By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 7 September 2019 at 9:22 am
Photo courtesy of Zingler Farms: Zingler Farms in Kendall started picking SweeTango apples on Friday to kick off the fall harvest.
Apple growers in Orleans County have started their harvest, about a week later than usual due to the damp spring, and then some cool summer nights.
It will be a busy 8 to 10 weeks for the apple growers who expect other later-season varieties to mature on schedule. That will compress the harvest season and make for some long days to get all the apples picked.
New York is the country’s second-leading apple producer behind Washington State. New York harvests about 30 million bushels of apples each year.
Orleans County is a big apple growing county in New York, behind only Wayne County.
By Matthew Ballard, Orleans County Historian Posted 7 September 2019 at 8:11 am
“Overlooked Orleans” – Volume 5, Issue 35
MEDINA – Occasionally, I receive notes from readers about suggested article topics of local interest. A few months ago, a copy of several Medina postcards arrived at my doorstep relating to Elm Park north of the village. It seems as though the origin of the park and its exact location remain somewhat mysterious.
Elm Park was known locally for its scenic location along the Oak Orchard River, providing a gathering place for congregations, Sunday school groups, family reunions, and other local organizations.
This particular photograph was taken around 1900 and is labeled on the reverse, “Elm Park Medina, N.Y. donated by Florence Waters – Probably a group from Knowlesville.” Some features of the park, visible in the photograph, include a covered picnic table with folding wood benches, a small boathouse with canoes, a fountain, and a set of swings that appear to spin over the water. Also visible in the image is a small cascade in the river, which helps with identifying the location.
The park itself was allegedly named for the large elm tree pictured in the background. The owners of the park built a playground into the massive tree, which became a focal point of the picnic grounds. An interesting article in the Ithaca Daily News from June 4, 1906, called the location “Bowentown” after Ambrose Bowen who settled the heavily forested area. The article continues on to say that the hamlet was intended to become a stop on the Medina & Darien Railroad, a defunct endeavor that ran from 1834 to 1836 and relied upon horsepower to pull cars between Darien and Medina.
An 1860 map of Orleans County shows a natural pool in the Oak Orchard River just south of Slade Road. A small roadway is shown between North Gravel Road and the River just north of the pool. According to the map, the location was known as “Oak Grove.” The map also shows numerous buildings in the vicinity belonging to A[mbrose] Bowen, a G[rist] Mill, a S[aw] M[ill], and B[lack] S[mith] shop, in addition to a store owned by Bowen. This is confirmed by a 1860s advertisement for a millstone company that listed Ambrose Bowen’s mill at Oak Orchard Creek near Medina.
An 1856 New York City newspaper lists Bowen as a dealer in Hereford cattle at Oak Grove, Medina. It would appear from the map and supporting information that the natural pool south of Slade Road was the location for Elm Park, a little further north from its supposed location near Glenwood Lake. A small cascade is still situated at that location, even though the creation of Glenwood Lake has altered the River slightly.
By Mike Wertman, Sports Writer Posted 6 September 2019 at 10:52 pm
Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Albion’s Chris Shabazz celebrates scoring a key second quarter touchdown on an interception during the Purple Eagles season opening home field win over Newfane this evening. Joining in the celebration is Deyonci Farley.
Leading by a narrow one point margin, Albion scored two clutch unanswered touchdowns in the fourth quarter to down visiting Newfane 35-20 this evening in a season opening interdivisional football game.
Holding a slender 21-20 lead, Albion opened up a little breathing room when quarterback Thomas Furmanski threw a 7 yard touchdown pass to Kevin Hillman with 7:38 remaining in the game. Deyonci Farley tacked on the extra point kick to make it 28-20,
Furmanski also had a big 19 yard run and a 16 yard pass completion to Bailey Blanchard and Farley a 12 yard run to highlight the key scoring drive.
The Purple Eagles then put a lock on the victory when Tyray White scored on a 9 yard run with just 2:44 remaining as Farley’s extra point kick made it 35-20.
Runs of 16 yards by Farley and 15 by White highlighted the clinching scoring drive.
