A bicyclist has been struck by a car at Ellicott Street Road and Swan Street.
The victim is still down and reportedly bleeding from his head.
Batavia Fire and Mercy EMS have been dispatched.
UPDATE: Patient transported by ground ambulance to UMMC. Fire and police clear scene.
A large field is reportedly on fire in Texaco Town and Pavilion Fire Department is responding, as is Town of Batavia.
The location is Route 20 west of Route 63, or Route 63 south of Route 20, into Bethany's fire district.
The responders say the area is the same one wherein the property owner has been notified not to conduct open burning.
A possible brush fire has been reported in the area of Route 5 and Lovers Lane Road, near the Thruway overpass, Pembroke.
East Pembroke and Indian Falls fire have been dispatched.
UPDATE 4:46 p.m.: Address now given as 717 Route 5, across from Pembroke Bait and Tackle.
UPDATE 4:56 p.m.: Alabama is being dispatched for additional manpower. The Akron brush truck has been requested. The fire is reportedly not near a structure, but moving toward a structure.
Overlooking the lake plain from Mudrzynski's Hill in Oakfield
On Oak Orchard Creek at this time of year it is nearly impossible to distinguish the main channel from flooded backwaters
Placid-looking surface belies a strong current
Conifer swamp beyond the power line
At first glance this seems to be nothing more than a reflective image, but a closer look reveals...
beavers constructed their lodge around the trunk of a black willow
Here the beaver has girdled cottonwoods
Apparently the beavers have a taste for wild cherry as well
Tuesday morning, 6 a.m., March 30th, if the pic's a bit blurry....so was the photographer, he hadn't had his coffee yet, but thought you might like to see the "cinnamon moon"
The Union Hotel in Corfu was built in 1828 and was once a stagecoach stop for travelers. It looms near the main junction in the village and was recently painted charcoal.
Shayne Poodry bought the hotel at an auction last fall and has been busy sprucing it up. It already had a popular bar and bowling alley inside. Now it has a restaurant and a banquet room, too.
Upstairs there’s a dance hall and the owner’s quarters. He’s had workers helping him with renovations and at least one unseen “guest,” maybe more.
People say it’s haunted. It certainly looks like it could be. Poodry just knows weird things happen at his place.
He remembers hearing stories about it growing up, but that was neither here nor there when the opportunity came along to buy it.
He soon found out his TV could turn on by itself. Once he got out of bed in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and when he came back to bed, the television in the corner of his office was on.
“I never leave the TV on,” he said. “I was taught that -- you know when you’re growing up and the ol’ man says ‘turn off the lights, you’re wasting money.’ So I always make sure it’s turned off.”
Maybe even he could leave the TV on once -- but twice, no way.
“I was watching TV in bed one night, and just as soon as the lady says ‘Jay Leno is next,' and they start playing the music, when he does his monologue, the TV in the office turns on,” he recalled.
It was unsettling, made him think “What’s going on here?”
Another time, he was doing renovation work with a young helper and both of them heard a door slam mighty hard.
“Like the guy was mad at his ol’ lady and got up and slammed the door shut,” Poodry said.
Through a friend, he found out about a group of paranormal researchers in Buffalo who team up with a guy named John Crocitto to scout out strange phenomena. Crocitto has a radio program “Beyond Ghosts,” which is described as an “interactive paranormal radio show."
A Web production of paranormal happenings at the Union Hotel is in production. It will be unveiled Saturday, April 10, during a paranormal exploration event at the hotel with Beyond Ghosts. All are welcome.
Not long ago, Crocitto was invited to the Union Hotel with a couple of his colleagues to explain what he does at places like the Union and why. As for Poodry, he’s ambivalent about the whole ghost thing, but does see some marketing opportunities!
Crocitto’s cool with that, but he’s more interested in seeing “if there’s really an afterlife.” He thinks the universe to so complex, that anything is possible, including inexplicable fluctuations of electromagnetic fields and happenings that transcend or defy our limited understanding.
On a tour of the hotel, we climbed the creaky staircase and peered into all the little rooms and then went into the huge ballroom. That’s where they keep remodeling hardware for the time being. It was poorly lit and none too welcoming, but there were no odd occurrences. And least not upstairs.
A whoosh, BLAM is heard downstairs. The bartender rushes to close the front door, which is seldom used because most people enter at the side door, where the bar is.
“The door just opened and slammed by itself!” she exclaims, shaking her head. “I’m telling you, strange things happen here.”
