By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 December 2017 at 1:27 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – About 15 Christmas trees have been dropped by the backstop at Bullard Park for a Feb. 10 bonfire. Residents are welcome to drop off their trees at the park.
The Village of Albion, the Albion Fire Department, Energize Albion, Albion Merchant’s Association and United Structural, LLC are planning an event from 3 to 7 p.m. at Bullard on Feb. 10. There will be sledding, snowboarding and snowman building contests. Free hot chocolate and s’mores will be available while supplies last.
Winners for all three contests will be announced immediately prior to the lighting the bonfire. All contests and games are free.
A crowd watches the bonfire at Bullard last Feb. 18.
Press Release, National Weather Service in Buffalo
The National Weather Service office in Buffalo is looking for a volunteer weather observer to take over the observing station in or within about 4 miles of Albion.
This observing station would be a part of the National Weather Service Cooperative Observer Network (Coop Network). The Coop Network comprises nearly 10,000 volunteer weather observers nationwide that report rainfall, snowfall and snow depth to the National Weather Service on a daily basis. Data from the Coop Network helps scientists to define the long-term climate of the United States.
Observers take daily measurements of high, low and current temperature, as well as precipitation, snowfall, and snow depth, daily around 5 p.m. These measurements would be relayed daily to the National Weather Service either via the Internet or a toll-free phone number. These weather observations will be archived and used by future climate and research studies.
You will be provided with temperature equipment, a rain gage and a snow measuring stick.
Your observations will assist the National Weather Service in its forecast and warning efforts, climatologists defining the climate of the United States and also help to predict drought conditions, agricultural planning and assessment, and more.
If you are interested in helping us out or have any questions about the duties of a Coop Observer, please contact us at the address below. You may also contact us by calling 716-565-0204, or by sending an email to Dan.Kelly@noaa.gov.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 December 2017 at 9:58 am
ALBION – The Orleans County Legislature voted last week to approve fees for the weights and measures director for inspecting and testing devices and systems.
The Legislature also hired Ronald P. Mannella to serve as the new weights and measures director on a provisional appointment. Mannella is the son of Ron Mannella, the Gaines highway superintendent.
The younger Mannella will be paid $39,143 annually. He starts on Jan. 3.
The position used to be run out of the Highway Department but has been moved to the Health Department.
The Legislature established the following fees for weights and measures (effective Jan. 1):
SCALES (Up to and including 15 kg (33 lb.) capacity)
Each of the 1st five scales/establishment – $20
Each after 1st five – $10
Over 15 kg and including 300 kg (661 lb.) – $40
Over 300 kg and including 1500 kg (3,307 lb.) – $100
Over 1500 kg and including 7000 kg (15,432 lb.) – $140
Over 7000 kg and including 23000 kg (50,706 lb.) – $160
Over 23000 kg (50,706 lb.) – $200
Tank batch and crane scales – $200
WEIGHTS – FIELD STANDARD (Class F)
Up to and including 3 kg (7 lb.) – $8
Over 3 kg and including 30 kg (66 lb.) – $16
Over 30 kg and including 300 kg (661 lb.) – $32
Over 300 kg and including 1200 kg (2646 lb.) – $60
LINEAR FIELD MEASURES
Up to 1 m (39 in.) – $4
Over 1 m and including 16 m (52 ft.) – $8
Over 16 m and including 31 m (102 ft.) – $12
Over 31 m – $20
Fabric measuring devices – $20
Wire and cordage measuring devices – $40
LIQUID MEASURES AND DEVICES
Liquid measures 20L (5 gal.) or less – $8
Liquid pump (hand operated) 20L (5 gal.) or less – $20
PETROLEUM DISPENSING AND MEASURING DEVICES
Single dispensing pump – $20
Dual dispensing pump – $40
Blend dispensing pump – $40
Grease and oil pump – $8
VEHICLES
Metering systems 300L/min (79 gpm) or less – $100
Metering systems over 300L/min – $120
Compartment calibration:
