With a key player injured in the first minute of the game, Le Roy's girls battled Bath-Haverling hard, letting the game slip away for only a portion of the third and fourth quarter, but still came up short in their Section V playoff match, 47-42.

Montana Vescovi, who led the team this season in points, rebounds and steals, suffered an ankle injury early on, but captains Kari Piazza and Alicia Conte picked up the slack and kept the Oatkan Knights in the game.

“She’s a definately a key player, but we were right there," Head Coach Brian Herdlein "There’s no excuses. They played well. We played as hard as we could. It was a good game."

Le Roy and Bath switched back and fourth on the lead until the midway through the third quarter, when Bath built as much as a 12-point lead at one point.

Herdlein said his girls were able to take advantage of their mismatches with Bath when Bath ran a one-on-one defense, but when Bath switched to a 3-2, Le Roy had a hard time making the adjustment.

"Our girls were taking shots they weren't comfortable with," Herdlein said.

With about three minutes left, Le Roy started going inside again, tighented up their defense and pulled within two points with a minute to play.

Bath was largely able to control the ball, however, in the final minute and run down the clock, adding points on foul shots.

"They (Bath) rebonded well and played good defense," Herdlein said. "That's the minor difference in the game right there."

Photos: Top, Piazza scores on a lay up in the third quarter; Brooke Bower scrambles for the ball in the 4th quarter; Piazza reacts to getting elbowed in her eye during a rebound attempt in the final seconds of the game.

To purchase prints, click here or the link in the upper right of the slide show below.

In other basketball action:

• Elba defeated Hammondsport 79 to 30 and Notre Dame downed Prattsburgh 68-54. The two rivals will meet in a Section V semi-final in Dansville on Tuesday.
• Batavia top Livonia, 48-41.
• Bergen plays  Mynderse at 4 p.m. in Canandaigua.
• Notre Dame boys beat Williamson 86-63.
• Alexander lost to York, 63-51.
• Oakfield-Alabama lost to Clyde-Savannah, 85-32.
• Batavia takes on Waterloo at 3 p.m.
• Hornell and Le Roy meet at 7 p.m.

An accident with injuries has been reported at Lyman Road and Route 33, Bergen.

Bergen fire and ambulance dispatched.

A Mercy EMS unit is on scene.

UPDATE 9:56 a.m.: Bergen back in service.

UPDATE 10:12 a.m.: Patient transported to UMMC with minor injuries.

Press release:

City crews are repairing a water main break in front of 155 Trumbull Parkway. Residents on Trumbull Parkway between East Avenue and North Street may be without water during the repair. If you experience discolored water after the water is restored, please run your water until it once again becomes clear.

UPDATE 12:41 p.m.: Repairs were completed about an hour ago.

Francis Scott Smith, 19, who was allegedly caught in the act of burglarizing a home in Batavia on Jan. 1, has been accused of stealing from two other homes in Pembroke in September and October.

Smith, who is being held in the Genesee County Jail on his previous charge, was arraigned in Pembroke Town Court yesterday and then returned to the jail.

He is accused of stealing cash and jewelry from two separate homes on Read Road, Pembroke.

The new charges follow an investigation by William Ferrando with the Sheriff's Office.

The BB-gun incident at Batavia Middle School yesterday, as first reported by The Batavian, is apparently getting wider media attention.

A Rochester TV news van was reportedly parked illegally on Ross Street a few minutes ago.

And, just now, Batavia PD released the following statement to all regional media:

The Batavia Police and Batavia School officials are jointly investigating the details of a student bringing a BB Gun into the Batavia Middle School. As part of the investigation it has been determined that at no time was the BB gun displayed or any threats made. School officials discovered the gun based on an unrelated incident. Both the School and the Police Department will use the proper procedures to ensure all are safe and the person responsible is dealt with in accordance with the proper procedure in place for juveniles who violate school rules and New York State laws.  

A broken utility pole with wires down is causing snarled traffic at routes 246 and 63, the county line between Genesee and Wyoming. Pavilion Fire Department is on scene. Wyoming will shut down northbound traffic, and further up Route 63 -- didn't catch the juncture -- traffic will be diverted. National Grid is responding, or already on scene.

UPDATE 1:49 p.m.: The wires have been removed and the roadways are reopened. Pavilion assignment is back in service.

As part of a project to make the Mancuso Office Building at 26 Harvester Ave., Batavia, handicap accessible, a new elevator is being installed behind the building.

