batavia

Driving through downtown Batavia earlier today, I spotted a curious motor vehicle parked out front of a home on North Street, just east of Bank Street. In fact, it so caught my attention that I turned around at Dwyer Stadium and drove back just to take its picture.

One need catch only a mere glimpse of this truck to be dazzled, and that's without even knowing what splendors might be tucked away in its spacious cab—itself retro-embellished with umber stripes that can still be somewhat discerned beneath the cacophony of stickers. And oh, such stickers! It's probably impossible to see in these couple of photos here, but the stickers are no less than a paean to our American identity, albeit one that leans to the right. From "Fishaholic" and "Semper Fi" to "Let Freedom Ring" and "God Bless Ronald Reagan" (yikes), they are a testament to the wonder and ubiquity of American products, presidents, pastimes and... branches of the military.

Yet this truck has more to recommend than carpet cleaners (you might be able to make out the "Castle" sticker to the right and near the bottom of the window). It tells a story, some of which we can decipher from the few superficial clues we have here. We may infer, for example, that the owner is a traveller who once served in the military and enjoys the sport of fishing. This truck is an enormous symbol of self decked out in hundreds of smaller symbols that sharped the bigger picture we get in the first glance. In addition to the United States sticker, the hood also bears one for Wales and another for Poland. Are these indicatiors of ancestral nationality or places the owner visited? What of the stained-glass windows above the windshield and doors? Are they symbols of a religious sentiment or merely decorative?

How would you imagine the owner of this truck? Perhaps... A middle-aged fellow. A bit grizzled. A bit gray. Laughs heartily. Eats beef jerky. Doesn't mind if he gets lost, although he likely never does, having travelled coast to coast to coast, and back again. What do you think?

Do you know this truck? Is it your truck? Can you tell its story?

A Batavia business mainstay for more than a century, Loose Ends Vending & Food Service, has been sold, according to WBTA's Dan Fischer. A Massachusetts company will take over the vending service and incorporate it into "the nation's largest vending company," Next Generation, which operates out of Canton. Fischer reports that: "Many Batavia workers will be transferred to the new company's offices and warehouses in Buffalo and Rochester." No mention of how many workers will be affected, or if any stand to lose their jobs. Loose Ends was owned by brothers Thomas and John Houseknecht, along with their brother-in-law William Barton and nephew Michael Houseknecht. The family also owned the Pepsi-Cola Batavia Bottling Corp., which was sold nine months ago to the Pepsi Bottling Group.

Multiple accidents on the Thruway eastbound near Pembroke kept the highway closed down and backed up for nearly 20 miles yesterday evening. Slick wet roads are likely to blame for the crashes.

 No team plays perfect basketball at the start of the season.

The Batavia girls definitely were not at their best Saturday night in the finals of the Attica Tip-off Tournament, but overcame some issues in the paint and defeated Dansville 59-49 to capture the championship.

The Blue Devils opened up a seven point lead in the first quarter as Brittany Mazurkiewicz had the hot hand. The senior guard scored 11 of her team-high 19 points in the opening frame, giving Batavia an 18-11 advantage.

But Dansville came back and trailed just 24-20 at the half because of a solid effort in the paint. Batavia struggled to hit layups and gave the Mustangs too many second-chance points in the period.

Margaret Infantino's 3-pointer in the closing moments brought her team to within four points going into the break.

After Infantino dropped in another trifecta early on in the second half, Dansville took a 25-24 lead on a Ryan Doerr bucket. Infantino hit another 3-pointer after Michelle Jordan scored for Batavia and Dansville had a 28-26 lead, the team's biggest of the game.

Infantino scored seven of her game-high 20 points in the third quarter and the Mustangs led 36-35 after three periods of play.

Kristen Klein scored three points near the end of the third quarter and took over early in the fourth. The 5-foot-9 junior was one of several Batavia players looking to be a strong option at forward, next to Jaycee Shirk, and she very well could be.

Klein had several fourth quarter rebounds and scored her other four points in the fourth, with the second basket putting Batavia up 45-36. In all, Batavia scored the first 10 points of the final period.

Dansville cut the deficit to four points with just over 3 minutes left, but Mazurkiewicz hit a free throw, Stacy Hein ht a pair and Shirk scored to make it 50-41 with less than two minutes to play.

Hein hit 8-of-8 foul shots in the last minute and finished with 13 points.

Mazurkiewicz won the tournament MVP as she finished with 19 points, five assists and four steals. Shirk made the all-tournament team with eight points and four blocks and Jordan pitched in six points.

Infantino made the all-tournament team with 20 points and was joined by Ashley Amidon, who scored eight points.

