de Blasio Administration Launches NYC National Service Support Center From Harlem To Hollis
de Blasio Administration Launches NYC National Service Support Center From Harlem To Hollis
Today, NYC Service announced the launch of the NYC National Service Support Center, which provides training, technical assistance, capacity building resources, and consultations to nearly 40 service year programs across the City. (more…)
Day-to-day hard work just paid off for True Farms.
The Perry farmers’ “Farm 2” site was one of six recipients to earn a Platinum Award from the National Diary Quality Awards for excellent milk quality. In addition, Harkins Dairy Farm in Wyoming received a Silver Award, giving Wyoming County another winner.
The NDQA is sponsored by the National Mastitis Council and is in its 19th year. The awards honor dairy producers across the United States that prioritize the highest-quality milk production possible.
Jeff True, who, along with Brian and Glenn True, owns the award-winning site, explained milk quality partially determines how much farms are paid, and the milk is tested every day, when it is picked up.
True had a simple explanation for how “Farm 2,” which houses 280 Holstein and Brown Swiss cows, took the top prize.
“Our second farm just happened to have really, really, really, really good-quality milk,” he chuckled.
The explanation may be simple, but True, who will be flying to California to accept the award, said he appreciates the recognition.
“There were six Platinum Award Winners in the country, so we were one of six,” he said. “It’s pretty exciting and pretty humbling at the same time. It’s pretty cool, when it comes right down to it. We try to do a good job every day at everything we do, and getting some extra recognition for it is even neater.”
Residents rally around Warsaw grad fighting cancer
By Bryan Jackson
Kailee Griffith Bridges, a former Wyoming and Warsaw student currently undergoing treatment for bone cancer, certainly has a lot of supporters in her corner.
A group of family friends and community members are organizing a spaghetti dinner and basket raffle Feb. 9 at Wyoming Central School for Bridges, who is also a new mother.
The benefit will be held from 4 to 8 p.m., with basket drawings at 7 p.m. In case of snow, the event will be held Feb. 10.
Tickets, which can be purchased beforehand or at the door, are $8 for adults and $6 for children 10 and under.
Attendees can purchase a book of 25 raffle tickets for $5, which also enters them into a $50 door-prize basket. Tickets can be used to bid on baskets donated by businesses in Warsaw, Pavilion, Batavia and other local towns.
Within the close-knit community, many people have at least one relationship with the family, Cox said.
“I wasn’t one of her teachers, but it’s such a small school here. I actually live just a few houses down from Kailee, and she’s babysat for me,” Cox said, adding Bridges’ mother is a bus driver and cafeteria aide for Wyoming. “We all kind of have multiples relations with Kailee and the family.”
Cox said the fundraiser is a way for the community to help Bridges, her husband Justin, whom she met in the Marines, and their new baby, Lilly.
“I think so many people just wanted to do something,” Cox said. “We watched them traveling back and forth to Strong Memorial (Hospital) in Rochester and knew that was a hardship money-wise. Of course you do what you have to do, but we were just trying to find a way that we could reach out and show the family how much we care and support them.”
According to Cox, Bridges and her family are hoping to attend, and judging by Cox’s description of Bridges, she’ll be there, if it is at all possible.
“She’s very positive, very upbeat,” Cox said. “When her family is down, she just drags them along. She’s just very positive. She has some bad days, of course, but she bounces back. She is just very focused on being positive and looking on the bright side of things.”
If you would like to support Bridges and her family but can’t make it to the spaghetti dinner, donations can be made to the Grace Baptist Church’s Beacons Fund and mailed to the church at 238 Vine St., Batavia, N.Y. Be sure to indicate the donation is for Kailee Bridges on the memo line.
Wyoming Central’s hot lunch program fizzles: Unforseen costs would have caused price spike
By Bryan Jackson
Negotiations between Wyoming Central School and Morrison Food Service that would have restarted a hot lunch program at the school have come to an abrupt halt, taking the hot lunch option off the table for the rest of the school year.
Following the Jan. 10 board of education meeting, it appeared school officials had reached an agreement with Morrison, which also provides dining services to Wyoming County Community Health System. However, according to Wyoming Superintendent Sandra Duckworth, negotiations fell through when WCCHS indicated the school would have to pay for the time Morrison spent using hospital facilities to prepare the lunches.
“I had a conversation with the folks at Morrison (Food Service), with a regional director,” Duckworth said at the Jan. 24 board of education meeting. “The Board of Supervisors insisted that Wyoming pick up our share of use of the facilities, prepping and whatnot, so the price per meal increased by another dollar, per meal.”