Crocitto proceeds to educate us about the paranormal, which simply means “outside of normal.” He says:
Things don’t have to be old or dead to be haunted; objects can contain the spiritual energy of the person who owned it.
Some ghosts are “residual,” they are like a “looped tape” that keeps playing over and over whether you are there to see it or not. Like a woman who walks across the room, she just keeps repeating the same action nonstop.
Some instances are known as "intelligent haunting," like a TV turning itself on, in which a paranormal occurrence seems to be specifically aimed at someone.
There is no set of rules or scientific proof in researching the paranormal. Most people who take it seriously don’t claim to know what’s it all about or why strange things happen, nor do they necessarily care.
They simply enjoy the hunt and the process of capturing clues with infrared cameras and high-tech tape recorders, etc., afforded nowadays.
Ghost hunters, for lack of a better term, don’t try to “convince” people that such things are paranormal. They are sincere and serious about checking out reports of paranormal activity. It wouldn’t be fun or interesting to fake this stuff, they said. Just like deep-sea exploring for sunken treasure, they do it for the thrill of the hunt and, just maybe, the find.
“We were in the Buffalo train station, which is definitely haunted,” Crocitto said. “I was sitting down and all of a sudden my lap got cold and I heard a child’s voice say ‘hello.’ It gives me chills just thinking about it.”
He played the audio recording. It sounded cavernous, tinny, picking up the sounds of nothing but fidgeting. Then a breathy, whispery child’s voice utters “hello.”
Later we sat at a table in the banquet room, described as “ground zero” for odd occurrences at the Union Hotel. With only the glow of computer screens for light Crocitto, his cohort, Ryan Willard, and techie Brandon Bristow show a video.
It was shot in complete darkness with a stationary infrared camera focused on of the end of a hallway near a staircase. If you look very carefully, you see a shapeless, shadowy mass dart across from right to left.
In a still picture, shot at a mansion in WNY, Willard shows the transparent image of a young boy with a Dutch Boy haircut dressed in old-fashioned clothes standing in front of a tall window.
“It isn’t voodoo,” Crocitto said, in answer to a question about dabbling in the occult. “And I don’t see it conflicting with my spiritual beliefs. I’m Roman Catholic. I don’t think the paranormal is occult, of the Devil. But I’m not afraid of the Devil anyway … bring it on. The Lord protects me.”
This from a man who is a trained scientist, a biologist (who’s seen his share of ghoulish sights in the laboratory and the morgue).
“Most scientists I know believe in God,” Crocitto said.
Willard agrees.
“It would be really depressing if they didn’t,” Willard said.
Kristen Anderson catches a Frisbee tossed by her friend Steve Martino (below) while they were out enjoying the sun at Centennial Park this afternoon with their friends Lauren Rohan and Katie Porter (not pictured) and dogs Tucker and Milo.
Above, Ian Fuchs, 7, helps with the family car wash on State Street.
An unidentified bicyclist tooling down Washington Avenue.
The law is on the lookout for a white male wanted on a warrant. Batavia City Police and Sheriff's Deputies have set up a parameter search in the area of State and North streets and Fairmont Avenue.
No further information is available at this time.
UPDATE (12:35 p.m.): The subject of the manhunt is wanted for allegedly violating his probation following his conviction for burglary in the second degree. A helicopter is requested to help in the search.
UPDATE 12:48 p.m. (by Howard): The Sheriff's Office has identified the suspect as Christopher A. Laird, who has been on the county's very short wanted list since Feb. 2. He's been spotted in the city a couple of times recently, including today. Laird is not considered dangerous. If spotted, witnesses should call 345-3000.
UPDATE 1:17 p.m.: A witness informed law enforcement a short time ago that an 18- to19-year-old wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt ran through his yard "looking scared" about 45 minutes ago. That was on State Street. The search is moving southeast.
UPDATE 1:32 p.m.: Police and Sheriff's units are calling off the search, going back in service.
John P. Vanderzell, 62, of 9732 Summit Street Road, Le Roy, is charged with DWI and aggravated DWI (driving with a BAC of .08 or greater). Vanderzell was reportedly observed at a store in Le Roy by Sgt. Michael J. Hare in an intoxicated condition. Sgt. Hare then reportedly observed Vanderzell get into his car and drive away. Sgt. Hare stopped Vanderzell and arrested him for alleged DWI.
Kyle B. Bacon, 19, of 679 E. Main St., Apt. 4C and Ryan T. Nugent, 19, same address, are charged with unlawful possession of alcohol by a person under 21. Batavia Police were dispatched to 679 E. Main St., Apt. 4C to check a report of underage drinking. Upon arriving, police allegedly found Bacon and Nugent in possession of alcohol.
