Photo by Ginny Kropf: Family nurse practitioner Liz Gurnsey, center, is joined by two medical personnel at the Albion Healthcare Center. At left is Pamela Eaton, adult nurse practitioner, and at right is Marlo Castelo, physician assistant.

ALBION – The Albion Healthcare Center was established in 2012 with the aim of offering prompt medical assistance to the community.

Since then, it has evolved into a convenient hub, offering an expanding array of services, according to Scott Robinson, director of Marketing, Communication and Outreach at Orleans Community Health.

The site added two more medical professionals to meet increasing demand.

Joining Dr. Syed Raza, physician assistant Cheryl Kast and family nurse practitioner Liz Gurnsey are Marlo Castelo, physician assistant certified, and Pamela Eaton, adult nurse practitioner.

Castelo was born and raised in Puerto Rico, coming to Bethesda, Md. with her parents at the age of 12. She comes to Albion from Bethal, Alaska, a small town 400 miles west of Anchorage with a population of 500 people. She was their sole provider, she said. She treated new babies to 98-year-olds.

“It didn’t matter if they had a broken bone or chest pain, I took care of them,” she said. “It’s the same here. I’ll do whatever needs to be done. We had very little resources in Alaska. We had to improvise and do with what we had. We once made a cast out of bubble wrap.”

Castelo earned her bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and later completed her physician assistant degree at Nova Southeastern University. She recently concluded a fellowship in psychiatry at the University of California at Irvine, maintaining her NCCPA certification since graduation from physician assistant’s school in 2010.

With a diverse medical background, Castelo concentrated on family medicine, geriatric care, women’s health and psychiatry, encompassing areas such as substance abuse, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety during her tenure in Florida.

She spent three years in Alaska before deciding she wanted a change. Influencing her decision to settle in Western New York is the fact her brother plays viola with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. She visited him and liked the area.

“I put out my resume and a recruiter for Orleans Community Health reached out to me,” Castelo said.

She is currently living in Brockport until she can find a place closer to Albion.

Pamela Eaton joined the staff on Jan. 15. Eaton grew up in Middleport and obtained her master of science in nursing with a post master’s in adult and geriatric nurse practitioner. She has 22 years of experience serving the community, eight with Dr. Tom Madejski’s office.

A board-certified nurse practitioner, certified advanced aesthetic nurse practitioner and certified wellness and medical weight loss practitioner, Eaton has practiced in geriatric and adult internal medicine and has also worked for three years in hematology and oncology.

She brings a passion for healthcare, wellness and promoting a sense of well-being to her patients. As the owner of Hometown Wellness Center and Sii Bello Beauty Bar in Medina, she is also an advocate for health and wellness through events in the community.

“I love doing things for my community, and this was another opportunity to do that,” Eaton said.

Because of the influx of patients, the Albion clinic has pulled back on accepting walk-ins. The addition of two new providers will help alleviate that problem.

“We’re excited that we’ll be able to begin expanding walk-in services again,” Robinson said. “While walk-in services for patients who are ill won’t be every day, they can now call (585) 589-2273 to check on availability. This should only continue to improve. Walk-in services are still available for laboratory (blood draws) and X-ray, which do not require any calling ahead.”

Press Release, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and members of the Great Lakes Task Force today introduced the bipartisan Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2024, which extends this critical program for another five years through 2031, and increases annual funding levels from $475 million in 2026 to $500 million from 2027 through 2031.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) is the most significant investment ever made to restore and protect our Great Lakes and its watersheds, which continue to be stressed by contamination and threats to water quality, and are under increasing pressure from new invasive species, climate change, erosion, and habitat destruction.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has focused federal and nonfederal efforts to stop the spread of carp and other invasive species, restore coastline and habitats connecting our streams and rivers, clean up environmentally damaged Areas of Concern, prevent future contamination and address new and emerging threats to our lakes and waterways.

“The Great Lakes are an important natural, economic and recreational resource for New York,” Gillibrand said. “Not only must we protect the quality of the Great Lakes and connected waterways, but we must strengthen and improve them. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is a massive, multi-state investment in the future of the Great Lakes; it devotes significant resources and funding to ecosystem revitalization, which will simultaneously protect our natural resources and create jobs.”

