with an annual meeting that sent Matt Bush into his second term as president. Supporting Matt are John Grabowski as V-P, Steve Barnes as secretary and Marc Eglin as treasurer. Other board members for 2015 are Dave Bellucci, Elaine Casler, Rob Dennis (who has been golf chairman), Doug Beltz and Steve Lasch.
Reports were rendered on a successful 2014 club operation with favorable weather, an average of 225 members coming from Orleans, Niagara, Genesee and Erie Counties, and one major golf course improvement project — an $80,000 program to totally rebuilt, reshape and refit the sand bunkers on the course. It is a 2-year project and first half has been accomplished.
The past season was marked by the resignation of Assistant Pro Dave Rose and efforts are under way by Head Pro Dave Green to secure a replacement. He is working through the Western N.Y. PGA apprentice-ship program.
The club has received notification from the Golf Course Superintendents Assoc. of America that the Shelridge “turf boss”, Brad Balschmiter, has attained a special honor level in his year-by-year program of study and self improvement.
Contributed Photo – IMPROVED BUNKERS – An $80,000 program at Shelridge is aimed at totally rebuilding all of the sand bunkers on the course and half were completed this past season. Drainage, design and all new sand are involved and the local club reports great satisfaction so far. Club President Matt Bush, second from right, is shown as the 2-year project got its start. Shown with Bush are, from left, Shelridge Pro Dave Green, Golf Committee Chairman Rob Dennis and course Superintendent Brad Balschmiter.
Superintendents are required to put in 150 hours of professional development every few years and Balschmiter has now been certified by the association for 30 years. There are 1,500 certified superintendents as members.
“The Shelridge course played well this year,” said Pro Dave Green. “It keeps fooling visiting golfers who often come here thinking of it as an easy golf course; then they get a surprise.” Green said Shelridge now has reciprocal golf privileges with 16 other courses and welcomes a steady flow of visitors.
A final note provided by the board of directors reveals that there will be a complete change in the contract for the dining room and bar. The ownership of the Manhattan Restaurant in Lockport will take over the contract which has been held by Zambistro of Medina. Manager will be Kerry Holzman, familiar to club members as the previous bar manager.
MEDINA – Julie Fenton, center, is again hosting her Between the Vines Home Show. She has organized the event for 17 years, including the past 10 years on Porter Road.
She is pictured with helpers, her son Lawson Fenton and Ally Uberty, in the new cash-out center added this year. There are more than 40 vendors at this year’s show and each one also arranges to work a day at the show.
Julie Fenton’s garage on Porter Road is transformed each year for the Between the Vines Home Show. The event continues today from noon to 4 p.m. Fenton also added Monday to the schedule from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Due to the snowstorm keeping some of her regular out-of-area customers away (some from as far away as Pennsylvania), Fenton said she is staying open the additional day.
Holiday decor items are for sale at Between the Vines.
Abigail Wilkinson, front, is pictured with her mom Jennifer Wilkinson (who is also a vendor) in back from Attica. They are joined by Laura Witkowski and baby Ryan of Batavia and Kimberly Fasano of Elba.
Lots of holiday decor is available at the show.
When these ladies came through the door of the cash-out area, they said, “It’s like coming off a ride at Disney” because there were many more items for sale to look through. “It just goes on and on,” they laughed. Pictured are Stacey Pollack, left, and Kim Miller from Newfane.
You can even purchase reindeer antlers (handmade , of course!).
After December 25, we hope!
Between the Vines is also supporting “Boxes for Troops.” Donations of personal items or cash towards shipping the boxes are being accepted at the home show. All donations are entered into a drawing for a light up wooden reindeer. Names and addresses of soldiers are requested. Please message Julie on her Facebook page (click here).
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 November 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
RIDGEWAY – The Canal Culvert was closed to motorists last night and early this morning while crews used sledgehammers to knock down most of the huge icicles inside the tunnel under the Erie Canal.
Highway workers also spread lots of salt inside the culvert overnight and it did its job, loosening up the ice and making the section of the road passable, Ridgeway Highway Superintendent Mark Goheen said.
The Culvert was reopened at about 9:30 a.m. Goheen said he has contacted the Canal Authority, which owns the Culvert, about removing the ice inside.
