Jordan Paul Fleming, 28, of East Bethany Le Roy Road, Bethany, is charged with third-degree sexual abuse. Fleming is accused of subjecting another person to sexual contact without that person's consent.
Fawn Lynn Marie Kaczmarek, 28, of Liberty Street, Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument. Kaczmarek was allegedly found in possession of a needle during an investigation by Deputy Matthew Clor.
The Genesee Chorale performs a Christmas concert called "The Rose" this Friday at Our Lady of Mercy, 44 Lake St., in Le Roy.
Showtime is 7 p.m
The performance, conducted by Ric Jones, will be repeated at 7 p.m. Dec. 9 at St. James Episcopal Church, Batavia.
Conductor Shade Zajac leads the Genesee Symphony Orchestra through a rehearsal Monday night at Batavia High School as the GSO prepares for its annual holiday concert at St. Mary's on Dec. 11.
The program includes:
To purchase tickets, click here.
The Batavia High School Drama Club presents three performances this weekend of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing," as dramatized by Trish Black Melchan.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, and at 2 p.m., Sunday, on the stage of the school's auditorium.
Tickets are $8 per adult and $6 for students and seniors.
The Cast:
When the Genesee County Legislature's Ways and Means Committee meets next week, it will be asked to support a county budget that will pull $500,000 from reserves to help balance the budget and raise property taxes to $10.25 per thousand of assessed value.
It won't return a first assistant DA position to the District Attorney's Office, a decision made on an 8-1 vote by the Legislature that prompted Chairman Ray Cianfrini to call his fellow members, "hypocrites."
While other budget matters were discussed during Monday's meeting, the proposal to provide District Attorney Lawrence Friedman with a first assistant -- a position that hasn't been filled in the department for six years -- dominated the conversation.
Friedman tried to make the case for the position, which he intended to fill with Melissa Cianfrini, Ray Cianfrini's daughter-in-law.
Both Friedman and Ray Cianfrini questioned whether the Legislature's reluctance to fill the position, or, more, it's seeming unwillingness to set the salary at what they believe the position is worth, is driven by gender bias.
Friedman exited the meeting quickly after the overwhelming vote against the position and Cianfrini (who cast the one vote in favor of the job) was out the door of the Old Courthouse as soon as the meeting was adjourned.
The position is necessary, Friedman said, because there should be a second-in-command when he's not in the office, there should be somebody else in the office who can handle budget and human resource matters and there should be somebody trained in other aspects of the DA's job because traditionally the first assistant DA becomes the next DA if the position becomes vacant. Friedman was first assistant before he became DA and Robert Noonan was a first assistant before he became DA.
The lack of a first assistant puts the DA's office at a disadvantage, Friedman suggested, against the Public Defender's Office, which only recently acquired its first top assistant, and also has an investigator and a case worker that the DA's office doesn't have and Friedman has never sought.
The county attorney also has a top assistant, and 60 of the 62 district attorneys in the state, including all of the smaller counties, have first assistants, and those offices often also have investigators.
The first assistant also traditionally covered a couple of specialty law areas, such as civil forfeitures, which can generate revenue for the county, and cybercrime and child pornography -- specialties that have gone uncovered by the Genesee County DA's office since Dave Gann retired six years ago.
Legislator Bob Bausch, one of the Legislators who initially questioned the need for a first assistant in the DA's office, said he wondered if it was necessary in an office where all the ADAs are professionals and in the day and age of digital communications.
"Yes, in this day and age, I am accessible, even on vacation, by email and text messages and I’m not complaining about that, but I believe there should be somebody who is trained and has the experience necessary to serve in my absence," Friedman said.
Legislator Marianne Clattenburg questioned why after five years it was suddenly an urgent need in the DA's office to have a first assistant.
Friedman made the point that after Gann left, he was asked to cut spending in 2011 and again in 2012, so he didn't think it was appropriate then to ask to backfill the position.
"I waited five years and I realize it’s never going to be restored unless I push it," Freidman said to explain why he's asking for the position now.
Other members questioned whether the position was really necessary since the office was able to operate six years without it.
"I guess I wonder why we would be penalized because I’ve tried to comply and not pushed and not asked for more money all the time and I’ve waited and I’ve waited and I just feel it’s time," Friedman said. "You know, you could make us wait forever obviously, but I don’t think we ever should have gone without that position, but we did. In a sense, I feel, we were not forced to, but it was the right thing to do at the time. I hate to see us penalized for doing the right thing back then."