Up to and including 3000L (793 gal.) capacity – $40
Over 3,000L and including 6,000L (1,585 gal.) capacity – $80
Over 6,000L and including 12,000L (3,170 gal) capacity – $120
Over 12,000L capacity – $240
STATIONARY PETROLEUM METERING SYSTEMS
Up to 400L/min (106 rpm) – $100
Over 400L/min including 2,000L/min (528 rpm) – $120
Over 2,000L/min including 4,000L/min (1,057 gym) – $140
Over 4,000L/min – $160
BULK MILK TANKS
Up to 3,000L (793 gal.) capacity – $40
Over 3,000L and including 6,000L (1,585 gal.) capacity – $80
Over 6,000L and including 12,000L (3,170 gal.) capacity – $120
Over 12,000L capacity – $240
TIMING DEVICES
All commercially used devices where time is a basis for charge – $4
Devices owned or operated by government agencies – No charge
TAXI METERS – $40
WITNESSING FEE
(Fee administred when costs are incurred by the Director of Weights & Measures when inspecting and certifying equipment where Privately owned calibrated equipment is being used)
KENDALL – Doug Boyer of Waterport took this photo of a Snowy Owl today at about noon at the corner of Petersmith Road and Lakeshore Road in Kendall. It was hanging out on a barn at Heideman Farms.
The owls typically nest in the Artic tundra and winter in Canada don’t mind the recent local temperatures in the single digits and teens. But in recent winters they have migrated into the U.S. in search of food.
Boyer enjoys wildlife photography and is a frequent contributor to Orleans Hub.
On Dec. 16 he took this photo of a Snowy Owl on West Kendall Road.
Boyer was at Point Breeze on Christmas Eve and took this photo of a bald eagle.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 December 2017 at 7:21 pm
Dawn Borchert
ALBION – Orleans County has hired a full-time tourism director, who expects to see the county’s tourism industry grow.
Dawn Borchert comes to the county with an extensive background in tourism. The Akron resident has worked as executive director for the New York State Travel Industry Association since 2004. She has 27 years in the business including five years as the tourism marketing director for the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce.
Borchert will succeed Lynne Menz, who has been working part-time on a contractual basis. She will continue working for county tourism 8 hours a week in designing brochures, working on the website and helping with marketing. Menz wanted to step back from the manager position so she can devote more time to her business, Lynne Menz Designs.
She said Borchert has deep connections in the tourism industry and has the passion to propel the county’s tourism efforts.
“She is a gift to the county,” Menz said. “She has experience at the state level. She knows everybody in the tourism industry. She is eager and she is a hard worker.”
Menz was hired in 2015 following the retirement of Wayne Hale, who served as tourism director in addition to director of the Planning and Development Department.
When she was at the Genesee Chamber, Borchert worked with Hale to establish a “Country Byways” tourism package in the rural GLOW counties.
Borchert gives the county its first full-time tourism director. She starts Jan. 2 at an annual salary of $48,897.
Menz said the county’s heritage tourism sites, such as the historic districts and Cobblestone Museum, could be bigger draws. The county’s top tourism attraction is the fishing industry. It accounts for about $12 million in visitor spending.
Orleans, however, ranks dead last among the 62 counties in New York for tourism revenue, according to a study last year by Tourism Economics and Empire State Development.
Many counties, including some small ones, bring in well over $100 million in tourism revenue. But no county brings in less than Orleans, which totaled $24.421 million in visitor spending in 2015. That was about $4 million less than the 61st-ranked county, Chenango, at $28.455 million.
The lack of a chain hotel in Orleans has hurt the county’s tourism numbers, according to the Orleans Economic Development Agency which pushed to recruit BriMark Builders to construct a new Cobblestone Inn and Suites hotel in Medina. That 3-story hotel would be 10,557 square feet on Maple Ridge Road next to Pride Pak. The project has received the local approvals. It could open in 2018.
