Stefanie and Kevin are hoping you can help them find Zoe. She's been missing for a week now. This is an older picture. She's put on a little weight since it was taken. Her home is in the Byron area. If you've seen Zoe or have Zoe, call (585) 548-9961.
UPDATE Aug. 15: Zoe is home safe and sound, according to her very happy owners, Stefanie and Kevin!
Summer in the City is Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Here's the notice of streat closures for the day:
Streets closed (barricades) at 7:30 a.m.: Main, Bank, Center, School, Jackson, Court & Jefferson:
Bank at Washington (For Race Only)
Bank at Alva
Main at Upton Monument
Main at Liberty / Summit
Jackson at Ellicott
Center at School
Court at Ellicott / Parking Lot Entrances /Bank Drive-Thru
Jefferson at Intersection Tonawanda Valley & Wendy’s Parking Lots
Wendy’s -- Main Street Entrance
Main Stage: Will be located in front of Wendy’s / County Building #1 on Main Street facing east. Entertainment begins at 11 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m.
Vendors: Crafters and nonprofits & KidsZone located on Main, Court & Jefferson. Food vendors will be on the north side of Main Street from in front of Larry’s Steakhouse, west to corner of Main & Jefferson. Commercial vendors on the south side of Main Street from corner of Court to Center Street. BID Businesses south side from Jackson to Center Street.
Super Cruise: Vehicles will be on the north side of Main Street from Jackson Street, east to Liberty / Summit, and the south side from Center to Liberty Street. They will also be on Jackson, School & Center streets and a segment of Bank Street.
Donny Carroll 5K Race: Start/ Finish line will be at the entrance of Bank of America Drive-Thru. The race starts at 9 a.m. and ends finishes by 10:30 a.m.
Access To Parking Lots: Court / Jackson access off of Ellicott Street;
Alva access off of Alva Place & Bank Street (after 5K Race
ends at 10:30 a.m.);
Center Street access off of School Street
Reopen streets at 11 p.m.
Standing by a window, toasting a French bread pizza, Jeff Heubusch looked out on sunny Ellicott Street and mused, "sure beats working working in a salt mine."
He then states the obvious with a wry smile. "There's no windows in a mine shaft."
Heubusch should know. He spent 12 years working in a salt mine. He only quit when a mining accident nearly took his life.
His year-long recuperation gave him time to reflect and reassess what he wanted to do with his life.
The son of a miner, Heubusch purchased Southside Deli two years before the accident (today is the 25th anniversary of that purchase). He kept his mining job even as he tried to build the deli business. Digging out the salt of the Earth so motorists could drive on de-iced asphalt offered Heubusch a sense of security not available to entrepreneurs. He didn't want to give up that steady paycheck and good benefits while trying to build a business of his own.
While convalescing, Heubusch said to himself, "Am I going to lay on this couch the rest of my life and live on comp or Social Security disability?"
"Once I was able to get around and be productive, that's when I said, really, 'it's all or nothing.' "
That sense of commitment has stuck with Heubusch now for more than two decades. It's the reason Southside Deli not only survived. It thrived.
One hundred customers a day has become 500. Three employees have become 17. Children who once bought pop and candy at the store now bring their families in for subs and salads.
Born in Wyoming County, Heubusch graduated from Warsaw High School in 1977. He was 17 and couldn't get a job, so he went to work in his mother's upholstery business.
When he turned 18, he got his first job in a salt mine.
He was laid off, rehired, laid off and rehired again a couple of times over the next few years. During that time he also worked for U.S. Gypsum and Le Roy Machine.
He bought a house in Batavia, and when he started working in the mine again, his daily commute took him down Ellicott Street.
Every day, he would drive past Southside Deli (Heubusch kept the name from the previous owner; In the 19th Century, it was Ebling Meat Market and the location has always been some sort of market).
On the second floor of the building is a balcony. As he drove by each day, Heubusch would see a for sale sign hanging from the balcony rail.
That got his mind working.
"I'd see it and I'd think to myself, 'man, I'd love to work for myself.' I kept seeing that and it kept fueling my idea of what I would do if I owned that."
