Island Dispatch, 2003-08-22

              Island DISPATCH St. Stephen's Celebrates Summer Page 3 L.O.G. Meets OnGI Page 5 The Farmer's Almanac predicts: Sunny Is it right? Check the weather on PS 2 I'liodv: (716) 773-7676 • Fax:(716)773-7190 • E-Mail: NFPNcws& tlmail.c»m Founded 1944 • Complete Community Coverage 57 Years As the Voice of Grand Island Award Winning Newspapers The Official Newspaper of the Town of Grand Island and the Grand Island School District Vol. 59 No. 25 Agust 22, 2003 20 page 85? Minimal action taken during town board meeting by Jon Sandino No news or several agenda items is the news to report on from Monday's Grand Island Town Board meeting - literally. Despite a somewhat full agenda, several items that were up for approval were either postponed or tabled for various reasons. A public hearing was scheduled for Monday pertaining to Local Law Intro #3 of 2003 - the installation of stop signs at various sites; however, due to the late arrival of information, the board postponed the hearing until the Sept. 2. "There's some additional information that needs to be included in the local law... rather than do it now and then have to do it again, we're gonna postpone the public hearing," said Town Supervisor Peter McMahon. "...Because there's four members of the traffic board here.;, so they can get a further explanation, we have some additional information from some other things that are going to be included," added Councilman Dick Crawford Jr. "It's stuff that just came to us, but they're updates... for the better." If approved, stop signs would be installed at the following locations: Jamestown Road and Sherman (three-way sign), Sawmill Run and Independence Lane, Amy Drive I and Sawmill Run (an all-way stop), j Jamestown Road and Old Carriage ' House Road (one at each end); and j Harvey Road and Park Place. j The installation for the Harvey j Road and Park Place sign appeared j on the agenda a second time as a J GI Library hosts 'End of the Summer Celebration After displaying a summer-long dedication to reading, children who participated in the numerous Grand Island Memorial Library summer programs, were rewarded with an "End of the Summer Celebration" last week. The gala featured reading sessions, balloons, chalk drawings and delicious food. Pictured above, The Cat In The Hat was a story-time favorite for a many youth, (photo by Brian Garman) Town responds to power outage Shortly after 4 p.m. last Thursday, a widespread power outage occurred which affected a significant portion of Grand Island. The loss of electrical service included the northern and eastern sections of town. Cable television service was interrupted in some areas even though electricity remained on. Initially, there was no information available to local officials about the cause or length of the outage. Within minutes of the outage, town employees began to implement emergency plans to insure continuation of vital services. Water and waste water department managers and employees were called in to monitor these systems and to begin efforts to operate on emergency power for what might be an extended period of time. The town engineer was involved in the assessment of situation and the planning for contingencies. Highway department personnel assisted with traffic control devices while additional town police officers were called in as a precaution. Local elected officials, including members of the town board and the highway superintendent were involved in the town's response. Many town department heads participated in overall effort. The town of Grand Island's water treatment plant is equipped with emergency power generators. This allows the plant to continue purifying drinking water indefinitely. The Niagara County Water System, which is the town's alternate source of supply, does not have emergency generators. Their plants were effected by the outage and were shut down. The resulting water shortage shut down the town's pipeline under the Niagara River, resulting in concerns about water for drinking and fire protection. It was quickly determined that with more than 2 million gallons of water in our storage tanks, and the capacity to treat an additional 2.2 million gallons of water every day, the town could continue to meet the normal daily .■,••-- . . Thirteen of the 20 waste water lift stations in the town were left without power. Arrangements were quickly made for three portable generators which would be used to keep the system operating. Without emergency generators, we might have experienced backups in the system which could have flooded basements. Traffic signals were not operating at several key intersections. Highway Department personnel installed temporary stop signs in an continued on page 6 sa= continued on page 3 es° See Your Local  * Forecast m Today's Paper 'v ifi Lewiston • Porter • Town of Niagara • Wheatfield • Grand Island Seven Day Forecast' Detailed Report'§ail]fA¥erages& Records and more- j At a Glance ■: j. j • Monday j | Golden Age Center 1 I Ice Cream Social if 1 Senior Citizens Center, j I 3278 Whitehaven Rd., 12:30 p.m. 1 j This event includes games," cards, etc. I j ■ Tassdsx. I I American Red Cross I j Blood Drive • j j Knights of Columbus; 1 1 1841 Whitehaven Rd., Ito 6 p.m. j ITo donate, you must be in good health j j at least 17 years old and j j , weigh 11 Gibs or more j I Wednesday I j American Legion Post #1346 j 1 . Monthly" Meeting 1 j Moose Lodge #180, | I 2524 Grand Island Blvd., 7 p.m. J I New members welcome j I For more information call j |, 773-7915 or 773-4180 f | For a complete listing of area events, ' 1 visit NFP's Web site at www.wnypapers.com I »~ "I AIR CONDITIONING SPECIAL NOW! wmsemm i#s2p\ New York State Home Performance HHnls%i* f /« w/th ENERBW STAlfis helping homeowners! Wmmim V 1»"»P3 * AIR CONDITIONING • AIR SEALING * APPLIANCES * VENTILATION * «j#nKrf (<ri'do 11 9I I ("1 § *"X.**f tfm fi iTr tr rW ■*1 I H  ; coOTiuciw il ILa J I j "vl'l'M 811 *TrlK'* 1, *f* jm kf ■ 1 1 T iafla'TiftflM*il