A small grass fire was reported in Kibbe Park and city firefighters are on scene. It was seen behind the pavilion. A fire chief requested police to respond. The park is located at the end of Kibbe Avenue, off Oakland Avenue.
Last night, another fire like this was reported in Kibbe Park, not far from today's blaze.
Batavia PD is seeking assistance in identifying the man in this photo. He is a possible suspect in Tuesday's robbery of the Dollar General on East Main Street.
The suspect is described as a light-skinned black male, approximately 6-feet tall, wearing blue jeans and a dark Carhartt-style coat.
Anyone with information can contact the Batavia PD, Det. Todd Crossett at 345-6353, or 345-6350.
Margaret Brisbane told Trumbull Cary some time prior to 1817, if you're going to marry me, you're going to build me a mansion.
So the man who founded the Bank of Genesee and served as a NYS Senator and Batavia's first treasurer, built a mansion.
And it stood for nearly 150 years as one of Batavia's grandest structures, until the board of St. Jerome's on only about 30-days notice in 1964 tore the building down, stealing from Batavia another piece of its heritage.
Today, the once-handsome mansion and the man who built it were commemorated with a plaque on the former mansion site. The marker was paid for by the William C. Pomeroy Foundation.
Sallie Fogarty, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Trumbull and Margaret Cary was in Batavia for the dedication of the market (pictured above with City Historian Larry Barnes).
Prior to the dedication, Barnes told the assembled audience in the Go Art! building (the former Batavia Club and first permanent home of the Bank of Genesee) about Cary and his mansion.
Cary, born in 1787 in Mansfield, Conn., moved to Batavia in 1805 at age 18 to seek his fortune. He went to work for the post office, served as clerk for James Brisbane, and eventually became Batavia's postmaster.
Later, he became a local merchant and began to build his fortune.
He helped found St. James Episcopal Church.
In 1833, he helped finance the Tonawanda Railroad, the first rail line to serve Batavia.
The Carys -- Trumbull died in 1869 and Margaret in 1863 and both are buried in Batavia Cemetery -- had one child who survived into adulthood. His grandson was the last Cary to live in the mansion.
Fogarty traces her family tree back to this second Trumbull Cary, who died in 1913, and his first wife, Grace Truscott, who died in 1882.
Harry E. Turner (H.E. Turner Funeral Home) purchased the mansion in 1922.
On the demands of George Cary, brother of the second Trumbull Cary and a prominent architect in Buffalo, Turner sold it back to the Cary family.
George Cary was determined to turn the mansion into a tourist destination owned by the city. He paid for restoration and set up a board to oversee its operation and then deeded the property to the city. After the operations ran into some financial trouble two years later, the city established a commission to determine what should be done with the mansion. The commission determined it could be run profitably, but the city council voted to give the property back to George Cary in 1936.
The property was rented by various businesses over the years and ownership passed from George Cary to his daughter Allithea Lango, Boston, Erie County. Local businesses that had space in the mansion included Pontillo's and Valle Jewelers.
Lango sold the mansion to St. Jerome's in 1959. The hospital began building a nursing school on the back of the property and then with very little notice decided to tear down the mansion to expand the nursing school.
The board said the building was in a "dangerous" condition and had be demolished immediately. Batavia residents were given no time to weigh in on the demolition.
The nursing school closed in 1982. The building is now called Cary Hall and is owned by UMMC.
Last year, UMMC acquired the neighboring property, the former location and of the Elks Lodge building, and with little notice to the community, tore that building down.
Town of Batavia crews are still working to repair a water main break on Ellicott Street Road at Shepard Road.
The break was discovered around 5:30 a.m. when a worker noticed gauges at the water plant were giving unsatisfactory readings. He went for a drive and found a bulge in the ground at the location of the leak.
There is no ETA for the repair to be completed.
Some residents in the area are without water and others have low water pressure.UP
UPDATE: Water service is restored.
GCEDC released this notice today:
For several months it has been widely reported that a mushroom growing farm, involving a $20 million investment and up 100 new jobs to the region, is being planned in the Batavia Agri-Business Park. As this initial first phase of this project continues to move forward, we are now actively pursuing Phase 2, which seeks to purchase a minimum of 5 acres to 10 acres of vacant land for the development of a composting facility.
