batavia

Ryan Darch and Nick Lazarony were sectional champions last year for the Batavia wrestling team and the two were favorites heading into the Section 5 Class BBB Tournament this weekend.

They didn't disappoint and won individual championships, helping to lead the Batavia wrestling team to a third-place finish overall. Palmyra-Macedon won the team title with 272 points with Bath taking second with 190 and Batavia third with 160.

Attica was fifth with 136.5 points.

 Lazarony was a Monroe County League champion for the Blue Devils and remains hot this postseason. The 112-pounder rolled to the sectional championships.

Lazarony first won a major decision of Midlakes' Max Peters 16-1, in 6:00. After that it was a 10-1 win over Ryan Howes of North Rose-Wolcott, earning him a trip to the semifinals.

He blanked Palmyra-Macedon's Dylan Rifenberg 7-0 in the semifinals. Lazarony had a tough match with Bath's Kyle Conrad in the finals but pulled through with a 4-3 decision, earning his second consecutive title.

Darch had a pair of pins at 160 pounds to get to the semifinals. He dropped Pal-Mac's Chris Argus in 2:33 in the first round and Hornell's Zach Bacon in 1:55 in the second.

He won a 7-2 decision over Brad Vecellieo of Wayland-Cohocton in the semifinals before defeating Ethan Lamphier of Wellsville, 9-2, in the championship round.

Troy Ireland almost got a shot at his teammate in the finals as he made the semifinals at 160 pounds, where he lost to Lamphier via pin in 1:30. Ireland went on to take third by beating Vecellieo 10-2 in the consolation finals.

Batavia also had three second place finishes.

Josh Mase knocked off Skyler Hendley of Way-Co in the semifinals before losing to top-seeded Bradley Mayville of Bishop Kearney 7-5 in the finals.

Anthony D'Aurizio was seeded third at 171 pounds, where Bath's Cody Hutcheson was expected to roll to the title. Hutcheson is the defending state champion.

D'Aurizio knocked off second-seeded Adam Slater of Sodus in the semifinals, 6-2, and nearly shocked everybody at the tournament in the finals. D'Aurizio took Hutcheson to the wire and wound up losing 3-2 to take second.

Dylan Goodsell finished second at 215 pounds as he made the finals with a 5-4 win over Lester Fanton of Wellsville in the semifinals. He lost a 4-3 decision to Pal-Mac's Pat Krenz in the finals.

 Attica's Doug Beitz won the 285 pound championship.

Beitz beat Mike Pryce of Sodus in the opening round 4-2 and pinned Bryan Wood of Dansville in 3:51 in the quarterfinals. He then pinned Waterloo's Zach Brown in 3:27 to earn a trip to the finals.

In the finals, Beitz held on for a 1-0 decision over Pal-Mac's Mason Judd.

Vinnie Napierski made the finals at 119 pounds with an 11-0 win over William Wells of NR-W in the semifinals, but was pinned by Tyler Marlow of Pal-Mac in 3:31 in the championship.

Dave Jennings pinned Tyler Deuel of Waterloo in 2:54 at 189 pounds to make the finals, where he lost to Zack Simons of Bath 4-1.

Lance Compton took third at 125 pounds and Spencer Ford took third at 152.

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Letchworth brought home the team title in Class BB with 243 points, topping Holley, which finished with 191.5 points. Le Roy took fourth (148), Byron-Bergen was sixth (102.5), Pembroke was 10th (78) and Alexander was 15th (42).

Defending state champion Quentin Murphy won for the Hawks at 119 pounds, pinning Pembroke's Adam Hill in 2:30 in the finals.

Jessi Kimmerly won the title at 112 pounds and Tim Banks is the champion at 130.

Pembroke's Graham Jensen won a 9-4 decision over Holley's Kyle Steadman to win the 189 pound title.

Jake Harvey, Tyler Fenstermaker and Ed Cigno all had runner-up finished for Le Roy with Colby Sanner and Travis Taylor having second place finishes for Pembroke. Byron-Bergen's Zach Green was second at 171 pounds.

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There was no question that Warsaw was going to win Class B and the Tigers easily won the team tournament.