 Supporters of this popular initiative includes both Democrats and Republicans. In the Senate, the bill is sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senator J.D. Vance, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Todd Young, Senator Gary Peters, Senator Tammy Duckworth, Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Tina Smith, Senator John Fetterman, Senator Chuck Schumer, and Senator Bob Casey.

House sponsors include Representative David Joyce, Representative Marcy Kaptur, Representative Bill Huizenga, Representative Debbie Dingell, Representative Gwen Moore, Representative Jack Bergman, Representative John Moolenaar, Representative Claudia Tenney, Representative Bryan Steil, Representative Haley Stevens, Representative John James, Representative Max Miller, Representative Brad Schneider, Representative Elissa Slotkin, Representative Lisa McClain, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, Representative Joseph Morelle, and Representative Mike Quigley.

The legislation also shares broad support among Great Lakes advocates, including: Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, Great Lakes Commission, Alliance for the Great Lakes, League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, The Nature Conservancy, National Audubon Society, American Sportfishing Association, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, American Great Lakes Ports Association, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Great Lakes Business Network, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Clean Wisconsin, Save the Dunes, Ohio Environmental Council, Ducks Unlimited and Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

MEDINA – Orleans Community Health is celebrating Valentine’s Day by offering an opportunity to the public to send their love and appreciation to a staff member who has made a significant impression.

For a $5 donation, a staff member’s name will be written on a heart which will be displayed in the hospital throughout February.

Orleans Community Health Foundation director Megan Johnson said this is the first year they have done this fundraiser. People can make their donation online or in the Foundation office.

“They do not need to come in to put a message or name on a heart,” Johnson said. “I will write it on there for them.”

Donations will benefit the Foundation, which in turn provides funds to support OCH in equipment or patient-related needs, Johnson said.

“We have already had hearts purchased to honor the Emergency Department, North Wing and a few specific RNs,” she added.

Wilma Lemcke aka Ann Mitchell has been a mainstay at jazz clubs in Rochester and Buffalo for many years

Photo by Jack Zuff: Ann Mitchell performs in a Buffalo jazz club.

SPENCERPORT – A Kendall native has just released her first jazz CD, “Again … for the first time” and it features timeless classics spanning the jazz era from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Wilma Lemcke graduated from Kendall in 1976, and has been performing as a jazz singer for many years in the Rochester and Buffalo. She performs under the name Ann Mitchell.

The Spencerport resident has been singing professionally for many years in a very competitive market.

The cover art for the album was designed by Karl Slominski, Ann Mitchell’s son.

“I’ve always followed my heart and passion with music,” she said during an interview by phone today.

Mitchell is a frequent guest on Jazz 90.1, and she performs in jazz clubs, restaurants, and at weddings and funerals in the Rochester and Buffalo region.

She has juggled her professional singing career with raising a family and working as a substitute music teacher. She pushed to get a CD done, and will have it available at her events for $15, and expects it will be in music stores.

“It’s a humbling feeling,” she said today about holding her CD. “You put your heart and soul into it. It’s been quite a journey.”

Lemcke grew up on Carr Road in Kendall. She graduated in 1976 when the country and local community were celebrating the bicentennial of the USA. That commemoration included a trip by Kendall music students to Philadelphia. It was a great year for the Kendall music program, she recalled.

Mitchell earned a degree in theater from SUNY Brockport. She then found her niche in jazz performance as the vocalist for the former bands, Brass Menagerie Big Band and Bob Ames & Co.

Mitchell then formed her own combo to focus her performance on the rich vocals of the jazz era’s timeless classics. Her focus has been to preserve and share music recorded by artists such as Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald, Julie London and Judy Garland.

Mitchell’s new album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Andy Calabrese. The songs recorded were written by Gershwin, Rogers and Hart, Coleman and Leigh, Warren, Bacharach.