There's a reason working in a salt mine is a metaphor in our culture's lexicon for arduous work. It's hard labor.
In flush times, Heubusch worked 10 to 12-hour days, seven days a week.
"There were days I never saw daylight."
One day, finally, he called a realtor and got the ball rolling.
Escrow closed Aug. 10, 1989. Heubusch opened Southside Deli for the first time under his ownership four days later.
The business needed a lot of work, he said. The century-old building needed an array of repairs. There was kitchen equipment to replace and Heubusch wanted to expand the deli.
"I knew the deli had potential. It was a great concept, but he (the previous owner) wasn't a hands-on guy. I knew if I worked it, I could bring it to life."
There was nothing easy about those early years, said Heubusch, who had no prior food service experience.
Besides keeping his job in the salt mine, Heubusch and his family (his daughter Cassandra was 4 years old at the time) lived in the apartment above the store.
"That's the only way I could do it."
Cassandra rode her skates through the aisles and learned to ring out deli customers by the time she was 6.
Then came the mining accident.
He was at the bottom of a mine shaft and it closed up on him. Heubusch suffered a pair of broke legs, a broken back and nerve damage.
"To me, it was a life-threatening experience. It all could have ended that day."
He required multiple surgeries, a year of at-home convalescence, seven years of physical therapy and 20 years of chiropractors.
To see him work in his store today, you would never guess his body had been through such trauma.
"This place did help me, both mentally and physically."
So what's the secret to his success?
Heubusch said it's easy: hard work, good food and a singular focus on keeping customers happy.
A customer complaint feels like a failure, Heubusch said.
He takes a lot of pride in how well his deli team works together to take orders quickly, move fast and deliver the right sub or wrap made well and with alacrity. It's timing and attention to detail.
"I like being known as the place with the best subs. The best meats, the best salads. That's our niche. People can go anywhere else and buy pop, groceries or beer, but you can't buy a Southside Deli sub anywhere else. If you've been raised on Southside, nobody can match it."
The best measure of success, Heubusch said, is the customer who comes back.
"It's a good feeling. When you have a customer who's never been in before and they come back and they come back and they come back, it's a good feeling. Then I know I'm doing the right thing."
It sure beats working in a salt mine.
During lunch hour, customers are often lined up four and five deep at the deli counter.
On the wall above the racks of candy are 22 pictures of Little League teams sponsored by Southside Deli. Heubusch said young men come in now and point to pictures of their 8- and 9-year-old selves.
"It sure beats working in a salt mine."
A big part of Southside's lunch business comes from workers calling in their orders for pick up.
Chris Moss, running for lieutenant governor, made three campaign stops in Genesee County on Tuesday, starting with Batavia Turf Farms, where he got a look at a natural roof covering that Batavia Turf/CY Farms grows for a company in France, Vegitel.
In the photo above, Moss, in the dark suit on the left, talks with local farmers while standing on flats filled with sedum plants.
Craig Yunker, CEO of CY Farms, explained that rooftops covered in Sedum absorb more water, preventing runoff, and help cool the building more efficiently.
"They (Vegital I.D.) supply green roofs to buildings looking to help control stormwater, help reduce energy costs and reduce the hotspots in cities," Yunkers said.
After the briefing on sedium-covered roofs, area farmers shared some of their issues with the state, particularly in the area of farm labor and a renewed effort by New York City activists to raise wages beyond what would be sustainable for Upstate farmers.
Moss said he and his running mate, gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino, fully support New York's agriculture industry.
"We understand the importance of farming and what it does for New York State, the importance to the economy," Moss said.
The discussion then turned, led primarily by Rep. Chris Collins, to how folks such as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver are holding back the New York economy with taxes and regulations.
Collins hit on themes he would return to when he and Moss appeared later at the Genesee County Women's Republican Club event at Batavia Downs and the Genesee County SCOPE meeting at the Calvary Baptist Church on Galloway Road, Batavia.
Collins said "New York is losing." People are moving away. Businesses are moving away. There was a time when New York had 45 members of Congress and Florida had seven. Now, New York has 27 and Florida has 29.