Besides the 5-10 acre size, other features that we are seeking are as follows:
Should this opportunity be of interest to you please contact Steve Blake at (716) 362-8707 or e-mail at : steve.blake@cbre.com
Press release:
The first public open house to introduce the Batavia Opportunity Areas (BOA) will be held at the city’s Council Board Room at City Hall, One Batavia City Centre, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 5. An interactive forum will be facilitated by ELAN, an award-winning firm specializing in community revitalization.
Those in attendance will be provided with information on the program, given an opportunity to meet the project team, and review information about the program. Members of the community will also have an opportunity to ask questions and provide input.
The meeting will be conducted in conjunction with the City of Batavia Opportunity Area Steering Committee, which includes members from the City of Batavia, Batavia Development Corporation, Batavia Business Improvement District, Chamber of Commerce and Genesee County Planning Department.
The purpose of the Batavia Opportunity Area program is to advance the redevelopment of under-utilized, vacant, abandoned, or contaminated commercial and industrial sites within the city. The focus areas include Downtown Batavia, the industrial corridor between Harvester Avenue and Liberty Street, and the Evans Street corridor.
This effort builds upon existing plans, including the city’s recently completed Community Improvement Plan, to advance redevelopment of strategic sites and areas within the city. The outcome of the BOA program will help the city as well as businesses and property owners in the area with obtaining grants and financial incentives for redevelopment.
For more information on the Batavia Opportunity Area program, visit the city’s Web site at www.batavianewyork.com.
Here's your challenge for your next holiday shopping excursion: Stop into at least three locally owned businesses and see what they have to offer.
Local business owners are your family members, friends, neighbors and biggest boosters of our community. When you support them, you're really supporting yourself.
You can also find great gifts, affordable prices and get great service to boot.
Above, Sherry Valvo of Floral Fantasies. Below, Greg Gluck of Alberty's and Kurt Fisher of Fisher Sports.
BTW: I had an interesting conversation with Fisher last night. He pretty much exploded the myth that chains are less expensive than locally owned stores. He said his prices are consistently lower than chain sporting goods stores in the area, especially for coaches looking to outfit teams, but even on licensed products such as Bills and Sabres jerseys.
A Batavia man accused in September of causing a brain injury to a baby entered a guilty plea today to a single count of reckless assault of a child.
Twenty-four-year-old Randy Johnson faces up to seven years in prison on the conviction. The Class D felony carries no mandatory prison sentence, however, so the full range of sentencing options will be available to Judge Robert C. Noonan on Jan. 25, when Johnson is back in court.
Johnson entered his plea under what known as an Alford basis. The written charge contained a factual allegation that Johnson hit the baby's head on a hard surface. Johnson did not want to admit to that allegation as a fact.
The Alford plea allows Johnson to plead guilty on the assumption he would be convicted by a jury, but without admitting to any specific facts related to the charged crime.
In a written statement, and a spoken one he made today after his guilty plea, Johnson admitted to actions that led to the baby's injuries.
"I should have watched my actions," Johnson added after he said he was guilty on the charge.
In a written statement obtained by police Sept. 20, Johnson said that four weeks prior the baby he injured was crying and woke him up early in the morning. He said he was irritated and snatched the baby from its crib.
"When I snatched him, his head snapped back real fast, like a whiplash, then it went forward," he wrote.
On other occasions, Johnson wrote, he would play with the baby by throwing it in the air. At first, this made the baby laugh, but later it made the baby cry, and in the statement he admits that throwing the baby in the air and causing him to turn in the air, could have caused the baby's injuries.
According to Noonan, the baby's injuries consisted of subdermal and retinal hemorrhaging.
Johnson was arrested Sept. 25 and charged with three counts of reckless assault of a child. The plea satisfies all three counts.
On Aug. 24, Johnson took the stand in the Jacquetta Simmons case as a defense witness. District Attorney Lawrence Friedman attacked Johnson's credibility relentlessly while he was on the stand, indicating that Johnson had changed his story from his earlier interviews and what he testified to in court.