Included in Monday's discussion was the potential salary of the reconstituted position. In his initial request, Friedman asked for an increase in his salary budget of $30,000. County Manager Jay Gsell knocked that down to about $9,000, to bring the salary in line with recommendations of a management salary study completed four years ago.
Friedman argued that Melissa Cianfrini is underpaid relative to her 17 years experience as a litigator and that her salary is only where it should be now because of a grant received through the Department of Social Services to pay for prosecution of welfare fraud cases.
Traditionally, the county has paid a new top assistant what that person's predecessor made, which is how Friedman arrived at the $30,000 above Melissa Cianfrini's current salary.
That seemed to be the pay range Ray Cianfrini was pushing for because the next undersheriff, Greg Walker, will be paid the same $89,000 salary outgoing undersheriff William Sheron made. That is a salary that is about $3,000 more than recommended by the four-year-old management salary report.
Ray Cianfrini said it seemed only fair that if Walker was paid according to what the previous undersheriff made, which will represent a pay cut for Walker, then the new first assistant in the DA's office should be paid what the previous first assistant made. Or they should both be paid according to the recommended salary structure.
At a previous meeting, Cianfrini first raised the concern that the Legislature's potential unwillingness to raise the salary for the position was driven by gender bias.
Friedman brought that subject up again Monday evening.
"All I can say is I hope the potential of different treatment of our office is not based on the gender of the person who is going to be receiving the position," Friedman said.
Bausch was the first to speak up and reject that suggestion, noting that he has three daughters, one who is an attorney, and a wife who worked professionally until she retired.
"With members of the press here, I just want to make this point, because I don’t want to be hassled when I go home," Bausch said. "Don’t accuse me of saying this was an issue based on the sex of the employee, because I’ve got four women who are going to kill me.”
With the 8-1 vote against creating the position, the salary question was moot, and Cianfrini wasn't happy.
"Amazing, absolutely amazing," the chairman said. "It makes me think about whether there are other agendas involved here. Ok, let’s go on to the next … you’re all a bunch of hypocrites as far as I’m concerned.”
Some legislators took the barb in good humor, with Legislator Shelly Stein piping up to ask a question, "Hypocrite Stein, here."
Another topic covered Monday was what if any personnel cuts should be made in the planning department, or how the department might generate revenue to cover its expenses. Director Felipe Oltramari said when he first took over the department, it was short staffed and over the past year, with better staffing, they have been able to catch up on a lot of work.
A cut in staffing might mean the department would need to eliminate some of the technical assistance it provides to towns and villages, which helps ensure consistency and conformity in the application of zoning and code enforcement on projects.
Stein, among others, suggested that down the road, municipalities might be charged a fee for such support.
It's either that or reduce the amount of sales tax revenue shared with the municipalities.
Bausch and Legislator Andrew Young continued their push for a five-year plan for county government.
Revenue and expense woes are only going to get worse, so a plan is needed.
Young is worried about a treasurer's report that suggests the county will fall into insolvency within five years unless it stops dipping into its reserve funds to balance the budget.
Bausch believes the county will be forced to build a new jail within five years and the expert advice given to the county is that they will need $18 million in reserves when that project goes out to bond. Currently, the county is about $11 million short and Bausch doesn't see how the county closes that gap on its current course.
An open letter from the Elba Volunteer Fire Department:
On behalf of the Elba Fire Department and Elba Joint Fire District, we would like to thank all the fire departments in Genesee County and all the fire companies that came from other counties to help us with the fire on Thanksgiving Day. We also would like to thank all the businesses, organizations, and community people who brought food and beverages. There were a lot of firefighters, EMS, personnel and fire police as well as the Power Company and fuel company. Because of the great cooperation we got from all of these people, the fire went smoothly. With it being a holiday, we also say thank you to all the volunteers who gave up their time with family members and for the understanding family members who supported them. The cooperation and community spirit and support of the people of Elba and surrounding areas was phenomenal. Thank you again.
Press release:
Daemen College men's basketball player Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y./Batavia) has been named the East Coast Conference Rookie of the Week for games held Nov. 21-27. The official announcement was made via the league's weekly men's basketball report, which was released this afternoon from conference headquarters in Central Islip.
