Police are investigating the shooting of a woman on Holland Avenue in the City of Batavia just after midnight on Wednesday.
The woman was found with a gunshot wound by officers after dispatchers received a report of a disturbance at 12:07 a.m. involving 10 to 15 people on Holland Avenue. There was a report of callers hearing gunshots.
When officers arrived, multiple people fled.
The woman was transported to ECMC by ground ambulance. Police said the status of her injuries are not known.
Batavia PD states it will not release further information at this time.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Matt Lutey at 585-345-6311, the Batavia Police Department's confidential tip line at 585-345-6370.
Social media has been a great way for Le Roy Central Schools to reach out to the whole community about what is going on at district schools, Superintendent Merritt Holly says, but there does need to be clearer communication with parents about what information is going out on social media compared to what is being sent home in newsletters and email.
Different messages are better suited to different media, Holly said during Monday's Board of Education meeting, updating the board on recent social media survey results.
"We will do a better job of getting out -- where do parents go (to get information)?" Holly said. "Principals are still communicating through newsletters, weekly reports, things like that. Social media is not necessarily what most parents want it to be. It's not the forum they want to look for (that information), and what we want to do (on social media) is capture the moments and events that are going on."
Le Roy's robust social media effort owes a lot to former Le Roy High School Principal Tim McCardle, who is an avid and talented photographer and made good use of social media platforms. When he left, the district wanted to continue a strong social media effort, and BOCES helped out by providing a part-time social media content producer, Alecia Kaus. Kaus, a Batavia resident, is a veteran videographer in the region.
When Kaus started contributing to the social media program a year ago, the district went from one major social media presence for the high school to a combined social media presence for both the high school and Wolcott Street School.
Some people like everything on one page, and some people don't.
That seemed to be the theme of the response to the survey -- people divided into two camps about what they like.
"We got both sides, which is right where we want to be," Holly said.
Holly said the survey results show respondents are split on whether social media stories are too long or just right. They also want more coverage of some things -- say modified or JV sports -- that the district just doesn't have the resources to cover (every publisher's dilemma).
After the meeting, Holly said he likes the ability of Kaus to either capture the moment or use her visual storytelling skills to give viewers a fuller picture of campus life.
"She brings the story part of that to that component to it where, again, we've had feedback that some people don't like the length of them and other people that do -- but I think that you can find something either in the moment with a capture and picture or you can find it a true in-depth story about what's going on in our schools."
Whereas newsletters and reports deliver important information to parents about policies and programs that directly impact students, social media gives the district opportunity to shine a light on what teachers and students are actually doing on a daily basis, and that's good not just for students and parents, but also alumni and the rest of the community, Holly said.
"For our greater community, what better way to find out what's going on in school than to see a tweet, to get on Facebook to see an event either if it's athletics, if it's music, if it's just in the classroom, showing a moment,” he said. “I think it's so important for us to show what's going on. If not, people are going to draw their own conclusions on what's going on. What better way is there to share our experiences and what we're doing? They're authentic, they're real. And to be able to show that through social media is a great way to go."
The Le Roy Central School District Board of Education held its first meeting of the 2023-24 academic year, and part of its agenda was "reorganization" -- when board members and senior staff take an oath of office and board and committee assignments are approved.
Jacalyn Whiting, a board member since 2011, was elected to a new term this year, and the board unanimously also approved her for another year as board chair.
Denise Duthe returned to the board after winning a seat on the board in May's election. She stepped down from the board at the end of the 2021-22 academic year.
Returning board members are Christine Dowell, Rachael Greene, Jason Karcher, Peter Lofus, and William MacKenzie.
Merritt Holly is superintendent, Lori Wrobel is clerk, and Teresa MCmullen is treasurer.
Sheriff Bill Sheron signs what will be the final steel beam put in place at the new Genesee County Jail on West Main Street Road, Batavia. Photo by Howard Owens.
After a tour of the new Genesee County Jail, under construction off of West Main Street Road in Batavia, County Legislature Chairwoman Shelley Stein said she likes what she sees so far in the new jail.
