batavia

After two public meetings and collecting feedback online, the consolidation study committee is ready to release its final report on a possible merger of the town and the city of Batavia.

The title of the report: Plan for Consolidating the City & Town of Batavia in One Government.

I guess "A Tale of Two Cities" was taken.

The report will be released Wednesday night at 7 o'clock in Batavia Town Hall.

A copy of the report will be made available to the public on the consolidation Web site on Thursday.

Following release of the report, it will be up to the governing bodies of the city and the town to decide how and when to proceed. Each body must hold a public hearing and then agree to schedule a ballot proposition asking "should there be a consolidation." 

If both jurisdictions approved of such a measure, we still wouldn't have consolidation, because each jurisdiction's voters would then have to approve a new charter.

Meanwhile, the city has its own City Charter revisions to consider and if that goes on the November ballot, city residents won't get the opportunity this election cycle to vote on consolidation.

By state law, no other ballot questions can appear when the charter revision is up for vote.

Nicole M. Wenzel, 18, of 2 Goade Park, Batavia, is charged with harassment and endangering the welfare of a child. Wenzel allegedly slapped a young girl in the face.

A 17-year-old from Batavia has been charged with possession of stolen property. The youth was found with the property, which had been reportedly stolen from a Town of Batavia residence on Thanksgiving Day, 2008.

The Stuart Steiner Theater at Genesee Community College has hosted many quality college productions over the years. However, these past three weeks, a younger group of thespians called it home.

They are members of GCC's theater camp who'll be performing “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” this Friday and Saturday.

The musical comedy features the beloved Peanuts characters from the late Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip. The gang's all here -- Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Sally, Schroeder and Snoopy, of course.

Maryanne Arena, director of Fine and Performing Arts at the college, says she picked the show because of its wide appeal and because it is a full-length musical.

“I felt we were ready to do a full-scale show,” she said. 

The 22 campers, who range in age from 8-16, say the past three weeks have been fun, but challenging. 

“It’s a great experience to be onstage, and it gives the kids the idea of what it’s really like," said Margaret Gayford, who is playing Lucy. "Everyone works really hard." 

This is the 13-year-old Warsaw native’s fourth year at the camp, and she says she enjoys seeing old friends year after year.

“We’re all like a family from working together so much,” Margaret said.

Spencer Hubbard, also 13, has the role of Linus. He says the camp has made him realize his love of live theater.

“I’ve learned that I really, really want to be an actor," Spencer said. "And now instead of acting on TV, I’d much rather do Broadway.”

“You shouldn’t be afraid to come out and show the world what you can do,” added 11-year-old Alix Young, with a grin, spreading her arms theatrically.

Alix has the part of Sally.

Arena says that she hopes the children will take away from the camp an appreciation for more than just the applause at the end of the show.

“I try to teach love for the process, not just the end result,"  said the director. "I try to teach respect for what goes into making a show.”

Performances of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” are Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at  2 p.m.. The college is located at 1 College Road in Batavia. Tickets are $5. For ticket reservations contact the Box Office at (585) 343-0055 x6814 or by email to BoxOffice@genesee.edu.

UPDATE: Cedar Street was reopened at 2:05 p.m. and the gas line is no longer leaking.

UPDATE: At 1:58 p.m. the leaking gas line was shut off at the street. Cedar Street is being closed temporarily because of the emergency work.

At 1:35 p.m. a gas line was reported leaking at 109 Cedar St. in Batavia. At 1:43 p.m. emergency responders ask that traffic be rerouted because of the "significant gas leak."

Within minutes of the initial call, occupants at the Time-Warner Cable Co. facility had the gas line turned off at the building, although the rest of the line continued leaking.

Firefighters responded in roughly three minutes and asked for National Fuel Co. to come out and shut off the leaking pipe.

Construction crews reportedly hit the gas line while working there.

The wind was noted as being 11 MPH out of the southeast, with the temperature at 72 degrees.

"We're losing a hundred jobs -- and that's difficult in any day and age," said Chris Suozzi, senior vice president of business development at Genesee County Economic Development Center. "We're very discouraged.

"We offered to do what we could to change their minds. But there are not a lot of tools at our disposal. It's a leased facility (Pioneer's Mill Street Offices). The good news is that Pioneer invested $2 million in it and it's now Class A grade space.

"We're very hopeful we can back fill this space. We've reached out to our marketing partners, who give us tips about companies who might be interested in a space this size."