Redband, a 6-foot-7 redshirt-freshman forward, averaged 13.7 points, 3 rebounds and 1 block per game in three contests last week, while also shooting 51.7-percent from the field (15-for-29) and 55-percent from three-point range (11-for-20). Redband's efforts helped Daemen pick up a pair of wins to push out to a 5-1 record this season.
Redband opened the week by posting the first 20-point outing of his career in Daemen's 90-79 road win at Edinburg University last Wednesday (Nov. 23). The sharp-shooting forward canned five three-pointers in the first half, scoring 15 of his 20 points in the opening frame. He ended the game shooting 7-of-13 from the field and 6-of-10 from long distance, while adding five rebounds in what was the 300th win in the career of Daemen Head Coach Mike MacDonald.
Two days later, Redband started 4-for-4 from the field and 3-for-3 from three-point range as Daemen raced to a 19-point halftime lead over visiting Slippery Rock University. He ended up sharing game-high honors with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting (4-for-7 from three-point range) in the Wildcats' 12-point win (69-57). The victory moved Daemen to 5-0 for the first time since the 2012-13 season.
The Wildcats' winning streak was halted on Sunday with a 70-61 road loss at Mercyhurst University. Redband finished with five points, three rebounds and two blocks in a losing effort.
Redband's selection is the first weekly honor for a Daemen player this season. The Wildcats led the league in Rookie of the Week selections last season with six. Guard Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena), who is out for the entire 2016-17 season with an injury, was a four-time recipient, and Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) earned the honor twice.
Redband and the Wildcats begin ECC play this week with a pair of road tilts. Daemen visits Long Island University Post on Wednesday (Nov. 30) and the University of the District of Columbia on Saturday (Dec. 3).
For breaking news and continuing coverage of the Daemen men's basketball team, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenMBB on Twitter.
Photo courtesy Daemen Athletics.
UPDATE: I picked this up off of social media -- another former Batavia High School star having a good year so far at the college level is Jalen Smith, a guard at Hilbert College, who was the Alleghany Mountain Conference Player of the Week this week. "Jalen Smith led the hawks to a 1-1 record with averaging 27.5 points per game. He shot 57.7 percent from the field and 43 percent from the 3-point line. He led the hawks defense with four steal per game."
None of Notre Dame's hockey players will need to sit out the 2016-17 season, at least to start the year, state officials determined after hearing an appeal by school officials on a Section V ruling on eligibility requirements for two or three players.
Officials with NYSPHSAA kicked the appeal back to Section V to reconsider after finding irregularities with the initial ruling.
Wade Bianco, principal for Notre Dame, said he hopes to know by the end of the day today when the school and Section V officials will meet again.
He said he doesn't know what the impact would be on this season if Section V officials again reach an adverse decision based on new perimeters.
"This their first time through this process and it's our first time through it all, so it's really something for the lawyers to work out," Bianco said.
Bianco said a top priority is protecting the students, the integrity of the coach and the school.
The names of the involved players have not been released, but in early November, Section V officials issued a decision after a hearing that at least two players were deemed ineligible for this season, citing possible violations of recruitment rules.
Officials with NYSPHSAA (New York State Public High school Athletic Association) were out of the office today and not available to provide more information.
Kayleigh Jean Allen, 24, of North Byron Road, Elba, is charged with felony DWI, felony driving with a BAC of .08 or greater and moving from lane unsafely. Allen was charged following an investigation into an accident reported at 2:36 a.m. Saturday on Route 98 in Alexander. The accident was investigated by Sgt. Jason Saile.
Maria Luisa Martinez, 21, of Chestnut Street, Batavia, is charged with petit larceny. Martinez is accused of stealing $70.18 in merchandise from Kohl's.
Batavia PD, with the assistance of Sheriff's deputies, is trying to apprehend a subject with possible mental health issues in the Clinton Street area.
The person may be injured and may have a knife.
The call began with a male and female dispute and the male threatening to hurt himself.
The subject, in a white T-shirt, is now on foot and said to be running from police.
Police are switching to encrypted communication.
A Mercy EMS ambulance is on standby in Aldi's parking lot.
UPDATE 9:48 p.m.: Subject may have been located at Country Max on East Main Street. He may be injured. Ambulance dispatched.
A three-car accident is reported on the eastbound Thruway in the area of mile marker 401.6.
Unknown injuries, but there was airbag deployment.
Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments along with Mercy EMS dispatched.
A first responder reports heavy traffic on the Thruway.
