Tim Wendel will give presentations May 28 at Author’s Note

Rebel Falls is a book of fiction based on actual facts and people in the Niagara Falls area. Tim Wendel, a Lockport native, will be in Medina for a book talk and signing on May 28. 

MEDINA – A Lockport native and noted author will launch his newest book at a book signing May 28 at Author’s Note in Medina.

Tim Wendel grew up in Lockport, where his parents lived on Canal Road, and graduated in 1974 from Royalton-Hartland Central School. He has always loved to write and during high school he was correspondent for the Niagara Gazette.

Now a resident of Charlottesville, Va., Wendel is writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University and the author of several books, including Summer of ’68, Cancer Crossings (featuring cancer doctors at Roswell Park), High Heat and the historical novels, Castro’s Curveball and its sequel Escape from Castro’s Cuba.

Rebel Falls is fiction, set in the late summer of 1864 and based on actual, yet long-obscured events and people of the Civil War in the Niagara Falls area, including Medina, Orleans and Niagara counties, Wendel said.

He became interested in the Civil War after reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and Carl Sandberg’s Lincoln. Wendel discovered while most of the fighting was going on in the south, espionage and spying was taking place all along the Canadian border. At the center of it were two spies, John Yates Beall and Bennet Burley, whom President Lincoln had refused to pardon for their crimes.

Their goal was to seize the USS Michigan, the only warship left on the Great Lakes, and create enough dissension that people would blame Lincoln and he would lose the election, which was to take place the day after the spies planned crime. They also planned to bomb Buffalo, Cleveland and Toledo.

Wendel said he was a history buff, yet he had never heard of Beall and Burley.

“The more research I did, the more I realized there was more going on than what history has reported,” he said.

He also learned John Wilkes Booth had been accepting money from a bank in Montreal, and a bank note was found in his pocket when he was apprehended about two weeks after assassinating President Lincoln.

Wendel’s book also hits on the role the Cataract Hotel played in the Underground Railroad in Niagara Falls.

The author said it took him three years to write the book. He said Niagara Falls is such a beautiful area, he is considering to focus it in his next book.

Author’s Note has scheduled two sessions with Wendel on May 28. One is at 6 p.m. and the other at 7 p.m. Anticipating a large turnout, Author’s Note owner Julie Berry said they are selling tickets for $5 each to reserve a seat at either presentation. The $5 will then be deducted from the cost of purchasing a book. She encourages purchasing tickets in advance at the store or online.

Attendees are asked to be in their seats 10 minutes before their scheduled session. Those not there by five minutes before will lose their seat.

Those unable to get a ticket can still come and meet Wendel and have their book signed. They are asked to arrive just before 6 or just before 7 so if anyone couldn’t make it, a seat might be available. People waiting for just the signing will be allowed in at 7:45 p.m. Berry said Wendel will only sign books purchased at Author’s Note.

Wendel will also give his presentation at 6 p.m. May 29 at Woodward Memorial Library in Le Roy.

Photos and information courtesy of Christa Bowling, Troop Leader

ALBION – Kendall’s Girl Scout Troop 82257 surprised PAWS Animal Shelter in Albion today with over $800 in animal care donations.

The Kendall Girl Scout troop is made up of 34 girls from kindergarten to grade 4. This year when the troop members discussed all of the fun things they could do with their money earned from selling Girl Scout cookies, the first thing they said was “Help an animal shelter.” Today they did just that.

This Kendall troop sold over 10,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this past cookie season. Their leader, Christa Bowling of Kendall, couldn’t be more proud of her girls and their big hearts ready to help. PAWS was a great shelter to work with, and enjoyed sharing the animals with the girls today.

Provided photo

MEDINA – The Medina Rotary Club donated 125 pounds of meat worth about $500 last week to the Medina Food Pantry.

