CSX Railway, Town of Macedon and State DOT think dangerous

crossing should be closed, but…

It happened again at the very dangerous railway crossing on Quaker Road in the Town of Macedon. This time on Sunday (6/1) at approximately 4 a.m., Timothy Stahowiak, age 23, of Skaneateles NY, was driving with three friends in his vehicle back to Skaneateles from the Gananda area, using his aftermarket GPS system.

Stahowiak was traveling northwest on Quaker Road and approached the rail road crossing. He claimed that his GPS system told him to “bear right” at which time he turned his wheel to the right as directed.

His vehicle’s passenger-side tires left the paved roadway and drove onto the train tracks where the vehicle became stuck. Stahowiak put his hazard lights on the vehicle and attempted to seek help at nearby residences – to no avail. When hearing a train approach , he used the light from his cell phone in an attempt to waive at the train and notify the engineers of the vehicle on the tracks. The engineers, seeing the vehicle and cell phone light, immediately applied the emergency brakes in effort to slow the train. The train struck the unoccupied vehicle travelling at approximately 56 miles per hour, dragging it 153 feet east of the impact location.

The train was able to come to a complete stop approximately a half mile east of the impact location. No tickets were issued to Stahowiak.

The railroad crossing is no stranger to vehicle crunches. Town officials and police indicated that the crossing has been the scene of a number of similar accidents over the years, especially since the closing of the Canandaigua Road Bridge near the intersection of Quaker and Canandaigua Roads.

Due to the sheer number of accidents at that railroad crossing, Macedon Town Engineer Scott Allen stated that the Town of Macedon, CSX Railroad Freight Company and State DOT (Department of Transportation) would all prefer that the road be shut down to traffic at the crossing in both directions. Allen explained that the problem with the road is where it intersects with the railroad tracks from the east. The steep angle of the road coming from the east includes a bad skew up to the railroad tracks.

Many drivers, such as  Stahowiak, are unfamiliar with the crossing, and get their vehicle wheels stuck at the crossing. So far, there have been a few close calls, but no deaths. Even local drivers dread the approach, unable to see any approaching trains in either direction.

Quaker Road and the nearby Canandaigua Bridge over the Erie Canal were the main routes for travelers until the Bridge was shut down four years ago by the DOT, as unsafe for vehicle traffic due to corrosion and structural deficiencies. Since then, travelers have had to reroute using Wayneport Road and Route 350 as the main roads heading mostly north to the Route 31 east/west county and shopping access.

NYS DOT Public Relations Specialist Laurie Mahar, stated that the estimate to fix the bridge is 5 million dollars. She explained that the plan is to reconstruct the bridge from the current one-lane to a modern two-lane bridge. She also stated that the bid for the bridge will take place in the spring of 2015, and the construction will begin sometime that summer.

Until the bridge is reopened, not much can be done about Quaker Road shared Mahar. “We can’t pursue the process of closing Quaker Road until the final designs, approval of the bridge and construction is completed,” she stated. Mahar reported that once the final design phase is complete, the final milestone is to share the incentive to close Quaker Road with the railroad company to determine what to do, how to go about it, and when.

According to Macedon Town Supervisor Bill Hammond, there have been proposals to close Quaker Road, but the Town flatly refuses to consider cutting the east part of Quaker from the west until the Canandaigua Road Bridge is reopened. Mahar stated that if Quaker Road closes, it will become two dead-end roads..

Marr shared the reason for the bridge reopening being pushed back for four years. It’s simply due to lack of federal and state money.

As explained by Hammond, the road can’t be completely shut down because of the railroad tracks, and the need for a turn around for plows in the winter. He hasn’t personally received any complaints by residents, but he has heard that residents who travel on Quaker Road are concerned with the  possibility of its closing, with it being  currently one of the main routes for the community.

According to Allen, there isn’t much that can be done to fix the railroad intersection on Quaker Road.

“I would prefer if it wasn’t closed, but I understand the concern with why people want it closed,” said Allen.

by Jessica Colon

It has been 70 years since the fateful June 6, 1944, D-Day landings at Normandy, France and one World War II veteran recently returned to those beaches to join in the commemorative festivities marking the anniversary.

U.S. Army veteran Joseph H. Mack of Macedon, N.Y., visited the historic battlegrounds from May 30 through June 12 on a tour made possible through the Greatest Generations Foundation.

“It is important to be there and it is an honor and privilege to be chosen to do it,” said Mr. Mack.

While in France, Mr. Mack was also celebrated by the French Consulate for his military service.

“My grandfather has never been one to make a big deal out of the fact that he served his country and fought in some of the bloodiest battles in Europe,” said Mr. Mack’s grandson, Patrick Mack of Horseheads, N.Y.

“If asked, he will share. He’ll talk to other vets, but he has never tried to bring praise upon himself.”

However praise is just what Mr. Mack received June 4 in Carentan, France, where he was bestowed the Legion of Honor for participating in the liberation of France during World War II.

“It is an honor to accept the medal for all the vets who didn’t make it home. They really deserve it. They lost their lives for it,” said Mr. Mack.

The National Order of the Legion of Honor is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte on May 19, 1802. It is the highest decoration in France and Mr. Mack was awarded the Chevalier, or Knight class.

Mr. Mack was inducted into the U.S. Army on March 29, 1943, and was assigned to K (King) Company, Third Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Division.

The Division had been trained in amphibious operations and had fully expected to participate in the initial landings on D-Day, but was instead on reserve in England.

“He actually landed on the beach and fought in the hedgerows of Normandy a month after the invasion started,” said Patrick Mack.

Mr. Mack marched through Paris with his division and was wounded in the bloody battles of the Hurtgen forest and a month later was right in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge.

“He fought in Europe basically from a month after the initial landings until the war ended,” said Patrick Mack.

He said his grandfather led men in combat as an infantry squad leader with the rank of sergeant and also served as a platoon guide.

“He fought in the last five seminal battles that won the war,” said Mr. Mack’s daughter, Catherine Wilson of Easton, Md.

“His division lost 80 percent of their troops twice. I am proud of my dad,” she said.

Mr. Mack said simply listing the battles he has been through doesn’t give those who weren’t there the complete picture of war.

“It doesn’t really tell the stories of what we went through,” he said. “I have a lot of stories. The summary is war is hell.”

Mr. Mack said the number of shootouts he was involved in during the war is unbelievable.

“Too many really,” he said. “One of us wasn’t going to walk away and I’m still here.”

When going into Normandy, Mr. Mack and the rest of his Division was told they had a 90 percent survival rate – but in the first battle 50 percent of his Division was lost.

Two more subsequent battles resulted in 75 percent losses of the Division in each fight.

“A lot of situations I was in I think I had divine intervention,” Mr. Mack said, citing in particular an M88 that landed four feet from him during Normandy that luckily turned out to be a dud.

He said the Polish women who built the bombs would often slip duds into the mix, and he said a prayer of thanks that the M88 that landed next to him was one of those duds.