Albion’s Jameek Riley wraps up Newfane quarterback Garrett Srock helping to cause the interception and TD return by Shabazz.
The Albion defense then put an exclamation point on the win as Bril Johnson made a nifty sideline interception on the second play after the ensuing kickoff.
“Resiliency. We really showed resiliency,” said Albion Coach Adam Krenning of the Purple Eagles fourth quarter surge after Newfane had rallied back to within one. “We bent but we didn’t break. They really came through.”
Albion had jumped out to a 21-7 half-time lead after scoring three times in the second quarter, the first two tallies coming just 13 seconds apart midway through the stanza.
The Purple Eagles grabbed a 6-0 lead on a 3 yard touchdown run by Furmanski with 7:58 to go in the quarter as runs of 17, 14, 13 and 8 by White along with a 20 yard Furmanski to Hillman pass completion highlighted that drive. (Click here to see a video of Furmanski’s TD run.)
The Albion defense contributed the next score in lighting quick fashion as Chris Shabazz intercepted a pass by Newfane quarterback Garrett Srock and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown just 13 seconds later. Farley’s PAT kick made it 13-0. Srock made the critical throw as he was being tackled by Albion defensive back Jameek Riley.
Newfane did cut the deficit to 13-7 as Srock scored on a 47 yard run and also added the extra point kick.
Albion though got that one right back as Farley scored on a 5 yard run with 2:19 to go in the half and Furmanski hooked up with Blanchard for the two-point conversion to make it 21-7.
A 17 yard Furmanski to Hillman pass completion and a 14 yard run by Farley highlighted that 77 yard scoring drive.
Newfane though came battling back in the third quarter with two unanswered touchdowns to make the contest tight.
The Panthers touchdowns came on runs of 1 yard by Jaden Heers and 15 yards by Srock who also added the PAT kick after the first score. However, the Panthers mishandled the snap on the second extra point kick attempt which would have tied the game but instead left the Purple Eagles clinging to a one point, 21-20 lead.
Albion though weathered the storm getting fourth quarter touchdowns on a Furmanski to Hillman pass and a White run to close out the win. (Click here to see the TD throw for Furmanski to Hillman.)
The Purple Eagles will open the B3 Division schedule at home next Friday against Springville.
Lew-Port 28, Medina/Lyndonvile/Barker 0
LEWISTON – Quarterback JohnPaul Stewart threw touchdown passes of 44 yards to Gino Fontanarosa and 26 yards to Corey Stack and Fontanarosa had TD runs of 37 and 44 yards to lead Lew-Port to a 28-0 victory over visiting Medina/Lyndonville/Barker in an interdivisional game.
Dontea Rhim and Brian Fry had pass interceptions for the Mustangs which begins the B2 Division scheduled at home next Friday against Iroquois.
Class C North
Wilson defeated host Roy-Hart 47-0 in the Class C North Division opener.
Albion’s Tyray White runs the opening kickoff back for big yardage as Garrett Srock comes in to make the tackle for Newfane.
Albion’s Bailey Blanchard picks up yardage after making a catch as Newfane’s Josh Everett makes the tackle. Brett Bucolo moves in to assist.
MEDINA – The Iroquois Job Corps Center has immediate openings for individuals seeking free career training in the nation’s leading industries, including construction and health care.
Offered by the U.S. Department of Labor, Job Corps is the largest nationwide residential career technical training and education program in the country and has been operating for more than 50 years.
The program helps eligible young people ages 16 through 24 complete their high school education, earn college credits, train for meaningful careers, and connect with employment, apprenticeship, military, or higher education opportunities.
Job Corps centers also provide on-campus housing, nutritious meal options, basic medical care, uniforms and class supplies, and enrichment and recreation activities.
Job Corps is an open-entry program that accepts new students on a weekly basis. To obtain additional information about the specific training programs and educational opportunities offered at the Iroquois Job Corps Center, interested individuals can contact Job Corps by visiting jobcorps.gov, or by calling (800) 733-JOBS.
The State Police on Thursday arrested Ronald L. Rowcliffe, 55, of Elba after investigating several reports of sexual abuse.
