batavia

UPDATED 4:31 P.M.

Funeral arrangements have been made for Margaret E. Wagner, 86, of Batavia, who died Monday.

Wagner's illness made news after the family of Joe and Lois Gerace publicly raised concerns about her care at United Memorial Medical Center, where Wagner, they believe, contracted Clostridium difficile, more commonly called "C. diff."

State Department of Health officials said in a release today that Wagner is among of three deaths of UMMC patients who are believed to have contracted C. diff at the hospital. The cases remain under of investigation to determine what role C. diff might have played.

The total number of C. diff cases under investigation at UMMC is 19, according to Jeffrey Hammond, a spokesman for the Department of Health.

Previously, only one C. diff-related death had been reported there, in March. There were 18 C. diff cases going back to February.

Currently, according to spokeswoman Colleen Flynn, one patient is being screened to see if he or she has contracted C. diff.

That's a substantial drop in probable C. diff cases a few weekends ago when six patients were being treated for the bacteria.

"The policies we've always had in place were effective and the steps we've taken since the higher than usual numbers were reported have worked very well," Flynn said.

After the outbreak of C. diff was detected, hospital officials step up sterilization measures and took aggressive actions were taken to battle against the bacteria.

Wagner was born April 5, 1925 in Buffalo and worked 26 years for MetLife Insurance in Batavia.

She was a member of the Batavia First United Methodist Church, where she sang in the choir, taught Sunday school and also kept the records for the Sunday school classes. She also worked and volunteered at the Salvation Army and for the Beckwith Insurance Company in Pembroke.

Calling hours are from 5 to 8 p.m., Thursday, at the H.E. Turner & Co. Funeral Home, 403 E. Main St., Batavia. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Batavia First United Methodist Church, 8221 Lewiston Road, Batavia. Burial will be in Alexander Cemetery, Alexander.

Did you see the guy in the pink gorilla suit on East Main Street, Batavia? It's apparently a publicity stunt. First thing I said to the guy was, "What, lose a bet?" He said he was only allowed to answer, "Coming soon." He said he was hired to walk up and down Main Street in the suit.

More than 500 National Grid customers along the Route 98 corridor from Batavia to Elba are without power.

The power outage spreads like triangle from the City of Batavia, where the tip starts, up to the Village of Elba, where the base of the triangle stretches east and west.

Power is expected to be restored by 2:15 p.m.

The outage caused one person to become briefly trapped in an elevator at the Hampton Inn. (Back-up generators corrected the problem.)

Radio traffic indicted the problem is a power line that stretches under the Thruway.

A person is stuck in the elevator at the Hampton Inn because of a power outage at the hotel. Town of Batavia Fire Department is responding.

The hotel is located at 4360 Commerce Drive.

UPDATE 12:47 p.m.: (Due to computer problems, I wasn't able to post this update sooner.) The back-up generators kicked in about 20 minutes ago and the person is out of the elevator. National Grid is on scene and the Town of Batavia fire crews have been put back in service. There is a brown out in the area which is expected to take just over an hour to repair. A transformer on the property has some hot spots in it. There is a "two to three layer" power problem. A power line that runs under the Thruway and connects power to the hotel and vicinity is the trouble point.

Voters approved a new budget for the Richmond Memorial Library on Tuesday that increases the tax rate for Batavia property owners from $1.48 to $1.51 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The budget passed by a vote of 223 yes votes to 120 no votes.

The total budget is $1,320,649 with a tax levy of $1,166,749.

The budget included a 2-percent salary increase for the libraries 14 full-time and six part-time staff members.

Currently, the library serves more than 22,000 cardholders and more than 188,600 visitors per year.

Dana Charters was re-elected to the Library Board of Trustees with 299 votes.

City Republicans have candidates they're backing in three wards and are looking for candidates for the other three wards.

Last night, the local GOP picked newcomer Kristopher Doeringer in Ward 1 and incumbents Patti Pacino in Ward 2 and Bob Bialkowski in Ward 4.

Chairman Joe Gerace said candidates interested in wards 3, 5 and 6 should contact him by May 20.

Currently Ward 1 is represented by Bill Cox; Ward 3, by Sam Barone; Ward 5, by Kathy Briggs; Ward 6, by Rose Mary Christian.

Dashawn A. Butler, 31, of 112 State St., Apt .1, Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of a weapon, 3rd, and menacing, 2nd. Butler was arrested on a warrant issued out of Batavia City Court for an alleged incident involving a knife on Sept. 1.

James E. Murray Jr., 22, of 119 S. Swan St., Apt. B, Batavia, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. Murray is accused of communicating with a person in violation of an order of protection. He was jailed on $300 bail.

The Mock Trial season is over for Batavia High School.

The nine-time local champs lost its two regional tournament matches in Mayville on April 28.

The team tied with Brighton in the first round, but the judge gave the discretionary point to Brighton.

In the second round, Batavia lost to Erie County's Sacred Heart by one point.

Sacred Heart went on to beat Brighton in the final round to grab the regional crown and a spot in the state finals later this month.

Glenn R. Price, 57, of 128 W. Main St., Batavia, is charged with criminal mischief, 4th. Price is accused of slashing tires in the parking lot of Walmart, 4133 Veterans Memorial Drive, Batavia, at 12:04 a.m., Feb. 21. The case was investigated by Deputy Chris Parker and Investigator Kristopher Kautz.

