By Patti Singer, Friends of the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge

BASOM – High on Tom Roster’s to-do list when he arrived at Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge in November 2004 was getting Swallow Hollow Trail in shape and repairing the handicap-accessible boardwalk.

“That was a very big and impressive project that had a lot of hands in it,” Roster remembered. “And then we had a big celebration at the end. No sooner were we done with the celebration and cleaning up, and there was a wheelchair going down the boardwalk. That was kind of neat to see that.”

That initial project laid the groundwork for Roster’s tenure. His formal title is complex manager, but he’s known as the refuge manager. He worked with volunteers and the Friends of Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge on maintaining the 10,000-plus acres for wildlife conservation and human enjoyment and education.

Now, after more than 20 years at Iroquois NWR and more than 37 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Roster is retiring in April 2025 to find new adventures with his wife and family.

“I’ll be 59,” said Roster, who had planned this day since last fall. “I still have my health and can do a lot of other things. We can travel and do a lot of stuff before anything sets in. We’re still young.”

Many of those former Friends presidents, his colleagues and family threw Roster a retirement party on March 28 at the refuge to thank him for his service.

“Tom Roster has been a steady hand at the helm of the Iroquois refuge for several decades,” said Richard Moss, president of Friends of Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, a nonprofit that supports the refuge. “His tenure spanned at least half a dozen Friends presidents, and he will be sorely missed.”

Roster grew up in northern Minnesota in an outdoors family. His older brother worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “He was doing all sorts of neat things and I thought that’s a great thing to do and get paid for.”

Roster has spent more than half his life with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

His first post was in 1986 as a summer volunteer at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Lima, Montana. He worked as a student trainee at refuges in Wisconsin and Minnesota before earning his bachelor of science degree from the University of Minnesota. St. Paul, in 1990. His first job out of college was as a manager trainee in Sumner, Missouri. He moved to Oak Harbor, Ohio, San Diego, Calif., and Chincoteague, Va., before coming to Genesee County.

In those days, moving around was expected. “Get to know a lot of different things before you settle down to your own place,” Roster said. “So that’s what I did.”

Now Genesee County is home, even after his children have graduated from high school.

“The last graduation was 2019, and then we just decided to stick on here. There’s so much going on, a lot of fun and a lot great staff doing a lot of neat work, Friends and volunteers doing a tremendous amount of work and helping us out. The years flew by, and it’s been great.”

Roster said the volunteers help Iroquois NWR fulfill its mission of wildlife first as it has drawn about 100,000 visitors a year post-pandemic.

“There’s a lot of things that we do for the American people, whether it’s hunting, fishing, education programs, and that’s where folks like Friends and volunteers really help us out.”

Volunteers put in between 6,000 and 8,000 hours a year – about 200 40-hour work weeks. Roster said one volunteer has clocked 43,000 hours, and another had donated 28,000 hours. Their work includes mowing, trail work, education and fundraising.

“That is unbelievable that you’re working with people that have the compassion and the passion to do all of that work knowing they don’t get paid for it,” Roster said. “What they get out of it is self-satisfaction and the enjoyment that other people are getting something out of it. The people that have that selflessness and just being able to provide for other people and for the resources has been tremendous. … That deserves a big thank you for everything they’ve done over those years because that makes my life and my job a lot easier.”

Much of Roster’s 20 years at Iroquois NWR were spent at his desk, doing the paperwork and making the phone calls that ensured the refuge was at its best for waterfowl and human visitors.

He said he’ll miss coming to work on crisp fall mornings, and in spring being greeted by squawking geese, ducks and sandhill cranes.

He’ll also miss his staff and the Friends and volunteers — “all the things they do and all the camaraderie. We got projects done and provided for the visitors and resources. The biggest part will be missing those folks.”