Rowcliffe, a Boy Scout leader, reportedly had inappropriate sexual contact with several victims ranging in age from 12 to 14 years, who were attending the Massawepie Boy Scout Camp in the Town of Piercefield in the Adirondacks during the summers of 2017-2019.
Rowcliffe, a former Holley police officer, was charged with two counts of Sexual Abuse 1st degree, one count each of Forcible Touching and one count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. He was arraigned in the Town of Piercefield Court, and remanded to the St. Lawrence County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail, or $20,000 bail bond.
This remains under investigation, and further charges are pending. If anyone has information regarding this investigation or believes they may be a victim, they are asked to contact the New York State Police at (518) 873-2750.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 September 2019 at 11:20 am
Site resembles a mall with professional offices, retail and non-profits
There many tenants in the Arnold Gregory Office Complex on South Main Street.
ALBION – The former Arnold Gregory hospital in Albion continues its transformation as an office building. The site has added new tenants recently who say the building now functions as a mini-mall with professional offices, retail and space for non-profit organizations.
Ben DeGeorge and the DeGeorge Property Group bought the building five years ago from Lissow Development. They also bought Lissow apartments – the former Waterport Elementary School, Canal Towns Commons and an apartment building in Holley.
DeGeorge praises Ray Lissow for turning the former hospital into offices and an asset for the community. DeGeorge has picked up where Lissow left off, adding a business incubator with shared space for small businesses, and trying to accommodate other needs for tenants.
“It’s a community that wants to work with each other,” said DeGeorge, who is based in Monroe County. “The tenants, the local businesses and the local officials, everyone is so easy to work with.”
Arnold Gregory now has nearly 30 tenants, from medical services, a dog groomer, coffee shop and many others. DeGeorge has three maintenance workers devoted to Arnold Gregory and the three apartment buildings.
Theresa Pawlak is the office manager, in a suite with several small businesses sharing space in a business incubator. That shared space helps keep their costs down for rent, and still gives them a professional office.
Pawlak was born at Arnold Gregory. She then worked in the building as a prekindergarten teacher’s aide for a decade at the Rainbow Preschool.
“It’s nice to have someone outside the community invest here, someone who is young,” Pawlak said.
Theresa Pawlak works as the office manager at the former hospital, now owned by the DeGeorge Property Group.
DeGeorge, 32, said the Arnold Gregory Office Complex is a source of personal pride.
“Walking through this building is always exciting,” he said. “It’s such a neat place. This building is doing something. It’s such an important part of the community.”
DeGeorge said he is willing to work with startup companies and new organizations.
Beth Schorer, owner of Beth’s Sewing Box, does tailoring and other projects at her business, which also is a dry-cleaning stop. Robin Lewis is in back working on a quilting project.
Beth Schorer, owner of Beth’s Sewing Box, started in a small space down the hall in the first floor about 1 ½ years ago. It was an affordable entry to having an office. Her tailoring and alterations business grew, and she moved to a bigger space in the building.
“He gave me a chance,” Schorer said. “There is so much in here that people don’t see. It’s not a hospital anymore. It’s like a mall.”
Schorer moved into the bigger space in March. It gives her a dressing room and about double the area for her sewing equipment and to display dresses.
“She is one of our success stories,” DeGeorge said.
The building has about 50 original works of art on the walls, painted on canvases by former employee Rebekah Lee. DeGeorge worked with the Arc of Genesee Orleans to open a coffee and snack shop in the main lobby about three years ago. DeGeorge also added a conference room and a gym for the tenants.
He estimates about 100 people work in the building, and many clients and customers pass through the doors each day.
Cindy Eibl, owner of the Corner Gift Boutique, stands by the business at the Arnold Gregory Office Complex on South Main Street. Eibl said the building is business with tenants and their clients.
Cindy Eibl and Tina Page noticed the building is a busy place. Last holiday season near Christmas they intended to run the Corner Gift Boutique in the building from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. They are a retail business, selling new and vintage gift items, and hand-crafted merchandise. They have stayed in the building this year because of the foot traffic inside.
