Business

A small Le Roy company has put itself on the cusp of the next big thing in municipal lighting -- LED.

This week, GotToGo Electric, a six-person company on East Main Road, landed a $77,860 contract with Mayville to sell the village 350 LED street lights.

Last year, GotToGo provided the village with LED street lights as part of a pilot project and then was the lowest bidder to provide enough lights to illuminate the entire village.

Traditionally, cities and villages provide night light with either high-pressure sodium lights or metal-halide lamps, giving main streets either an eerie orange glow or a cold blue hue.

Modern LED lights provide a white light, which has its own benefits, but the main reason municipal governments are taking a closer look at LED these days is the cost savings.

LED lights can cut electric consumption by up to 65 percent and are virtually maintenance free.

A street light with LED bulbs has a 10-year warranty, but should continuing working for 15 to 20 years.

Sodium and halide lights must be replaced much more frequently.

"LED is the new way to go," said company President Scott Keister. "LED is gaining traction very quickly. I think what we'll see in the next few years is the Department of Energy change its requirements for energy consumption, and traditional lighting (sodium and metal-halide) won't be able to meet those requirements."

GotToGo Electric is a manufacturer rep for two of the companies in the U.S. that make municipal lighting and fixtures.

Established in 1990 as a company selling products for electric companies, it was forced less than a decade later to pivot into a firm that represents the manufacturers of products for municipal utilities after the electric companies in the Northeast merged.

It was an easy transition, said CEO Kristin Gomborone, because GotToGo had already established the relationships with the cities and villages in New York.

"Along with the relationships, we've been working with municipalities for about 24 years now, so we've built a rapport," Gomborone said.

The company is owned by Gomborone and her sister, Gabrielle Keister, who is VP of Finance, and GotToGo is a certified New York woman-owned business.

Both women were born and raised in Le Roy. Keister is from Alexander and attended Notre Dame High School.

Besides selling LED lights, GotToGo handles just about everything a municipality might need to provide utility service, from gas and electric meters, to cable and transformers for electricity and, of course, lighting.

Primarily, the company bids on behalf of the 25 manufacturers they represent for the sale and installation of utility products. But the company is also positioned to ensure ongoing maintenance needs, if any, are met.

Keister explained that manufacturers use product reps such as GotToGo because it's less expensive than maintaining a full-time staff in a territory.

GotToGo got into LED lighting as the demand began to grow.

Ten years ago, LED systems were expensive, provided a bluish light that consumers rejected (think of those district blue headlights that were common for awhile on some new model cars) and didn't provide as much illumination as traditional lighting.

Now the cost has come down, the light temperature has shifted to a neutral white (or a moonlight white) and systems can put out as much, if not more, light than sodium or metal-halide.

GotToGo's clients for LED lights include the City of Buffalo, Westfield, Jamestown, Springville and the company's first LED client, Auburn, which installed 450 new street lights.

And not just municipalities are in the market now for LED lights. Universities and colleges, malls, car dealers -- any place with the need to illuminate a large area -- is a potential customer for GotToGo's products.

"It's probably the most exciting thing we're doing now," Keister said. "It's up and coming. Like I said, it's been around 10 years, but it's really just starting to take a grasp."

The main thing holding back wider adoption of LED systems, Keister said, is the inability of Albany and the electric companies to come up with a plan on how the electric companies will serve municipalities.

There are about 42 cities and villages in New York, such as Mayville, that provide their own municipal electric service, so there aren't hoops to jump through to make the switch to LED.

But in all the others municipalities, the local governments contract with a big electric company to provide the lights, the electricity and the maintenance.

It's kind of a lease agreement paid for through a tariff.

"To charge people the current tariff rates for a fixture that is much more efficient and basically eliminates maintenance is not fair to the consumer," Keister said.

So, as the market changes -- new regulations requiring less energy consumption from street lights, and a new tariff scheme out of Albany -- GotToGo Electric, with its experience and connections, should be well positioned as the go-to company in WNY for municipal street lighting.

Click here for a story from an online news site in Chautauqua County about the Mayville purchase and to see a picture that shows the color temperature difference between LED and sodium lights.