For his military service during the war, Mr. Mack was awarded the Bronze Star, the Combat Infantry Badge and a Presidential Unit Citation, among other honors.

The Bronze Star medal was actually just recently presented to him, 70 years after it was earned. Mr. Mack’s daughter, Barbara Perkins of Macedon is also working on getting the Purple Heart awarded to him for his service.

“He is an amazing man,” said Patrick Mack.

“I am very proud of my father,” said Mrs. Perkins. “Thank you to all who have served and sacrificed for our freedom.”

Following the war, Mr. Mack worked at IBM in Binghamton, N.Y., where he lived with his wife, Helen, and raised six children.

“At the time I served my country, I promised God that if I survived the war I would serve him,” Mr. Mack said.

That is why after retiring from IBM, he moved to Charlotte, N.C., with his wife and served as a Deacon for the Catholic Church for 31 years.

He has also been a member of the Knights of the Columbus since 1945.

The 70th anniversary celebration of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy was commemorated by many allied heads of state and hundreds of thousands of visitors in addition to Mr. Mack.

According to Normandy Tourism, the commemorative event included firework displays, parades, parachute drops, military camp set ups, open-air concerts with big bands and more.

As part of the Greatest Generations Foundation tour, Mr. Mack attended commemorative events, visited schools and attended banquet dinners.

“The last time he was in Normandy he was just 19, preparing to land on the beach and then trek by foot through France, Belgium and Germany,” said Mrs. Wilson.

At the time, Mr. Mack said that he did not get any closure when his fellow soldiers lost their lives while under fire.

“We didn’t have time to say goodbye. When you are on the offensive, you have to keep going,” he said.

Returning to the former battlegrounds has brought some closure and more stories to tell, he said.

“The trip was worth it. It was an honor to represent the Division that went into Normandy and the people we lost. It was an honor for me to tell their story,” he said.

In addition to Normandy, the Greatest Generations Foundation sponsored Mr. Mack to visit England and Omaha Beach while on the anniversary tour.

The Greatest Generations Foundation is a non-profit international organization dedicated to promoting recognition and respect for war veterans of past and current conflicts, while enhancing historical education for today’s youth.

“We work to ensure that the honor and sacrifice of these veterans is never forgotten, nor that the value of their deeds be allowed to disappear into the annals of history,” the foundation’s website says.

Mr. Mack was able to participate in this program with the help of his daughter, Mrs. Perkins, who helped him fill out the application and compile all the requisite paperwork the foundation desired.

Timothy Davis of Denver, a spokesperson for the Greatest Generations Foundation, said the purpose of this particular program in Normandy was to go back and honor those who battled and make sure no one forgets.

For the veterans, it is an opportunity to return to the battle sites and honor their brothers and comrades who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom today, Mr. Davis said.

“Freedom is not free,” he said.

By Katie Kazimir

Schools were once seen as easy places to inflict mass casualties with little resistance with an abundance of news coverage.

On December 14, 2012, the mass shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School was the second deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Adam Lanza, age 20, killed his mother inside their home and then went to the school and killed 20 first graders and six staff members with a semi-automatic rifle. After killing people at the school, he committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived at the scene.

Yet another large school shooting was on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School, outside of Denver, Colorado. According to an updated article in the New York Times by Gina Lamb, two students, Eric Harris, 18 and Dylan Klebold, 17, walked into the high school and shot and killed 12 students, one teacher and themselves. The article explained that the actions occurred after a yearlong plot that included plans to blow up the school and kill up to 500 people. Based on the article, Columbine High School had the record for the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history until the shooting at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007 when a student killed himself and 32 people.

Since the Sandy Hook shooting, the U.S. has averaged about one shooting per week in schools. Like many communities, people in Denver and at sandy Hook were shocked when it happened on their doorsteps.

With school shootings taking up headlines, Wayne County law enforcement was not going to wait and take any chances on not being prepared for a school shooting, or hostage situation. Lieutenant Robert Milby of The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office leads the Emergency Response Team trained and deal with the possibilities. His team has so far trained 145 law enforcement officers on the newest protocols on how to respond to an active threat/shooting.

According to Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts, the police department has been providing active threat training since 2001 to the 11 schools in the county. Virts stated that to this day they have completed 10 trainings, one included in each calendar year at all of the schools. Virts also mentioned that this year is the first year all law enforcement including officers, the fire department, emergency response team, and any other law officials who carry firearms are required to participate in the training sessions.

“It’s better to be trained than to have an event,” said Virts. The Sheriff explained that Milby created the idea to start active threat training at schools in 2001. “I expanded that idea to involve all law officials,” said Virts.

Milby stated that the issue of school shootings became more serious than it already was after the Sandy Hook shooting, because the President of the United States made it mandatory that all law enforcement officials participate in these practices.

Milby has traveled to New Mexico and along the east coast to take part in Homeland Security training programs which offer an updated approach. Common lock down procedures include closing the windows, locking the doors, covering any windows, turning off the lights, moving all students to the back of the classroom and remaining quiet until the drill is over. During that time, law officials check the hallways to make sure the school is clear of danger.

The drills are meant to be as real as possible so that everyone is prepared if a real event were to occur. Milby also stated that the criminal justice students who attend BOCES help with the drills by monitoring the hallways.

North Rose-Wolcott School Resource Official Scott Baker said the active threat trainings in his District take place twice a year. The first drill is announced and takes place in the Fall and the second one occurs in the Spring and is not announced. “We have full cooperation from law enforcement during our drills which help make them authentic,” said Baker.  He stated that the purpose of the drills is to prepare staff and students, but to also identify improvements to ensure all students and staff will be safe in an emergency situation. The drills also allow law enforcement to become familiar with the buildings, according to Baker.

“The next plan is determining how to get response teams in the schools from the back,” said Virts.

On July 28, Virts will be meeting with school superintendents to discuss that issue for drills taking place next school year.

Gananda School District Superintendent Shawn Van Scoy stated that the active threat drills are a good thing to practice however, the school doesn’t get enough practice with lock downs. According to Van Scoy, last summer, the principal, athletic director and health administrations attended a Homeland Security management screening at Monroe Community College. There, they were taught active training for emergencies by police officers.

Van Scoy shared his concern that there are requirements for fire drills each year, but there are no requirements for active threat practices.

“I think we should have fewer fire drills and more active threat drills because there have been more threats at schools than there have been fires in schools,” said Van Scoy.

by Jessica Colon

Call it an “Oops” moment, a very expensive oops moment. The installation of air cards and radio repeaters in local Sheriff’s Ford Crown Victoria patrol vehicles could have ended badly if the puncture wounds in the gas tanks hadn’t eventually triggered the check engine lights.

After patrol officers began noticing the check engine lights, it was discovered that Finger Lakes Communication Company; an authorized Motorola two way radio dealer and service center had drilled through the gas tanks of 18 of the 22 patrol vehicles.

According to Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts, had the officers not noticed, there could have been a fire, an explosion or a deputy could have been overtaken by fumes. The Sheriff reported that no one was injured.