The album include collaborations with musicians Michael Van Allen, John Gabriele, Kyle Vock, Christos Dembeyiotis and Ralph DeBergalis. Mitchell said they have a real understanding of her vocal style and song interpretation.

She will be performing this Saturday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Flight Wine Bar, 262 Exchange St., Rochester. The Ann Mitchell Jazz Trio will be featured in the Jazz 90.1 Greece Baptist Church Concert Series on at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15, at 1230 Long Pond Rd., Rochester.

Mitchell said she would welcome the chance to perform in Orleans County at a concert series. For more information, check her website www.annsings.com or send her an email at annmitchelljazz@gmail.com.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Wilma Lemcke sings “God Bless America” in Kendall on Sept. 29, 2019 when a new war memorial was dedicated at Kendall’s community park.

College students from Orleans County have made the Dean’s List for the fall semester at the University at Buffalo, SUNY Cortland and Hartwick College.

The following from Orleans were recognized for academic achievement at the University at Buffalo:

• Cam Bell of Albion
• Amaya Cancino of Holley
• Jaklin Mofardin of Lyndonville
• Arella Biesinger of Medina
• Brooklyn Brown of Medina
• Carter Green of Medina
• Elle Gross of Medina

The Dean’s List at SUNY Cortland includes the following from Orleans County:

• Paige Derisley of Waterport – Physical Education K-12
• Tessa Heideman of Lyndonville – Psychology
• Lacey Kenward of Medina – Early Childhood and Childhood Education (Birth-Grade 6)
• Olivia Morrison of Albion – Anthropology
• Xander Payne of Medina – Sport Management

Hartwick College in Oneonta also announced that Erin Kiefer, an English major from Lyndonville, was named to Fall 2023 Dean’s List. To qualify, students must complete at least 12 academic credits during a term with a grade point average of at least 3.50 and no incompletes.

Jake Jackson will compete in ‘Battle of the Junior Champions’ next month in Georgia

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Jake Jackson, a ninth grader at Lyndonville Central School, lines up the billiard balls on the pool table in his parent’s garage, where he practices every day after school. He recently qualified for the Joss Northeast 9 Ball Tour Final in August at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, making him the youngest ever to compete in this ProAm event.

MEDINA – Jake Jackson is not an average teenager.

Jake, who will be 15 on Feb. 9, doesn’t play video games and doesn’t constantly have his phone in hand. The son of Roger and Terah Jackson of Mill Road attends church regularly, excels in Boy Scouts, enjoys fishing, works out three days a week and maintains a 90 average in school.

One of his passions is playing pool and Jake is one of the top youth players in the country.

Jake has recently qualified for a prestigious billiards event in Villa Rica, Ga. in March, called “The Monica Web Battle of the Junior Champions.” Monica Web is a champion pool player. Only the top 20 players 18 and under from the USA and Canada are allowed to qualify for this event. Sponsored by the Billiard Education Foundation, the young players are required to keep high grades in school, have good manners and observe a dress code when competing.

Most of the kids competing here are home-schooled, Roger Jackson said, and practice 10 hours a day. He said a tournament can last 12 to 18 hours.

Jake grew up around a pool table, as his father used to compete in the sport. Roger said he played in one Pro-Am event for fun and won some local competitions in Buffalo and Rochester. They had a pool table in the garage and Jake was only 5 when he would come out and watch his father practice.

“He couldn’t even reach the table, yet,” Roger said.

Provided photos: (Left) Jake Jackson’s fascination with pool started when he so young he could hardly see over the table. (Right) Jake Jackson eyes the ball during a tournament last year. The ninth-grader at Lyndonville Central School hopes to become a professional pool player.

When he got big enough, Jake would play occasionally, but never took it seriously. He hadn’t touched a pool stick in a number of years when, at the age of 12, his parents took him to Curly’s in Lyndonville one Friday night for a fish fry.

“There were a bunch of fishermen in town for a fishing tournament, and Jake beat them pretty badly,” Roger said.

“I thought it was just beginner’s luck,” Roger said. “But watching him practice at home, I realized he was a natural.”

