Press release:

Genesee County STOP-DWI Coordinator Matt Landers announced today that the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office, City of Batavia Police Department and the Village of Le Roy Police Department will participate in a special enforcement effort to crackdown on impaired driving.

The statewide STOP-DWI Crackdown efforts start on May 26th and will end on May 30th. Memorial Day week is historically a deadly period for impaired driving. Memorial Day weekend is the traditional beginning of summer. In addition, there will be thousands of parties and barbecues to celebrate graduations, proms, communions, confirmations and the fact that the better weather has arrived.  This combination of factors equates to more people on the road in general and more people specifically driving impaired with 13 percent more fatalities than on a non-holiday weekend.

The New York State Police, County Sheriff, and municipal law enforcement agencies will collaborate across the state and will be out in force in this coordinated effort to reduce the number of alcohol-related injuries and deaths during this period.

Batavia City Police Chief Shawn Heubusch said, “the Memorial Day Holiday is a time to spend with family and friends, please do so responsibly and Have a Plan. Officers will be extra vigilant this Memorial Day Holiday for those operating a vehicle under the influence.” 

Sheriff William A. Sheron said, “As we travel down the highway this Memorial Day Weekend, let’s remember that it only takes a couple of seconds of distraction for your vehicle to cross over into oncoming traffic changing lives forever. Put down the cell phone, eat before or after you drive, pull over to adjust your GPS device; drive time is not spare time. Give all your attention to one of the most dangerous things we do -- drive a car.”

The Memorial Day Weekend Crackdown is one of many statewide enforcement initiatives promoted by the New York State STOP-DWI Association with additional funding from the STOP-DWI Foundation with a grant from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. The Statewide STOP-DWI Crackdown Campaign also targets 4th of July and Labor Day Weekend, Halloween and the national Holiday Season in December.

While STOP-DWI efforts across New York have led to significant reductions in the numbers of alcohol and drug related fatalities, still too many lives are being lost because of crashes caused by drunk or impaired drivers. Highly visible, highly publicized efforts like the STOP-DWI Crackdown Campaign aim to further reduce the incidence of drunk and impaired driving.

The assistant district attorney who prosecuted Heather Ace believes the Batavia mother whose 2-year-old twin boys died in a house fire 8157 State Street Road, Batavia, in May of last year is genuinely remorseful for leaving her children home alone unattended.

Ace was sentenced yesterday to a year in jail after previously pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child.

ADA Melissa Cianfrini said Ace has been remorseful since the night of the fire.

"As I said at sentencing, if she could go back and undo it she would a million times over," Cianfrini said. "I didn't doubt her remorse or that it was sincere."

Cianfrini said the DA's office is obligated to follow the evidence and the law and prosecute suspects with the highest charges available to them based on the evidence and the law. Since there is no indication that Ace was involved in any way with starting the fire or causing the fire, the only charge that fit the crime, Cianfrini said, was endangering the welfare of a child.

She originally faced two charges, but since both charges stemmed from the same event, she could not receive separate, consecutive one-year sentences. The maximum available sentence was a year in jail.

The cause of the fire has never been determined and this morning Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster said that while electrical has been ruled out as a cause, there was no evidence uncovered that suggested any other cause.

Ace wasn't at home at the time of the fire. There was also nobody else with Michael and Micah Gard when the fire broke out. They were locked in a bedroom and nobody was able to reach them in time after the fire was spotted by neighbors. The boys died of smoke inhalation. 

According to her statement, Ace left the tots home alone to go to a friend's house. She said she stopped to buy a malt liquor and also smoked some marijuana while she was out of the house.

When Ace's mother heard about the fire, she tried calling Ace, who didn't answer her phone. She then sent a text to her daughter, according to statements to investigators, "Answer your f---ing phone."

Ace answered on the next ring. She was hysterical by the time she reached her house a few minutes later.

"She had no role in the fire," Cianfrini said. "It was a serious lack of judgment (leaving the boys alone)."

Two teenage boys were injured yesterday, at least one seriously, in an accident on Maltby Road, Oakfield.

The injured boys are Isaac L. Mejia, 17, of Lewiston Road, Batavia, and Damien L. Bush, 16, of Orchard Street, Oakfield.

Investigators believe speed was a factor in the crash.

Mejia was taken by Byron Ambulance, with Mercy personnel aboard, to Strong Memorial Hospital.

Bush was airlifted to ECMC by Mercy Flight.