That hotel will allow the county to change its pitch to visitors, urging them to stay overnight. Many of visitors right now are day-trippers who come for an event and then drive out of the county.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 December 2017 at 3:48 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Bradley Pierce, 8, of Albion went sledding today for the first time in his life. Bradley and his family moved to Albion about a year ago after living in Oklahoma. As he started down the hill, Bradley yelled out to his mother: “This is going to be awesome.”
There will be plenty of more sledding opportunities.
The National Weather Service in Buffalo is forecasting another 3-5 inches of snow for Orleans County on Wednesday.
This man was out snowboarding with a parachute. The gusts of winds pulled him around Bullard Park.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 December 2017 at 11:24 am
Provided photo: Sharon CassanoLochman has two new books published with a third due out in February.
KENDALL – A Kendall resident has two new books out. Sharon CassanoLochman, a former teacher and motorcycle safety instructor, has written Stranded on Thin Ice and Man with the Sand Dollar Face.
CassanoLochman in February also expects to have a three-volume collection of spiritual verses published.
Last January she established her own publishing company, Ontario Shore Publishing, and has been working to write and publish her books.
CassanoLochman brings her life experiences into creating her characters. In addition to working as a motorcycle safety instructor and teacher in Penfield and Honeoye Falls, CassanoLochman has been a paralegal, and a stay-at-home mother who enjoys hunting.
In 2013, she started writing Stranded on Thin Ice. That book tells the story of Tanner Phillips, a 12-year-old who fishes the Oneida Lake Ice Fishing Derby every year with his father.
The competition turns disastrous when one of the competitors goes missing and another gets injured. Tanner’s father must leave Tanner and his new friend, Richie, alone on the ice. After their ice hut comes unhitched, Tanner and Richie find themselves blown across the frozen lake in a blinding snowstorm, according to a description of the book on Amazon.
“It’s about all the young boys like to read about and participate in,” CassanoLochman said.
Man with the Sand Dollar Face was published last month and focuses on a quirky widow in her early sixties who takes her first job in a private investigator’s office. Arriving early she discovers an agitated man waiting at the door. He insists he must see the PI immediately. In the midst of his anxious demands, he clutches his chest and collapses. Shocked, she runs for help. Upon returning, the man has disappeared. As the story unfolds the woman finds herself embroiled in an international drug trafficking ring. Everything hinges on finding the man with the sand dollar face.
CassanoLochman said she enjoys the writing process.
“It’s like watching a movie unfold when I sit down to write and give life to these characters,” she said.
She has taken writing classes through the Institute of Children’s Literature. While she owns the publishing company, she outsources the book’s formatting and cover design.
She has the books available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble online. The books are also at the Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport, where she had a book-signing last Saturday.
CassanoLochman lives by Lake Ontario on Lomond Shores. She is active with the United Shoreline group that has held several events and protests for residents effected by the Lake Ontario flooding this past year.
She said being by the water has been inspirational, especially for her spiritual verses.
“The Town of Kendall itself is a very beautiful place,” she said. “It’s a community in the very best sense where I know my neighbors.”
By Mike Wertman, Sports Writer Posted 26 December 2017 at 9:56 am
Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Albion’s Vincent Zona and his Purple Eagle teammates will be competing in the Batavia Lions Club Tournament at GCC, one of several holiday tourneys on tap this week.
Basketball and wrestling tournaments will take the high school sports spotlight during this holiday week.
The Albion boys basketball squad will take on Batavia at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the opening round of the Batavia Lions Club Tournament at Genesee Community College. Notre Dame will face Elba in the second game. The consolation and championship games will be Friday evening.
Also on Wednesday, the Roy-Hart girls will face CSAT in the opening round of the Tonawanda Tournament and the Barker girls will take on Rochester Academy Charter in the first round of the Pembroke Tournaments. Both tourney are slated to conclude on Thursday.