The canal closed for the season on Wednesday. It is currently full of water but the waterway will soon be drained. Once most of the water is out, Goheen said “the leaking should be down to a minimum.”
Provided photo – Lee-Whedon Memorial Library has received several grants from the Medina Sandstone Trust to retain a program to microfilm or digitize old Medina newspapers, thus preserving access to hometown history. Catherine Cooper, library directory, is shown here. She said the library web site gets a steady stream of “hits” at this program by people seeking Medina facts and background.
Press Release
Medina Sandstone Society
MEDINA – The Medina Sandstone Society is guiding its endowment, the Sandstone Trust, into its fourth season of taking grant requests in the immediate community that comprises Medina, Ridgeway and Shelby. The society will accept grant applications until Nov. 14.
Michael Zelazny, chairman of the committee on grants, stressed that filing of the grant requests is a simple matter of only five or 10 minutes.
“We’ve had a good history of providing our small-sized grants to Medina area programs and organizations and we’ve been able to distribute over $15,000 to more than 30 organizations,” he continued.
Zelazny’s request for applications is targeting organizations that qualify through tax or regulatory status and which have “a clear profile of programs to benefit the community.”
Checks ranging from $200 to $500 go to help worthy programs. The chairman listed typical projects benefitted since 2011 such as downtown Christmas lighting, Lee-Whedon Memorial Library, Medina Historical Society, Medina Business Association, The Arc of Orleans, YMCA, Orleans Renaissance Group, CAC pre-school, school-parent activities, downtown clock project, Medina Tourism Program, Parade of Lights, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Family Literacy, Millville Cemetery Association and other groups.
Application forms for the grant program are available from the society’s website (click here). Printed copies of the application can be obtained at the Medina Village Offices, 119 Park Ave., NAPA Auto Parts on North Main Street, or at the office of Mr. Zelazny at 511 Main St. Or by a mail request to the Sandstone Society, Box 25, Medina 14108.
RIDGEWAY – For the 61st year in modern history, an Orleans County camp fund brought in a flood of donations this past summer. And as a result of this generosity by Orleans County residents, large numbers of deserving boys and girls got to spend a couple of happy months at Camp Rainbow.
That site on Townline Road, between Medina and Lyndonville, has enjoyed a solid string of improvements since 2000 and is now a busy “day camp.”
Organizers of the Camp Rainbow Fund made their official report in late September and cited the generosity of the Orleans general public for bringing in approximately $5,000 once again. The donations are administered by the volunteer agency called Orleans County Child Welfare Association and go entirely to register scores of selected boys and girls.
“We are delighted to work with the Child Welfare Association in this program to benefit children,” said Pattie Kepner, who is interim executive director of ARC of Orleans which owns and operates the camp. “I know first-hand how the kids benefit, how they make friendships, and the long-term memories they form.”
The annual solicitation of Camp Fund donations covers all of the county and has been an existing charity since the 1950s. It was originally the Journal-Register Camp Fund but became Camp Rainbow Fund several years ago as the local camp gained stature. Each year the Child Welfare Association relies on trained social workers and even people such as school nurses to select deserving campers.
Campers attending Rainbow during July and August arrive by bus at 9 a.m. and divide their time among five programs including arts and crafts, nature science, music, athletics and swimming. And they are given lunch in a cafeteria which was modernized in recent years. Rebekah Feller of Lyndonville was “camp teacher” this past season and was in charge of about 75 campers, some of them with developmental disabilities.
Camp Rainbow added new paint on cabins this season when volunteers held a “United Day of Caring.” Also, Lyndonville Foundation gave $5,000 toward transportation costs. And grant money provided a new swimming pool fence. Also in recent times municipal water has been provided to the camp and numerous up-grades have been made including the pool.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 October 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
RIDGEWAY – A new 9,100-square-foot Dollar General store opened Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the corner of routes 63 and 104.
The store took shape over the summer and early fall at the corner. The store is owned by Development Unlimited of WNY LLC of Buffalo. It demolished a house and silo at the northeast corner of the intersection. The driveway is on Route 63.
The store is about 4 miles from Lyndonville and helps fill a void in the community since the closing of the Pennysaver Market on Main Street in April 2013, Yates Town Supervisor John Belson has said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 October 2014 at 12:00 am
MEDINA – Village officials were scheduled to meet with the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby last week for continued shared service talks.
