Baldwinsville — It was a big year in Baldwinsville, one that included the loss of a number of important local figures, several political controversies and changes to the school curriculum that drew the ire of many residents. Read on for the top 10 stories in the greater Baldwinsville area in 2015.

Local philanthropist Manville dies

Longtime Baldwinsville resident and former Messenger publisher Richard Manville died Jan. 1. He was 88.

Manville started at Brown Newspapers, which at the time published the Baldwinsville Messenger, Liverpool Review and North Syracuse Star-News, on Oct. 25, 1950, later purchasing the company from publisher Don Brown. Manville served as publisher of the three newspapers until 1992, when Brown Newspapers merged with Manlius Publishing to become Eagle Newspapers.

Manville was also an active volunteer in Baldwinsville, serving organizations including the Northwest Family YMCA, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, McHarrie Towne, Onondaga County Community Development Division, Onondaga Housing Development Fund, Northwest Human Services Council, Vera House North Advisory Committee, Canton Woods Senior Center and the Greater Baldwinsville Chamber of Commerce.

“I believe one could use every positive adjective in the dictionary and still not convey how wonderful a man he was as a person, leader in the community, husband, father and boss,” said longtime Eagle employee Lori Newcomb, who used to work for Manville. “Baldwinsville has lost one of its best, but Heaven has gained a great man.”

Dog abandoned off Route 48

A young black Labrador mix, whom supporters named Hope, was found Jan. 26 off Route 48 in Baldwinsville by a hunter in 7-degree temperatures. With her in a carrier was a cat, Cally, who had already succumbed to starvation and the cold. According to the CNY SPCA, Hope was “emaciated, had overgrown nails and was loaded with fleas.”

Fortunately, the individuals who abandoned the two animals have already been located and arrested. William Lasher, 47, and Robin Lasher, 48, both of Fulton, were ultimately sentenced to three years’ probation and 120 hours community service after pleading guilty to charges of animal abandonment. In addition, neither can own an animal while on probation.

continued — Elizabeth Donnelly, a Gloversville-based administrator for a handful of area animal advocacy web pages, started a petition on change.org urging Lysander Judge Michael M. Bryant to consider the maximum penalty for the Lashers — a $1,000 fine or up to a year in jail. About 3,400 people signed the petition, and Donnelly’s “Journey of Hope” Facebook page gained more than 1,700 likes.

While she had hoped for stiffer penalties, ultimately Donnelly was pleased with the sentence Bryant delivered.

“We are happy that the judge delivered more punishment than we had expected,” she wrote on the page.

Hope ultimately made a full recovery and was adopted out by the CNY SPCA.

A few months after Hope and Cally were found, another dog, whom supporters named Hank, was found tied to a tree in the same location.

Fire claims the life of 2-year-old

A fire on Naylor Circle in Van Buren claimed the life of 2-year-old Nora Lamirande on the afternoon of May 3.

The blaze broke out when food left on the stove caught fire. The toddler was napping upstairs while her mother, Leslie Lamirande, was outside with Nora’s older brother, Mason, 4. By the time she discovered the fire, mere minutes later, the flames were too hot for her to get back inside to her daughter, though she and neighbors tried desperately to put out the conflagration. Firefighters also arrived too late to save the little girl.

A GoFundMe page set up for the family followed by a fundraiser at Paper Mill Island held in July raised close to $85,000 for the family.

Two kayakers killed in Seneca River accident

While Seneca River Day festivities went on just a quarter of a mile down the road, rescuers searched the river for two men whose kayak had capsized in the rough water the morning of June 13.

continued — Brothers Robert Mead, 27, of Syracuse, and Joseph Mead, 25, of Liverpool. were fishing on the river on the west side of the bridge around 11 a.m. when one of the kayaks hit the dam. The hydraulic current caused the boat to capsize, and the rider went under the water. The second kayaker paddled over to assist the first, but he, too, was caught in the river’s strong current and capsized.

Onlookers called 911 and several fire departments, police departments and dive crews responded, as did the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department’s Air-1 helicopter rescue team.

The search went on throughout the weekend. The men’s bodies were found floating in the river, the first at about 9:35 a.m. Tuesday morning, June 16, near the 3300 block of Hayes Road in the town of Lysander, and the second at 2:25 p.m. near Klein Island.

Sadly, the Meads’ weren’t the only deaths on the Seneca this summer; on Saturday, July 11, sheriff’s deputies received a report from a resident living off Seneca Avenue in Van Buren that he had been awoken by a male screaming for help. The resident looked out his window and noticed a man in distress in the river; he immediately called 911, then ran to the shoreline and threw the man a floatation device. The man in the water, however, continued downstream. He was last seen by rescuers in the 7700 block of Seneca Beach Drive.

