Island Dispatch, 2008-03-07

              Island Dispatch  For Home Q&iiveiy of the , Island Dispatch Call 773-7676 Niagara fit DM Frontier \~JI Publications proud publishers of Island Dispatch Lewiston-Porter Sentinel Grand Island Penny Saver Niagara-Wheatfield Tribune wwMr.wnypapers.com 773-7676 $1.00 V01.63 No. 51 March 7, 2008 20 Pages Around the Town page 5 Appeal page 6 All-Star page 12 Inside The Dispatch School 8 Sports 12 Classifieds 15 Crossword 16 Service Directory 19 Picture Page 20 Board sets public hearings by Alice E. Gerard The Grand Island Town Board, at its Monday meeting, "scheduled three public hearings for 8 p.m., March 17, during its next regularly scheduled meeting. The issues on which the public may comment are: •Local law No. 2, a petition to amend the zoning map to allow for an addition to an existing building at 2038 Grand Island Blvd. The petition was made by John R. Simon Enterprises and Terry Mesmer. The proposed use of the premises is for an auto repair shop. The proposal was also referred to the Grand Island Planning Board for its approval. •Final plat approval of phase one of the Waterford Park subdivision. This will involve 30 lots. •Rezoning approximately 56 acres at River Oaks, west of Golf Course Villa, on Whitehaven Road, fromß2toßlE. In other business, the Town Board: •Awarded two contracts to Viking Gives, one in the amount of $29,720 for a nine-foot new asphalt body and another totaling $21,476 for a new nine-foot all-season dump box for the town's Highway Department. Viking Gives was the only bidder in both cases. •Was informed that the Town Highway department received no bids for a new salt spreader body. The department will request permission to seek bids again at a later date. •Awarded contracts to the low bidders for the departments of engineering and water resources for the ORF spray wash system and liner replacement project. Four bids were received for the general contract, ranging from $604,920 to $867,936, and the low bidder was Nichols, Long & Moore of Lancaster. Three bids were received for the electrical contract, ranging from $27,340 to $44,747, and the low bidder was O'Connell Electric of Lancaster. •Approved a request from Town Recreation Director Linda Tufillaro to advertise for bids for a 60--inch seeder to be used at Veterans Park and additional park areas. •Agreed to the hiring of Kathy Fratello of the Town of Niagara as a temporary part-time clerk in Grand Island Town Court to replace employees who will be away from work due to upcoming surgery.•Adopted a resolution to urge Gov. Eliot Spitzer to retain the School Resource Officer program. Currently, Chris Pyc of the New York State Police serves as the school's resource officer. •Determined that if Joe Ball Sanitation of Blasdell does not perform according to its contact, the town engineer has the option of signing an emergency contract consistent with the town's bid specifications for up to 60 days for GI teachers dress down for Hospice, Elderwood residents The Grand Island Teachers Association's dress-down money has brightened the day for two local organizations. For 15 years, the association has raised money from members- for local charities. According to Debbie Beis, a co-chair of the program along with Linda Harbison, every month, the teachers support a different charity with money from their dress-down fund, contributed by teachers' so they may relax their wardrobe on Fridays. For the month of January, the teachers supported both Hospice Buffalo by purchasing flowers during its bouquet sale and then donating the bouquets to the residents at Elder Wood Health Care at Riverwood on Grand Island Boulevard. "We kept trying to tell people we were supporting two at once: we were supporting Hospice by buying the bouquets, and we're supporting the nursing home when we Eleanor Blanchard, right, a resident of Elder Wood Health Care at Riverwood on Grand Island Boulevard, loves the flowers delivered to her by Kaegebein Elementary sec- ond grader Lauren Chadwick, far left, and fourth grader Sara Kwarciak. The girls brought the bouquet to brighten the dining room in the nursing home on Tues-, day. The Grand Island Teachers Association made the arrangements Tuesday from flowers bought from the Hospice Buffalo flower sale running from March 3 to 8. (photos by Larry Austin) Inside the Grand Island Corporate Bowl by Alex Richter The Grand Island Corporate Bowl is a great experience for high school students, and a lucrative one at that. Atrivia competition pitting teams of Grand Island High School students against one another to win scholarship money, the Corporate Bowl awards $7,000 in scholarships to winning teams. Again this year, I was able to compete for these prizes. For the past two years, my team was unable to win these scholarships (team "CANS" and team "CANT"). Fortunately this year, my team was able to make it to the next round in Tuesday's preliminary round. Just after last year's event, I was approached by one of my friends, Julia Figliotti, to join her team. Of course, I agreed, and with two of our other friends, Amanda Jaeger and Luke Burkhart, we created our team "The Nerd Herd." We were all excited to play in this year's Corporate Bowl. It was not only because we are all on Masterminds, and the game is similar, but also because we are all determined to win the scholarship, and what better way to do it than by working with some great friends? As the event approached, we organized a day to practice some general knowledge trivia questions from various games like Jeopardy, One vs. 100, or Trivial Pursuit, in hopes that some of the questions would come up. And, oddly enough, an incredibly similar one did. (What is the smallest borough The Nerd Herd (photo by Larry Austin) SEE RINGER, continued on page 2 SEE FLOWERS, continued on page 2 SEE TO ALUMNI, continued on page 2 HaE Celebrate II : Monday—| | un<L KutzUch H K=f %mVtWmWJS mm Associate Broker ffSjIJ f 1 lIHHI iri<h Heritaae Daw M&dln&SS 628-1719 Kw lnomJHHPtoi ■ flllfF "' March Bth " UlagsOig) jwj-I"*4 JTJM / «,/£'•** 9I M '. 10<*m - sjgfH 2131 Grand .siand Bivd. 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