Tina Page, co-owner of the Corner Gift Boutique, sells many gift items at the store.
“It was supposed to be seasonal,” Eibl said. “We were just looking to have a holiday shop.”
Many of the customers are other workers in the building, or their clients.
“There are a lot of people in here,” Eibl said. “I call it Albion’s little mini-mall.”
Orleans Recovery Hope moved into the building in December. The organization started in 2017. It is a peer organization that works with recovering addicts and their families. The office allows Orleans Recovery Hope to have a drop-in center and offer trainings. It also runs a grief group.
Wayne Litchfield is a volunteer, peer recovery advocate and a board member for the organization.
“It’s centrally located,” he said about Arnold Gregory. “It’s accessible to people. The nice part is the community is finding out about us.”
Wayne Litchfield said the Arnold Gregory location has been a good fit for Orleans Recovery Hope, where he is an active volunteer.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 September 2019 at 9:34 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
GAINES – Neal Muscarella of Albion works on putting new plaster inside the former Cobblestone Schoolhouse on Gaines Basin Road in Gaines.
Volunteers and contractors have been working on the building the past five years. It is now owned by the Orleans County Historical Association, which wants to use the building as a meeting place and also to display some historic artifacts from schools.
The building has accordion laths, which are thin, sawn boards that are partially split with a hatchet or axe. The splits are spread apart to form gaps for the plaster to key into. These early laths had an irregular board that expanded like an accordion.
The schoolhouse was built in 1832, making it the oldest documented cobblestone building in the region, said Bill Lattin, a retired county historian and former director of the Cobblestone Museum.
The schoolhouse is just north of the Erie Canal. The schoolhouse has added a flagpole, bench and historic marker. This summer two Medina Sandstone fence posts were installed on the property by Richard Nenni and Rick Ebbs. Ebbs also put a new floor inside the school.
The building has sagged in spots which made replacing windows tricky. Lattin praised Fred Miller, owner of Family Hardware in Albion, for cutting windows to fit the odd shapes.
“With that building you throw away the level and go with the flow,” Lattin said. “They aren’t perfect rectangles.”
The Historical Association also removed a tree next to the building, and had the roof reconstructed while replacing half of the rafters.
The tree was on the north side of the building and caused a lot of damage, particualy to the wall, Lattin said.
Neal Muscarella usually focuses on masonry work, but he also does plastering. He said he learned the skill from Adolf Genter of Albion. Muscarella is pleased to see the progress in keeping the 913-square-foot building.
“If they hadn’t stepped up this would be a pile of stones,” Muscarella said. “We’re trying to bring it back to the original.”
An outhouse in back of the schoolhouse was moved to the site in 2017. The privy was donated by Irene Roth and her daughters, Chris Sartwell, Marge Page and Arlene Rafter.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 September 2019 at 8:57 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – This painting – “The Cherry Pickers” by Juan Cavasos in 1989 – is part of an art show at Hoag Library in Albion. The artwork has been on display since early August and will continue to be in the library until Saturday.
Canvasos worked as a migrant worker from Mexico before going to the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he completed a degree in graphic arts in 1996. His artwork has been featured in national traveling exhibits.
“I want to demonstrate the courage that we farmworkers have dedicated to hard labor, and that it not only means financial gain, bit also a reward which helps us survive and keeps us alive,” Cavasos said in an artist statement. “The majority of farmworkers lack the knowledge or skills to get other jobs. But we make an immense contribution to society, to the country and the community.”
Farmworkers last year did portraits of each other that are on display in the exhibit. This one is by Omar Lopez Cruz.
The Geneseo Migrant Center and Hoag Library are teaming to put on the exhibit, “Hand Picked: Art Expression of Farmworkers Who Feed Us.”
Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, the traveling exhibit features 30 drawings by migrant workers of their hands, faces, stories (retablos), and poetry. The art show is designed to raise awareness of the inner and outer lives of migrant farmworkers in eight counties of Western New York.
This artwork from Javier in 2018 shares his experience being detained in an immigration facility after he said he was stopped by law enforcement who he said falsely claimed his back twilight was out.
