A car accident with unknown injuries is reported at 29 Hutchins St. City firefighters and Mercy medics are responding. Power lines are down. The location is betweeen Sumner and Ellicott streets.
Until yesterday, I'd never seen a street sweeper quite like this one. I spotted David Musser on Route 5 in Batavia and when we spoke he said people around here often comment that they've never seen anybody propelling themselves down the street on a skateboard with a stick. Musser recently moved here from Chicago and said the sport seems more common there. Primarily, he said, it's good cross-training for stand-up paddle boarding on the lakes.
The Spring Vendor Blender at the Fairgrounds on Sunday looked like another success. I walked away with coffee, honey and organic salad dressing. There were certainly lots of interesting vendors to visit.
The 4-H Swine Club hosted its annual pulled pork BBQ at the Fairgrounds today.
The Seneca Siberian Husky Club, which is based in Rochester, held its show today at Falleti Ice Arena.
Above, Shira Barkon, of Pennsylvania, with Jewel.
Rick Church, of Michigan, with Sadie.
Jan Haring, of New Jersey, showing Trooper for judge Dr. Richard Hideman.
GO ART! hosted an Appraisal Fair today at Seymour Place.
Appraiser H.P. Prazer with John Seartz and Louis Call.
Appraiser Jason Helenbrook of Gold N Time.
Set up is under way for today's Beertavia in the parking lot off School Street, behind Angotti's Beverages. More than 50 craft brews will be served. The event is from 3 to 6 p.m. Tickets start at $40 and are available at the door.
Here's your chance to enjoy a special Date Night every night for a year (significant other not included).
Employees at the Bank of Castile branch on East Main Street, Batavia, are auctioning off this grand prize as a fundraiser for Relay for Life. The prize value is more than $700.
Tickets can be purchased at the branch, $1 for one ticket, $3 for five, and 10 for $5.
The raffle was organized by Michelle Cryer, who wasn't available today at picture time. Pictured are Lauren Drier and Amber Reese.
The Genesee County Business/Education Alliance held its annual meeting this morning at Terry Hills. The event featured presentations by students who have been through BEA programs, awards and election of officers.
Jay Wolcott, a teacher with Byron-Bergen High School, received an APPLE Award, as did Ed Shaver (second picture), a teacher with Elba High School.
Other awards: Business Partner of the Year, Dan Harvey, formerly of Graham Manufacturing; and partner in education awards to Graham Manufacturing and Amada Tool America.
Wolcott and Shaver are pictured with Eve Hens, director of BEA.
Nick Corsivo
Students from Alexander Central School who attended BEA Camps last summer. Lauren Young, Nick Allen, Andrew Young.
Heather Dries and Chrstine Stevens, students at Byron-Bergen, in Wolcott's manufacturing systems classes.
A two-car accident with minor injuries is reported at Main and Jackson streets in Batavia. City fire is responding along with Mercy medics.
UPDATE 4:48 p.m.: One person was transported to UMMC with a hand injury.
A plan to relocate Arby's further west on Main Street is meeting some stiff opposition, both from residents of Vernon Avenue and planners.
County Planning staff recommended to the County Planning Board that members reject a series of zoning variance requests, and after hearing from several Vernon Avenue residents and receiving a petition signed by 95 percent of the residents in opposition to the fast-food restaurant proposal, the board members followed staff recommendation.
The board's vote doesn't kill the project, but it means the City of Batavia Planning Board needs a majority plus one vote to approve the plan.
Kyle Hessler was among the Vernon Avenue residents who spoke and he acknowledged that he lives next to property that is zoned for commercial development -- though it's currently residential -- and he isn't opposed to commercial development in the city, or even on the property. He just thinks the proposal as presented is bad for Vernon Avenue residents.
It would unduly impact traffic on the street and the ability for traffic to easily pull onto Main Street. He doesn't think the barrier for sight, vision and sound between the restaurant and the neighborhood is adequate. And he thinks the parking will prove inadequate.
Some residents complained that they felt like the developers were trying to sneak the project through, but Robert Kiesler, an architect from Rochester representing the developer, said there is nothing secret about the process. It is going through the public approval process completely in the open, as required by law.
Out of that process, the developer gets a chance to learn what modifications to the plan need to be made to ensure it doesn't negatively impact residents, or if the development is even viable.
The process is designed to give residents a chance to have their say, as Thursday's meeting demonstrated, he said.
The developer is proposing a 2,100-square-foot restaurant that would replace three residential units. It would have a drive-thru with a driveway on Vernon Avenue.
Among the variances requested is reducing the buffer between the commercial property and residential property from 10 feet to two feet, constructing a building one foot higher than allowed, constructing a smaller driveway than normally permitted and reducing the number of required parking spaces from 84 to 24.