Pictured form left include Rotarians: Gary Lawton, Gloria Brent, Edee Hoffmeister, Cindy Hewitt, Peter Bartula, Joel Payne, Ben McPherson and Bill Bixler.

Rotary Club members also volunteer twice a month at the food pantry which is located at St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church on West Avenue in Medina.

Photos by Ginny Kropf: (Left) Katie Oakes, left, Horticulture educator at Orleans County Cornell Cooperative Extension, and Robert Batt, director, oversee the filling of container gardens for a new program that has been established to help people grow their own healthy food. (Right) Rahema Quddus, Jason Stearns and Devon Heveron, all employees of Takeform, volunteered on Friday for Orleans County United Way’s Day of Caring. They are shown here filling containers with wood chips for new container gardens at the Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds.

‘We want people to know growing their own food is possible, no matter where they live.’

KNOWLESVILLE – A new program being developed by Orleans County Cornell Cooperative Extension on the 4-H Fairgrounds is intended to show people it is simple to grow their own healthy, nutritious fruits and vegetables at home.

Cooperative Extension’s director Robert Batt came up with the idea and got approval for a New York State SNAP Ed Program Community Growers’ grant.

He secured white plastic barrels donated by Mayer Brothers in Barker, which were cut in half to form container gardens for the Horticulture to Health Program, a project of Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Working in conjunction with the Master Gardeners and other volunteers, Batt and Katie Oakes, horticulture educator, have been filling the barrels with wood chips, topsoil and llama manure.

The barrels will be planted with a variety of seeds and plants, including berries, potatoes, asparagus, herbs, garlic, beets, carrots, greens, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, kale and peppers, and more.

“We want to show people in those simple raised gardens they can grow healthy, nutritious food at home,” Batt said.

Peter Beach deposits a load of mulch to the pile, which was used to fill container gardens, which will be used at the fairgrounds and sent home with participants of their nutrition classes.

Thirty barrels will stay at the fairgrounds, where they will be placed on the lawn near the Trolley Building, along with a row of raised garden beds created by the Master Gardeners, called the Veggie Variety Trail. Theme of the trail is “Cultural Roots of Eastern Europe.”

“When we harvest what we are going to grow here, we will weigh it and donate it to a food program, such as the OK Kitchen in Albion, or our Cooperative Extension food distribution,” Batt said.

Batt said 20 more barrels will go to community partners in each of four towns and the Community Action store.

“We are looking for partners in Medina, Lyndonville and Kendall to take a barrel,” Batt said. “Anyone interested can call me at (585) 798-4265, Ext. 130.”

Anyone who participated in nutrition classes led by Marie Gabalski will receive a three-gallon raised container garden.

“We want people to know growing their own food is possible, no matter where they live,” Batt said. “We hope they will continue year after year. The whole point is to show how easy it is and anyone can do it.”

At the fairgrounds, Batt said they are going to plant what is easy to grow and productive.

Oakes has always wanted to plant peanuts and they will try them in one of the gardens.

“If you have a shelf full of canned food and a pandemic comes along or a blizzard when you can’t get to the store, you are not going to starve,” Batt said.

The barrels containing perennials will be moved under the pavilion for the winter and then rolled back out in the spring.

These raised garden beds form Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Veggie Variety Trail along the lawn south of the Trolley Building at the 4-H Fairgrounds. They were created by the Master Gardeners.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 4, No. 15

This 1919 poster depicts a boy with a hoe leading a parade of “smiling” vegetables displaying an American flag. (Maginel Wright Enright, Library of Congress collection)

“I hereby declare and set aside Friday, May 11, as Garden Day, and urge all citizens to observe the same by putting in a home garden on said day.”

This declaration was made on May 9, 1917, by Dr. Warren E. Stocking, acting president, and subsequent mayor of the Village of Medina.

A poor harvest in 1917, the loss of agricultural workers due to military conscription, the sabotage of ships carrying food supplies, and the necessity of supplying food to soldiers, led to a food crisis for the Allied forces.

