Judge Coapman resigns suddenly after 15 years

According to an article in the Democrat and Chronicle written by Meaghan McDermott, Sweden Town Justice Carl Coapman resigned on January 18th. Sweden Supervisor, Patricia Connors is quoted as saying "His resignation was unexpected; he just decided he was done. He was  a very good judge."

Coapman had been on the bench for 15 years having first been elected in 1997. There have been allegations that he has been intoxicated while performing his official duties which Sweden officials have been trying to keep hidden since first brought forward by Tom Mangan on Examiner.com last summer.

Connors said that the Sweden Town board hopes to appoint a lawyer to fill Coapman's post at its Town Board meeting on February 12, 2013. Connors' husband, Robert, is also a Sweden Judge.

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Brockporter Thought Of The Day - He wonders

From Village board minutes of 11/27/12

Trustee Blair said he knows someone in the Hamlin Fire Department and apparently they are working with Walker and Morton to consolidate.

Trustee Blair said he wonders if the Town of Clarkson was ever even in a position to negotiate for fire service with Hamlin as was threatened.

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Brockporter Though For The Day - Cell phone use

Please be courteous and turn off your cell phone while we are serving you.

Sign in pharmacy at Wegmans

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Brockport Festival of lights parade approved already for next December 8, 2013

From the Village of Brockport board meeting minutes of 12/11/12:

Brian Winant of the Stetson Club – wished everyone Happy Holidays and said he was pleased
with the 2nd annual holiday parade held 12/2 that included the tree lighting and fireworks.

Many have commented on not being able to hear the announcers. A possible item for the Grant Writer to pursue would be funding for a speaker system throughout the Downtown Historic Commercial District. B. Winant requested parade approval for Sunday, 12/8/13 at 5pm with fireworks afterwards.

→ Trustee Blair moved, Trustee Andrews seconded, carried 5/0 to grant the parade permit for the 3rd
annual holiday lights parade and per Village Code Chapter 18 Firearms, Fireworks and Explosives Section 2 Exception for organizations – to consent to fireworks being a part of the 5pm Sunday,
December 8, 2013 holiday parade being organized by the Brockport Stetson Club.

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Dear Ms. Emily - Being chronically late is a character defect that's hard to change

Dear Ms. Emily:

My fiance is always late. It drives me nuts. I have constantly reminded her, and told her how much her tardiness bothers me, and  even tried telling her that the appointed time is 30 minutes earlier and still she is late. I love her, but lately I have thought of breaking off the engagement. I can't imagine living my life like this. Do you have any suggestions?

Sincerely,

Mike

Dear Mike:

To be frank, I'd break off the engagement. People like this don't change. She is on her own time and in her narcissistic world that's all that matters. Making people wait especially when it becomes a pattern can be a symptom of many things, but even if you knew what it is, it wouldn't make any difference unless your fiance takes responsibility for her own unreliability and steps up and becomes punctual.

Luckily, you have become aware of a character defect in your potential partner before you make a solemn commitment. Get out while the getting is still good without a lot of legal baggage. She might be a wonderful woman, and you might love her dearly, but character traits are very difficult to change and it seems you have hung in there and tried more than enough. As you have learned the hard way one of the biggest tragedies in life is to fall in love with someone who isn't any good for you.

Let her go and save yourself a lifetime of aggravation.

Best wishes,

Ms. Emily

Editor's note: Dear Ms. Emily is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Wednesday. If you have a question for Ms. Emily you can send it to her at The Brockporter in care of David Markham to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.

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The Brockporter Pass It On Free Library release

The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka has been released as part of the Brockporter Pass It On Free Community Library program at 58 Market Street in Dave Markham's waiting room. The Buddha In The Attic was a National Book Award finalist.

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The Brockporter Thought For The Day - Life is a joke

Life sometimes seems to me a joke. It's like what life feels like to me. There are all these tests to my limited agility and intelligence. They go on and on.

Paraphrased from Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut.

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Brockport's mayor, alone, still pushing for dissolution of Village

According to a story in the Suburban News on 01/27/13 written by Kristina Gabalski Brockport Mayor, M. Connie Castaneda still is pushing for dissolution of the Village of Brockport, and the other Trustees are having no part of it.

Gabalski quotes Trustee Carol Hannan as saying: “Dissolve the village is all you’ve wanted to do,”

Gabalski quotes Trustee Margay Blackman as saying:  “A decisive majority voted not to dissolve.”

Gabalski goes on to write in her piece: "Trustee Kent Blair noted that the village has come a long way to a more stable financial situation since the 2010 dissolution vote.

None of the trustees seconded the mayor’s motion."