Three weeks after learning that the tanks were punctured, the Sheriff’s Office is now in the process of having the gas tanks replaced by the Wayne County Highway Department’s central garage head mechanic Dan McKinney and his staff.

Sheriff Virts stated that Finger Lakes Communication has taken responsibility for their error and will be paying for all expenses to replace the gas tanks. Virts said the cost to replace each gas tank is $352, labor is $126 per job, which takes three hours per tank and materials for a new undercoat on each vehicle is $6 per coat. The total cost will be $8712.    by Jessica Colon

The surveillance camera at the KwikFill convenience store confirmed that the young girl had stolen two packages of cigarettes on Thursday (6/12) at 9:20 a.m. and fled.

A description of the vehicle went out over police radios and Macedon Police spotted the car and made the stop. The driver of the vehicle, Rebecca Hartman, age 40, currently residing at the Wolcott Hotel in the Village of Wolcott was charged with Aggravated Unlicensed Operation in the 3rd Degree and Unlicensed Operator. Hartman’s daughter, Ciara LaDue, age 16, also residing at the Wolcott Hotel, was charged with Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the 5th Degree.

After police notified the mother and daughter that their car was being towed and subsequently searched, hypodermic needles and heroin were turned over to police. Ciara was additionally charged with Criminal Possession of a Hypodermic Instrument and Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 7th Degree-Heroin.

Both Rebecca and Ciara were released on appearance tickets for Macedon Court on July 15th. They were then turned over to Palmyra Village Police.

Ciara was charged with Petit Larceny and her mother with an additional charge of Aggravated Unlicensed Operation. They will both appear in the Palmyra Village Court charges on July 15th. The cigarettes were recovered, but Ciara told police she has a two baggie-a-day habit with heroin. Her mother denied knowing of the cigarette thefts, or the heroin use.

Dan Majchrzak, the incumbent Town Justice for the Town of Walworth, has won the nomination of the Republican party at their caucus on Tuesday (June 17). With 103 Voters showing up, Majchrzak won the nomination by just three votes. The final total was: Dan Majchrzak, 53 – and former Sheriff’s sergeant, Jim Hinz, 50.

It all began on Saturday, June 7th when several members of The Wayne County Office of the Sheriff were involved in a search for a missing and vulnerable adult.

The search was concentrated in the Town of Palmyra, near the Marion border. As they looked road to road, one Deputy came across a barn, he believed to be abandoned. Upon checking the area in and around the abandoned property, at 2666 Lyon Road in Palmyra, Deputy Lucia stumbled across a gruesome sight. Just inside the barn, he observed a dead horse.

With the assistance of a Veterinarian David Scoville, District Attorney Healy and the County’s animal abuse investigators, a warrant to search the entire property and seize the horse’s carcass was obtained from Marion Town Justice Sam Bonafede.

The Cracker Box Palace, from Sodus, assisted with the removal of the carcass to the forensic lab at Cornell University. There, a necropsy  was performed and the animal’s cause of death was later determined to be starvation.

Further investigation led Sheriff’s Investigators to find a the decaying carcass of another horse, who had died several months earlier. That horse lie in an open field several hundred yards from the barn.

Sheriff’s Investigator Allen Graham spotted a picture inside the abandoned residence showing the alleged owner with three horses.

Police then received a call from stable in the Town of Rush. They reported a woman had brought in a horse for boarding. The stable reported the severely emaciated animal was close to death. That horse was seized as evidence.

Wayne County District Attorney, Rick Healy, presented the evidence to a grand jury on Tuesday (6/17). The property/horse owner, Christina Mulcahy, age 23, of Broadmore Trail in Fairport, was indicted on two counts of Cruelty to Animals.

Mulcahy turned herself in to investigators at the Sheriff’s Office in Lyons on Tuesday. In her statements to police, Mulcahy stated that she did indeed own the horses and property in Palmyra. Police asker her what had happened to the horse found dead in the stable. “I couldn’t take care of him. He died. It’s my fault. I loved that horse, but I couldn’t get rid of him, or ask for help. I should have asked for help, but I didn’t,” admitted Mulcahy.

Asked by the police if she believed the horse (Gunner) died from starvation, she answered “Yes, I tried to care for him the best I could, but was unable to care for him.” She admitted she found the horse dead in the gated stall.

Mulcahy further stated she felt terrible about the death and would take “any punishment they want to give me.” She also said in her statement that she realized they (the horses) were starving. “That’s why I made arrangements for Stormie to be boarded in Rush.”

As for the horse found dead and decaying in a nearby field, Mulcahy said she believed it died from a heart attack. Healy said it will be difficult to prove otherwise due to the extent of decay.

She was arraigned on the indictment in the Wayne County Court. Bail was set at $750 cash/$1500 bond and Mulcahy was committed to the Wayne County Jail.  She was later released after posting bail.

Records show Mulcahy and a Kyle Jopson were arrested in 2012 for Cruelty to a Animal after a dog was found to be emaciated at the same Palmyra address. In that case Jopson pled guilty. Charges against Mulcahy were dropped after she had promised to give up the six horses found on the property at the time who ere also reported to be underfed.

“She obviously failed to do so,” said District Attorney Healy. He said he would seek a “lengthy jail sentence” for Mulcahy in this latest case. She could be sentenced to one year in jail for each of the two charges of Animal Cruelty.

Former Wayne County Road Patrol Officer Thomas Baker, a 15 year veteran of the force, has been appointed by the Palmyra Village Board to the position of Sergeant in the Palmyra Village Police, effective July 9th.

Baker resigned his position with the Sheriff’s Office and the appointment became official at a special Palmyra Village Board meeting held on Wednesday (6/18).

Baker, who was raised in Palmyra and graduated from the Palmyra-Macedon School District in 1990, had been with the Sheriff’s Office since 1999. He is a graduate of the Finger Lakes Police Academy.

Besides his road patrol duties, Baker served as an FTO (Field Training Officer) for the past three years. He will fill the position left vacant when Palmyra Sergeant James Showman retired several months ago.

Baker was earning a base salary of  about $54,000 as a deputy and will start with the Village of Palmyra Department with a base salary of $ 61,000.

“He did a wonderful job for us and I wish him the very best. We look forward to working with him and (Palmyra) Chief Sherman Yates in any collaborative projects we may do,” said Wayne County Sheriff, Barry Virts.

Palmyra mayor, Chris Piccola said Baker is a great candidate for the job, especially being a local resident. “He will help with local community policing.”

Chief Yates said he considered Baker a  great asset to the community. “I feel he is more than qualified to take on the duties of sergeant and will be an integral part of the community and school system.” Yates said he was also pleased that, with the appointment and return of Officer Brian Parkison from military duty, the Department will be at full strength – comprised of five full-time officers

Sergeant Baker said his move to Palmyra, the place he was born and raised, is an effort to help out his community. He resides in Palmyra with his wife, Shelly, stepson Tom, age 21, daughter Nicole, age 15 and son Zachary, age 11.

