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Daniel Placek seemed to have everything going for him. After graduating from Niagara Falls High School, he joined the Navy, served in Japan and came home, taking a job as a plumber five days after his discharge. By age 23, he owned his own home.

As the only child of Dan and Cheryl Placek, he was given every middle-class advantage in life. He was involved in sports, made lots of friends, worked hard, and he could always count on his parents when he needed help.

What they couldn't help him with, though, despite their best efforts, was drug addiction.

Five years into his career as a plumber, Daniel hurt his back. His doctor prescribed opiate-based pain medication.

"We could see a change in him over the last year of his life," Cheryl said. "We didn't know what it was. He was anxious. We couldn't figure it out. His friends were concerned. His employer called me a few months before he died and said what's up with Dan and we didn't know either."

Finally, Daniel confessed to his parents. He couldn't stop taking the pain medication he was prescribed.

Cheryl went with him to see his doctor. The doctor's solution: prescribe suboxone.

Suboxone is an opiate-based narcotic. It's often used to treat heroin addicts and others addicted to opiate-based pain medications, but suboxone is itself habit forming.

"Within days of withdrawing, Daniel became paranoid," Cheryl said. "He was talking about not wanting to live. We took him to ECMC, but we couldn't get a bed. We were there for 17 hours on Christmas Day in 2011."

Finally, they were referred to Lakeshore Hospital and Lakeshore agreed to admit him for seven days. On the fifth day, he was released to an outpatient clinic.

"They said he wasn't talking about taking his life so he was OK," Cheryl said. "It's like they were only listening to what he was saying and not what we were telling them, and here's my son who wasn't thinking straight."

They family tried getting Daniel into another program and hit roadblock after roadblock.

"He said, 'mom, don't you see, people don't want to help me anyway.' " 

Against their original doctor's advice, Cheryl finally called the VA and begged the VA to take Daniel as a drug-treatment patient. It took two weeks, but the VA finally admitted Daniel to an inpatient program.

"He went in with full family support," Cheryl said. "We were there, his best friend was there, his girlfriend was there. That night at 1:15, the nurse called me and said, 'your son's passed away.' I asked her what happened. She was reluctant to tell me, but finally she told me. He took is own life."

The story of Daniel Placek is not very different from a half-dozen other stories that came out this morning during a two-hour State Senate Hearing at Batavia City Hall on the state's growing opiate-based drug problems.

When Cheryl Placek spoke, she held the picture of her son, pointed to him, and said, "This is the face of addiction."

She wasn't the first mother Friday to use that phrase during the hearing, and the faces being pointed to weren't burned-out crank heads living in the squalor of urban blight, but healthy, well-scrubbed faces of young men and women who grew up in rural communities, went to good schools, got good grades, came from strong nuclear families.

"In 2001, the Sisters Hospital wanted to open a methadone clinic here so we took a look at our opiate addictions and we had three active patients," said John Bennett, director of GCASA. "Roll the clock ahead, we now have 175 active admissions at any given time. We've treated 483 people since 2008 for opiate addiction. None of them look like, for lack of a better term, the traditional junkie.

"It used to be nobody wanted to be a junkie, that was leper of the addicts," Bennett added. "You roll the clock ahead and it's young kids using opiates and heroin."

The hearing was led by State Senator Phil Boyle, chairman of the Senate Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and State Senator Michael Ranzenhofer, who arranged for the hearing in Batavia. On the panel where members of the local criminal justice community as well as leaders in drug-treatment programs. In the audience were those who deal with drug addicts, their parents and a few recovering addicts themselves.

The themes heard in Placek's story were repeated by both the professionals, those who have been through treatment, and the parents of addicts.

• It's too hard to get into treatment;
• Treatment is often over too soon;
• There's little or no follow up, and if you're off drugs, you can't get treatment even if you still feel you need it;
• Opiate-based drugs are easier than ever to get and more widespread in the community than ever before.

It was the same story for Mary Flippi, a mother of five. Two of her sons are addicts.

For one son, his first experience with drugs was at age 11. A friend introduced him to marijuana. She said by the time he was 15, he was addicted to heroin. By the time he was 22, he had overdosed three times.

To get him into rehab one time, she called every facility in Western New York she could find. Then she drove around Pennsylvania trying to find a facility to admit him. Finally, he found treatment for her boy in Louisiana.

"He was there for seven months, but within the first hour of him leaving, he relapsed," Flippi said. "He was at the airport waiting for his plane and the anxiety got to him. He went to the bar and spent the $10 they had given him for the trip home."

Flippi observed, "drugs are not the problem for the addict. Reality is the problem for the addict."

As he continued down the path of renewed drug use, Flippi again tried to find a treatment facility that would take him.

Eventually, she became so desperate that after he stole a dirt bike from his own family, she had him arrested just so he could go to jail while she continued to work on getting him into treatment.

Later, Boyle would recall this statement and remark, "It's a story we've heard repeatedly around the state. A parent is put in a position where she must have her child arrested to get him into treatment. That is a system that truly needs reform and that's what we're doing here."