Castaneda's term as Mayor of Brockport is up in June, 2013.

Editor's note: The referendum on dissolution was decisively defeated in June of 2010. Since that time the trust between the Village of Brockport and the Town of Sweden has deteriorated even further with the Town's change in ambulance contract from the Brockport Volunteer Ambulance Corps to Monroe Ambulance essentially destroying the BVAC. Further, the Town of Sweden advocated for the creation of a Fire District which is another layer of government which has entailed a significant increase in taxes for Village of Brockport and Town of Sweden residents. Based on policy development and  performance it appears that faith in Town government is not well placed while the Village of Brockport Trustees have done a much better job of managing Village affairs. Based on what has happened the last two years, the mayor's effort to study consolidation is more misguided than ever.

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The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week - 107 Park Avenue

History written by Carol L. Hannan.
© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan, March 2012. All rights reserved.

Archibald D. and Abigail Cook Owners: circa 1850s to 1860s
Archibald D., or “A. D.” Cook, his wife Abigail and daughter, Louise, lived in this house in 1860, according to Federal Census and village maps. “A. D.” by that time was retired and listed his occupation as “Gentleman.” We know little else about this family except that they migrated to this area from New England. Both “A. D.” and his wife died in 1865 and are buried in the Brockport Cemetery. Their daughter, Louise, isn’t listed in the burial records there so we can only surmise that she either married or moved from the village and was buried elsewhere.

Mark, Annis Dunekin and Mary A. French Owners: mid-1860s to mid-1900s
Mark and his family were also New England transplants who came to the area and purchased land from Heil Brockway. The 1840 Federal Census listed the family of three
with one member employed in agriculture. By the 1860s, however, they had moved into this Park Avenue home, which would remain in the family until their daughter, Mary’s departure in 1913, when she moved to Coldwater, Michigan, to live with her cousins.

Mark French, for all the years he was a village resident, was employed as a carpenter and joiner. At this same time, the Cooley family owned and operated a window and sash business and several residents in the Park Avenue area were also carpenters and joiners. Other than his occupation, little is known of French. He apparently held no village offices; served on no committees and was only mentioned in the press when he passed away in 1873 at the age of 79, having reportedly been a village resident for 42 years. His daughter, Mary’s funeral service was held in the Presbyterian Church, to which he and his wife may or may not have belonged.

Following the death of Mark French, his widow and daughter continued to live in the family home. Neither ever listed an occupation other than “keeping house.” Mary French lived alone in the house following the death of her mother until she left the state to live with her cousin. Even with information from her death certificate, nothing could be discovered to trace the history of her family, which remains as much a mystery as the details of her life. A large marble monument in the Brockport Cemetery marks the family’s final resting place.

John Wesley and Mary L. Burroughs Owners: circa 1920 to 1924
John W. Burroughs was a Brockport native. His father, a shoemaker, died at a relatively young age. Burroughs, his second wife, Mary, mother and son, Wesley Raymond, however, didn’t live here long. By the 1930 Federal Census, we find that John had passed away and Mary was living on Park Avenue but with her sister, Phoebe Palmer. Burroughs was a railroad employee who later became a “real estate dealer.” Son Wesley, the only surviving child of Burroughs’ first marriage, had already left home by the time his father died. He was a talented and nationally acclaimed organist who at first made his living playing music to accompany silent pictures in Rochester’s first movie theaters. He was an organist for various Rochester churches and gave numerous local recitals.

Several generations of the Burroughs family are buried in the Brockport cemetery. Wesley, the one surviving child, lived a long life, died in Rochester at 86 and is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery.

Kenneth and Ada Cook Heinrich Owners: mid-1920s to mid-1930s
 Kenneth Heinrich was a Brockport native and Rochester businessman. Newspaper photos show him as a young man on the Brockport Normal and Brockport Independents basketball teams, where he was a substitute forward and the Brockport Normal School served as the local high school.
Heinrich’s first occupation was listed as “office supply salesman.” He started in business during the 1920s with “The Pencraft Shoppe” and eventually became Chairman of Heinrich-Seibold Stationery Company. His wife was a public school teacher.

In addition to his business, Heinrich was a member of the Lakeside Hospital Board of Directors and was elected secretary of the board multiple times during the 1950s. He and his wife remained village residents but not at the Park Avenue house. They are buried at Lakeside Cemetery.

Epilogue 2012
As with many other village residences, the house at 107 Park Avenue sits on a much smaller lot today than it originally had when it was constructed. It retains all the charm and character of an older village residence that has been carefully tended through many years. Today, it looks out over the carefully landscaped and tended public park that calls on us to remember our cherished past.

© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan, March 2012. All rights reserved.