Mancuso Business Development Group President Tom Mancuso said other accessibility upgrades are being made to the building in all the public areas, such as the bathrooms.

The four-story building is split-level, with the first floor not being on grade with either the front or the back of the building, so the elevator is being designed to make five stops.

A new lobby is being installed in the back of the building that will be at grade with the back parking lot.

"It's just (such) a historic, attractive building that we didn't want to make changes to the front of it," Mancuso said.

The elevator should be operational by the end of March.

Mancuso didn't reveal the cost of the project, but indicated it is expensive. The entire project is privately financed, he said.

One of the building's current tenants, Rosicki Rosicki & Associates, is an enthusiastic supporter of working with disabled people, Mancuso said.

Another Mancuso tenant, in the Harvester Center, Larry Brown, is a disabled veteran.

"He's always helping us be aware of and work on our accessibility issues," Mancuso said.

A two-car accident is reported at Quaker Hill and Lockport roads in Elba. Minor injuries. It is partially blocking traffic and fire police are requested to the scene. Elba Fire Department and Mercy medics are responding in non-emergency mode.

UPDATE 11:34 a.m.: The Elba assignment is back in service. Two patients refused medical attention. The roadway is reopened.

Nobody disputes the fact that the former Wiss Hotel building is in rough shape.

A tour of the building yesterday revealed sagging ceilings, holes in the roof, peeling and chipping paint, uneven doorways, junk and garbage strewn throughout the interior and everything of value that could be removed -- claw-foot bathtubs and the old rosewood bar, for example -- gone.

Rich Hauser, an architect from Perry and a building restoration expert, has said previously that it will take nearly $1 million to restore the Wiss. A tour such as the one we took yesterday can only confirm there's a lot of work to be done.

The dollars and cents of the issue comes down to what a potential buyer -- such as the Le Roy, NY, LLC -- might want to do with the building and whether the building is structurally sound.

A structural analysis would be required before building permits for a restoration project could be pulled, and Bob Fussell, currently heading up the LLC, said the LLC won't pay for a structural analysis until it takes title to the building.

It doesn't make financial sense, he said, to go to the expense of a structural analysis if the LLC doesn't own the building.

On the tour yesterday were Bob Lawley, Bob Lathan, village DPW supervisor, Jeff Steinbrenner, the town's new code enforcement officer, and Dan Lang, Town of Batavia code enforcement officer, who was hired by the Town of Le Roy to mentor Steinbrenner as he gets started in his new job.

Lang's recommendation to Steinbrenner is that the building be tagged ASAP as an unsafe structure under NYS Property and Maintenance Code, Section 107.

"My primary concern is that the building (be) sealed up tight so nobody gets in," Lang said. "The main issue is life safety for members of the community."

Next, the village should start the process of declaring the building a vacant structure, under NYS Fire Code Section 311.

Since there is no fire suppression system in place, as a vacant structure, the building would have to be cleared immediately of all combustible material. If the village still owns the building at that point, the village will need to pay for clean up of the interior.

Lang will discuss these points with the village board at its Wednesday meeting.

In Lang's personal opinion, he thinks restoration of the building will cost more than current estimates.

Fussell said he trusts the expert in the matter, Rich Hauser.

The condition of the building now wouldn't be much different than when Hauser examined it several months ago.

If another expert offered up an opinion that it would cost $3 million rather than $1 million, then Fussell said, his position on saving the Wiss would change. But he noted Hauser has a good deal of experience with restoration of buildings in as bad of shape as the Wiss, or worse.

With yesterday's freezing temperature, portions of stairs and floors were covered with ice, even on the second floor. On the third floor, a several square foot area was covered with about an inch-thick layer of ice.

"If it wasn't this cold, it would be drip, drip, drip, all the time," Lathan said at one point during the tour.

Tim Hens, an engineer who owns a neighboring building, said during an e-mail conversation this morning that for a full-effect tour, you really need to go in when the water isn't frozen and you hear water dripping everywhere.

While the ceilings are sagging, walking on the second and third floors yesterday didn't reveal any obvious weakness in the floors.

Hens said when there's no ice, the floors do feel squishy.

Hens wrote:

I think the only way anyone is going know whether it is structurally sound is to gut the place. That is the only way you would be able to see all the bearing walls and/or structural connections to see if there is any rotten/punky wood. In order to do that the asbestos would have to be remediated. It may be possible to save, but someone is going to have to put up about $60-80K just to find out if it can be saved.