After jail, Flippi's son was placed in a 28-day treatment program, but within a week of his release, he was drinking again. Four days ago, he tested positive for heroin and cocaine.

"I'm at my wit's end," Flippi said. "I don't know where to go from here, because there is no place. There are placed to go, but they are no help. Twenty-eight days doesn't work, and just to get to 28 days, you have to fail in outpatient first before you even get 28 days."

Sheriff Gary Maha said heroin and opiate use is a significant and growing problem in Genesee County.

Most of the drugs sold here come out of Rochester.

Heroin is a growing problem because it's cheaper than pain pills. He said he's heard of people selling their pills for $25 and more per pill so they could buy heroin at $10 to $20 a bag.

"A few years ago, heroin was unheard of in Genesee County," Maha said. "Now it's very prevalent and very available. Half the buys by our Local Drug Task Force now involve heroin."

After the meeting, Maha said he thought it was an important discussion.

"What I heard today was very enlightening, even for me as somebody who has been in the business a long time," Maha said. "When you hear from the families of the addicted persons, even the recovering addicts, it kind of opens your eyes. We look sometimes strictly from a law enforcement perspective, not even thinking about the treatment and the education parts, but it's going to take a concerted effort by everybody to fight this thing. It's a difficult and complex issue."

Where heroin used to the drug of last resort for the most addicted junkies, said Bennett, it's now part of the potential mix for first time and novice drug users.

Teens use heroin, but more commonly, they raid grandma's medicine cabinet and swipe her pain pills.

"They're getting together on Friday nights and they think they're just having fun, but what we know about opiates is, if you use them for two or three weeks -- and some of these kids are popping them every day thinking that's just what grandma is taking -- that when they try to stop, they find they are getting sick, so they start taking pills before going to school just so they don't get sick."

Augusta Welsh, director of community services, Genesee County Mental Health Services, said she's a big fan of drug take-back days hosted by local police agencies.

"One thing we see kids doing is they will take anything and everything just to try it," Welsh said. "They call it fishing They will put all of the pills they got from their grandmothers' and put them in a bowl and say, 'look at all the pretty colors,' then they'll pull something out. If they take it with alcohol, then it delivers the effect much quicker."

With the rise of heroin and opiate-based drugs in Genesee County, UMMC's emergency room has been much busier, said Mary Beth Bowen, chief nursing officer.

She said in 2013, ER admitted 62 overdose patients. There have been 130 so far this year. Now that number includes all brands of ODs, including alcohol, but the underlying root cause is heroin and pain medications, she said.

What UMMC is also starting to see is more use of e-cigarettes as a drug delivery method, and several panelists and audience members expressed concern about e-cigs as a kind of gateway into drug use or tobacco cigarettes.

Audience member Nicholas Burk, a resource officer at Batavia High School, said he one time he witnessed a BHS student beg her mother for an e-cigarette. This was a girl, he said, who was a athlete-scholar, a straight-A student who never received a referral in her life.

All of her friends had e-cigs, she said, so she wanted to be part of the crowd.

"She thinks it's OK," he said.

There was a lot of back and forth about whether marijuana is a gateway drug. Some in the audience are convinced it is.

Rose Mary Christian expressed shock and dismay that the Legislature would even consider medical marijuana. Ranzenhofer said it's a complex issue. It's hard to turn down a parent who says marijuana is the only drug that will stop her child's seizures and prevent almost certain death.

Boyle said there's a lot of discussion in Albany about medical marijuana, but he promised that recreational marijuana will never be legal in New York.

Dr. Bruce Baker, medical director for GCASA, said the data doesn't support the notion of marijuana as a gateway drug, but it does lower inhibitions and many young people have been introduced to harder drugs just because marijuana brought them into closer contact with people already using harder drugs.

Two recovering addicts also spoke. One was a woman currently living in Batavia who said she got into prostitution to support her drug habit and has seen other young women fall into the same trap. She wants to warn young women away from drugs for that reason. She was among the speakers who complained about how difficult it is to get into drug treatment.

One speaker challenged the panel to look at the people in the room talking about addiction and how it affected their lives personally. It was largely a white, rural and middle-class audience.

"This is the face of addiction," She said. "We are very typical people and I hope we can give it a voice and get more help in our community because it's here and it's big."

Boyle said the message was heard loud and clear, and with modern technology being what it is today, changes are already in the works.

"As we've been talking, I've been texting with my staff in Albany about what some of you have been saying," Boyle said. "They've already done the research and sent back some draft legislation that we could introduce as soon as next week to address some of the concerns raised here."

Press release:

United States Army Specialist 5th Class James B. Neider has been selected – by State Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer – as a New York State Senate Veterans’ Hall of Fame Honoree for the 61st District for his gallantry in the U.S. Armed Forces and service to the community.

Neider volunteered to serve in 1968 after receiving a bachelor's degree in Education. He served in Germany with the 3rd Armored Division’s 503rd Military Police Company.