A motor-vehicle accident believed to be with a minor neck injury is reported at Ellicott Street and Main Street, Batavia.
City fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.
UPDATE 12:57 p.m.: Batavia PD on location reporting no injury.
More than dozen homes on Edgewood Drive, Batavia, are affected by a water main break today.
Town of Batavia crews are on scene and repairs will take up to two or three more hours.
UPDATE 6:30 p.m.: Supervisor Gregory Post informed reporter Mike Pettinella, an Edgewood Drive resident, that the main valve has been installed, and for all homeowners affected by the situation to turn their cold water on and let it run for 10 minutes to rid it of any possible discoloration. Crews are filling the large hole with stone, and have placed cones around the site as they continue their time on the job -- nearly nine hours.
UPDATE 3:15 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 27.: Supervisor Post is on the scene, and indicated that corrosion caused a main valve to malfunction. A new valve has been delivered to the scene and crews are in the process of installing it and reconnecting it to the water line.
It's been five years since Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul first came to Batavia for part of her Christmas shopping and she noted today while standing outside Valle Jewelers how much things have changed.
For the better.
"Five years ago you would see one person, maybe two, in a store and you would feel kind of bad because I know hard it was when my mom had a little business and nobody walked through the door," Hochul said. "It’s a lonely feeling and I know how hard these people work."
Hochul owned a small shop in a WNY village at a time when most people were predicting decline for the area, but she stuck with it and that's one reason Hochul believes so strongly in supporting locally owned businesses.
"My connection with these people is that I feel that same entrepreneurial spirit (as her mother), true believers, people who never gave up in places like Batavia," Hochul said. "I come out and thank them for staying with it during the tough times and hopefully they’re very successful now as people are starting to rediscover downtowns."
There are new retail shops in Downtown Batavia and in addition to visiting her favorites, Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle, Charles Men's Shop and Valle Jewelers, Hochul also stopped in at The Hidden Door/Pollyanna & Dot and Foxprowl Collectables.
Hochul remarked on the great diversity of businesses helping to anchor downtown as a more vibrant shopping destination and that's good for all the businesses.
"The downtown has really come alive again and it’s satisfying for me to see," Hochul said.
Hochul was accompanied on her walk through downtown by City Manager Jason Molino, who shared information about the projects completed and underway that are transforming downtown, such as the planned brewery and restaurant incubator going into the former Newberry's building. Projects like those, and the new shoe store, a joint effort between Charles Men's Shop and p.w. minor, will only help draw more people to Batavia and to downtown, she said.
Hochul promised that the governor's office will continue to support programs that assist in local economic development, such as those that assisted in bringing new apartment units downtown and is helping with brownfield redevelopment and projects that will hopefully help the whole county's economy grow, such as STAMP -- Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park.
"There’s a direct correlation between a governor who has been paying attention to Upstate New York, and myself knowing it so well in the past five years, to where I really think we've made a difference," Hochul said.
An accident with possible minor injury is blocking in the area of 4138 W. Main Street Road, Batavia.
That's in front of the McDonald's.
Town of Batavia fire and Mercy EMS responding.
Le Roy Fire is responding to an accident on the Thruway in the westbound lane near mile marker 384.
Unknown injuries.
There is heavy front-end damage with airbag deployment. The caller didn't stop.
A car vs. pole accident is reported in the area of 6049 Ellicott Street Road, Bethany.
Injuries are reported.
The pole is down, but the wires are still in the air.
Bethany fire, Stafford fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.
UPDATE 10:38 a.m.: National Grid notified.
UPDATE 11:51 a.m.: Photos by Glenn Adams. We've heard no more details on this accident and Glenn said he didn't have any details.
Today is Shop Local Saturday. Ironically, it's a national event pushed by a multinational corporation. Be that as it may, our readers know one of the underlying philosophies of The Batavian is that people should strive to shop at local businesses as much as possible.
In this day and age, it would be impossible in just about any community in America to shop in only local shops, but all over America, as in Genesee County, our communities are filled with vital local businesses.
Local businesses are essential to a community's health and prosperity. Social science research shows that communities with strong local business communities reap all kinds of benefits, from higher graduation rates to lower poverty rates and even a lower infant mortality rate.
Local business owners help tie a community together. They volunteer more, give more and share more. They're part of our civic organizations and donate most to our local charities. Without successful local businesses, we would all be worse off.