Editor's note: 107 Park Avenue is currently owned by Sunny and Gary Levandowski, is zoned single family and is assessed at $133,300.00.

The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays. It is written and copyrighted by Carol Hannan and produced by Pam Ketchum. The historic houses of Brockport can also be seen on the ProBrockport web site at www.probrockport.org.

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Brockport's volunteer gardener and community service supervisor, Pam Ketchum, gives accounting to Village Board

From the Village of Brockport board meeting minutes of 12/11/12:

Pam Ketchum speaks to the board:

Today, I had the opportunity to do some accounting of my involvement with community service in the village parks this year. In November, 500 daffodil bulbs were planted at the Welcome Center and
Harvester Park. 

And since mid-April 2012, I have had the privilege of working in our parks with one
college service group and 13 individuals required by our court system to complete community service. Individuals worked a range of 3 to 50 hours for a total of 291 hrs. That multiplied by $8/hr. comes to about $2,300. I worked along with these individuals and am typically paid $25/hr. for gardening in private gardens. So my financial contribution to the village was approximately $7,200. Together those figures add to about $9,500. This is a very enjoyable experience for me and I look forward to continuing to promote good living in our village. Part of the beauty of the parks project is that there is little or no cost to the village and taxpayers.

There are hundreds of people in Brockport who generously give time and effort day in and day out because they care so much about the village.

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BUUF presents Greyhound Rescue on Sunday, February 10th.

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The Brockporter Pass It On Free Community Library releases

Two books were released on Monday afternoon at 58 Market Street in Dave Markham's waiting room. They are Room by Emma Donoghue, and Too Much Magic by James Howard Kunstler.

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Reading the minutes - Wondering about Brockport Fire District lies

From the Village Of Brockport board meeting minutes of 11/27/12:

Fire District – Trustee Blair asked Village Attorney Leni if he foresees any further work requiring his attention related to the Brockport Fire District.

Attorney Leni said he does not foresee anything further. However, if something should arise, he will seek Village Board authorization before putting in any time on it.

Trustee Blair said he knows someone in the Hamlin Fire Department and apparently they are working with Walker and Morton to consolidate.

Trustee Blair said he wonders if the Town of Clarkson was ever even in a position to negotiate for fire service with Hamlin as was threatened.

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Sunday Sermon - The Rolling Stones and Buddhism this Sunday morning

I went to church today and the pastor was talking about Buddhism and the four noble truths, the first of which is that life is full of suffering, and the second that suffering is caused by attachment.

The folks there talked a bit about what is meant by the second noble truth that suffering is caused by attachment, and I heard the Rolling Stones in my head singing "You don't always get what you want."

Babies want what they want when they want it or they scream, and when they're a little older they have temper tantrums. I know adults like that too. I guess they never learned what the Buddha taught.

I never thought of the Rolling Stones as being troubadours of Buddhism before, but I suppose stranger associations have been made in the minds of people swimming in spiritual ether.

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Brockport's State Senator, George Maziarz, reports to his constitutents

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Reading the minutes - Smith Street bridge to stay open during winter months

From the minutes of the Village of Brockport board meeting minutes of 11/27/12:

o Smith Street Bridge – 2012-2013 winter closure – to close or not – It had been the previous suggestion of NYS DOT that if the Village were to close the Smith Street Bridge during the winter months it may prolong the life of the Bridge and need for repairs and maintenance. Trustee Blackman said she was of the opinion that anything to prolong its useful life would be beneficial now that the Village owns the bridge and is responsible for its upkeep. However, she learned that the bridge lasted almost 100 years with little maintenance other than washing every 3 years and painting and rust touch ups every 15 or so years. She said if DPW were to wash it annually after each winter to get the salt off it would help.

→ Trustee Blackman moved to not close the Smith Street Bridge in winter on the condition that DPW wash down the bridge annually after the salting of roads is done.

Mayor Castañeda said a motion to NOT close the Smith Street Bridge in the winter is not necessary. A motion would be necessary only if it were proposed to close it. Mayor Castañeda said DPW Superintendent Donahue will be directed as to annual washing of the bridge – to work it into DPW’s regular work schedule each spring.

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The Brockporter Book Of The Week - A House For Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century by John Buehrens and Rebecca Ann Parker

A House For Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion For The Twenty-first Century by John Buehrens and Rebecca Ann Parker is a wonderful book which I found inspiring, informative, and accessible. Buehrens and Parker are leaders in Unitarian Universalism and Parker is also an ordained Methodist minister. They use the metaphor of a house and describe the theology of the liberal church in parts entitled "The Sheltering Walls", "The Roof", "The Foundations", etc. Parker uses professional theological language like "eschatology", "ecclesiology", and "soteriology", but immediately grounds them in understandable definitions so that the lay reader is included in discussions which ordinarily we are left out of.