“While Jim first enlisted decades ago, he remains committed to serving his country to this day. As a founder of the Joint Veterans’ Honor Guard of Genesee County and with his efforts to locate a National Military Cemetery to the region, Jim’s service to his fellow veterans and their families is unwavering,” Ranzenhofer said. “Jim exemplifies compassion, advocacy and dedication to our local veterans.”

“It has been such an honor to travel to the State Capitol and join so many distinguished veterans as a member of the State Senate’s Veterans’ Hall of Fame. Thank you to Senator Ranzenhofer for nominating me. Working with veterans is all that I do, and this honor serves as inspiration to continue advocating for veterans in Genesee County,” Neider said.

Neider earned Master of Science degree in Education on the G.I. Bill upon completing his military service, then started teaching at an elementary school in Alexander. He retired in 2000 with 30 years of service. He also served as Batavia Town Justice for 14 years. Today, he is an instructor for the American Legion’s Flags for First-Graders program and a coordinator for the annual Four Chaplains’ Sunday. 

Neider has received numerous awards for his distinguished service: the National Defense Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal and Expert M-14 Badge. He has also served in numerous leadership positions, including: chairman, Genesee County Joint Veterans’ Council; president, Genesee Veterans’ Club; board member, Genesee Veterans’ Support Network; chairman, Batavia Memorial Day Committee; and treasurer, Genesee County War Memorial Fund.

Jim and his wife, Mary Ann, live in the Town of Stafford.

If you're going to spend 36 years in law enforcement, you better enjoy it, and Chuck Dudek says he's enjoyed every minute.

The Batavia police detective retired this week and put a cap on a career that started with episodes of "Adam-12" and included making arrests for everything from false imprisonment to homicide.

"It was right up to two weeks ago before I actually decided I was going to retire," Dudek said."That was unbelievably difficult to do. It surprised me in a way. It was difficult to say, 'I'm retiring,' because I've really enjoyed this career."

Like many in law enforcement who grew up in the 1970s, Dudek first found inspiration in the television series Adam-12, the Jack Webb-created 30-minute drama that for seven years tracked the lives and careers of two Los Angeles police officers. The show was so realistic that some departments around the country used it as a training video.

Dudek thought it would sound strange to admit the show influenced him, but he said from a very young age, he wanted to be a cop.

Born and raised in Attica, Dudek attended Notre Dame High School and then got his degree in criminal justice at Genesee Community College. He interned with Attica PD and in 1978 he was given a badge and a gun and told to patrol on his own. It would be another year before he could attend the police academy in Niagara County.

"I was on the road and on my own within the first week or two," Dudek said. "We were one-man patrols, so I didn't have anybody to ask for help or advice. I would go home with my penal law book and my V&T book and ask myself, 'if this happens, what do I do,?' and I would have to look through the books. For the first year, I was self-taught."

Dudek tends to recall his career as a series of cases.

Two cases in Attica stand out in his mind.

During his first year, he was on patrol and doing a routine security check on Attica's former bowling alley. Dudek happened to catch the glimpse of a shadow of somebody inside the building. He called for back-up, but in Attica, back-up is often minutes or longer away.

By the time another officer arrived, the would-be burglar had slipped out of the building. Inside, the officers found tools, vending machines cut open and a safe that the perpetrator was trying to get open when Dudek spotted him.

The money was recovered -- left at the scene -- but the criminal was never captured.

"I had a pretty good solve rate in Attica, but that was one of the few that we never figured out who it was," Dudek said.

The second case came near the end of his stint with Attica, just months before he was hired by Batavia PD.

It's the closest Dudek came, he said, to losing his life while on duty.

One day in March, two young men, brothers, from Warsaw came into town and Dudek said they were looking for trouble. They tried to pick fights with pool players in a couple of local bars and then went to a local pizzeria and started hassling the owner. He called the cops.

When Dudek arrived, he asked the two men for their IDs and as he tried to reach for one, the other brother cold-cocked him, hitting him in the head. That started a scuffle that spilled out into the street with the three men rolling around on the ground. When Dudek managed to stand up, both men started hitting him and he fell face first to the sidewalk, unconscious.

By the time he woke up, the two brothers were at least 30 yards down the road and he was missing his metal flashlight.

He chased after them, joined by a civilian. As he approached, one of the men stopped, turned and started coming at him with the flashlight. Dudek pulled his service revolver and trained it on the assailant.

"That's the closest I ever came to shooting anybody," Dudek said. "I had my revolver with the hammer pulled back to single action. They stopped, thought about it, threw down the flashlight and started running."

They ran past the fire hall, where some volunteers were listening to the call on their scanner. An off-duty police officer was there and the two men were apprehended.

"One of them said to me, 'I should have split your head open with the flashlight when I had the chance,' " Dudek remembered. "That was a close call."

Dudek and his wife, Kathy, both attended Notre Dame, but the didn't get to really know each other until college. They both attended GCC and worked at Tops Market, and that's where a bit of romance blossomed.

They were married while Dudek was an officer in Attica and they settled in Batavia.

On July 4, 1982, Dudek patrolled the City of Batavia for the first time.

In his first year with Batavia PD, Dudek helped save the lives of a South Pearl Road family when he answered a phone line.