Johnson, as Friedman claim in court, has reportedly had numerous prior contacts with law enforcement. In 2009, he was charged with criminal mischief and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He was arrested in December 2010 on a harassment charge. In March 2012, he was charged with reckless endangerment of property.
Police are looking for a white male wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jacket and riding a bicycle in the area of the Dollar General store on East Main Street in Batavia. He reportedly "threw product" at a female customer inside the store after "becoming irate" following some sort of exchange. He was last seen leaving on the bike behind the store, which is located at 412 E. Main St., #3. Batavia PD is on scene.
In recognition of Power Ball reaching a $500 million prize pool, the New York State Lottery has provided Southside Deli with two tickets to this Sunday's Buffalo Bill's game at Ralph Wilson Stadium as a prize for a raffle drawing.
To enter the raffle, you most drop off a losing scratcher at the deli. Write your name and phone number on the back of the ticket. The winner will be selected Friday night in a drawing from all of those losing tickets. (If you don't have a losing ticket, go to Southside, buy some scratchers and leave a loser behind with your name and number on it for the drawing.)
Southside Deli is located at the corner of Ellicott and Liberty streets, Batavia.
The winner of the drawing gets both tickets. There is only one prize.
The future of professional baseball in Batavia seems, for the time being, inexorably tied to the future of baseball in Binghamton and Ottawa, Canada.
Now it seems, contrary to a prior report, the Binghamton Mets will not be moving to Ottawa, which means the Muckdogs won't be moving to Binghamton.
Baseball America reported the move, relying on unnamed sources, and then ESPN reported the deal fell through.
The response from Michael Urda, president of the Binghamton Mets?
Urda, who said he was “tired of answering the same questions every two weeks,” insisted no one from the ownership group or the organization had talked to Silver. He called the idea that “city officials” inquired about acquiring Batavia “ridiculous,” saying, “Who are ‘city officials?’ ”
Urda added that the idea that city officials would pursue a team also does not make sense because the B-Mets ownership group signed a four-year extension on their player development contract (PDC) with the New York Mets in August, and a five-year extension with the city on the lease for NYSEG Stadium prior to last season.
The article points out, however, that those deals would not necessarily be an obstacle to moving the franchise.
On the other hand, the investment group in Ottawa seems to be distancing itself from the Binghamton rumor.
Richard Billings, chief operating officer of Beacon Sports Capitol, told the Ottawa Sun on Tuesday that ESPN’s report was “inaccurate. ... We’re not there yet with a deal, and hopefully we’ll have something announced soon.”
The bottom line: Go ahead and buy those 2013 season tickets, get your outfield sign for your business. Your team still needs you.
A robbery just occurred at the Dollar General store on East Main Street in Batavia. The suspect fled on foot, heading east of the store toward Harvester Avenue. The suspect is described as a black male, 6-feet tall, about 240 pounds, wearing a camel-colored jacket. Multiple police units are responding to the store and the area. The suspect "pointed a pocket at (the clerk), indicating he had a gun."
UPDATE 6:53 p.m.: The suspect is further described as having a mustache, a small Afro hairstyle, and also wearing jeans.
UPDATE 7:55 p.m. (by Howard): On the scene, Sgt. John Peck said the suspect is described as a possible Hispanic male, medium skin tone, probably in his 20s, wearing a hooded Carhartt-type jacket.
The suspect handed the clerk a note "threatening harm" and pointed to his hip indicating a gun possibly in his jacket pocket or under his coat.
The clerk complied with the demands of the note and opened the drawer. The man reached in and grabbed all of the cash out of the drawer.
Peck said detectives are reviewing video footage from the store's surveillance cameras.
It's possible the suspect has been in the store before.
The suspect was last seen running toward Pizza Hut.
"As far as we know it was just him," Peck said.
Local law enforcement responded quickly after the robbery was reported, Peck said. Besides three Batavia PD patrols, the State Police and the Sheriff's Office had cars in the area.
"By sheer luck, we were very, very near," Peck said. "We don't think any vehicle was involved. We saturated the area and turned up nothing so far."