It's set up as "back office" space and is equipped as a call center. It has 13,500 square feet of renovated space on the ground floor and another 8,500 square feet of unfinished space on the second floor.

GCEDC sold the building to Scott Harris late last year. He's the owner of a door company called Millworks Solutions and, Suozzi said, Harris knew Pioneer was leasing the building on a year-to-year basis. Later this year, Pioneer's lease would have been up for renewal.

Even though Harris will have lots of empty space for awhile, Suozzi said it's prime space, thanks to Pioneer.

Pioneer Credit Recovery's spokesman Rick Castellano wrote us email clarifying the taxpayers' money it got.

It says "...Pioneer only received economic incentives for the commitments that we met in Batavia. No incentives were received for the project to construct a permanent site for the company’s work on the IRS Private Debt Collection Program.

"...The $350,000 loan Pioneer received was repaid. We did not receive any of the grant money for (a) new facility."

The repaid loan was used to upgrade Pioneer's Mill Street offices.

Furthermore, although Pioneer was awarded a great deal more money as part of its contract, the company never got it. That's because the plan to expand and build a new facility was not viable after the government cut the program in which private firms could collect some IRS debts.

We just received this press release from Chris Souzzi, senior VP for business development at GCEDC. It reads like something he is passing on from Pioneer Credit Recovery.

The wind down of the IRS Private Debt Collection Program has caused Pioneer  to restructure and consolidate our business operations in Western New York. Batavia was not only the disaster recovery site for the IRS Private Debt Collection Program but was also intended to be a permanent home for  Pioneer’s work on that contract once it grew to its full potential. Unfortunately, Congress and the Administration halted the program.

While it is always a difficult decision to close a facility, our 100  employees in Batavia will all have the opportunity to retain their positions at our nearby Perry facility.

The press release is not yet on Pioneer's own Web site.

We're continuing to work on this story and get more information related to the closure of Pioneer Credit Recovery in Batavia.

UPDATE: Rick Castellano, spokesperson for Pioneer Credit Recovery, just e-mailed us to confirm this statement came from him.

Previously:

• Pioneer Recovery tells employees its closing Batavia office
• Pioneer benefited from gold-standard treatment when it expanded, but now skulks from town

Anne Barone sent in this photo of a deer and her fawn that Anne says has been spending a lot of time at the back of the campus of Northgate Free Methodist Church near Bank and Vine streets.

Well, this PR director of Care-A-Van can truly say she enjoyed the parade tonight. Reports have it that she did much better passing out candy, than she did videotaping their last parade event here in Batavia. Just a few pics to share of tonight's parade.

The Parking lot was a very busy place

CARE-A-VAN'S REMOTE CONTROL VEHICLE ALL READY FOR THE ROUTE

Kelly Cook, one of our teen volunteers joined us tonite to pass out candy

LARRY HICKS OUR DONATIONS DIRECTOR LEADS THE WAY

HERE THEY GO, OUR RESCUE VAN AND BUS ..

Got to love the Horses

Our Friends from Freedom village doing a few last minute things to their float.

I hope someone here got a picture of the whole complete presentation. I just saw it from a distance and do not have a great zoom lens!

The before picture.. man what this pile transformed into was amazing. Keep your fingers crossed that someone will share!

The female half of a domestic dispute in Batavia this afternoon is in jail on $15,000 bail and the male she allegedly fought with is in Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester after being stabbed in the neck.

Dorothy Tuller, 48, of 511 Ellicott St., is charged with felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

Her alleged victim was initially transported to UMMC but later transferred to Strong.

The alleged fight occurred at 3 p.m. today (July 22).

UPDATE: It's now clear a lot of promises were made on both sides: Pioneer promised to build a new facility and create jobs. Pioneer was promised about $1.3 million in grant money to help with that project, but since the project wasn't completed, Pioneer never received any of the money.

Original post:

When Pioneer Credit Recovery decided to expand into Batavia in 2004, federal, state and county officials rolled out the red carpet -- or should we say the gold carpet -- for a company characterized as a great WNY job-growth story.

The praise for Pioneer was so intense, you'd think Joseph Ellicott was on the cusp of a Second Coming.