The village has requested bids from contractors interested in tearing down the Wiss. Those sealed bids will be opened at 3 p.m., March 8, at the village hall.

Mayor Greg Rogers said if at that point, village trustees have enough information to proceed, the bids will be considered at the board's March 13 meeting.

Tom Spadaro has put an offer in writing, with conditions, to buy the Wiss property once the building is torn down for $125,000. Among Spadaro's conditions is that the ground be filled in and level and that any environmental issues be settled.

If the Wiss comes down, any future owner of the property won't be able to build on the current Wiss footprint, Lang said. The current Wiss structure is partially on a NYS DOT right of way.

Rogers said that at the March 13 meeting, if the trustees have enough information, he will ask for a motion on any one of the options available -- sell to the LLC, sell to Spadaro after the Wiss is destroyed, or take down the Wiss and keep the property for now.

For all of our previous coverage of the Wiss Hotel, click here.

Dan Fischer, owner and editorial director of WBTA, is broadcasting an editorial today that calls on the Batavia City Council to vote down a proposed ordinance to change how garbage is collected in the city.

The proposal has been contaminated by secrecy and heavy-handed tactics, Fischer says, so the process of deciding how garbage collection should be paid for and handled should start over.

Read the editorial by clicking here or listen to WBTA-AM today.

Lohud.com: N.Y. court rules to keeps teachers' pensions private

Parents in the Batavia City School District were informed tonight that a student at Batavia Middle School is being disciplined for bringing a BB gun to school.

It wasn't a rifle, it wasn't a handgun, it was a BB gun a student had a in backpack in his locker, Superintendent Christopher Dailey emphasized in an interview tonight.

"He didn't think it would be anything to worry about," Dailey said. "Unfortunately for him, it was a really bad choice. He didn't have it at school to hurt anyone or defend himself. He wanted to play with it after school. It was a random poor choice by a kid."

The search was initiated, Daily said, because school officials suspected the student may have brought tobacco to school.

The "random poor choice" by the student had landed the kid in Family Court, according to Batavia Police Chief Shawn Heubusch.

Heubusch confirmed tonight that school officials turned over to police a BB gun that was located in a student locker.

"Batavia school officials should be praised for their quick response to this incident," Heubusch said.

Dailey said school officials take issues like this seriously and his automated phone call tonight was aimed at keeping parents informed and designed to quell rumors about it possibly being a more serious matter.

"I felt it important to share because we don't have anything to hide," Dailey said.

In his message, Daily said, "Having a BB gun on school grounds is against district policy. The BB gun was turned over immediately to the Batavia City Police. The student was removed and will be held accountable according to our district code of conduct."

New York City-based Heavy.com, which bills itself as an entertainment Web site for men, apparently has developed an interest in who owns handguns in Genesee County.

Aaron Nobel, editor of Heavy.com, sent a request to Sheriff Gary Maha under New York's Freedom of Information Law on Jan. 25 asking for a database of all handgun permit holders in Genesee County.

Maha denied the request in Feb. 4 letter citing the SAFE Act, which placed a 120-day freeze on disclosure of handgun license information.

The moratorium is intended to give pistol permit holders an opportunity to file paperwork opting out of release of their permit information. The County Clerk's office has been besieged by gun owners seeking to block release of the information.

Nobel did not respond to e-mails from The Batavian with questions about the nature and reason for his publication's request.

The Batavian obtained Nobel's letter and Maha's response through its own FOIL request to the Sheriff's Office.

County Clerk Don Read informed members of the Genesee County Legislature on Tuesday of Heavy.com's request.

Read's office would be the proper agency to file a FOIL request for such data, and Read said once the 120-day moratorium expires, he can still withhold the information under FOIL exemptions for "an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" and "if disclosed could endanger the life or safety of any person."

If Read does oppose the release, he said he would expect the matter to be taken to court. Among the questions we asked Nobel that went unanswered is whether Heavy.com would pursue court action to try and force disclosure of the data.

Pistol permits should not be public record, Read told legislators.

"I don’t see why these people should be singled out any more than, say, give me a list of all the motor vehicle owned who have SUVs," Read said. "Motor vehicle records are considered confidential. We can’t give you any information on the number of vehicles registered in New York State or the names and addresses of motor vehicle registrants. I don't see why (gun owners) should be singled out."

Since Nobel did not respond to The Batavian, we don't know if he made the same request of other counties in the state.