The U.S. Food Administration was established in 1917 to produce and conserve food for American and Allied troops as well as for war-torn Europeans. With slogans such as “Every War Garden a Peace Plant,” Americans were encouraged to plant “home gardens” or “liberty gardens” during World War I. These were the forerunners of the “victory gardens” of World War II. Food production and conservation were linked to patriotism.

This poster created in 1918 by William McKee evokes the iconic Spirit of ’76. Wheat and vegetables replace the fife and drum. (Library of Congress collection)

In Medina, the Patriotic Committee on Home Gardens started a campaign in April 1917 to make every backyard in Medina a participant vegetable producer.

“The importance of this phase of war activity cannot be overestimated, as every family that provides itself, not only helps to bring down the cost of living, but also sets free for war uses much-needed foodstuffs, and a planter has come to occupy a place of importance in war secondary only to the soldier himself.” (Medina Daily Journal, April 25, 1917)

Committee members included Parke Davis, William U. Lee, Harry W. Robbins, Fred B. Howell, Robert H. Newell, Mrs. David White and Mrs. Eugene Walsh.

The committee campaigned to have every back yard in Medina produce vegetables for the home. Instructional leaflets provided by the Garden Club of America were distributed to schools and factories.

Students were encouraged to encourage their parents to participate. The Lyndonville Enterprise in 1918 proclaimed that “Every boy and girl that helps with the garden is helping win the war.”

The instructional leaflets outlined how best to use a plot of 20 by 30 feet for a succession of spring, summer and fall crops and how the suggested vegetables should be cultivated. It was estimated that working one hour a day on a 20 x 20 ft. plot would provide vegetables for a family of six. Sensibly, the Committee also arranged for the services of a horse and plow and an experienced plowman at a reasonable cost.

The Committee was “besieged by orders.” By May, it had received enough orders for seed potatoes to warrant ordering “a car of Maine potatoes.”

Nationally, the campaign was a success. Home gardens produced around 1.45 million quarts of canned fruit and vegetables, food which critically helped avoid starvation in Europe during the final two years of the war.

By Randy LeBaron

Good morning! Grab your favorite cup, fill it up & let’s start this day right… TOGETHER!!!

Hey friends, thank you for all of the feedback since the first part of my article ran two weeks ago. I’m going to pick up right where I left off so feel free to go back and read that if you haven’t already done so. Click here to see “A father with his own hurts often wounded his own son.”

After being filled with anger, bitterness, and resentment toward my father because of how he had bullied and neglected me for most of my childhood I ignored my mother’s plea to say goodbye to him before getting on bus that would take me to Central Christian College in McPherson, KS. If you don’t know where that is just picture the middle of the middle of nowhere. The irony is that, in spite of how my trip had started, my choice to go to school halfway across the country sight unseen was not just to get away from those who had hurt me but also to seek God and find out what it really meant to be a Christian. I wasn’t alone either, some others from church also made the trek including my good friend Tom Rivers. Yes, that Tom Rivers.

We had both been part of the youth group and Sunday School at a local church back in Gerry, NY.  During that time, I had certainly grown in my walk with God but, like many others I knew, I had also learned how to look like a Christian on Sunday morning while still living like the world the rest of the week. I knew that there had to be more and, ever since my praying grandmother had passed, I was determined to find out what it was. So, I left my comfort zone and came to Kansas to find God which, as I often joke, was easy because there wasn’t anything else there.

Through a series of events, I found what I was looking for. Late one night while alone in my dorm room I had a long talk with God where I admitted those things I felt guilty and ashamed about only to find a sense of freedom through His forgiveness. If you are familiar with the Parable of the Prodigal son from Luke Chapter 15, I was the son coming home to his father, expecting wrath but finding grace. And in that very moment I sensed God whispering to me, “What about your father?” What about my father I thought. He didn’t deserve my forgiveness. It wasn’t fair. And then it hit me that just a second after asking for mercy myself that I was acting like the bitter older brother in the parable who wasn’t willing to extend that same mercy to another. I broke down and through tears I prayed, “Jesus, help me to have a relationship with my father and help him to have a relationship with you.”