The young patrol officer was in the city's dispatch office, but the on-duty dispatcher was tied up on another call, so when the 9-1-1 line rang, Dudek answered.

He heard ... silence.

In those days, there was no caller ID. There was no way to identify the location of the call, but it took both parties to hang up to disconnect the call.

Dudek stayed on the line and listened for a few minutes to silence.

Then he thought he could hear labored breathing. Finally, a man's voice came on the line. He was weak, but he was able to give his address.  

It was outside the city, so Dudek used the intercom system to contact Genesee County dispatchers.

The family had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, but help got to them in the nick of time and they were saved.

"It felt good to be a piece in that chain that helped save them," Dudek said.

As a patrol officer, he also helped save a woman from an unknown, but surely horrible fate.

"In those days, if it was warm, I liked to patrol with the windows rolled down so I could hear things," Dudek said.

What he heard that early morning was a woman screaming.

He was in the shopping center just east of 400 Towers.

He found a man dragging a woman down the embankment near the 400 Towers' parking lot. He grabbed the man and the man said, "she's my girlfriend. She's just drunk."

The woman screamed, Dudek said, that she had never seen the man before in her life.

Dudek took the man into custody and back to the station for questioning. He was in fact a total stranger to the woman. He was charged with unlawful imprisonment and assault.

"I don't know what he had in mind for her, but it kind of makes you feel good when you're able to save somebody from something bad," Dudek said.

Working patrols in Attica for more than three years gave Dudek a taste for investigations. The department was too small to hire detectives, so the full-time patrol officers were akin to Malloy and Reed and Sherlock Holmes all rolled into one.

In 1988, there were two openings in the detective bureau and Dudek and Pat Corona (who also retired recently) both applied and both got the jobs.

Two years later, Dudek took a position with the Local Drug Enforcement Task Force, which gave him a unique position in the history of the police department. He was the first whose service weapon was an automatic rather than a revolver. He was issued a Smith & Wesson .45.

A short time later, the city spent enough money to get about half of the department's patrol officers automatic pistols. The second purchase came when a drug case that Dudek helped crack netted local law enforcement more than $100,000 in seized drug money. A portion of the money went to Batavia PD and the department outfitted the rest of the officers with automatic pistols.

Right after leaving the task force, Dudek picked up a case that at first seemed pretty routine.

A woman had moved back to Oakfield from Kentucky with her boyfriend. Shortly after returning, she came home and found her boyfriend molesting her 12-year-old daughter.

The crime itself was only chargeable as a misdemeanor, but Dudek decided to interview the suspect further.

He ended up confessing to a series of more serious sexual assaults in Bowling Green, Ky. Dudek turned the case over to detectives there and the man was charged with multiple felonies.

"It was a pretty interesting case," Dudek said. "I ended up getting called down to Bowling Green to testify. He got convicted and was sentenced to 125 years in prison."

Dudek's proudest moment as a detective, though, came in helping to solve the the murder of Desean Gooch.

Gooch was killed in 2006.

The day after the murder, Dudek found that insurance broker Mike Stasko had a video camera on the back of his office building off Dellinger Avenue.  

The lens was partially covered by a spider web, the video quality was poor and it was shot at night, but it did show a sedan pulling up, four men getting out and going into an apartment. Soon after, the men run out and Gooch appears briefly, then they disappear. A second later, three of the men run from the apartment and try to get in the car, but it's locked and the driver hasn't arrived yet, so they run.

A copy of the video was sent to State Police investigators in Albany to see if they could enhance the quality. They couldn't.

Dudek contacted a guy who was a reported expert in something called "reverse projection," which was a technique used in other cases to help solve murders, but the process was expensive.

So while the DA's office and police department wrangled over how to pay for it, Dudek decided to see what he could do on his own.

Because one suspect was already in custody, police had the car and Dudek was able to use it to match against the video. He recorded it going to the same location and traveling the same path.

The suspect car, like the car in the video, had a busted fog light and one of the back-up lights was burned out. These were things not apparent in the video, except in the light patterns created.

Dudek, in speaking to a grand jury, was able to testify to a dozen matches between the seized suspect vehicle and the vehicle in the Stasko video.

"It's like a fingerprint," Dudek said. "You make the comparison and if you find seven or eight points that are the same and there's nothing different, that's a match."

The breakthrough helped lead to the arrest and conviction of Andrew Figgins for murder.

"I was named Officer of the Year by Kiwanis that year and I think it's mostly for that," Dudek said.

What will Dudek do in retirement? He's not sure yet. Travel at first. Keep biking (he rides at least a dozen miles four or five times a week) and read (favorite reading material is American history, but also some fiction -- like all of the Harry Potter books). He thinks he might like to be a private investigator or find a similar line of work.

"The most rewarding part of the job is being able to make a difference, to help people, to help victims," Dudek said. "That's what I'll miss besides the people I worked with. Being able to make a difference gives you a kind of purpose. That's something I've been very happy to do for 36 years."