"It's incredible how all of the trades have worked so well together,' Stein said. "Pike, our construction management group, said we were going to be really happy with them. We are really happy with them. They have kept this project tight on budget. We have hardly tapped our contingency fund, not even one percent yet. So we're just amazed at the progress that we see."
The $70 million, 184-bed facility will be able to house both male and female inmates, provide space for mental health services, space for arraignments, along with the usual accommodations of a jail -- a place for inmates to exercise, take in recreational activities, eat, and meet with visitors.
The modern facility will also mean increased safety for county staff working at the jail.
Everything Stein saw on Monday, she said, aligns with her expectations, which developed with elected leaders visited other new jails in other counties to see what they had done.
"Visiting the jails that we visited, this lines up with exactly what we said that we wanted from what we saw," Stein said. "We have to make sure that our staff that interacts with our inmates remain healthy, well cared for and respected along with those inmates that we are tasked with housing at the same time. So this is all about human respect and dignity."
Stein spoke with The Batavian after a brief signing ceremony -- Stein, Sheriff Bill Sheron, Jail Superintendent Bill Zipfel, along with other county officials and construction company heads, signed a steel beam that will be the final steel beam installed in the new jail.
"I know that it is being built right," Stein said. "It's being built one time, and it'll be here for a long time. Public safety is something that we all prize, and this will be a key cornerstone of the community's public safety for a long time. I hope for a good century"
Jail Superintendent Bill Zipfel signs what will be the final steel beam put in place at the new Genesee County Jail on West Main Street Road, Batavia. Photo by Howard Owens.
County Officials and contractors with the signed steal beam. Photo by Howard Owens.
Outside the front entrance of the new jail. Photo by Howard Owens.
Assistant County Engineer Laura Wadhams in one of the cell blocks, leading a tour of the new jail. Photo by Howard Owens.
Inside the entrance of the new jail. Photo by Howard Owens.
Processing area inside the new jail. Photo by Howard Owens.
One of the cells. Photo by Howard Owens.
Inside one of the cell blocks. Photo by Howard Owens.
The visitors' area, which can accommodate up to 20 inmates at a time for visits with outside guests. Photo by Howard Owens.
It's been a rarity these days, but the Batavia Muckdogs lost a game to a division rival on Monday, falling 4-3 to the Jamestown Tarp Skunks in extra innings.
Reliever Trey Bacon took the loss after coming on with one out in the 10th, getting a strikeout before giving up a single to Drew Garth, who would eventually come around to score an unearned run.
Giuseppe Arcuri stayed hot, going 2-3 with a run scored, a double, and a walk. Caleb Rodriguez went 2-4 with a run scored and a stolen base.
The Muckdogs are 19-9 with a two-game lead over Jamestown (15-9) in the West.
At 6:35 tonight (Tuesday), the Muckdogs take on Geneva to start a run of five consecutive home games, which includes games on Thursday, on July 13, July 14 (non-league game), July 15, and July 16.
In other Muckdogs news, Batavia's 2021 starting shortstop Charlie Szykown was taken in the ninth round of the MLB draft by the San Francisco Giants.
The Elba Better Committee is supporting a communitywide Garage Sale Day on Friday and Saturday.
Here's a list of participating locations:
6870 Norton Road (Circle B Winery)
4810 Ford Road (Saturday only)- drinks and snacks included!
5291 Ford Road
The Mill – Barn Sale – Thurs, Friday, Saturday 7061 South Main Street
15th only - Wine Slushies at Sweet Life Country Store 1-5
4381 Drake Street
24 South Main Street
34 South Main Street
28 West Avenue
4255 West Avenue
4263 West Avenue
15 Chapel Street
35 Chapel Street
7 Church Street (2 family with Lemonade!)
23 Church Street
24 Church Street
26 Church Street
29 Church Street
30 Church Street
45 Church Street
6606 Oak Orchard Road
6439 Oak Orchard Road
4667 North Byron Road
Pauli Miano said, "These are listed in an order that will take you around town in the most convenient way, going south to north. People coming from the north should follow it backward."
