Press Release, Orleans County Sheriff Chris Bourke
SHELBY – At approximately 1:04 a.m. on August 31, personnel from the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office responded to South Gravel Road in the Town of Shelby to assist the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office with a domestic incident investigation. The incident, which occurred in the Town of Alabama, involved a report of a possible gunshot.
According to initial reports, a female victim was being followed by her ex-boyfriend in a vehicle. It was alleged that the male may have displayed and possibly discharged a firearm during the incident.
While at a residence on South Gravel Road, law enforcement observed a vehicle matching the suspect’s description traveling westbound through the intersection of South Gravel Road and Blair Road. Deputies from the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office located the vehicle, conducted a felony traffic stop, and detained the male suspect without incident.
No firearm was recovered, and contrary to early reports, no vehicle pursuit took place.
The male suspect was subsequently turned over to the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office, as criminal charges are being pursued in connection with the original incident.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 September 2025 at 3:13 pm
RIDGEWAY – A Batavia man was killed after he struck a utility pole around midnight on Route 104 in Ridgeway, Orleans County Sheriff Chris Bourke said today.
Brad Ohlson, 48, hit the pole and his vehicle caught fire, Bourke said. Deputies responded and the vehicle was fully engulfed in flames at 12623 Ridge Road.
Live power lines also fell across the roadway and around the vehicle, preventing emergency personnel from immediately reaching it, Bourke said.
National Grid crews arrived and disconnected power, allowing Ridgeway firefighters to extinguish the blaze.
Ohlson was located inside the vehicle and was pronounced deceased at the scene. He was transported to the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office for further examination.
The preliminary investigation indicates the vehicle was traveling westbound on Ridge Road at a high rate of speed when it left the roadway, striking several fixed objects before overturning and catching fire, Bourke said.
Multiple properties sustained damage, including utility poles, a mailbox, fencing and a tree.
The Orleans County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by Ridgeway Fire Company, National Grid, Batavia Police Department, and the Orleans County Coroner’s Office. This incident remains under investigation.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 September 2025 at 12:17 pm
Dr. Lamb says GCC has $86 million economic impact in GLOW
Dr. Craig Lamb, president of GCC
ALBION – The president of Genesee Community College said the local college is adapting to changing needs in the community to better prepare students for the workforce and their educational journeys.
Dr. Craig Lamb said GCC has expanded beyond traditional academics to meet workforce development needs. It is offering technology training programs in industrial electric, plumbing, CNC machining, welding, HVAC-R (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration).
GCC also has redesigned a two-year associate degree in cybersecurity, which Lamb said prepares students for high-demand careers in digital security.
“These programs are designed to connect students directly to good-paying jobs and support the economic vitality of our region,” he said during a recent presentation to the County Legislature.
Lamb said GCC strives to make college affordable. Tuition and student fees were not increased in 2025-26, he said.
GCC is also part of the SUNY Reconnect program, which opens the door for students ages 25 to 55 to return to college. Eligible students in the select degree programs will have their tuition, fees, books and supplied covered through SUNY Reconnect. Lamb said the initiative “removes financial barriers and makes college more accessible than ever.”
The GCC programs included in the program include Alcohol & Substance Abuse Studies; Computer Information Systems; Computer Support & Operations; Computerized Drafting & Design; Cybersecurity, Systems and Networking; Health Studies; Liberal Arts & Sciences: Teacher Education Transfer; Nursing; Physical Therapist Assistant; Respiratory Care; and Web Design. Click here for more information.
He noted GCC has a total economic impact of $86.4 million in the GLOW region.
“That includes student spending, workforce development and the ripple effects of ur graduates contributing to local industries,” Lamb said. “GCC is not just an educational institution – it’s an economic engine.”
GCC has a campus center in Medina which is the busiest of the campus centers in GLOW, not including the main campus in Batavia.
The college is eager to partner with the community by supporting local initiatives or developing customized training programs, Lamb told the legislators.
“We are proud to maintain a strong relationship with Orleans County, and we’re always open to new partnerships,” he said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 September 2025 at 10:53 am
Several colleges and universities have sent notices to the Orleans Hub, highlighting students on the Dean’s List for the spring semester.
SUNY Oswego recognized two Orleans County residents as high academic achievers on its President’s List and Deans’ List.
Miles W. Hartway of Medina, majoring in wellness management, made the President’s List with a GPA at 3.8 or higher.
Alex E. Stahl of Medina, majoring in operations management and information systems, made the Dean’s List with a GPA between 3.3 and 3.79.