Around 9:12 a.m. Monday, July 13, members of the Seneca River Fire Department’s Water Rescue Unit recovered a body later identified as 36-year-old Joshua Koegel of Baldwinsville from the river near the Onondaga County Sewage Treatment Plant off Barbara Lane in the town of Lysander. The sheriff’s department declined to comment on the exact cause of death, pending an autopsy by the Onondaga County medical examiner. It was unclear why Koegel was in the river or where he went into the water.

continued — In addition, a 54-year-old California man died by suicide in the river on Oct. 7.

Lamson Road Water District petition fails

Residents attempting to create a water district in the Lamson Road area of the town of Lysander proved unsuccessful; they were unable to reach the 50 percent of the proposed district’s total assessed value required for the town board to consider a resolution to create the district.

A group of residents, led by Janine Werchinski-Yates and Marty Ochsner, started carrying petitions this summer to have the district created. Those residents had either bad water or, sometimes, no water from their wells and were hopeful public water would resolve the issue. Other residents, like Cindy Todd, either had good wells or had installed expensive filtration systems and didn’t want to have to connect to the public water system.

Residents turned their petitions over to the town July 27, and town assessor Theresa Golden verirfied signatures, parcels and property assessments. The petition contained a total of 136 signatures; three were disqualified because the signatories did not own the properties for which they signed, while three more were disqualified because they live outside the proposed district. The remaining 130 signatories’ properties comprised $15,809,800 in assessed value, which is 39.3 percent of the proposed district’s $40,238,161 total assessed value.

In the end, there wasn’t enough assessed value for the water district to go forward.

The town has made steps to create a smaller district in the area under Article 12-A of town law. Article 12-A allows a town board to make a resolution to create a special district, the approval of which is subject to permissive referendum. This means that any resident who is opposed to the resolution may start a petition within 30 days of the vote. If more than 10 percent of the town’s residents sign the petition, the town must hold a vote on the creation of the district.

BCSD changes middle-level curriculum

continued — Despite parents’ objections, the Baldwinsville Central School District went ahead with the implementation of an accelerated math and science curriculum for middle-schoolers for the 2015-16 school year.

The changes, originally presented at the June 15 Baldwinsville Central School District Board of Education meeting, will allow all students to earn up to four high school credits in eighth grade, which, according to Superintendent Dr. David Hamilton, will put students almost a year ahead of meeting minimum graduation requirements. The superintendent said the move will give students more choices for elective and advanced courses during their junior and senior years.

A number of parents objected to the plan on several grounds, among them how quickly the program was pushed through.

“Why does this need to be done so quickly?” asked Kimberly Sullivan-Dec, a parent of a rising seventh-grader and a rising ninth-grader, saying that South Side Middle School in Rockville Centre, New York — one of the schools on which Baldwinsville is basing its program — took six years to implement the change. “To allow them to take algebra in eighth grade so they can fail it and take it again and again … is horrible.”

Parents were also concerned about how the district would address the needs of both gifted and special needs students.

The program was implemented at the start of this school year. So far, the district has not been able to adequately quantify the results of the changes.

Voters: No new station for NWFD

Voters in the North West Fire District turned down the NWFD’s proposition to build a new fire station on Smokey Hollow Road and add on to Station No. 1 on Crego Road.

More than 600 district residents voted in the Sept. 22 referendum, approving Proposition I by only 20 votes and defeating Proposition II by 45 votes.

continued — The Onondaga County Board of Elections examined 29 affidavit ballots Sept. 23 and deemed 20 of them invalid, as those voters were not registered in the NWFD. The board of elections reported the final numbers:

• Proposition I: 326 yes, 306 no
• Proposition II: 298 yes, 343 no

Proposition I sought authorization for the NWFD to purchase Baldwinsville Station 1 (located at 7911 Crego Road) and Baldwinsville Station 2 (7461 State Fair Blvd.) from the Baldwinsville Volunteer Fire Company for $2,065,407.

Proposition II sought authorization for the district to build the Smokey Hollow Road station, which would replace Baldwinsville Station No. 3 on Elizabeth Street. Proposition II also provides for an addition to Station No. 1. The total cost of both construction of the new station and the addition was not to exceed $4,486,824.