"The governor says there are now two blocks around University at Buffalo that are now tax free and I say, 'governor, in Texas, the entire state is tax free; in Florida, the entire state is tax free,' " Collins said. "This is all smoke and mirrors. If it wasn't so sad, it would be a joke. He's creating this illusion that New York is prospering."
Moss also spoke out against the SAFE Act and Common Core.
He said first thing on the agenda for an Astorino/Moss administration would be defunding and repealing the SAFE Act.
He also announced that yesterday, the campaign had turned in 65,000 signatures had been gathered to create a party line on the election ballot for an Anti-Common Core Party. Such a line, he said, could tip the election to Astorino.
Yunker, Collins and Moss.
Chris Moss
Moss, who is sheriff of Chemung County and president of the New York Sheriff's Association, with Susan Maha and Sheriff Gary Maha.
Local, award-winning artists Terry Webber and Bernice Yunkers have a joint exhibit at the Richmond Memorial Library now through the end of August.
Richmond Memorial Library patrons and supporters got a chance to meet new director Bob Conrad during a reception Tuesday.
Conrad is originally from Rochester, a 1992 graduate of Eastridge High School. He lived for 22 years in the Chicago area where he earned an undergraduate degree in Radio, TV and Film and a graduate degree in Library and Information Science.
He worked for 10 years in the Chicago library system before he decided he wanted to take his career to the next level. He started looking for jobs in New York and California and when he found the opening in Batavia he said it was "a perfect fit."
As a new director, he's not coming in looking to make a lot of changes. We have something good here in a library, he said, and he wants to keep it that way.
"I want the best library that this community can support and the best library that can support the community," Conrad said, adding, "Right now, I'm just learning the job. I'm delighted that the staff all seem to know what they're doing and that the community really treasures the institution, so my first job is not (to) break it."
Conrad is buying a home in Batavia, but in the meantime, he's staying with family in the Rochester area.
He's very familiar with WNY. His family took annual trips to Letchworth and Watkins Glen and he worked at Seabreeze in high school. But when Conrad started spreading the news that he was taking a job in Batavia, it prompted a little geography lesson for those around him in Illinois. They are far more familiar with another Batavia (their very own).
"I did have to disambiguate to all of my colleagues when telling them where I was going to be library director," Conrad said.
Gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino was scheduled to be in Batavia today, but he had a family emergency and is unable to make his scheduled campaign appearances.
His running mate Chris Moss will however be at the the GOP Women's meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Batavia Downs, and then he will also speak at the SCOPE meeting at 7 p.m. at Calvary Baptist Church, 3515 Galloway Road.
The sign placed in front of Batavia Marine on West Main anticipated Astorino being in town today, but then his plans changed.
Astorino, who hopes to unseat Andrew Cuomo, has been crisscrossing the state for several months, but has yet to make an appearance in Genesee County.
CORRECTION: Astornio visited Genesee County two days after announcing his candidacy. He made an appearance at Larry's Steakhouse.
Mary Repast, Kim Floskowski and Lisa Wittmeyer were in Austin Park yesterday handing out fliers to promote a Penny Carnival hosted by Community Action of Orleans and Genesee Counties.
The Carnival will be in the park next Friday, Aug. 22, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Children are encouraged to bring pennies.
The event is co-sponsored by the Salvation Army, Care-A-Van and Jr. Angels in Action.
There will be games and prizes.
Press release:
The Batavia Police Department will be conducting alcohol sale compliance checks at points of service and sales on future dates. The Police provide this service to the community to ensure all vendors are vigilant in properly identifying the age of persons who are buying alcohol. The Police Department partners with Genesee Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (GCASA) and has learned through their surveys from the community that underage alcohol consumption is still a concern. Abuse of alcohol by underage individuals is a cause of accidents and other poor choices for this age group. Compliance checks are a way to demonstrate, not only to the vendors but to underage individuals, that this community cares about the wellness of its citizens.
Shannon H. Dick, 33, of Bank Street, Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of marijuana, failure to keep right on a bicycle while in the roadway and failure to stop before entering a roadway on a bicycle. Dick was observed by Officer Jason Davis allegedly operating her bicycle in an unsafe manner and acting suspicious while leaving a residence on State Street.
