Attention music lovers: The Batavia Concert Band is currently seeking additional board members.
The board meets every other month and oversees band management officers in preparation for the annual summer concert season.
If you are interested, please contact Pam Frisby at 343-8560.
Cortney L. Richardson, 28, of 77 Walden Creek Drive, Batavia, is charged with felony DWI, felony driving with a BAC of .18 or greater, speed not reasonable and failure to keep right. Richardson was charged following a one-car, non-injury accident on Bank Street, Batavia, at 2:40 a.m., Friday. Richardson's car reportedly hit a fire hydrant on Bank Street after he allegedly failed to negotiate a turn at Denio Street. Bail was set at $7,500.
Mark Wilhem Hanel, 39, of Swamp Road, Bergen, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th. Hanel is accused of being in the house of a person he was barred by court order from contacting. Upon his arrest, Hanel was searched and allegedly found in possession of a controlled substance. Bail was set at $2,500.
John M. Taggert, 28, of 16 North Lyons St., Batavia, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater and operating with insufficient headlights. Taggert was stopped on Main Street, Village of Le Roy, at 12:30 a.m., Saturday, by Le Roy Police.
John R. Sherman, 33, of Lima, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater and following too closely. Sherman was stopped at 10:20 p.m., Friday, on Route 5 in Stafford by State Police.
The International Collectors Association presents the Ohio Valley Refinery & Roadshow at the Comfort Inn in Batavia next week.
Collectors anticipate $300,000 in sales from local residents wanting cash for their antiques, collectibles, and gold and silver items.
The Ohio Valley Refinery & Roadshow travels across the globe in search of rare and unique items. During this event, people will have the exciting opportunity to sit with experts from around the world and sell their items to collectors if they wish to do so.
Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, Jan. 11-14. and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 15.
The Comfort Inn is located at 4371 Federal Drive.
The City of Batavia is looking for interested residents to apply for upcoming vacancies on the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Residents interested in applying for a position can obtain an application from either the City Manager's Office or by downloading it from the city website at:
www.batavianewyork.com
If there are any questions, or if additional information is needed, please contact:
Office of the City Manager
One Batavia City Centre
Batavia, NY 14020
Phone: 585-345-6330
FAX: 585-343-8182
E-mail: jmolino@batavianewyork.com
Here's a news release from The Salvation Army.
Christmas 2010 was a record-breaking year for The Salvation Army, says local Captain Patricia Kurtz.
The 2010 Red Kettle Campaign goal was set at $65,000. With the bad weather losing a weekend of fund raising, and a hurting economy it was uncertain if the goal was attainable.
However, thanks to the generosity of the community $69,329 was raised exceeding the projected goal by $4,329.
It was also a record-breaking year for the number of families served for the holiday season.
“This year we assisted 1,324 families with food and toys," Kurtz said. "That is a 58 percent increase over last year.We knew there would be an increase but we did not project such a large percentage.”
These families represent 101 seniors and over 4,000 children receiving more than 9,000 meals and more than 10,000 gifts and toys.
Captain Kurtz expressed her appreciation to the community:
“This type of activity does not happen without a community wide effort. The Salvation Army and each family that received assistance owes a debt of gratitude to all the bell ringers, donors, Angel Tree sponsors, Adopt-A-Family sponsors, and stocking stuffers.”
Special thanks to the 312 bell ringers for providing over 1,200 volunteer hours and the 50 volunteers who served 403 hours in the toy shop.
For more information contact: "Captain Patty" at 343-6284 or email at patricia.kurtz@use.salvationarmy.org
Richard Wolfe, 33, of 36 Garibaldi Ave., Oakfield, is charged with public lewdness. Wolfe is accused of exposing his genitals to a female employee of a West Main Street coffee shop in Batavia while he was sitting in his car at the drive-thru window.
Nathan D. Stephens, 43, of 6258 North Lake Road, Bergen, is charged with aggravated unlicensed operation, 3rd, unlicensed operation and speeding. Stephens was stopped by Deputy Colin Reagan of the Wyoming Sheriff's Office at 6:22 a.m., Thursday, on South Main Street in the Village of Warsaw.
Justin William Bird, 22, of State Street, Batavia, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, unlawful possession of marijuana, inadequate headlights and leaving the scene of a property damage accident. Bird is accused of being involved in a property damage accident at 2:26 a.m. in the area of 43 S. Main St., Elba. Allegedly, Bird left the scene without proper notifications and was later located driving in the Village of Elba.
A stove fire is reported at 44 N. Lyon St. in the City of Batavia.
"The caller is pretty excited and they're told to get out of the house," says a dispatcher.
City firefighters are en route.
UPDATE 11:53 a.m.: The resident has put out the fire and the firefighters are investigating the incident.
Yvonne Burgess has a real talent -- she can turn an ordinary cupcake into a work of art.
She stopped by The Batavian office Thursday afternoon to show of the decorative "flower box" of cupcakes she had with her and showed off mobile phone pictures of several other designs she's come up with.
The owner of Fry Dogz, a mobile food service, Burgess is looking to expand her business to offer customers cupcakes designed to fit any occasion.