Several residents also filed an Article 78 proceeding against the village of Baldwinsville in hopes of preventing anything else from going into the property without going through the planning board process; however, Mayor Dick Clarke said no special permit or zoning variance was granted to the NWFD.

“If the fire department sells it, it reverts back to the way it was,” Clarke said. “There’s a lot of misconception. We didn’t do anything besides pass it on to the planning board.”

Word of Life church receives threats

After Word of Life Church in New Hartford made headlines when 19-year-old Lucas Leonard was allegedly beaten to death and his 17-year-old brother Christopher was severely injured inside its walls, the similarly named Word of Life Assembly of God Church in Baldwinsville started getting threats.

Rev. Randy Czyz, pastor of B’ville’s Word of Life Church, located at 12 E. Oneida St., said he and his staff had received several threats after the Oct. 11 assault in New Hartford, in which police say members of the Word of Life Christian Church in Oneida County, including the boys’ parents, assaulted the boys to force them to confess their sins. That church and the B’ville church, however, have no connection whatsoever.

continued — “We’ve been getting harassing threats and some pretty foul language. People are very upset, and I understand why they’re upset,” Czyz said. “I’m upset, too, but I’m trying to clear the air.”

Czyz said the Word of Life Assembly of God Church has been in Baldwinsville for 35 years.

“We’ve served this community for a long time, and we have a great relationship with the community,” he said. “I’m assuming people know we’re not associated with that church. But I still don’t want anyone to think it, especially over the next few days and weeks as it’s in the news. I don’t want them to think that at all.”

Republicans sweep incumbents in Lysander election

In the Nov. 3 election, Republican challengers Peter Moore and Bob Ellis defeated incumbent councilors Andy Reeves, a Republican, and Melinda Shimer, a Democrat. Shimer and Reeves ran under the bipartisan Lysander First coalition.

Joe Saraceni ran unopposed for the office of supervisor and received 99.08 percent of the vote. He received 3,226 of the 3,769 ballots cast. Conservative Supervisor John Salisbury, who was elected as a Democrat in 2011, will retire at the end of his term Dec. 31.

“I’m really excited about the team that we’ve put together to move Lysander forward,” Saraceni told the Messenger. “We worked hard. I’m honored to be able to serve again.”

As for the incumbents, Shimer said she was “disappointed” with the results. Reeves said the election came down to “money and negative campaigning.”

“It doesn’t matter what you did in the past. It doesn’t matter what’s best for the town,” Reeves said. “The only thing that matters is money and negative campaigning — that I heard loud and clear.”

Reeves also said he will work for a smooth transition in leadership and is focused on the coming tax cuts for the 2016 budget.

continued — “I heard what the town of Lysander said loud and clear. They don’t like the taxes,” Reeves said. “Lysander wants a tax cut and we’re going to give it to them. I will work my tail off from now until the end of the year to make sure the transition is smooth and the new board can come off the blocks running, not walking.”

Lysander Town Board cuts taxes by 21 percent

In a move Republican town councilors called “politically motivated,” the Lysander Town Board passed a 2016 budget cutting taxes by 21 percent by a vote of 3 to 2.

Supervisor John Salisbury, Deputy Supervisor Melinda Shimer and Councilor Andy Reeves voted to appropriate $960,000 from the town’s fund balance to decrease taxes in 2016 by an average of 21.18 percent.

Councilor Robert Geraci questioned the timing of his colleagues’ move. He said Salisbury told him Nov. 6 — one day after the public hearing for the budget — that he wanted to keep the fund balance at 20 percent. Salisbury presented the 20 percent option to the Messenger on Nov. 6 as well, but at the Nov. 12 budget work session, Reeves said the JAM coalition’s goal was to bring the fund balance down to 15 percent.

“By Nov. 13, you dropped it down to 15 percent for no reason whatsoever,” Geraci said. “I’m sorry to say I think it is political. You can get away with this in Albany, but these are our friends and neighbors.”

Supervisor-elect Joe Saraceni, who ran unopposed, said using a large amount of the fund balance is “dangerous” and would have “implications in this town for decades to come.” Saraceni also said cutting the highway department’s spending on road maintenance “totally abandons” the town’s plan to maintain its roads.

“We’ve had the public hearing,” Salisbury said.

“Not with these numbers,” Kimball said. The budget presented at the public hearing Nov. 5 showed taxes would remain stable.

Despite the opposition, Salisbury stood by his administration’s record and the adopted budget.

“You can’t say we haven’t taken hits on increasing taxes,” he said of the 37.8 tax increase in 2014. “Every time we do something it is for the benefit of the town. … We are elected to do what is best for the town.”