The Orleans County Legislature's Feb. 20, 2024 meeting sent money directly into Albion's police department, funding a radio upgrade the county had already lined up before the vote. In Resolution 79-224, legislators authorized the purchase of radios and accessories for the police departments of Albion, Holley and Medina from L3 Harris Technologies, Inc. at a cost of $174,565.00, paid for with New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES) grant funds. Merle Draper, legislator, told colleagues before the vote that the money draws on funds Emergency Management had already received and that the county had settled on Holley, Medina and Albion for the upgrade so their radios would match the Sheriff's Office system, putting the cost at around $175,000.00. The resolution passed 7 ayes to 0 nays. The purchase is described in the resolution as the second phase of a multi-year radio project: Resolution 254-522 funded portable radios for the county's fire departments as phase one, and this vote extends the upgrade to county and village law enforcement. According to the resolution, using the DHSES grant this way reduces the tax levy for both the county and the villages while improving communications for public safety responders across all of the county's towns and villages. That vote was one of 60 resolutions the seven-member Legislature adopted that day — Legislators Allport, Draper, Eick, Fitzak, Johnson, Miller and Morgan were all present — and all but one passed without a single no vote. Most of the day's business was routine: sheriff's equipment purchases, department staffing changes, service contracts and grant paperwork. But one item carried the single largest dollar figure of the meeting. In Resolution 108-224, legislators authorized the county treasurer to set up $2,613,290.52 in the 2024 Road Fund bridge budget, covering five projects — the Angling Road Bridge, Lakeshore Bridge, County Line Road Bridge and two rounds of preventive maintenance on county bridges — after what the resolution describes as unfinished professional services and construction delays carried over from contracts the county entered in 2023. The single largest piece, the Angling Road Bridge project, accounts for $1,991,298.47 of that total. Separately, legislators moved $137,541.61 from the Road Fund's Infrastructure Reserve, which the resolution describes as the county's 5 percent cost of the same five projects. The lone dissenting vote of the meeting came on a project sited in Albion. Resolution 101-224 authorized Lynne Johnson, chairman, to sign interconnection and property-owner documents with National Grid for a county solar farm at 14074 West County House Road in Albion, where GreenSpark is the developer handling permitting and utility filings under the county's existing energy performance contract with Wendel, LLC. Every other legislator present voted yes; Allport, legislator, voted no. According to the minutes, Allport argued that solar power is inefficient because it can't provide the constant output the electrical grid needs the way conventional generation can, and that the project doesn't pay for itself financially — putting the investment's payback period at 15 years, and noting the panels degrade every year, which he said could push the return on investment as high as 20 years. The resolution passed 6 ayes to 1 nay, with Allport recorded as the dissent. None of the three actions has a further hearing or vote scheduled in the record. The radio purchase and the bridge funding move forward under contracts and reserve transfers the Legislature has already authorized; the solar farm's interconnection paperwork proceeds with Johnson's signature now authorized, pending GreenSpark's continued work with National Grid on the utility side. The Legislature's next order of business, per the minutes, was payment of March claims against the county.