Robert L. Drozdowski, 28, of 15 Washington St., Castile, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. Drozdowski was reportedly issued a stay away order out of City Court, which he allegedly violated by contacting the subject person by leaving voicemails on the person's mobile phone.
Accidents reported on the State Police blotter:
2:04 p.m., March 31, Boyce Road, Pembroke, one vehicle; Driver 1: Daniel M. Johnston, 58, of Corfu. No injuries reported.
There are possible injuries in a car accident at Main in Liberty in Batavia.
The driver is reportedly pregnant and there are children in the car.
City Fire and Mercy EMS responding.
UPDATE: Only minor injuries reported.
The Batavian set new records in the three key Web traffic stats we watch.
Unique visitors doesn't necessarily translate into X number of people. The tools that measure Web traffic can only count computers. One person may use two different computers to visit the site in a month, or two people may share the same computer. But it is a close approximation of number of people who visited the site.
Visits accounts for all the times that people visited the site in the month. One unique visitor can account for several visits.
Page Views are the number of times a page of the site is downloaded into a Web browser window.
The previous records:
Thank you all for your support.
Here's the most viewed posts for March:
A truck hit a utility pole in the area of 1254 Bloomingdale Road, Alabama.
A transformer may have been knocked down. There are wires on the roadway and Bloomingdale is now closed.
There is also fluid on the ground.
Alabama Fire is responding.
UPDATE: Reportedly, a semi-truck with trailer hit the pole. It reportedly also hit a structure, possibly a house. It then reportedly left the scene.
Seven or eight trucks carrying wide loads, along with multiple escort vehicles, passed through Batavia on Main Street this morning.
At about 11:30, traffic was tied up between Ellicott and Oak streets, as at least four police cars were used to block traffic, allowing the convoy to pass safely along the route.
The trucks appeared to be hauling windmill parts.
Genesee County Clerk Don Read holds up one of the new New York license plates, which are now available.
Unlike the original plan, switching to the new plate is not mandatory, and just because you register your new vehicle, doesn't mean you will get the blue and gold plate. Unless requested, according to Read, the old Empire State plates will be given out until there are none left (that's them on the shelves behind Read).
People who want the new plate when it's time to renew their vehicle registration, can request a pair.
However, vehicle owners with "County Clerk Plates" (GS, BA and 7H series) will have to wait until the current supply of those Empire Plates are used up. The State isn't sending out county plates until current supplies ares are depleted.
Read, a history buff, said he likes the plates' retro design.
"A lot of people don't like them," Read said. "I think they're nice."
For many New Yorkers who lost their jobs near the start of the recession nearly two years ago, this could be a terrifying week.
Unemployment benefits cannot be extended past 99 weeks, and for 46,000 New Yorkers, those 99 weeks are up.
Figures for how many Genesee County residents might be effected are not immediately available, but the Democrat and Chronicle reports that 2,100 Rochester-area residents will be losing their benefits this week.
In each of the following weeks, more and more people will see their benefits expire.
Last year, Congress extended the previous 26 weeks of benefits to 99 weeks, but officials are not expecting another extension.
State Labor officials are encouraging people who are losing benefits to visit the state's "My Benefits" site and complete a five-minute self-assessment of income and family situation to determine what other government aid might be available.
Potential assistance includes food stamps, health benefits, school lunch programs and other government programs.
Officials are also encouraging unemployed workers to reach out to job centers in the state, such as the one on East Main in Batavia, which can help with job-search tasks.
The latest figures from the Department of Labor put Genesee County's unemployment rate at 9.1 percent. The state's rate is 9.3 percent, while the rate nationally is 10.4 percent.
UPDATE: Jeanne Ianita, business services representative for the Department of Labor in Batavia, called with the local numbers. On the week ending March 28, 98 people in Genesee County lost their benefits. Over the next three weeks, unemployment payments will stop for another 19 people.
Below is a video produced by the State Department of Labor:
Sath Paul Dhanda, 29, of 5458 Clapsaddle Road, Bethany, is charged with criminal mischief, 4th. Dhanda was arrested at 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, after his mother phoned in a complaint about him allegedly breaking items in her home. Dhanda was allegedly drunk. He reportedly threw a sewing machine and knocked over two television sets. He was jailed on $5,000 bail. This is the fourth time Dhanda has been arrested since October.