The meeting set for Oct. 6 was cancelled. Ridgeway Town Supervisor Brian Napoli sent an email to reporters today trying to clear up misunderstanding about why the meeting was cancelled. Napoli said leaders from all three municipalities agreed to cancel the meeting “because Medina asked for additional time to prepare.”
But Medina Mayor Andrew Meier disagreed with Napoli’s assessment. Meier said the village isn’t dragging out the process.
The two towns were supposed to crunch numbers for the costs of taking over plowing and highway work within the village. The towns were to have numbers ready for a Sept. 2 meeting. Shelby Town Supervisor Skip Draper presented a proposal that would save villagers in Shelby $2.46 per $1,000 of assessed property in their tax rate, while other Shelby residents (outside the village) would see a tax increase of 45 cents per $1,000.
“If there is a message here it’s that this is very doable,” Draper said on Sept. 2.
Meier didn’t think those numbers were completely accurate because they didn’t include costs for salt and gasoline.
Napoli didn’t have a proposal at that meeting, but sent one about two weeks later. Meier said both proposals have been lacking in detail. The towns have also asked for more information from the village.
Meier said he is hopeful there can be serious talks among the three municipalities.
“We do have things we can work on, but it seems like we’re stalling out again,” he said.
The three municipalities met regularly in 2012 but those meetings were shelved. The village supported a dissolution study and that plan has the village dissolving with its services passed to the town towns, a local development corporation and an authority.
The two towns have questioned the accuracy of the dissolution data, and doubt if there would be significant savings with dissolution.
The dissolution plan identifies $277,000 in savings spread over three budgets that total about $11 million. That’s less than 3 percent and town officials said they only occur if everything went according to the plan perfectly.
The plan also identifies $541,000 in additional state aid as an incentive for dissolution, bringing the total benefit to the community of $818,000. The town leaders said the state aid may not be long-lasting
Village residents have the only vote on the issue if it goes to a public vote. The Village Board hasn’t set a referendum but a group of residents have been circulating petitions to force a vote on the issue.
Press Release, Orleans County Sheriff Scott Hess
ALBION – Orleans County Sheriff’s Deputies have investigated two separate off-road vehicle accidents resulting in injury within a seven-day period.
A 16-year-old old Medina youth sustained a non-life threatening head injury on Oct. 5 at about 7 p.m. The go-cart he was operating crashed into a tree on private property at a residence in the 3700 block of Bates Road, Town of Ridgeway.
The youth, who was wearing a protective helmet, was treated at Medina Memorial Hospital. The incident was investigated by Deputy T.C. Marano.
On Sunday (Oct. 12) at approximately 2:30 p.m., Tyler J. Kryk, 22, of Irondequoit was operating a motocross dirt bike on a recently constructed course in the 12400 block of Lakeshore Road, Town of Yates.
Kryk, who was wearing a protective helmet and clothing, failed to properly negotiate a jump on the west end of the course. He was thrown from the machine and sustained non-life threatening injuries. He was subsequently flown to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester by Mercy Flight helicopter. The incident was investigated by Deputy J.W. Halstead.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 12 October 2014 at 9:40 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
RIDGEWAY – A fire that broke out shortly before 8 p.m. today heavily damaged a house at 3461 North Gravel Rd.
Firefighters from Ridgeway, Shelby and Medina responded to the blaze at the home of Claire Humphrey and Diane Burns. No one was injured. The fire is investigation, said Francis Woodward, Ridgeway fire chief.
Before the fire, Route 63 was closed for about 11 hours today after a pole was down and the power was out. The road was reopened at about 4 p.m. today.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 3 October 2014 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
KNOWLESVILLE – Reece Stalker, 10, of Shelby Center, center, plays Connect Four with his twin brother Colvin and their stepmother Jessica Stalker during Family Fun Game Night on Thursday. About 100 people attended the event at the Trolley Building at the Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds.
Families played board games and were able to meet the staff at many county departments, which offered activities for families to learn about county services.
John Bianchi, 8, of Albion hooks a magnetic fish at a station run by the Orleans County Tourism Department. Mike Waterhouse, the county’s sportfishing coordinator, is pictured at left. Bianchi attended Family Fun Game Night with his sister Hailey, 10, and their mother Barb and father Jim.