That prompted him to buy a regulation-size pool table, where Jake practices every day. His father said he soon couldn’t beat his son.

Jake has competed and won twice at a fundraiser for the Variety Kids’ Telethon at Bison Billiards at Eastern Hills Mall. He will compete there Saturday for a $5,000 first prize.

In August, Jake will be in the Joss Northeast 9 Ball Tour Final at Turning Stone Casino in Verona. He will be the youngest player ever to compete in this ProAm event, which has $40,000 in prizes.

Jake said his father has taught him a lot of the fundamentals, and he has learned from watching YouTube and reading his father’s books on billiards.

In his first big tournament in Philadelphia, Jake finished an impressive third. Last year, he beat the world champion in one game.

Roger is a mechanic at Medina Central School’s bus garage, and Jake’s mother owns Sal de Coiffure on Maple Ridge Road, but they still find time to take Jake to his competitions on weekends, going to Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, Philadelphia and last summer, making the trek to Kentucky.

The family would like to find a sponsor for Jake’s trips, and anyone who would like to contribute may do so on Jake’s Facebook page through Messenger. Or donations may be dropped off at Salon de Coiffure.

Jake hopes after outgrowing the Junior Tour, he can become a professional pool player.

Photos by Tom Rivers

SHELBY – Two balloons went up in Shelby today in an orchard along Route 63 to show the height of two wind turbines proposed by Borrego Solar System Inc.

The turbines would be located on land owned by the Smith family, south of the village of Medina. The turbines would peak at 633 feet.

The balloons are shown high in the sky from the Tops parking lot looking south from Maple Ridge Road. John Parada, a resident of nearby Furness Parkway, was in the parking trying to take photos of the balloons. They were hard to see looking into the bright sun.

Parada said he is concerned the turbines will loom large from nearby properties, and could cause property values to plummet.

He was surprised when he pulled into the Tops parking lot and saw how big the turbines would stand.

“You go to Tops and you’ll be staring right at them,” Parada said.

This photo is on Route 63 in Shelby Basin, looking north. One of the balloons is clearly visible.

The two balloons were up from noon to 2 p.m. today, and needed approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Town Supervisor Scott Wengewicz said the town requested the two balloons go up to show the height of the turbines from different vantage points in the community.

Borrego hasn’t notified the town when the company plans to complete an environmental study, the State Environmental Quality Review Act. Borrego and Shelby held a hearing on that in September 2022, but it was tabled at 10 p.m. and hasn’t been continued.

Residents at that hearing said the two turbines would alter the landscape visually, and also potentially harm residents with shadow flicker, noise, lower property values and other impacts. They also worry the turbines are in a major migratory bird path.

The turbines as proposed would take up a half-acre and have the capacity to generate 8.4 megawatts of power.

Provided photo and press release

NIAGARA FALLS – Lt. Col. Justin Cecchini of Medina on Jan. 20 was promoted to commander of the 136th Attack Squadron.

Cecchini serves as the Director of Operation for the 136th Attack Squadron (Air National Guard) at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station. In this role Cecchini plays a pivotal role in ensuring effective planning, coordination, and execution of all training and combat flying operations.

He is responsible for overseeing the operational readiness and leading 97 personnel while providing strategic guidance to the 136th Squadron and 107th Operations Group Commanders that ensures the alignment of operational activities with the Combatant Commanders’ objectives.

Cecchini collaborates closely with other service branches, allied forces, and interagency partners to synchronize operational efforts and enhance joint operations. Cecchini has been instrumental in planning,  coordinating, and executing all training and combat operations, contributing significantly to the squadron’s success in its persistent MQ-9 Operational Mission. He also maintains qualification as an MQ-9 Instructor and Evaluator Pilot, where he performs evaluations and instruction support to several squadron functions.

Lt. Col. Cecchini began his military career in March 2001, enlisting with the 107th Air Refueling Wing as a KC-135 Aircraft Mechanic Journeyman, and his dedication and skill were evident. A 2003 graduate of SUNY College at Brockport, he was commissioned in 2008 through the Air National Guard’s Academy of Military Science commissioning program.