There's been a lot of attention paid in this past election cycle to the idea that more of what we buy should be manufactured in the United States. That drive to bring manufacturing back to the United States means nothing if we're not supporting our local businesses. It's not that our local shops stock only American-made products, though that's more likely, it's that they are right in our community helping our community. If you truly want to see a great America, do something more than rally around manufacturing, support your local business owners, the people who live in your community and give to your community.
Here's a list of The Batavian's sponsors, which is a good place to start when shopping local for Christmas and into the New Year. We also encourage your support of the sponsors of the Pin Points bowling column, which runs every other Thursday exclusively on The Batavian.
We thank them for their support of The Batavian and thank you for your support of The Batavian and our community.
In farming, there's little time to dwell on losses and already the Torreys are moving on after a fire caused more than $3 million in losses to their Big O Farms onion packing and storage facility in Elba yesterday.
They're still shipping onions from two other facilities they own and making plans to replace the equipment lost in yesterday's fire.
"That’s what we’ve got to do," said Mark Torrey, who stopped by the scene of the fire at 5520 N. Byron Road this afternoon to meet an insurance adjuster. "That’s what keeps you going today. We got up this morning and had to figure it out. We had loads we had to get out today. We had to figure out how to get them out. We actually started working on that yesterday afternoon."
There were three lines of onion-packing equipment in the building, Torrey said. Some of the equipment was installed within the past year. The property is assessed at more than $400,000 and each line costs more than a half-million-dollars each.
"It's not something you can just buy off the shelf," Torrey said.
Most of the equipment is manufactured in Europe, so even if suppliers have already assembled the parts, it will take some time to get everything to Elba and get it installed.
Meanwhile, the Torreys still have onions from this season's crop to get to market and some 70 employees to keep working.
A few employees posted on Facebook about how sad they were about the fire and praised the Torreys as good people to work for.
"A lot of these people have worked for us for a long time," Torrey said. "They’re working in the other places (today), but yeah, we’ve got a lot of good employees and you try to treat them right."
The fire may have started with a tractor that was stored on the southeast corner of the building and had its engine block plugged into an electric socket to keep it from freezing. Nearly every fire department in the county, along with companies from Monroe and Orleans counties, responded to the Thanksgiving Day fire. There is reportedly a community effort underway to organize an event to recognize the volunteers.
Local contractor Vito J. Gautieri also was at the facility today. He built the plant in 1958 for the Ognibene family. He came with a model of a truss used in the main arched barn. The county's online property database doesn't list the size of the facility. Gautieri said it was greatly expanded from what he originally built, but he estimated the entire space to be about 25,000 square feet.
"It's the first building I ever built that burned down," Gautieri said.
Torrey acknowledged it's a difficult loss, but that the business will continue as usual.
"This is a big set back, but we’ve still got people, we’ve got product we’ve got to pack," Torrey said. "You’ve just got to get doing it and that sort of keeps your mind off of this today."
Previously:
A start-up in Oakfield made the front page of the The Wall Street Journal today (account required) as part of a story on a game that seems to be growing in popularity in some part of the country, even though it has been around a long time.
We've told you before about MöbileSchlägen, the portable version of a game that involves, traditionally, a tree stump, a nail, a hammer, and beer. MöbileSchlägen was invented -- they actually got a patent on the key technology -- by Marc Johnson, James Betters and Dan Mangus. Their big innovation was the sturdy stand that holds a stump-like piece of wood into which game players pound nails.
A reporter for The Wall Street Journal visited Oakfield a couple of days ago to learn more about the game and wrap mention of it into a story she was working on about the rise in popularity of Hammerschlagen, or Stump.
The game has become popular enough, as reporter Rebecca Davis O'Brien notes, that there has even been a little legal wrangling over who owns the rights to it. Jim Martin, of Lake Elmo, Minn., asserts he owns the trademark for Hammer-Schlagen. According to the WSJ article, Martin has sent a cease-and-desist letter to a competitor, The Stump Company, and has also sent messages to Johnson and his partners. (He also contacted The Batavian demanding that we correct our previous story and include mention of his company and what he says are the true origins of the game.)
Johnson said their version of the game is gaining interest and they should have a product ready for market soon.
Also, here's a couple of photos Johnson supplied from the Oakfield Historical Society, from a company picnic for U.S. Gypsum in the 1950s, showing a similar game being played locally.
Here's the company's promotional video:
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