Lyndonville took second and Kendall was fifth.

Josh Brabon took home the 119 pound title and John Brabon won at 160 pounds for Lyndonville.

Jake ReQua won at 96 points for the Eagles.

(Thank you to Tony D'Aurizio for the photos)

The Batavia boys and girls indoor track teams defended their titles Saturday at the Section 5 Class C Indoor Track Meet at Hobart. And the boys barely got it.

It was a second consecutive championship for the boys and it came right down to the last event as the Blue Devils needed the 4x200 meter relay to get at least sixth place.

Well, Ryan Wood, Devonte Rolle, Ray Williams and Francisco Martinez came in sixth and scored one point and Batavia edged Bath 71-70 for the title.

The only event winner for Batavia was Greg Kryman, who won the high jump with a jump of 6-feet. He was also on the second place 4x400 relay team with Rich Baird, Rolle and Adam Pierce.

The girls won a seventh straight championship, crushing second place Palmyra-Macedon 192-63.

Angela Jarvela had a dominant performance in winning the 1500 and 3000 while taking second in the 600.

Jordan Mancuso won the 1000 and triple jump with Samantha Yager taking first in the shot put. Batavia also won the 4x200 relay as Tessa Williams, Erica Williams, Cady Hume and Shannon Shmitt won in a photo finish.

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The Le Roy boys track team scored 127 points to blow out second place Oakfield-Alabama in Class D, as the Hornets scored 51 points. Alexander was fourth (50) and Byron-Bergen (12) was 11th.

Alonzo Wilson won the 55 meter dash with Jake Krautwurst winning the 1600 and 3200 for the Oatkan Knights.

Joe Schwab won the pole vault and Ethan Belcher won the triple jump. Le Roy also won the 4x200 meter and 4x800 meter relays.

Cody Dieterle won the 300 and 600 while Kevin Grazioplane took the 1000 for O-A.

Alexander had a 1-2 finish in the long jump as Tim McGreevy was first and Steve Shaffer was second.

The Alexander and Le Roy girls tied for fourth overall in Class D with Oakfield-Alabama taking sixth and Byron-Bergen finishing seventh.

Le Roy's Jasmine Poles was a triple winner, taking the top spot  in the 55 and 300 meter dashes as well as the long jump.

O-A's Kim Mills took first in the 600 and the Byron-Bergen girls won the 4x800 relay.

Complete results from the championships can be found here.

 (Thanks to Mary Jo Hume for the photos)

We received this image of a truck stuck under an overpass on Cedar Street yesterday evening from one of our readers. The photo was taken by Brandon Fegley from inside a car.

A story this morning on the Daily News site informs us that this incident slowed up traffic on Cedar Street for an hour.

The driver got stuck when he “failed to obey” posted signs stating the bridge’s height, Sgt. Dave Kleinbach said. The 13.6-foot-tall truck attempted to drive under the 12.3-foot-tall bridge, he said.

Police were called to the scene at 12:20 p.m. and remained there for about an hour to close one lane and redirect traffic. The driver was issued a ticket for failing to obey a traffic control device, Kleinbach said.

A flood watch has been issued for Genesee and Wyoming counties through Thursday evening. Ice jam flooding could break out on Tonawanda Creek.

From the National Weather Service out of Buffalo:

Ice jams were on Tonawanda Creek Tuesday near Varysburg and south of Attica. Warm temperatures and rainfall today will increase the flow on the creek and may cause the jams to move downstream. The higher water and ice will combine for a threat of flooding along the creek. With ice jams, flooding can happen at any time if the ice breaks loose and jams again. The flood threat of higher water will continue through Thursday.

A flash flood watch means the threat of flash flooding exists along rivers and creeks. If you are in the watch area, you should monitor weather conditions closely. Be ready to move to higher ground if flooding is observed or a warning is issued.

Yesterday, we reported that the Batavia City Council voted to go ahead and spend $425,000 on design work for some six downtown infrastructure improvement projects, including some sewer and water line upgrades. Those designs will then be sent to the state in the hopes of landing $4.5 million in economic stimulus money to fund the projects. Council members who approve of the gamble—although they oppose labeling it as a gamble—say that it's an opportunity to create jobs in Batavia and better the city's infrastructure. What do you think?

