batavia

A fire alarm went off at an address on North Street (sorry didn't catch exact number).

The alarm company has already informed dispatch that it's a false alarm.

Engine 12 responded.

Emily Conable, daughter of the late Barber Conable, the legendary former congressman from Batavia, has been named assistant to the director of the Holland Land Office Muesum.

Initially, Conable will be overseeing the "History's Heroes" programs, which is aimed at school children, and drama productions -- "bringing history to life," said Director Marilyn Drilling.

"She's very good at that," Drilling said. "She's done a lot of re-enactments, has great friends in New York City and just all across the globe, so we're thrilled."

Drilling said Conable has worked 21 years at Genesee Country Museum. She's also been active in producing historical programs at Alexander Central Schools.

"She's just delightful," Drilling said. "She really has a passion for history."

A 22-year-old man with no permanent address has been accused of breaking into an unlocked car and stealing a credit card.

Sheriff Office investigators also believe the suspect is linked to several other car break-ins.

Danny J. Torok, Jr. is in jail on $5,000 bail, charged with grand larceny in the fourth degree.

Additional charges are anticipated.

There have been a rash of break-ins to unlocked cars in both the city and town of Batavia this past summer. One of the most interesting string of hits were the night of Sept. 21, in which a subject left blood evidence in at least one car. The Sheriff's Office release on Torok's arrest did not indicate if Torok is a suspect in that night's break ins.

Torok was arrested at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday.

The investigation is being conducted by Investigator Kristopher Kauts and Deputy Loni Nati.

UPDATE: In response to our question about blood found at the scene of previous car break-ins, Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster responds: "Our investigation to this point leads us to believe that Mr. Torok's DNA will be a successful match with DNA evidence recovered from several vehicles."

Cathie Plaisted still feels the hardware and pain in both her legs from an automobile accident more than six years ago that had her wheelchair-bound and bedridden for months.

Cathie was 47 at the time and in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by her husband, William. Another vehicle veered into their lane on Route 5 near Cedar Street and struck their van. That was on April 22, 2002.

The Daily News reported the following day that Cathie, William and children in the vehicle suffered only minor injuries. Although Cathie was originally transported to UMMC, she was immediately airlifted from there to Strong Memorial Hospital.

"This was a life changing ordeal," Plaisted said today in an email to The Batavian (she's given us permission to write about the email). Plaisted was responding to a report this morning about Ryan Shumway being sent to state prison on a conviction of menacing a police officer.

Shumway was 22 and reportedly the driver of the vehicle that struck the Plaisted's van (at this time, we have no information on any conviction related to that incident). He was charged, according to the Daily News, with aggravated unlicensed operation, unlicensed operation, no seat belt, moving from a lane unsafely and failure to keep right.

The Stafford resident reportedly told deputies at the time that he didn't know what happened. Shumway reportedly said he didn't know why he drove into the oncoming lane of traffic.

This morning, Shumway was given a one-and-a-half to three year prison term on this latest conviction. He has a prior felony conviction for grand larceny. Plaisted wrote to object to the lastest felony as just a "second strike."

"How many chances does this guy get?" she asked.

Under New York State law, only certain felonies count as "strikes" (not a term usually used in the New York court system, I don't believe -- it's a term I lifted from California's penal system). In New York, like California and several other states, if a person receives three serious enough felony convictions, he will spend the rest of his life in jail. It would appear that none of the charges from the April 22 accident led to a "strike" conviction.

As for Cathie, this is how she describes her own ordeal: "(I) was treated for two broken legs, six broken ribs and a cut spleen. I spent three months totally wheelchair-bound with the hospital bed in the living room. The accident happened on 4-22-2002 and I came home from the hospital May 13th and took my first steps on July 21. By then Mr. Shumway had been out and about with a broken arm for a couple of months."

Today Shumway told Judge Robert Noonan that he wanted to turn his life around.

"Well, sir, I've been in trouble before and everything I've done, I pled guilty," Shumway said. "I'm looking forward to getting this behind me and, hopefully, this will be behind me and I can start a new, good life."

Cathie Plaisted has heard it before.

"I suppose I'm more upset with myself for actually believing someone could change because they were young and showed remorse," Cathie wrote. "I thought it would be a wake-up call to escape something like that crash with no life-altering injuries."