Assemblyman Steve Hawley and State Senator Mike Ranzenhofer held a dedication ceremony in Attica this morning for the designation of Route 98 as the Genesee and Orleans Veterans Memorial Highway. The designation, passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor, covers the portion of Route 98 bisecting Hawley's 139th Assembly District, from the Genesee County/Wyoming County line to Point Breeze.

Two tractor-trailer trucks have collided on Ellicott Street at Cedar Street, Batavia, and a large diesel fuel leak is reported.

Large enough that the Fourth Platoon has been ordered to City Station to standby in quarters.

No injuries are reported.

UPDATE 3:09 a.m.: About 60 gallons of fuel have spilled. One truck is hauling an unknown cargo. The other truck is hauling milk. The location is west of Cedar Street. Both trucks are off the road and the road is open. 

UPDATE 3:13 a.m.: The box truck is hauling banana puree. It's the truck with a damaged saddle tank. That company is sending an environmental clean-up crew. No fuel has leaked into the sewer. The spill is presently contained. 

UPDATE 4:12 a.m.: The milk truck was hauling cream. It was parked due to a possible mechanical issue. The box truck sideswiped it. Fire and police expect to be on scene for some time yet. The westbound lane is blocked and traffic is being directed in both directions through the eastbound lane.

Ed and Leslie Carney rescued this Chihuahua on Vine Street. Leslie said not even animal control could catch the dog when it was running around in the street. Finally, it got tired and came to take a nap next to her cat on her back porch. The Carneys let it into the house and have had it for two days now. They're hoping the owners will contact them. The dog didn't have any tags. They are at 33 Vine St. or can be reached at (585) 343-0256.

UPDATE: Here's another lost dog, pictured below. This one was found on Genesee Street in Corfu by Rachel Doktor. She said, "she was walking in the middle of the road. Her fur is knotted and matted, looks like she's been without care for a few weeks." I've asked Mary to provide contact information we can share, but in the meantime, I wanted to get this posted.

UPDATE: Here's Rachel Doktor's number -- (585) 297-2241. If the owner isn't found, Mary is looking for a foster home for the dog. If interested, call her.

UPDATE Saturday, May 24: We called Rachel to see about getting the dog pictured below some badly needed grooming. She told us that the day after she found the dog she had it professionally groomed. Its fur was so matted and knotted and neglected for so long that it deformed the animal's paws. So now the toes curl upward. The good news is the dog is all spiffed up and has been adopted by a nice lady.

Press release:

The Iroquois Trail Council Boy Scouts of America recognized several distinguished citizens at the May 21 Annual Boypower Dinner held at Genesee Community College. The Boypower Distinguished Citizen’s Award recognizes positive countywide impact through community and professional service, and a long tenure of service both through business and personal involvement in community causes.

Event Chairman Dr. Roger Triftshauser and Scout Executive James McMullen are pleased to recognize the 2014 Honor Roll of Distinguished Citizens:

• Craig Bolesky, C&R Food Service (Livingston County)
• Jodi Gaines, Claims Recovery Financial Services (Orleans County)
• William Hayes, Turnbull Heating & Air Conditioning (Genesee County)
• Peter Robinson, NYS Court Officer, Niagara Command (Niagara County)
• James Rutowski, Sinclair Pharmacy & Warsaw Redevelopment Corp. (Wyoming County)

The annual Boypower Dinner is the premier event to raise funds to support scouting programs of the Iroquois Trail Council, which serves nearly 3,000 boys from 7-20 years of age and girls ages 14-21 in Genesee, Wyoming, Orleans, Eastern Niagara, and Livingston counties.

The event featured guest speaker Eagle Scout and NY State Supreme Court Justice Jeremiah J. Moriarty III, along with emcee and award presenter Daniel Fischer of WBTA 1490 radio.

The Boy Scouts of America is the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. The scouting organization is composed of 2.7 million youth members between the ages of 7 and 20, 1.1 million volunteers and nearly 300 local councils throughout the United States and its territories.

Press release:

Last week, the Genesee Community College Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $38.70 million budget for the 2014-2015 academic year. The budget increases expenses by 1.65 percent over last year's $38.07 million budget.

The budget now moves to the Genesee County Legislature's Ways and Means Committee, which will review the budget prior to its submission to the Genesee County Legislature, sponsor of the College.

The budget covers the fiscal year beginning Sept. 1. It is a carefully constructed, maintenance-of-effort budget, said President James M. Sunser. The budget provides for inflationary cost increases and maintains the quality of academic programs, but holds costs down wherever possible, Sunser said.

The 2014-2015 budget:

• Increases tuition for full-time students by $75 per semester, bringing tuition from $1,850 per semester to $1,925 per semester. Tuition for part-time students will increase by $5 per credit hour, from $150 to $155. The College's Technology fee will increase from $25 to $50 per semester for full-time students, and the new Academic Support Fee will be $25 per semester for full-time students. Both fees help the College maintain the quality of academic technology and instructional support services to students. The majority of Genesee students will see the increases covered by their financial assistance packages, and Genesee remains one of the most affordable colleges in the SUNY system, Sunser told trustees.

• Holds College staffing at current levels.