The way Pavilion resident Stephen Gould sees it, a career in agriculture is a great choice for a young person. There's opportunity, innovation and lots of options for somebody industrious enough to jump into the field.

Gould speaks today at the NYS Agriculture Society's annual meeting in Liverpool as part of a panel called "The Next Generation of Agriculturalists: Millennials' Perspective on Their Future in Agriculture."

He'll be joined on the panel by three other recent college graduates who are pursuing careers in agriculture.

After two years at Alfred State, Gould transferred to Cornell and earned a degree in animal science. He graduated in May and took a job as a farmhand on his family's farm on South Street Road, Pavilion.

Har Go Farms was founded by his grandfather in 1956 and is now run by his father, John, and mother, Sue. Gould expects someday he'll run the organic dairy farm, but for now, he's cleaning out stalls, managing the summer grazing and helping to build a winter shelter for calves.

It's his full-time job and it's exactly what he wants to do with his life, he said.

"I think it's a great lifestyle," Gould said. "You can do anything here. You can be a mechanic, a veterinarian or an accountant. When you're a farmer, it's always changing every day. You also get a great sense of accomplishment, to build something, take something as unorganized as nature and organize it into something productive."

While Gould has chosen to be a farmer, he said one of the great things about agriculture today is there are so many jobs in research, farm services and production. A young person really has a world of options.

"There's a lot of youth who are excited about jobs in agriculture," Gould said.

With exploding demand for food around the world, especially in China and India, it's really an exciting time to be in the ag business, he said.

"Then domestically, there's a lot of innovation," Gould added. "In dairy, you have Greek yogurts, drinkable yogurts and new spinoffs on just plain milk. There's strong demand for dairy, but there's other work. There's research being done on how to improve production, how to get more production per acre of crops or vegetables."

In Gould's own family, there's a clear example of the diversity of career opportunities for young people. His brother Michael graduated from Cornell with a degree in food science and now works for Chobani in Idaho. 

Gould's other brother, Matthew, is a student at Penn State and his sister Kathleen is an occupational therapist.

The farm went organic in 2008 and Gould thinks it was a good move.

"It's hard because there are fewer tools," Gould said. "But the whole organic philosophy is they don't want to kill anything. They don't want to use chemicals to kill bugs or use chemicals to kill weeds. They're all natural and holistic. I agree with that approach. I think any farmer, deep down, would not want to use any tools. They would love to make it all work, but organic isn't as productive. On the operations side, it's not as efficient. That's the constant challenge, to make it efficient. It's been a steep learning curve for us."

The Goulds run 150 head of milking cows on the 600-acre farm. Their fields must be kept chemical free and feed must be bought from certified organic suppliers.

"I enjoy it," Gould said. "It's a challenge. It's something not a lot of people are doing and we've had pretty good success with it."

The hardest part of farming, Gould said, is that cows don't take breaks. They need constant attention.

There are no days off on a dairy farm, he noted.

Gould was a wrestler in high school but says he doesn't follow a lot of sports these days -- the Bills at the beginning of the year when it looked like they might be good, but otherwise tunes most of it out. He likes to read, especially historic novels such as "Gates of Fire."

He also does a little woodworking and enjoys spending time with friends and family, but otherwise, he works and thinks he has a pretty good, if demanding, job.

He'd recommend ag to any young person, he said.

"Whether you're on a farm or in the service side of the industry, there's a lot of growth and a lot of opportunity in agriculture," he said.

Press release:

United Memorial Medical Center and MVP Health Care® are pleased to announce that they have reached an agreement which will allow United Memorial to be included as a network facility for MVP health insurance products purchased through the New York State of Health Exchange. The agreement was reached today, December 31st and will go into effect tomorrow, January 1, 2014.

As part of the Affordable Care Act, people who do not have health insurance through their job, or cannot afford the plan offered by their employer, now can use the “Healthcare Exchange” or “Marketplace” to compare plans and sign up. In New York State, residents are provided a list of insurance companies and plans to select from, based on their county of residence.

“We greatly appreciate the patience and understanding of our community as we are working to address the sweeping changes brought on by healthcare reform,” stated United Memorial’s CEO Mark C. Schoell. “I am pleased that we were able to bring the negotiation with MVP Health Care to a successful conclusion.”

