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A car fire is reported on Interstate 490. Bergen Fire is responding.

UPDATE 4:16 p.m.: Bergen back in service.

Here's a news release from a brand-new enterprise:

Local residents interested in expanding their fitness options will have a new choice to consider when En Garde: Batavia, a new fencing club, opens on July 1 in the Artisan Center on Harvester Avenue.

Several classes will be available for adults and children. No prior athletic experience is necessary.

Colin Dentino, a Batavia resident and lifelong fencing enthusiast, is the owner/lead instructor of En Garde: Batavia and believes that the benefits of the sport are far-reaching.

“Fencing is great because it allows anyone to be successful," he said. "Each fencer has his/her own style and technique so everyone you fence is a different puzzle to be solved."

Dentino first started fencing at the age of 4 under the guidance of Sir John Halasz, from the esteemed Hungarian fencing program.

“I’ve been trained more as a fencing coach than a fencer,” he notes.

Sport fencing is an interval-based sport with ties to martial arts and yoga. Interval-based physical activities burn 30 percent more calories than steady-state exercise. But beyond that, fencing is a sport that can be enjoyed by the entire family, for a lifetime.

“It can be great fun to come in as a family and get everyone involved,” Dentino said. “Because people with various fitness levels can be successful fencers, it can build confidence for those new to exercise.”

The benefits of fencing do not stop there; fencing is a game of analytical decision making and as such, can improve things like creative problem solving and long-term goal planning.

“Fencing is referred to as ‘physical chess’,” Dentino says, “It’s not always the case that the stronger, faster fencer wins.”

Hourly afternoon and evening classes meet twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays and also on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning July 1. Hours are 4 to 5, 5 to 6, 6 to 7, and 7 to 8.

Children and adults aged “5 to 95" who are interested in "health and mental wellness” are encouraged to attend. Monthly cost is a flat $50 per person, and includes all equipment. There are no long-term contracts, it's a month-to-month deal.

Weekly summer camp sessions for children aged 9 to 16 and up run from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. starting in mid-July and continuing until late August. Cost is $125 a week and includes all equipment. The schedule is as follows:

• July 12 – 16
• July 19 – 23
• July 26 – 30
• August 2 – 6
• August 9 – 13
• August 16 – 20
• August 23 - 27

For more information about En Garde: Batavia, contact Colin Dentino at 585-409-3993, email at engardebatavia@me.com, or visit www.engardebatavia.com.

Noisy power tools and a smell like pesticides is reported at 16 N. Pearl St., Oakfield.

A firefighter reports that there is pesticide spraying and packing going on at the "old golf park."

The complaint was intitially called in by Department of Public Works employees.

The overwhelming majority of those who attended a public hearing at Genesee Community College on Monday oppose rule changes for operating wood boilers.

About 14,000 New Yorkers have wood-boiler heaters as their primary source of heat in cold weather. Proposed regulations are said to make them unaffordable and costly to retrofit, creating an economic hardship for rural residents, according to Assemblyman Steve Hawley.

His chief of staff was among more than 100 people who attended the local hearing.

Residents have until July 2 to submit written comments to the Department of Environmental Conservation and Hawley is urging them to keep up their grassroots campaign urging the DEC to scrap the plans.

The agency is conducting public hearings statewide, giving information about the newly proposed regulations and getting feedback from those affected by them.

The DEC proposal would impose new regulations on operating requirements for both new and existing outdoor wood boilers. Outdoor wood boilers would have to be at least 100 feet from neighboring properties and would have to be at least 18 feet in height.

New York is the only state considering new regulations on existing wood boilers.

“Purchasing and installing new wood boilers can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000," Hawley said in a news release. "At that price, these new restrictions are simply
unaffordable for many people whose boilers already meet the current DEC regulations.

"With only about a hundred complaints over the last four years leading to these proposed regulations, clearly this is just another example of a downstate-controlled government agency circumventing the legislature to enforce a mandate."

Assemblyman Steve Hawley issued the following news release today after Albany passed its 11th "budget extender."

“After two and half months, and 11 emergency budget extenders, New Yorkers are still without a state budget. In that time, we’ve seen our schools, local governments, contractors, state parks, and small businesses left in jeopardy as their fates have been left in the hands of weekly budget extenders.

"Although the ‘good’ that has come out of these extenders includes the reopening of state parks, some contractual obligations being met, school districts receiving their state aid, and other essential state services remaining open, the ‘good’ has without a doubt come with plenty of ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ costs.

“The bad consists of the simple fact that since April 1, the more than $9 billion budget gap has hardly been addressed. Instead, the most recent extenders have raised fees by nearly $4 million, raided $80 million from the Environmental Protection Fund, and introduced ‘savings,' rather than make the real cuts that are needed.

Additionally, this process does not allow schools, local governments, and businesses with state contracts to formulate their own budgets. Even uglier, because of the lack of a transparent budget process, the ‘three men in a room’ may close these budget shortfalls with more taxes, more state borrowing, and even more of the special-interest-driven backroom deals that put our state in this fiscal crisis to begin with.

“These budget extenders are simply laying the framework for another over-bloated state budget to be passed through a piecemeal process. I again voted against the budget extenders and ask that my colleagues in the Assembly and Senate majorities open up the budget process, allow needed input from rank-and-file members, and see to it that it is passed immediately.”

A vehicle is reported to have struck a tree on Pearl Street near Williams Park. City fire and a BLS ambulence are responding. The driver needs to be evaluated for injuries.

UPDATE (by Howard): Driver not injured, just shaken up. No further details available yet.

Somewhere in the City of Batavia a critter is stuck under something and the police are on their way to the rescue.

The cop says to dispatch he's going to help "Rocky the Racoon...the usuals can wait."

It's about priorities...when nothing more important is pending, of course.

Sorry, didn't catch the place, nor the object under which Rocky is stuck.

A motor-vehicle accident is reported on Swan Street, just off Ellicott. A male is reporting back and neck pain. City fire and Mercy EMS are responding.