Western Region Off-Track Betting (WROTB) and Batavia Downs President and CEO Henry Wojtaszek announced that the week from Sunday, July 2nd through Saturday, July 8th was record-setting.
It was the top “net win” week of all time with $1.9 Million and the 3rd best Credits Played week of $24.08 million. Attendance topped 20,000 people for the week. Hotel Occupancy for the week was over 89%.
“We are so excited to have reached a new high benchmark for play on our gaming floor,” Wojtaszek said. “A record week on the gaming floor means that local governments will get critical revenue as a result of the great work on the ground by our team. Also, the state’s education fund will receive over $930,000 from Batavia Downs from this last week’s play. Our restaurants and hotel were packed throughout the holiday week.”
Revenues from Batavia Downs’ are distributed to their 17 Western New York municipalities: Cattaraugus County, Cayuga County, Chautauqua County, Erie County, Genesee County, Livingston County, Monroe County, Niagara County, Orleans County, Oswego County, Schuyler County, Seneca County, Steuben County, Wayne County, Wyoming County as well as the cities of Rochester and Buffalo.
On Monday, July 10, upon recommendation from Superintendent Jason Smith, the Batavia City School District Board of Education approved the appointment of Jennifer Wesp-Liestman as Principal of Batavia High School, effective August 1, 2023.
Wesp-Liestman has served as assistant principal at both Spencerport High School and Greece Odyssey Academy. She also served as a special education teacher in the Churchville-Chili and Greece Central School Districts. She received both a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology with a Concentration in Elementary and Special Education and a Master of Science Degree in Inclusive Education from Nazareth College. She has a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Educational Administration from the State University of New York College at Brockport. Wesp-Liestman also serves as an adjunct professor at Roberts Wesleyan College in the Pathways to Teaching Program.
“I am excited to welcome Jennifer Wesp-Liestman to Batavia High School and our BCSD community,” said Superintendent Jason Smith. “Jennifer comes to us with an exceptional administrative background and an impressive foundation in education. I look forward to watching her execute her vision for Batavia High School, and she’ll be a welcomed addition to our leadership team. I want to also thank our faculty, staff, students, and parent representatives who participated in our interview process—it truly was a collaborative experience.”
“I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the Batavia City School District as the new principal of Batavia High School. From the moment I set foot on campus, it immediately felt like a family,” said Wesp-Liestman. “I have a special place in my heart for BCSD as my father proudly attended John Kennedy School when he was a young boy. As we look ahead to the new school year, I am eagerly anticipating working with our exceptional students, dedicated staff, and inspiring teachers. Together, we will make this year a remarkable journey of learning, growth, and success for all.”
Omar Hussain and Jessica Korzelius will return as assistant principals, joining Jennifer Wesp-Liestman to complete the BHS leadership team for the 2023-24 school year.
Youngsters from throughout the community are fast learning the game of football in preparation for their first game on Sunday in the Davello Youth Flag Football League.
The team, coached by Ray Williams, was at Lions Park yesterday (Sunday) preparing for that big game.
Williams said he started the program in Batavia because his friend Jay Rob in Medina was looking for some help with the leag.
"I was already planning something for Batavia already, so decided to have teams in Medina and Batavia and surrounding areas to play each other," Williams said.
The program is about teaching kids the basics of football, Williams said.
"It’s a skill development program as well as flag football," Williams said. "There aren’t too many skill development programs for our youth for football, so we figured we would start them young learning and understanding the game."
Besides Batavia and Medina, there are programs in Albion and Lockport. The Batavia program includes kids from Oakfield, Pembroke, and Alexander.
The age group is 5 to 16 for both boys and girls.
Teams are broken down by age groups: 5-7, 8-10, 11-13, and 14-16
Games will be played each Sunday through Aug. 29.
Assistant coaches are Otis Thomas, Harry Roscoe, Tim King, Tre Woods, Ray Tooley, Patrick Tyler, and Erica Williams.
Doug Palmer takes a turn around the rink on an 80 and 90s Skate Night at the David M. McCarthy Memorial Ice Arena in Batavia on Friday night. Palmer is one of a group of friends who remembers Skate 98 fondly. Photo by Howard Owens.