After commissioning and as a C-130 Navigator with the 107th Operation Group, he led the operations Support Squadron flying training section from 2009 to 2014. He later became the Assistant Chief of Tactics, directly responsible for establishing weapons tactics, techniques and procedures and technical instruction on the employment of MQ-9 aircraft weapons.

His career progressed through significant roles within the 107th Operations Group, holding key positions such as Flight Training Officer, Assistant Chief of Tactics, and, more recently, Assistant Director of  Operations.

Cecchini and his wife Julie have two sons and a daughter. Joe is a 2022 Medina graduate and Jack is a senior and graduates in June with the Class of 2024. Jenna is a seventh-grader.

Photos courtesy of Holley Central School

HOLLEY – A group of Holley students and staff took the Polar Plunge on Sunday, going into the cold water of Lake Ontario.

The Holley group raised $2,327 for the Special Olympics. The 15 Holley students are in the Student Council and the Interact Club.

Jim DiSessa, the High School Student Council advisor, has led the Holley group for about a decade in the Plunge. The group was also joined on Sunday by Principal Matt Feldman and six faculty members.

“It makes a difference when you have staff members who are encouraging students to give back to the community, getting involved with them and showing up for them,” DiSessa said.

There were 1,800 people who took the plunge at Ontario Beach Park and set a new record raising $360,000.

DiSessa said the plunge has become an annual tradition for Holley.

“Our students enjoy doing the Polar Plunge because it raises money for and helps bring awareness to a great cause, the Special Olympics,” he said. “I think students enjoy the event because it is different, which makes it fun.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – Tim Elliott, a Medina village trustee, and Jesse Cudzillo, director of the YMCA in Orleans County, are shown with the “Medinaopoly” games in 1995 and 2000.

Elliott and Cudzilo are spearheading the effort for a new Medinaopoly game with proceeds to be donated to the YMCA, PAWS Animal Shelter and the Knights-Kaderli Memorial Fund.

Elliott last week starting reaching out to businesses, first the brick-and-mortar sites in the historic downtown, to sponsor a space on the board. The spots have been selling fast. Elliott said there are still many opportunities for businesses to be included on the board.

“It preserves Medina history and provides a snapshot,” Cudzilo said about the local business landscape. “It’s unique and novel.”

There are 36 board spaces at $165 each, four corner spaces at $200, four cards for $300, and then a list where businesses will be included without a graphic for $50.

The Journal-Register, a former daily newspaper in Medina, claimed one of the corner spots in the 1995 game.

The Medina Rotary Club led the effort in 1995 and 2000 to sell the spaces on the board and to make the games available to the community.

Elliot and Cudzilo said the minimum order of games is 350. They are trying to get a sense of how many will sell, whether they should order above the minimum. Games can be preordered for $35. Canalside Tattoo has them available for preorder on the Canalside website.

Elliott and Cudzilo expect the games will be available in September.

The downtown especially has seen quite a change since the last game came out in 2000, although many in that game remain.

“It needs to be updated,” said Elliott, the former owner of Brushstrokes Studios and also Into the Enigma. “I was also looking to give back to the community and the businesses. It will also make a great Christmas gift.”

For more information, contact Elliott at (585) 735-5953 and Cudzilo at (585) 465-6917. Company graphics and questions also can be emailed to Cudzilo at jcudzilo@glowymca.org.

Eliott anticipates the game will raise about $10,000, with half going to the YMCA and 25 percent each to PAWS and Knights-Kaderli. Eliott said the Y has led several projects in the village, including the development of a new 9-hole disc golf course and a new welcome kiosk at the Canalside Basin.

Cudzilo said the funds will go towards updating the women’s locker room.

The board from 2000 included an image of the iconic Canal Culvert in Ridgeway. The new game may feature a dominant image of Medina’s downtown.

Photos and press release from Roy-Hart Central School

MIDDLEPORT – Royalton-Hartland Middle School is so grateful for the number of volunteers who showed up on Nov. 11 to help build a garden shed.