While the SAFE Act was a knee-jerk reaction from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the opt-out provision of the law was drafted in response to a newspaper in Westchester County publishing an online map of pistol permit holders. The newspaper eventually succumbed to public pressure and removed the map from its site.

In his request, Nobel said, "I represent a news and information Web site that is seeking this information for news-gathering purposes" and said that release of the information was "in the public interest and will contribute significantly to the public's understanding of the prevalence and location of gun ownership within their communities."

A car struck a utility pole in the area of 4 Law St. about 10 minutes ago, causing a power outage in some parts of the city. The pole has high-tension wires and it's snapped in half. Traffic will be rerouted at Jackson and Chestnut streets and Law and Walnut streets. Unknown injuries. National Grid is notified, no ETA given. In some places, power went out and within, say, two minutes came back on again.

UPDATE 7:23 p.m.: National Grid is on scene.

UPDATE 7:31 p.m.: There were no injuries. The driver was a sign-off.

A man allegedly caught in the act of burglarizing a residence on Griswold Road in Le Roy Feb. 12, has been charged with five more burglaries in Stafford and Bergen.

Jeffrey J. Leaton, 22, of Caswell Road, Byron, was arraigned in Bergen Town Court today on five counts of burglary, 2nd, a Class C felony.

Leaton is accused of stealing jewelry and cash from two homes on Griswold Road, Stafford, and homes on West Bergen, Hunter and Peachey roads, Bergen.

The suspect remains jailed on $20,000 bail.

Today the YNGodess celebrates our 1st anniversary! We've been blessed with over 16,000 customers as we continue to grow. Our wine selection is unique and expanding weekly. We also support New York State wines with pride.

I'd like to thank the community and our friends for welcoming us and showing their support. It's been a beautiful experience getting to know everyone. I can't thank my wonderful staff enough, including my mom and sister, for all their continued hard work and customer service.

We'd also like to thank The Batavian for helping us grow our business over the past year.

Pictured above, from left, the YNGoddesss staff: Sandy Nixon, Theresa Kershner, Jack Kershner, Alisa Dickson. Not pictured: Jill Panipento, Amy Luckenbach, Denise Garrett.

Sandra Eileen Pawlukewicz, 46, of Gibson Street, Bergen, is charged with criminal possession of stolen property, 5th. Pawlukewicz was stopped at 4:26 p.m. Tuesday on Lake Road, Le Roy, by Deputy Matthew Butler. She was allegedly driving a vehicle with switched plates and a suspended license. The plates were later found to be stolen.

Jason Lee Perry, 18, of Telephone Road, Pavilion, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. Perry is accused of violating a court order by contacting a person he was ordered not to contact. Perry allegedly placed more than 100 phone calls to the person while at the Genesee County Jail.

A 17-year-old resident of Quinlan Road, Le Roy, is charged with petit larceny. The youth is accused of shoplifting from Kmart.

Jon Hoyt Bush, 29, of Oak Orchard Road, Elba, was arrested on a Family Court warrant out of Livingston County. Bush was taken into custody at the Sheriff's Office after Bush went to the office with another individual on an unrelated matter and Deputy Joseph Corona recognized Bush as a warrant suspect.

Press Release:

Genesee County will receive $5,435,095 in grant funding from the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, Office of Interoperable Communications to upgrade the county’s 800 MHz Public Safety Radio System. Legislature Chair Mary Pat Hancock was notified of the grant award in a letter dated Feb. 4, 2013, from the New York State Division of Homeland Security.

The funding will be used to upgrade the County’s Public Safety Radio System from an analog system to an interoperable digital system. Sheriff Gary T. Maha stated, “The upgrade is necessary to accommodate public safety radio coverage needs, radio tower sites, radio infrastructure, first responder notifications and subscriber radios. There have been some deficiencies in our current radio system which must be corrected.”

The grant funding is part of the $102 million recently awarded to counties through the Statewide Interoperable Communications Grant Program.  Genesee County’s application for this grant funding was submitted by the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office.

The Genesee County Legislature Ways and Means Committee, during its meeting on Feb. 20, 2013, recommended establishing a capital project for the radio system upgrade.

Buffalo News: 4 bucks a gallon? Gas pain is out of control

Here's Thomas Houseknecht's response to the letter from Jason Molino that we posted earlier:

UPDATE: We received this e-mail from Thomas Houseknecht this morning. I think Mr. Houseknecht's note at the top explains the need for the update. I'm not a fan of unpublishing something once it's published. Mr. Houseknecht's original e-mail is preserved after the jump (click on the headline); however, the new one is obviously the one that matters most.