Javier chose to take a voluntary departure and went to Mexico. He said he was grateful to be free and not behind bars.
“I am not a criminal!!” he writes. “Every night I prayed and gave thanks to God and the Virgin of Fatima because she gave me a chance to get free. Whenever you pray to a saint with the heart, it is very likely that she will grant you the wish.”
Maria in 2018 made this drawing after her daughter gave birth to a son.
“After the baby was born then I prayed to the Virgin of Guadalupe and to the Divine Mercy. They listened to me and my daughter healed. I am happy and thankful.”
This drawing is by Filbert and Nestor. They give thanks to the Rosa Mystica Virgin. “My nephew and I were in grave danger … while trying to cross the border we were kidnapped, and while we were being tortured I commended myself to the Rosa Mystica. In those moments are kidnappers stopped torturing us and understood that we were just trying to reach the United States, and we were freed. Thank you to the Rosa Mystica for giving us another opportunity in life.”
Maria made this drawing of Estados Unidos
“This is what this picture means to me: My country is Mexico and the United States is where I am living now with all my family,” she writes. “When we were coming to this country I was very excited ti get to see more places, but I was also sad to leave my country, my friends and everything I used to know. Now that I am here, I have seen many beautiful places and I feel very good because, thank God, we have done very well and, hopefully, it will always be like that.”
Maribel created this drawing last year.
“My drawing is about a very sad time in my life. It is about my Mother,” she writes. “A few months ago, she was sick in the hospital because she was working, she hurt one of her toes. It had to be amputated and she was doing badly. Christ represents the strength to keep going forward because they day she went in the surgery room, she just thought about Christ. The Virgin represents the faith of all our family, and the flowers represent happiness because everything went very well, thank God. Also, the flowers represent all the support we have in our family. My Mother is fine now and we are very happy.”
Among the displays in the artwork are several poems, including this one by Ana Rio:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Association of Counties both issued statements today opposing cuts in federal Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital payments to hospitals.
“New York State hospitals receive more than $1.8 billion annually in DSH payments and proposed cuts by Congress will have a devastating impact on our health care system,” said Stephan Acquario, executive director for NYSAC.
“Fiscally strong hospitals are the cornerstone of a comprehensive and accessible health care system for patients, especially low-income and vulnerable populations, throughout this great state and across the nation,” Acquario said. “NYSAC, along with the National Association of Counties, has opposed these cuts in the past and will continue to do so.”
Congress delayed implementation of these federal funding cuts each year since 2014, but they are set to begin October 1, 2019 if no further action is taken by Congress to again delay the cuts.
“The impending Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital program cuts would decimate hospitals that provide uncompensated care to uninsured and low-income New Yorkers by taking away over $2.6 billion over the next 18 months and more than $14.5 billion cumulatively through 2025,” Cuomo said.
“Health care is a right, not a privilege, and Congress must stand up for the safety of our most vulnerable neighbors,” he said. “I am calling on Congress to immediately rescind these impending cuts before they take effect on October 1st. If they don’t, they will put critical health care services at risk for millions of New Yorkers.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 September 2019 at 3:47 pm
ALBION – The fourth annual Orleans County Heritage Festival runs from Sept. 6 to Sept. 15 and includes many events highlighting local historic sites.
The festival also will include a commemorative button. Terri Wood of the LonoWood Art Company in Albion designed the button that includes images of the courthouse dome, the Canal Culvert in Ridgeway, quarrymen tools, Cobble the Mouse at the Cobblestone Museum, and the bronze statue outside the Orleans County YMCA. That statue will be dedicated during a ceremony at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The YMCA used to be an Armory for soldiers to train.
To see a schedule of the Heritage Festival, click here.
Provided photo: Lures part owner Anna Migitskiy, center, discusses the challenges to the Eagle Creek Marina and Lures Restaurant from the high lake levels. She attended last Thursday’s meeting at Lures with IJC U.S. Section Chairwoman Jane Corwin and many local elected officials.
Press Release, Orleans County Legislator Ken DeRoller
KENDALL – Nineteen elected officials from municipalities in Orleans County hosted a dinner meeting on Aug. 29 at Lures Restaurant with Jane Corwin, U.S. Section chairwoman for the International Joint Commission.