On Friday, Holley will host rival Kendall in the opening round the Hawks Holiday Tournament at 7 p.m. Geneseo will face Rochester Academy Charter in the first game at 5:30 p.m. The consolation and championship games will be held on Saturday at 5:30 and 7 p.m..
The Holley wrestlers will host their annual Holiday Duals Tournament on Thursday beginning at 10 a.m. The tournament field will include Albion and Lyndonville.
Weekly Schedule Wednesday Boys Basketball – GCC Tournament (Albion vs. Batavia, 8 p.m.; Elba vs. Notre Dame, 6:30 p.m.) Girls Basketball – Oakfield-Alabama at Medina, 7 p.m.; Roy-Hart vs. CSAT at Tonawanda Tournament, 1 p.m.; Barker vs. RAC at Pembroke Tournament, 5 p.m.
Thursday Boys Basketball – Rochester Prep at Lyndonville, 6:30 p.m. Girls Basketball: Rochester Prep at Lyndonville, 5 p.m. Wrestling: Holley Tournament, 10 a.m.
Friday Boys Basketball: Medina vs. St. Paul, Ontario at Villa Maria College, 6:30 p.m. Kendall vs. Holley at Holley Tournament, 7 p.m.; GCC Tournament 6:30 and 8 p.m.
Saturday Boys Basketball – Holley Tournament, 5:30 and 7 p.m.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 25 December 2017 at 12:53 pm
Filomena’s Favorites takes first in competition
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – Many of the storefronts in downtown Medina are decorated for Christmas with Santa, snowmen and other holiday decorations on display.
Filomena’s Favorites, pictured at top, on East Center Street was named the winner of the “Holly Jolly Christmas Window Decorating Contest” by the Medina Business Association.
This is also part of Filomena’s Favorites window display.
Here are some of the other windows that were decked out for the holidays.
Vision 2000 Family Hair Center & Sunburst Tanning
English Rose Tea Shoppe
Canalside Tattoo
ATB Staffing
Rosenkrans Gift Shop
Della’s Chocolates
Case-Nic Cookies
Eaton Insurance Agency
A Kut Above Hair Salon
M & M Flooring
Brushstrokes, The Goddess Muse, Herbalty Cottage and West Side Academy
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 25 December 2017 at 12:09 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – Rotary Park in Medina has been turned into the North Pole with a Santa House, reindeer and a sleigh, a tall Christmas tree and other decorations. This photo was taken at about 8 p.m. on Sunday before several inches of snow fell.
A winter weather advisory remains in effect until 8 p.m. today in Orleans County and much of Western New York due to snow and blowing snow, according to the National Weather Service in Buffalo.
Up to 2 inches of snow could fall today in Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, Wayne, Northern Erie, Genesee, and Ontario counties.
Winds gusting as high as 50 miles per hour will cause areas of blowing and drifting snow, the Weather Service said.
Genesee County had a travel advisory this morning due to extremely high winds and poor road conditions. That advisory was lifted at 10 a.m.
Today is forecast for a high of 27. It will be colder the next few days with a 15 on Tuesday, 14 on Wednesday and 13 on Thursday.
Rudolph is lighted up on top of a building on East Center Street in Medina.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 25 December 2017 at 12:43 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – One Church made its debut in Medina on Christmas Eve with two services at the former Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Ann Street.
The building has been radically changed in the past three months by One Church as the building transitioned from a Catholic site that had been closed for more than a decade to a Free Methodist congregation.
Brian Hahn, executive pastor for One Church, welcomes people to the second Christmas Eve service that started at 8:30 p.m.
One Church shares the same staff and budget as the Akron Free Methodist Church. That church started in 1863 in Akron and changed its name to One Church as part of its new mission in Medina. The two sites are one, with Medina not a secondary location to Akron, Hahn said.
He praised volunteers for the numerous hours of work in getting the church ready the past three months.