Newark Village Police received a report of a vehicle travelling at a high rate of speed on Scott Street on Sunday (6/22) at 3:31 a.m. The vehicle was located pulling into 208 Scott Street.

The driver, Catlin M. Caplinger, age 23, of 8A Mobile Drive in Newark was subsequently arrested for Felony DWI/BAC, Aggravated DWI with a blood alcohol level of .23%, DWI-Leandra’s Law with a 5 year-old boy in the vehicle at the time of her arrest, and Felony Aggravated Unlicensed Operation in the 1st Degree.

Caplinger was arraigned and remanded to jail on $50,000 cash/$100,000 bond to reappear in Court. Records show she had a prior DWI-Leandra’s Law arrest with a conviction in October, 2010.

The child was turned over to his grandmother.

State Police Investigators in Williamson were called in after a 5 month-old baby was treated at Strong Memorial Hospital with severe burns to his lower body. The child remained in the hospital for a week after receiving second degree burns when his father, Brandon Bellinger, age 26 of Ridge Road in Sodus, placed the child in a small tub in the kitchen sink and turned on the water.

Bellinger then became distracted by a movie on television and, after hearing a scream, realized the child was badly burned by the scalding water. Police later tested the temperature coming out of the faucet at 132º. At first, Bellinger told police that perhaps the baby hit the hot faucet on its own, but later admitted the movie distraction.

Police indicated the baby was held in the hospital for a week to monitor and assure no infections had set in.

The child’s mother was at work at the time of the incident. The case was investigated by the Wayne County Child Protective Services.

Bellinger was charged with Endangering the Welfare of a Child, Assault in the 3rd Degree and Making a Punishable False Written Statement. He was released on appearance tickets for Sodus Town Court on July 9th.

The Wayne Central School Board has accepted the resignation of Renee Garrett as Superintendent at the Board Meeting on Thursday (6/26).  This resignation becomes effective June 30, 2014.

The Wayne Central Board gave this statement, following their acceptance of Garrett’s resignation.

“We are pleased to announce we have also approved an Interim Superintendent, John Carlevatti.  Mr. Carlevatti taught school in the Rochester City School District for fifteen years, served as a school building administrator in the Newark, Greece and Webster Central School Districts over a ten year period, was an Assistant and then Deputy Superintendent for the Webster Central School District for six years, and retired from the position of Superintendent of Schools in Penfield Central School District after four years. Mr. Carlevatti will assume his position as Interim Superintendent at Wayne Central on or about July 7, 2014.”

“We are confident that Mr. Carlevatti will provide the District with both stability and sound leadership while the Board conducts the search for our permanent Superintendent.  The Board would like to thank Bob LaRuche for his steadfast dedication to the district while serving as acting Superintendent. His devotion to the District and our students is admirable.”

Superintendent Garrett, who came to the helm of the Wayne Central School District in the 2010-2011 school year, has dealt with a great deal of mistrust and anger from residents of the District in the past few years. There was the firing of popular Wrestling coach Scott Freischlag in 2011, and the negative audit report from the State Comptroller concerning fund balances in the District last year.

She was especially vilified in the press and at School Board meetings for her non-disclosure to the police and Board of Education about  a drunk driving incident involving a Wayne School bus driver.

Last month, the board released a a very vague statement about Mrs. Garrett being “ temporarily unavailable” to continue her duties as Wayne Superintendent. No further comment from the Board of Education followed the bombshell resolution/statement, which occurred just days after taxpayers voted in several new board members, with leanings not favorable to the Superintendent.

In June, Mrs. Marty Flowers, an Earth Science teacher at Gananda’s Ruben Cirillo High School, was granted the opportunity of a lifetime when she was selected to be a softball official for the Special Olympics 2014 Summer Games.

The USA Games were hosted by New Jersey from June 14-21, 2014.   There were nearly 3,500 athletes competing in 16 Olympic-style team and individual sports, with the support of 1,000 coaches, 10,000 volunteers and 70,000 family, friends and spectators. The sports offered included: Aquatics, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Bocce,  Bowling,  Cycling, Flag Football, Golf, Gymnastics, Powerlifting, Soccer, Softball, Tennis, Triathlon and Volleyball.

Events were hosted at venues including Princeton University, Ryder College, College of New Jersey, and Mercer County Park. Players may have Downs Syndrome, or traumatic brain injuries – their conditions are not always obvious, and certainly, nothing holds them back from the job and joy of playing.

Marty who has been a teacher for 30 years at Gananda, has also played the game of Softball since she was 10 years old. “I have always played sports,” she explained. “I started with Macedon Recreation softball, and played sports through elementary, middle and high school at Pal-Mac. At Wells College she played Soccer, and when she graduated, she continued to play Softball on adult leagues until she was 47.

To be selected as an official for softball, Marty had to meet a number of rigorous qualifications. These included being a qualified official with the Amateur Softball Association (ASA), experience working a number of local and state level Special Olympic events, and recommendations from people she felt were “much more highly qualified than I!”

Her experience with Special Olympic sports stems from her association with Lee Prong, a Pastor at Williamson Presbyterian Church whose wife Demaris runs several group homes. He told me he needed help to work with kids playing in Special Olympic sports.

Marty has umpired since 1988 for Section V sports in Wayne County, first as a Slo-Pitch Softball umpire and then she transitioned to Fast Pitch.

Special Olympic softball has two different types of competition. The Traditional Softball teams are comprised completely of athletes with intellectual impairments. The second type of competition is Unified Softball, which has athletes and partners in a 1:1 ratio. In either version, competition between the teams is focused the love of the sport.  Athletes, coaches, spectators and officials are all there to enjoy the games and to uplift the athletes in their endeavors. Cheers, high fives and hugs are the order of every day and every game.

“I was a little sacred of the prospect of umpiring for the National Special Olympics. I did not know what the level of play would be, how tough it would be. It turned out to be the time of my life. These athletes play for the pure JOY of the game, and feel the thrill of doing their best. The hugs and high fives are as big a reward as the certificates and medals are” Marty noted.

“I had the honor and joy of working the traditional softball tournament,” said Flowers.

The teams came from Southern California, Texas, Nebraska, Alabama, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Maryland, Florida and New Jersey.  Each player was required to have meaningful competition. They played the field, came to bat and ran the bases. “I saw diving catches in the outfield, head first slides into second, and even a double play or two! With all of these and more, came the appreciation of a job well done,” commented the grateful official.

“I do not think that I can count the number of times that an athlete, coach or spectator thanked my partners and me for coming to their tournament. It is not an exaggeration to say that the thanks is actually ours,” she explained. It is far too easy for me to become wrapped up in my life, worrying about things that are unimportant in the grand scheme of things. These athletes wake up every morning with more challenges in their lives than I. However, they meet those challenges head on and with a positive attitude. The joy and thankfulness that the Special Olympians show is an inspiration to me.”