Officials at Western OTB think the odds of hitting a jackpot are better if their proposed hotel overlooks the Batavia Downs racetrack.
It is, after all, the oldest lighted harness racing track in America and the reason Batavia Downs exists in the first place.
Shoehorning it into the constrained space around the track, however, will require some bending of the rules.
There are zoning variances needed to lot size, lot frontage, front, side and rear setbacks and building height.
The scope of the variances prompted county planning staff to recommend disapproval of the project.
After Western OTB VP Mike Nolan pleaded with the board to support the project, saying it's the only viable option to ensure Batavia Downs continues to thrive and generate millions of dollars for the local economy, planning board members were unwilling to say no to the plan. They also didn't say yes.
The board took no action and the plan is now kicked back with no recommendation to Town of Batavia planners. It will be up to the town's Planning Board to decide whether to grant the variances.
Yes, Town of Batavia, not City of Batavia.
When the hotel plans were first announced, for the 80- to 100-room hotel, officials were talking about a location on the south end of the track, near Tops Plaza, but Nolan said further study on that location indicated it just wasn't viable. It's simply not big enough.
The current proposed location is on the north end of the track and would require the removal of some of the current paddock area.
It's critical, Nolan said, that the hotel be attached to the gaming facility and that it have suites with balconies overlooking the track.
A board member asked, why not in the parking lot on the west side of Park Road?
"It's important that horse racing stays strong and vibrant," Nolan said. "Over in the parking lot, it wouldn't have the same appeal as overlooking the oldest lighted harness racing track in America."
The target audience for the hotel aren't travelers passing through the area, but people willing to travel to Batavia specifically to place bets on races and drop coins in slots.
The desk for the hotel would, in fact, be in the gaming facility itself. (Some of us might call it a casino, but the state's compact with the Senecas prohibits Batavia Downs officials from calling it a casino).
The gaming environment in WNY is getting more competitive, Nolan said, and with the Senecas planning a new $400-million casino a short drive away, it's critical Batavia Downs up its wager on local gaming. Western OTB recently completed a $28-million upgrade to Batavia Downs and the hotel represents the next phase in making Batavia Downs more attractive to gambling dollars.
The land for the hotel would be sold to private investors who would own the hotel and operate it as a franchise of a national hotel company.
Nolan noted that when Western OTB took over Batavia Downs, since Western OTB is a public benefit corporation, it took $3 million in assessed value off the tax roles. The new hotel would be assessed at something in the neighborhood of $7 million, and while tax abatements used to help fund development would delay the full value of that tax levy being realized by some local governments, eventually it would generate substantial tax revenue for the county and school district.
Even if the private developers decided to eventually sell the property and Western OTB became the owner, the property would stay on the tax roll, Nolan said.
The backers of a proposed bio-gas plant in the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park are in the early stages of site planning and they hope, if all goes to plan, to be operational in a year.
The plan was presented for review Thursday night to the Genesee County Planning Board and the board unanimously recommended approval at this stage of the process.
The plant would take organic waste from food processing plants -- primarily the two yogurt plants in the ag park -- and convert it into methane to generate heat that could be resold to the plants and electricity that the plants could also purchase.
The plant would generate more electricity than the plants could use -- enough to power 800 homes a day -- so additional capacity would be transferred into the electrical grid.
The plant, said architect Robert Keiffer, of TY Lin International, Rochester, is environmentally friendly, would help make the yogurt plants more sustainable and more efficient to operate, and help attract business to the ag park.
The owners of the plant would be CH4 Biogas, which already operates a plant in Covington.
CH4 has a purchase agreement with Genesee County Economic Development Center for five acres in the ag park. The project would be eligible for economic incentives from GCEDC.
The proposed facility would be 8,500 square feet, housing processing equipment, an office, bathroom, dock area and de-packaging area.
The waste accepted by the facility would be organic and non-hazardous. The waste would go through a methane-capture process, pumped into a grinder and put into a receiving tank.
The waste is then pasteurized in three 15-foot-high tanks. This optimizes methane release. Next, the waste is moved to digester tanks that are completely enclosed. Methane is collected and stored in another tank. It is then converted into electricity by a CHP engine. The engine is not located on site, but at the thermal end-user's location and enclosed to reduce noise.
The organic waste, if not sent to a digester plant, could be used on farm fields or simply taken to a dump. In either case, the methane eventually released by the waste would drift into the atmosphere. Methane is considered a greenhouse gas. This process captures 100 percent of the methane from the waste and converts it to electricity.
Any city residents who are concerned about rooming houses opening in their neighborhoods need not worry much longer.