The three candidate sessions we taped at WBTA this evening all went well.

They will air tomorrow morning (Friday) starting at 10 a.m.

The order should be: Julie Wallace and Tim Buckley (City Council at-large), followed by Chris Charvella and Hollis Upson (County Legislature) and Rose Mary Christian and Robert Radley (County Legislature).

It took Ethan pretty much the whole day to get last night's video edited and processed.  I would expect the video of tonight's discussions to not be available until tomorrow evening.

I'm pretty pleased with how these segments went. There were good discussions on the issues without any the rancor that sometimes spoils the chance to fully hear candidates on important issues.  While we couldn't get to maybe all of the issues, we still covered a lot of ground and the candidates actually answered the questions and discussed the issues. It would be well worth your time to tune in or watch the videos.

Sara Burk-Balbi and Marianne Clattenburg

The following videos were shot last night at the WBTA studios.

Frank Ferrando and Phil Ricci

Notre Dame High School will play host to the 2009 Meet the Candidates Night on Wednesday, Oct. 28, sponsored by the City of Batavia Democratic Committee.

It will be an informal night of discussion and an opportunity to get to know the candidates who are running for County Legislature and City Council. It will begin at 7 p.m. in the Cafeteria at Notre Dame School, located at 73 Union St. in Batavia.

“This a wonderful opportunity for the candidates to meet one-on-one with their neighbors and constituents concerning local issues," said City Democratic Chairman Patrick Burk in a press release. “It allows for dialogue and sharing.” 

The event will include coffee and refreshments and all city residents are invited to attend. 

City Council-at-Large Candidates Sara Burk-Balbi, Phil Ricci and Julie Wallace will be available along with Rose Mary Christian, Chris Charvella and Ed DeJaneiro, the County Legisilature candidates who represent the City of Batavia.

“We hope neighbors and friends and all city residents do stop in and let us know their ideas and concerns,” Burk said. “It is an open forum and everyone is invited to attend. It is our hope that our representatives on City Council and County Legislature will continue to look into and discuss issues as they are brought forward. Communication is the key.”
 

A host of local dignitaries and medical professionals gathered in the North Street parking lot today for a groundbreaking ceremony on a $20 million expansion of United Memorial Medical Center.

The project will add 44,000 square feet to the facility as a one-story addition to the front of the current structure. Operating room space will double from 300 square feet to 600 square feet. An additional 19 private recovery beds will be added to the hospital as well.
 

On the morning of March 6, 29-year-old Ryan Shumway reportedly threatened Batavia Police officers with a knife.

This morning, Shumway was sentenced to one-and-a-half to three years in prison for the crime. The sentence follows a guilty plea June 23 to menacing a police officer, a felony.

The incident began when two police officers responded to a domestic dispute on Dewey Avenue, where Shumway, of Stafford, threatened the officers with a knife. The officers ordered him repeatedly to drop the knife before he finally did.

It's Shumway's second strike. He has a prior felony conviction for grand larceny, stemming for an incident in 2005.

Shumway told Judge Robert Noonan that he would like to turn his life around.

"Well, sir, I've been in trouble before and everything (I've) done, I pled guilty," Shumway said. "I'm looking forward to geting this behind me and, hopefully, this will be behind me and I can start a new, good life."

Noonan wasn't without sympathy, but also wasn't about to cut him any slack (the sentence Noonan imposed was arrived at through a plea bargain).

Noonan said there were two version of the events of March 6, but even the one that Shumway's friends and supporters agree on indicate Shumway was drunk and waving a knife.

When liquor and weapons are involved, Noonan said, it can be a scary situation, "no matter how good of a person you are or how good you want to be."

"All I can say to you sir, is that if you want to stay out of trouble, you need to stay away form alcohol and drugs or you’re going to get in trouble," the judge said. "You’re just one of those people, that if you get involved with alcohol or drugs, you’re going to get in trouble."

Noonan then imposed the sentence and within minutes Shumway was escorted from the courtroom and into custody by a bailiff.

Tonight in the studios of WBTA, Dan Fisher and I interviewed four of the at-large candidates for Batavia City Council.  Even though these races are not head-to-head, we're breaking the interviews up into pairs of one Republican candidate sitting with one Democrat.

