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Photos from today's parade in Oakfield.

To purchase prints of parade photos click here.

A two-car accident with a possible head injury is reported in the area of 93 W. Main St., Le Roy.

Le Roy fire and Le Roy ambulance dispatched.

Gus Bertrand, a Le Roy resident, and woodworking hobbyist, said he isn't particularly a fan of "Game of Thrones," but his wife, Jen, is and when he needed an idea for an anniversary present for his wife, he hit upon the idea of making Adirondack chairs modeled after the iron throne on the popular HBO television series.

After he posted about his creation on a woodworking forum on Reddit, "Popular Woodworking Magazine" editors asked him to submit an article about his creations.

Read the whole article here.

Le Roy rallied in the second half Friday night to score three touchdowns and secure a season-opening victory over Dansville, 18-7.

The Oatkan Knights went into the half down 8-7 and then the Mustangs took their opening possession down to the two-yard line, were a Bryce Bordanaro recovered a Dansville fumble.

Le Roy marched 99 yards for a touchdown, taking the lead and the Mustangs never seriously challenged the Knights again.

Kyler LaCarte carried the ball 28 times for 149 yards and a TD.  QB Jake Hill was 10-13 for 144 yards and a TD.  Reece Tresco had two catches for 34 yards and a TD. T.Y. Williams had two receptions for 25 yards, and Gaven Cassidy nabbed three passes for 17 yards.

On defense, Luke Stella had seven tackles, including two for a loss, Tyler Rider had seven, Bryce Bordanaro, five, Jake Hill, five, and Reece Tresco, five.

In other Friday football action:

• Oakfield-Alabama/Elba beats Perry/Mount Morris, 40-30.  OAE put up 27 first-half points in their season and home opener. Collin O'Halloran led the OAE team with 116 yards on the ground along with two touchdowns. Colton Dillon and Gage Dieterle added rushing touchdowns while Dillon and Ty Mott each had an interception returned for a touchdown. Justice Fanaro led the Yellowjacket offense to 23 fourth quarter points hooking up with Austin Croll for multiple touchdowns through the air. Fanaro finished the game 10-17 for 255 yards and 3 touchdowns while Croll had 249 all purpose yards and three touchdowns. 
• Pembroke beat York/Pavilion, 48-24. Zach von Kramer rushed for 303 yards on 16 carries, scoring four times.
• Cal-Mum/Byron-Bergen fell to Bath, 24-20.
• Notre Dame was shut out by Canisteo-Greenword, 45-0.

Le Roy photos by Ed Henry. 

Top photo, Jack Dempsey with the carry.

Ty Williams.

Reece Tresco with a seven-yard reception for a TD.

Gavin Luckey with a reception.

Kyler LaCarte with the ball.

LaCarte scores.

Post game, LaCarte.

Clarence J. Carithers, 32, of West Academy Street, Albion, is charged with: unlawful fleeing a police officer; three counts of endangering the welfare of a child; reckless driving- speeding (86 in 55-mph zone); failure to stop at blinking red light; unsafe turn without signaling, speed in excess of 55 mph (111 mph); and inadequate lights. Carithers allegedly drove his vehicle past a Sheriff's patrol at an excessive speed on Lewiston Road, Alabama, at 12:44 a.m. and then failed to stop at a blinking red light at the intersection of Lewiston and Alleghany roads, continuing southbound on Route 77 at a high rate of speed. Carithers then allegedly turned onto Bloomingdale Road and failed to signal. He is accused of driving in excess of 55 mph on Bloomingdale before stopping at a gas mart located on the Tonawanda Indian Reservation. He was arrested by Deputy Eric Meyer, arraigned in Town of Alabama Court and jailed without bail. Assisting were Sgt. John Baiocco, Sgt. Jason Saile, Deputy Ryan Young, and Deputy Howard Wilson.

Devan Dashaun Hazel, 23, of St. Mary's Street, NYC, is charged with criminal possession of marijuana, 5th. He was arrested on a warrant out of Town of Stafford Court and jailed on $250 bail.

Kalil T. Walker, 23, of Isabelle Street, Rochester, was arrested on a warrant for alleged failure to appear in City Court. Walker posted bail and was released.

