The State of the County Address will be delivered at 7 p.m. Feb. 3 in the Old Courthouse building on Main Street in Batavia.
Genesee County Legislature Chair Mary Pat Hancock will deliver the address.
Local law enforcement agencies conducted a sweep of the area last night checking on registered sex offenders and convicts on probation or parole.
In all, about 100 people received an unexpected visit from a plain clothes or uniformed cop.
Five arrests were made on outstanding warrants and nine people were found out of compliance with the terms of their release.
A total of 50 registered sex offenders had their current addresses verified.
Sixteen people out of jail under the supervision of Genesee Justice were checked, and three people were reportedly found out of compliance of the terms of their release. Those cases were referred to Genesee Justice for further review.
Fifteen people under the supervision of the county probation department were checked, and two were reportedly found out of compliance of the terms of their release. The investigation is continuing on these cases.
Eighteen New York parolees were checked on and four were reportedly found out of compliance of the terms of their parole. The investigation is continuing on these cases.
Arrested on outstanding warrants were five Batavians:
Participating in the sweep were City of Batavia Police, Genesee County Probation, New York State Division of Parole, Genesee County Sheriff's Office, Genesee County Local Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Lower interest rates on bond sales could allow the county to save more than $1 million in interest payments, County Treasurer Scott German told the Ways and Means Committee this afternoon.
German was there to seek authorization to rebond some of the county's previous bond purchases -- ones that helped build the court facility, make improvements to the county building and old courthouse, build the GCC technology center and renovate the county nursing home.
In all, the four projects account for $10.7 million in principle the county must repay, with interest rates as high as 5.3 percent.
Once rebonded, rates would range from 3.5 to 3.7 percent.
The total savings would add up to $1,024,530.
The principle of the old bonds would be paid off with the purchase of the new bonds at the lower interest rate.
The committee authorized the rebonding, with Legislator Jay Grasso congratulating German on staying on top of the rebonding opportunity.
The Sheriff's Office is looking for Corey A. Johnson, who is wanted for an alleged violation of probation.
Johnson is 22 with a last known address in Silver Lake. Johnson was convicted of larceny and was on supervised probation.
Anybody who might have information on her whereabouts is asked to call (585) 343-3000.
UDPATE Jan. 13, 9:10 a.m.: The Sheriff's Office reports Corey Johnson is in custody.
Elected officials from just about every jurisdiction in Genesee County gathered in the County Courthouse this evening for a mass swearing in ceremony administered by County Court Judge Robert C. Noonan and Family Court Judge Eric R. Adams.
Every official who was elected or re-elected this past November was invited to attend and be sworn in for his or her new term.
Above, Gregory H. Post is sworn in as Town of Batavia supervisor by Judge Noonan.
After the jump, more pictures.
NOTES: I didn't get everybody. I missed all of the County Legislature because I was late and then I had camera problems. Second, I'll do by best to ID each official correctly, but will correct as people provide me with any corrections.
Marianne Clattenburg is sworn in as council member at large for the City of Batavia.
Paticia A. Buczek, Town of Alabama Justice.
Janet I. Sage, councilwoman, Alabama.
William J. Cleveland, Alabam, councilman.
Teressa M. Morasco, Town of Batavia, town clerk.
Daniel G. Underhill, Town of Batavia, councilman.
Patti A. Michalak, councilwoman, Town of Batavia.
Deborah A. Bell, councilwoman, Town of Elba.
Kermit Arrington, Town of Le Roy, town justice.
Kelly J. Lathan, councilwoman, Town of Le Roy.
Thomas A. Graham, Town of Oakfield, justice.
Dennis R. Beedham, Town of Oakfield, justice.
Ronald O. Zarbo, Town of Pavilion, councilman.
Donald L. Mullen, Town of Stafford, councilman.
County Legislature, Robert J. Radley.
There are reportedly "several" cars off the road along Route 98 in the area of Alexander.
One of the vehicles reportedly struck the gas line of a house at 10738 Alexander Road, and Alexander Fire is responding.
There are also reports of vehicles off the road and other property-damage accidents around the county.
UPDATE 5:22 p.m.: A law enforcement officer on scene just requested that County Highway snow crews get out to Route 98 quickly. He said the road is very slippery.
UPDATE 6:04 p.m.: A car struck a pole at Edwards and Buell streets and left the scene. City Fire is being dispatched because the pole is broken.
UPDATE 6:06 p.m.: Police officer responding to accident above: "He's going to have substantial front-end damage. He struck the pole right between the headlights." The officer is proceeding to a parking lot to check out a specific vehicle.
UPDATE 6:14 p.m.: Police are still searching for the car that struck the pole.
The travel advisory for Genesee County has been lifted by Sheriff Gary Maha.
However, roads to both the north and south continue to be subject to drifting and blowing snow and caution is advised.
The Military Pride Friends and Family Network invites people to attend its next meeting, from 5:45 until about 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 15. It takes place at 2 Bank St., Office for the Aging, second floor, in Batavia.