Andrew J. Paladino, 35, of Shelter Street, Rochester, was taken into a custody on a warrant out of Family Court. Paladino was jailed on $2,500 bail.
Allen W. Gray, 34, of Oak Street, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd, criminal mischief, 4th, and criminal contempt, 1st. Gray is accused of grabbing a person by the shirt, shoving him and knocking him off his bike. The victim's shirt was stretched, a necklace was broken and his right knee scratched. Gray is under court order to stay away from the alleged victim.
Tyrone L. Doward Jr., 24, of East Avenue, Lockport, is charged with criminal trespass, 2nd. Doward was arrested after an investigation of a person climbing through the window of an occupied apartment. Doward was reportedly unknown to the occupant.
Eric C. Smith, 26, of Bank Street, Batavia, was arrested on a pair of warrants for alleged improper parking. Smith was located while police were on an unrelated complaint. He's accused of parking on city streets between 2 and 6 a.m.
Brandon N. Benz, 19, of Clinton Street, Batavia, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. Benz was located at a residence on Jackson Street allegedly in possession of marijuana.
Diana Lynn Bloom, 56, of State Street, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd. Bloom is accused of hitting another woman while in a vehicle on Bank Street.
Kimberly M. Douglas, 32, of Hutchins Street, Batavia, was arrested on a warrant for alleged failure to appear. Douglas turned herself in at Batavia PD.
Ernest Robert Saari, 32, of Alleghany Road, Attica, is charged with speeding, aggravated unlicensed operation, 2nd, and unregistered trailer. Saari was stopped by Officer Nedim Catovic on East Main Street, Batavia, for allegedly driving 45 mph in a 30 mph zone. He was jailed on $500 bail.
Robert W. Plantiko, 39, of Thorpe Street, Batavia, is charged with petit larceny. Plantiko is accused of stealing a box of garbage bags from Kwik Fill at 99 Jackson St., Batavia.
Joseph T. Burr, 21, of Oak Orchard Road, Elba, was arrested on a warrant out of City Court. The warrant was for driving an uninspected motor vehicle. Burr posted $100 police bail and was released.
Juliann Thomas, 51, of Chili Avenue, Rochester, is charged with DWI, refusal to take breath test, moved from lane unsafely and failure to stop for stop sign. Thomas was stopped at 1:48 a.m. Saturday on Clinton Street, Batavia, by Officer Darryle Streeter.
Harry T. Gibson, 50, of Batavia, is charged with DWI and aggravated unlicensed operation. State Police out of Warsaw responded to a report of a disabled vehicle on Route 98 in the Town of Java. Gibson was allegedly found behind the wheel and failed field sobriety tests. He was later found to have a BAC of .10 based on a breath test. He was jailed on $2,500 bail.
Dawn K. Cochran, 44, of Le Roy, is charged with DWI. Cochran was stopped at 5:55 p.m. Sunday in the Town of Pavilion, by State Police.
(name redacted upon request), 39, of Batavia, is charged with DWI and driving with a BAC of .08 or greater. xxxx was stopped at 9:17 p.m. Friday on Route 33, Stafford, by State Police.
Matthew C. Moy, 21, of Holley, is charged with DWI and driving with a BAC of .08 or greater. Moy was stopped at 9:35 p.m. Friday on Route 262 in Byron by State Police.
A missing 15-year-old was located yesterday by Batavia PD officers as he was riding his bike on a city street.
While media reports about D' Andre Cramer generated tips about his possible whereabouts, Det. Richard Schauf said, in the end, he was located by observant officers.
With the rise of opiate-related deaths not just nationally, but regionally, city Fire Chief Jim Maxwell is recommending that firefighters and EMTs start carrying medical emergency calls kits that can save lives.
The kits contain doses of naloxone, a drug that counteracts the the most fatal effect of an opiate overdose.
When a person ODs on heroin or an opiate-based prescription medication, the drug shuts down brain function that controls breathing. The person literally forgets to breath. Naloxone stimulates that portion of the brain and the person will start breathing again.
