Topics discussed at the final meeting of the Ramble Fest committee on Monday ranged from a guitar raffle to the introduction of a child-friendly area.

The organizers noted that a raffle for an acoustic electric guitar is made possible by the generosity of Roxy’s Music Store. They expressed concern about the potential for families not to show up during the July 4th weekend. But they are jazzed about the introduction the Ramble KidZone.

The zone will host a wide variety of activities just for kids, including, but not limited to, bubble art, a bounce house, face painting, a portable tennis game, and an appearance from the Muckdogs mascot.

According to committee member Kim Argenta, the KidZone will be present so that kids can have a good time and celebrate art.

Fellow committee member Sue Gagne came up with the idea, believing it would keep the Ramble Fest more family-oriented.

The Ramble KidZone will be open at the City Church parking lot from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 3.

The Ramble Arts & Music Fest, featuring performances from The Ghost Riders, Penny Whiskey, and more, will take place at Jackson Square from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 3. More information can be found at www.ramblemusic.com.

Assemblyman Steve Hawley issued the following news release today after Albany passed its 11th "budget extender."

“After two and half months, and 11 emergency budget extenders, New Yorkers are still without a state budget. In that time, we’ve seen our schools, local governments, contractors, state parks, and small businesses left in jeopardy as their fates have been left in the hands of weekly budget extenders.

"Although the ‘good’ that has come out of these extenders includes the reopening of state parks, some contractual obligations being met, school districts receiving their state aid, and other essential state services remaining open, the ‘good’ has without a doubt come with plenty of ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ costs.

“The bad consists of the simple fact that since April 1, the more than $9 billion budget gap has hardly been addressed. Instead, the most recent extenders have raised fees by nearly $4 million, raided $80 million from the Environmental Protection Fund, and introduced ‘savings,' rather than make the real cuts that are needed.

Additionally, this process does not allow schools, local governments, and businesses with state contracts to formulate their own budgets. Even uglier, because of the lack of a transparent budget process, the ‘three men in a room’ may close these budget shortfalls with more taxes, more state borrowing, and even more of the special-interest-driven backroom deals that put our state in this fiscal crisis to begin with.

“These budget extenders are simply laying the framework for another over-bloated state budget to be passed through a piecemeal process. I again voted against the budget extenders and ask that my colleagues in the Assembly and Senate majorities open up the budget process, allow needed input from rank-and-file members, and see to it that it is passed immediately.”

Most viewed posts for May:

• Scott Doll accused of promoting prison contraband
• Police: Abduction story fabricated
• Hawley votes against 'anti-Second Amendment' bill, by Billie Owens
• Fight reported at the carnival
• Oakfield man accidentally shot by father while hunting turkeys
• Historic building on Swan Street ablaze, by Billie Owens
• Scott Doll murder trial verdict: Guilty
• Juror in Scott Doll trial responds to verdict critics, discusses difficult deliberations
• Incumbents win school board election, budget passes
• Batavia police continuing investigation into baseball-bat attack on State Street

May was also a record traffic month across the board (though, June is on track to easily swamp it):

Unique visitors: 46,100
Visitors: 202,096
Page Views: 366,376

The fundraising practices of Congressman Chris Lee, are being examined by the House Ethics Committee.

From the Buffalo News:

The Office of Congressional Ethics this month sent letters to banking lobbyists, seeking information about their fundraising contacts with Lee and the other lawmakers, a mix of Democrats and Republicans who serve on the House Financial Services or Ways and Means committees.

The letter to lobbyists, which was first reported Monday afternoon by a Capitol Hill newspaper called The Hill, did not name any specific charges against the lawmakers and identified the probe as a “preliminary review.”

Lee, a first-term Republican, told the News that he has "nothing to hide," adding, “The more accountable and transparent we can be, the better off things will be in the long term.”

He said he's cooperated fully with the investigation.

Since the beginning of 2009, the committee has started 48 ethics probes and 22 of those were dropped in their preliminary stages.

Six other lawmakers are also being investigated.

If people in the Town of Batavia want public water, they are going to have to let it be known and help lobby for grant money, according to town officials.

Government tests on private wells show there is contamination of varying degrees, which is, of course, unhealthy. The arduous process of getting loans and grants approved to extend public water lines calls for a united, consistent effort to make it happen, says Town Engineer Steve Mountain.

"We at the town can only do so much," Mountain said. "We are no further along than before but we have all the necessary information."