Timothy J. Wood, 28, no permanent address, was arrested on a warrant upon release from the Niagara County Correctional Facility. He was turned over to Batavia PD, arraigned in City Court and sentenced to 15 days in jail.

Nicholas D. Martino, 37, of Main Street, Alexander, was arrested on a warrant for alleged failure to appear. 

Darryl Robinson, 53, of East Main Street, Batavia, was arrested on a warrant. Robinson was taken into custody during an investigation into an unrelated incident. Robinson allegedly failed to appear in City Court on charges of harassment, 2nd, and unnecessary noise.

Robin A. Pickering, 33, of Electric Avenue, Lackawanna, was arrested on a warrant. Pickering allegedly failed to comply with terms of DWI conviction in 2015. She was jailed on $2,500 bail.

Shuvon J. Williams, 41, of Walnut Street, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd. Williams was allegedly involved in an altercation in the Dollar General parking lot on East Main Street, Batavia, at 6:10 p.m. Friday.

Kelly A. Morrison, 44, of Skyline Drive, Lady Lake, Fla., is charged with menacing, 2nd, endangering the welfare of a child, and criminal possession of a weapon (prior conviction). Morrison allegedly brandished a large pocket knife during an altercation at 6:10 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of Dollar General in Batavia. Morrison was jailed without bail.

A 17-year-old resident of Edward Street, Batavia, is charged with criminal mischief, 2nd, resisting arrest, and unlawful possession of marijuana. The youth allegedly damaged a parked vehicle in the area of Bank Street and Washington Avenue, Batavia, and then resisted when officers attempted to place him under arrest. He was jailed on $2,500 bail.

Maria Katriliotis, 35, of North Spruce Street, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd. Katriliotis allegedly kicked another person at 3:40 p.m. Saturday.

Brandon C. Smart, 40, of Hutchins Street, Batavia, was arrested on a warrant. Smart was arrested after police responded to a location on Hutchins Street to investigate a noise complaint.

A 17-year-old resident of Batavia Stafford Townline Road, Batavia, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. The youth was allegedly found in possession of marijuana at a location on Cedar Street, Batavia.

Dora L. Poodry, 23, of West Main Street, Batavia, is charged with failure to appear on a petit larceny charge. Poodry is in custody on an unrelated charge.

Meredith H. Cutro, 40, of Tracy Avenue, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd, and criminal trespass. Cutro allegedly entered the home of another person at 4:44 p.m. Aug. 22and refused to leave when told to leave. Cutro allegedly pushed another person when that person was trying to get her to leave.

Dustin L. Landin, 38, of James Street, Batavia, was arrested on a warrant for an alleged violation of his release under supervision contract. He was jailed on $2,500 bail.

Traci Lynn Abrams, 19, of Skye Road, Alabama, is charged with possession of a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle. Abrams was arrested by Batavia PD and turned over to the Sheriff's Office on a warrant.

Rudy P. Bail, 23, of Batavia, is charged with DWI and driving with a BAC of .08 or greater. Bail was charged by State Police at 8:36 a.m. Thursday in the Town of Bethany.

An accident is reported in the area of mile marker 379.8 on the Thruway in Le Roy. 

A person may have been ejected. 

Mercy Flight is on ground standby. 

Le Roy fire, and ambulances from Le Roy, Caledonia, and Mercy EMS dispatched. 

UPDATE 9:37 p.m.: Mercy Flight was dispatched and is circling the scene pending further instructions. 

UPDATE 9:39 p.m.: Le Roy is all set with the ambulances they have on the ground and Mercy Flight can go back in service. 

UPDATE 10:32 p.m.: The person ejected was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital by Le Roy Ambulance. All other patients were sign-offs. 

Press release:

To all residents: Please be aware that the spray pad at Austin Park will be closing for the end of the summer season on Sept. 5.

Thank you for a wonderful year.

The spray pad is scheduled open again next Memorial Day.

Off Gorton Road, Alabama.

Passing through Oakfield yesterday evening, the classic cars were just starting to arrive at the Oak Grill & Cafe for their Wednesday night rally.

All summer, classic car owners have been bringing their cherry machines to the Oak Grill on Wednesdays, and will continue to rally there until the first snow of the season.