Tom Rivers and Randy LeBaron at a recent high school class reunion at Cassadaga Valley.

From that day on I prayed regularly for my father and also chose to forgive him daily—not because he asked for it or even deserved it but because I understood that to be forgiven I myself needed to be forgiving. (Quick caveat – I am not endorsing staying in a relationship where abuse is taking place. I actually helped my mother to move out of the house and away from my father at one point.) So, after that first year of college I transferred to Roberts Wesleyan which was closer to home, and I started developing a relationship with my dad again. It was never really father son per se but more of a friendship.

I think my father had at the very least realized I was making better choices than my brothers had and respected it. For years we hung out and played cards, I would talk about Jesus, and he would change the subject, I would give him Bibles and he would use them as doorstops. 

Shortly after moving to Albion in 2004, I went back home to visit and found him there but without a vehicle. Since he lived out in the country on 88 acres of woods this seemed odd, so I asked what happened. Long story short I discovered that my father had been dealing with depression, as well as some early signs of dementia, and had his car had been impounded after a small fender bender. It was discovered that he had not renewed his registration or had insurance for over 3 years. I also found a box of unopened mail, mainly bills, and learned that his house was about to be foreclosed on. It seemed as if his world was collapsing around him.

I spent the next year paying his past due bills, working with the bank regarding his house, and bringing him to court since there were a lot of charges and fines involved with his driving uninsured. I would be asked by friends and family members why I was spending so much time, energy, and money to help him when he had not done those same things for me. My response was that it was my intention to treat him, not how he had treated me but, how I would have wanted him to treat me. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy, and I wrestled with it regularly, but ultimately, I wanted to be an example to my own kids of how to treat others.

Everything came to a head when at the final court hearing the judge told my father that he would drop all fines and charges if he would hand over his license and allow his son to move him to Albion so that he could care for him. I thought that, as the son in question, the judge could have given me a heads up, but I also figured it would never happen because it would mean my father letting go of the two things he prized most in this world—his home and his independence. And then he said yes.

I found an apartment for him at BoBak Estates not too far from us and I made a deal with him, knowing that this would be a stressful transition and that he had been a heavy smoker since he was 9 years old, that for the first year I would drive him down the The Rez to buy his cigarettes but that he had to come to my church. We both kept our ends of the deal and that next summer, after an outdoor service where I had preached a simple gospel message, I was driving my dad home when he said, “I heard every word that you said.”

This was the complete opposite of what I had heard throughout my childhood, when he would say he could never understand a thing I said, so I felt like it was prompt to continue the conversation. I spent the next 4 hours up in my father’s apartment listening to all the things that had happened to him that had kept him at an arm’s length from God. Things like being sexually abused by a nurse when he was hospitalized for the better part of 2 years as a child, and, while serving in the Army in Germany right after WWII, accidentally killing two of his close friends with a mortar blast after being forced to follow an order he didn’t agree with.

After he stopped speaking, I asked him if he wanted to be free from the weight of all he had been carrying around with him the past 70-plus years. He said yes and so we prayed together. He gave his life to Jesus and then he looked up and, probably for the first time since I was a toddler, told me he loved me. Thirteen years of prayers for me to have a relationship with my dad and for him to have a relationship with Jesus were answered that evening.

After that he became one of my biggest cheerleaders and a fantastic “Papa Fuzz” to my kids. I could have chosen bitterness all those years ago but, because I chose forgiveness instead, my relationship with my dad is not defined by our past but by our future. It has been over 12 years now since dad died but I know that I will have eternity to play catch up and I have no regrets.

See you in two weeks!