"I feel a lot of enjoyment making these," said Burgess, explaining why she would like to make this speciality her primary business.
She would like to open a retail location, offering other baked goods, as well, in Downtown Batavia, but first, she said, she needs to demonstrate that she can make money making cupcakes.
A cancer survivor (she said she had a brain tumor), she said she's recently found it easier to work for herself, and making beautiful cupcakes is what she enjoys doing most.
"I couldn't find work that suited me (after getting cancer) and this does," Burgess said. "I love creating things and helping others. That's just me."
To contact Burgess, call either 585-591-7911 or 585-861-0414.
Employees of the Batavia Nursing Home of told WKBW that they've been having trouble cashing their payroll checks.
The facility, along with one in Lewiston, is owned by Senior Associates LLC, which is owned by Marc Korn, according to WKBW.
A man exposed himself, sometime within the last hour, to the worker inside the Hot Shots coffee drive-thru on East Main Street in Batavia, according to police.
They are looking for him now. He is described as a white male, wearing a hoodie with a Yankees baseball cap. He is driving a 1999 Ford Contour. It is a four-door sedan, color is maroon/burgundy.
His address is listed as a P.O. Box in Batavia.
Tim Walton, the 21-year-old entrepreneur behind Top Line Shirt Company, is planning another business venture.
He and a partner, Mike Marchese, are planning to open a teen nightclub at 624 E. Main St., Batavia, in the spring.
The building is owned by Ken Mistler and once housed his gym, which is now located at the corner of East Main and Jackson streets, downtown.
Impulz Teen Nightclub is expected to open in the spring, Walton said.
The space is 7,350 square feet and Walton said it is already well set up for a DJ booth and dance floor.
The club will cater to teens in high school and middle school and be similar to iTeen, a popular nightclub in Buffalo that draws young people from throughout the region.
Walton said he first conceived of the idea when was 18 because he and his friends felt there weren't enough entertainment options in Batavia. But until now, he said, he couldn't afford to open such a venue.
To avoid the need of a loan to fully fund the venture, Walton turned to Marchese as a business partner to help get the doors open.
There will be extensive renovations inside the building before the club can open, Walton said.
Originally, Mistler intended to put a nightclub in the space, Walton said, but Mistler has become busy with his business ventures downtown, which include The Daily Grind, Next Level Fitness and South Beach Restaurant. Mistler has been providing advice and pointers during the start-up process, Walton said.
Nicholas Adkins, 20, of West Main Street Road, Batavia, is charged with burglary, 2nd. Adkins allegedly forcibly entered a house on Swamp Road, Town of Byron, and stole money. Adkins was jailed on $5,000 bail.
A 17-year-old resident of Transit Road, Elba, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. The youth is accused of becoming physically abusive toward a 14-year-old boy while the boy was in the area of 430 E. Main St., Batavia. The Elba youth may be eligible for youthful offender status.
David Paul Bartholf, 19, Kelsey Road, Batavia, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. Bartholf was reportedly a passenger in a vehicle stopped by Deputy Patrick Reeves at 4:58 p.m., Nov. 11. Bartholf was allegedly found in possession of a marijuana pipe.
Gregory Seppe, 52, no permanant address, is charged with petit larceny. Seppe is accused of shoplifting from Dollar General at 8:08 p.m., Wednesday. Seppe was jailed on $750 bail. (For previous reports on Seppe, click here.)
Donna M. Croft, 57, of 56 Buell St., Batavia, is charged with petit larceny. Croft is accused of trying to hide several items of merchandise from Dollar General in her purse. The alleged crime was reported at 9:54 p.m., Wednesday.
A Batavia man who admitted in federal court to storing and receiving sexually explicit images and video involving children is being sent to prison for five years.
Samuel W. Nigro, 33, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge Richard J. Arcara.
Nigro was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution to two victims and will be on supervised release for five years after his prison term is completed.
In December 2009, the Nigro's computer was seized during the execution of a search warrant at his residence. A forensic analysis revealed a total of 5,239 images and 113 videos of child pornography stored on the computer.
UPDATE: The original press release on this said Brett M. Blair would be in court on March 11 for "sentencing." But the release didn't include any information indicating that he had entered a guilty plea to any charges. After the initial post, I spoke with Sgt. Steve Mullen of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office and Blair and his attorney were in negotiations on a plea arrangement -- with Blair agreeing to detail his criminal activitiy -- prior to his arrest on Tuesday. So, the March 11 appearance will be for sentencing. His sentence on all charges will run concurrently. Further details on the plea arrangement are not available at this time.
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A 27-year-old Bergen man has been charged with multiple felonies following an investigation by local and state law enforcement agencies into a series of crimes.
Taken into custody Tuesday was Brett M. Blair.
Blair is charged with:
A Sheriff's Office press release says that the three law enforcement agencies involved pooled their resources to help identify Blair as the suspect and make the arrests.
Blair was already in custody for unspecified reasons at the Monroe County Jail.
