batavia

Melody Lynn Neal, 20, of Indian Falls Road, Corfu, is charged with falsely reporting an incident, 3rd. Neal is accused of contacting Genesee County Dispatch and claiming that a person had contacted her by phone threatening to do her harm. An investigation allegedly revealed that the harassing phone calls never occurred.

Steven B. Ellis, 46, of Wyoming, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th. Ellis was stopped by State Police in the Town of Batavia at 6:43 p.m., Sunday.

Accident Update: On an accident we reported Sunday that partially closed Route 63 for several hours, the State Police blotter contains the following information. The accident occurred at 1:52 p.m. It was a single-car accident with one injury. The driver is reported as Roy A. Park, 50, of Batavia. No further details were released.

A pedestrian has reportedly been hit by a car on West Main Street, Batavia, in front of Batavia Marine, near Tops.

Rain forced the closing ceremonies for the Moving Wall at the VA Center inside today, but dozens of people showed up for the short service. Bill Davis thanked all of the volunteers and donors who made bringing the wall to Batavia possible.

Afterward, a couple of dozen people spent time at the Wall before its removal.

Batavia City Councilman Bill Cox is planning to bolt from the GOP and join the Conservative Party, WBTA reports this afternoon.

Cox reportedly sent a letter to GOP City Chairman Joe Gerace on Friday and said the local Republicans have no platform and do not stand for anything.

WBTA reports that Cox said he believes the direction of the United States needs to be changed, and that change begins at the local level.

The local GOP is "not doing anything significant to help turn things around," Cox reportedly wrote.

Cox has been a Republican for 47 years.

UPDATE 1:48 p.m.: The Batavian has obtained a copy of the letter.

In it, Cox writes:

Our country is in a mess. The majority party in control of Congress has violated our Constitution and individual rights repeatedly; they make up any rule they want to push through legislation; they make unethical and punitive back room deals; they are bankrupting the country with massive spending, and they refuse to listen to the people.

He says he has already submitted the paperwork to change parties, and adds, "The conservative Party has been at the fore front of trying to counter this along with the Tea Party movement. We need to change things now."

He vows to continue to support Republican causes and candidates who stand for conservative principles.

Genesee County Dispatch received a report of a shot fired at 3727 W. Main St. Road, Batavia, near County Building #2.

The initial response had Sheriff's units and State Police responding, with Mercy EMS staging at Dave's Ice Cream.

The caller reportedly said he heard, "Don't shoot."  And then a shot.

On further questioning by a dispatcher, the caller said he was in the area at the time, and that the shot he heard occurred at least an hour earlier. He said he hadn't seen anybody come or go from the area since.

Police are on scene "trying to sort it out."

UPDATE 8:37 p.m.: Scene secure. Report appears unfounded.

Challenger baseball opened last weekend, but I wasn't able to make it, so I stopped by the games today to take some pictures.

More pictures after the jump:

A driver was cited for allegedly illegally passing on the right, leading to a minor injury accident at 5:37 p.m., Friday.

The car passing on the right was struck by another vehicle, sending it into a parked vehicle in the area of 2761 W. Main Street Road, Batavia.

Mark A. Riegel, 18, of 3644 W. Main Street Road, Batavia, was driving a 1997 Honda when he allegedly attempted to pass a pickup truck hauling a trailer on the right.

The truck, driven by Joseph O. Martus, 55, of 2761 W. Main Street Road, Batavia, reportedly slowed to make a right-hand turn when Riegel allegedly made his passing attempt. Martus reportedly turned into Riegel's vehicle.

Riegel reported minor injuries, but was not transported to the hospital.

The Town of Batavia is working to get all its files on computer for easy access. Going "paperless" is touted as being more efficient, but the electronic transformation is certainly not cheap.

Fortunately, the town got the two grants it applied for to update its record-management system. One for $24,000 and another for $28,000.

The first grant paid for a document scanner, software programs and a work station for Record Management Clerk Mary Cordes.

Permanent records and building permits were the first kinds of documents made available electronically. It took a little less than a year for all of the data to be scanned and entered into the computer system.

The other $28,000 grant will pay for scanning town board meeting minutes and assessment records during the 2010-11 fiscal year.

The town will pay for record-management upgrade costs not covered by the grants.

Of course Town Clerk Teressa Morasco, an employee there for 17 years, is also keenly involved with this process.

“It will be so much easier, things are at your finger tips and other departments will be able to use the system as well,” Morasco said.

For example, part of the staff is in the Highway Garage and the system helps them out tremendously.

"They don’t have to walk over every time they need a document,” Morasco said.

Storage space is a big issue at the town office and the new system will free up a lot of room.

Many of the building permits and the assessment records go back to the 1940s and '50s.

Digging through all that paperwork to find a document was no small task. Having the computer software to locate something in the system makes searching fast and simple.

"You don’t have to go through all those hoops,” Cordes said.

Even so, all the material has to be prepared before it can go through the scanner.

There are  several steps involved. All paper clips and staples have to be pulled off and every document has to face the same direction. Photographs cannot go through the document scanner so they have to be saved using a special scanner.

The employees work together to make the prep work easier.

“It takes a little while to get used to the procedure,” Morasco said.

But the rewards of the new information management system are easy to enjoy.

“There isn’t just one certain place it will help the most, it will help all around,” Morasco said.

Overnight, somebody pushed over the cow in front of the Cornell Cooperative Extension.

An officer on scene said the anchors appear out of the ground, but it doesn't look damaged.

Dispatch is attempting to contact an extension representative.

UPDATE: Officer Ed Mileham was still on scene when I stopped by for a quick picture and he said last week, pranksters hit the extension, too. Somebody rearranged the lettering of the message board to read "Eat Meat July 2." The cover of that board is now held in place by a padlock. The cow was anchored only with tent spikes.

City Fire has responded to a working structure fire at 9 Prune St., Batavia.

UPDATE 7:36 p.m.: When I left the scene around 6:50 p.m., firefighters were still on scene trying to get the last of the fire smoldering in the roof. A neighbor told me the fire started on a couch sitting outside that had been left out for trash, but not picked up, because it wasn't tagged. The fire got into the structure of the house by climbing up the wall behind the siding. Chief Craig Williams didn't think the fire had moved into the front of the house. It seem contained to the back attic.

We'll provide an update when more information is released.

More pictures after the jump:

Clinton Stanley Worthington, 20, of Genesee Street, Corfu, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, and no/inadequate stop lamps. Worthington was stopped at 2:25 a.m. in the area of 8974 Upton Road, Batavia, by Deputy James Diehl.