"By investing and growing in Western New York, Sallie Mae and Pioneer are creating good new jobs in our area - just the kind of shot in the arm our region needs to keep growing our economy," said then-Congressman Thomas M. Reynolds according to a Pioneer press release from 2004. "This is great news not only for Batavia and Genesee County, but for the entire community. It just the kind of success we need to ensure our continued economic recovery."

Pioneer supposedly committed to a $7.3 expansion project in Batavia (according to a Batavia Daily News story from Sept. 17, 2004 -- the Pioneer press release pegged the cost at $3.8 million), which included hiring up to 450 people locally and building a new facility in the Gateway II project on Route 98.

Five years later, Pioneer is shutting its doors in Batavia, having never left it's "temporary" facility on Mill Street and scant evidence that it ever employed 450 people at one time. (We are basing the news of Pioneer's closure (You read it here first) on the word of multiple current employees who sat in a meeting today to hear the stunning news, but we have no official response from Pioneer executives after several attempts to obtain a comment).

One wonders what happened to the $1.3 million in taxpayer subsidies the company received to help expand into Genesee County (plus another $350,000 loan to help improve its "temporary" Mill Street facility according to a Batavia Daily News story from May 11, 2006).

When Pioneer's expansion was announced, then-Gov. George Pataki held a press conference at City Centre (considering the location, not an auspicious beginning) to hail the job-growth opportunity.

"Pioneer Credit Recovery is one of Western New York's largest and fastest growing employers, and the new facility being planned for Batavia will further expand the company's growing presence and provide hundreds of good-paying job opportunities for hardworking families in the region," Gov. Pataki said. "The company's decision to open a third facility in Western New York is a clear example that our pro-growth, pro-job policies are succeeding in attracting new business investments and jobs for New Yorkers.

In a Feb. 19, 2005 story, Roger Muehlig wrote for the Daily about Pioneer's "historic" job growth:

Pioneer Credit Recovery's expansion into Genesee County looms as the biggest business development for the county in decades.

The company has already created about 100 jobs at its temporary location on Mill Street in the city of Batavia and intends to generate up to 350 more at a new facility eyed for a planned industrial park off Route 98 north of the city.

Those kind of new job numbers haven't been seen for quite some time.

"You have to go back to the '30s and '40s when some of the industrial businesses were thriving," said Steven Hyde, chief executive officer of the county Economic Development Center.

The Daily was equally enthusiastic about Pioneer when the Arcade-based company hired Jarid Olsowski, Pioneer's 1,100 employee:

Company and area leaders including U.S. Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-Clarence, gathered Monday to celebrate the company's ongoing and dynamic expansion.

"This growth at Pioneer has really been amazing, but really not surprising, considering the quality work force we have in Western New York," said Chief Executive Officer Joan Ludwick.

Apparently, the dynamic expansion is over and now taxpayers are left to wonder, whatever happened to all the money that was supposed to bring a brand new office building to Batavia with 450 good paying jobs?

You would think, too, that Pioneer (which proclaims on its home page "Proud Past. Unlimited Future."), after benefiting so lavishly from taxpayer largesse, would be a little more forthcoming in discussing its change of plans with the community, but executives remain mum.

It's not every day that you drive down Main Street and see somebody playing full-on heavy metal air guitar, but that's what I saw today in front of T-Shirt's Etc. on Main Street.

It was Dancing Derrick, whom I've never heard of before, but apparently he is well known in the region. Several people honked their horns and shouted out, "Hey, Derrick" as they drove past.

Derrick, a Holly resident, said he's trying to make a career of dancing in front of businesses as a promotional attraction. T-Shirts Etc. owner Brian Kemp confirmed he hired Dancing Derrick to draw attention to his store.

UPDATE: Here's a video from YouTube of Dancing Derrick.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oavuw8-tOaU]

We've heard from one city ambulance employee and have confirmed with Batavia City Manager Jason Molino that 17 medics and 4 firefighters have been notified of their termination from the city's fire department.

We have no further details at this time.

The city is shutting down its ambulance service as of Aug. 31 and Mercy Flight is starting a new ground ambulance service in Genesee County at 12:00 a.m., Sept. 1.

You'd think a debt-collection agency would be in high cotton these days, what with the economic downturn and all.

Not so, apparently with a Batavia business that duns people for money. Pioneer Credit Recovery, Inc., located at 1 Mills St., suite 200, is shutting its doors, according to workers there.

We are told by sources that employees were called into a meeting at noon and informed that the Batavia office was being shut down but that employees would be given an opportunity to transfer to Pioneer's Perry or Arcade office.

