New York state briefs
Assignment: Watch an alum go into space
IRONDEQUOIT - Four students at Bishop Kearney High School have been assigned to cover the space shuttle launch in Florida later this month.
Seniors Elizabeth Mannix, Adele Smith and Eric Agostinelli and junior Molly Schreiber of Ontario will file reports from the Kennedy Space Center for their school newspaper, the Kearney Coronet, as well as blogs and Web sites and other media such as TV station 13WHAM.
The quartet has official press credentials for the launch of the STS-120 mission to the International Space Station.
Commanding the space shuttle Discovery will be Pam Melroy, a 1979 Bishop Kearney graduate and about to take her third trip into space.
Talking to Kearney students at a schoolwide assembly Thursday, Pam's father, Dave Melroy, said he thought his daughter was inspired by the first moon landing, which occurred when she was a child. She went to Wellesley College on an Air Force scholarship, then earned her master's degree in planetary science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
An essay contest helped determine the students selected to go to the launch. "I knew I had to go," Smith said. "This is a great experience and opportunity."
The students will have access to areas in Kennedy Space Center that are usually off limits to the general public and will work side by side with professional journalists.
They will do their first broadcast and newspaper reports from Florida Oct. 22.
Flour mill reblooms
PITTSFORD - Residents used to describe the former Voght Steam Mill on Schoen Place as an eyesore. Not anymore.
A flour mill built in 1882 was converted to a beanery in 1951. It closed in 1996, and until work started in February 2006, was a rat-infested hulk. Now, it's state-of-the-art office space, as a tour last week revealed.
In July 2004, Al Longwell and Mike Newcomb bought the property. Their building now has three floors with a central staircase and elevator that runs up the middle. Each level has a conference area in addition to large cubicle sections for personal workspace. Windows on the north side of the building overlook the Erie Canal.
Currently, there are six companies that will be based out of the new offices in at the old mill, with Biophan Technologies Inc. taking up a majority of the space. The company develops MRI-compatible medical device technologies.
The next phase of the project consists of renovating the old silo that's adjacent to the mill. Longwell said the silo will be broken up into nine stories with 1,600 square feet of office space on each floor. A glass elevator will be added for easy access to each level. Work in the silo is expected to be finished in 2008.