There are meetings planned with officials at all levels of government, regulatory agencies and scientists. Grant applications were sent to the USDA three months ago, but perhaps due to a backlog of applications in a sluggish economy, there's no word yet on the status.

Without grants, estimated annual water costs for residents would be:

• Creek/East Roads -- $1,190
• Pratt Road -- $1,982
• Wortendyke Road -- $2,230
• Batavia northeast of Rte. 98 -- $1,940
• Batavia northwest of Rte. 98 -- $1,667.

Estimated costs with grants would average of $750 per year per household in the water districts.

A Batavia Town Board Meeting is at 7 tonight and residents are encouraged to attend to learn more about the well contamination problem, what is being done about it and to let their wishes be known regarding establishing public water districts.

If they want to continue working to bring public water to the area, they need to step it up and if there's a lack of interest, say so, Mountain said.

To move ahead, a resident from each proposed water district will need to circulate a legal petition in order to proceed. The legal approval process can take anywhere from a few months to two years.

In addition, Mountain said he encourages residents to send letters to county, state and federal officials.

The short list would include Congressman Chris Lee, senators Mike Ransenhofer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Charles Schumer, Assemblyman Steve Hawley and the Genesee County Legislature.

The area of initial concern regarding well-water quality was State Street, Batavia-Elba Townline and Bank Street roads and tests in this area were funded by the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Testing was eventually done on all private wells, and the additional testing was paid for the town.

Fourteen out of 38 well tested positive for bacteria and 12 out of 13 had elevated nitrate levels between 0.05 parts per million (ppm) and 9.99 ppm. One out of 13 had nitrate levels greater than or equal to 10 ppm.

One of Genesee County's multiple meth lab suspects is back in federal custody after allegedly violating pre-trial release conditions.

Matthew J. Long, 20, of 36 Main St., Le Roy, is a suspect in the alleged meth lab found at 28 Clay St., Le Roy.

He was taken into custody yesterday by Le Roy Police on a U.S. District Court warrant after being spotted walking on West Main Street, Le Roy.

Following his arrest by Det. John Condidorio and Sgt. Timothy Hayes, he was turned over to U.S. Marshals.

Joshua John King, 21, of 42 Genesee St., Attica, is charged with harassment, 2nd. King is accused of using his account on Facebook to send threatening messages to another Facebook member.

William D. Hirsch III, 23, of 11025 Buckman Road, Bethany, is charged with burglary, 2nd, criminal contempt, 1st, and stalking, 4th. Hirsch is accused of showing up at the house of a protected person and entering and staying without permission with the intent to stalk that person. He's also accused of sending text messages to that person, whom he was ordered not to contact. He allegedly caused that person to fear for his or her safety. He was jailed on $10,000 bail.

Philip M. Niccloy, 23 of 75 Summit St., Le Roy, is charged assault, 2nd. Niccloy allegedly punched another person in the face, causing extended pain, numbness and diminished eye sight and multiple fractions of the victim's facial bones. He was jailed on $2,000 bail.

Andre Leigh Little, 21, of Ham Road, Alabama, is charged with petit larceny. Little allegedly stole three pre-paid phone cards from the TA Travel Plaza.

Jasmine Lynn Oliver, 20, of Water Street, Attica, is charged with petit larceny. Oliver was taken into custody on a bench warrant out of Niagara County.

We're starting farmers market and road-side stand season, so good fresh fruits and vegetables will be bountiful (can't wait for the sweet corn to arrive). Yesterday, the farmers market at Batavia Downs opened. Tomorrow, the downtown public market at Center and Ellicott will open.

Sandra Cassandra sells a bag of cherries to David Hiscutt.

A vehicle is reported to have struck a tree on Pearl Street near Williams Park. City fire and a BLS ambulence are responding. The driver needs to be evaluated for injuries.

UPDATE (by Howard): Driver not injured, just shaken up. No further details available yet.

Somewhere in the City of Batavia a critter is stuck under something and the police are on their way to the rescue.

The cop says to dispatch he's going to help "Rocky the Racoon...the usuals can wait."

It's about priorities...when nothing more important is pending, of course.

Sorry, didn't catch the place, nor the object under which Rocky is stuck.

(Revised at 3:49 p.m.)

If the Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster -- who's been the lead investigator on the Bill Fickel murder for five years -- is going to make a case against "person of interest" Steven Patrick Rebert, it seems like he's got a lot of work ahead of him.

"In order to arrest someone, you need probable cause, you need more than a mere suspicion," Brewster said this morning. "Do we have probable cause at this point? Absolutely not."