Dansville falls to 1-1 while Batavia and new coach Bill Wade improve to 2-0 and bring home the championship trophy.

Alexander's Rachel Pettys made the all-tournament team as her Trojans beat rival Attica 44-32 in the consolation game. She scored 11 points with 13 steals and seven boards. Anna Dominick poured in 15 points with Kate Kochmanski grabbing 13 boards to go with her five points.

Attica's Christina West had 10 points and made the all-tournament squad.

The Blue Devils fall to 0-2 while Alexander improves to 1-1.

 The big news of the day Friday is on A-3 as Sam Pontillo tells Daily News reporter Joanne Beck that the Main Street Batavia Pontillo's pizzeria is unlikely to reopen soon.

The Daily News originally reported that the restaurant was shut down for renovations before The Batavian reported that the reason was $112,000 in back taxes. Pontillo talked with Beck a couple of days later and revealed a messy situation with the family, causing the restaurant to close because of the tax situation.

Originally Pontillo said that the pizzeria would reopen in a couple of weeks, but now says it is not going to happen because he feels that when he obtains the business from the family estate that there will be a lot of work that will actually have to be done before he can open the doors.

"I'm wondering, 'should I tear the building down and build a new one?'," Pontillo told Beck on Wednesday. "I need to decide that before I put some big money into the (current) building. I want to take the proper course of action. I'm still up in the air, I'm trying to get the estate settled, I'm working the numbers. No one wants to put money into a property they don't own."

Pontillo also says he has had preliminary talks with an architect to redesign the restaurant and has no intentions on keeping Pontillo's closed. He did tell Beck that if a "a big-monied drug store came along and made a generous offer to buy, he would consider it."

The Le Roy branch of Pontillo's is still open and the Batavia site has a sign saying Pontillo's is open for delivery.

The Batavian called the number on the sign (343-3303) at about 1:15 p.m. Friday and spoke with a woman named Maddy, who says that orders can be placed and will be delivered from the Le Roy restaurant to Batavia on Thursday through Sunday nights after 4 p.m. She says the full menu is available.

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Daily News reporter Tom Rivers handled the yearly Black Friday story and spoke with some shoppers that got up early to bargain hunt at Wal-Mart and Target.

Even with the current state of the economy, the stores were packed this morning. Rivers writes "The line (at Target) stretched for at least 500 people, extending to Bed Bath & Beyond.

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An inmate at the Genesee County Jail has been charged for a seven-year-old burglary in Le Roy, thanks to a DNA link writes reporter Scott DeSmit.

Genesee County sheriff investigator Timothy Weis tells DeSmit that 24-year-old Nick A. Hawkins was charged Tuesday with third-degree burglary for a Dec. 28, 2001 robbery at Frost Ridge Campground in Le Roy.

DNA submitted by Hawkins because he was a convicted felon matched blood taken from the crime scene, according to Weis.

Hawkins is the second person charged in the crime as Christopher D. Nolan was arrensted and charged in July 2002. He received five years probation and had to pay restitution. 

As always, we encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

Every few weeks we stop by the Holland Land Office Museum and chat with Pat Weissend, the museum's director, about some artifact or other interesting something going on at the museum. This time, there was really only one thing to talk about: the Wonderland of Trees. From now until January 3, folks can head down to the museum—check out the Web site for hours—to tour the Wonderland and help raise funds for the museum.

Now, before we get to the video, we would like to ask your help. We've been finding a few problems with the videos uploaded to blip.tv—which is otherwise flawless, with great quality and a large viewing screen. Unfortunately, the videos seem to skip on some computers. Here, we've loaded our video with Pat into both YouTube (top) and blip.tv (bottom). Which looks and runs better for you?

           Hopefully last night settles the issue of me being removed from the MOC. A thinly veiled attempt to remove me was made at last nights Council meeting. Frank Ferrando tried to come up with several different scenarios that could be used to kick someone off a committee. My favorite was being likened to a "community window decorator that hates windows". In the end after all of Frank, Bob and Bill's arguments for removal, intelligent reason prevailed. Thanks to Charlie, Cathy and Marianne it will remain that you can't throw someone off because they don't agree with you. Bob Bialkowski and Bill Cox tried to orchestrate a scheme that would have me removed. Bob asked Frank to implement this sorry attempt to try and hide him as the ring leader. Anyone present at the last Council meeting was a witness to Bob setting this in motion. Through out our campaign against each other a year ago and even until now I've never bad-mouthed Bob. At some point enough is enough. If no one has told you yet, you won Bob! I guess my biggest suprise is Bill. I worked along side Bill a lot last year and even helped him with his campaign. At the time I took him for an intelligent guy. I also thought Frank was above being used in such a way. We do live and learn.