Mejia was reportedly the driver of a 2013 BMW 3201 that veered off the roadway on Maltby Road, near North Pearl Street, Oakfield, at 5:51 p.m. The sedan struck a tree on the north side of the roadway and caromed back into the road where it came to rest.

The accident remains under investigation. 

Handling the investigation are Deputy James Stack and the Crash Management Team.

Charges may be pending.

(Initial post)

Within a two-hour period, three serious injury accidents in Genesee County, in Alexander, Oakfield and Pavilion.  

At this point, there is no additional information about these accidents beyond what is in our initial posts (links below).

Alexander:

Three people were injured, including one who needed to be airlifted to Strong Memorial Hospital by Mercy Flight, when a car veered off Dodgeson Road and landed on its roof in a creek in a deep ravine. A state trooper at the scene said the cause of the accident had not been determined at that time. This accident was reported at about 5:40 p.m. (Initial post)

Oakfield:

One person was taken by Mercy Flight to ECMC following a single-car accident on Maltby Road, Oakfield. The Sheriff's Crash Management Team responded to this accident to conduct the investigation. The car appears to have veered off the road, struck and tree and spun back into the roadway. This accident was reported just before 6 p.m. (Initial post)

Pavilion:

In Pavilion, a car that was northbound on Perry Road apparently failed to see a stop sign crossing Route 20 and drove into the rear wheel of a tractor-trailer. The car spun around and came to rest pointing south on the north side of Route 20. Two people were transported by ground ambulance to Strong. The truck driver continued south for more than a quarter mile, dragging a wheel broken off its axel, while he tried to maintain control and bring the vehicle to a safe stop on the shoulder of the road. This accident was reported just before 7 p.m. (Initial post)

A head-on collision -- semi-truck vs. car -- is reported at Perry Road and Route 20, Pavilion. Pavilion Fire Department and Mercy medics are responding along with law enforcement. Traffic control will be needed.

UPDATE 7:01 p.m.: Mercy Flight is requested.

UPDATE 7:06 p.m.: A landing zone will need to be set up.

UPDATE 7:28 p.m.: An entrapped victim has been extricated.

UPDATE 7:45 p.m.: Mercy Flight was cancelled. Two victims, both in a passenger vehicle, were taken by ground ambulances to Strong Memorial Hospital. The accident occured, according to an officer at the scene, when a westbound tractor-trailer on Route 20 was struck by a car that was northbound on Perry Road. The car's driver said she didn't see the stop sign; her vehicle clipped the rear wheel of the semi-truck, causing the car to spin around. It came to rest pointing south on the north side of Route 20. The semi-truck's rear wheel was bent and torn from its axel, yet the truck's driver managed to continue traveling uphill for a quarter mile until he could stop it at a safe location, according to a deputy.

UPDATE 8:43 p.m.: The truck has been cleared. Route 20 reopening. 

Press release:

Pre-K through fifth-grade teachers are invited to join the Business and Employee Skills Training (BEST) Center at GCC this summer for a three-part, professional-development course that focuses on genetics. The program is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays, July 11 – 25.

The course is aligned with the recent New York State science learning standards and provides continuing education units or credits (CTLE).

This course will provide Pre-K-5 teachers with a general background in genetics and similar concepts to expand educators' content knowledge, and provide tips, ideas and activities to use in one's own classroom. The activities and ideas for the standards will be infused with agricultural examples to help facilitate further learning and provide students with a new lens in which to learn.

Attending these three sessions will give educators new and creative ways to help their students learn about complex concepts. Integrating math and English components into science lessons will be a focus of the sessions.

Instructor Hannah Milligan grew up on a 600-cow dairy farm in Pavilion, where her love for agriculture came to fruition. Following her passions, she attended SUNY Cobleskill and Cornell University to receive a degree in Animal Science. She then went on to Ithaca College pursuing her goal of becoming an agricultural science educator. In addition to teaching part-time at GCC, she will also be teaching at Warsaw High School this fall.

The cost for the course is $109 and it will take place at the GCC Batavia campus. Those interested in attending are asked to register by July 3.

To register for this and all BEST Center classes, visit their website at www.genesee.edu/best or call (585) 345-6868. For further information on the BEST Center offerings, including other courses or non-credit programs, contact program coordinator Jennifer Wakefield at jgwakefield@genesee.edu or call (585) 343-0055, ext. 6602.

A one-vehicle accident with injuries is reported just east of Maltby and North Pearl Road, Oakfield. Oakfield fire and Byron ambulance are responding.