The city is working on a change to the zoning law that would prohibit new rooming houses, boarding houses, lodging houses, tourist homes and tourist camps inside of R-2 districts.
The change would also prohibit future development of such facilities in C-1, C-2 and C-3 districts.
There are currently 10 rooming houses in the city with a total of 80 available rooms.
"At this point, we think we're saturated with an adequate amount of rooming houses and boarding houses in the city and this provides the ability to limit expansion," said City Manager Jason Molino. "The existing ones will continue to stay in place. They will continue to be regulated and reviewed and permitted every year, as they should be, but this will limit the expansion."
Molino presented the proposed change to the zoning ordinance to the Genesee County Planning Board, just one step in the process of making the change in the zoning law. The board unanimously recommended approval of the proposal.
The current codes governing rooming and boarding houses and multiple-family dwellings in the city are inconsistent with the city's master plan and strategic plan, Molino told the board.
Numerous studies, he said, have shown that rooming houses, in particular, and multi-family dwellings, intermingled in otherwise single-family neighborhoods, bring down property values and encourage the deterioration of whole blocks.
Such uses are also inconsistent with economic development in commercial districts.
This is an issue the city has been looking at for some time, Molino said, but officials became more aware of the need to tighten up the code after local property owner and investor Terry Platt purchased a large home on East Main Street and announced plans to convert it into a rooming house. The city's planning board denied Platt his application for the use, responding to concerns raised by neighbors and other residents; however, Platt challenged the ruling court and eventually prevailed and was able to convert the property into a rooming house.
"That certainly opened everybody's eyes to the potential of where these rooming houses could be located," Molino said. "It has a lot of impact that people perceive as being negative if rooming houses open in certain areas, so that certainly opened our eyes to the inconsistencies in the code."
The proposed zoning change could be perceived as inconsistent with a couple of emerging trends in American society.
First, is the seeming interest of Millennials to avoid home ownership and find suitable places to rent in cities. The second is a trend among some homeowners to use services such as Airbnb to rent rooms to travelers.
On the first point, Molino said he doesn't think Millennials are looking for the kind of rentals this zoning change would curtail.
"They're looking for a little more secure housing, generally, furnished housing, not shared common bathrooms, in areas that are close to amenities and part of a development," Molino said. "There's a disparity in the housing qualities when you start talking about Millennials and the population of empty-nesters who are looking to downsize. They're generally not looking to downsize into rooming houses."
While services such as Airbnb are growing in popularity -- there are even two houses available for guest lodging in Genesee County -- it hasn't been an issue in the city yet, Molino said. The proposed zoning change isn't really meant to address such services, but if it ever became an issue here, Batavia, like any city, would need to study the issue and find the most balanced solution available.
"You've got to look at what comes with it," Molino said. "Are there negative effects? Are there positive effects? Is it similar to a bed and breakfast or not? What comes with that activity? I think what most communities will start dealing with is, what are the positive and negative effects that come with the activity and do they balance each other house, and if not, what revisions of code or enforcement mechanisms do they want to put in place to balance it out."
The proposed zoning change will need to be go through a public hearing and be approved by City Council before becoming law.
All of the entries in the Landmark Society's annual architectural drawing contest have all been hung in the children's room at the Richmond Memorial Library.
Local artist Brandi Bruggman is the contest judge this year. There will be winners announced in a ceremony at the library Tuesday night for first, second and third place, along with 20 honorable mentions.
Five schools are participating this year: John Kennedy, Pavilion, Oakfield-Alabama, Elba, and Byron-Bergen. Every year, the fourth-grade students from each school in the county are invited to submit entries.
Molly Barker, who founded Girls on the Run in 1996 in her hometown of Charlotte, N.C., visited Batavia Middle School today to meet with the local members of the after-school girls activity and charity group.
The girls won the visit after beating out 87 other schools in a contest to collect the most donated used shoes for people in need.
Previously:
Keith Carlson and John Kemp, who already hold ownership stakes in Attica Veterinary Associates, have purchased the State Street Animal Hospital from Fran and Norm Woodworth, who were ready to slow down their workload.
Carlson (pictured (Kemp wasn't available)), said not much will change at State Street. It's a good facility with quality equipment and an excellent staff, so there simply isn't much the new owners need to change. All of the current employees are staying on and the new owners plan to hire a new technician and possibly a new vet.
The new owners work full time in Attica and will manage State Street.
Kemp has been an owner in Attica since 1988 and Carlson joined the staff there 15 years ago, becoming one of the four owners 13 years ago.
"Owning a small animal hospital is something John and I always wanted to do and the right opportunity came along," Carlson said.
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