“I would like to thank so many who made this experience possible for me: Gananda Central School District, for granting me the time to go; ASA who has given me the training as an umpire; my family for dealing with a week without mom; and the Special Olympics organization and athletes who change lives,” Flowers expressed with gratitude.

The oath and creed of Special Olympics is: “Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”   Special Olympics was the dream of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Her passion for those with intellectual disabilities came, at least in part, because of her sister Rosemary who had intellectual challenges. Janet Froetscher is the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Back in August 2013, Ken Halloran of Ken’s Auto Repair in Macedon Center was working at his shop when in walked Cy Packard. Cy asked Ken if he remembered donating $100.00 to the Macedon Historical Society towards a new pair of flagpoles. Cy told him that it had been four years ago and nothing had yet happened. “My first response was a little agitated. I thought about it for a minute and then replied: Give me an hour, I’ll have your flagpoles.” recalls Ken.

Ken called Al Plumb of Alpco Recycling, and asked him for some steel pipe. “I’m going to construct new flagpoles for MHS,” Ken explained. He told Al how much pipe he would need, but then added that he couldn’t pay for the pipe, as he was doing the  project for free. Ken reported that Al said: “You’re killing me, kid, but come down and see what you can find.” One of the reasons Ken gave for building the poles was that MHS was given a quote for $11,000.00 to have the old poles replaced.

Halloran scrounged Alpco Recycling around looking for pipe and found a pile of steel pipe 4-1/2” outside diameter, 21 feet long each. He also needed a piece of pipe to connect the monster pipes. He found a piece of old steam pipe  – one inch thick but with a  3-7/8” outside diameter. “PERFECT!”, Ken thought.

Back at the shop, Halloran figured this would be a slam dunk. He put  one piece of pipe on his drive-on lift and the other on his flatbed, raised the drive-on level with the flatbed and start ed welding. When he was finished, he had a 42 foot long banana. Back to the drawing board.

The solution to the flagpole jig?  Take a steel wheel from a car then lay it on the ground. Stand another steel wheel upright and weld them together. Ken made eight sets of wheels strung across the north side of his building and leveled them. He set a piece of pipe on the newly made jig. Ken figured he would slide or rotate the pipe with ease. Fitting the 3-7/8 OD pipe into the 4” ID pipe was a piece of cake, Ken said. Trying to pound them together required using his truck bumper as a backstop. He repeated the process three more times, and when all the grinding and welding was completed there were two fifty foot poles nice and straight.

The paint and all the paint materials were supplied by Macedon Parts Plus. Bill Flick donated some caps for the top of the poles. Mike at Iron Art Welding made him a solid set of brackets for the pulley system. The holes for the poles, drilled to ten feet deep were  dug by a crew from Fairport Electric, who returned a week later to set the poles.

Ken also praised the effort of Bill Hammond, the Town Supervisor and local farmer. Anytime Ken needed a hand, backhoe and concrete work, Bill stepped up to the plate. Ken and Gary Hammond also stepped up. At the end of the day the poles were done just in time for Memorial Day.

Macedon Center has its flagpole, and the huge (approximately 30’ x 40’)  flag is ready for flying on patriotic occasions. The flag was donated on Flag Day, June 14, 2009 by Waste Management Company. It was unveiled at a ceremony where the flag was dedicated to the Packard family, whose ancestors began the original Macedon Center Historical Society.

Before asking for a lawyer in the double homicide case involving mother and daughter, Terri Moulton and Stacey Moulton in August of 2013, Dante Taylor told police he was at home at the time of the murders.

Before she knew what her then-boyfriend told police, Yahaira Contes, age 34, residing at 22 Gardiner Street in Rochester, told police Taylor, his car and cell phone were gone for several hours at the time the women were brutally killed.

Obviously the two stories did not match up. Contes was first asked, and then served with a subpoena, ordering her to show up for additional questioning in the case. After failing to show up at Court, refusing the subpoenas, and flatly telling police and court officials “I’m not coming”, a warrant was issued for her arrest.

“She has been nothing but a problem,” commented Wayne County District Attorney, Rick Healy. He decided the only way he could ensure Contes  presence for questioning and eventually for the trial, was to have her arrested as a ‘material witness’. She failed to show up in Court on Friday (6/27) and the bench warrant was issued.

On Tuesday, Contes showed up with an attorney to turn herself in. She was arraigned as a material witness in the case against Dantes, who is now her husband, and remanded to jail on $5000 cash bail.

Dante married Contes, while he was awaiting trial in the Wayne County Jail for the killings. Officials believed the ‘marriage’ was conducted with the thought that, as his wife, Contes could not be forced to testify against him in the case.

“There is no marital privacy involved in her statements to police, only private conversations between a husband and wife constitute the husband/wife marital privacy,” said the District Attorney.

Even during her arraignment on Wednesday (7/2), Contes continued her stubborn streak, refusing to tell either the Court or the jail her new address. She is scheduled to appear back in County Court on July 14th.

D.A. Healy said her testimony, whether she declines to testify at the trial, or not, is “not a make or break in the case”.

Background

Terri Moulton, age 54 and her daughter Stacey Moulton, age 30, had agreed to check on and feed a neighbor’s (Shawn Yager) cat at his Champlin Road residence in Sodus while  the Sodus man was vacationing in Aruba.

The two women went to the home at about 1 p.m. and when they failed to return, Terri Moulton’s husband became concerned and went to the home to check on them at about 4 p.m. He reportedly discovered the bodies of the two women, who had been stabbed to death, lying near a dining room table. Small fires had been started in the residence in an apparent attempt to hide the double murders. The fires were quickly extinguished. Police believed the women interrupted a burglary in progress.

Taylor has an extensive police history. He has been in State Prison two different times, the latest for Attempted Robbery in the 1st Degree, where he was sentenced to eight years. He is currently being held in the Wayne County Jail. Jury selection in the Dante Taylor case is expected to begin on September 12th. Healy will be prosecuting the case.

When the torrential rains, lightning and wind swept through the area on Tuesday afternoon, the 911 calls for trees and wires down was somewhat expected. No one realized the severity of the weather until reports began filtering in from different areas. The storms missed pockets in some towns and wiped out power lines and trees in others for a day, or more.

Some residents in the Town of Marion threw away frozen foods as freezers failed and power was off for up to 13 hours. A few miles away in parts of Walworth, the rains and wind brought little more than a nature spectacle.

Drivers along the Route 31 corridor from Newark to Palmyra pulled over to the side of the road as wind-swept rains made travel nearly impossible.

In Sodus, a barn on Route 88 travelled across the highway to the other side. Trees were uprooted and some homes and vehicles sustained damage.

Perhaps the brunt of the damage was felt after a major power line was interrupted by a 21 pole wipe-out on Bowerman Road in Farmington. RG&E worked throughout the day and night in an effort to bring the number of residential power outages down.

WalMart manager Kurt Spindler considered the 3-4 hour outage at his Route 31-Macedon store to be difficult, but made easier by employees and RG&E electricians. “We have a great team of associates here. Everyone stepped up. Several other WalMarts sent associates to work with us to get up and running as quickly as possible,” stated the grateful manager.