UPDATE 6:08 p.m.: First responders in Oakfield are calling for two Mercy helicopters to the scene.

UPDATE 6:13 p.m.: Mercy Flight #9 out of Buffalo and a helicopter from the central hangar in Canandaigua are en route to the accident.

UPDATE 6:17 p.m.: They will set up landing zones at the Oakfield Rod and Gun Club on Maltby Road. No ETAS yet on either helicopter.

UPDATE 6:22 p.m.: The Buffalo airship has a 12-minute ETA. No word yet from Canandaigua.

UPDATE 6:24 p.m.: Mercy Flight Central out of Canandaigua has a 20-minute ETA.

UPDATE 6:29 p.m.: The Buffalo helicopter will transport a 16-year-old male passenger who is in stable condition.

UPDATE 6:34 p.m.: The Byron ambulance is transporting one patient to Strong Memorial Hospital.

UPDATE 6:59 p.m.: The Buffalo helicopter is heading to ECMC; the central helicopter out of Canandaigua was cancelled.

UPDATE 7:02 p.m.: The Crash Management Team is deployed.

A rollover accident is reported at 3213 Dodgeson Road in Alexander. A car went into a creek. Unknown injuries. Alexander Fire Department and medics are responding. Mercy Flight is on ground standby in Batavia.

UPDATE 5:46 p.m.: The patient "self-extricated" from the vehicle.

UPDATE 5:53 p.m.: Darien Fire Police are called to shut down all eastbound traffic at Dodgeson and Seward roads.

UPDATE 6:01 p.m.: Mercy Flight is called to the scene and a landing zone will be established in the roadway, west of the accident.

UPDATE 6:36 p.m.: There are three patients, all of whom "self-extricated." Two are going to Strong Memorial Hospital via ground ambulances; one is going to Strong aboard Mercy Flight #5, which is airborne. The vehicle landed upside down, deep in a ravine with a creek at the bottom of it.

Press release:

By all counts, the Fourth Grade Innovators STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) Program that was started at Batavia’s John Kennedy Intermediate School this year is a huge success – whether being measured by student enthusiasm, teacher observation of growing skills, or meaningful partnerships with the community. It’s no surprise, then, that plans are in the works for next year, including greater expansion into the younger grades at John Kennedy.

What did come as a surprise, however, was recognition from beyond our community. The Program won the Elementary STEM (Science/ Technology/ Engineering/ Mathematics) Innovation Award from The Finger Lakes STEM Hub and was honored at a reception in early May at St. John Fisher College. The Hub is the regional arm of the Empire State STEM Learning Network -- a statewide, community‐led collaborative that works to advance STEM education.

The Finger Lakes STEM Hub covers a nine-county area (Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates counties) and consists of leaders from K-12 education, higher education, business, government, and community organizations who work together to advance the interdisciplinary teaching and learning of STEM disciplines with the goal of sustaining economic vitality. As part of their commitment to students, they identify and highlight exemplary STEM activities and events that are engaging, exciting, and empowering for students.

JK’s STEAM Program was recognized as being such a program.

Evolving out of a request last summer by fourth grade teacher Melissa Calandra to do some STEAM activities once a month, JK principal Paul Kesler was quick to give his approval and support.

“STEAM is so important for young students,” said Kesler, “basically because science, technology, and math are really lifelong concepts that students are going to need in whatever job that they have, but especially because so many jobs in the future are going to have a math and science emphasis. It’s important that our students gain experience now.”

To help bring the idea into fruition, they were joined by fourth-grade teacher Jennifer Sloan, ACE teacher Karen Shuskey, and librarian Katelin LaGreca.

“This team,” Kesler said, “really got the ball rolling and, as it got going, we were able to start partnering with GCEDC (Genesee County Economic Development Center) in terms of bringing local businesses in to help us and see how we can partner with them.”

In its promotion of regional economic development and growth, the GCEDC advocates for the education and skill development that students need to equip themselves for meeting that growth. Their help and support was extremely valuable to the planning and implementation of the STEAM opportunities for the JK students.

Each month, all of the fourth graders took part in the planned STEAM opportunity. Through the year, these activities helped students explore DNA and living systems, structures and design, robotics, coding/computer programming, graphic design, 3D printing, electrical circuits, math and movement, robotics in agricultural, and ecology/environmentalism. Nearly every hands-on activity was introduced to the students by a professional from the community who had expertise in that area, so the students were also introduced to an array of careers.