Firefighters have already been trained to recognize the signs of an opiate overdose, but even if they're wrong, naloxone is not harmful if misapplied.
"If it's not an opiate overdose, you can't hurt the patient," Maxwell said. "You can't overdose on it or anything along those lines, so if it's a false recognition and they administer it, it doesn't do anything to the patient."
Naloxone is not a controlled substance, so it needs no additional security to store it and any properly trained emergency personnel can administer it.
The initial investment for the city is from $300 to $400. The kits cost $30 to $50 each. Each kit contains a syringe with an atomizer attached.
A first responder who finds a patient showing signs of an opiate overdose -- no, or labored breathing, and perhaps supported by statements of others with the patients, or evidence found in the location of the patient -- would administer the naloxone through the patient's nose.
Half the dose goes up one nostril, the other half is sprayed up the second nostril.
The City Council is being asked to approve a contract with UMMC for purchase of naloxone and related supplies.
The council will vote on the proposal at its next business meeting.
Maxwell said there are no available statics on opiate-related deaths locally, but a regional report shows a rise of from two in 2011 and 105 in 2013.
Batavia's Centennial Committee plans to start 2015 off with a bang, but the celebration won't stop there.
The 100th Anniversary of Batavia's incorporation will be marked by events all year long, members of the committee told the City Council on Monday night.
"This event, I believe, is going to spawn something already taking place in our community" said Marty McDonald, a committee member. "It's going to spawn excitement in our community."
A project of Vibrant Batavia, the committee is in the process of raising $100,000 to fund the celebration. So far, sponsors have pledged $63,000, including $20,000 from FreedMaxick and $10,000 from Tompkins Bank of Castile. Other sponsors include Lawley Genesee, Turnbull Heating and Air, Merrill Lynch, Valle Jewelers and Trifthauser & Salmon Orthodonitics.
The opening of the Centennial Celebration is just five months away, New Year's Eve.
The community is planning a "Centennial Plaza" centered on Court Street and stretching down Evans to Falleti Ice Arena. There will be live music (on a train bed car sitting on the tracks at Evans and Mill), vendors, and fun and games.
At midnight, there will be -- just as there was 100 years ago to mark the incorporation of the city -- a fireworks display.
The committee promises a big one.
The display will be launched behind the fire hall on Evans.
The committee is also offering 200 "Century Club" memberships for $100 per couple, which will include tickets to a "Dress the Decades" party inside City Hall on New Year's Eve. Memberships are available to all residents and are being sold on a first-come, first-served basis.
The committee is also planning the installation of 40 centennial banners throughout the city, a 100-tree planting project, installation of a time capsule in front of City Hall, a historic walking trail and a birthday celebration tied to the July 4 Picnic in the Park.
The committee is planning to apply for a National Grid Community Foundation grant to pay for the 100 trees, which would be planted in the spring, during United Way's Day of Caring, at locations throughout the city, including parks, city right-of-ways and Centennial Park.
The committee is also planning what it's calling a "Legacy Gift" -- a sculpture or multipurpose remembrance to be installed somewhere in the city and paid for by sponsors. The installation would take place some time in the fall.
The committee is asking for City Council support in the form of attending all events, use of City Hall for the New Year's Eve party, approving street closures for events, and the use of city resources such as the youth bureau, police, fire and maintenance to support Centennial events.
Residents of a development known as Presidential Acres in Le Roy and their neighbor Pete McQuillen are still scrapping over home building in the area.
In 2012, McQuillen had plans thwarted by a lawsuit to build a group of single-family homes for people 55 and older on 12 acres he owns off Robbins Road.
Now, McQuillen is one of nine defendants in a lawsuit brought by 12 homeowners in Presidential Acres.
The suit alleges that duplexes being built by McQuillen violate village zoning law and were improperly approved by the Village and the Zoning Board of Appeals.
If the suit is successful, it could mean McQuillen would have to remove the buildings already completed and occupied.
The plaintiffs also alleged that the ZBA, as a hybrid body serving both the Village and Town of Le Roy, is an illegal entity that should be abolished. The village, the suit contends, should have its own ZBA.