Many community members, such as the Royalton-Hartland Agriculture Foundation, students, staff and neighbors, spent a cold Saturday constructing the building. Additionally, many were called on to provide nourishment, donate building materials and/or their time to help our Farm to School committee with this project.

Roy-Hart was the recipient of a USDA grant for outdoor growing spaces that is still in the process of being developed. This building and growing area at the middle school will help build a bridge between the agriculture, technology and science curriculum at the elementary and that of our nationally acclaimed high school program.

This past June, the Royalton-Hartland Middle School was awarded a $5,000 stipend from New York State’s Farm to School Institute. Our Farm to School committee agreed to use a portion of that award to pay for the materials for the shed after Dominick Ciliberto, owner of All Metal Works, donated ten raised garden beds.

“We purchased all of our materials locally from Newfane Lumber and All Metal Works,” explained Principal Wendy Schlosser. “Newfane Lumber was generous enough to waive the delivery fee and donate the windows. We want to extend a special thank you to Tommy Brigham, who donated the cement, Barden Homes, who donated the door and Tony Marvin and his Roy-Hart ground crew who prepared the site for the concrete as well as wood chipping the area to place our garden beds to keep our weeds down for easier maintenance.”

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Dr. Michael Richmond, an astronomy and physics professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, on Saturday at Hoag Library discussed the upcoming total eclipse on April 8, the first total solar eclipse in Western New York in nearly a century. The last one was on Jan. 24, 1925.

In a total solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and earth, completely blocking the face of the sun. Orleans County is in the path of totality.

During the eclipse on April 8 at about 2 p.m., a little bite obstructing the sun will gradually get bigger and bigger until the moon will fully block out the sun from about 3:18 to 3:22 p.m. The partial eclipse ends at about 4:30 p.m.

During the four minutes of totality, the sun may look like a halo with the blockage of the moon.

“It’s unreal,” Richmond told about 75 people during a presentation at Hoag Library. “The sky will be completely dark, except the glowing corona. It’s one of the things in the natural world that makes people go, ‘Awesome!’”

Hoag Library’s main meeting room was full on Saturday with people wanting to hear about the upcoming solar eclipse.

Richmond said the area will see a big influx of visitors. The Rochester region anticipates 300,000 to 500,000 people in the area to see the eclipse.

Tonya Lustumbo of Carlton attended the lecture. She traveled to Nebraska on Aug. 21, 2017 to see the spectacle.

“The moment of the eclipse was very memorable,” she said. “It was surreal. It was awesome to see.”

Lustumbo on Saturday was wearing a shirt promoting the April 8 eclipse. She has bought 100 solar-viewing glasses and mailed them to friends and family.

Richmond shows a slide detailing the path of totality, which goes through Western New York on April 8.

A potential detriment on April 8 to viewing the eclipse: cloudy weather.

“If it’s overcast and rainy, it will be as if there is no eclipse at all and you’ll be very sad,” Richmond told the crowd.

Sue Starkweather Miller shared a headline from the Medina Journal-Register, the day after the Jan. 24, 1925 eclipse. The eclipse started at 9:09 a.m. and some businesses didn’t open until 9:30 so employees could be outside for the eclipse. Except the weather didn’t cooperate.

“Clouds prevent view of eclipse,” the newspaper reported the next day.

Richmond said he is hoping for clear skies on April 8 so the region can see the solar spectacle.

Debbie Restivo, left, and Nancy Mack wear solar-viewing glasses which were given away for free on Saturday at the library. The cost is covered by the Solar Eclipse Activities for Libraries (SEAL) program, which is providing 5 million of the glasses to 10,000 libraries.

MEDINA – The leader of Orleans Community Health said a 3-year labor contract with employees will help ensure OCH will continue to offer healthcare services for years to come.

Marc Shurtz

The new three-year contract covers hospital and clinic workers at Medina Memorial Hospital, the Lake Plains Batavia Dialysis Clinic and the Albion Healthcare Center.

Marc Shurtz, the OCH chief executive officer, issued a statement this afternoon after the union announced the labor agreement.