Corwin, a former state assemblywoman from Clarence, presented a high level, very informative overview on three main points in managing Lake Ontario water levels.
She discussed the some of the history since 1909 International Treaty between the U.S. and Canada; 100 Year Lake Levels and evolution of plans to manage outflows; and Plan 2014 performance pros and cons, as well as trigger levels with the Great Lake basin high levels of runoff.
Since Plan 2014 was implemented in December 2016, 80 percent of the time we have been outside the plan’s design due to high precipitations, snow melt and ice jams.
Corwin assured us that everything possible will be done to try and manage these new norms of high water levels. In terms of review of Plan 2014, for example: The Adaptive Management committee will be looking at potential impacts of affecting the current navigation limits, lowering trigger levels in general and modifying outflows during the spring and fall.
Also, Anna Migitskiy, part owner of Eagle Creek Marina and Lures Restaurant, gave everyone in attendance an overview of the challenges their business has faced fighting high lake levels in 2017 and again in 2019. This has caused additional expenses in managing their business.
All those in attendance committed to continued and improved communications to the International Lake Ontario/St. Lawrence River Board, and advisors to the Great Lakes Adaptive Management committee study, plus input from riparian interest.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 September 2019 at 3:08 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – The Albion Rotary Club today named Becky Karls, center, as a Paul Harris Fellow, the highest honor given by a Rotary Club.
Karls is joined by Rotarians Cindy Perry, left, and Don Bishop, right.
Bishop called Karls “the secret ingredient of the Albion Rotary Club.” She is instrumental each year in many of the club’s fundraisers, including the St. Patrick’s Ham Dinner, the Turtle Race at the Strawberry Festival, the golf tournament and the fishing derby.
Karls also is active with many other community efforts, including organizing a car show this Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. at Bullard Park in Albion. That car show is a fundraiser for Hospice of Orleans County.
The Rotary Club also recognized Fred Nesbitt, a retired fruit grower, for reaching the second level as a Paul Harris Fellow.
The Rotary Club today was visited by Anna Kangasluoma of Finland. She was a Rotary exchange student at Albion in the 2007-08 school year. She now works as a nurse. She is pictured with Bruce Landis, a member of the Albion Rotary Club.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 September 2019 at 11:26 am
ALBION – Two people pleaded guilty in Orleans County Court this morning to drug crimes.
Joseph Newton, 33, of Medina pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, grand larceny in the fourth degree and attempted promoting prison contraband in the first degree.
Newton faces up to four years in state prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 24.
He admitted in court today to having cocaine in Orleans County on Feb. 13 with the intent to sell it. He also admitted to stealing an outboard Mercury motor on Aug. 5, 2018, which was valued at about $1,200. Newton sold it for $1,000.
While he was an inmate, he attended a family funeral on May 21 and arranged to receive tobacco and a controlled substance.
Those items were allegedly placed under the body of a family member in her coffin. An investigator with the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office overheard Newton arranging for the items during a phone call from the jail. The day of the funeral an investigator checked to see if the tobacco and two pills were under the grandmother’s body, and they were under her shoulder, according to investigator Ken Strickland.
Newton’s visit to the funeral was canceled and he was charged with attempted promoting prison contraband in the first and second degree.
In another case in court today, an Albion woman admitted to having precursors for making methamphetamine.
Linda Meise, 37, of Beechwood Boulevard at Oak Orchard Estates was charged on June 20, along with her husband Richard Meise.
Mrs. Meise admitted in court to having the precursors to make methamphetamine. She told Judge Sanford Church the couple made the meth for their own use.
She faces up to six months in jail when she is sentenced on Oct. 31 as a first-time felony offender.
Judge Church agreed today to lower her bail from $10,000 cash and $20,000 bond to $2,500.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 September 2019 at 8:28 am
Photo by Tom Rivers: Medina’s downtown at Main Street and Center Street is pictured last week. The downtown has many independent small businesses that generate sales tax for the county.
Orleans County is seeing growth in its sales tax so far this year, the only one of the four GLOW counties ahead of the 2018 pace.