"Eschatology" for example is simply the study of end times, the final culmination of human evolution, the point towards which we are traveling on this journey of life. The Fundamentalists have seized the public's imagination around eschatological concerns with their vivid and dramatic stories of apocalyptic end times when the saved will be assumed into heaven in a rapture while the rest of us sinners will be left on earth which will turn into a hell of suffering. Progressive theological perspectives don't see things this way and in fact argue that such negative stories, justified as coming from the Book of Revelations, do more harm than good. The Progressive view is that we are to create heaven on earth as Jesus pointed out in the prayer He suggested, The Our Father, where he said "...thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

It is written on the fly leaf of the book

"The impact of liberal religion is richer and more far-reaching than many know - a force for good that has inspired the supported two centuries of American social progress, from abolition of slavery and the securing of women's rights to the present day struggles for marriage equality, ecological responsibility, and global peace. In order to sustain our spirits and advance positive social change, progressive people need to claim the transforming power of our theological heritage."

Ecclesiology is the study of church, the "assembly" of God's people, the faith community. It is written in A House For Hope, "And how can we approach religious community in ways that promote not competitive parochialism but authentic interfaith engagement and cooperation?" p.xii This is an excellent question for the churches of Brockport which is rich with its many churches and denominations. The churches of Brockport at times work together on community projects and to lift up the people in the community whether it be in support of the food shelf, the clothing shelf, the Crop Walk, the Bienvendia etc., but so much more could be done. One of the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism is to covenant to affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. UUs also covenant to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The idea is to facilitate the empowerment of a people of faith to work together to care for and love one another in an inclusive way that inspires hope for the future of human kind and the well being of all life on our planet.

I loved A House For Hope and highly recommend it to people willing to consider how religion can be a force for good in our sometimes weary world.

According to the Pew research on religion study, the "nones", those people who say they have no religious identification and/or affiliation are the fastest growing group (denomination) in the country. Especially among younger adults under 50 many more people say they are "spiritual" but not "religious". Attendance and membership in churches in United States are in decline and yet religious affiliation is a very beneficial factor enhancing health, happiness, and social well being. If churches are to survive into the Twenty-first century they will have to transform themselves into organizations which contribute more meaning and relevance to the lives of their members and the communities in which their members live if they are to continue as social organizations of value. Buehrens and Parker in their book, A House For Hope: The Promise Of Progressive Religion For The Twenty-first Century are on to something.

Editor's note: This book is not available at Lift Bridge but can be ordered through The Brockporter Amazon book carousel in the right hand column.

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Reading The Minutes - Crosswalk Striping: git er done!

From the Village of Brockport Board meeting minutes of 11/27/12:

Crosswalk Striping - Trustee Blackman read the following letter into the record:

November 21, 2012

Dear Mayor Castañeda and Village Trustees:

It has come to my attention that a number of street crossings in the village do not have striped crossings. As walking to school and walking the village, in general, become more popular, it is imperative that the village do all it can to provide for a safe walking environment.

A couple of years ago questionnaires were given to parents as they arrived at school on Walk To School Day. The questionnaires were intended to learn of the experiences of the children and parents and solicit suggestions for future walks. Far and away the most mentioned concern was cars not slowing down nor stopping at street crossings. Safety is the number one concern of parents when their children walk or ride bicycles anywhere. As a village which is striving to be a walkable community, the omission of markings for safe street crossings is unacceptable.

If resources are scarce, perhaps our police department or department of public works personnel can identify the busiest pedestrian intersections to stripe first with the goal being striping all crosswalks in the village.

As the Brockport Central School Physician, Head of the Walk To School Day Committee and community pediatrician, I strongly urge you to put striping of crosswalks at the top of your to do agenda. Let’s not wait for an accident to happen to get this important work done.

Sincerely,
James Goetz, MD, MPH

Trustee Blackman said she knows DPW purchased the proper paint, but did not get to it this year.
Mayor Castañeda said DPW Superintendent Donahue will be directed to make crosswalk striping a priority this spring and to work it into DPW’s regular work schedule each spring thereafter.

Mayor Castañeda said she had not received Dr. Goetz’s letter.

Trustee Blackman said he forwarded it to her to share at this evening’s meeting.

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Village election on June 18, 2013 for Mayor and 2 Trustees for four year terms

VOTE on June 18: 

Mayor and 2 Trustees Election: each for a four-year term of 07/01/13 to 06/30/17 

Who would you like to see run?