It was one of the community presenters who told the team about and encouraged them to apply for the STEM Hub award. Despite coming at a particularly busy time of the school year, they were so proud of the program that they wanted to make the time to enter the competitive application process.

Much to their delight, they won!

While it was very exciting to be held up as an example of fruitful partnerships with the community that help students learn about and grow in an increasingly needed skill set, it is even more exciting to contemplate the future of JK STEAM.

“For next year, we’re looking at an expansion to include third and second graders,” Kesler said. “We’re opening up a STEAM lab next year. Melissa Calandra is going to lead that, and it will allow us to offer activities to students once a week versus once a month. We’re really excited about that!”

“My hope,” he continued, “is that students will see how interesting science, technology, and math can be, and, in the long-term, that they recognize the opportunities coming available to them in the STEAM field.”

A two-car accident with injuries is reported at Cole Road and East Bethany - Le Roy Road. One of the vehicles is in a ditch. Le Roy fire and Mercy medics are dispatched.

UPDATE 3:54 p.m.: Le Roy ambulance is dispatched and the Mercy rig is to proceed in non-emergency mode.

Jolene Michelle Lawson, 35, of West Main Street, Batavia, is charged with grand larceny, 4th. Lawson allegedly stole a purse from a person at Delre's Greenhouse & Garden Center, 4062 W. Main Street Road, Batavia. The purse reportedly contained a debit card, money, and personal papers. Lawson was located on West Main and taken into custody. The property was recovered from a wooded area and returned to the victim.

Michale Paul Bartovich, 34, of Burncoat Way, Pittsford, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. Bartovich was charged following a traffic stop on Judge Road, Oakfield, at 5:48 p.m. Saturday, by Deputy Chris Erion.

John Paul Daley, 36, of Alleghany Road, Alabama, is charged with felony DWI, muffler violation, and refusal to take a breath test. Daley was stopped at 12:19 a.m. Sunday on Route 77, Alabama, by Deputy James Stack.

James K. Clarke, 26, of 4th Section Road, Brockport, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana, driving without an ignition interlock device and aggravated unlicensed operation, 3rd. Clarke was stopped at 5:37 a.m. Saturday on North Bergen Road, Bergen, by Deputy Jeremy McClellan.

Jenny Wood hosted the Batavia Society of Artists today at her home on West Main Street Road, Batavia, for a "sketch out," a chance for artists to paint and draw the landscape of her yard, which is well known locally for the annual bloom of forget-me-nots.

More than 600 students received their diplomas this afternoon from Genesee Community College in a ceremony that also honored a local philanthropic couple, a man long dedicated to the college and featured a keynote address by a nationally recognized local author.

Bill Kauffman, author of "Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette," "Ain't My America," and "America First!," as well as the screenplay for "Copperhead," encouraged students to pay attention to small kindnesses, to be good neighbors, to be present, and make a difference in the place where they plant their roots.

"Engage with each other," Kauffman said. "Talk face to face in communion with one another. Live a real life, not a virtual life. The vividness, the color of the world outside is so much more spectacular than anything you can see on a high-definition TV screen."

The college is celebrating its 50th year, Kauffman noted, and that too has a message about place and the connectedness of community.

"It was born in the summer of love through a citizens' initiative, a grassroots movement of the people in Genesee County," Kauffman said. "It was organic, a natural outgrowth, not something imposed upon us by some distant authority."

Kauffman ran down the list of names of local people who have been honored with buildings named after them at GCC, such as Anthony Zambito, William Stuart and Barber Conable.

He remembered Zambito as a man of many talents and great knowledge, a scientist, a broker, and a muck farmer. He was also a trustee of the college and fan of Cougars sports. Kauffman said he knew him only briefly, when he and his wife, Lucine, first moved to Elba. He exemplified the small kindnesses, Kauffman said, of a person who tended to leave people feeling better after meeting him.

“He was a kind old man with wise eyes who would always find times to speak to me when I saw him in the post office,” Kauffman said.

Conable, the namesake of the technology building, served in Congress for 20 years, and later was head of the World Bank, but he always came back to Genesee County.

"He effortlessly moved between worlds," Kauffman said. "One day he would fly to Washington and chair a meeting of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents and the next day he would be back in Genesee County having coffee and donuts with his friends at Genesee Hardware."

Kauffman recalled that Conable once told him that eventually all of his accomplishments in Congress would soon be forgotten, but Kauffman said he did make a difference in the lives of people around him.