After returning home from work late yesterday and reading Mr. Molino's response that I initially read on The Batavian, I too did not see all of the attachments. Having read them all minimally changes my response to withdraw my statements that my questions have not been answered. The text below is my response corrected after reading the other attachments:

Mr. Molino,

I appreciate the service you provide to our community and the difficulties you are faced with as you prepare a budget. As much as I appreciate the invitation to sit down with you and your staff to review numbers, this public letter you have written to me is puzzling and only adds to my discontent with the current refuse and budget proposal. It seems to have been written to once again praise the value of a user fee approach in an effort to mute the opposition in preparation for City Council’s vote on February 25. Unfortunately, as the City has handled this issue with little prior public input and as part of your overall budget proposal, I have had no alternative but to express my concerns through public comments and media postings. Your offer to discuss it at this late date seems disingenuous as it appears that there is little or no time for dialoging to, as you stated, “better communicate our intentions and goals for the City as it relates to refuse collection both now and in the future,” prior to the Council vote merely two business days away.    

In your response, you continue to make your case to impose a user fee and its merits as you see them verses the current means of both collecting refuse and paying for collection. I could make the same argument for school taxes, but both discussions are diversions from the discussion of the actual financial impact on the majority of city residents. In your responses, you draw conclusions that the majority of properties will see a reduction, but this does not necessarily support your conclusion that the majority of residents will save money. Commercial properties, who will be relieved of the costs of refuse collection, are not residents and they do not vote. It stands to reason that if the overall cost of the new program represents a savings of $300,000 to commercial properties and those with higher assessments will achieve a savings as well, that a program with a total savings of approximately $260,000 must be passing on an increase to the lowest valued properties in the city. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that this proposal will adversely affect the majority. I appreciate that you do recognize that failure to remove it from the property tax will cause Council to have to vote to exceed the property tax cap with the current budget as proposed.

My assumptions were simple and need no further explanation as they were arrived at through the City’s website postings, including the 2012 tax rolls. You have the best possible access to this data, yet you again present a biased view of the actual number of city residents who will effectively be paying more for their city services under your proposal. Your answers draw conclusions that once again skew the argument to the user fee. The fact sheet on the City’s website states that “close to 90 percent of city residents will save money under the proposed plan” in a comparison of the current program to a user fee program. At a recent Council meeting, you were quoted in the news media stating that 65 to 75 percent of residents will save money. Your most recent response to my questions as presented to City Council states that 56.4% of single family homes will save. Clearly, from your own statements, the percentage of homes that will save has changed throughout these proceedings. Please explain these statements to the residents of Hutchins St., Swan St., Kingsbury Ave., Lyon St., Tracy Ave., to name a few where the vast majority will pay more. Again I ask, what is the actual number of city residents that will pay more?

Your response to my e-mail to City Council, that I have just received for the first time, attempts to discredit my analysis of homes that will pay more by discounting those that are multi-family and rental properties. As these residents will also be impacted, is it fair to exclude them? Also, the Senior discount does not eliminate the fee, it merely lowers the break-even point. I believe this furthers the argument that the full impact has not been assessed. The misrepresentations in the City’s presentation cause me to further question some of your new assertions. 

Batavia has historically included refuse collection in the property tax.  Converting to a user fee may be desirable from a budget preparer’s standpoint, but it will adversely impact the majority of city residents. This simple fact must be recognized and be a part of the discussion. City management’s attempt to leave this fact out of the discussion is unacceptable and dishonest to me. It is possible that all of the numbers being discussed by both of us are thoroughly confusing to City residents.  Therefore, at the public hearing I asked Council, and will again ask Council to take the five following steps :

1. If you still have doubts about the analysis I have presented, have city management or an independent party review the tax roles and determine exactly how many residents will be adversely impacted. The 2012 assessment role is available on the city’s website for all to see.

2. Once you have completed your due diligence, vote against the change to the ordinance that is required to change the current refuse program to a user fee.

3. Find out why you were presented with bad information upon which to base your decision and take the appropriate actions to insure that it doesn’t happen again.

4. Take another look at the budget and cut unnecessary functions of city government.

5. Establish a refuse committee of citizens, which I would be happy to serve on, to look at how recycling could be increased or a PAYT system could be phased in with ARC as our provider in a manner that would truly benefit all residents.

In closing, I would like to reiterate that I appreciate the difficult job you have in preparing and implementing a budget for the City of Batavia, especially when faced with NY’s property tax cap. I simply ask that all of the facts be presented in a fair, honest and concise manner before our council members are asked to put their reputations on the line with their votes.