Salmon, steelhead will spend about a month in pens, getting bigger and ‘imprinting’ at Oak

Photos courtesy of Ron Bierstine: The state Department of Environmental Conservation delivered 138,000 Chinook salmon and 15,000 steelhead on Wednesday. The fish will be raised in pens for about 3 to 4 weeks.

CARLTON – About 150,000 fish arrived on Wednesday with volunteers braving the cold and then some fierce rain, ushering the small fish into nine pens in the Oak Orchard River.

The fish will spend three to four weeks in the pens, getting fed and getting bigger. That will increase their chances of surviving when they are released. They will be a little less likely to be eaten by other fish or predators.

They also will “imprint” on the Oak Orchard, and be more likely to return when they are fully grown and looking to spawn.

The volunteers, many charter boat captains, have been leading the pen-rearing project at the Oak Orchard since 1998. It was the first on the southshore and now there are many, including one at Sandy Creek in Hamlin, the Genesee River, Sodus, Olcott and the Niagara River.

Photos courtesy of Isabella Zasa

The fish are led from a long pipe from a DEC truck to one of the pens in the Oak Orchard River. There are six pens for 138,000 Chinook salmon and three pens for 15,000 steelhead. That compares to 138,210 Chinook salmon and 10,000 steelhead for the pen-rearing in 2024. In 2019, there were 90,200 Chinook for the pen-rearing.

Bob Songin, a charter boat captain, has been part of the pen-rearing since it started in 1998. He said it has made a big difference in having bigger fish in the Oak Orchard and in Lake Ontario near the Point. It will take about three years for the little fish to reach full size. For some of the Chinook that will be over 30 pounds. A good-size steelhead can weigh 15 pounds.

There is one new pen for the steelhead this year, going from two to three pens. There are six pens for the Chinook.

The pens were refurbished with new netting and TF Enterprise in Albion rewelded the frames.

The pens sit in the water near Ernst’s Lake Breeze Marina. Six of the pens were moved farther down the river than their usual spot due to lower water levels.

Rob Westcott, a charter boat captain from Hamlin, is president of the Lake Ontario Charter Boat Association, which represents more than 400 charter boat captains.

“It’s been successful lake-wide,” Westcott said about the pen-rearing programs. “It’s proven successful with survivability. We’re doing anything we can do to help the fishery.”

Westcott said charter boat captains are worried about the low lake water levels. The lake is often a foot higher this time of year. The lake typically gains in depth this time of year, he said.

He is hopeful the International Joint Commission, which regulates the water flows, will facilitate raising the water levels.

“We’ve been in a holding pattern the last two months,” he said. “We are below average right now.”

Lower water levels could hinder the boats from getting into harbor and using docks, he said.

Photo by Tom Rivers: The back of a DEC truck carrying fish encourages parents to have their children go fishing.

Dan Parker recognized for 35 years in local service club

Screenshot

Provided photos

ALBION – The Albion Lions Club has donated $500 to the Village of Albion Recreation Department to go towards a fireworks show on July 3 at Bullard Park.

In photo at left shows John Grillo, the village’s recreation director, accepting the donation from Lloyd Wright of the Lions. More donations are welcome with checks made out to Village of Albion with fireworks in the memo line.

Fireworks will cap a busy day at Bullard with live music and other activities and entertainment.

The Lions Club in the photo at right also recognized Dan Parker, left, for 35 years of service with the club. Past President Bill Robinson presented Parker with a letter of appreciation.

Photo by Tom Rivers

ALBION – The Albion Betterment Committee has 10 dogwood trees available for free to churches in the Village of Albion.

Betterment Committee directors Joe Gehl, left, and Gary Kent, are shown with two of the trees today. The group gave two dogwoods to the village for the Erie Canal Park by the canal near the end of Platt Street.

The committee has 10 others and will give them to churches in the village, Kent said. The trees are worth about $100 each.

The Betterment Committee has donated and planted about 40 dogwoods in recent year, mostly in the Albion area. Kent said the white blossoms are a striking sight in the spring, and the leaves change colors throughout the year.