Pastor Randy

Photos courtesy of Steve Goodrich: The American Legion in Lyndonville will set 445 flags on veterans’ graves

Press Release, Houseman-Tanner Post 1603

LYNDONVILLE – The Houseman-Tanner Post 1603 of the American Legion will be performing our flag-in in preparations for Memorial Day on Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Lynhaven Cemetery. We have 445 flags to place and could use the help of any interested parties. We will meet near the flagpole & cannon.

Next I want to put out a friendly reminder. The markers that hold the flags (pictured) are purchased by the Houseman-Tanner Post. These markers are meant to be in the ground year round.

Occasionally, family members or friends take these home during winter months. Please note once they are placed in the ground they become property of the cemetery. If you have taken one please make sure it is returned by Thursday.

This is important because without the marker a veteran may be missed and not have a flag placed. Also the cost for the markers has gone up exponentially in the last 5 years. Bronze markers have been priced out of the post’s ability to purchase from $43 per marker in 2019 to over $145 each this year.

To combat that, the post is now purchasing bronze plated aluminum markers. I will add this, no one honestly taking one home, “for safekeeping” will have any problems from myself or the post, so long as the marker is returned to the proper grave.

That said, any person caught stealing markers (Yes, it has occurred elsewhere) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent. These veterans gave so very much for us to enjoy our freedoms that many take for granted, please help us honor them with the respect they deserve.

Steve Goodrich

Commander

Houseman-Tanner Post 1603

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Lucas Webb, 7, places an American flag on the grave of a veteran at Mount Albion Cemetery this morning. Lucas and other Cub Scouts in Pack 164 and Boy Scouts in Troop 164 placed about 2,000 flags today at Mount Albion and then at St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

These Scouts enjoyed the time together placing flags at Mount Albion. From left include Mason Patten, Peter Stritzinger, Owen Monaghan and Colton Durow.

The scouts in Albion have helped the local American Legion and VFW with the task before Memorial Day for many years.

Leo Gotte, 11, places flags by graves at St. Joseph’s Cemetery on Route 31 after the group finished at Mount Albion.

Colson Braley, 13, has helped with the flag placing for several years now. He is shown at St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

Lincoln Metcalf, 6, and his mother Melissa Metcalf helped set flags for veterans today. They are joined by their dog, Hazel. Lincoln’s dad Ben Metcalf is the cubmaster for Pack 164.

Matt Passarell, quarter master for the VFW, places a flag at St. Joseph’s. He said the VFW and American Legion purchased 2,400 flags to set at soldiers’ graves in central Orleans County. The veterans’ groups will place flags for veterans at other smaller cemeteries in central Orleans before Memorial Day on May 27.

The Legion and VFW invite the community to the Memorial Day parade at 10 a.m., starting on Main Street near Park Street. The procession then goes to the middle school where there will be a ceremony outside the school on the front lawn by the monument.

Dan Flanagan, the scoutmaster for Troop 164, looks for graves with veterans’ markers at Mount Albion. Flanagan has been an adult volunteer with the troop for 14 years. Seven of his children have been in scouting.

Courtesy of Wolfpack Multisports: The T-shirt for the Strawberry Festival 5K and 8K includes a strawberry in a space suit.

ALBION – Organizers of the 36^th annual Albion Strawberry Festival picked “Out of this World” for the theme of the two-day festival next month.

The festival committee thought the theme would build off all the hoopla for the solar eclipse on April 8. It wasn’t planned with lots of buildup like the eclipse, but the spectacle of the Northern Lights on the night of May 10-11 also had people looking to the skies.

Now, it’s up to the community and festival participants to rally around the theme. Becky Karls, the festival committee chairperson, wants to see many displays with a space theme for the parade at 10 a.m. on June 8. She said “Out of this World” lends itself to lots of creativity in the floats.

“I want to see more floats,” Karls said. “That would be my wish.”