Matthew MacKinnon, vice president, Network Operations, MVP Health Care said, “We are happy that United Memorial Medical Center is a participating provider for MVP products in Genesee County, including new Exchange coverage, and we look forward to continuing to serve residents of the Batavia area.”

The Town of Batavia Planning Board will hold a public hearing Jan. 7 to consider an application for a subdivision of property in Batavia Towne Center.

The subdivision would make it possible for Kohl's Department Store to own its own property inside the shopping center, much like Target does now.

Kohl's would be purchasing the parcel from COR Development.

In June, the Genesee County Economic Development Center Board approved $1.8 million in new tax abatements for COR (on top of the $4.6 million in tax breaks COR received from GCEDC in 2006), ostensibly to attract new businesses that provide goods or services not readily available in Genesee County.

Kohl's is a department store chain that sells furniture, clothing, bed and bath items and other general merchandise.

The store will be located where Lowe's once had its garden center, just south of the new Dick's Sporting Goods.

To the north of Dick's will be a Five Below and possibly Marshall's; both are discount retailers.

In order for Kohl's to own its own parcel, the property currently owned by COR must be subdivided.

All subdivisions must go through a public hearing, which is a chance for the public to learn the facts of the project relevant to the subdivision and comment on the issue.

The same process was used to subdivide Batavia Towne Center for Target. A portion of the tax breaks secured by COR in 2006 are now applied to the Target property.

While it's possible for Kohl's to apply to transfer tax abatements received by COR to the new parcel, Rachael Tabelski, director of marketing and communications for GCEDC, said the agency has yet to receive an application for the tax abatements from Kohl's.

The hearing will be held at Batavia Town Hall, 3833 W. Main Street Road, Batavia, at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 7. Written comments will be accepted prior to that date.

There's an upside to dropping corn prices -- higher profits for dairy farmers, which is a good thing in Genesee County, but if prices fall much further the impact on corn growers could be substantial.

Today, corn is selling for $4.25 a bushel, which is still high enough for a profit, said Craig Yunker, CEO of CY Farms in Elba. The cost of growing corn, he said, is at least $4 a bushel and as low as $3.50 for more efficient operations, so any further drop in price could put a squeeze on corn growers.

That could be a bigger problem in the Midwest, where corn is often grown on a much larger scale and without the crop diversity common locally.

"I think we could see a range of corn prices from $3.50 to $5.50," Yunker said. "Much depends on the demand in China and depending on the production around the world. At $4.25 we're right in the middle of that range."

The big beneficiaries of lower corn prices are dairy farmers, Yunker noted, and with dairy being a big part of the local ag economy, the current corn price is a big help to some local farmers.

Jeff Post, at Post Farms in Oakfield, agreed lower corn prices help local dairymen.

"A significant amount of our milk checks goes for purchasing feed, so when the corn prices are really high, we're definitely not as profitable," Post said. "We're fortunate that we grow a lot of our own corn, so we haven't had such a steep swing (in profits), but not every dairy farm can grow its own corn. Farms that rely on buying a lot of corn grain, it definitely has a bigger impact."

It would help, Post said, if soybeans would drop in price (soy being the key source of protein for dairy cows).

"From what I'm seeing, it's not trending down," Post said.

Corn has been in a bit of a bubble the past two years, trading for a period at more than $6 a bushel. What's happening now is likely a predictable market correction.

"We're coming back to normal," Yunker said. "The last two years have really been abnormal."

The big fear in the Midwest, where corn is king, is that farm land prices could see a big drop in value, threatening some farmers with insolvency.

It could mean the kind of farmland price bubble experienced by farmers in the 1980s, according to media reports.

Yunker doesn't see that kind of collapse coming, however.

"Farmers were much more leveraged (in the 1980s)," Yunker said. "When prices started to fall, there were no buyers for farmland because everybody was leveraged and couldn't buy. Now farmers are more balanced. There will be buyers because there are farmers who are healthy."

Locally, corn prices will have a minimal impact on farmland prices.

Post noted the same land in Genesee County that might grow corn can just as easily grow other produce.