The extra cost would’ve pushed the price of lunch to $3.25, and as Duckworth said, that increased price didn’t even include the cost of milk or labor. With those additional costs factored in, the price could have soared close to $5.
“WCCHS was not involved in any negotiations related to a proposed contract between Morrison Food Service and Wyoming Central School,” he said in a statement. “Morrison Food Service does provide dietary-related services for WCCHS at the hospital, and any use of WCCHS' facilities by Morrison for services other than WCCHS' food service would require approval by WCCHS administration.”
The lunch debate came to the forefront after Alexander Central School, who provided Wyoming with cold, bagged lunches during the first semester, ceased the program, citing estimated losses between $10,000 and $12,000, if they continued through the end of the year. In January, Genesee Valley Educational Partnership took over those duties until the Morrison deal was set to pick up in February.
With the Morrison deal effectively off the table, the board considered other options including continuing the bagged program through GVEP or getting hot lunches from GVEP – or even cutting the lunch program all together.
Duckworth cautioned against axing lunches mid-semester, citing the upcoming rigorous state tests, despite the potential financial boon.
“(Business Official) Donald (Childs) and I have had conversations with BOCES, and we feel very strongly that we just can’t take lunch away from kids right now – not in the middle of the year with all the state assessments coming up. I cannot do that,” she said.
Board of Education Jeanne Morey echoed Duckworth’s recommendation to continue with GVEP through the end of the year.
“Giving kids nothing, when we have said we were going to give a lunch of some kind, would be a mistake,” she said. “I think we need to finish the year and (then) do something that is good, nutritious and doesn’t cost a lot.”
However, Ernest Morris, vice president of the Wyoming School Board, questioned whether the school could continue to lose money while putting off a long-term decision on the lunch program. He said the lunch program has been an elusive target for many years, and with fewer and fewer kids participating, he wondered what financial impact propping it up has had on other programs.
“I know it’s the right thing to do for kids, but is it the right thing to continue to ask the taxpayers to fund this when we’re losing money and we know we’re going to lose money – at what seems like an ever-increasing rate,” he said. “Then we get to the end of the year, and we have to cut programs because we’re going to be chasing scarce dollars. I’m not trying to be mean-spirited here, but I’m just looking at the thing from a purely economical standpoint, and a businessman wouldn’t do that. I understand that we need to do that, but is it more important for us to be in the food business or the education business?”
The board voted to continue lunch with GVEP for the remainder of the year by a vote of 5-1, solving Wyoming’s lunch program problems, albeit temporarily.
Next year, board members and administrators will again have to figure out the best course of action, and that’s going to take substantial homework, such as how would slashing the lunch program affect state aid, for example, and even more difficult decisions.
Wyoming Central to restart hot lunch program: BOE also preps for cost-saving study’s release
By Bryan Jackson
The Wyoming Central School Board of Education is moving forward with an agreement between the district and Morrison Senior Dining that would revive a hot lunch program at the school, Superintendent Sandra Duckworth said.
As it stands, the program would begin the first week of February and run through the remainder of the school year.
“We’re going to just run it as a pilot,” she said. “At the end of the line, in June, we’re going to have to do an analysis to see just how much money we lost. We anticipate there will be some loss, but (we got) overwhelming response from community members. They really wanted us to bring back a hot meal for lunch, so that is what the board is going to attempt to do.”
Final negotiations between the district and Morrison Senior Dining regarding costs and logistics are still taking place, and Duckworth stressed the program would not necessarily be permanent, again citing the need to analyze costs at year’s end.
Uebbing, a professor at the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education and former superintendent of Canandaigua City School District, was hired last fall as a private consultant, independent of his job at the U of R, by Wyoming Central School to assess potential cost-saving programs the school could implement.
“What he looks at…ways to cut ways to cut expenses, ways to make programs better, ways for district to maybe change the way they’re doing something,” Duckworth said. “The board wanted him to look at things like, what would be the impact of eliminating full-day kindergarten, what would be the impact of eliminating non-mandated instructional programs, what about if we reduced the number of tuition high schools that we send kids to. He’s also looking at what’s the impact at tuitioning out all of our students, and what’s the process, and is it feasible, to dissolve a district.”
Uebbing is in the process of analyzing and organizing data he’s collected. Once he has presented his findings to the board of education late this month or in early February, a community-wide presentation is expected sometime in later February or early March, Duckworth said.
Orangeville wind farm plods along after tax credit extension
By Bryan Jackson
Orangeville’s Stony Creek Wind Farm was set to careen over the fiscal cliff last Monday, but the last-minute deal to avoid automatic tax increases and harsh spending cuts for the country also included a much-needed tax credit extension for Chicago-based developer Invenergy Inc, LLC.