• Provides for anticipated increases in the cost of heating and lighting, other building-related costs, and contractually obligated salary and wage increases.

• Assumes New York State "base aid" at $2,497 per full-time-equivalent student. While the New York State Legislature and Governor approved this figure for 2014-2015, it is almost 7-percent less than the $2,675 the College received five years ago.

• Asks Genesee County to consider an increase in sponsorship support of $500,000, to $2.53 million. Sunser noted that there is increased interest throughout the SUNY system in creating "regional" community colleges instead of locally sponsored colleges, and that increasing sponsor support may help preserve local sponsorship as well as save Genesee County money over the long term.

Developing the 2014-2015 budget was one of the most challenging fiscal tasks facing GCC in recent years, Sunser said.

"We are committed to maintaining our position as one of the nation's great community colleges, but we face declining state support, increased inflation, and a tighter regulatory environment," he said. "Putting together a budget that combines programmatic excellence, fiscal conservatism, and affordability for students is indeed a challenge."

Trustees believed the College had met the challenge head-on. Trustee Benjamin J. Bonarigo called the 2014-2015 fiscal plan "a remarkable budget." He said that "building a budget with only a 1.65-percent increase is a great testament to the hard work of Dr. Sunser, Kevin Hamilton [vice president for Finance and Operations], and the entire administration."

In other business at the May meeting, the Board of Trustees:

• Approved the granting of degrees and certificates to 646 Genesee students this month, subject to their satisfactory completion of academic requirements. Eighteen students will receive the associate in arts (A.A.) degree; 273 students, the associate in science (A.S.) degree; 303 students, the associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree, and 52 students, certificates.

• Approved Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Kathleen (Kate) Schiefen membership of GCC's 25 Advisory Committees, and the introduction of the new Online Learning Advisory Committee. The refreshed roster of members in all 26 committees includes more than 330 GLOW-area professionals. Through their important work and their collective contribution, they ensure the consistent high quality programs that GCC students and the community have come to expect.

• Heard Chair Maureen T. Marshall propose the four-member Nominating Committee. Appointed were Laurie A. Miller, Chair; Benjamin J. Bonarigo, Peter R. Call and Donna M. Ferry.

• Heard the probationary appointment of David Johnson, Ph.D., as GCC's new biology instructor. Johnson has been a GCC adjunct instructor and advisor in biochemistry and molecular biology since 2006. He has taught at Finger Lakes Community College and Nazareth College, co-authored several science publications, and he also serves as a volunteer firefighter in Spencerport.

Cody D. Mayer, 21, of South Lake Road, Bergen, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th. Mayer was arrested following a traffic stop by members of the Local Drug Enforcement Task Force in the Town of Stafford. He was allegedly found in possession of heroin and 20 Xanax tablets. 

Jennifer Lyn Stack, 28, of South Main Street, Batavia, is charged with possession of a hypodermic instrument, criminal use of drug paraphernalia, 2nd, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th. Stack was stopped at 8:42 p.m. Monday on Clinton Street Road by Deputy Joseph Corona. During the traffic stop, it was found there was an arrest warrant on file for Stack. Her arrest led to a search of her person.

Matthew Garrett Opitz, 29, of Hunting Spring, Rochester, is charged with driving while impaired by drugs, aggravated unlicensed operation, unlicensed operator, leaving the scene of an accident and unreasonable speed. Opitz was allegedly involved in a one-car accident at 5:03 a.m. on Angling Road, Pembroke. The accident was investigated by Deputy Joseph Corona.

Ronald D. Williams, 37, of Liberty Street, Batavia, is charged with petit larceny, trespass and endangering the welfare of a child. Williams is accused of stealing scrap metal from a location on Cedar Street. Williams allegedly enlisted the assistance of a child less than age 17.

Gregory M. Munroe II, 28, of Harvester Avenue, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd, and endangering the welfare of a child. Munroe is accused of pushing and striking a woman while in the presence of her children.

Danielle Marie Stevens, 37, of Ford Road, Elba, is charged with appearance in public under influence of drugs. Stevens was arrested following a report that she was seen consuming an unknown amount of pills and may have overdosed. 

Casey T. Vaughn, 25, of Prune Street, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd, and menacing, 2nd. Vaughn allegedly had an altercation with a construction worker at his residence.

Robert D. Wood, 23, of Pearl Street, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd. Wood allegedly shut the door as a woman was attempted to enter her residence, striking her in the abdomen with the door. Wood was jailed on $250 bail.

Robert C. Paris, 24, of Batavia, is charged with two counts of criminal obstruction of breathing and harassment, 2nd. Paris was arrested by State Police for an alleged incident reported at 12:18 p.m. May 20 in Batavia. Paris was jailed on bail. No further details released.

Stephen J. Holdaway, 62, of Corfu, is charged with felony DWI, felony driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, driving an unregistered motorcycle. Holdaway was stopped at 6:07 p.m. Monday in the Town of Batavia by State Police.

It was Agricultural Appreciation Day at Byron-Bergen High School. Senior students drove their tractors to school.

Photos submitted by Gayla Starowitz.