In Orleans, sales tax collections were at $8,409,045 the first six months of the year, up 2.5 percent from the $8,207,811 the first half of 2018, according to the State Comptroller’s Office.
Genesee County is down 0.2 percent to $19,686,969, while Livingston is off 0.8 percent to $16,498,246, and Wyoming County is down 2.1 percent to $8,642,926, according to the Comptroller’s Office.
State-wide sales tax grew 3.4 percent in the first quarter and 3.2 percent in the second quarter, the Comptroller reported.
Wages and consumer spending are growing at a modest pace. However, a decrease in gasoline prices in the first half of 2019 caused a drop in the portion of tax collections from the sale of motor fuels, the Comptroller’s Office said.
Kim DeFrank, Orleans County treasurer, said the actual cash receipts in sales tax is up about $300,000 for the first six months, from $7,532,315 in 2018 to $7,835,191.
Sales tax in Orleans County grew by 2.9 percent or $475,614 in 2018, from $16,273,192 to $16,748,806. (The county keeps about 92 percent of the sales tax and shares $1,366,671 with the four villages and 10 towns.)
This year the state has shifted some of the Aid and Incentives to Municipalities to the counties. The governor in his budget proposal proposed cutting $290,276 in AIM to eight towns and four villages in Orleans County. State-wide, the governor wanted to reduce AIM funding by $59 million.
But villages and towns strongly objected to cuts. After an outcry from towns and villages, Gov. Andrew Cuomo put the AIM funding back in the budget. However, it won’t be paid for by the state. It is to come from the sales tax from internet sales, which currently often skirt the sales tax. The tax would be taken from the counties’ local share and be directed to the AIM program.
The counties are to pay the AIM the second half this year. DeFrank said county officials haven’t received direction from the state about when to pay the money.
That $290,276 wipes out the increase in sales tax so far collected at the county.
The county budget for 2019 is counting on additional sales tax growth of $560,000. The sales tax increases have helped the county pay for infrastructure projects and also stay under the state-imposed tax cap, which is usually about 2 percent a year.
The county also is seeing growth in the occupancy or “bed tax,” a 4 percent tax for people who stay in hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, and 62 rentals in the county through Airbnb.
The tax generated $19,807 for the county in the first six months of 2019, compared to $15,602 the first half of 2018, DeFrank said.
The tax last year generated $51,002, with $35,400 in the final three months. (In 2017, the bed tax generated $45,374.) The county uses the funds for tourism promotion.
Provided photo: Members of the McNeil family along with Kevin and Cindy Diehl present Amy Tausch with a $20,000 check. Kneeling is Tim Wright. The front row, from left, includes Eric Bison, Amy Tausch, Cindy Diehl, Faye McNeil, Michele Bison and Tammie Miller. Back row is Jeff Miller, Kevin Diehl, Kathy Snyder and Chris Miller.
Courtesy of Owen Toale
HOLLEY – The eighth annual Honoring Heroes Golf Tournament was recently held at Hickory Ridge Golf Resort. The tournament – benefitting the New York Warrior Alliance, Home of Operation Wounded Warrior – netted the organization $20,000.
Funds will be used to serve wounded military personnel and their families in the area. In addition to providing financial support to the military members and their caregivers, the organization has conducted over 11 missions to Walter Reed Military Medical Center with supplies to aid the patients. The Alliance is a 501(c)(3) organization with an all-volunteer staff and no administrative or travel costs. Amy Tausch is the founder of the organization and continues to lead it.
Two years ago one of the driving forces behind the tournament passed away. Mac McNeil worked tirelessly raising funds and getting donations for the tournament. His help, along with that of Kevin and Cindy Diehl – owners of Hickory Ridge – helped make the tournament the success that it has become.
The future of the tournament was up in the air last year with the passing of Mac but the McNeil family, along with others, worked to make last year’s tournament successful and continued on with the event this year.
The memory of how hard Mac worked to help the veterans pushed all the volunteers to once again come through with a success. Now with the recap of this past tournament, plans are underway for the 2020 tournament next July.