The group's goal is to support troops and and their families in Genesee County.
Numerous power outages have plagued Genesee County throughout the day, with the largest and longest lasting affecting more than 300 customers in the western area of Batavia (both city and town).
Power to those customers is not expected to be restored until after 3 p.m.
Five hundred customers in Alexander had power restored an hour or so ago. Many of the other power outages affect five customers or less.
National Grid provides an interactive map of power outages on its Web site. Snapshot of the map above taken about 1 p.m.
Victoria Rippel sent in this picture of members of AmeriCorps from Genesee County at the site of the Extreme Makeover in Buffalo. The picture was taken Nov. 9. Also check out this picture she posted on her blog.
Final Unofficial Numbers, posted 11:09 p.m.
Note: City Charter question not yet tallied and those numbers are not expected to be announced until tomorrow between 11 a.m. and noon.
Office Votes Percent County County Clerk Don M. Read 4610 District Attorney Lawrence Friedman 5077 City - Vote for 1 Genesee County Legislator District 7
Three Genesee County companies made the 23rd Annual Democrat and Chronicle list of Top 100 companies in the region.
The local companies are: Lapp Insulators LLC, 130 Gilbert St., LeRoy; Liberty Pumps Inc., 7000 Apple Tree Ave., Bergen; and, Manning Squires Hennig Co. Inc., 8426 Seven Springs Road, Batavia.
Here's what the D&C says is criteria for making the list:
The Top 100 companies are ranked by revenue growth using a mix of dollar and percentage increases over the three most recent fiscal years. To be eligible, companies must be privately held, independent, have a minimum of $1 million in annual revenue and headquarters in the Rochester region, which includes Monroe, Ontario, Wayne, Livingston, Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming, Seneca and Yates counties.
The D&C said the average growth rate for the Top 100 companies over the past two years was 25 percent.
We still have our election survey online (link below).
PLEASE READ: I have invalidated at least HALF of the surveys cast so far. People are not following the instructions. If you say you're voting for one candidate for County Legislature in District 7 and then also select a candidate in District 8, I'm throwing out your survey. That is by far the biggest reason for invalidating a survey. I've also invalidated surveys for voting in every jurisdiction.
Also note that I've only included in the survey races that are competitive. For jurisdictions or districts that have candidates running unopposed, there are no survey questions.
var PDF_surveyID = '290AD911A70E920F'; var PDF_openText = 'View Survey';
Take SurveyCounty Jay Gsell has laid it out there -- in order to meet Genesee County's budgetary needs, residents will need to pay an additional 8 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
Gsell expects $24.7 million of the county's revenue to come from property tax. That's up 2.7 percent from the previous year.
The 8-cent increase works out to about $7 per year in higher taxes for a home owner with an $80,000 piece of property.
Gsell:
This 2010 recommendation is at best a hedge against continued fiscal pressures delivered at Genesee County’s doorstep with regard to increasing human services clients, criminal justice activity, poor economic indicator performance in the regional and state economies and the current mandated service delivery programs that harken back to the 1970’s origins with the unrealistic New York State spin of hooking county governments into not only delivering and administering what are typically state and federal partnerships in the rest of the U.S., but also having counties directly funding actual benefits – the so called “local shares.”
There will also be no new county jobs created in county government, Gsell said.
Overall, the county budget is going up .01 percent to $140,666,000.
Gsell is also freezing pay at current levels -- no pay increases -- for top county management staff.
Mandated costs -- Medicaid, Early Intervention/Preschool, Handicapped Children’s, Mental Health LGU, Probation, County Jail and Public Defender/Assigned Counsel -- consume 84 percent of the county's property tax levy.
The State's economic woes and a wet, dreary summer has put the squeeze on the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce's tourism promotion budget.
The state cut its "I Love New York" allocation to the chamber by 20 percent, or $15,000.
The wet summer kept some people from traveling and the local bed tax was down 9 percent, or $26,000.
That kind of drop is reminiscent of 2004, according to chamber Tourism Director Kelly Rapone. That year there were a lot of rainy days and that resulted in fewer hotel stays locally.
"The impact on the programming is that we're not really able to develop new programming or enhance the programming that we have," Rapone said. "It hurts our ability to provide additional marketing dollars to our partners"
The chamber's tourism division is responsible for helping bring people into the county for golf, or events, or sight-seeing. It puts together golf packages for individuals and groups, provides information on amenities and things to do and markets the county throughout the region.
One of the changes in market, Rapone said, is that the Chamber will reduce the radius of its marketing from about 300 to 500 miles to 200 miles.
"We're going to be looking to do more precise, targeted efforts rather than some of the broader initiatives," Rapone said.
I am really excited about this upcoming event in Batavia. Tonawanda Valley Federal Credit Union is going to Pay it Forward to the Batavia NY community with $10 CASH to each participant. I added a paragraph below to explain this event clearly!