Connor Nesbitt

A group of preschoolers from the YMCA got a chance to tour city fire's headquarters this morning. The kids got to spray a fire hose and learn about fire safety and look at all the equipment on the fire trucks.

Via WBTA

A former Batavia resident and Level 3 sex offender will go to trial again in July on new child sex abuse charges.

Sean Vickers, 45, now of Geneva, turned down a plea deal in Genesee County Court today as the cutoff passed.

District Attorney Lawrence Friedman said the deal offered to Vickers was to plead guilty to two Class B violent felonies with 20-year caps on the sentences that could run consecutively. That would be in addition to pleading guilty to a felony in Niagara County where Vickers is also accused of sexually abusing children with another sentence capped at 20 years to run concurrent.

Vickers turned down a possible 40-year prison sentence to go to trial.

Jury selection begins July 28. Vickers continues to be locked up in the county jail in lieu of no bail.

Vickers was named in an 11-count indictment in November for sexually abusing five children in Batavia in the '90s and 2000s.

Genesee County's girls U-19 soccer team is off to a 2-0 start on the season after beating Chili 3-0 in a game played Wednesday evening at GCC.

Sunday, the team beat Corning 8-0 in a game played in Dansville.

Tonight, goals were scored by McKenna Marley-Hill, Emily Phillips and Kaylin Cicero.

Olivia Clark pitched a shutout in goal.

Legislators in Albany are apparently intent on changing the formula for how counties pay for their students to attend out-of-county community colleges and that has GCC President Jim Sunser a bit nervous.

To help hedge against the proposed change, he's asked county legislators to boost the county share of GCC funding from just over $2 million to slightly more than $2.5 million.

The proposal caught members of the Ways and Means Committee a little by surprise Wednesday and they asked for more time to study the request and have County Manager Jay Gsell report on any potential county budget impacts.

The committee will consider the proposal again at its June 4 meeting.

"Since we have until the end of June, rather than make a quick decision today, I think we need to see how this fits and how we can make it fit," said Ray Cianfrini, chairman of the County Legislature.

In New York, each community college has a sponsoring county and each sponsoring county supports the college by paying a "county share" for local students to attend.

Sunser said that while Genesee County is very support of GCC, the local county share is also among the lowest in the state.

When students from one county elect to attend a community college in another county, the home county pays that other community college a fee based on a state-mandated calculation.

For example, when a student in Perry decides to attend GCC, Wyoming County must pay a fee to GCC. When a Genesee County student decides to attention ECC, Genesee County must pay a fee to ECC.

The calculation of those out-of-county fees is based on how much per student the sponsor county gives to its own college.

In years past, that per-student fee could be calculated using revenue sources other than the county government's direct contribution. It could, for example, include revenue from facility rentals and revenue allocated from reserves.

Community colleges have been warned, Sunser said, to brace for a change in the formula. The new formula would eliminate all revenue sources from the calculation except the direct county contribution.

The proposal almost made it into the current state budget, but was set aside at the last minute for at least one more year.

If it had passed this year, GCC would have lost $1.7 million in revenue.

The proposed increase of $500,000 in county share would change the calculation so that neighboring counties would continue to pay what they have been paying.

Sunser said GCC serves a larger, more sparsely populated area than any other community college in the state. With campuses in Medina, Albion and Lima, there are college students throughout the GLOW region who are dependent on GCC for their education.

GCC's proposed $38.7 million for fiscal year 2014/15 includes a $75 per semester tuition increase for full-time students and a $5 per credit hour increase for part-time students.

The tuition at GCC would still be the most competive in WNY.

"We're a very frugal institution," Sunser said. "We have one of the lower budgets in New York."

It boggles the mind, according to attorney Brian Decarolis, that his client, John Laverne Robinson, has been charged with menacing in the second degree.

The 51-year-old Bergen resident is accused of pointing a shotgun out the window of his home on North Lake Road at another man who seconds earlier had been banging on his door.

"I think it's ridiculous," Decarolis said this afternoon after Robinson was arraigned in Town of Bergen Court, where he entered a not guilty plea. "I've never seen anything like it. I'm a former prosecutor. I do exclusively criminal defense work. I've never seen it, never heard of it. It's something I've never dealt with before."

The case is unusual, Decarolis said, because not only was Robinson defending himself against an intruder, the District Attorney's Office had declined in November to prosecute Robinson.

Robinson was arrested last month by a deputy after the man who did the door banging, 46-year-old Michael S. Crooks, of Salmon Road, Brockport, took his complaint to the Sheriff's Office when he couldn't convince a state trooper to arrest Robinson.

The charge should be dismissed, Decarolis said. Either the charge is dismissed outright or the case is going to trial, he said.

Decarolis noted Assistant District Attorney Kevin Finnell, who is handling the case, has the power to seek a dismissal, but in case that doesn't happen, Decarolis is preparing a motion to deliver to Justice Donald Kunego asking that the charge be dismissed "in the interest of justice." 

The former Monroe County prosecutor said he's talked to a lot of people in and out of the criminal justice line of work since Robinson became his client and people are flabbergasted by the arrest.