Yesterday, in an interview with WBTA 1490, Brewster said there are some tantalizing coincidences that make Rebert a person of interest following his arrest on a double homicide charge in Jefferson County, Pa.

"There are some commonalities that would make a prudent person go, 'um, I wonder if this is something there we should be looking at,'" Brewster said.

Those commonalities might include (our own list, not from Chief Brewster):

• Rebert knew Fickel. They went to the same high school, but it is not known whether they attended it at the same time.
• The two men lived less than a mile apart in 2005 (Fickel on Burns Road, Rebert on East Shelby Road);
• Both Fickel and the homicide victims in Pennsylvania -- James and Victoria Shugar -- were shot to death;
• Pennsylvannia investigators say Rebert was doing computer searchs on the murders of the Shugars, Bill Fickel and Kevin Smith (Smith was killed in 2007 in Orleans County and Rebert is now considered a person of interest in that case as well).
• Fickel was killed with a 30-30 and Rebert reportedly told investigators in Pennsylvania that the only gun he owned was a 30-30;
• For the last five years of his life, Fickel worked as a cable installer with Time-Warner; at the time of his arrest, Rebert was a contractor for Zito Media installing fiber optics. There's no information that Rebert ever worked at TW.
• Both men enjoyed hunting.

Those commonalities are mostly coincidences that certainly don't tie Rebert to the Fickel murder. The two most intriguing coincidences are that Rebert knew Fickel and that Fickel was reportedly doing internet news searches on the Fickel murder.

Knowing somebody, however, isn't a crime, and Rebert could simply have been checking for an update on the death of somebody he knew (though reports indicate Rebert was pretty obessively seeking out news reports on the Shugar murders).

Coincidences, also, don't establish probable cause. There also needs to be evidence.

Such as the DNA found at the scene of the Fickel murder. It's DNA that doesn't match Fickel, and no match has ever been found in the national criminal database.

Pennsylvania State Police will likely obtain a sample of Rebert's DNA, and if it matches the sample Brewster has tagged as evidence, it would likely place Rebert at the scene the night of the murder.

But putting Rebert at the scene, Brewster was quick to point out, doesn't mean Rebert is the killer.

"A match itself is not probable cause," Brewster said. "Just putting you at the scene doesn't mean you where the one who pulled the trigger."

Brewster has long suspected there were two people at 5820 Burns Road when Bill Fickel walked out onto his driveway at 7:55 p.m., Nov. 10, 2005, because a flatbed truck had just arrived and Bill and Lisa thought somebody was there to look at a van they had for sale.

Finding just one of those two people, even if the person identified didn't pull the trigger, would be a big break in the case.

Brewster is naturally reluctant to discuss details of other evidence that might be used in building probable cause, but it's obvious that finding the murder weapon would also be a big break in the case.

Rebert was arrested in Genesee County on June 3 on a weapons charge (he was allegedly carrying a switchblade knife).

Last Friday, Rebert waived extradition back to Pennsylvania, where he was arrested and charged with charged with two counts of criminal homicide, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of burglary.

When he waived extradition, only a mind reader would know if he realized he was going to face murder charges. The waiver affidavit charged him only with manufacturing/delivery/possession of a controlled substance and a small amount of marijuana for personal use, though he had been questioned in the murder investigation on April 25.

A motor-vehicle accident is reported on Swan Street, just off Ellicott. A male is reporting back and neck pain. City fire and Mercy EMS are responding.

Do you know any of the men in this photo? Researcher and historian Teunis Schuurman from the Netherlands is trying to identify all the men, who were aboard a plan believed to have crashed in his hometown during World War II. He believes S/Sgt. Joseph Deffner, from Batavia, is in the front row, but isn't entirely sure which man he is. He's hoping for help in identifying him as well as finding out as much information about him as possible. Teunis can be reached at teun.pats@gmail.com.

There are too many gang members in New York, in Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's view, and she wants to do something about it.

Today, Gillibrand announced a sweeping piece of legislation that she's co-sponsoring called the Youth PROMISE Act.

The act will:

... help keep children from joining gangs and fight gang-related crime. The legislation would draw on recommendations from a broad range of community leaders and experts to develop effective policies to prevent children from joining gangs and break up existing gangs.

Specifically, communities facing the greatest youth gang and crime challenges would initiate a coordinated response from law enforcement, court services, schools, social services, health and mental-health providers, and community-service and faith-based organizations.

Gillibrand said there are 50,000 gang members in New York, including 4,000 in WNY.