If the old adage is true that misery loves company, Buffalo may be looking for a few new friends. Our neighbor to the west was recently dubbed the 8th most miserable city in America by Forbes magazine.

So, what does it take to be miserable?

We compiled our rankings by looking at the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S., which meant those with a population of at least 378,000. We ranked those metros on nine factors: commute times, corruption, pro sports teams, Superfund sites, taxes (both income and sales), unemployment, violent crime and weather.

Maybe a few of our readers can speak to the commute time and corruption. I've heard nothing especially damning about either. As for pro sports teams, there's really only one way to describe the past few seasons of the Bills and the Sabres: implosive. Taxes? Let's not even go there. Unemployment and violent crime... Can't say.

As for weather, the Buffalo News recently ran a piece by columnist Bruce Andriatch who wrote about one city resident who was so furious over having to shovel out his driveway yet again only to get re-buried under dirty snow plowed back onto the apron as soon as he had finished that he quite literally threw the shovel at the snowplow! We saw the grass and mud of the real solid ground the other day for the first time in over a month. And we just averaged the coldest January on record in my lifetime. So weather... yeah, not the greatest. Of course, many of us consider it a character builder. Until we start throwing shovels, that is.

Forbes has this to say of Buffalo:

If you like snow, Buffalo is your place—to the tune of 90 inches a year, more than any other metro area that has a million people. Buffalo's population has been steadily shrinking since the mid-1990s.

We want to know what this means for Batavia... Are we an island unto ourselves? Or will we get caught up in the whirlwind of misery that is Buffalo? Or would you side with columnist Donn Esmonde and look at this as a glass half full and even take umbrage with the ranking?

Honestly, I never found Buffalo all that miserable. I kind of like the city, in fact. They've got a great art museum, for starters. Plus, there's something appropriate to the times in the grey grunge atmosphere of the downtown. But that could be the gritty Upstater in me. Born and raised in blizzards and recessions. Child of potholes and missed field goals.

Just when you thought we were getting a break in our weather... Plan for a shaky commute Thursday morning. A high wind watch has been issued for the region from late tonight through Thursday.

From the National Weather Service:

A strong cold front will cross western New York after midnight tonight and be followed by strong westerly winds which will continue through much of Thursday. Sustained winds may reach 30 to 40 mph with some gusts topping 50 mph during Thursday morning and midday. The winds will gradually diminish during the afternoon. There is also the possibility of brief strong wind gusts just ahead of the cold front tonight.

A high wind watch means that the potential exists for strong damaging winds to develop. These strong winds could bring down trees and power lines as well as cause property damage. If a high wind warning is issued... stay inside... and away from windows. Be prepared for trees blocking roadways and power outages.

We don't yet know if things will turn severe enough for a high wind warning, but gusts topping 50 mph could do some damage. So please, be safe out there.

The Elba girls basketball team has  been a second half team all year, with several comebacks on their resume.

You can add another one as the Lancers had a very large fourth quarter to beat rival Notre Dame 53-48 Tuesday. The win wraps up the Genesee Region League Division II title for Elba, which is 13-0 in the league and 16-2 overall.

Notre Dame jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first quarter and had a 24-14 advantage at halftime. The Lancers chipped four points off the deficit with a 20-16 edge in the third quarter.

But as always, Elba's depth and pressure defense helped the squad to come from behind for the win. The Lancers scored 19 points while holding the Fighting Irish to just eight points.

"Our press just takes its toll on people as the game goes on," Elba coach Tom Nowak said. "We just have a lot of players and the ability to keep running them in and out and keep them fresh."

Missy Call hit two 3-pointers in the final period. Those six points were all she scored in the game.

Free throws have been the one weak spot for Elba this season, but the Lancers went 5-of-7 in the fourth quarter. Katie Newton hit a pair late and Rachael Cook put them up by 5 to ice the game with two at the end of the game.

Newton scored six of her eight points in the fourth and were led in scoring by Cassy Engle, who poured in 12. Cook had nine points with Katie Newton scoring eight and Sarah Schwartzmeyer pitching in six.