"The difference these people made were on a more intimate scale, the human scale -- the only scale that measure a person’s worth," Kauffman said.

He also talked about his friend, author, and newspaperman Henry Clune, who lived to 105 and still performed windsprints in his front yard into his late 90s. He also drank a martini every day promptly at 5 p.m. 

But that wasn't what led to a long life, Kauffman said.

"Henry was interested in his neighbors, in his own backyard, in what was going to happen next," Kauffman said. "He participated. He listened. He engaged. He reached out. He found something he loved to do and he did it as well as he could with joy and pride and always with a sense of gratitude. Henry wasn’t jaded. He wasn’t bored. His mind hadn’t been dulled by hundreds of hours of video games."

Clune celebrated Rochester in his writing, the way Kauffman has frequently celebrated Batavia in his, and in the end, Kauffman told the graduates, wherever they wind up, they should find the wonder and mystery of the place they live and love it.

"You're not just graduating today," Kauffman said. "You're graduating from Genesee Community College. The name means something. It's important. The community in Genesee in varying ways and varying degrees shaped you. Now it's your turn to shape it.

"For those living in other counties, in other states, in other countries, it's your turn to shape those places," Kauffman added. "You can enrich your place. You can make it better, kinder, livelier, more inviting, or you can just skate along on the surface, making no difference, leaving no one's life better for having met you. It's your choice."

Honored during the ceremony were Edgar and Mary Louise Hollwedel, who have spent lives dedicated to making life better in Genesee County, especially through education, most recently giving a large gift for a new children's room at the Pavilion Library, as well as being long-term supporters of GCC. They were awarded GCC Foundation's Alpha Medal of Service.

They had their own message about the secret of life: "The harder you work, the luckier you get."

Norbert J. Fuest, an advocate for the college since the 1980s, and credited with encouraging hundreds of people of all ages to start their college careers at GCC, was awarded an honorary degree.

Bill Kauffman

Edgar and Mary Louise Hollwedel

Norbert Fuest

The Genesee County Magistrates Association elected its first female president this year, Patricia Buczek, a justice in the Town of Alabama.

As president, Buczek will disseminate information that comes down from the New York State Magistrates Association or the Office of Court Administration.

“My goal would be to try to encourage more participation and awareness of changes,” Buczek said. “Whenever there’s a change in legislation, all the judges have to be on board.”

 Buczek grew up in Akron and currently works for Oakfield-Alabama High School in the computer lab. She is the webmaster and the yearbook advisor.

In 2004, she became a clerk for the Town of Alabama and later became a judge in 2010 when the judge at the time retired.

She then served as the secretary of the Genesee County Magistrates Association for six years, up until she was nominated as the president-elect. According to the Genesee County Magistrates Association website, there are 33 members currently.

The Genesee County Magistrates Association meets the second Saturday of every month.

Buczek said her job as president is primarily serving as a liaison.

“As the association president, you make sure information is out to everybody,” Buczek said. “You run the meeting and make sure everyone’s training components are taken care of.”

Buczek said a lot of people don’t understand that the job is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She said she is hoping they will be able to do centralized arraignments, which would help streamline the process.

“I think a lot of people aren’t aware of the components for a town justice,” Buczek said. “We don’t prosecute felonies. We are the initial court. We can do an arraignment for a felony but we can’t prosecute a felony.”

According to the New York State Magistrates Association, they exist to “develop better methods and desirable improvements in the administration of the magistrate’s courts; to promote education and interchange of ideas and experiences of magistrates to that end; and to promote appropriate legislation for these purposes.”

Buczek said the town court is the court closest to the people.

“Your town elects you and that person takes care of your town,” Buczek said. “They are responsible for the justice in that town. I don’t think people remember that or are clear on that as much as they used to be.”

"A lady says she waited at the red light for half an hour," says a dispatcher about the complaint of a caller regarding the traffic signal at the exit of the Tops Market parking lot on West Main Street, Batavia.

"There's definately a problem with the light," says an officer.

Law enforcement is aware of the issue and the state Department of Transportation has been notified.

"Can it wait until tomorrow?" someone asks about the need to fix it.

"We have to wait on the DOT," is the response.

The New York State High School Rodeo Association held its annual state championship rodeo at the Genesee County Fairgrounds today.

This is the first time Batavia has hosted the rodeo, which in the past has generally gone to Attica or Caledonia. 

The three-day event includes two days of competition, a dance tonight and awards presentation tomorrow.