After being taken into custody, Blair was arraigned in the town and city courts of Batavia and then brought before Judge Robert Noonan in Genesee County Court. He was returned to Monroe County Jail and is scheduled to reappear in county court at 1:30 p.m., March 10.
Adam M. Kreutz, 22, of Fisher Road, Oakfield, is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony, and criminal mischief, 4th. At 4:40 a.m.,Tuesday, while in the Village of Oakfield, Kreutz allegedly drowned a family cat. He was jailed on $5,000 bail.
Jeffery Leonard Wheeler, 18, of West Main Street Road, Batavia, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. Wheeler is accused of visiting a residence he is barred from visiting by court order. Wheeler was jailed on $2,000 bail.
As soon as the Elba Town Board found out about cash from scrap metal sales being used to buy a flat-screen TV, popcorn popper and coffeemaker for the highway department, the board instituted new accounting controls to better track funds from the sales, according to Town Supervisor Lucine Kauffman.
Disclosure of the sales and purchases were part of an audit report on nine Western New York governments and the Batavia School District by the NYS Comptroller's Office.
Investigators specifically looked into how procedures for scrap material sales were handled. The finding: Of the $132,000 in scrap sales, there was inadequate tracking and accounting of more than $27,000 in cash.
Elba had the distinction of the only flat-screen TV purchased with the cash.
"It was not a practice we (the board) knew about and we put a stop to it immediately," Kauffman said.
According to the report, the highway superintendent for Elba at the time, Allan Totten, made $5,605 in scrap sales from June 2006 to July 2009. The scrap buyer paid with a check for $1,119 in purchases and paid cash on 18 occasions, totalling $4,486.
When he got checks, Totten reportedly turned the checks over to the town and the money went into the general fund.
Kauffman says the Town of Elba contracts with a vendor to pick up scrap metal from its transfer station and it rents a receptacle from the vendor. Proceeds from the sale of this scrap metal has been in the form of a check mailed directly to her.
The scrap metal sold by the highway department employees for cash consisted of items they transported to the vendor. When he got cash, Totten treated it as a "coffee fund" -- petty cash to use within his department.
After auditors questioned this practice, Totten reportedly turned over $1,113 to the town. He didn't have receipts for the purchase of the TV and small appliances, but auditors said they visually confirmed those items were in the highway offices.
Kauffman said in response, that the town notified the scrap buyer that all purchases must be paid for by check from now on, that specific accounting of each transaction must take place. Furthermore, there is no "coffee fund" now.
Purchases for refreshments are reimbursable only under specific conditions, one of which is that the refreshments are for highway department employees from other municipalities assisting with Town of Elba projects.
These purchases will be specifically regulated as to how much money can be spent on authorized items. The town also adopted a code of ethics and wrote a scrap metal policy.
And writing the policy was made a bit harder, Kauffman said, because she couldn't find another jurisdiction that could provide an example of their own (written) scrap sales policies. They just didn't exist, Kauffman said.
That was one of the issues the comptroller's office apparently was trying to address in its audit of government agencies.
In the Batavia School District, auditors identified nearly $4,700 in cash sale proceeds for the period September 2006 through November 2008 that were not recorded or documented.
Some of the sales were recorded in the names of district employees and employees included personal scrap in the pile.
The City of Batavia and Town of Oakfield were found to have informal procedures for accounting for scrap sales and the audit report suggests that formal procedures be adopted.
John and Margaret Volpe, husband and wife, and teachers for more than 20 years at St. Joseph School in Batavia, will be honored later this month at a WNY Catholic Education Dinner.
They will receive the "Making a Difference Award" on Thursday, Jan. 27 at the Adam's Mark Hotel, Buffalo.
The award was established by Buffalo native and NBC newsman Tim Russert, as a way of honoring his former teachers for the difference they made in his life. It is given to a Catholic schoolteacher in the Buffalo diocese.
This is the first time two teachers will be recipients.
Melissa Ann Peterson, 25, of Jackson Street, Batavia, is charged with aggravated harassment, 2nd. Peterson is accused of placing a phone call to her grandmother and calling her "filthy, vulgar words," according to Deputy Brian Thompson, who reported that he was at the grandmother's house at the time of the phone call and was a "direct witness to this harassing, annoying call." Thompson was on scene investigating a report of stolen keys. Peterson was arrested and released on her own recognizance.
Tracy A. Niemi, 35, of 8510 Seven Springs Road, Batavia, is charged with forgery, 2nd. Niemi is accused of altering a prescription form and attempting to pass it at a pharmacy in the city.
Jonathon James Breu, 19, of Meadow Drive, Geneseo, is charged with petit larceny. Breu is accused of stealing $63 worth of cigarettes from the Totem Pole Smoke Shop.
Christmas came twice for Jan Nichols of Batavia.
Nichols picked up a big present at the Batavia Improvement District Office today -- a $500 gift certificate for a shopping spree at participating downtown businesses.
The prize was the award of a contest sponsored by the BID called "Shop in the Zone."
Thirty-five downtown businesses took part, with entrants being required to stop at at least 12 businesses and fill out a participation card.
The winner was drawn from all qualifying entrants.
The contest ran from Dec. 1-24.
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