         A couple of weeks ago Joanne Beck ran an article in The Daily News about this whole Mall thing. A week ago I met with Philip and discussed the same issue. We spoke for over an hour and he asked me to go ahead and submit my own article. I figured I'd wait till after last weeks MOC meeting and see how things went last night. I thought I would give you the e-mail I submitted to Joanne and let you all decide your own views. She asked me four questions, these were my answers:

         1.Q; Why did you start recording the meetings? I started recording meetings when I felt the minutes seemed inaccurate. I found things were being glossed over or omitted. When I would bring up these problems during the approval of the minutes it became apparent that these things were omitted for a reason. Dr. Chess would propose to remove the things before and after the missing statements instead of inserting what was really said. All I was asking for was the truth. When a City Council member would say something that isn't allowed due to ongoing negotiations I felt it should be included. Fortunately, they voted to close the meetings. Council members attending meetings should be less frequent now permitting a much less likely chance a verbal mistake can jeopardize Jason's ongoing negotiations.

         2.)Q; Did it involve a disability, and are you willing to elaborate at all?   As far as my disability, that's now a non-issue. They all voted against me recording meetings. Madeline is the only one who is allowed to record now. All I wanted was to have access to the recording. Dr. Chess asked Jason if they kept recordings of Council meetings and he said they did. The board agreed to keep recordings for 60 days and that I could review them at Madeline's office if I needed to. All I wanted was the
ability to check the minutes if I felt something was wrong, and they granted me that. Had they not let me have access to any type of recording, I would have pursued the disability case against them. Since I have access, all is fine. However, if I'm ever denied access or the recording is "lost" then I will have to get my lawyer involved as well as contact the media.

         3.)Q; Why do you think the Board wants you off the MOC?  The reason they want me off the board is unknown to me. My job is to be on the side of the taxpayer. That's a conflict of what they want. I don't know what past city-appointed members did, and I don't really care. I know what my position is:  it's to keep as much of the people of Batavia's money where they want or  don't want it to go. The people have made it clear to me, (very, very clear to me) that they don't want one more dime spent on the Mall. I've told them that's not going to happen. Whether it's an expensive roof, selling it for a dollar, or ten years worth of tax concessions, it's going to cost us something. The board has told me they want all three. I've told everybody that what ever the cost is, I feel the best thing is to make sure we sever all ties between the City and the Mall. Let's make sure this deal is the last deal. Everybody has agreed with me on that point. The public WILL NOT STAND  for the MOC getting all three requests. My job is to give the MOC as little as possible. Again, my job is to give the Mall as little as possible. I'm standing my ground. I guess we know why they want me gone.

         4.)Q; Do you feel you've been "antagonistic" in any way?  Am I being antagonistic? I'm sure they feel that way. I know they didn't like it when I wrote my opinion in the paper several months back. In the next meeting I was told I was now viewed as a "Hostile" and would be treated as such. I'm fine with that. They have their objective and I have mine. After that article in the paper, we as a board all agreed to keep everything at the meetings and not in the paper. I have kept my word on that. I think they feel I'm being antagonistic because I want the truth all the time, not just when it suits some of them. Whenever Dr. Chess has been less than honest, I point it out. When Bill Cox was caught in a contradiction it upset both of them. Bob Bialkowski must still think we're running against each other. To this day, he likes to try and mess with me when he can. I don't dislike anyone on the board. We're all there for a reason, but not for the same outcome. When opposing views are present there is no way it's all going to be lovey-dovey. I understand that, and that's why I sit there as the lone person on the side of the City taxpayers. I'm fine with that. Whether it's a meeting that's 6 against one, or ten against one, it's no problem for me. Apparently they feel the need to have a "yes man" there too. It's too bad for them that I'm not one. I wonder how Dr. Chess would do in my shoes? I think the answer is obvious, he doesn't like being on a team against one opponent. Wow, how would he handle being in my position?
 

A proposal to cut community funding for towns and counties that host video-lottery-gaming facilities failed to pass the state Legislature earlier this year. But it is being brought up again by Gov. David Paterson and could take effect April 1, if it is passed. From the Democrat & Chronicle:

Towns and counties with video-lottery-gaming facilities would go bust under a plan by Gov. David Paterson to slash their aid by 50 percent as a way to trim the state's growing budget deficits.

If passed, the cuts could mean a drop from about $14 million to about $7 milion for counties across the state, including Genesee, Erie and Ontario.