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ProBrockport T-Shirts available

T-SHIRTSThe Pro-Brockport T-Shirts are ready! They will be available Saturday, January 26th at the Annual Meeting Celebration. If you can't wait until then or have any questions, contact Pam Ketchum (cell: 585-305-4656 / email: pketchum@rochester.rr.com). 

For more information, click here.

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Climate change watch - Flooding will continue in Manhatten, wastewater treatment plants disabled, environmental refugees will come to New York looking for water

From Harper's Magazine, January, 2013 p.20

From Responding to Climate Change in New York State, a November 2011 report prepared for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns due to global warming are believed to have increased the risk of flooding in parts of the state, which was hit by Hurricane Sandy in October.

Sea-level-rise projections of five, twelve, and twenty-three inches at Manhattan’s Battery for the 2020s, 2050s, and 2080s would result in four, sixteen, and 136 moderate flooding events each year, respectively. Under a rapid ice-melt scenario, New York State could experience between 200 and 275 moderate flooding events each year by 2080.

Many wastewater-treatment plants are located in floodplains, since this often coincides with a topographic low point and sewage can be conveyed to the plant by gravity. Raising the facility by several feet may prevent severe inundation.

Severe water shortages in western states, which are likely to become worse with climate change, may shift populations to eastern states, including New York. If so, New York could experience new population and economic growth with an associated increased demand for water.

Editor's note: Western New York has been derogatorily called the "rust belt" as people have moved south over the last couple of decades abandoning beautiful New York, but hold on to your property because we will be seeing a reverse tide. As the climate changes and things heat up people will migrate northward and want fresh water. Brockport will boom once again not so much because of the canal, although that helps for irrigation, cheap transportation, recreation, etc, but because of our proximity to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and the Finger Lakes.

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DWI watch - 14 DWI arrests in the fourth quarter

According to Brockport Police Chief Daniel Varrenti's quarterly report for the fourth quarter of 2012, the Brockport Police Department out of 365 vehicle and traffic arrests, 13 were for DWI and 1 was for driving with ability impaired on drugs.

How many lives have the Brockport Police saved getting drunk drivers off Brockport streets?

The BPD does a tremendous job keeping Brockport safe. Have you thanked a Brockport Police Officer today?

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Kiwanis Masquerade Ball Saturday, 02/02/13, 7:00 PM

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Dear Ms. Emily - Talking to strangers

Dear Ms. Emily:

I like to talk to strangers. Nothing pleases me more than to meet new people and engage them in conversation. My wife says I am crazy and should keep to myself, but I can’t help it. I find people fascinating and it makes me feel good to talk to them. Do you think my talking to strangers is weird?

Jack

Dear Jack:

I think your desire to talk with strangers is wonderful. It sounds like you’re more of an extrovert than your wife. Over the last 10 years there has been research done on what are called, HEPs, Highly Empathic People. One of the habits which HEPs develop is talking with strangers on the bus, in the mall, anywhere when they have time to kill.

The key is not to interrogate people but to be a curious inquirer. 95 % of the time if people are approached in a kind, sensitive way, following the person’s cues and responses, people will engage in a positive way and both parties will enjoy the interaction.

The world would be a much happier, better place, if everyone set for themselves a goal of striking up a conversation with a stranger at least once a week or maybe even once a day if there are opportunities to do so.

Unfortunately, out of our fear, parents instruct their children not to talk to strangers as if strangers would do them harm conditioning their children to live in fear of the other. This is a terrible world we inadvertently create in our misguided attempts to keep our children safe. Children do need to learn manners and how to handle situations using good judgment, but 99% of people are good people who would do no harm. It’s the 1% that engender the fear that lead us to live in anxious isolation.

By all means Jack continue sharing the blessing of being kind to strangers. It makes this world a much happier, healthier, more pleasant place to live in.

Sincerely,

Ms. Emily

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Reading the minutes - "one of the most absurd MOU's he's ever read"

From the Village of Brockort board meeting minutes of 11/27/12

Consideration of proposed MOU from Brockport Fire District re vehicle & facilities use & snowplowing –

→ Trustee Blair moved, Trustee Blackman seconded to approve and authorize the Mayor to sign theMOU with the Brockport Fire District re vehicle and facilities use and snowplowing.

Discussion:
Trustee Blair said this is one of the most absurd MOU’s he’s ever read. It is 9 pages and seems to imply a trade of that the Village snowplow the 3 properties now owned by the Brockport Fire District for the occasional use of a van and a meeting room. He said to his knowledge in his 3 and a half years,the FD van has been used twice and the basement of the Market Street fire hall hasn’t been used at all.

Trustee Andrews said it has a lot of stipulations and time notices for use of the van or meeting room reserving 30 days in advance.

