New York state briefs
Old-time radio lives
GREECE -Spin the radio dial around, away from the three-digit station numbers on the right, and you'll land on one of the last vestiges of old-time radio, back when disc jockeys were local and callers could actually talk to the person spinning records.
WGMC-FM (90.1), or Jazz 90.1, has a studio inside Greece Olympia High School.
Sure, computers and multi-disc stereos are used to play the songs. The station is even broadcast over the Internet. But next to the alphabetized rows of 15,000 CDs, a few shelves are devoted to albums and even a couple turntables left to play them. The record players get a ton of questions from the kids who come in for a tour, said station manager Rob Linton.
WGMC stays in operation because of donations.
Tune in and you'll hear John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald and all the other greats along with new music from new artists. Plus, polka, German songs, Lithuanian-language programs and such.
But Linton said what really sets it apart from other stations is the people: Real people who tell listeners what the weather is like in Rochester, take requests and talk live.
The lack of a tape delay has led to a couple goofs, but nothing too serious, Linton said. Mostly you might hear a program host ramble on a bit or mispronounce a name. But listeners love it because it means the hosts are human, he said.
"That kind of personal radio is non-existent," Linton said.
The station turns 35 this fall. It started as a 10-watt station run by students at Greece Athena. After a few years, it moved to Apollo Middle School (the former Cardinal Mooney High School) and operated out of a tiny room that used to be a nun's kitchen. Its current home is at Greece Olympia and the station is now 15,000 watts.
Waterville might have re-vote for trustee
WATERVILLE - Here's an update and Tuesday's village elections.
In Waterville, the village might have a re-vote due to the tie in the trustee election. Ruben Ostrander and Sean Campbell each received 68 votes. Town Clerk Lorena Lenard said she won't know for sure until Friday morning.
Incumbent Trustee Edward Visconti won re-election Tuesday in Middleville. He ran unopposed for the two-year term. He received 44 votes. There were 19 votes for write-in candidate Roger Hensley.
Give your two cents on Thruway tolls
BRIGHTON - Since Thruway tolls went up 10 percent around the state in early January, traveling has been a little tougher on Candida Freeman and her husband, Corey, who travels all over the state as a contract worker.
"The tolls on top of the gas prices are making it unbearable," said Candida Freeman.
Across the board toll hikes of 5 percent in 2009 and in 2010 are in the works. The increases are expected to garner about $520 million in additional revenue for the Thruway Authority over the next four years.
Originally, authority officials said the Thruway was supposed to be toll-free by 1996.
Since the announcement to raise the tolls, legislators and residents have criticized the authority. In order to hear them out, the authority began a series of public hearings this week. The Rochester area meeting is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 1 - April Fools Day - at the Monroe Community College campus Monroe B meeting room.
"We just want to get out there and make people realize we want to hear what they have to say," said Sarah Kampf, a spokeswoman for the authority.
Kampf said the plan is to take all the comments from the public and report back to the administrators at the authority before moving forward with the rest of the proposed changes.
Millions available in energy loans and grants
SYRACUSE - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) stated that its Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program will accept $220.9 million in loan and grant applications this year.
The program makes loan guarantees and grants available to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to purchase and install renewable energy systems or to make energy efficiency improvements. Eligible applicants may seek loan guarantees to cover up to 50 percent of a project's cost, not to exceed $10 million. Grants are available for up to 25 percent of a project's cost, not to exceed $250,000 for energy-efficiency improvements and $500,000 for renewable energy systems.
The USDA will administer one grant solicitation with two separate competitions this year. For the first competitive window, grant-only applications must be submitted no later than April 15. For the second competitive window, grant-only applications must be submitted no earlier than April 16 and no later than June 16. Applications for loan guarantees, as well as those for loan/grant combinations, must be completed and submitted no later than June 16. All applications must be submitted to the USDA Rural Development state office in Syracuse.
Interested farmers and businesses in western New York should contact Tom Hauryski at (607) 776-7398, ext. 4, e-mail: thomas.hauryski@ny.usda.gov for information on the application process. Interested parties in eastern New York should contact Karen McDonnell at (315) 677-3552, ext. 4, e-mail karen.mcdonnell@ny.usda.gov, or Scott Collins at (315) 477-6409, e-mail scott.collins@ny.usda.gov.
Further information on rural programs is available by contacting the State Office at (315) 477-6400 or by visiting USDA's Web site at www.rurdev.usda.gov/ny.
Bright lights, smaller bill
WEBSTER - This town is now a tad brighter.
Some lighting updates to the Town Hall and highway garage have just been completed, according to Gary Kleist, commissioner of public works.
The lights in the Town Hall are florescent bulbs about 100 watts a piece, rather than the old 300-watt bulbs, he said. Some of the lights have automatic sensors, so you won't have to remember to flip a switch to turn them on or off. After a few minutes of inactivity, the lights will automatically shut off to conserve energy.
The waste water treatment plant also received some updates, including new digester covers on the tanks that process sewer sludge, Kleist
said. The covers were more than 20 years old and were inefficient. Now, the new covers help capture more methane gas during the digesting process.
"That methane can be captured and used for other things," Kleist said. "It's not the greatest gas in the world, but there is energy in it."
Methane can be burned and then used to help heat the plant.
"We can't use it 100 percent, but it'll reduce our need for natural gas in that building," Kleist said.
The price tag for these updates hums the tune of about $739,000, said Kathy Tanea, the town's finance director.
"We may or may not use all that money," she said.
About $140,000 of those dollars are on a contingency, which means those funds act as a buffer in case the projects costs more than anticipated, Tanea said. She anticipates the final cost of these upgrades will be somewhere in the ballpark of $600,000.
These changes were recommended about a year ago when engineers came in and assessed the town's energy use, Tanea said. It is part of the New York state Energy Smart Program.