“They are such a gorgeous ornamental,” Kent said. “It’s another way of putting Albion on the map.”

Churches interested in the dogwoods can contact Kent at (585) 331-1846.

By Mike Pettinella, UConnectCare publicist

BATAVIA – The first quarterly meeting of the GOW CARES Alliance, formerly known as the GOW Opioid Task Force, on Tuesday afternoon illustrated the value of community partnerships in improving people’s health and well-being.

About 90 people, representing several human services’ agencies in Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties, attended the two-hour event hosted by Grace Baptist Church in Batavia. It was the first large public gathering of the coalition since the COVID pandemic hit in early 2020.

Sue Gagne, left, coordinator of the GOW CARES Alliance, with members of her team – Melissa Vinyard, Sherri Bensley and Cheryl Netter – at Tuesday’s quarterly meeting at Grace Baptist Church in Batavia.

Paul Pettit, public health director of Genesee & Orleans County Health Departments and co-chair of the alliance’s steering committee, emphasized the significance of the name change – noting that the focus has broaden from just opioid overdose deaths to include strategies to address all types of substance use, mental health issues, trauma and suicide.

“What were trying to do now with the GOW Cares Alliance is trying bring these issues together and trying to attack them as a collective,” Pettit said. “The dashboard (on the GO Health website) has links and resources for people who use drugs or are in crisis or have a family member that’s in crisis that helps lead them to services and access to care.”

Pettit said the alliance has identified three key strategies to reduce the substantial rates of overdose and suicide in the three rural counties:

• Community Centered Approach. Recognize and respond to the overall health challenges and strengths of rural communities by gauging the pulse of current trends and involving people with lived experience.

• Addressing Barriers to Access. Promoting community awareness and understanding through navigating the system, health literacy and connection to community resources; addressing stigma and equitable access, and offering safer choices and harm reduction options.

• Promotion of Holistic Care. Addressing physical, mental, social and spiritual needs.

The eight “Recovery Fashion Show” participants acknowledge applause at the conclusion of the meeting.

The directors of Community Services in the three counties spoke about the role of mental health agencies in a grassroots organization such as the GOW CARES (Community Action for Recovery Education & Support) Alliance.

“It’s a team effort,” said Lynda Battaglia (Genesee County), noting that more than half of Americans are diagnosed with some type of anxiety disorder and that someone dies by suicide every 11 minutes.

She said it is incumbent upon local mental health and community services departments to “fill the gap” in services to their residents. She said that the goal is to identify the needs of the community and find out what services are needed.

Battaglia urged those in the audience to reach out to governmental leaders.

“We need to hear your voice. You are the boots on the ground,” she said. “If you have an idea for a service, I encourage you to email us.”

Meeting attendees express their appreciation for the fashion show entrants.

Danielle Figura (Orleans County), who also serves as the steering committee co-chair, spoke about the partnership between Genesee and Orleans counties in the mental health field.

She mentioned some of the Orleans’ initiatives such as a helpline (that reaches all three counties), fatality review board, leave behind kits for first responders and a Critical Incident Stress Management team to help those involved in traumatic events.

Kelly Dryja (Wyoming County) shared three initiatives in her county – CredibleMind, a free and confidential online platform that gathers expert-rated and vetted videos, podcasts, apps and other resources; a harm reduction vending machine in the Village of Warsaw, and a “community conversation” on combatting stigma in conjunction with the University of Rochester.

Co-chairs of the alliance’s four workgroups – Community Education, Community Trends, Resource Hub and Safer Choices – spoke briefly about their objectives, which, respectively, include meeting planning and publicity, data analysis in cooperation with law enforcement, updating a resource guide, social media platforms and website, and providing resources and products that act as a “go-between” prevention and total abstinence.

The meeting concluded with a spirited “Recovery Fashion Show,” with Melissa Vinyard, director of The Recovery Station on Clinton Street Road as the M.C. Participants wore items of clothing from the City Church Clothing Collection, which supplies clothes for all ages, plus other household items to those in need at no charge.