Yunker, whose farm is diversified in what it grows every season, said he and his managers won't decide on the coming season's crops and how many acres of corn to plant until February. That will give him a lot of time to study what's happening in the international markets.

The big factors, Yunker said, are what happens in China and how the corn growing season does in South America and how much the Ukraine produces.

But the biggest factor is how much demand for corn there is out of China. That demand is effected both by how much meat the Chinese eat and how widely disease spreads through China's chicken farms.

If Chinese demand for corn drops, so will prices.

Recently, China rejected some shipments of corn, reportedly because of an assertion that the corn was genetically modified in a way not approved by China. Yunker doesn't think that's the real reason.

"I think it's because the prices went lower," Yunker said. "They're finding a reason to kick the load now. It's always a problem when prices go lower. People find a reason not to accept what they purchased."

If prices drop below $4 the impact on local farmers could become more severe because the cost of production is relatively fixed. It's a price local farmers will be watching closely over the winter.

"A lot depends on the demand in China and it depends on the production around the rest of the world," Yunker said.

T.F. Brown's and the Lions Club of Batavia will host their annual community Christmas dinner Dec. 25.

The dinner is free to all.

There are two seatings available, noon and 1 p.m. 

An RSVP is requested by Dec. 20. If planning to attend, please call (585) 345-1000 and let Maud know how many people are coming, for which seating, and the gender, ages and first names of children.

Children will receive a present from Santa.

T.F. Brown's is located at 214 E. Main St., Batavia.

Pictured are: Tony Scalia, Joe Teresi and Michael Tomaszewski from the Lions Club and T.F. Brown's owner Rick Mancuso.

This is the fifth in our series on Genesee County's farms and farmers. For previous stories, click here. (Obviously, I started this story in late fall and am only now publishing it. I've got one other story that I started at the same time as this and hope to finish in the next week).

When you farm 11,000 acres -- growing cucumbers, green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, cabbage, pumpkins, winter squash, onions, potatoes, carrots and tending milk cows -- you always have something to sell.

Whether you always have a buyer is another matter.

Each work day -- spring, summer, fall and winter -- Maureen Torrey arrives at the main office of Torrey Farms in Elba at 8 a.m. to start marketing the products grown on the farmland owned by her and her brothers John and Mark.

She talks to potential buyers not just in the Northeast, but as far away as Texas and California, trying to get the best price, and sometimes just trying to set a reasonable price, to move perishables before they spoil.

Torrey is a graduate of Iowa State University with a degree in journalism. She was a Cornell Extension agent for awhile then worked in merchandising for Chiquita for four years. The merchandising job gave her a taste of how she could contribute to the family farm.

"I realized I really liked the wheeling and dealing," Torrey said. "The markets are different every day. It's all by your gut. You're looking at weather patterns and what's available and what your gut is telling you. You look at whether to raise the market or lower the market and look at who's short around the country."

The roots of Torrey Farms goes back to the founding of the nation. In 1626, the Torrey family left England and settled in Connecticut. But the rocky soil of The Nutmeg State wasn't great cropland, so as pioneers moved West, so did the Torreys, looking for better farmland.

John Torrey arrived in Bethany in 1803, and while there are still Torreys farming in the Bethany area, Torrey Farms as we know it today began in 1948 when Elbert Torrey, the grandfather of Maureen, John and Mark, purchased the 375-acre Higley Farm in Elba.

Don't let the size of today's Torrey Farms fool you -- it's as much a family farm as the one with 100 acres and 40 cows. Besides the three offspring of Charles Torrey running operations today, Mark's children also work in management roles on the farm.

Jed is charge of grain crops, Travis, daily labor, Lucus, harvest and planting, Shannon, marketing and sales, Molly, human resources and Jordon in accounting and marketing.

"We're very much a hands-on operation," said Maureen, whose three daughters are all in college. Jill is at Cornell, Julie is at Florida State and former Elba Onion Queen Jamie is a freshman at the University of Arkansas.

The farm employs 80 workers throughout the four seasons and brings in as many as 220 workers for the spring through the early fall.

Most employees, as is the case in agriculture throughout the United States, are migrants and immigrants.