Some of the Skate 98 family was back together at the David M. McCarthy Memorial Ice Arena on Friday night for an 80 and 90s adult-only roller skate party.
It was perhaps most evident when the smash 1979 hit from Sister Sledge, "We Are Family," came on the sound system.
Just like old times, a group of six long-time skating friends formed a line and skated together -- as they did when they were all much younger -- around the rink.
"We're all older now," said Doug Palmer. "As much as we all want to skate to 'We are Family,' we can't do that whole song. We started doing our line during 'We Are Family' to kind of do that throwback to Skate 98, but these guys are like, 'Doug, you can take the front,' and I'm like, 'I'm on point Oh, God! So as soon as your legs start feeling it, you slow down there's somebody else right there behind you, so you ditch out and let somebody else take point."
Still, it was a fun night, all agreed.
The group included Mark Mcvay, wife Kelly Mcvay, Mark's brother Craig, along with Palmer, Alan Gilford, and Pat Gaudy.
It was the first time in a rink in 30 years for Gilford. Mark was wearing skates from 1977, while Kelly, her skates were from ninth grade, and Gaudy's skates he bought when he was 17.
The old adage that you never forget how to ride a bicycle must also apply to roller skating. Even Gilford exuded a confidence moving around the rink, not as evident in some other skaters.
"The skate was all right," said Gilford, a former skate guard at Skate 98 and so is a bit older than the rest of the group at 71. "My legs are fine, but my ankles felt a little jittery."
They all agreed that the arrival of The McCarthy as a roller skate rink is a welcome development but said not all the music being played is appropriate for skating. Some of it needs more of a dance beat, they said, a bit more Funk, perhaps.
"It can't just be any music from the era," Palmer said. "It's got to be skate music."
Palmer has been coming to the open skates on Friday nights since they started a few weeks ago just to "get the webs off."
"I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of these guys," he said.
They all have fond memories of Skate 98, a roller rink that was once on Route 98 heading toward Alexander. They remember the all-night skates, the game room, the contests, hanging out with friends, and the skates guards -- during a skating break -- throwing out rolls of quarters on the floor and the mad scramble for the kids to pick them up.
"They all went right back into the games in the game room," Palmer recalled.
Gaudy said, "I met all my friends there, even met most of my girlfriends there."
Which reminded Palmer of "make out corner."
A place he had to avoid once his dad became a skate guard.
"Or my ears would get a lot longer," he said.
When Skate 98 closed after a fire, it was the end of an era in Genesee County and for some the end of roller skating for a while.
"When it went away, it kind of sucked," Palmer said. "Everybody had to go to Buffalo or Rochester to skate, then they didn't want to drive with their kids 45 minutes to go roller skating, so having a place that is local again, even with this here, I would love to have a place in Batavia again."
Meaning he would like to see a year-round, full-time roller skating venue.
Skating has always been a family affair in the Mcvay clan, Kelly said.
"It’s continued to be a family thing for us," Kelly said. "We go to Lockport and Tonwanda, and our kids come with us, and our grandkids now skate with the little walkers, so it’s nice to have this, even if it’s only to August."
Photo by Howard Owens
Mark and Kelly Mcvay. Photo by Howard Owens.
The Skate 98 group at the skate night: Alan Gilford, Doug Palmer, Kelly Mcvay, Mark Mcvay, Craig McVay, and Pat Gaudy. Photo by Howard Owens.
A drum and bugle corp exhibition at Van Detta Stadium on Saturday night provided enthusiasts for the genre to see a variety of ensembles to perform, said Shannon Mellander, a music teacher and one of the organizers.
"There's not a lot of places to go and see some of this competitive drum corps up in New York, even though there used to be a long time ago," Mellander said. "So it's kind of nice to have something a little bit centrally located in Western New York where people can get a glimpse. They don't have to watch a video."
The event was also a fundraiser for Batavia High School's Winterguard.