First up where Sara Burk-Balbi and Marianne Clattenburg, and then Frank Ferrando and Phil Ricci.

The interviews will air starting at 10 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday). As soon as possible (it takes time to process the video), the video of the interviews will be posted on The Batavian. Ethan Thompson is producing the videos for us.

Engine 12 and Ladder 15 barely left the station for a fire alarm at 375 W. Main St. before a Sheriff's deputy on scene reported that the cause of the alarm was burnt food.

Within two minutes of arriving on scene, Ladder 15 returned to station.

UPDATE 9:57 p.m.: Engine 12 returning to quarters.

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The resident at 135 Walnut Street didn't want to discuss tonight the background behind this sign, but she's in a dispute with the city after Walnut was resurfaced, the front edge of her lawn was raised two or three feet. She wants a level yard again. The sign reads "Fix My Yard Right! Make it Flat Again."

UPDATE: I ran into Jason Molino at an event this morning.  He said this is a home owner issue. "It's restored to what it was before," Molino said. "We worked with her to improve the property and she doesn't seem happy with it."  Sally Kuzon was with Molino and they asked me how he street looked. I said, "It looks great."  Kuzon smiled and said, "Will you put that in, too."  So, Sally, there you go.

Thirty one adults with mental illness, all currently residents of group homes in Darien and Pembroke, will soon have a chance to begin new lives of independence and a degree of self care.

They will be moving into the attractive new housing facility being built at 559 E. Main St., Batavia.

The new living arrangements are a result of new thinking in the treatment of mental illness: People can be cured, and their best chance at recovery is through independent living.

Living Opportunities of DePaul, in Erie County, is in charge of the $6.6 million project. It's one of several branches of DePaul in Rochester, a 51-year-old community service nonprofit for Western New York.

The project is expected to be finished early next year and will accommodate people whose primary diagnosis is mental illness and they are working to recover from it. They are not MICA -- mentally ill with a chemical addiction(s), said Marcia Dlutek, DePaul's vice president of communications and development.

In addition to the 31 "licensed beds," 11 more units are designated as affordable housing for low-income individuals.

Two aspects of this project are particularly notable: it will provide individually tailored assistance to mentally ill people living in their own apartments, versus communally in a group home; and it operates under the relatively new premise that mental illness is sometimes curable.

The approach is worlds apart from 20 years ago, when groups homes began to flourish in response to the downsizing or closure of many large mental health institutions nationwide. Advances in psychopharmacology and findings in behavioral science research have modified approaches to treatment as well.

"Other modes of community housing are deemed more appropriate for recovery for  people living in the mental health system," Dlutek said. "Clients want to live alone rather than in communal living areas.

"This is a new approach. It is person-centered, recovery-oriented -- a housing option that will truly benefit them."

They will have access to 24-hour staffing, medication, life-skills assistance with such tasks as meal planning and budgeting. Plus, the location was chosen because of its easy and convenient access to transportation, stores, businesses and social services.

"It's really going to provide integrated housing for mental health consumers," she said. "We're very excited about this project. It took a lot of collaborative effort to accomplish, between our organization, the (NY) Department of Mental Health, the city, the county and the Economic Development Center.

Located next to East Town Plaza, the 43,000-square-foot, two-story complex covers 5.7 acres of prime city property. As it nears completion, it's shaping up to be an inviting design with curb appeal and solid structure -- certainly a far cry from the drab, institutional-looking warrens historically built for the mentally ill.

(However, it also seems a somewhat "boutique" alternative given the cost for housing just 31 mentally ill people, out of the many eligible.)

Since nonprofits are not required to pay property taxes, the GCEDC worked out an agreement wherein DePaul will pay $12,000 a year in lieu what the city could get from commercial or residential development..

Funding for the housing center came primarily from the state Office of Mental Health and the Department of Housing, Community Renewal Division. The design work was done by Parrone Engineering of Rochester and Lecesse Construction Corp. in West Henrietta is the builder.

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Trucks weighing more than five tons are supposed to drive down Law Street, but according to City Councilman Frank Ferrando, over the past eight years complaints from Law Street residents have continued, and he's skeptical that enough is being done to correct the situation.