After the weather -- if not before -- ensuring the farm has enough labor to plant and harvest is the biggest difficulty Torrey Farms faces. Both John and Maureen agree on that point.

"More than 70 percent of all the food in this country is planted and grown by immigrants," Maureen said. "That's pretty significant. Without them, we'd be pretty hungry."

Yet, there's an endless supply of politicians in Washington -- and it's been this way since the 1980s --  seemingly intent on trying to make it as difficult as possible for farms to get the labor they need to feed Americans.

"Our biggest challenge is the labor, the immigration issue," John said. "You're always going to have the variables of the weather, but the last several years, what we're most uneasy about is immigration."

Fighting against hard-headed politicians in Washington has put Maureen Torrey on a national stage. She's testified before Congress and worked with both labor and agricultural groups trying to bring about sensible immigration reform.

It hasn't been easy.

"We're trying to get some people in Congress to stand up and be fair and do what needs to be done for the country," Maureen said. "They need to make strong decisions and stop worrying about elections. They hear from some advocacy groups, from people who are well organized and use social media and send tons of letters, but they need to look at the meat of the issue and see what it means for the country and who is doing the work and how it's getting done.

"We've always got to educate a new batch of congressmen," Maureen added.

Like just about any farmer you talk to, the Torreys have tried hiring native-born workers, but it never works out. After six hours, maybe two days, the domestic workers leave or don't come back.

The work is hard and dirty, and there are too many handouts from the government to it make worthwhile for citizens stoop and bend in farm fields.

Misinformation spread about immigrants sucking money from that same social services system is what drives border crack downs and makes it harder for farmers to bring in crops, Maureen said. People come here from Mexico to work, Torrey said, not collect welfare.

And often their wages get poured back into the local economy.

"They talk about (immigrants in) the schools, but this farm land and our housing all generate school taxes," Maureen said. "They're also the best shoppers for our retailers. Three weeks ago, 42 brand-new TVs went back on the bus to Mexico. Talk to the store owners in Albion. They love these guys. It makes their business for them."

Friday night was the first night of Taste of the Holidays. The festivities included a chance for visitors to the tent on Jackson Street to sample food from area restaurants and visit with other vendors. Bus rides to the Holland Land Museum Office to see the Wonderland of Trees were also part of the event.

The event continues today from noon to 3 p.m. and will include carriage rides and a scavenger hunt.

Children can also visit Santa today in City Centre.

A private contractor is working on a water line on Center Street today. The line broke Saturday afternoon. The line runs into Center Street Smoke House and for most of the day, the city has been able to provide water to the restaurant. The restaurant is expected to be open for business this evening.

UPDATE: Water service was fully restored at 5:30 p.m.

Here's a great alternative to Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Shop locally.

There are any number of local businesses that help you meet your gift-giving needs -- even gift certificates from local restaurants can make a great stocking stuff, not to mention the great locally owned retail outlets in town.

When you shop local, more of your dollars stay locally to help boost the local economy and you're supporting businesses that do so much more than out-of-state-based chains to support local civic groups and schools.

On this page are ads for more than 130 local businesses. Check out what they have to offer. 