"I've talked to people involved in the case who are surprised," Decarolis said. "I've talked to people not involved in the case who are surprised. I've talked to law enforcement contacts that I've built up over the years, relationships from being in the DA's office, being a defense attorney, I haven't heard one person who said this is right, this sounds like what should happen. Everyone is stunned. Everyone is surprised."

The charge stems from a Jan. 13 incident when Crooks went to the home of Robinson because he suspected Robinson of communicating with Mrs. Crooks.

In a statement to police, Crooks said he just wanted to talk, but he admitted to yelling at Robinson, who was inside his house, that he was a coward for not coming out.

"He was essentially beating down the front door in an attempt to get into the house," Decarolis said.

He hit it hard enough to damage it, which is why a trooper decided to arrest him on a criminal mischief charge.

After his apparent unsuccessful attempt to break down the door, Crooks walked around the house looking for another entry. When he peered into a window he found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

That frightened him, he said.

"He goes to my client's house and is causing a rukus," Decarolis said. "He's a stranger to my client. The State Police come out and they investigate it and they determine that Mr. Crooks is the only person who should be arrested. That's normal. My client thinks he's a victim. He is."

Robinson was on the phone with 9-1-1 dispatchers, who had told him, according to reports, to warn Crooks that he had a shotgun.

Today, Kunego signed an order requiring the Sheriff's Office to turn over the 9-1-1 tapes to Decarolis. Finnell did not oppose the order.

According to Decarolis, his client thought the case is over with the arrest of Crooks, but after Crooks has the charge against him dismissed on an ACD (adjudication in contemplation of dismissal), Crooks starts making noise about having Robinson arrested.

"The State Police call him up and say this guy's crowing about charging you with a completely justifiable act," Decarolis said. "The State Police do a little more investigating, consult with the District Attorney's Office, the same office that is now prosecuting this case, and they say, we're not charging you. We're not doing anything. You shouldn't be charged. You were justified doing what you did on the day in question. Then out of nowhere, a different police agency that has never, ever been involved in this case, charges my client."

If the case does go to trial, the troopers involved in the arrest of Crooks will be expected to testify, Decarolis said.

"I think that would be on the defense witness list as opposed to the prosecution's, and you don't hear about that every day," Decarolis said.

The whole thing is unfortunate, Decarolis said.

"This guy's going through a heck of a stress," he said. "He's wasting time. He should be at work on a Wednesday afternoon, not coming to court for this kind of stuff."

Previously:

• Law and Order: Bergen resident accused of pointing shotgun at person who was looking through his window
• Alleged victim of shotgun menacing claims Bergen resident was communicating with his wife
• Dibble: Probable cause for arrest in Bergen shotgun case, now it's up to the courts

A 28-year-old Le Roy man has been accused of brandishing a knife at police officers in Le Roy after the officers tried to restrain him believing he was a threat to himself.

Timothy Niccloy is charged with two counts of menacing a police officer, a Class D felony, and counts of criminal possession of a weapon, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest.

Officers responded to his residence May 16 on a request to check his welfare. During the check, the officers became concerned that he was a threat to himself. 

Niccloy was taken into custody after a struggle and a taser was deployed to help subdue him.

Following arraignment, Niccloy was jailed on $10,000 bail.

Deputies and troopers assisted at the scene.

Genesee County's former congressional representative, Kathy Hochul, will be Gov. Andrew Cuomo's running mate in the upcoming gubernatorial race, reports the Buffalo News.

Cuomo needed to find a new lieutenant governor candidate after Rochester's Robert Duffy decided not to run for reelection.

Hochul won the local congressional seat in a special election after Chris Lee's resignation, then lost to current NY-27 representative Chris Collins in November 2012.

“I don’t want to want to be on the sidelines,” she said of her bid to re-join government service. “New York State is on the move, but our work is far from finished,” she added.

Press release:

Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer will host a public forum for the Joint Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction this Friday, May 23, from 10 a.m. to noon at Batavia City Hall, One Batavia City Centre. Members of the public are invited to attend and participate in the discussion.

The forum is one of 17 statewide to solicit input on the rise of heroin and opioids and to develop legislative recommendations for treating and preventing addiction and its consequences.

“Heroin and opioid addiction is a very serious issue facing communities all across the State. That is why I have invited the Task Force to discuss the impact heroin and opioid use has on our local community,” Ranzenhofer said. “I look forward to this important discussion with community stakeholders.”

The Task Force is chaired by Senator Phil Boyle (R-C-I, Suffolk County), chairman of the Senate Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.

"The numbers are staggering. Every day we hear of one heroin-related tragedy after another in our state," Boyle said. "I applaud Senator Ranzenhofer for his leadership in our statewide fight against heroin and opioid addiction."

Participating panelists are experts in the fields of education, law enforcement, mental health and substance abuse, civic groups and individuals directly affected by opioid abuse, including: 

The 2014-2015 State Budget included $2.45 million for initiatives to provide prevention, treatment and addiction services to address the increased prevalence of heroin and opioid abuse.