It's time to get tough, he said at the end of last night's council meeting.

"If there are police there and there is an overweight vehicle, my feeling is, that overweight vehicle ought to be ticketed. Period," Ferrando said. "It ought to be ticketed and ticketed until word gets around that you better stay off the street or you’re going to get a ticket."

According to Chief of Police Randy Baker, however, that's the job his department has been doing.

"There have been numerous special details and zone cars assigned to the area," Baker said in an email this morning. "Several tickets have been issued."

Is consolidation a dead issue?

City Council President Charlie Mallow thinks so.

He thinks so after, for a second time, the council tabled "indefiniately" a resolution to hold a public hearing on a proposed joint charter review commission.

“It’s a political maneuver to kill something permanently without actually going on the record and voting against it," Mallow said after the meeting. "We’ve had things in the past, you know, we’ve had all this controversy about that slumlord act that was tabled indefinitely. It’s killed. It means you voted against it but you don’t want the public to recognize it. That’s what happened here tonight.”

The resolution, while moving forward the idea of consolidation of the city and town of Batavia, would hardly have committed either community to joining forces in a single municipal body. It would have simply allowed a joint committee to come up with a plan of what a consolidated Batavia might look like as a legal entity.

It was clear from the motion of of Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian that at least some of the council members who voted to table the motion did so as a maneuver to block further consolidation talk.

"I have a problem with it simply because once it takes effect, there’s no turning back," Christian said. "The fact is that consolidation is good, but, I don’t see why we can’t have shared services. We can share facilities. We can share equipment. Why do we need consolidation?"

Councilwoman Kathy Briggs said after the meeting, however, that most of the council was focused on language in the resolution that would have had the city council president sitting on the committee, and many council members think that job should go to the new council president, whomever that might be, once Mallow is out of office and a new council is seated among a group of people who would appoint committee members. They want the new council president, whomever that might be, be part of that process.

City Manager Jason Molino told the council that Town of Batavia officials are interested in revising the resolution anyway to clarify some of the language and add a little more substance.

"They want to add more specifics on the parameters of what committee with do," Molino said.

Councilman Frank Ferrando didn't sound hopeful that consolidation would move forward.

“I hope that there’s support, because that’s an important move that this community has to make," Ferrando said. "Right now, it’s hard to read."

It was Ferrando who requested the resolution be placed back on the council agenda after it was tabled two business meetings ago.

"When you table something, you don’t table it into perpetuity. It has to come back again," Ferrando said. "I haven’t heard a good reason yet as to why we’re not moving forward."

Ferrando indicated that he'll take the next opportunity -- the next conference meeting -- to get the issue before the council again.

Councilman Bob Bialkowski raised the first procedural question after Ferrando finished speaking. He seemed to think that tabling it previously killed it. City Attorney George Van Nest said there was no procedural reason -- nothing in Roberts Rules of Order or prior council practice -- to prevent the council from taking action on the resolution.

Councilman Bill Cox also raised procedural objections.

Mallow was having none of it and accused his fellow council members of being cowards for not taking a yes or no vote on the resolution.  He said killing consolidation without a vote was a waste of state taxpayers money (a state grant paid for the consolidation study) and that council members owed it to citizens to give them at least a chance to discuss the idea.

"If you don’t want this, vote against it," Mallow said. "Vote against it. We owe that at least to the members of the public, but you don’t even want to give the members of the public and the people in this city the right to even talk about this issue?  That’s stealing the state’s money. That’s stealing taxpayers money. Let them talk about it. Let them come up with a proposal.

"Fear of change," Mallow added. "We all have little seats here on council. Maybe they don’t like us. Maybe they don’t like the idea that we have a city council. Maybe they’ll change it. Maybe they’ll give us a mayor. Who knows what they’ll do? That's the fear. That’s the fear of the unknown."

Christian's motion to table, passed 6-3, with only Mallow, Ferrando and Councilwoman Marianne Clattenburg voting to keep the issue alive.

Barbara Hale, executive director of the YWCA, receives a City Council Resolution from Councilwoman Marianne Clattenburg. Hale and the YWCA were honored for the Y's work on behalf of victims of domestic violence. The Y's program has been in place for 15 years and is the only local provider of domestic violence services such as counseling and advocacy.