Four women and four men, representing 77 years of recovery, took part in the fashion show as the audience cheered in appreciation of their successful journeys.

“We at The Recovery Station do recovery loudly,” Vinyard said, “so people don’t have to die quietly, alone.”

Lunch was provided by Spectrum Human Services. Other agencies who set up tables were Independent Living of the Genesee Region, Fidelis Care, Genesee County Office for the Aging, Veterans Services and Veterans Crisis Line, Horizon, GO Health, Best Self Behavioral Health and UConnectCare.

Press Release, Albion High School Student Council

ALBION – Albion Central School District invites senior citizens, 60 and older, for our annual Senior Citizens Day on Wednesday, April 30th.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Albion High School cafeteria and gymnasium. The school district would like to thank the senior citizens in our community for all they have done to support our students, teachers and staff throughout the years.

We have a limited number of seats available. Kindly RSVP by Friday, April 11th, to the High School Student Council Advisor, Mrs. Sawyer Green, at (585) 589-2040, ext. 8414. You can also email sgreen1@albionk12.org to secure your reservation.

Please leave a message with the name(s) of those attending, a phone number, and the number of seats you’d like to reserve. Mrs. Green will call you back to confirm your participation.

We look forward to having senior citizens join us for this wonderful event!

The unemployment rate in Orleans County was up slightly in February at 5.3 percent compared to the 5.0 percent a year earlier in February 2024, according to the state Department of Labor.

The number of unemployed and employed were both up about 100 people; unemployed to 900 and employed at 16,800. The 5.3 percent unemployment rate in February compares to 5.1 percent in January.

Statewide, the unemployment rate dropped from 4.6 to 4.3 percent in the year, while nationally it increased from 4.2 to 4.5 percent from February 2024 to February 2025.

The rates in nearby counties include: Niagara, 5.7 percent; Genesee, 4.6 percent; Monroe, 4.3 percent; Erie, 4.8 percent; Wyoming, 5.6 percent; Livingston, 4.9 percent; Chautauqua, 5.4 percent; Cattaraugus, 5.3 percent; and Allegany, 5.4 percent.

Orleans Hub has reached our 12^th birthday today. The online news site went live for the first time on April 1, 2013.

We have consistently posted about 3,500 articles a year – an average of nearly 10 a day, every day. This post is number 42,002.

We are focused on Orleans County, which hasn’t had a printed newspaper based in the county since the end of 2013 when The Journal-Register shut down. The weekly Albion Advertiser closed in May 2013. The Orleans Hub didn’t knock these papers out of business. They had been struggling for years.

The newspaper business has been a very challenging environment the past two decades, with more than 3,200 closing since 2005, according to the Associated Press. The papers have lost a good chunk of their advertising and classifieds, and also their paid subscription base.

In 2023, an average of two newspapers a week shut down. Close to Orleans County, The Cortland Standard printed its last edition on March 13 after 157 years in business.

Some communities have seen online-only news sites start up to help fill the gap from the shuttered newspapers. There were 81 digital sites that went live with local news in 2023, according to the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University.

While some communities are served by online-only sites, these publications like the Orleans Hub are hurt by an archaic state law that doesn’t allow them to be considered “official newspapers” for legal notices. Those notices must be in print newspapers with a “paid circulation.”

We would welcome the opportunity to carry these notices to better serve our readers and to receive some of that revenue. We don’t charge to access the site. We want the news to be available to everyone. (We are working on a faster server so it doesn’t take as long for the site to load.)

Most of the towns, villages, school districts and even Orleans County use The Daily News of Batavia to publish legal notices. The Daily News has some coverage in Orleans County, but not nearly what is posted by the Orleans Hub. We also consistently have 7,000 to 10,000 “unique visitors” or readers each day.

The Daily News is listed by the New York News Publishers Association in the “Under 10,000 Circulation Class.”