Press release:
As part of the City of Batavia’s Strategic Plan the city is redeveloping its Web site and is looking for community members to submit their pictures.
Anyone that would like to submit their picture(s) for consideration to be used on the city’s Web site should e-mail the pictures, preferably as a JPEG, to jfreese@batavianewyork.com.
Pictures will be accepted at any point throughout the year; however, to kick off the development of the new site, the first round of pictures should be received by Monday, December 17th.
The photographer of any picture selected for use on the city’s Web site will be identified on the Web site and will be asked to complete a release for the city to use the picture(s).
Possible subjects to consider would be seasonal pictures throughout the community, landmarks, fireworks at Dwyer Stadium, Muckdogs, sporting events, community events, parks, and any other subjects that represent Batavia and will highlight its attributes.
Please call 345-6333 with any questions.
'Tis the season to support your local business owners ...
Today we feature Cory Richenberg, Hardcor Audio, Mike Barrett, Barrett's Batavia Marine, and Phil Pies, Max Pies Furniture.
A woman and two children reportedly suffered minor injuries in a two-car accident in the area of 8294 Slusser Road, Batavia.
East Pembroke fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.
UPDATE 3:03 p.m.: Fire police requested to the scene.
UPDATE 3:42 p.m.: Two patients being transported to UMMC. Sounds like very minor injuries, if any.
Press release:
The Batavia Area Jaycees will be out driving around on December 9th looking at all the homes that are decorated for the Holiday Season. Judging will take place within the City of Batavia limits.
The following categories will be looked at:
· Most Traditional
· Simple & Elegant
· Most Colorful
· Most Commercial
· Overall
This contest and the awards to be given out are meant as a friendly community project. If you have any questions about the contest, you can contact the Batavia Area Jaycees at bajny@yahoo.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BataviaAreaJaycees, on the Web at http://www.bajny.com/ or leave the Jaycees a message at 585-343-5775.
As a young man in the late 1970s with a wife and two children, Leo Hunter decided he needed a career, not just a job, to help support his growing family.
At the military recruitment station, Hunter had about an hour wait before he would raise his right hand, swear an oath and become a United States Marine. He asked a captain if he could use a phone and call his wife.
He told her what he was about to do.
"Well, if that’s really what you want to do, we’ll just have to live with that," Hunter recalled his wife saying.
He then asked her if he had received any mail.
Yes, she said, something that looked like it was from the government and a couple of other items. He asked her to open up the letters.
One was from the FBI, offering Hunter a chance to advance in his application to become an agent and the other was from the State Police inviting him to take an agility test as the next step in his application process.
Hunter never became a Marine.
He chose the State Police over the FBI, reasoning that the FBI might move him anywhere in the U.S., but at least as a trooper, he would always be in New York.
On Friday, friends and family will gather to celebrate Hunter's 30-year career as a trooper and criminal investigator. He retired earlier this month.
"I don't think I would have gotten the kind of training I wanted if I had joined the Marines," Hunter said. "In the Marines, they just tell you what you will do, and who knows what that would have been. I'm sure I would have been in public service, but who knows how long I would have been in the military. I always had some idea of doing something as a career."
Hunter's life as a public servant hasn't been confined, though, to just wearing a badge. He also did something right for society by raising six children, from the time they were ages 7 to 13, as a single father.
All of his children are adults now and leading good lives.
Thameena lives in Batavia and is a nurse manager at ECMC. Shabaana works at Dent Sleep Study in Buffalo. Saad (Leo Hunter Jr.) is a staff sergeant in the Army, a combat engineer with the 101st, and will be deployed to Afghanistan next month. Saad has three children.
Yasmeen is a wife and mother living in Batavia with one son and another child on the way. Hunter's twins, Sumiyya and Safiyya, both received track scholarships (North Carolina and SUNY Buffalo). Sumiyya, who was a Division I Big South champion in the 800 meter, now works for the IRS. Safiyya just returned from a two-year Peace Corps mission to Mozambique.
Hunter said he raised his children with the idea that he was there to be a parent, not a friend.