Mark Laney, 31, of Clinton Street Road, Bergen, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. Laney is accused of violating an order of protection out of Family Court. He was jailed on $1,500 bail.

Christopher Patrick Ball, 28, of Ellicott Street Road, Batavia, is charged with criminal contempt, 1st. Ball is accused of harassing his ex-girlfriend during a phone conversation, in violation of an order of protection. Ball was jailed on $2,500 bail.

A 16-year-old resident of West Bergen Road, Le Roy, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. The youth is accused of violating an order of protection out of Family Court. The youth was jailed on $750 bail.

An ambulance has been requested to the scene of a school bus vs. car accident at State Street and West Saile Drive to evaluate a student for an apparent minor injury.

Initially, no ambulance was dispatched because it was thought there were no injuries, but there may be one very minor injury.

Mercy EMS dispatched.

UPDATE: Town of Batavia fire also dispatched.  One person -- apparently older than the students on the bus -- was taken to UMMC for evaluation. State Police are handling the investigation.

About 30 people showed up -- and hundreds more drove by and honked their horns -- at a "Osama Got Obama'd" celebration outside the Post Office on Main Street, Batavia, organized by Victor Thomas and his friend.

The four young men had placed a handmade red, white and blue "Osama Got Obama'd" sign in front of the Upton Monument, which county officials removed early this morning. The sign removal prompted the spur-of-the-moment decision to organize the celebration this afternoon.

The Richmond Memorial Library, at 19 Ross St. in Batavia, will hold its budget vote and Board of Trustees election tomorrow from noon until 9 p.m.

All residents of the Batavia City School District are eligible to vote. Voting will take place in the library's Gallery Room.

The results of the election will be posted tomorrow. Call the library at 343-9550 for more information.

As Victor Thomas, 26, and three of his buddies watched the news of Osama bin Laden's death last night and saw the celebrations in Washington, D.C., and New York, they wanted to be part of something in Batavia.

So they jumped in a car and drove downtown.

"The City of Batavia was dead," Thomas said. "Not one person was out. Nobody was honking horns or celebrating."

So, Thomas, along with his cousin Christopher Thomas, 26, Ordy Edwards, 26, and Jason Armison, 24, decided to drive to the only place open to buy sign materials -- Walmart -- and get a board and some paint and fix up a sign.

They made a red, white and blue sign and painted on it, "Osama Got Obama'd."

He said they then mused for about 20 minutes on where to place the sign. They thought about putting it in front of the courthouse to represent justice, but then they did a little research on Emery Upson and discovered one of his specialities as a general was tactics in invading enemy territory. That made the Upson Monument, they thought, the perfect place to commemorate Osama's sudden demise in a protected compound in Pakistan.

Now they're a little upset that county workers took the sign down -- Christopher Thomas happened to be driving by at the time and retrieved the sign -- and are planning a rally at 4 p.m. in front of the Post Office.

Victor said anybody wanting to show support for freedom of speech or the United States should attend.

Thomas has seen the comments on The Batavian and is surprised that some have taken the sign as a partisan political statement.

"There was no thought about politics," Thomas said. "They both have O's, Osama and Obama. We didn't take it in a political way. He's our president and every soldier fighting is marching to his orders. They (some readers) took it as political and we just were trying to be traditional or patriotic."

He said he was worried the sign would be taken down, but was hoping it would stay up today so people could drive by and honk their horns, "just to give some kind of recognition to what happened on 9/11 and what our troops are doing."

Photo courtesy WBTA.

Timothy V. Meyers, 18, of Walker Road, Darien, along with a 16-year-old from Dodgeson Road, Alexander, a 16-year-old from Centerline Road, Verysburg, and a 16-year-old from Genesee Street, Attica, are charged with petit larceny and criminal trespass. The youths, along with a 14-year-old, were stopped shortly after midnight, Sunday, allegedly removing scrap metal from the Alexander Town Transfer Station. The suspects reportedly fled the scene and were located a short time later with the help of K-9 "Pharoah" and State Troopers.

Brittany Alexis Adams, 20, of Bloomingdale Road, Basom, is charged with petit larceny. Adams is accused of shoplifting $39.84 worth of merchandise from Walmart.

Lynda B. Siplin, 57, of 65 Lakeview Park, Rochester, and Gwendolyn L. Watson, 53, of 91 Reynolds St., Rochester, are each charged with two counts of petit larceny. Siplin and Watson are accused of shoplifting more than $400 worth of merchandise from Aldi's and Dollar General. Siplin and Watson were jailed on $1,000 bail.

A 17-year-old from South Lake Road, Pavilion, is charged with petit larceny. The youth is accused of shoplifting from Walmart.

National Drug Take-Back Day was a success in Batavia, according to Det. Pat Corona.

Corona said Batavia PD collected 320 lbs. of unwanted prescription drugs and hypodermic instruments.

Police detectives will soon travel to Buffalo to deliver the boxes of collected items for proper disposal.

"We were very pleased with the turnout for the detail," Corona said. "We are happy to have been able to offer this service."

Another collection day is anticipated in October.

Some time over night somebody placed a red, white and blue handmade sign in front of the Upton Monument that read "Osama Got Obama'd."

By 9 a.m., the sign was gone.

County Manager Jay Gsell told Dan Fischer at WBTA that county workers removed the sign because the Upton Monument was not the appropriate location to place it.

Photo courtesy WBTA.