According Spindler, the Victor WalMart suffered even worse losses due to the storm, with 11 hours of outage.

He noted that RG&E was spread very thin, but they did their best for the store. “We were back with power in about 3 hours (by 7:30 pm), but the voltage to our refrigerated sections was not strong enough or stable enough. We ended up renting a generator large enough to run all our refrigeration for meats, deli, dairy and frozen, so that we could safely restock those area,” explained Spindler. “Everything had to be scanned out that night, in order to get replenishments.”

Customers did see some down time

and associates reassured those who drove up to the doors, that WalMart was working as fast as possible to reopen and assure that no spoiled food was sold. Not only did items have to be restocked, but the wait included some time for the cash registers to become operational. “We do have backup power for the registers, but it is not a long charge. Although the store power – lighting – was operational sooner, we had to wait until registers were available to check our customers out,” said Spindler.

“Most of the customers who had to be turned away for a short time, were very understanding. We are grateful for their support and understanding.”

Town of Palmyra residents on Parker Rd felt the full fury of a severe microburst storm that tore through the area around 5 pm on Tuesday, July 8. Hit-and-miss straightline winds moved across the town of Farmington on a northeasterly path across Wayne County literally scalping the home of Jon and Jessica Westerman on Parker Rd. It ripped a large portion of the metal roof and a brick chimney from the front of their home, carrying it about 50 feet toward the road and leaving debris hanging in a tree and on power lines as it crossed their yard.

In addition, it also flipped a dock in their large pond behind the house and pushed a trailer containing two snowmobiles, which was parked next to a small barn, about 20 feet into their driveway. The wind also broke a 20-foot section out of the top of a large evergreen tree in their lawn near the road which pulled down power lines as it went and destroyed a large cedar tree nearby.

Jessica Westerman was in the house at the time with her month-old baby and her sister. “We looked out the window and it looked like the ocean was bashing against the side of the house. When I first heard it, I thought it was the porch furniture being blown around but my neighbor called when it was over to ask if we were okay and said that part of our roof had blown off.”

Jon Westerman said he was at work at the time and was surprised at the extent of the damage when he arrived home. He reported an emergency roof repair crew was on its way to the property from Syracuse about 7 pm and would commence work after electric company workers could secure the area. No injuries were reported.

Around the corner from Westermans, when Kelly Hunter went to her in-laws’ property on Jeffery Rd she found several trees broken in half and one uprooted in front of their barn. Power lines that cross the property through a wooded west of the barn area were pulled down as well. She pointed out one of the trees was a very old Tulip tree that many out-of-town visitors had stopped to admire over the years because it was so unusual. She also cited another tree that was leaning dangerously over the road and said it would probably be taken down.

Palmyra resident Adrienne Goodman was driving on Bowerman Rd in Farmington when the storm hit. She pulled off the road and the almost-brand-new car she was driving. The vehicle which belongs to Matt LaMora, a Palmyra Highway Department employee, was severely damaged by what he described as shrapnel when as many as 21 utility poles came crashing down around her. Because of the downed lines, she had to walk about 2 miles before being picked up for a ride home. Although shaken up from the experience, Goodman was not injured.

Highway Department crews were out until dark assessing damage and preparing for cleanup operations. Highway Superintendent Michael Boesel reported most of the damage in Palmyra was on Jeffrey, Parker and Jagger roads with slight to moderate damage elsewhere throughout the town and village, including the village cemetery. He also said there were many “hangers and leaners” threatening utility lines that his crews would be removing in the following few days.

Palmyra Parks and Cemetery workers were out the next morning removing several downed and damaged trees in the cemetery. Many of the trees on the property and adjoining St. Anne’s Cemetery are over a century old and suffering from disease or complications from previous damage, which weakens them and makes them vulnerable to violent weather. Some monuments were damaged by the fallen trees, but the extent has not been determined at this time.

At the same time, in an unrelated incident, Wayne County Water and Sewer workers were called to East Palmyra where a leak had developed in a valve at the corner of Main and West streets. According to a WCWS representative, the plastic waterline used in modern installations attracts static electricity from utility poles causing bolts to rust and deteriorate. “…Now we ground these when we are called out to repair them, which should prevent it from happening again.”

He explained that because of the way the lines are set up in the East Palmyra area, there are no loops where service can be diverted so there is not interruption in service to people further down the line. In case of emergency repairs, there is no time to inform residents that their service will be interrupted. “We have a 4-hour window in which to respond and fix the problem; otherwise they have to be reported to Public Health officials, which could open the situation up to all sorts of red tape and other issues.”

(reporting contributed by Jessica Colon, Patti Holdraker, Beth Hoad)

The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office reports that the Sheriff’s Marine Division and Scuba Divers have located the missing Town of Macedon man, James M. Zuber, and his vehicle in the Erie Canal near the intersection of Alderman Road and Rte. 31 in the Town of Macedon, Wayne County.

Deputies were searching the Alderman Road area because information received from cell phone towers placed the last data transmission in a 2 mile radius of the intersection. The Marine Division worked today in the Canal utilizing its side scan sonar and remote observation vehicle (ROV) to discover the vehicle. Divers entered the water to recover the vehicle.

Zuber left the Sand Bar in Canandaigua at approx. 1:40 am on Sunday July 13th after meeting friends at the bar. He was reported missing by his parents on Tuesday afternoon.

Because there were no signs of braking, Deputies believe that Zuber failed to stop at the stop sign at the T intersection of Alderman Road and Rte. 31 and continued through the intersection into the canal.

Zuber was pronounced by Wayne County Assistant Coroner Dr. David Blasczak and transported to the Newark Wayne Hospital to determine the cause of death.

The Sheriff’s Office was assisted in this investigation by the New York State Police Aviation Division, the Canandaigua Police Department and the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office.

For the past two annual budgets, Macedon Village Trustee Dave Sliney stood alone as the dissenting voice.  He stated he would not vote for the budget that kept the Village ambulance service funded. He was out-voted 4-1 in both years.

Sliney, along with Macedon Town representatives, saw the handwriting on the wall. Ever since the establishment of the Macedon Town Ambulance service 6 years ago, the redundancy and ongoing feuding between the Village and Town has resulted in fewer and fewer calls for the Macedon Village Ambulance. The Town established the town-wide  coverage after Town Supervisor Bill Hammond said the residents needed a full time/paid service with the realization that volunteer services were in a steady decline.

In addition, the Macedon Village Ambulance has had problems fully staffing calls. Due to the ongoing  hard feelings between the Village and Town, the Village refused to have, or recognize the Town Ambulance services as their back-up for missed calls. This has resulted in more frayed nerves.

The debate came to a head on Saturday (7/12). Wayne Worden, age 68, was feeling ill. He drove himself to the Look of Total Hair Design Shop, located on Main Street in the Village of Macedon. Wayne’s wife, Jan Worden and daughter, Karrie Bowers were there. Karrie, a member of the Macedon Town Ambulance Service and a Town of Macedon employee, immediately recognized the signs of a heart attack.  “His blood pressure was plummeting. It was 60/40, so I immediately called 911,” recalled Karrie.