Jill Marshall led the Fighting Irish (11-2, 14-4) with 15 points, with Nichole Hart adding 12 points. Trisha Pike had 11 points and Liz Geandreau added eight points.

The Lancers also maintain the top seed in the Class DD sectionals. Jasper-Troupsburg is 16-1 and trailed Elba by just two seeding points coming into the game.

The Wildcats host Arkport Wednesday and should win, after thumping that team 67-31 earlier in the season. Elba has games with Lyndonville and Lima Christian remaining on the schedule.

"If we want to end up No. 1 we have to win out the rest of our games," Nowak said. "If we slip in a game, we could certainly fall to No. 2 or No. 3. If we would have lost tonight we would have fallen to third. But it was nice to come out and win the league. We were at that point and we wanted to do that tonight."

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Pembroke had the edge in every quarter and dropped visiting Oakfield-Alabama 57-39.

Katie Hackett and Nicole Sharick each had a big game, with Hackett scoring a game-high 18 points with five dimes, three steals and a block. Sharick had seven boards and three assists to go with her 10 points. 

Brynne Perfitt had 10 points with Hillary Bates and Sarah Scarbrough scoring nine points apiece for the Hornets (9-9).

The Dragons are now 10-8.

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The Trojans keep holding on to that top seed in Class C with a 57-32 victory over host Attica.

Finnish exchange student Anni Lehtola had a monster game, scoring 24 points with 11 boards and three steals. It was a big rebounding game for Alexander as Katie Kochmanski had 10 rebounds to go with her 10 points and three rebounds.

Chelsea Turcer was also in double figures with 10 points and Anna Dominick was close with nine.

Breanna Hummel had nine points and 10 rebounds to pace the Blue Devils, who fall to 1-18.

Margaret LaFleur pitched in seven points.

Alexander is now 12-4 and maintains a slim lead over Perry in the Class C sectional bracket. The Yellowjackets whipped Mount Morris 68-24 Tuesday.

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Holley trailed by a point when Emily Troup dropped in a 3-pointer with about a minute left, giving the Hawks a 51-47 win over Byron-Bergen.

Corrine Vanschoick had a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds and Troup ended the day with 14 points as well.

Julie Brooks had 13 points for the Hawks (6-12).

Rory Partridge had 13 points for the Bees (9-8). Kayleigh Puma had 10 points and Kaylee Amesbury pitched in eight.

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Lyndonville disposed of Wheatland-Chili 51-32 as Molly Burgess scored 16 points and Ashley Mahnke had seven points and 13 boards for the Tigers (8-10).

Lauren Drago scored a game-high 18 points for the Wildcats (4-11).

Batavia's City Council voted in favor of a measure last night that would use $425,000 to "design work for a half dozen" infrastructure projects, WBTA's Dan Fischer reports. That investment of $425,000 is supposed to yield $4.5 million worth of construction, on projects such as: undersized water mains, waterline break history, inoperable valves, sanitary sewer line conditions and road conditions.

Fischer explains that the $425,000 would be part of the aid received by the city from the Video Lottery Terminal Aid that was received earlier this year.

Councilman Frank Ferrando is quoted in the Daily News this morning as saying: "If we can get $4.5 million to get jobs that we have to do and can get it for an investment of $425,000, I think we have to do it,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of money out there."

No one, however, explains how any of this would work. In fact, rather than explaining it, the article today in the Daily has only this to say:

It is a gamble. Assistant Manager Sally Kuzon said there’s no guarantee of the city actually getting the money from the state Economic Facility Corp. But spending $425,000 to design those six projects is a move toward it, she said.

It's a gamble!? So the city plans to gamble with gambling money. A little irony, perhaps. Furthermore, where did the state Economic Facility Corp. come from? No one is explaining this to us, folks. All we hear is Frank Ferrando saying: 'Hey, we can turn $425,000 into $4.5 million. Poof! We're rich and we have jobs. How can we not do this?'

What everyone has failed to note is that the hoped-for millions that would magically be available if only the city spent this $425,000 are part of the proposed economic stimulus package that just last night was the subject of a national news conference.