Some of the events during the festival will feature the theme. Organizers of the 5K and 8K on June 8 unveiled the T-shirts for the race which show a strawberry in a space suit on a rocket. The dash plaques for the car show also have the festival theme.

The June 7-8 festival also will feature live music at four different locations, an arts and crafts show, many food vendors, and many other events.

Karls is leading the committee for the first time, after many years as a key volunteer.

“I love people and I love community events,” Karls said. “I think it’s great to have something in the community to bring people out.”

She said the committee has many dedicated volunteers who work well together.

The committee leaders include:

• Mark Johnson – Business/Information/Raffle Vendors
• Trevor Thaine – Craft/Artisan/Farm Market Vendors
• Mike Bonnewell – Parade Participants
• Rebecca Alexander – Food Booth Vendors
• Jason Tarnowski – Family Fun Center
• Bill Pileggi – Music/Bands
• Mckenna Boyer – School Royalty/Artwork
• Becky Karls – Turtle race and Car Cruise In

For more information on the festival, click here.

Office for Aging honors Shirley Walter and Charlene Wisnewski for volunteer service

Photos by Tom Rivers

KNOWLESVILLE – Charlene Wisnewski, right, of Medina accepts a “Volunteer of the Year” award today from the Office for the Aging. Wisnewski is joined up front by Melissa Blanar, OFA director, and County Legislator Skip Draper who presented Wisnewski with a citation from State Sen. Rob Ortt.

The OFA held its annual Spring Jubilee luncheon today and about 160 senior citizens had lunch at the Trolley Building at the Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds. The 160 is the biggest crowd for the event since before Covid-19 hit in 2020.

Wisnewski is a retired civilian worker from the Albion Correctional Facility. The past two years she has volunteered as a driver for the OFA, taking seniors to appointments.

Wisnewski last year drove seniors to 55 appointments, logging 952 miles. She said she took about 15 different people, including three veterans. Two of those veterans are legally blind.

“You meet so many wonderful people,” Wisnewski said about volunteering as a driver.

Shirley Walter of Barre also was recognized as a “Volunteer of the Year.” She is shown being presented with an award by State Assemblyman Steve Hawley.

Walter is retired after a career as an accountant and bookkeeper. She also served on the Barre Town Board.

She has volunteered with the OFA at a new Caregivers Connections Respite program, which started in July at the Albion Academy on East Academy Street in Albion where the Meals on Wheels program is based. The respite program offers a break for caregivers of people with dementia or Alzheimer’s. It is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the first and third Wednesdays each month.

Walter faithfully is there spending time with people who have dementia or Alzheimer’s. She has lunch with them, does crafts together, and chats.

“It is rewarding just to listen to them,” Walter said. “They have a lot to say.”

Walter also joins other volunteers in helping the OFA prepare the agency’s monthly newsletter, The Friendly Carrier, that goes to about 3,200 addresses.

Office for the Aging and Arc GLOW staff hold a paper chain that was intended to show how the group of 160 were all connected, with no one alone.

The luncheon was part of the OFA’s annual celebration in May of “Older Americans Month.”

County Legislator John Fitzak read a proclamation about the month. This year’s theme for the month is “Powered by Connections.”

“May is Older Americans Month, a time for us to recognize and honor Orleans County older adults and their immense influence on every facet of American society,” Fitzak said in reading the proclamation. “Whereas, through their wealth of life experience and wisdom, older adults guide our younger generations and carry forward abundant cultural and historical knowledge.”

Vicki Havholm, nutrition program manager for Arc GLOW, emphasized the message that senior citizens aren’t alone and there are many services and opportunities to stay connected in the community.

Kristina Suski-Jewell sings “Sweet Caroline” while entertaining the crowd before the luncheon. She sang for about 45 minutes.

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – A group of Albion eighth-graders spent today painitng a flower-themed mural on a utility building at Bullard Park.