Adam Miller Toy & Bicycles
Alabama Hotel
Alberty Drug Store
Alex's Place
Alli's Cones and Dogs
Baker's Frontier Kitchens
Barrett's Batavia Marine and Sporting Supplies
Batavia Downs
Batavia Eats
Batavia Gold Rush
Batavia Tailors & Cleaners
Bill Fox and Son Construction & Remodeling
Beds 'n' Bones Pet Lodge
Belhaven Kennels
Ben's Kitchens, Baths, & Appliances
Blue Pearl Yoga
Bohn's Restaurant
Bontrager's Real Estate
Bourbon & Burger Co.
Brighton Securities
B-Town Yellow Taxi
Bubba's Landscaping
Casa Del Taco
CB Beach Mortuary
Cedar St. Sales and Rentals
Center Street Smokehouse
Chesley's Auto
Clor's Meat Market, BBQ & Catering
The Color Salon
Continental School of Beauty
Council Opticians
Crazy Cheap Cars
D'Tangles
D&R Depot Restaurant
Dan's Tire
Daphne's Restaurant & Lounge
Darien Auto Parts
Deep Blue Pool & Spa
Derrick Monument Company
Detail Shop (Pellegrino's)
Empire Tractor
The Enchanted Florist
Falcone Family Funeral & Cremation Service, Inc.
Falleti Motors
Fastec Automotive
Ficarella's Pizzeria
Ficarella's Backflow Testing
Foxprowl Collectibles
Foxy Construction
Floral Fantasies
Frankly Design
Genesee County Emergency Services
Genesee Dental Group
Genesee Graphics
Genesee Orthopaedics
Gilmartin
Godfrey's Pond
Greens of LeRoy
Greg'ry's Bakery
H.E. Turner & Co.
Hair Studio 25
Hardcor Audio
Harrington's Produce
Haul-4-Less
High Voltage Tattoo
Hot Shots Caffe
Housing Council at Pathstone
Hot Heads
Humphrey's Electric & Security
Insource Urgent Care
I.R. Systems
The Insurance Center
J. Leonard McAndrew
Jagged Edges Salon
John's Service Station
Karen's Yarn Paper Scissors
Kelly's Mowing
Ken Barrett
KleenAll
Kreative Design Kitchen & Bath
L&L Transmission, Inc.
L.C. Mosman
Lamb Family Medicine
Lambert's Design Jewelers
Lathan Tree Service
LeRoy Counseling
Louis Andolora - Tax Advisor
Main St. Pizza Company
Making Memories of Travel
The Mane Attraction
The Manor House
Matteo & Mullen, CPA
Max Pies
Millennium Computer
Next Level Fitness
Oakfield Fitness
O'Lacy's Irish Pub
Oliver's Candies
Optique
Palm Island Indoor Waterpark
Pellegrino Auto Sales
Pembroke Family Medicine
Personalized By Santa
Picasso's Pizza
Precision Lawn Care
Pudgie's Lawn & Garden
R&D Outlet
RW Vapors
Sallome Heating & Cooling
Sammy Hill's
Santino's Pizza
Scooter's Restaurant (Le Roy)
S.C.O.P.E. of Genesee County
Select Collision
Settler's Restaurant
Sloat's Tire
Southside Deli
Smokin' Eagle BBQ & Brew
Spirits
Stan's Harley-Davidson
T.F. Brown's
The Finishing Line
Tomaszewski Funeral & Cremation Chapel
Trash Away
Turnbull Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration
UB Neurosurgery
Upstate Chrysler Dodge Jeep
Valle Jewelers
Viking Valhalla/Rose Garden Bowl
Vinyl Sticks
West Main Wine & Spirits
Western Regional Off Track
William Kent, Inc.
WNY Fireplace Outlet
Woody's Deli
Yasses Construction
Yngodess Shop
YWCA
Zoom N Groom Dog Grooming

Genesee County's jobs picture weakened slightly month-over-month for September to October, but is still better than a year ago.

The unemployment rate stands at 6.1 percent for October, compared to 6 percent for September and 7.2 percent for October 2012.

There were 29,400 non-farm jobs reported in the county for October, down from 29,200 in September, but still higher than the 29,100 jobs reported in October 2013.

The unemployment rate in Orleans County is 7.7 percent, and 6.4 in Livingston and 6.5 in Wyoming.

The state's rate is 7.5 percent and the nation's rate is 7 percent.

Ten counties around New York have reported unemployment rates of 6 percent or lower. Yates has the lowest rate in WNY at 5.2 percent. Rochester is 6.7 percent and Buffalo-Niagara is 7 percent.

Workers are expected to complete the installation today of a solar panel array atop the westside roof of Stan's Harley Davidson on West Saile Drive.

The total cost of the project, which covers more than 10,000 square feet of roof, is $574,000 with the cost partially financed by state and federal tax credits.

The panels will product enough electricity to run all of Stan's operations. The power generated from the panels is first shipped to National Grid. NG then sells the power back to Stan's at a reduced rate.

That should mean about a 50-percent cost savings each month for the Harley dealership.

"We won't know, probably, until the first of the year and it's up and going what it's actually doing," said owner Darryl Horzempa.