SUNY Cortland’s Dean’s List includes students with a GPA at 3.3 or higher.
Xander Payne of Medina, majoring in Sport Management, and Nathan Sherman of Medina, majoring in Business Economics, both made the list.
The University at Albany has recognized Jacey Sills Merkl of Medina for making the Dean’s List.
Finger Lakes Community College reports Erik Coleman of Holley and Bryan Hardenbrook of Kendall made the Dean’s List.
Hartwick College in Oneonta congratulated Erin Kiefer, an English major, of Lyndonville for making the Dean’s List.
Houghton University has honored two students in Orleans County for making the Dean’s List. Clara Bolton of Albion and Lydia Scharlau of Medina both had GPAs between 3.75 – 3.99 for the semester.
SUNY New Paltz announced that Drayven Oakes of Medina and Danielle Wyant of Albion made the Dean’s List with GPAs at 3.3 or higher.
Iowa State University congratulated Zachary Fike of Medina for making the Dean’s List. Fike is majoring in Agronomy.
Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio, also congratulated Kayleigh Neale of Holley for graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Education: Early Childhood Education.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 September 2025 at 10:24 am
The average price for regular unleaded gas is up 3 cents nationally and state-wide in the past week, AAA reported, with the national average at $3.19 and the state-wide average at $3.18.
A year ago the national average was at $3.33 while it was $3.47 in the state.
AAA said flooding in the Midwest has caused a refinery issue resulting in a price increase in the past week, but prices have stabilized in the past couple of days.
“Overall, gas prices remain consistently lower than a year ago,” AAA said.
Here are the average prices today for regular unleaded in WNY counties:
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 September 2025 at 8:30 am
Group gets rare look inside chapel with striking stained-glass windows
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – A group of about 75 people walk by a statue of Joseph on Sunday evening during a tour of St. Joseph’s Cemetery on East Avenue.
This was the fifth and final cemetery tour of August. The Orleans County Historical Association organized the tours that also included Mount Albion, Robinson Cemetery in Clarendon, Millville Cemetery in Shelby and Greenwood Cemetery in Kendall.
Catherine Cooper, Orleans County historian, led the tour with Susan Starkweather Miller, the Village of Albion historian. Cooper is shown by the monument for the Cunneen family, including John Cunneen.
Cunneen, an Irish immigrant, came to the Albion community at age 12 in 1860, traveling by himself from Ireland. He made it to Albion by packet boat along the Erie Canal, joining cousins in Gaines. Cunneen would became a lawyer and served as attorney general for the state in 1903 and 1904. There is a historic marker about Cunneen at his former home on Platt Street, across from the County Jail.
Cunneen died in 1907 at age 58 of pneumonia. He was a lawyer in Buffalo at the time. The Bishop of Buffalo accompanied the body on a funeral train to Albion.
He was buried in the older St. Joseph’s Cemetery on Brown Road. When the new cemetery opened in 1920, Cunneen’s family agreed to have his grave moved to the new cemetery. The parish priest at the time encouraged people to move their relatives from old St. Joseph’s and offered them favorable terms. He secured a coup when the Cunneen family agreed to have John Cunneen’s body reinterred in a prominent place at the new cemetery.
Cunneen’s wife Elizabeth was buried at Mount Albion in 1917. Being a Presbyterian, she wasn’t allowed to be buried at the Catholic cemetery.
The tour on Sunday gave the public a rare opportunity to go inside the chapel at the cemetery. It has four stained-glass windows made by Frohe Stained Glass of Buffalo. Bill Lattin, retired cunty historian, wrote a book about the local stained-glass windows, Luminaries in the Firmanent.
“Truly these are amazing windows,” Lattin said.
They depict the birth of Jesus, the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension.
The chapel is 38 feet by 24 feet and is made of local Medina Sandstone. The building was big enough to fit about 50 people comfortably.
This photo shows the chapel in back and a 16-foot-high cross in front that depicts the crucifixion of Jesus. Below Jesus are Mary Magdalene, Saint John the Baptist and Mary, the Blessed Mother.
Sue Starkweather Miller speaks about Joseph A. Dibley Sr., a blacksmith who also created the world’s largest rolling pin in 1929 when a 3-ton apple pie was made, setting a new record at the time. Charles Howard, founder of a Santa School, led the pie-making effort.
The rolling pin is 4 feet long and weighs 60 pounds. Dibley’s great-granddaughter Loraine Dibley brought the rolling pin to the tour on Sunday.
Dibley’s blacksmith shop was on West Bank Street, the site of the current Gotta Dance studio.