“This is the outcome we all hoped to achieve and we’re pleased with the end result,” Shurtz said. “During this process, Orleans Community Health conducted extensive market research to make sure that our wages and benefits would help recruit and retain staff in this highly competitive market.

“As the largest employer in Orleans County employing over 300 individuals, we understand the importance of our economic impact to the surrounding communities,” he said. “This contact recognizes that our team is our most valuable asset and its ratification will help to ensure we are here to serve the community for years to come.”

The new three-year union contract provides for a $17 per hour minimum starting rate for new hires. Healthcare workers won general wage increases from 3% to 20% in the first year, and an additional 3% in the second year and 5% in the third year, stated 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.

In addition to general wage increases, some positions will see an increase in base rate of pay to help retain and recruit more workers into those positions. Healthcare workers will also get an increase in preceptor pay, the union said in a news release.

“Workers also won increases in shift and weekend differentials, one additional day out of town bereavement, and MLK and Juneteenth as paid holidays starting in 2025,” 1199SEIU said. “Union members will also maintain their access to 1199SEIU Training & Upgrading Benefit Fund.”

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Aeddon Cayea, a 2017 graduate of Medina High School, has landed a new job with United Way of Orleans County and is celebrating the launch of his first book.

MEDINA – Life is good for Aeddon Cayea.

Not only has the young man landed a prestigious job as grant writer/deputy director of United Way of Orleans County, but he is about to launch his first book with a celebration at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at Author’s Note Book Store, immediately following the Otherworlds Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Club.

Cayea’s debut novel is “Struck Down on the Seventh: An Exorcism Performed by an Idiot.”

“We are so excited to celebrate him and to be the host and home for his first of undoubtedly many books to come,” said Author’s Note owner Julie Berry.

Cayea said his writing began as the result of an assignment in high school, when he had to write several chapters out of a novel.

“It kind of got away from me,” he said. “I was always interested in spirituality.”

The first part of his book really wrote itself, Cayea said. “It very quickly took on a life of its own.”

The first draft took him about a month, but then he tinkered with it for the next five years, on and off.

“I’d pick it up and put it down, then maybe two years later go back and work on it again,” he said.

The book was released Jan. 15, and he is already working on a sequel. He has completed about five-eighths of the first draft, he said.

“My first book was suitable for me to write when I was 18, but this book will be suitable for me when I am 25,” he said.

He describes his book as “an adult work of magical realism.”

“’Struck Down on the Seventh’ follows Phaethon, a moody college student, as a mysterious tome draws him into a world where the divine is not so far away as is often imagined,” Cayea explained. “Exploring similar spaces to works like Neil Galman’s ‘The Sandman’ and David Lynch’s ‘Twin Peaks’ television series, the novel navigates the travails of a clever but critically flawed individual as he strives to balance aethereal visions and brute facts. Balancing the indiscretions of youth with revelations of mystical theology, Phaethon forges ahead hoping to fare better than his namesake.”

The book is available at Author’s Note in Medina or from the publisher’s website at blackmoonpublishing.com.

Cayea graduated from Medina High School in 2017 and Emerson College in 2021 with a degree in religious studies and Asian studies. After returning home to Medina he joined the Americorps  program for a year, working at Orleans County Cornell Cooperative Extension. During that time he wrote grants and worked at the fair. When the year ended, he went to work at Lowe’s in Brockport while pursuing other work.

He had become acquainted with Nyla Gaylord, executive director of United Way of Orleans County, who realized Cayea’s talent. At the she needed someone to do outreach for the Connect Orleans Initiative.

“After a month or two of that, she thought I could be of more help,” Cayea said. “They needed a grant writer, and here I am. I have a job I love in my home town. I appreciate the flexibility and novelty of the job. It’s a new challenge every day. I feel a strong connection to my community and I’m happy to come back to Medina to live and work.”

“This job enables me to help my community,” he added. “I got a taste for non-profits, and what I like about United Way is how we are constantly looking for ways to help the community. As an organization nationwide, United Ways are at a crossroads, but in Orleans County we are taking that as an opportunity more than a risk.”