More than a decade of planning, preparation, promotion, lobbying, public hearings, and approvals have finally culminated in the first shovel in the ground for the Western New York Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) in the northwest corner of Genesee County.

Contractors are making room for roads along with water, sewer, and electrical transmission lines, clearing brush and trees and grading the ground to specifications.

"We're pretty excited to be moving forward on infrastructure and breaking ground and turning it into a modern business park," said Mark Masse, VP of operations for Genesee County Economic Development Corporation.

The infrastructure project, which includes a new water main being installed down Judge Road in Oakfield to Route 77 and then out to STAMP, is covered by a $33 million budget appropriations in New York's 2014 state budget. 

The new sewer system is still in the design and approval process and electrical won't be completed until the first tenant -- probably 1366 Technologies -- designs its project and specifies its electrical needs, but all of that infrastructure will be covered by the 2014 budget appropriations.

The new Oakfield-Alabama water line will carry 200,000 gallons of water a day to the Town of Alabama and STAMP. A second water line will also be installed from Pembroke to STAMP, which will provide 600,000 to 800,000 gallons per day of capacity, giving STAMP access to nearly one million gallons of water a day.

As for 1366, the company continues to be engaged with GCEDC in preparations for construction of its solar wafer manufacturing plant, but is still awaiting final approval of a loan guarantee by the Department of Energy. The Trump Administration has yet to fill vacancies on the DoE's board, which must authorize final approval.

Rachael J. Tabelski, GCEDC's director of marketing and communications, said both Rep. Chris Collins and the office of Sen. Charles Schumer have been engaged in trying to help move the process along.

Tabelski also said tech companies looking for locations such at STAMP have shown a good deal of interest in the project. GCEDC has received 14 requests for information and hosted 10 site visits. The projects combined represent a total of $11.5 billion in investments.

"The sales funnel is full," Tabelski said. "There's a lot of interest in STAMP, so it's a matter of when not if."

When that when arrives, Genesee County and the entire region will be expected to provide the employees for these new companies, so GCEDC is also aggressively pursuing workforce development projects with area schools, colleges and universities, Tabelski said.

"There is going to be a need in mechatronics, nano technology, and STEM at all levels of these companies," Tabelski said. "We will have a need for all of these kinds of workers."

(STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering (and) Math.)

A car has struck a pole, with unknown injuries, on East Avenue near Route 63, Bethany.

Bethany fire and ambulance dispatched.

UPDATE: Photos by Doug Yeomans. After the initial dispatch, we heard no more about this accident.

It took Rep. Chris Collins little time to turn news of a House Ethics Committee investigation into his financial dealings, and his continued involvement with the biotech firm at the center of the investigation, into a fundraising opportunity.

This morning, the Buffalo News reported that Collins has been re-elected to the board of Innate Immunotherapeutic and within hours Collins delivered a fundraising email to his supporters (and others on the list, including news media) into a request for a $12 donation (the price, he said, of a month's digital subscription to the Buffalo News) to his reelection campaign.

He didn't explicitly ask people to drop their subscriptions to the online version of the newspaper.

"Join us today and tell them we won't stand for their fake news," Collins wrote.

Controversy about Innate Immunotherapeutic and Collins involvement with the company have been swirling around the Congressman for months, including allegations that he bragged about making a lot of people in Buffalo rich on stock deals with the company, accusations that he steered other members of Congress to the stock, and speculation about whether he used his position in Congress to help pass key legislation that could have helped the firm.

When a clinical trial for drug developed by Innate showed negative results, the stock price plummeted and Collins reportedly suffered a paper loss of $17 million.

News broke two days ago that the House Ethics Committee was opening a probe into the stock deals. The Buffalo News followed up this morning with stories about the congressman's reelection to Innate's board and a story yesterday taking a closer look at what the probe means.

The term "fake news" grew out of a trend during the presidential campaign of completely fictional stories getting repeatedly passed around social media, no matter how outlandish and clearly false the stories were. The stories were generated by websites created with the sole purpose of making up fictitious stories in order to drive clicks and then generate revenue from ad networks.

President Donald Trump adopted the term to attack the legitimate media's truthful and generally accurate reporting of his administration. 