Catherine Cooper talks about the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Francis Sullivan, who served as parish priest in Albion for just over 50 years. A native of Hartland in Niagara County, Msgr. Francis Sullivan was pastor of St. Joseph’s Church from May 19, 1897 to Dec. 13, 1946. During his time in Albion, he celebrated more than 26,000 Masses, performed 660 marriages and 2,017 baptisms.
The first Catholic cemetery in Albion was on Brown Road in Gaines. The 3-acre site was purchased by Father Castaldi in 1873 and named Holy Cross Cemetery but was referred to as St. Joseph’s Cemetery, now St. Joseph’s old cemetery.
Msgr. Sullivan felt the old cemetery was too far outside the village. He saw prominent people selecting Mt. Albion for their final resting place and he felt deceased Catholics should also be entitled to a prominent final resting place, Cooper said.
When Msgr. Sullivan arrived in Albion in 1897, he saw a completed new church structure on West Park Street, but a parish that was deeply in debt. Sullivan led the parish in clearing the debt, and then in building the lyceum, convent, rectory and a sexton’s house. In 1920, he purchased the 14 acres for the new cemetery and chapel.
He also served on the Albion Board of Education for 18 years and was on the building committee for construction of grammar school on Academy Street.
During his time in Albion, he celebrated more than 26,000 Masses, performed 660 marriages and 2,017 baptisms. He was able to persuade the local quarrymen to nearly give the sandstone for the new chapel.
David Snell shares about his father, Peter Snell, who was abandoned and left as an orphan in Buffalo. Young Peter was known as “Billy Knight” before he was adopted by an Albion family at age 4. The display shows Peter’s baptismal clothes when he was adopted by his family.
Peter would go on to serve in World War II. He survived abandonment and the Great Depression before starting a real estate business in 1957 that David continues to operate on Main Street in Albion. Peter passed away in 2000.
The tour highlighted Pasquale DiLaura, who was a key owner and proponent of Medina Sandstone after most of the quarries had closed by 1920. DiLaura kept the Medina Sandstone industry alive in Orleans County from the 1920s through the 1960s.
He was a member of the Albion branch of the Journeymen Stone Cutters Association of North America. His ribbon from the union was passed around on Sunday’s tour.
DiLaura bought the O’Brien Quarry on Howard Road in Clarendon. He kept his employees paid during the Great Depression even when there was little work to be done.
The DiLaura Stone Co. did the Medina Sandstone work on the bridges and culverts on the Lake Ontario State Parkway in the 1950s and 1960s, perhaps the last major public works project with local Medina Sandstone.
In the 1920s and ’30s, DiLaura was urged to leave the Albion area and join many of his quarrymen friends who left the area to the work in the auto factories in Detroit and Michigan.
DiLaura decided to stay put. He bought the quarry in Clarendon. DiLaura kept promoting the product and gave it about 40 more years of life.
He wrote letters to U.S. senators and the Works Progress Administration in Washington, D.C., urging them to pick a project with Medina Sandstone for the public benefit. DiLaura led the crews that built the Hamlin Beach State Park. He taught the young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps how to cut stone. Many of those structures endure about 80 years after they were built.
DiLaura was among a large group of quarrymen who came to Orleans County from Alfedena, Italy. DiLaura’s forefathers were stone cutters for 950 years, working on projects in Italy, Starkweather said.
DiLaura also was the first Italian elected to the Albion Board of Education. He served in that role for 30 years.
“He was truly a champion of this area and this community,” Starkweather said.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 September 2025 at 12:14 pm
This image of Robert Brown was part of a military recognition tribute at the Buffalo Bills game last month.
ORCHARD PARK – Robert Brown, a 2003 Medina graduate, was recognized during the Buffalo Bills home preseason game on Aug. 9 against the New York Giants.
Brown was able to stand on the field and be acknowledged by the crowd at the end of the third quarter. A 90-second tribute to his military service was shown on the big screens of Highmark Stadium.
Brown now lives in Buffalo with his wife and four children. He is retiring in November after a 20-year career on active duty with the U.S. Navy.
Chief Petty Officer Brown entered the Navy in 2005. He trained in Hospital Corpsman “A” School that is fundamental for Navy medical personnel. His first assignment was at the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla.
He deployed to Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba and then completed Field Medical Training Battalion C School in North Carolina. He was deployed as a senior corpsman to Iraq in 2007.
He was then the leading chief petty officer at Balboa Hospital in San Diego. Brown is currently serving out of the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station.