The specific measures proposed in the legislation:

Arm Law Enforcement with Resources to Fight Gang Activity, Drug Crime
Senator Gillibrand is cosponsoring the Gang Abatement and Prevention Act of 2009. The legislation toughens penalties for gang-related offenses, creates High Intensity Gang Activity Areas (HIGAAs) structured to target areas where gang activity is prevalent, authorizes federal grants through the Office of Justice Programs for gang prevention and intervention, initiates a national commission to develop effective gang and crime prevention strategies, and authorizes the Attorney General to expand the Project Safe Neighborhoods Program and the Safe Streets Program.

Additionally, the legislation launches an anti-heroin media campaign to educate the public about the dangers of heroin use, and the drug’s ability to destroy lives, families and entire communities.

Restore Funding for Safe and Drug Free Schools
Senator Gillibrand is fighting to restore funding cuts to state grants administered through the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. Last year, the Obama Administration was forced to eliminate grants for state governments that funded anti-drug programs in local school districts – a total of $295 million annually.  

Senator Gillibrand is gathering support from senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Thad Cochran (R-MS), chairman and ranking member of the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee to restore this funding in the FY2011 Appropriations Bill.

Maintain Funding for Drug Free Communities Grant Program
Senator Gillibrand is also lobbying Senators Durbin and Collins to keep funding for the Drug Free Communities Grant Program for FY2011 – and fight a $9.5 million proposed funding cut for the program that provides community-based anti-drug coalitions to keep children, families and communities safe.

Fully Fund the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program
Senator Gillibrand is lobbying senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Susan Collins (R-MA), chairman and ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, to fully fund HIDTA in FY2011 – and fight a proposed 12-percent funding cut.

The HIDTA program gives local law enforcement agencies the resources they need to mount coordinated anti-drug efforts. Last year, Senator Gillibrand worked with Senator Schumer to secure HIDTA funding to fight drug crime in Clinton, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties.

Two photos that were first published on The Batavian will represent Genesee County in a statewide contest aimed at finding photos that showcase New York's landscapes and landmarks.

The winners of the Genesee County stage of the contest were announced by County Legislature Chairwoman Mary Pat Hancock today.

The winners are "Barn Storm - LeRoy, NY" by Le Roy resident Darrick Coleman and "Old Courthouse at Sunset" by Batavia resident Howard Owens.

The Coleman photo is being submitted in the landscape category and the photo from Owens is in the landmark category.

The contest is sponsored by the New York State Association of Counties.

Genesee County received more than two dozen submissions from about 12 photographers.

For more on Coleman, here's a video Philip Anselmo made about him in 2008. For more of Darrick's photography, click here.

Chad E. Heideman, 35, of 10540 Roosevelt Highway, Lyndonville, is charged with criminal contempt. At about 1:40 a.m., Le Roy Police responded to a report that Heideman was at the residence of a woman in Le Roy. There is reportedly a order of protection in place barring Heideman from having contact with that woman. Heideman was jailed on $1,000 bail.

On a hot, humid summer Monday, the Legislature's Public Services Committee spent 15 minutes talking about keeping the snow off of county roads.

It may be June, but now is the time to plan the purchase of salt -- or sodium chloride -- to spread on winter roads.

The committee approved the purchase of rock salt from American Rock Salt out of Hampton Corners for $40.16 a ton, up 40 cents from last year.

American Rock Salt beat out the only other bidder, North American Salt Company, which bid $70.48 per ton.

None of the other four companies that were invited to bid have done so.

County Supervisor Tim Hens said the lack of bids might be due to the fact that the other companies know it will be hard to beat American Rock Salt's bid because ARS is located so close to Genesee County. Or maybe they're anticipating a lot of sales to the northeast and Washington, D.C. after the snow-heavy winter those areas endured last winter.

"We're lucky to be located where we are in terms of salt mines," Hens said.

Because it was a mild winter in Western New York, Hens said the county currently has its salt barn about one-third full, which should cut down on the amount of salt the county must  purchase this year.

The county budgeted $115,000 for rock salt this year.

When you attend a Batavia Muckdogs game at Dwyer Stadium, if you think you're there to watch a baseball game, you've missed at least 65 percent of the reason to be there on a warm summer night.

The main reason to be at Dwyer is the people the stands -- your neighbors, friends and family -- and if you don't know anybody, just start talking, you'll soon make a new friend.

Bill Kauffman writes a lovely tribute to his friend Dennis Bowler for the Front Porch Republic, St. Dennis of the Bleachers.

The home opener for the Muckdogs is Saturday.  I hope to see you there.