Horzempa decided to pursue the project after attending a Solarize Genesee County workshop in January hosted by the Genesee County Economic Development Center (though GCEDC was not involved in the project otherwise).

"I'm interested in recycling and things like that, so it was a natural thing to me to help take care of the environment," Horzempa said.

Rochester-based Arista Power won the contract for the solar panel installation.

We have more menus online ready to receive your meal orders from great local restaurants.

Here are the menus available now:

• Big Pauly's
• Clor's
• Larry's Steakhouse
• Settler's Family Restaurant
• T.F. Brown's
• Sammy Hill's
• City Slickers
• Smokin' Eagle
• Sweet Ecstacy

The developers have also added a new feature -- you can order your meals in advance. Let's say you're in Rochester at 4 p.m. and know you won't be back in Batavia until 6:15 p.m., you can specify 6:15 as your pick-up time.

Be sure to bookmark BataviaEats.com to keep up with new restaurants as we add them and for future online ordering from local restaurants.

Responding to tragedy involving widespread disaster and death is something Randy McIntire has done on several occasions and last week he attended training with other veteran emergency responders in Albany.

He is a funeral director at H.E. Turner and former chief of the Town of Batavia Volunteer Fire Department who brought a lot of experience to share with peers taking part in the "Mass Fatality Incident Response Course" presented by the NYS Office of Emergency Management.

As a member of the New York State Funeral Directors Association's Family Assistance Commission (FAC), a nonprofit, volunteer group of licensed funeral directors, he attended the Albany workshop.

"The whole premise is to train for the dignified return of victims to their families, and to learn how different agencies work together to accomplish that goal," McIntire said.

FAC members are prepared to assist local governments in the event of a disaster occurring within their borders and they work in tandem with others tasked with the recovery, handling, identification, and return of remains following a mass fatality incident.

His extensive background in emergency training began in the mid-1970s. And he was at the scene of Egypt Air flight 990 in 1999, the World Trade Center bombing, Hurricane Katrina (made worse by Hurricane Rita), and the crash of Continental Airlines' flight 3407.

Whether the catastrophe is a plane crash or a hurricane, the process varies little. FAC members help recover the dead, protect their dignity, take them to a morgue, where a coroner conducts scientific tests for identification, and through that process the victims are returned to their families.

A myriad of skills must be employed quickly, smoothly and under intense stress -- interviewing survivors/next-of-kin, processing paperwork to assist in identifying and facilitating the release of remains to the next-of-kin or other representatives, and more -- all vital services during a time of extreme confusion and grief.

The training is not new -- McIntire took the course in 1997 -- but he says over the years the state had pretty much done away with it and is now rekindling its efforts.

"It was unique training (last Thursday and Friday) because a high number of participants were mass fatality responders," McIntire said.

Their broad experience added some boots-on-the-ground pragmatism that was useful, especially for other responders, each with different responsibilities.

“Trainings such as this allow us to ... properly care for the dead as well as the living,” said Douglas R. Brueggemann, FAC committee chair.

Local landlord Terry Platt has brought an Article 78 action against the City of Batavia over a planning committee's denial of his application to open a rooming home on East Main Street, and the Erie County judge presiding over the case indicated in court today he leans in favor of Platt's side of the case.

When Larry O'Connor, representing the city's insurance company, told Judge John Curran that he thought the case was straightforward, Curran responded, "I think it is straightforward and you're running up hill."

O'Connor said he got that feeling after listening to Curran pepper Platt's attorney, Michael Perley, with questions about how the case should be decided.

Platt sought approval from the city in May for a rooming house at 316 E. Main St. and several neighbors came to a meeting of the Batavia Planning and Development Committee and objected to the plan.

The committee voted to deny Platt the necessary approval for the project.

In the Article 78 action, Platt's attorney argues that the proposed use is both allowed by existing zoning, fits the mixed use nature of the neighborhood and could not be denied on any legal basis.

O'Connor said the committee had the authority to deny the application based on the city's Comprehensive Master Plan.

That, however, raises what Perley characterized as a "fatal defect" in the city's case -- there's no proof on the record that the city ever formally approved its master plan.