Robert Brown waves to the crowd at the Buffalo Bills game on Aug. 9.
Dr. Clark Godshall, retired Orleans-Niagara BOCES District Superintendent, was recently elected as President of the National Association of Commodores with the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary at the group’s national meeting in Dallas, Texas.
The all-volunteer U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, created by act of Congress in 1939 to assist the U.S. Coast Guard, conducts vital missions of Homeland Security and Maritime Public Safety. Auxiliarists perform myriad duties and provide critical services throughout the United States and its territories.
Godshall, a Barker resident, cites his prior educational leadership positions having well prepared him for the diversity of missions which he will administer in support of the USCG and Auxiliary.
“My past 20 years of volunteer service to the USCG Auxiliary well positions me to act in support of the emerging critical national missions of the USCG including the over $25 billion recently targeted for new equipment and recruitment efforts,” Godshall said. “It is a natural continuation of my community service commitments that I previously rendered at the O-N BOCES.”
The USCG Auxiliary serves as the Coast Guard’s “Executive Agent” for the Coast Guard’s Recreational Boating Safety programs. The Auxiliary’s expertise in safety programs is a key national asset, not only for the safety of boaters but also for the safety of ports and waterways as well as educating the public on the importance of their partnership in maintaining a vigil in the maritime environment for any threats to our Homeland Security.
The National Association of Commodores (NAC) mission is to support, identify and assist the National Board of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and their 19,000 members by advancing the programs of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and the active duty.
Photos from Orleans County Sheriff’s Office: Allen Turner has worked his last shift in the 9-1-1 dispatch center for the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office.
Press Release, Sheriff Christopher M. Bourke
ALBION – While his official last day is a few weeks away, Sheriff Christopher M. Bourke and the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office would like to recognize and congratulate Communications Coordinator Allen Turner on his retirement after 33 years of dedicated service to our agency and community. Allen worked his last shift on August 31.
Allen began his career with the Sheriff’s Office in 1992 and served with professionalism, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to public safety. His leadership and knowledge have been instrumental in the development and modernization of our communications systems, helping to keep our deputies, local law enforcement, fire, EMS, and the public safe.
Allen’s calm presence, wealth of experience, and willingness to mentor others have left a lasting impact. He will be remembered not only for his technical expertise, but also for his steady leadership and dedication to serving Orleans County.
On behalf of Sheriff Bourke, the men and women of the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office, and the citizens of Orleans County – thank you, Allen, for 33 years of service. We wish you a long, healthy, and happy retirement.
Please join us in congratulating Communications Coordinator Allen Turner on this well-earned milestone!
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 August 2025 at 4:56 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
HULBERTON – A “50” display of balloons is set up at the food court at the St. Rocco’s Italian Festival in Hulberton today.
The annual event, now in its 50th year, is always the Sunday before Labor Day and features lots of Italian food.
A crowd of people enjoys Italian food, a large basket raffle, and other fun at the Italian Festival. There was also a bocce tournament and other activities.
The event is a fundraiser for the St. Mary’s Catholic Parish.
The event today included a special tribute to the immigrant quarrymen. Hulberton was home to several large quarries.
This cutout was made by Stacey Kirby. Allyson Skeehan, 22, and Karl Biedlingmaier, 22, tried the cutouts. The two have recently got engaged.
Father Mark Noonan, the parish priest, said he is pleased to see the festival grow and build on the heritage of the Italian immigrants and Saint Rocco.
Roxie’s Accordion Band from Batavia played a concert during the festival. The band include eight accordion players.
They performed in a “Legacy Tent” that also included a documentary on the quarrymen from Hulberton. Christine Zinni of Batavia prepared that video about the local Italian immigrants and the Hulberton quarries.
Sara Mendonca, left, and Rachel Maxon were busy serving eggplant parmesan and spaghetti. Volunteers had 225 meals ready.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 August 2025 at 11:34 am
Summer tours end this evening at St. Joseph’s Cemetery on East Avenue in Albion
Photos courtesy of Susan Starkweather Miller: Orleans County Historian Catherine Cooper speaks last Sunday at Greenwood Cemetery at a plot for one of the Norwegian families that settled in Kendall about 200 years ago.
KENDALL – About 30 people attended last Sunday’s tour of Greenwood Cenetery in Kendall. The tour put a special emphasis on some of the Norwegian settlers who came to Kendall beginning in 1825.
The Orleans County Historical Association has been leading cemetery tours each Sunday at 6 p.m. during August. The torus conclude today at St. Joseph’s Cemtery on East Avenue in Albion.