There is a sound and multimedia area in the back of the church where there is also a station with coffee and cookies. The pews at Sacred Heart have been removed and replaced by cushioned chairs.
There is new paint and carpeting. The pulpit area also has a large screen for multimedia presentations. Twice a month the sermon will be streamed in from Akron and shown in Medina. The other weeks in the month, a pastor will deliver the sermon in Medina, and sometimes that will be live-streamed to Akron.
Morgan Wagner is part of the worship band at One Church. They sang, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night”.
Rick Rouse, lead pastor at One Church, delivers the sermon on Christmas Eve. He preached at four services at Akron and then two in Medina on Sunday.
Rouse said the Akron congregation felt a call to start a church in Medina. He has been in the ministry since 1982 and helped with church plants in Webster, Fairport and Amherst. Those new churches were all independent with a separate budget and staff. Medina is different because it s budget and staff are all in the same budget and organization with the Akron congregation.
Rouse said One Church wants to reach out to people “without a church home and who desire a relationship with Jesus Christ.”
One Church will have its grand opening with its first Sunday morning services on Jan. 7 with services at 9:30 and 11 a.m.
The large room that was a fellowship hall in the basement of the building has been divided into four separate classrooms or childcare rooms.
One of the rooms is a nursery for ages 0 to 3 years.
One of the church attendees on Christmas Eve lifted her hand during the music. One Church has an up-tempo band playing contemporary Christian music with some traditional hymns.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 24 December 2017 at 11:41 am
Photo by Tom Rivers: Peggy Barringer, second from left, is congratulated for winning the Orleans County tourism photo contest for 2017. Her photo of a fisherman and sailboat during a sunset at Point Breeze took the top prize among 85 entries. Her photo is featured for July in the new 2018 county tourism calendar. She is pictured with County Legislature Chairman John DeFilipps, left, Tourism Director Lynne Menz, and Legislator Ken DeRoller.
ALBION – The Orleans County Tourism Department has picked some of the best images from a photo contest and put them in a calendar of local sites.
The new calendar includes more than a dozen local images A panel of judges picked the top photos. The County Legislature on Wednesday congratulated Peggy Barringer of Albion for winning the annual contest for the second year in a row. Her image of a fisherman and sailboat during a sunset at Point Breeze was the grand prize winner. She also won in 2016 with an image of blossoms at Mount Albion Cemetery.
Barringer also won first place in the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor photo contest in 2015 for a picture of a great blue heron by the canal in Albion.
She said she has been taken photos seriously for about 25-30 years. She bought a good Pentax 35mm camera when her daughter Jasmine was born and keeps the camera close by.
“Going way back I was always the person who had the camera,” Barringer said.
She worked about 25 years in banking in Albion at Dime, Anchor, Washington Mutual and Chase. In 2009, she enrolled at Genesee Community College and earned a degree in digital arts, taking several photography classes.
Barringer now works in the business office at the Albion Correctional Facility. She runs a photo booth business part-time and continues to take many photos of local scenes.
“I find beauty in ordinary things,” she said.
This is Barringer’s winning photo in the 2017 county tourism contest.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 24 December 2017 at 10:00 am
A winter weather advisory has been issued for Orleans County from 5 p.m. today until 10 a.m. on Monday with another 4 to 7 inches of snow expected.
The National Weather Service in Buffalo issued the winter weather advisory for Orleans, Niagara, Monroe, Wayne, Genesee, Livingston, Ontario and northern Erie counties.
“Snow and blowing snow expected,” the Weather Service said. “Plan on difficult travel conditions.”
MEDINA – Cub Scouts from Pack 35 visited the Orchard Manor nursing home this morning to sing Christmas Carols and hand out Christmas cards to the residents.
“It’s about all the young boys like to read about and participate in,” CassanoLochman said.
She has taken writing classes through the Institute of Children’s Literature. While she owns the publishing company, she outsources the book’s formatting and cover design.