Participating were:
St. Joseph's of Batavia Brass Ensemble
Brig Juice
The Hamburg Kingsman
The Mighty St. Joe's Drum and Bugle Corp of Le Roy (featured in the accompanying photos)
The White Sabres
The White Sabres is an all-ages summer program that competes regionally and includes several Batavia students.
It was their preview performance of their 2023 program, "Invasions," which is a homage to iconic science fiction films such as War of the Worlds, Signs, and Independence Day.
The group next takes the show on the road, with performances in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and downstate, culminating a finals competition in Rochester at the Rochester Community Sports Complex on Labor Day Weekend.
"(The exhibition) is really exciting for us to be able to have this in our hometown, in Batavia, because there are a lot of people from this area involved in all of these groups, alumni groups, in the White Sabres," Mellander said. "There are people from Rochester, there's kids that come from Binghamton and from Buffalo and Jamestown. I like that we're able to feature them, and everybody can come and see them since all of the competitions are out of town."
It's been a couple of weeks since I've drawn your attention to this, but The Batavian continues to publish more local news than any other source, and we more frequently beat the competition than we get beat on local stories.
By local, we mean Genesee County, which is all we cover.
We cover more events. We publish more local photos. Our calendar has more local events -- more events publicized in one place than you can even find on social media (send your calendar items to be included to news@thebatavian.com). This week, for the first time, we published a listing of local music at local venues, which makes us the only local publication to offer such a calendar. We publish more press releases, which also helps you stay better informed about what's going on in the local community (send press releases to news@thebatavian.com). I didn't include much sports in the list below, including the Muckdogs, because we don't have a sports staff, but we have beat the competition on sports stories, and we seem to have more coverage of the Muckdogs these days.
All of this adds up to The Batavian being a complete and comprehensive local news outlet like none other around here.
A report by Northwestern University says that local newspapers are dying at a rate of two per week. The future of local news is digital, which is why you should support online local news.
We work hard to bring you the news, sometimes too hard (I put in more than 100 hours this past week), which is why we started Early Access Pass. Local news isn't going to survive without reader support. It simply isn't sustainable without readers helping pay for it.
Many of these stories were available only to members of Early Access Pass during the first four hours of publication. Click here to join Early Access Pass.
Muckdog's manager Joey Martinez promised at the start of the season that the 2023 edition of the hometown team would feature strong pitching.
Ryan Kinney is the latest Batavia starter to prove him right.
Kinney took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against top division rival Elmira at Dwyer Stadium on Saturday night to help the red-hot, division-leading Muckdogs notch its fourth-straight win, 4-2.
The right-hander from Winter Haven, Fla, is now 3-0 on the year with a 0.42 ERA after going 8 1/2, giving up two hits and two runs. He struck out nine Pioneers.
Rijnaldo Euson came on to get the final out for this third save.
The Muckdogs are now 19-8 after winning 10 of their past 12 games and are three games up on Elmira (15-10) in the Western Divison of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League.
The win was also Batavia's 15th straight win at home.
Adam Agresti raised his season average to .409 by going 3-4 with two RBIs and two doubles.
Giuseppe Arcuri went 2-3 with a run scored. Trey Bacon was 1-3 with two RBIs.
Attendance was 1,599.
Batavia is home again on Tuesday against Geneva. Game time is 6:35 p.m.
Matt Gray, co-owner of Eli Fish Brewing Co., takes a splash in the dunk tank during Saturday's carnival in Jackson Square, Batavia. Photos by Howard Owens.
Eli Fish Brewing is hosting its second annual carnival in Jackson Square today (Saturday).
The carnival runs until 10 p.m.
Photos by Howard Owens.
Batavia High School Class of 2003 visited the carnival as part of his 20th Class Reunion festivities. Photo by Howard Owens.
Country music recording artist Craig Morgan, with hits such as "That's What I Love About Sunday," "Almost Home," "Redneck Yacht Club," "Little Bit of Life," and "International Harvester," brought his tour into Batavia on Friday with a stop at Batavia Downs.
Opening for Morgan was Drake White as part of the summer's Rockin' the Downs concert series.
This Friday, the show will get a little more rockus with Skid Row taking the stage.