Some local governments said they have prepared for a reduction in aid and didn't budget any of the money in the 2009 fiscal year, which for counties runs on calendar year. Aid to municipalities that have racetracks with the slot-machine-like devices started in 2006 under former Gov. George Pataki.

"We never programmed that money until it actually arrived," said Ontario County administrator Geoffrey Astles. Finger Lakes Gaming and Racing is located in Farmington, Ontario County.

The county would get its aid lowered from $844,533 to $422,267, while Farmington would see its aid sliced from $2.5 million to $1.3 million.

Genesee County Manager Jay Gsell told us this morning that the county has already planned for the cuts. In fact, he said, they do not perceive the drop in aid as a budget cut. "We look at it as there will be an inclusion of about $140,000," he said. That amount is compared with about $240,000 from the previous year.

The town of Hamburg stands to see a much more significant drop in their aid. From WNED:

The $1.2-million the town currently gets from Fairgrounds Gaming is supposed to cover the costs of having the gambling operation in Hamburg. Supervisor Steven Walters has asked town department heads to look at possible cuts in case the governor's proposal to cut the state share to $600,000 takes effect.

Check out the article from the Albany Times Union for more details on the proposed cuts.

Thanks to Don Burkel of the Batavia Business Improvement District for passing along this television commercial for Christmas in the City. It's got all the details about the big event coming up a week from Friday.

 For this area, if a high school basketball program has one or two players that move on to play the next level, it's a pretty remarkable achievement.

The Batavia boys basketball program makes one or two playing in college look like nothing, as five former Blue Devils are playing at the Division III level, with the best-of-the-best in the area.

Mike Chmielowiec is the elder statesman of the group and is starting his senior season at the University of Rochester tonight, with a game against Pitt-Bradford.

Kevin Saunders is a junior and playing at Fredonia State and Adam Brasky is a sophomore at King's College.

Mike Hoy and Bryan Anderson are freshman, Hoy playing at Geneseo and Anderson at Roberts Wesleyan. 

Chmieloweic and Saunders both start.

"I've definitely learned a lot of different things as the years went on," said Saunders, who started 13 games as a freshman. "Being a junior I've played a lot and learned a lot of different things along the way. I've grown as a player overall."

Chmielowiec has had a tremendous career and is one of two seniors starting for UofR this season. 

"I think there is a different element to (being a captain in college)," said Chmielowiec, a political science major. "Most kids on the team were captains or the man where they are from. It's a different responsibility. Now you have guys that were the best. It's almost a different kind of leadership role."

He played every game (including three starts) as a freshman, scoring 4.2 points per game, leading the team in 3-pointers with 14. 

Chmielowiec was the MVP of the Chase Tournament as a sophomore and started all 26 games. He led the team in scoring with 12.4 points per game, also leading the team in rebounding with 3.5 per game. He had 48 assists, good for fourth on the squad.

He was third on the team in scoring last season at 12.4 per game, starting 19 games and missing some time due to injury.

Chmielowiec was recently featured on the UofR Web site.

After spending the summer living in Los Angeles and putting on over 10 pounds, he is ready for a big senior season. After that, he will either go into the workforce or play basketball overseas, where a former coach has some contacts that will be interested.

Saunders started 19 games and saw action in all 24 in his freshman season at Fredonia, finishing second on the team in 3-pointers (28) and assists (48).

He led the team in assists last year with 63 and started 13 games, playing in all 26.

Saunders is a captain for the Blue Devils this season, and his team is off to a 2-1 start. Fredonia is a team on the upswing and the hot start is big, especially with the 66-63 victory over Penn State-Behrend this week. The Blue Devils were down 18 points with six minutes to go and went on a tear at the end of the game.

 "I don't know if we are a better team this year, but we are more experienced, said Saunders, a sports management major. "When I was a freshman and sophomore, we had young guys. I was seeing a lot of minutes as a freshman, so we were young. Now the core of our team is all juniors and seniors."

Adam Brasky - son of Batavia coach Buddy Brasky - played in all 19 games for King's College as a freshman, where he played 5.9 minutes per game, scoring 1.2 points per game with nine assists on the season. King's won a conference title last season.

He expect to have a big sophomore season, and has averaged 17.5 minutes per game in the first two contests of the year.

"There is a big difference for me from my freshman year," said Brasky, a history major. "The game doesn't feel as fast as last year. It has slowed down and I feel more comfortable now."

Brasky is playing a new style of basketball compared to Batavia's high-octane, man-to-man full-court pressure defense.