O'Connor did not provide proof of plan approval prior to arguments in the case and Curran said the record is now closed. O'Connor said, however, he could provide proof of an approval. (Outside of court, O'Connor said Curran could "take judicial notice" of the approval, even if it's not part of the record).

Perley said the city couldn't produce a copy of the master plan when Platt issued a FOIL request for the document earlier this year.

A copy was found and it is now part of the case.

City Manager Jason Molino confirmed later in the day that the City Council did ratify the master plan Feb. 25, 1997. Molino could not comment further on the case.

According to the discussion in the Erie County courtroom of Curran today, Curran must weight the role of the master plan in the committee's decision, whether the master plan gives the committee the authority to reject Platt's application, and whether he should take the extreme step of overturning the decision of a group of community volunteers over a zoning issue.

Curran spent a lot of time asking the attorneys questions about how they propose he decide the case.

"The property is properly zoned?" Curran asked.

"Correct," said Perley.

"There's no defect in the application?"

"Correct."

"There's no request for a variance?"

"There's no need for a variance."

"There's no request for a change in zoning?"

"No."

"There's is no need for a special-use permit?"

"No."

"Both you and Mr. O'Connor have experience in municipal law," Curran said. "You and I both know a lot of municipal law. If I run a (report) for special-use permit legal cases to come up with standards or if I run it for variances to come up with a standard, we know what I'll find. What do I run for this one?"

"The standard you apply is whether or not this decision was arbitrary and capricious," Perley said. "How does the committee deny an application that is proper for the property before it without misapplying the zoning law?"

O'Connor argued that the denial was consistent with the master plan, and Curran honed in on the section that says the permitted uses of buildings on that section of East Main Street (zoned C1, which is mixed use) includes professional offices, small restaurants and other small businesses, but says nothing about single-family residences, so how can the city argue that it wants to preserve the historic nature of the single-family residences?

The master plan as a whole is about preserving and enhancing current single-family residences, O'Connor told Curran.

"This is an area of single-family homes along with limited commercial use," O'Connor said. "The city wants to preserve the integrity and character of that area."

Then Curran laid out his underlying frustration: Neither attorney had filed a memorandum of law.

Such memorandums are often filed by attorneys to provide a judge with their views of how the law and prior legal precedents apply to a particular case.

Perley said he wrote such a memorandum and was surprised it hadn't been filed with the case. Since O'Connor hadn't received such a memo, he hadn't written a response.

Curran agreed to give both attorneys time to file such memos and continued the case to Jan. 30.

The options before Curran include: upholding the committee's decision; overturning the decision and permitting Platt to open the rooming house; or overturning the committee's ruling but ordering the committee to reconsider its decision.

The 42nd Annual Chamber of Commerce Awards are getting a bit of a makeover this year with no general Business of the Year honoree and a complete skip of Innovative Enterprise of the Year -- even with a qualified nominee in the mix.

Much like last year, there are two winners for Geneseean of the Year, with awards going to Laurie Mastin, of Pavilion, and Timothy Michael Adams, of Stafford.

Rather than Business of Year, the chamber is honoring a Service Business of the Year, Alex's Place, and Retail Business of the Year, Adam Miller Toy & Bicycles.

The Agricultural Business of the Year is Bonduelle USA, Inc., of Bergen and Oakfield.

The Bergen Business and Civic Association is receiving special recognition with a Special Service award.

Nominated by The Batavian for Innovative Enterprise of the Year was Insource Urgent Care, but no award was given in that category for 2013.

While Insource has transformed the urgent care business through innovative use of telemedicine and cooperative arrangements with doctors and specialists from throughout the region, greatly reducing the cost of care for patients, the Batavia-based company was bypassed by the awards committee. 

It's not unprecedented for the chamber to hand out awards with different titles than previous years or what was on nomination forms.

The awards dinner is Feb. 22 at the Clarion Hotel, Park Road, Batavia. Tickets are $50 or a table of 10 for $450. Hors d'oeuvres are at 5:30 p.m. followed by entree tables (no formal sit down dinner). There is a cash bar. The awards program starts at 7 p.m., which will include coffee and dessert.

Call Kelly Bermingham at 343-7440, ext. 26, to make reservations.