The production tax credit (PTC) grants project developers 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour for the first 10 years of new wind-power operations. The tax incentive, which has been crucial for wind developers across the country, was set to expire Dec. 31.
With the extension in place, Invenergy is sifting through the legislation and formulating future plans for wind farm, which would include 59 turbines.
“We currently are reviewing the recently-passed federal legislation and formulating our business strategy,” Eric Miller, director of business development for Invenergy, said in a statement. “Initial construction work on the Stony Creek project began in mid-2012 and will continue in 2013, with a more detailed timeline to be determined. We look forward to announcing further developments in the future.”
“Basically, what they’re doing right now, they still have some issues to clear up with the (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation) on their stormwater pollution prevention plan, otherwise known as the SWPPP,” said Orangeville Town Supervisor Gerald Stout. “While they’re working on that, they had been approved to go ahead with the substation on Centerline Road. In addition, they may begin clearing roadways, where the turbines will be constructed. Perhaps next month, they may start that.”
If Invenergy moves forward without completing the SWPPP requirements, the company would be subject to DEC fines and open to lawsuits by local residents. Stout said Invenergy officials have said they are working diligently on the SWPPP issue, and it should be cleared up in the near future.
Even with the current slow-going, Stout said he felt Invenergy would move forward with the Stony Creek project.
“They don’t yet have a total go-ahead from headquarters in Chicago,” he said. “They’re still studying the legislation, but I think they are fairly confident that they will be going ahead with this project here in this coming year.”
A Bliss native and army specialist is dead following a Jan. 2 shooting near Fort Hood, Texas.
Army Spc. Austin Sampson, 25, of Bliss, died Jan. 4, after he and two other men were shot in a convenience store parking lot in Killeen, Texas two days earlier, according to Killeen Police Department officials.
Following the shooting, Sampson was airlifted to Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, where he was pronounced dead Jan. 4.
Sampson entered active duty in July 2006 as a cavalry scout and arrived at Fort Hood later that year. He deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom from November 2007 to January 2009 and again in support of Operation New Dawn from August 2010 to August 2011, according to a statement released by the Fort Hood Press Center.
Sampson’s accolades include the Army Commendation Medal, two Army Good Conduct Medals, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal with three campaign stars, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and Overseas Service Ribbon.
The shooting is still under investigation by the Killeen Police Department.
UPDATE: On Jan. 8, police announced 17-year-old Terry Grant Scott, of Killeen, was arrested and charged with Sampson’s murder. He is now in custody at Killeen City Jail while police continue their investigation.
Local Special Olympian is bound for South Korea: Barney Pedraza of Warsaw to compete in alpine skiing
By Bryan Jackson
Barney Pedraza’s no stranger to the Special Olympics circuit.
While attending Genesee Valley BOCES, now called Genesee Valley Educational Partnership, Pedraza was a powerlifter, bowler and competed in track and field in Special Olympics events. Then, at age 14, he decided he’d give alpine skiing a whirl.
After school, he decided to concentrate solely on skiing, and over 20 years later, as he prepares to represent Team USA at the Special Olympics World Games in South Korea, it’s evident that was a good decision.
When Pedraza arrives in Pyeongchang, South Korea for the games – taking place Jan. 29 through Feb. 5 – it will be the first time he will represent the United States in a Special Olympics competition.
Being selected for Team USA required Pedraza’s skills of the slopes, as well as a touch of luck, as his coach, Martha Pachuta, explained.
“What they do is in order to be selected, you do need to win a gold medal or a first place in your division in the state games prior to the event,” she said. “Anyone who receives a gold medal, their name actually goes into a hat.”
Individual donations have poured in, and in November, the Warsaw Kiwanis Club raised $1,000 through a spaghetti dinner benefitting Pedraza’s trip to South Korea.
Pachuta said funding would not get in the way of Pedraza’s trip, but the less money he needs from Special Olympics, the more the organization can help finance other athletes with a lesser support system.
That selflessness is right in line with Pedraza’s leadership style, Pachuta said.
“Barney is one of those athletes that not only does he push himself to do better, but he also is a significant helper and role model for the other skiers that are coming into the program,” she said. “Barney’s the first one to help unload the car. He’s the first one to help load the car at the end of practice. First one to ask, ‘Is there anything else I can do?’”
Pachuta added that Pedraza is exactly the kind of person to capture the essence of the games.
“Barney is a very patent man and very polite and very well-mannered,” she said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he will just be a great representation, when he attends this event.”
He might need those amicable traits, considering his first time flying will be a 15-plus-hour flight to South Korea.
To help fund Pedraza’s trip to the Special Olympics World Games, visit http://worldgames.kintera.org/barney.