"We don't press much and aren't an up-tempo team," Brasky said. "We don't want them to get to the basket and offensively we set up plays and run motion. In high school the players aren't all this good. Here you run motion and use your basketball IQ to run plays, rather than run the court.

Hoy and Anderson are just getting their feet wet in the college game, but the two freshman are off to solid starts.

Anderson was a big signing for the Raiders and starts his college career off as the backup center.

Roberts is off to a 3-1 start and Anderson has played 18.3 minutes per game, scoring 8.8 points with 4.5 rebounds per game.

"I thought that as a freshman I would only get 2-3 minutes per game," said Anderson, who is a physical education major. "There were a couple problems and one of the big guys couldn't play, so it has helped me to get more playing time. It showed the coach that I can play at this level. Myself and another freshman are the big guys right now."

Hoy is mentioned as a sharpshooter in the Geneseo Web site preview, and he's already contributing after just one game.

He grabbed four rebounds and scored two points while playing 19 minutes in the opening game victory.

"I was a bit surprised," said Hoy, who has not declared a major yet. "It was more of a surprise in the scrimmages because I didn't expect to play this much. I got a lot of time and was like 'wow'".

 Hoy - like all five former Batavia players - has found the transition to college basketball easy because of the guys he plays with.

"Playing basketball is fun for me," Hoy said. "I like all the guys on the team. It has made the transition easier. I've been really happy about that part."

With seven-straight Monroe County League Division III titles, the Batavia program has been one of the best in the area. And with five players contributing on Division III teams, it shows.

For over a month now, The Batavian has been following along as the 4-H Student Legislators learn the ropes of local government. We first met up at a meeting of the Genesee County Legislature. Then, we followed along when the interns got together at the Genesee County Nursing Home, where a couple dozen county government staffers came together to talk about what they do and take questions from the interns. Everyone from the sheriff to the clerk of the legislature was present.

In our first video, we asked the students their first impressions. In the next, we talked a bit about what they had learned so far. When we met up with them again yesterday, most of them had finished drafting up a resolution that they plan to present to their fellow legislators when they convene in a mock session of the Legislature in the spring. So we asked about their resolutions.

Before we get to that video, however, we're going to test your knowledge of local government. Chip Malone, the mastermind behind the student government program, devised a test of about a dozen questions—though some have several parts to them—all about local government. I took the test. I scored a 39 out of 46, which is about 86 percent. Not too bad, but not as well as I would have liked to have done. Although, I'm sure that if I were to take it again, I would ace it.

Now, we can't reprint the entire test here, because that would give away all of the answers for the students who have yet to take the test. Nevertheless, Chip has been kind enough to allow us to reprint a few of the questions.

First, allow me to brag that I knew every one of our federal and state representatives, including the incoming and outgoing state senators and congressmen. But those questions should be easy for anyone who has any eye on politics in the region. So, instead, I'll share a couple of the questions I found most difficult, and a few others that were a breeze—try to figure out which. Questions are reproduced exactly as they appear on the test.

1. Describe the special provision (rule) which provides opportunity to bring business before the (county) legislature which is not previously written on the agenda.

2. By law, a town is viewed as a:

a. Independent municipal corporation.

b. Involuntary subdivisions of the state, established to make state government more effective.

c. Any group of more than 2000 citizens who choose to start a local government and enact law.

3. What is weighted voting?

4. What are county governments' three top sources of revenue?

5. List the three committees of the county legislature.

We will post the answers Monday.

Some area auto dealers feel pretty strongly about the inevitability and justness of a Washington bailout of the nation's auto industry, according to the Daily News. John Pazamickas, sales manager for Orleans Ford-Mercury had this to say to Virginia Kropf:

"We believe the auto industry is the most important single manufacturing industry in the country, and for the government not to take seriously the livelihood of millions who derive income from that industry is shameful."

Shameful! That's emphatic. What do you think? Is Pazamickas in the right? He says that "for every job the auto industry creates, eight other jobs are affected." Is the auto industry so entwined with the fabric of the national economy that a bailout is "inevitable"?

In other news, the family whose apartment burned earlier this month—in the same fire that destroyed the post office in Pavilion—have found a new home. For now at least, they will be renting out a home on St. Mary's Street.

Youth sports are in the news again. This time, the Batavia Town Board got the pitch: a proposal to rent "15 acres of land at Batavia Turf Farms to give area youths and adult sports leagues a place to play." Folks who are interested are already entertaining visios of sports tournaments and a boost to tourism "by attracting teams and spectators from outside the local area."

The Batavia Town Board approved the $5.9 million budget for next year. That means the property tax rate in the town will remain at zero.

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.