Trustee Blair said he can’t believe the FD paid their attorney to draw this up. He asked Village Attorney Leni what his role was in this MOU and how much time the Village can expect to be billed.

Attorney Leni said he made numerous revisions and the use of the Market Street fire hall basement for occasional training and as the Village’s Emergency Operations Center was mentioned in a conversation with Clerk Morelli. He had her reach out to the Village’s insurance broker as to coverage.

Trustee Blair said the 12 parking spaces in the Market Street lot were retained for municipal parking but it was not contingent on the Village plowing. There is no municipal parking at the other 2 fire halls within the Village. Trustee Blair commented that the Fire District apparently did not make plans for snow plowing what are now their properties. Snow plowing of Fire District properties should come from Fire District tax dollars, not municipal tax dollars.

Call to question:

Unanimously opposed 5/0.

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The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week - 101 Park Avenue

101 Park Avenue, Brockport, NY
History written and copyrighted © by Carol Hannan

Josiah B. and Mary A. Wheeler Randolph
Owners: circa 1860s to mid-1880s
Here is another old village home, whose original owner(s) are unknown. The home appeared on a Brockport map in 1852, but it wasn’t until about twenty years later, in 1861, that we can identify an owner of what was then, 21 Mechanic Street. Josiah B. Randolph, according to historian Eunice Chesnut, came to this area as a child and lived in Clarkson. We know that by the time he was twenty-two, he not only clerked for Joseph Seeley in his grocery store, but lived with the family, as well.

By the time Randolph moved to Brockport, he was the owner of a village grocery store. An 1864 Brockport Directory listed Randolph & Pease, grocers, on Main Street and an 1869 directory described the store as selling groceries, provisions, etc. at 36 Main Street. His business had survived a massive fire in 1863, which destroyed three blocks of businesses and continued until his death in 1884.

Josiah B. Randolph lays at rest in the Brockport Cemetery along with sons Charles, Fred and Howard, who died as an infant. Mary Randolph and son Walter are buried elsewhere, most likely where Walter lived, as she sold the house following her husband’s death. Exactly when the house was sold, given the lack of census information, local directories and newspaper accounts is difficult to pin-point; and identifying the next owners with certainty, even more so until after the turn of the century.

James and Elmina Montgomery
Owners: circa 1902 to 1918
James, whose parents had been born in Scotland, moved to this area from Pennsylvania to farm the land. He retired to the village and bought a house; what is now, 20 - 22 Spring Street. The 1902 village map, which identifies property owners by name, shows his name extending from the Spring Street house to what was now identified as 101 Park Avenue. It wasn’t because his name was too long to write inside the property lines. James purchased this home for a reason. His daughter, Flora Ann, had become a widow and it was she, not her parents who lived in the Park Avenue house.

Flora Ann Montgomery Burnett
Owner: circa 1918 to 1926
Flora Ann married Thomas P. Burnett, son of area farmer DeWitt Clinton Burnett, and began married life on his father’s farm. In the late 1880s, Thomas gave up farming and apparently opened, possibly with his father-in-law, a village business named Montgomery & Burnett. What this store sold or how long it survived is unknown, as it was mentioned in existing village directories only once, in 1885.

Thomas Burnett died in 1912, at age 57, and was buried in the Brockport Cemetery. By 1918, Flora Ann lived on Park Avenue in the house that backed up to the Montgomery property on Spring Street. With her were her three children, Everett Montgomery, Julia E. and James Clinton Burnett. Census records tell us that Flora didn’t work outside the home. Julia was employed by the shoe factory just down the street and was then a store clerk. James worked in a hardware store. The boys left home to pursue their careers and Julia married, according to census data, but if she, too, left home it wasn’t for long.

Julia Burnett married a man named John V. Montgomery; then sued him for divorce in 1924 according to a notice filed in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Was John related somehow to Flora’s family? Nothing more is known about John.

Julia E. Burnett Montgomery
Owner: mid-1920s to 1950
With both her parents deceased, the now divorced and childless Julia lived in the family home by herself or, according to the census, with a boarder. Her name appears in contemporary newspaper accounts, basically social notices of her visiting friends.

Little else is known of Julia, who had no outside interests that were noteworthy in the local press. Although she lived until 1966, Julia apparently sold the Park Avenue house by 1953. Although in life she had divorced herself from a Montgomery, she joined that family’s Lakeview Cemetery plot in death.

Albert Houston
Owner: 1950 to early 1960s
Albert Houston, a village businessman, lived in this house until the early 1960s. He owned a shop named “Houston’s” and one called “The Variety Shop,” which seems to have gone out of business in about a year’s time. He was named to an advisory committee for Lincoln Rochester Trust Company in 1957. Whether he remained in the village after selling this home is unknown.