Farah St. Cloud, 18, of 1196 Lake Ave., #2, Rochester, is charged with disorderly conduct. St. Cloud is accused of engaging in violent and threatening behavior by attempting to fight with other residents at College Village. During the 3 a.m. incident, St. Cloud reportedly had to be held back by roommates and College Village staff.
Joshua Cordero McIver, 22, of 130 3rd Ave., Apt. 18H, Brooklyn, is charged with criminal trespass, 3rd. McIver was reportedly at College Village after being banned from the property.
Ricky A. Marsceill, 45, of Batavia, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater and aggravated unlicensed operation. Marsceill was stopped by State Police at 11:10 p.m., Tuesday, on Route 33 in Stafford.
Justin M. Quaintance, 18, of Bergen, is charged with grand larceny, 3rd. Quaintance was arrested Tuesday by State Police on charges that stem from a Sept. 26 incident. No further details were released.
Tanya M. Tomlin, 41, of Batavia, is charged with petit larceny and criminal impersonation, 2nd. Tomlin is accused of shoplifting from Kmart at 12:55 p.m., Tuesday. She was arrested by State Police.
Jeffery D. Appleberry, 33, of Rochester, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. Appleberry was stopped by State Police on the Thruway in Stafford at 10:30 p.m., Monday.
Fans of long winters may long remember 2009-2010 as a disappointment.
There was no measurable snow in March, according to Dave Sage of the National Weather Service, and combine that with a late snowfall to start the season, it may be the shortest winter on record for Genesee County.
"It's pretty unusual," Sage told WBTA. "We didn't even have our first measurable snow until Dec. 1. If Feb. 28 is truly the last time we had measurable snow, it will be the shortest period, just a 90-day period, between the first measurable snow and the last measurable snow, and that would be a record."
The last time there was no snow in March was in the 1870s.
Sage, noted, however, that it's at least theoretically possible we'll get more snow before summer. In 1989, the region was hit with 8 inches of snow on one day in May.
To commemorate the last steel beam being put in place on UMMC's $19.5 million expansion, the hospital held a "topping off" ceremony this afternoon.
A worker placed a flag -- for national pride -- and an evergreen tree -- for growth -- atop the beam.
The beam was painted white and signed by employees, administrators and board members.
When completed, the expansion will add 44,000 square feet to the front of the hospital on the North Street side. Construction is expected to be completed in December.
(Updated 4:10 p.m.)
Reginald M. Wilson passed up a plea deal that would have limited his prison time to two- to four-years in State Prison on a charge of criminal possession of stolen property.
This afternoon, a jury convicted him of burglary, 2nd, and criminal possession of stolen property, 3rd, and now Wilson has to wonder if Judge Robert C. Noonan will want to lock him away for life.
Because of Wilson's prior violent felony offenses, his upcoming stint in prison won't be a short one either way.
On the burglary charge, Wilson is facing a possible 5 to 15 year sentence. The possession charge carries a maximum sentence of 3 1/2 to 7 years.
District Attorney Lawrence Friedman said he's not ready to indicate whether he will ask Noonan to consider a life sentence.
Noonan set the sentencing for May 12 and revoked Wilson's $100,000 bail, which was never posted.
Wilson showed little reaction when the verdict was read. There were four additional law enforcement officers in the court room when the jury came back. The jury forewoman's hands were visibly shaking when she handed the verdict slip to the court deputy.
Defense Attorney Fares Rumi said he still believes the jury should have returned a not-guilty verdict.
"I felt we put on a strong defense," Rumi said. "I felt we exposed the weaknesses in the prosecution's case. I'm obviously disappointed in the verdict. I didn't feel the People met the burden of proof. But the law is the law. We have a good system."
Friedman said he was pleased with the verdict, that he felt all along that Wilson was guilty.
"As I told the jury (this morning), I really could not believe that this witness (Dillon Brito) who testified for us, the accomplice, as a 17-year-old, would falsely implicate this particular defendant. I just could not fathom what his motivation would be for doing that. He was consistent. I thought he was believable. Obviously, the jury thought so, too."
UPDATE: After court, I failed to ask Mr. Rumi why he didn't have Gibson and Dash testify. Readers may remember that Gibson and Dash were reportedly willing to say that Wilson did not participate in the burglary. I spoke with Mr. Rumi again a few minutes ago. He said even though the trial is over, he didn't want to go into detail on his strategy, but it was a strategic decision based on his review of all the statements in the case. "I still believe it is the right decision." Also, in a previous story I said Rumi is "from Batavia." He said he grew up in Batavia, but now lives and is based in Rochester.
For previous coverage of this case, click here.
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