Sincerely,
Thomas Houseknecht

Original e-mail replaced by the revised one.

Mr. Molino,

I appreciate the service you provide to our community and the difficulties you are faced with as you prepare a budget. As much as I appreciate the invitation to sit down with you and your staff to review numbers, this public letter you have written to me is puzzling and only adds to my discontent with the current refuse and budget proposal. It seems to have been written to once again praise the value of a user fee approach without answering any of the questions or concerns I have raised in an effort to mute the opposition in preparation for City Council’s vote on February 25. Unfortunately, as the City has handled this issue with little prior public input and as part of your overall budget proposal, I have had no alternative but to express my concerns through public comments and media postings. Your offer to discuss it at this late date seems disingenuous as it appears that there is little or no time for dialoging  to,  as you stated, “better communicate our intentions and goals for the City as it relates to refuse collection both now and in the future,” prior to the Council vote merely two business days away.   

You opened your letter stating that you were responding to my questions, but you did not respond to any of them. You simply make your case to impose a user fee and its’ merits as you see them verses the current means of both collecting refuse and paying for collection. I could make the same argument for school taxes, but both discussions are diversions from the discussion of the actual financial impact on the majority of city residents. This statement of your reasoning for the conversion does not answer the question as to whether this proposal will adversely affect the majority nor does it answer the question as to whether it attempts to get around a vote on the city’s property tax cap, as I have asserted.

My assumptions were simple and need no further explanation as they were arrived at through the City’s website postings, including the 2012 tax rolls. You have the best possible access to this data, yet you again fail to reveal the actual number of city residents who will effectively be paying more for their city services under your proposal. If you use the average assessments quoted in your response, any reasonable person would agree that it is dishonest to make the case that the majority of residents will save money under the proposed system. Yet the fact sheet on the City’s website states that “close to 90 percent of city residents will save money under the proposed plan.” At a recent Council meeting, you were quoted in the news media stating that 65 to 75 percent of residents will save money. Your most recent response to my questions as presented to City Council states that 56.4% of single family homes will save. Clearly, from your own statements, the percentage of homes that will save has changed throughout these proceedings. Please explain these statements to the residents of Hutchins St., Swan St., Kingsbury Ave., Lyon St., Tracy Ave., to name a few where the vast majority will pay more. Again I ask, what is the actual number of city homes that will pay more?

Your response to my email to City Council, that I have just received for the first time, attempts to discredit my analysis of homes that will pay more by discounting those that are multi-family and rental properties. As these residents will also be impacted, is it fair to exclude them? Also, the Senior discount does not eliminate the fee, it merely lowers the breakeven point.  I believe this furthers the argument that the full impact has not been assessed. The misrepresentations in the City’s presentation cause me to further question some of your new assertions, especially the one where you state that all properties under $77,200 will benefit with lower costs. If the City has to live within the 2% property tax cap, the break-even point becomes $85,600.

Batavia has historically included refuse collection in the property tax.  Converting to a user fee may be desirable from a budget preparer’s standpoint, but it will adversely impact the majority of city residents. This simple fact must be recognized and be a part of the discussion. City management’s attempt to leave this fact out of the discussion is unacceptable and dishonest to me. It is possible that all of the numbers being discussed by both of us are thoroughly confusing to City residents.  Therefore, at the public hearing I asked Council, and will again ask Council to take the five following steps :

1. If you still have doubts about the analysis I have presented, have city management or an independent party review the tax roles and determine exactly how many residents will be adversely impacted. The 2012 assessment role is available on the city’s website for all to see.

2. Once you have completed your due diligence, vote against the change to the ordinance that is required to change the current refuse program to a user fee.

3. Find out why you were presented with bad information upon which to base your decision and take the appropriate actions to insure that it doesn’t happen again.

4. Take another look at the budget and cut unnecessary functions of city government.

5. Establish a refuse committee of citizens, which I would be happy to serve on, to look at how recycling could be increased or a PAYT system could be phased in with ARC as our provider in a manner that would truly benefit all residents.

In closing, I would like to reiterate that I appreciate the difficult job you have in preparing and implementing a budget for the City of Batavia, especially when faced with NY’s property tax cap. I simply ask that all of the facts be presented in a fair, honest and concise manner before our council members are asked to put their reputations on the line with their votes.
Sincerely,
Thomas Houseknecht