Epilogue 2012
Robert and Virginia Drake Jubenville bought this house in the early 1960s and lived there until their deaths more than forty years later. Robert utilized the carriage house as a workshop and Virginia furnished the home with many period antiques. Ginny recounted to neighbors that the house at one time had been a store, although who owned the store is unknown, as more than one village merchant lived here. During the Jubenville’s ownership, the house was granted historical status by the Brockport Historical Preservation Committee.

Now owned by a private family, the house remains outwardly unchanged and well kept, a tribute to the successive caring families who have maintained it over so many years.

Editor's note: 101 Park Avenue is currently owned by Gwen and Salvatore Leonardi, is zoned as a single family residence and is assessed at $120,800. The Brockporter Historic House Of The Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Tuesdays. It is made possible by the writing and research of Carol Hannan, and the production of Pam Ketchum. The Historic Houses of Brockport is copywrited material © by Carol Hannan. The Historic Houses of Brockport can also be seen on the ProBrockport web site, www.probrockport.org.

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DWI watch - Kissimmee Florida man arrested in Brockport for DWI

On Saturday, January 12, 2013, Brockport Police arrested a Kissimmee, Florida man in Brockport for DWI which may have saved lives in the Village. If you see a Brockport police officer, thank him or her for the great work they do to protect us and keep our Village safe.

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RIP James Stull

For more information click here.

Jim Stull is a great man. He was a mayor of Brockport for 20 years. His physical body may have died but his spirit will continue to enrich us as long as we remember him.

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Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy - We are saved by a communion of saints

"Do you want to know how I believe we are saved?" my grandmother once asked me. "We aren't saved by Jesus's death on the cross. People believe that focus on hocus-pocus and avoid having to live out the teachings of Jesus. We are saved by every person in every time and place that has stood up for what is true in spite of threat. Like Socrates did. Like Jesus did. Like many others have done." We are saved by a communion of saints. They shelter us, and we have the opportunity to be in their number, here and now. p. 75 Rebecca Ann Parker in A House For Hope

Editor's note: Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the "saints" who worked and still work for civil rights are recognized, acknowledged, and celebrated today. Rebecca Ann Parker and John Buehrens are Unitarian Universalist theologians who wrote a book entitled "A House Of Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century. There is a Unitarian Universalist church in Brockport, the Brockport Unitarian Universalist Fellowship where its members covenant together to promote and affirm seven principles of which the first one is the Inherent Worth And Dignity Of Every Person. BUUF needs your help and support in applying this principle to our lives together in Brockport, in New York State, in the United States of America, and around the world.

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Married white guys now the minority

Who speaks for America? Who are the privileged ones whose voices dominate? They used to be the married white guys, but no longer. In the last two elections, 2008 and 2012, married white guys lost and people of color and single women dominated. It's a new day in America. The Brockporter will be reporting on this trend over the next couple of weeks. The articles are tagged "white men are dinosaurs".

For example, according to sociological research done by the Environics Research Group in answer to the question "I often, or occasionally, feel I am more a citizen of the world than of my country" only 23% of married white guys over 35 said "yes" while 54% of blacks, 59% of unmarried people, 62% of people under 30, and 72% of Latinos said "yes". While they didn't measure for religious affiliation, I am hypothesizing that religious identification would find sharp differences as well. For example, one of the 7 prinicples of Unitarian Universalism is to covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

With the rise of the global economy, the proliferation of electronic media, and the rise of human influenced climate change, planetary consciousness is the hallmark of the new age which young people will inherit from us old white guys. As the now old Jewish white guy, Bob Dylan, sang back in the 60s, "the times they are a changin".

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DWI watch - Albion woman arrested

On Friday, January 11, 2013, the Brockport Police Department arrested an Albion woman for DWI and may have saved lives in the Village of Brockport.

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Celebrating Martin Luther King day - Who Are You Called To Speak Up For?

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

This weekend as we remember Martin Luther King Jr., I am carrying his words with me. I’m grateful that I do have the opportunity to speak up on behalf of women, for the poor, for those in prison, for immigrants, for children, and for the environment. I know that at a certain point there are enough voices to make a difference; perhaps I will be that voice. Take a moment this weekend to remember Dr. King and to hear the passionate voice inside you. Who are you called to speak up for?