Tom Rivers, the Hub editor, worked at The Daily News for 16 years before leaving in March 2013 to help start the Orleans Hub. (I appreciate my time there and The Daily News staff deserves lots of respect for their work trying to cover the GLOW region. It’s a big job and they make an admirable effort.)

Sample News Group purchased The Daily News from Johnson Newspaper Corp. and officially took ownership of the newspaper on May 1, 2023. Sample News is based in Huntington, Pa.

The Orleans Hub also had a recent ownership change when Karen Sawicz retired and Brad London became the owner on Jan. 1. London lives in Albion and has been with the Hub since Day 1 selling advertising. All of the Orleans Hub staff live in Orleans County.

The Orleans Hub welcomes local municipal leaders and our state legislators to take up the battle in getting legal notices to be an option in local online-only news sites. Let’s give the local government leaders the option to decide where these notices can be best be seen by the most people. Right now, the Orleans Hub isn’t a legal option.

Regardless to what happens with the legal notices, we’re committed to covering the community with many new articles every day.

Press Release, State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt

ALBANY – State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt and members of the Senate Republican Conference today blasted state Democrats for their failure to reach an on-time budget for the fourth year in a row under Governor Kathy Hochul.

The senators also called for more transparency in the budget process, as well as for the end of the use of messages of necessity and middle-of-the-night voting.

Senator James Tedisco called for the passage of his legislation, the Budget Transparency Act (S.233), a constitutional amendment to prohibit legislative proceedings between midnight and 8 a.m. and limit the use of messages of necessity except in the case of a true emergency, such as security threats or natural disasters. The Legislature habitually abuses the use of messages of necessity in order to bypass the three-day aging process which is intended to give legislators and the public ample time to review legislation.

“Here we are, April 1st, and there is seemingly no movement toward a final state budget because Democrats can’t agree on how much to increase spending and taxes, or come to an agreement on basic public safety concerns,” Ortt said. “This is truly the height of government dysfunction – Democrats continue to think they can spend their way to affordability and at the same time, completely disregard public safety. We can’t predict when we will finally see a budget deal, but we can tell you with certainty that it will be completely unsustainable and out of touch with the needs of New Yorkers.”

Since Governor Hochul took office, the state budget has been late for four years in a row, and the budget process has become less transparent than ever.

“Nobody in our districts think they can go to work, sit there, and not do the most important job they’re charged with doing, and expect not to get fired,” Tedisco said. “Today is April Fool’s Day, but it’s more like the movie ‘Groundhog Day’ with the fourth late budget under this Governor and Majorities. When pointing fingers at why the state budget is late, they only have themselves to blame as they control all levers of power in Albany. If the Governor and Majorities won’t police themselves when it comes to transparency, then we need the New York State Budget Transparency Act to keep them contained and stop the abuses of messages of necessity, so the public is not in the dark about what is going on at the Capitol.”

ALBION – The Care Net Center of Greater Orleans is known in the community for offering pregnancy testing, education and limited ultrasounds.

Care Net also offers STI testing and parenting classes for both males and females. The organization also gives out material aid such as diapers, wipes, blankets and clothing up to size 24 months, when available.

But the center recently led art classes and showcased participants’ creations in the Long Haul Gallery, which Care Net started about two years ago in the hallway leading to the center at 168 South Main St., Suite 2.

The Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council approved a grant for Care Net to purchase art supplies for the classes, including palettes, brushes and paint.

Wende Swick (left), Care Net’s former executive director, shows artwork to Jackie Swaby, GO Art!’s  education director and gallery curator during a reception at the Long Haul Gallery on March 13. Some of the pieces have been on display since the gallery opened in July 2023 while others are new works created in recent classes.

Swick said some of the supplies will continue to be used through an Art Club at Care Net.

Provided photos: Harvest Christin Fellowship opened its doors for three weeks of art classes, with participation ranging from 7 the first class to 20 for the third session.