"As teenagers, we were horrible," Thameena said. "In being a cop, he had to do what was right to raise us. Then we didn't like it, but now we understand it. We appreciate it. If he hadn't done it, we probably wouldn't be here."
It's been said that it takes a village to raise a child. To hear Leo tell it, in the case of the Hunter clan, it took all of Batavia.
There were parents, friends, neighbors and family members, along with other cops, who all looked out for the five girls and one boy Leo was trying to raise on his own while working a demanding job after he and his wife divorced.
"They were the other eyes I might need," Hunter said. "They shared the same concerns and my kids knew this. They benefited from that love and caring that we found in this community."
It must have been crazy around the Hunter household on Montclair Avenue. Leo was a soccer coach and Girl Scout leader in a home of children and their friends always coming and going.
Every day Hunter made sure he knew what his children were doing and where they were, Thameena said. As the oldest child, she helped around the house, especially with the younger children, and each night, Hunter made sure the chores were done, homework completed and the whole bunch in bed by bedtime.
As teens, of course, the kids would have social lives that would take them out of the house, but Hunter kept tabs on them.
"We would go out at night and when we came back, he would ask questions," Thameena said. "We always thought he was being nosy, but he was being a dad. He always knew what was going on."
Hunter had that detective's skill and knowledge in interrogations.
Thameena remembered one time when one of the children damaged an item in the house and Hunter wanted to know which one did it. She said they laugh about it now, but Leo placed each child in a different room of the house so they couldn't talk to each other and get some story straight, just like a good detective would do with multiple suspects. He then went from room to room and questioned each one individually.
Hunter figured out who did the deed, got a confession, and there was an appropriate punishment.
"To this day, he still knows what's going on with us," Thameena said. "He can tell when something is going on (in our lives). He doesn't have to ask. He knows it. That's something amazing about him. I'm like, 'wow.' "
Leo is a proud father, he said.
"I remember going through it," Hunter said. "I always wanted them to be happy. I always wanted to be there for them and now they have grown up and they're living successful lives, I look at that, I look back and I say, 'wow.' I wish I could take all the credit, but they had wonderful teachers and a wonderful family."
A Buffalo native, Hunter grew up on Northland Avenue in Buffalo, attended McKinley Vocational School and then Canisius College.
His first assignment as a trooper was with SP Boston, then Falconer. After awhile, Hunter was offered an assignment with Troop T, patrolling the Thruway, but that wasn't a route he wanted to take, so he got himself assigned to communications in Batavia. That gave him time to study for his sergeant's exam. Over the next few years, his career included Franklinville, Olean, Wellsville, Boston, Clarence and back to Batavia as station commander.
After two more years running the Batavia station, he was offered a slot in the Criminal Bureau of Investigation. He worked as an investigator from 1994 until retirement.
"Being a backroom investigator is probably one of the bigger responsibilities as an investigator in the State Police because they're not just working on one thing," Hunter said. "They're working on a multitude of things."
At any one time, Hunter's caseload might include child sex crimes, burglaries, fraud and other financial crimes, assaults and even homicides.
The most stressful cases, however, according to Hunter, are the hostage situations, a threatened murder or suicide, where the negotiator must talk somebody out of doing something with permanent consequences.
"When someone is at that line of giving up hope and taking the life of themselves or somebody else, I still have to take a deep breath," Hunter said. "You're traveling to a situation and you just don't know how those things are going to turn out."
For the past 12 years, Andre Dunlap has been Hunter's partner in CBI, but more than that, Dunlap said, Hunter has been his mentor.
It was Hunter who pulled Trooper Dunlap aside at a crime scene once and told him he should apply for investigations.
"I told him I wasn't ready," Dunlap said. "He told me, 'no, you're ready.' "
One of the things that has made Hunter a good investigator, Dunlap said, and something he tries to emulate, is to be sensitive.
"Whether it's a child abuse case, a homicide, a stolen credit card or a rape, handle every case like it was a family member involved," Dunlap said. "Talk to not only victims like they were family members, but suspects, too. Give them respect and they will respect you."