Tour guides at Greenwood noted the Kendall cemetery has links to this year’s Orleans County bicentennial celebration.
Catherine Cooper, the county historian, shared notes on some of people highlighted on the tour:
Felix Augur donated the land for this cemetery. Born in Lisbon, Ct. in 1759, he served in the Revolutionary War. He and his family moved to the area now known as Kendall in 1816. He donated land for the cemetery and was buried there in 1818. Kendall Road was known as Augur Road for many years.
Robert Clark, 1801-1873, is buried in the Augur family plot. Another early settler in the area, he was married to Felix’s daughter, Anna.
Ken DeRoller recounted Clark’s recollections of his early years as recorded in the Pioneer History of Orleans County, the backbreaking work, sickness and fever.
(Left) Bill Lattin, retired Orleans County historian, also spoke on the tour at Greenwood Cemetery on Rpoute 18, near the Route 237 intersection. (Right) Ken DeRoller noted the contributions of Robert Clark who died in 1873 and is buried in the Augur family plot.
On July 5, 1825, the Restoration, a retrofitted sloop with a crew of seven, and forty-five passengers, fifteen of them children, set sail from Norway, bound for America. The expedition, later lauded as the “Norwegian Mayflower” started the exodus of Norwegians to America.
Some fourteen weeks later, on October 9, 1825, this intrepid group landed in New York and made their way to the area around Norway Road. Some families later moved to Illinois and Indiana, but a nucleus remained and welcomed later immigrants. Several descendants of the Norwegian settlers were in attendance for the tour of Greenwood Cemetery.
This depiction of a mule-drawn packet boat come from America Illustrated at eriecanal.org.
By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian
“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 5, No. 30
“The Erie is a swarming hive. Boats coming and going, passing you by all the while. You can hear their horns blowing all day long. As like as not, there’s a fight at every lock. There’s all kinds of people there and they’re all going all the while. There’s freight going west and raw food going east, all on the canal: there’s people going west, New Englanders, Germans and all them furrin folk and there’s people coming east that’ve quit…It’s the bowels of the nation! It’s the whole shebang of life.”
So said the Shakespeare reading peddler Jacob Turnessa in the novel “Rome Haul” by Walter D. Edmonds. Published in 1929, this book has been neglected, one of those books on the library shelf deemed worthy of keeping but not of reading.
Life on the Erie Canal in the 1850s has not been a fashionable topic. But this book is a gem, and should be read this year as we celebrate the bicentennial of the canal. Edmonds captures a world and a way of life that is foreign to us – the gritty, hardscrabble lives of the “canawlers” who made it work.
He vividly describes the sights, smells and sounds of daily life. Historical fiction can do that, bring you to a time in the past and give you a sense of what it was like to have lived then.
Our hero, Dan Harrow, is an upstanding young man who is attracted to life on the canal. He soon becomes involved with a wanted man and with the canal bully. Shortly thereafter, he hires the canal bully’s ex-cook/girlfriend. Naturally, drama ensues: confrontations, daring rescues, and a knock-down fight. There are interludes of domestic coziness aboard the boat he captains, the Sarsey Sal. In the background, the routines of daily life on the canal continue.
“Rome Haul” conveys the business aspects of the canal and how teeming that “swarming hive” was.
“The basin and the canal beside it [Albany] were thronged with boats, Dan could scarcely believe so many boats existed….Men jumped ashore and went after their horses or they brought their horses off the boats. Agents for the steamboat lines ran about with ledgers under their arms signing up captains for the Roman line or the Swiftsure. They quarreled among themselves, crying down the other company, while the boater looked on and signed with a third company”
Mrs. Lucy Cashdollar runs a “Cook’s Agency for Bachellor (sic) Boaters.” The book teems with colorful characters such as Fortune Friendly, the pinochle playing preacher who works on the Sarsey Sal.
The book presents perspectives which are new to us: people’s distrust of the railway for example. Mrs. Sullivan says “I wouldn’t ride in one of them trains. They go too fast”.
Edmonds surely captured “the whole shebang of life” on the Erie Canal. “Rome Haul” surely deserves to be dusted off and read.
“The Erie is a swarming hive. Boats coming and going, passing you by all the while. You can hear their horns blowing all day long. As like as not, there’s a fight at every lock. There’s all kinds of people there and they’re all going all the while. There’s freight going west and raw food going east, all on the canal: there’s people going west, New Englanders, Germans and all them furrin folk and there’s people coming east that’ve quit…It’s the bowels of the nation! It’s the whole shebang of life.”