You’ve heard people say, “a penny for your thoughts”. Visit TVFCU on Thursday, October 15th when we will be giving you 1,000 pennies - $10.00 - just for telling us how you would use it to help someone else! All entries will be videoed. Finalists will be selected from these entries and posted on-line for voting. The winner will be awarded $1000 to use however they wish in contributing toward their cause. Stop by October 15th, when videoing will take place between 10 am and 2pm, to tell us how you would “Pay it Forward”. Employees and their families are not eligible. For more details about TVFCU “Pay it Forward” and voting, visit TVFCUBatavia.com or see our Pay it Forward Video and Rules.
Here's a letter we received from the Genesee County Soil & Water Conservation District, which is seeking participation in creating the Tonawanda Creek Watershed Committee.
It's written by district technician and coordinator Elizabeth Bentley-Huber.
Tonawanda Creek is our county’s priority watershed. Presently there is not a Tonawanda Creek Watershed Committee in Genesee County. My goal is to form a whole watershed effort coordinating a variety of people and organizations to work together to address common interests and concerns.
I would like to reach out beyond the political boundaries. Stakeholder identification is a key component to the formation of a watershed committee, to ensure that all interests in the watershed are represented. These stakeholders can help indentify other stakeholders who may have not been identified yet.
I am contacting you and other departments/agencies/organizations in anticipation that you may be interested or know someone in your field of expertise that would represent your department/agency/organization on a watershed committee for the entire Tonawanda Creek watershed including Erie, Niagara, Wyoming and Genesee counties.
Watershed partnerships are important to effective watershed management. Established watershed partnerships are an invaluable resource for a newly forming group and these existing partnerships can provide answers to many questions a new group may have when forming.
It is important right now to begin with the existing groups within the watershed. Several people have been in contact with me expressing interest in participating in a Tonawanda Creek Watershed Committee, including an environmental program manager and a Tribal representative, both from the Environmental Protection Agency and an engineer with the Department of Environmental Conservation.
I also have been in contact with Erie, Niagara and Wyoming County Soil & Water Conservation districts. Aside from promoting better communication between counties, there is a need for technical advisement to provide general environmental information, make resources available and involve people with more expertise in specific fields in their area.
I would like to have a preliminary meeting with department/agency/organization representatives before conducting a formal meeting opened to the public due to the amount of information existing on the Tonawanda Creek Watershed.
Please contact me with any questions or concerns at (585) 343-2362. I will be happy to speak with you. If possible I would like to have the preliminary meeting in the first week of November. Please let me know as soon as possible. Thank You.
Genesee County Soil & Water Conservation District
Attention: Elizabeth Bentley-Huber
USDA Center, 29 Liberty St., Suite 3, Batavia, NY 14020-3247
Office (585) 343-2362, Fax (585) 345-1815
Genesee County continues to do a bit better than the rest of the state, and the nation, on employment.
The unemployment rate for the county dropped to 6.9 percent in August, down from 7 percent in July.
New York's jobless rate hit 9 percent, however, the highest level in 26 years.
The approval of $1 million for Phase 2 of the Western New York Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) was granted by the Empire State Development Corporation today.
Senator Michael Ranzenhofer was among those who applauded the allocation to help build the Western New York Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP). He sent along this press release:
“The WNY STAMP park project allows Genesee County to compete in a 21st Century global economy. The project paves the way for technologically advanced companies that manufacture computer chips, semi-conductors and photovoltaic cells for solar power to locate in Western New York. This project would create over 9,300 jobs here in Western New York."
The WNY STAMP park has been planned as a prime mega-site, suitable for large scale advanced manufacturing projects. The 1,340 acre project, located in Alabama near the intersection of Route 77 and Judge Road, will be the second of only one other similar park in New York State. Phase II of the project allows the Genesee County Economic Development Center to complete design and engineering work.
Senator Ranzenhofer expressed appreciation to the efforts of many to move the project to the next phase.
“I would like to thank Senator Mary Lou Rath, Senator Bill Stachowski, Assemblyman Steve Hawley, Assemblyman Dan Burling, Genesee County Economic Development Center President and CEO Steve Hyde and the Empire State Development Corporation for their tireless efforts to create a business-friendly environment and create jobs in Western New York."
Genesee County Economic Development Center President and CEO Steve Hyde had this to say:
“The WNY STAMP (Science, Technology, Advanced Manufacturing Park) project, located in close proximity to the NYS Thruway in the Town of Alabama, Genesee County, is a transformational regional effort which will, over the long term, help to transform Western NY’s economy from Buffalo to Rochester by growing high paying, advance manufacturing and technology oriented jobs. This...site is being developed as NY’s next generation Mega-Site similar to Luther Forest, the home of Global Foundries and AMD’s recent multi-billion investment.
"...I, along with many of the elected officials and people of Genesee County and the region, would like to thank Senator Ranzenhofer, and his predecessor Senator Rath, for all the support and hard work that has gone into helping WNY STAMP become a reality.”
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