Rev. Mary Ramerman, Spiritus Christi, Rochester, NY

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King Street Stories - guns, STDs, languishing court case, and the semester break

It’s been a quiet week on King Street since the college is between semesters and the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night carousings are minimal. None the less there has been some disorder as Kevin reported that Marshall got the snot beat out of him last weekend in front of the Stoneyard grill by the canal by a bunch of Puerto Ricans. Kevin isn’t always the most reliable source, but gossip about Marshall’s other antics make the story somewhat believable. The part about the Puerto Ricans doesn’t ring quite true though because there don’t seem to be a lot of Puerto Ricans in Brockport.

            According to reports left in the comment section on The Brockporter a bunch of insecure Brockporters have rushed out to buy their Bushmasters and ammo for reasons that aren’t clear to more mentally healthy people, but those in the paranoid, tweaker fringe seem to think that guns are necessary to provide some sense of security in their threatening world. While the State government passed some stricter gun legislation with the exception of Brockport’s representatives, Senator Maziarz and Assemblyman Hawley, the legislators decided to keep it secret who the people are who have these guns. Apparently about 40% of Americans have guns. How many there are on King Street and surrounding blocks is unclear. With the drunken, rowdy behavior it’s a scary thought to think that some of these folks have lethal weapons in their houses. At 46 King Street there have been two home invasions in the last year, but the home owner there has no guns so the intruders are lucky they chose a pacifist to invade.

            Not watching much TV, it was delightful to catch Betty White’s Off Their Rockers and notice in between segments that some old folks were hanging banners off an expressway overpass that read “STD free since 1975.” I didn’t catch it at first, but when it sank in, I laughed heartily, and then realized that I have never had an STD. Is this a good thing or the sign of a sheltered life? I don’t know how many STDs there are on King Street, but knowing that 1/3 of sexually active high school females have Chlamydia I would guess that the STDs on King Street are near epidemic proportions.

            The Mayor’s case of Official Misconduct got postponed again until February, 2013. Having been arrested last March, 2012, Mayor Castaneda must be making her lawyer rich stringing out this adjudication almost a year and close to the end of her term which expires in June, 2013. Judge David Murante in the Ogden Town Court must be a most patient man to allow this case to meander through his court docket. Most folks seem to agree that Brockport deserved much better mayoral leadership than it has gotten the last 8 years from Castaneda and for 8 years before that from her mentor Mort Wexler. Between the two of them, they almost bankrupted the village and brought it to the brink of dissolution due to the advocacy of the slumlord cabal. The trustees: Hunsinger, Blair, Hanna, Blackman and Andrews have brought the village back from death’s door to some semblance of health. What will happen to the mayor at this point seems moot since she has done about all the harm she can do during her term of office as it winds down to expiration.

            The white guys in Brockport are still licking their wounds and buying their guns now that Romney has been defeated and the Muslin Kenyan is back in the white house for a second term. Maziarz and Hawley are the last remnants of the privileged white guys before the young women of color take over in Western New York. Even though it’s getting hotter, and we love our fracked gas, times they are a changing as the days of the privileged white male are over which spreads hope for the more progressive minded along the Erie Canal.

            And that’s how it’s been this week in Brockport where the white guys are scrambling to get their guns, the women who are better educated and more intelligent are slowly taking over, and the children are having to transform the messed up world they have been left so they can survive into the next century.

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Sun Magazine Discussion Group Monday, 01/21/13 at 6:30 PM at Lift Bridge

Interview with ethicist, Kathleen Dean Moore on Climate Change - "If Your House Is On Fire"

DeMocker: For Moral Ground you gathered testimony from political and cultural leaders about our moral obligations in the face of climate change. South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu wrote the foreword. President Barack Obama and Sheila Watt-Cloutier, former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, made powerful arguments.

Moore: The strongest arguments in the book are the ones based on justice. Desmond Tutu writes with the moral authority of one who has worked steadfastly against apartheid. It’s unjust, he argues, for some people to bear the burden of others’ advantage. It’s unjust that people in Africa — who don’t reap the “benefits” of the reckless burning of fossil fuel — are suffering from droughts and crop shortages as a result of the West’s consumption of oil. He knows from experience that it is possible to bring down entrenched institutions. He says there should be worldwide outrage at the injustice of climate change, as there was against apartheid.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier identifies climate change as a form of cultural aggression — people of one culture destroying the material basis of another. We’ve seen this story before in the U.S., when settlers killed the buffalo in order to kill buffalo-hunting Native Americans. And we’re seeing it again as the rich nations create climatic conditions that are melting polar ice. Because the Inuit culture is based on a cold climate, Watt-Cloutier claims that her people have a right to ice. Those in the far north are suffering the most from the disrupted climate even as the effects spread to the rest of the globe. Climate change is damaging food supplies, spreading disease, and creating refugees, and it is poised to become the most massive human-rights violation the world has ever seen.

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