Unfortunately, the Macedon Village Ambulance could not muster a crew for the call. They directed 911 to call in a County fly car that, at the time, was located in the Town of Ontario. Due to the Macedon Village policy, the Macedon Town Ambulance Service was left out of the loop.

Karrie was not about to let her father die. She called the Macedon Town Ambulance, loaded her father in her car and drove him over the Village/Town line to the VanBortel car dealership on Route 31, where the Town Ambulance was awaiting.

With an Advanced Life Support (ALS) technician onboard, the quick decision was to transport Wayne to Rochester General Hospital. His vitals were sent ahead and a cardiac surgeon was waiting. “The doctor told us that if we had not gotten him there within the next 15 minutes, he could have died. There would have been no saving him,” recalled Karrie.

Wayne had a blood clot in his heart and the man who had “not a lick of problems in his life”, received two stents in the vessels leading to his heart, according to Kerrie.

Macedon Village Mayor, Marie Cramer, had been a staunch supporter to keep the Village Ambulance going with one full time ALS and using volunteers as drivers and other staff. She reinforced that decision in a letter to the  New York Department of Health officials in March of 2013.

On March 16, 2013, the Town approved a new resolution, specifically requesting an Ambulance Service Certificate which included the entire limits of the Village. The request was denied by the Department of Health.

This led to a lawsuit filed by the Town stating that since the Town Ambulance is paid for by all residents of the Town, their operating Ambulance Certificate should not exclude them from service to the Village residents.

“This is all to feed her (Mayor Marie Cramer’s) ego. There is no way our residents should be paying for two separate ambulances,” said Sliney.

The Town of Macedon received a court decision on Monday (7/14) after commencing an Article 78 proceeding that sought an order requiring the New York State Department of Health to issue an Ambulance Certificate to the Macedon Town Ambulance.

The court decision now allows the Town Ambulance to include as “Primary Territory”, the Village of Macedon. It stated that since the Town of Macedon was issued its permanent operating Ambulance Service Certificate in 2009, with its Primary Territory the “Town of Macedon”, the Department of Health could not modify the certificate to exclude the Village.

The court decision takes effect on Monday, July 21st.

Ironically, following an executive session by the Village Board on Wednesday (7/9), the board voted to eliminate the full time position and have the Macedon Village Ambulance Service become a ‘volunteer only’ service. This also means that the Village  Ambulance could not bill for their calls.

Village Board member, Dave Kelly said that, since the Village already owns the two ambulances, the cost to run an all-volunteer service should be minimal. Kelly also added that the Town Ambulance has always been the secondary unit called in case the Village ambulance was unable to answer.

Cramer, however, has tossed around the idea of using either Finger Lakes Ambulance, or Rural Metro in the Village. The Mayor went on record stating that when a 911 call comes in for the Village, the Village Ambulance would be called, and if unavailable, the call would be directed to the Finger Lakes Ambulance, or Rural Metro Ambulance. If they are not available the fourth in line would be a call for a Macedon Town Ambulance.

Macedon Town Supervisor Bill Hammond pointed out that valuable time could be lost in the ‘cat and mouse game’ of trying to get an ambulance to respond to a possible critical medical emergency. He said the paid ambulance staff is supported by customer billing and town taxpayers. “All the residents in the Town help pay for the  service, so why not use it.”

Macedon Village trustee, David Sliney, said he will put forth a motion at this Wednesday’s (7/23) Village meeting. The resolution will call for the complete disbanding of the Village Ambulance Service.

“It is absolutely stupid not to call the Town. We (residents) cannot wait for someone to get a crew together. It is just silly,” he stated. “Why keep it. Who the hell needs it? Why?” Why should the taxpayers pay for two ambulance services?

Sliney also stated that perhaps it is time to “rethink this thing”, referring to the Village government.

Kelly admitted that it perhaps is inevitable that someday the Village government would disappear, in light of recent trends. He stated it was too bad the Village and Town couldn’t work together. He described ‘us’ as all the residents of the community of Macedon.

As for Macedon Village business owner, Jan Worden, she said she has every intention of going to the Village of Macedon’s meeting on Wednesday and giving them more than a piece of her mind concerning the near death incident with her husband.

When the missing person call came into police, cell phone location towers zeroed in Alderman Road at Route 31 in Macedon. Last year a vehicle travelling the same route failed to stop and travelled straight across Route 31, across a grassy area and ended up in the Erie Canal. Deputies were searching the Alderman Road area because information received from the cell phone towers placed the last data transmission from the missing man, in a 2 mile radius of the intersection.

Could this have been the fate of James M. Zuber, age 22, who had been reported missing from 628 Frey Road in the Town of Macedon? Zuber was last seen in the City of Canandaigua early Sunday morning.

Zuber left the Sand Bar in Canandaigua at approximately 1:40 a.m. on Sunday July 13, after meeting friends at the bar. He was reported missing by his parents on Tuesday afternoon.

The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office reported that the Sheriff’s Marine Division and scuba divers worked  throughout Thursday (7/17) in the canal using  its side scan sonar and remote observation vehicle (ROV) to discover a vehicle. Divers then entered the water to recover the vehicle and confirmed the worst.

It was Zuber’s vehicle in the Erie canal. Because there were no signs of braking, Deputies believe that Zuber failed to stop at the stop sign at the ‘T’ intersection of Alderman Road and Route 31 and, as conjectured, continued through the intersection into the canal. Zuber was pronounced dead by Wayne County Assistant Coroner Dr. David Blasczak and transported to the Newark Wayne Hospital to determine the cause of death.

The Sheriff’s Office was assisted in this investigation by the New York State Police Aviation Division, the Canandaigua Police Department and the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office.

The innocuous man enters the store, he grabs not one, but two black garbage containers and begins to load Enfamil, the most popular form of baby formula into them. After exiting the store, he makes a second trip, another container and more Enfamil is cleared off the shelves.

A vehicle outside and a second ‘look-out’ is on standby, and the cans are unceremoniously thrown into the trunk of the vehicle. By the time Cory Smith, age 23, of 4500 Dewey Avenue in Rochester is done at the Newark Walmart, the store loses $1,117 in baby formula and another $39.41 in garbage containers.

Smith and his coconspirators did not travel all the way out of Rochester to Newark for just one hit on stores. By the time the day is done, numerous stores along the way have felt similar losses.

The baby formula is a hot, expensive item, easily resold, or traded for drugs, to small grocery stores dotting the inner city. The lucrative trade in baby formula has prompted organized gangs  to enter the trade. It is so lucrative and so costly a loss, that many stores keep the formula behind customer service desks, where customers must ask and pay for the baby food on demand.

According to national sources, the powdered baby formula is even used to cut/dilute powdered cocaine before it hits the streets. Large, organized gangs have taken to the internet, selling the stolen formula at discount prices to young families looking for a bargain.

