batavia

Late yesterday afternoon, I took a drive out through Elba, Oakfield and the Town of Batavia. Here's four photos from the drive.

Above, a horse at Macomber and Townline roads, Batavia.

A tree on Pekin Road, Elba.

I suspect this is an old outhouse, but I'm not sure. On Pekin Road, Elba.

Flowers by a pond on Slusser Road, Batavia.

The Empire Cup and College Showcase is under way at Genesee Community College this weekend.

The event brings together more than 50 colleges and universities from throughout Upstate New York for nonstop soccer.

From what I saw from my brief time at GCC today, soccer fans might enjoy attending Sunday. It's a pretty high level of competition.

The event was moved to GCC from the Batavia Sports Park on Bank Street Road because those fields remain heavily saturated from recent rains.

Today's pictures can be purchased by clicking here.

More pictures after the jump:

A car on the Thruway has apparently lost its fuel tank and spilled fuel "all over" the roadway.

The spill is in the eastbound lane in the area of mile marker 388.6.

Town of Batavia firefighters dispatched.

A report of an allegedly intoxicated man with a child at Walmart at 9:43 p.m., Friday, led to a traffic stop and the arrest of Cody A. Bush, of Bank Street, Batavia.

Bush, 25, was charged with felony driving while ability impaired by drugs, felony aggravated DWI with a child in the car (Leandra's Law), felony aggravated unlicensed operation, four counts criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th, and unlawful possession of marijuana.

The child allegedly in the car is 2 years old.

He was allegedly in possession of four different types of controlled substances.

Bush was also charged with driving left of pavement markings, unsafe tires, uninspected motor vehicle and unlicensed operation.

Following arraignment before Justice Thomas Williams, Town of Batavia Court, Bush was jailed on $15,000 bail.

Just after midnight, a Kentucky man allegedly punched somebody in the face while on Main Street, Batavia, and took his wallet.

Officer Frank Klimjack was on patrol on Main Street when the incident occurred and immediately apprehended the suspect before the crime was even reported to the dispatch center.

Charged with robbery, 2nd, and assault, 2nd, was Patrick J. Ettleman, 43, of 1218 West Oak St., Louisville, Ky.

Ettleman was jailed without bail.

City firefighters dispatched to 16 Harvester Ave. for smoke in the residence.

No fire seen.

UPDATE 8:26 a.m.: Second alarm, second and fourth platoons requested to the scene.

UPDATE 8:33 a.m.: Fire located in the ceiling on the first floor on the A side.

UPDATE 8:41 a.m.: Fire under control.

UPDATE 9:21 a.m.: Red Cross being notified for four adults and three children.

UPDATE 12:25 p.m.: All fire units put back in service.

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Luz J. Castro, 27, of 679 E. Main St., Batavia, is charged with theft of services. Castro was arrested following a complaint by Time Warner Cable.

Rebecca S. Hensel, 28, of 8311 Kelsey Road, Batavia, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater and speeding. Hensel was stopped at 1:03 a.m. on West Main Street in the area of Bogue Avenue for allegedly going 50 mph by Officer Darryle Streeter.

Robert C. Paris, 21, of 3469 W. Main St. Road, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd. Paris is accused of harassing an acquaintance.

A 17-year-old resident of 41 S. Pearl St., Apt. 1, Oakfield, is charged with falsely reporting an incident, 3rd. The youth is accused of contacting the Genesee County Sheriff's Office on April 13 saying she was a victim of a crime. The reported incident allegedly did not occur.

A level 3 sex offender is in jail after being accused of sending indecent text messages to a minor and of not properly reporting a change of address.

Held on $50,000 bail is Marlek E. Holmes, 37, of 103 W. Main St., Batavia.

Holmes is charged with disseminating indecent material to a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and sex offender failure to notify change of address within 10 days.

The text messages were reported to Batavia Police on Feb. 19. That case was investigated by Det. Todd Crossett.

Det. Charles Dudek conducted the investigation into Holmes' residency.

Le Roy Police assisted in the investigations.

More than two dozen young football enthusiasts turned out for an organizational meeting for the Batavia Bulldawgs, a new youth traveling football team.

Actually, two teams -- one for third- through fifth-graders and another for fifth- through new seventh-graders.

Unlike youth football, the Bulldawgs will play four of their eight games away from home, against other teams in the region.

The games are also played on 100-yard fields under the same rules as high school football's Section V.

Team Vice President Ken Proefrock explained that the Bulldawgs will learn the same system used by the Batavia Blue Devils and work as a feeder organization, preparing Batavia's young players to be competitive at the high school level.

Registration is from 6 to 8 p.m., May 13, in City Centre, between JCPenney and Sunny's. Students need a photo, proof of school grade (current report card or letter from the school) and doctor's clearance. For more information, write bataviabulldawgsfootball@gmail.com.

Fewer than a dozen people showed up to Jackson Street School on Tuesday night to hear, and have a chance to be heard, on the proposed 2011-12 Batavia City Schools' budget.

It's a budget that would, if passed, increase the tax levy by 5.75 percent, or about $1.14 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

The $39.6 million spending plan eliminates several staff positions as the district struggles to meet the demands of shrinking state aid and growing personnel costs.

Voters will be asked to approve the budget May 17.

If voters turn out against the budget,  it doesn't necessarily mean local property owners will avoid a property tax increase.

The district has two choices if the budget isn't ratified: propose a new budget for voters or pass a contingency budget.

In the case of a contingency budget, the state mandates certain budget expenses be removed -- equipment, some instructional and extra-curricular programs and public use of school buildings.

Even if those items are cut from the budget, Superintendent Margaret Puzio explained, it would only decrease the tax levy by about $100,000.

Even a contingency budget would lead to a property tax increase.

About 75 percent of the district's budget is taken up by personnel costs.

Employee benefits account for $8.8 million of the district's expenses. The state mandated employee retirement system contribution has gone up more than 16 percent, an increase of 39.6 percent over 2010-11. The district's contribution to the teacher retirement system has gone up 11.11 percent, a 28.9 percent increase over the previous budget year.

“Those are significant expenses and completely beyond the control of anybody in the district,” said Board Member Gary Stich (inset photo).

Most of the revenue for the district comes in the form of state aid, which is being cut for the fourth straight year.

In 2008-09, the district received $20.1 million in state aid. The estimated aid for 2011-12 will be $17.9 million.

In that time, state aid has decreased from 49.92 percent of the district's revenue to 46.83 percent.

The district is getting a little help from the federal government, Puzio said. It's a one-time grant of more than $500,000. The district is using that money to help offset reduced state aid.

"The good thing is it (the grant) helped us plug a little bit of the hole from that loss in state aid," Puzio said. "The bad news is, next year it will be gone. We don’t know what we’ll get in state aid next year, but we need to realize that we are already a half-million dollars down.”

The budget reduces non-instructional staff time and eliminates six non-instructional positions.  

Six full-time instructional positions are eliminated, including three teacher aids.

The only audience member to speak was David DiSalvo, and he questioned the seemingly high salaries of some staff and district administrators.

Board Member Patrick Burk defended administrator salaries saying that current administrators are earning less than they might make elsewhere and that the district must offer competitive salaries in order to hire and retain the best personnel.

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.