In retirement, Hunter, 55, is staying physically active, he said. He still plays racquet ball (a game Dunlap taught him), though he said injuries have slowed down his basketball game. He's also taken up archery, with the help of a 75-year-old neighbor.
Hunter is also planning on getting married again soon. His fiancé is Dawn Rindel, a clerk in Le Roy Town Court.
As for going back to work, there's usually jobs in insurance investigations and that might be an option, but for now, Hunter wants to keep his free time open for his family, especially his grandchildren.
He looks back on his career and he doesn't talk so much about the cases he handled, but the people he met. He said those are the memories that will stay with him.
"I always felt that even with 30 years on the job, you're always learning something from them, even the new people," Hunter said. "I always felt that if you can learn something from somebody, you learn about yourself."
He pauses and adds, "An older investigator told me once, 'When you have your family and your friends, you’re a wealthy man.' I'm not as wealthy as some, but I'm a wealthy man."
Photo below: Leo Hunter's children (photo submitted by Andre Dunlap).
A proposal by the city clerk to raise the solicitor and vendor license fee from $25 to $200 failed to fly with city council members Monday night.
While some increase is appropriate, council members said, and other fee hikes met no opposition, the solicitor increase might discourage some street sellers.
"My first reaction was a very strong concern that local vendors are part of our community and probably something like this could present difficulties to some of those vendors," Councilman John Canale said.
Councilman Brooks Hawley called the increase excessive. He said he could support an increase to $100.
So did Councilman Pierluigi Cipollone.
"It's a huge jump," Cipollone said. "Driving in here tonight I was thinking about the hot dog vendor who was here this summer. He makes maybe 10 percent or 20 percent on a sale, so he would have to sell 250 hot dogs and a Coke to recoup (the fee)."
A fee half of that proposed might be more manageable for such a vendor, Cipollone said.
Under city ordinances, any solicitor or vendor who wants to hawk wares or food on the sidewalk or go door-to-door must apply and pay for a license.
Batavia has the lowest fee of any small city in Western New York, said City Clerk Heidi Parker (inset photo), at least among the dozen or so she surveyed. Typically, the fee is at least $300 and one municipality charges $500 while another charges $25 per day.
Raising the rate would help address some problems with door-to-door solicitors, Parker said.
"We're hoping that by increasing the fee, vendors will take their actions more seriously," Parker said. "At $25, if you lose your license it's not a big deal, but at $200, we hope vendors will be more respectful of the people they're visiting."
Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian said she is very concerned about the conduct of some solicitors, but is also concerned about the people who seem to go door-to-door posing as solicitors but might have more nefarious activities in mind.
She recalled calling the police on one suspicious character in her neighborhood over the summer, but when police arrived within minutes of her call, he couldn't be found.
Her request: That solicitors be required to wear and display a conspicuous ID badge.
"I want it pinned right on them," Christian said.
In the past year, Parker said, 27 vendors and solicitors paid for licenses and total revenue was $675. At $200, she said, only four would need to pay for a license for the city to maintain close to the same level of revenue on the licenses.
No decision was made at Monday's conference meeting. Parker will bring back a revised proposal at a future meeting.
The council expressed no opposition to raising the tax search fee -- for real estate transactions to find delinquent taxes and utility bills -- from $5 to $10, or the bounce check fee from $15 to $20.
On the tax search fee, Parker said, "It's not a charge to taxpayers. It's a fee for service."
The tax search fee hasn't been raised in 15 years and Batavia has, and will still have, the lowest rate among the municipalities Parker surveyed. Total revenue will rise about $1,500.
On bounced checks, the raise in revenue will be minimal since the city receives very few overdraft notices each year.
Local artist Brandi Bruggman was at Coffee Culture on Court Street this evening painting the windows of the coffeehouse with snowmen, snow-covered trees and wreathes for the holidays.
As we pointed out Friday, local shop owners are standing by, ready to help you with the perfect holiday gift.
And as we said, when you shop local, more of your hard-earned dollars stay in our local community where they can do the most good.
Above, Jim and Tina Lambert, Lambert's Design Jewelers.
Ross Walker, RW Vapors.
Bill Hume, Foxprowl.
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