So far, we haven't heard from the bosses (we've placed four calls to the corporate headquarters) on details of the announced shutdown or how many employees will be affected. Ditto the reason behind the move.

Dan Fischer at WBTA has also tried calling Pioneer's headquarters and he spoke to a PR person who said she couldn't confirm nor deny the shutdown.

Batavia is just one branch of Pioneer offices located in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. According to its Web site, it's the largest private employer in Wyoming County and is based in Arcade. Pioneer was established in 1980 and has about 1,400 employees in Western New York.

Pioneer is a subsidiary of Sallie Mae's Asset Performance Group Division. Its growth over the past few years stems in no small part from legislation passed a few years ago which allowed private companies to contract with the Internal Revenue Service to collect debts.

The company expanded into Genesee County in 2004, with much fanfare from local business leaders and politicos. It was widely regarded as a "shot in the arm" for job growth here.

Christine Fix, then-president of the Batavia City Council, said at the time, according to an old Pioneer press release:

"Pioneer Credit Recovery's selection of the Greater Batavia Area for its expansion represents a tremendous boost to the local economy and spotlights the collaborative efforts in economic development that are taking place in Genesee County and the City of Batavia. The City of Batavia is appreciative of Pioneer Credit Recovery's confidence in our future and welcomes them to our community."

The Batavia project was tagged at $3.8 million, with $550,000 coming from Empire State Development Funds and $750,000 from the governor's Office for Small Cities program. Pioneer pledged to create 200 jobs initially and a couple hundred more regionally in the not-too-distant future.

Howard Owens contributed to this post.

It seems this past Sunday while we were having street church on Columbia Avenue, there was some training going on for the future muscians of Batavia! Roxy Yeager sure has a way with children!

These young boys are hanging out on Saturday morning with PJ.

These two young friends are loving the music and got Shawn and I involved in a game of catch.

 I have seen what a difference a little love and attention does for the children of the streets of Batavia.  Care-A-Van has been developing relationships with all the families for the past 9 years. Everywhere we go, the children are waiting to get their hugs from Bridget!

These children are the future of Batavia. Care-A-Van goes forth to love upon them and help their families in time of need.  Each one us has been created and designed for a unique purpose in life. As we all have gone through storms of life, isn't it great to find your passion and use that talent to help others and love upon others? 

Maybe you have a passion or talent you would like to share! Come on out and join up with us. This Thursday we will be at the Hilltop Boarding House

Have a super week!

As we say at Care-A-Van

Keep the Light On!

Just now, I searched Google News for "car larcenies" and got four pages returned of reports of break-ins from cars around the country.

I performed this search because of an e-mail I received from Deputy Brian Thompson of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office, who suggested the search and said, "County residents will immediately see why it is very important to lock their vehicles, keep valuables in the house and lock garage and house. Most of the crime that happens is opportunistic crime with devastating results. Being observant to surroundings is also very important in thwarting criminal activity."

We've carried this message before, of course, after initial reports of the spate of car break-ins in the City of Batavia. Even after the arrest of one person in connection with this spree, hardly a morning goes by that I don't hear a report of another larceny on the scanner.

This morning, we posted a report -- with a request for help in solving the case -- of a round of overnight break-ins on Hopkins Road.

It's wise to heed the warnings of law enforcement officers and ensure your cars are secured. Why make it easy for criminals?

A severe thunderstorm warning for Genesee County has been issued until 6 p.m. by the National Weather Service.

Large hail, heavy rain, damaging wind and lightning are expected. Stormy conditions could continue, with a 60 percent chance of rain expected tomorrow.

This Harley Fatboy will be awarded to a lucky winner of the Town of Batavia Volunteer Fire Department during community event Saturday, with the first drawing at 8 p.m. to midnight.

There will be food from Clor's and music by 7th Heaven.

The event is at the Town of Batavia Fire Department Recreation Hall, 8380 Lewiston Road.

Word is this morning, driver frustration is high on Oak Street, as portions of the road have been reduced to a single lane near Main Street.  Traffic is backing up southbound with occasional long lines both east and west on Main (but, then, long lines at Main and Oak aren't unusual).  A DOT supervisor at the site said "if the weather cooperates" the work will be done, from Oak to the Thurway, will be done in three days.

Meanwhile, if you're coming from into town from north of the Thruway, consider entering Batavia on State Street.