Two years ago, students in teacher Kamie Feder’s art classes painted the back of the building with colorful flowers. On Thursday and today, students painted the sides and front of the building.

They used leftover paint from the previous project.

“We wanted to make it fun and colorful,” Feder said. “Otherwise it’s just a tan building.”

Ayme Vallejo Morales works on painting a flower on the building. The students all designed their flowers for the mural.

This building used to be the bathrooms at Bullard Park until a new pavilion with bathrooms opened in 2021.

Drake Schomske, center, works on the mural this morning.

There were eight students working on the project on Thursday. Today’s group included nine: Schomske, Ayme Vallejo Morales, Mackenzie Cook, Cordelia Rivers, Tra’Monie Walker, Adelaide Pettit, Sophia Bouchey, Nate Wehling and Arian Fazliu.

Some of Feder’s students also painted a “Welcome to Albion” canal mural on the fire hall last fall.

Photo from Governor’s Office: Brian Stratton, the canal commissioner, greets boaters this morning in Waterford, which is north of Albany.

Press Release, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Office

ALBANY – Governor Kathy Hochul today announced a historic $50 million capital investment into the New York State Canal system as part of the FY 2025 Enacted Budget.

As the state prepares to celebrate the Erie Canal’s Bicentennial in 2025 and looks ahead to the next century of operation along the 524-mile Canal system, this funding ensures that the waterway will remain safe, operable, and a driver of tourism and economic activity. Investments will focus on high-priority infrastructure needs including the rehabilitation of water-impounding structures that have been in service for more than a century. Today’s announcement coincides with the seasonal opening of navigation on the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca Canals.

“Nearly 200 years ago Governor DeWitt Clinton opened the original Erie Canal connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean and now we are making a significant investment to ensure the current Erie Canal and the entire canal system remain safe and a vibrant part of our state’s fabric,” Governor Hochul said. “As a lifelong boater who has plied the canal waters, I know firsthand that the canalway means so much to our communities. This commitment of funding will allow our historic canals to be part of New York’s story for generations to come.”

The funding included as part of the FY 2025 Enacted Budget is part of a comprehensive effort to revitalize the iconic Canal system by the New York Power Authority and New York State Canal Corporation. This effort includes strategically rehabilitating and improving the system’s infrastructure including locks, dams, embankments, culverts, and other civil assets so that the network of waterways and trails will continue to positively support the more than 200 upstate New York communities that are within the canal corridor.

Projects to be funded with the $50 million may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Rehabilitation of reservoir dams built in the 19th and early 20th century to supply water to the Enlarged Erie Canal (1836 – 1918) and other canals.
• Waste weirs used to regulate the canal’s water levels.
• Improvements to earthen embankment dams, including the continuation of extensive work in Royalton, Niagara County to install a soil-bentonite slurry wall to mitigate seepage.
• Rehabilitation of other water management structures that provide resilience benefits, like guard gates which can be used to isolate and protect sites during high water events.

New York Power Authority President and CEO Justin E. Driscoll said, “Since the Canal Corporation became a subsidiary of the New York Power Authority in 2017, we have supported the development of Dam Safety and Asset Management programs, conducting more than 800 structural inspections each year, and assessing the vast majority of the civil structures across the 524-mile Canal system. While NYPA has increased investment into the waterway to approximately $140 million per year, the funding prioritized by Governor Hochul and the state Legislature allows us to invest more in critical water-impounding structures to ensure safe operations for canal users and neighboring communities.”

New York State Canal Corporation Director Brian U. Stratton said, “With the Erie Canal’s Bicentennial on the horizon, I applaud Governor Hochul and the members of the state Senate and Assembly for recognizing how vital the Canal system is to our local economies. Funding these critical infrastructure projects will safeguard downstream residents and businesses and allow the canal to continue to thrive.”

The Canal system’s 57 locks and 16 lift bridges will operate daily through Wednesday, October 16, 2024.