From a letter drafted by Assistant City Manager Sally Kuzon:

I have been monitoring the progress of the President's proposed Economic Stimulus Package over the last several weeks in an attempt to place the city in a competitive position to receive funding for infrastructure improvements.

Kuzon goes on to say that while there has been "tremendous debate" over just what will happen with the stimulus, she believes that "infrastructure improvements nationwide will have a prominent position within this initiative." In other words, the city should get it on it. We should submit "shovel ready projects" to the state's Economic Facility Corp., which will adminster the federal funds allocated to New York.

She continues:

Although there is a certain amount of uncertainty as to whether or not the programs will include loans or grants or whether the program will extend to projects not currently listed on the (Intended Use Plan); it is clear that only shovel ready projects submitted to the EFC will be considered for the current or future funding rounds. Based on this premise, I am recommending several projects for Council to consider submitting tothe EFC for economic stimulus funding.

We mentioned some of those projects above. The $425,000 requested by Kuzon would be used to design the projects and submit the designs to the state so that they would be eligible to receive the funding if and when it became available. However...

It is unknown at this time if the design phase or only construction cost will be eligible for reimbursement. If for some reason the city does not receive economic stimulus funding the projects will be designed and ready for construction as funds or grants become available in the future.

In a letter drafted to the City Council on Kuzon's proposal, City Manager Jason Molino writes: "The crux of this stimulus package is to get people back to work receiving pay checks; with $4,500,000 of infrastructure improvements that goal will be acheived."

Nowhere does anyone explain how these infrastructure improvements will acheive the goal of "getting people back to work." Kuzon never once takes up this issue in her letter, and nothing from Council addresses this either. We only hear people tell us: It will happen.

Molino justifies this use of these funds in this way:

Utilizing a portion of this years (sic) VLT aid to support the project design costs is both appropriate and realistic considering the City did not budget for this one-time revenue and these costs are one-time capital costs.

Council President Charlie Mallow can be heard in an audio quote on WBTA as saying that Batavia needs to do this. Otherwise, the jobs will go to New York City. He wrote to us in an e-mail this morning:

The action council took last night was about job creation right here in Genesee County, instead of New York City. Regardless of how we feel about the spending on the national level, we owe it to our residents to secure our share of this huge stimulus package. We are all going to pay for it whether we have enough foresight to act or not on a local level.

We're waiting to hear back on how this will create jobs. See below.

Click here to download the letters by Molino and Kuzon, along with descriptions of the infrastructure projects noted in the proposal.

Councilmen Sam Barone and Bob Bialkowski were the only two members of Council who voted against the measure, saying that the state aid could be used instead to reduce the city's deficit or for "future needs."

Updated (8:28 a.m.): Council President Charlie Mallow responded to our question of how this stimulus money would create jobs.

Any aid we receive needs to be spent on projects that are shovel ready and can break ground in 180 days. That means putting people to work this summer. Local construction workers would be the first ones to work or to keep on working. Then there is the trickle down affect with people who work driving trucks, making concrete, selling building supplies, laying pipe, and even restaurants the workers, etc. We as a local government decided to do what we needed to do so that our people would feel the benefits of these make work projects that will be going on around the country. I believe this depression era type projects will boost our economy up and out of the slump we find ourselves in.
 
If fully funded, these projects will rebuild parts of 11 streets in the city this year. These projects are for sewer, water, road surface and sidewalks, and most call for complete reconstruction. This work will be on top of the work being done on Walnut, Oak and the $150,000 of sidewalk repair already budgeted this year. There will be a lot of activity going on this summer to rebuild the city from the ground up.

Update (8:35 a.m.): A very timely headline in the Buffalo News this morning reads: New York loses millions in revised Senate stimulus bill. From the article:

Gone entirely is funding for higher education construction, which, under the House-passed version, could have meant up to $242 million for the University at Buffalo.

Similarly, the Senate eliminated funding for school construction. The House bill would have provided $31.9 million for the district of Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo.

Senators also halved a $79 billion fiscal stabilization fund for the states. While much of the aid to local school districts remains intact, the cuts included a $25 billion fund aimed at helping governors balance their budgets.

Will we see even more funds cut from the stimulus by the time it is passed?