Usually, with the amount of formula taken, it commands little more than a charge of Petit Larceny if the perpetrator is caught. But more and more desperate thieves, like Smith, are willing to take the chance and go for a huge amount in a single trip.

Stores, like Walmart, have keen eyes and surveillance cameras covering the counters where Enfamil is placed. Loss prevention personnel quickly become familiar with the faces and techniques, as do local police.

Even though the theft at the Walmart Newark store took place on June 28th, the surveillance video and subsequent ‘line-up’ shown to the loss prevention people led to Smith’s arrest. He had recent prior petit larceny arrests in Wayne County and was already in jail until his arrest by the Newark Police .

He was charged with Grand Larceny in the 4th Degree, a loss greater than $1,000. He was arraigned in Newark Village Court and remanded to jail on $5000 cash/$10,000 bond.

Of course, baby formula is a prime item on the list of major shoplifters, but Newark Police Chief, David Christler, has seen other smaller, expensive items cleared off shelves in a quick scoop. “We have seen them take as many razor blades as they can grab and sell them for a fraction of the cost to the corner “mom and pop” stores. Heroin addicts are dropped off at the stores, boost as much as they can, then walk out to Route 31 and meet up with someone. They (the heroin addicts) are then paid off with heroin.

Stores along the Route 31 corridor are often the victims of the professional thieves. If caught, the bosses of the crime simply drive off and leave the drug addicts/thieves to their own devices.

Macedon Police have been involved in several recent thefts from the Macedon Walmart that have led to foot chases, one by Smith on July 1st, where he was caught taking cases of Red Bull energy drinks and condoms. Big electronic devices, such as flat screen televisions, or game consoles and electronic games are other ‘big ticket’ items easily sold on the streets of the inner city.

What will happen to Smith? Most defendants, like Smith, have major police encounters and convictions. A year-long jail sentence, or finally some more serious state prison time are often seen as the cost of doing business. With Smith’s recent activities and arrests in just Wayne County, Chief Christler said state prison time is probably in his future.

Ray Pessin now lives a quiet life in Williamson, but as a child, he recalls life near Normandy, France during World War II. He remembers life among both the occupying German and American soldiers that impacted his early days.

When stories were written about local residents who served in the U.S. Forces in Normandy on June 6, 1944 D-Day, Pessin had quite a different story to tell.

Ray grew up in France in the Town of Hauteville Sur Mer, just a few miles down the coast from Normandy. His mom and dad, Augustine and Claude Pessin, raised 6 children during the turbulent times of the 1940s.

In 1940, Ray remembers (at age 6), watching Germans come into his town – they came by bus and in horse-drawn wagons, not tanks. “I saw them coming into town in the wagons, and I thought of the pictures of western cowboys” Ray recalled.

At age 10, Ray and his family heard the planes, heard and felt the guns on the hills looking down on the beaches.

Ray and his brothers still played in the fields around his home, but the family told them, if you are out in the fields, and see a plane, hide…but if it is a U.S. Plane (the residents knew the difference, from the markings and the sound  of the engines), you should wave your arms, so they know you are on their side, and not to shoot.

When Pessin recently read the story of a local veteran, Joe Main from Macedon, who returned to Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day, he made it a point to contact Joe and his family to swap stories of that time in history.

So, how did Ray find his way to America? Ray, now a U.S. citizen, since 1978, recalled moving to the U.S. to be with his sister Jane. She had met a G.I. while working at a USO club in France and married him in 1946. But Jane had to wait 6 months before she could go to the States to be with him.

Ray followed Jane in 1952. He came for himself, but also because his sister  was so homesick after she left. Ray was just 17, but had finished school in France (most students complete their schooling at age 14), and he came to earn a living and discover the U.S. He arrived on the Queen Mary, docking in the New York City, remembering the welcoming Statue of Liberty, which his home country had given to the United States as a gift. It made him proud.

Over the years, his brothers, Jean, Claude, and Eric, also moved to the United States. Ray’s older brother, Roger remains to this day in Hauteville Sur Mer.

His brother Eric, moved to Pultneyville. He arrived in 1959, and died in 2007. Jane, who was born in Paris, died in the Town of Gates in 1947. Ray married his second wife Kay in 1988.

In Rochester, when he first arrived, Ray began to earn his living by making truck deliveries of apples from local farms to distribution sites. At home, he and his sister concentrated on learning English, by avoiding speaking their native tongue.

Reminiscing, Ray tells of his time in France, during WWII. His father was a member of the French Underground and hid American soldiers and wounded GIs in the grease pits in the vehicle repair garage he owned.

Ray’s father had a radio and when wounded soldiers were found, they were sent to him to hide and hold until a doctor could see to them. Ray does not remember any of them staying

by and ask for help fixing their bikes, Ray’s father would refuse, but, to keep harmony with the Germans and not look like he was hiding anything, he told them that they could fix the bikes themselves in the garage. None of the men the elder Pessin hid were ever discovered by the Germans.

Ray recalls the bomb that injured him as a young child during the war. It was not a bomb dropped from a plane. It happened that he and a friend, playing near a pile of supposedly deactivated bombs in the town. had an adventure.

When they were playing one day, Ray and his friend found the tip of a bomb sticking out of the ice. The boys just wanted to know how big it was, so, they threw one of the “disarmed” bombs from the pile on top of it. It exploded, throwing both Ray and his friend a great distance away. Ray lost a finger and still has some shrapnel in his hip to this day. “I remember that I came to and I was bleeding and I noticed I was about 50 feet from where I had been. A passing bicyclist heard the bomb go off, found me,  and put me on his bike taking me to my home, half a  mile away.  I spent a month in the temporary hospital.

“I also remember that one farmer found a large bomb and was afraid to move it, but my sister lifted it and took it to headquarters. Some other farmers found bombs which had come through their barn roofs, and added them to the pile in the town. Not all were apparently disarmed”

“There was a time when four German officers were killed one night as they tried to exercise their horses in the ocean. They were killed by the Resistance. Others came looking for them. They were also killed.”

Ray told of an island about 20 miles off the shore, where the Germans had a base. One night some Germans rowed over. When the Germans who were imprisoned in town after “D-Day”, heard the others arrive, they rioted and tried to escape. All the prisoners (300 or more) were killed by the French.”

Earlier, when the Germans still held the area, there were Russia prisoners too, who the Germans would train to shoot anti-aircraft guns at the Americans. “I was told that the Russians (called White Russians) tried to miss, or shoot just after the planes had passed. The Germans finally caught on and shot these men.”

Ray’s father had flown airmail planes for France in 1918-1923 during World War I. Later, when his dad, Claude, was 88 years old, and retuning to France from a visit to the U.S. a flight attendant found out he used to be a pilot.

She informed the pilot of the plane, who encouraged Mr. Pessin to join him in the cockpit and allowed him to fly the plane over the ocean for a while. What a thrill it was for him.

by Patti Holdraker