After an initial hearing last week, Judge Robert C. Noonan issued a stay on any further development of duplexes, but primarily because the defendants didn't oppose the stay on one lot in particular and any lots not yet planned for development.
Preliminary injunctions in lawsuits are usually only granted in cases where a judge deems the plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the merits of their case.
"The Village's opposition and relatively complex zoning history of the subdivision, petitioners likelihood of success is by no means clear," Noonan wrote in his decision.
The plaintiffs in the case are Randolf Bartz, Jane Bickett, Candace Bower, David Boyce, Robert Boyce, Elizabeth Boyce, Joseph Condidorio, John Green, Joseph McKay, Stephen Moulton and Ronald Paganin.
The defendants are the Village of Le Roy, the Zoning Board of Appeals, Jeffrey Steinbrenner (code enforcement officer), Daniel Lang (code enforcement officer), John Gillard, Duzmor Painting, Inc., Circular Hill, Inc., Peter McQuillen, Judith McQuillen and John Does.
In 2012, McQuillen lost a lawsuit brought by Boyce and Town Supervisor Steve Barbeau, who both have properties adjacent to a 12-acre parcel where McQuillen planned to build homes for people 55 and older.
Boyce and Barbeau prevailed in that suit, which also named the village as a defendant, and that development was halted.
Subsequently, McQuillen started building duplexes on property off Filmore Drive, an -- at the time -- unfinished street connecting Presidential Acres with Robbins Road.
During this time period in 2013, McQuillen built a barn near the property line of Barbeau's residence.
Barbeau and other Presidential Acres residents challenged the legality of the barn, but after McQuillen requested a permit to built a house on the same property, the ZBA allowed the barn to stand.
The new lawsuit challenges that ZBA determination and seeks to have the barn removed.
In August of 2013, Barbeau confronted McQuillen over activity adjacent to Barbeau's residence. Barbeau allegedly pushed McQuillen and was later arrested. That criminal case is still pending.
(Previously: Barbeau and McQuillen feud building for months)
The main point of contention in the new suit (we'll call it the Bartz suit, after the first name listed on the Plaintiff's side) is that one side claims Presidential Acres is zoned R-1, meaning only single-family residents and other side claims that when the subdivision was created, it was planned to contain at least 10 duplexes.
McQuillen's construction of duplexes has been based on his belief, and approvals have been granted by the village and the ZBA, that Presidential Acres can have up to 10 duplexes in the subdivision.
The Presidential Acres subdivision was approved by the village in January 1989, with up to 10 duplexes permitted.
It's the contention that development of the subdivision was suspended in 1999 and there were no plans at that time for duplexes.
A new zoning law that made the entirety of the village R-1 was enacted in August 1990.
The plaintiff's contend, then, that the subdivision as once approved is no longer in effect and current zoning law makes all property in the neighborhood eligible for only single-family home development.
The ZBA issued a determination in June that the subdivision rules still apply to development within the Presidential Acres area.
In his own affidavit, Lang, a code enforcement officer with the Town of Batavia, who is part of a shared services agreement with Le Roy, states that if Presidential Acres is indeed R-1 and not a subdivision, several of the plaintiff's homes are out of compliance with zoning because their frontage doesn't conform to R-1 zoning.
Lang said he believes the subdivision rules still apply and the duplexes are permitted.
It will be matter for further court proceedings to determine which side is interpreting Le Roy's conflicting zoning rules correctly.
A driver from Batavia was uninjured in an accident Thursday in Wyoming County after he apparently fell asleep.
Alex Jarvela, 25, was, however, cited by State Police. Jarvela received traffic tickets for allegedly moving from lane unsafely and driving left of pavement markings in a no-passing zone.
The accident occurred on Route 246, Town of Perry.
Jarvela was southbound when his vehicle drifted into the northbound lane and exited the highway off the east shoulder, coming to rest in a ditch.
The Perry and Perry Center fire departments assisted at the scene.
Tonight was the second super moon of 2014. Here it is over Downtown Batavia.
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