This isn't the first time Collins has referred to the Buffalo News, also a legitimate news outlet, with the false claim of publishing "fake news." Collins has offered no factual refutation of any reporting by the Buffalo News or other news outlets' reporting on the Innate dealings and ethical probe.

Collins’ Spokeswoman Sarah Minkel has told news outlets that the ethics announcement had been expected and denied Collins had engaged in any wrongdoing.

“Congressman Collins has followed all ethical and legal guidelines when it comes to his personal investments and he looks forward to their review," Minkel said.

Among the districtwide goals for 2017-18, City Schools Superintendent Chris Dailey told the board at last night's meeting, the district will strive to communicate better and engage more with the Batavia community, improve student writing, improve the use of technology and maintain a solid budgeting process.

Goal #1 he said is communication and engagement with the community, which will include recognition of outstanding alumni, more use of social media, increased use of volunteers and promotion of academic, athletic, art and music achievements.

"We have kids and staff who are doing amazing things all the time," Dailey said. "We need to do a better job celebrating it in our community so they know what’s going on in all aspects of our school."

Improving student written communication is the second goal, Dailey said. At every grade level, the district needs to put more focus on helping students become better writers. 

“We’ve had college professors share with us that our kids need to learn to write better," Dailey said. "We take that very seriously. As a group, this year we’ve committed to common benchmarks across the district in each grade where our kids will do written responses and work on improving their ability in writing.”

Over the past couple of years, students and teachers have been given Chromebooks, each with access to a group of Google tools known as Gsuite. The district has provided more training and will continue to provide training to teachers, on the use of Gsuite in classrooms. As a third goal, this will continue to be a priority he said because it helps bring STEAM into each district building. (STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, (and) Mathematics.)

"That’s where the jobs are coming in our region," Dailey said. "(The students) need to know what’s out there."

The district has a solid budgeting process, Dailey said. Its budget ambassador program is even being copied by other school districts around the state now as a way of getting the community involved in the budget process.

As a fourth goal, Dailey wants to improve this process. Last year, he spoke before eight community groups about the budget. His goal this year is to double that number.

The district will continue to work to keep the tax levy below the tax cap level, which helps ensure residents are eligible for state rebates. The district will also look for other sources of revenue.

"Our goal is to pass (the budget) with a super majority of 60 percent or higher to show the community does support what we’re doing financially to advocate for their students," Dailey said.

As a stretch goal, what Dailey calls the "Columbus Day Goal," is to have 100 percent of the teachers set up with their own Web pages on the district site that they are updating regularly. This is a great resource for parents, he said.

The Batavia Blue Devils hosted the Batavia Bull Dawgs at Van Detta Stadium on Monday night for its annual Blue Devils Experience.

That's when the young players get a chance to gather for a pre-game prep-talk in the Blue Devils' locker room, run through the tunnel onto Woodward Field, warm up with the varsity squad and then play a game against the defending Section V champions.

Batavia opens its season at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse on Sunday. For ticket information, click here.

Press release:

The Genesee County 4-H Program is looking to restart its 4-H Dog Program!

Youth ages 8 to 18 and their families are invited to an informational meeting to learn more about what the program has to offers as well as give leaders insight on what youth are interested in learning.  The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 18, at Cornell Cooperative Extension, located at 420 E. Main St., Batavia.

4-H Enrollment paperwork will be available at the meeting, the new 4-H year starts Oct. 1^st and the Dog Club will have its first meeting in October.

Interested in joining but unable to attend the meeting? Contact Brandie at the 4-H office  585-343-3040 ext. 101 or email bls238@cornell.edu

Press release:

Tompkins Bank of Castile has announced that Gilda’s Club Rochester is the winner of the fourth round of the quarterly Community Minute Challenge. Each quarterly winner is awarded $2,500, and through the program, a total of $10,000 has been provided in much-needed funds to local not-for-profit organizations.

Gilda’s Club Rochester was one of six organizations in the fourth and final round of the challenge. Gilda’s Club Rochester has been serving the Greater Rochester community since 1959, first as Cancer Action, Inc., and then in 2000 as Gilda’s Club. The organization’s mission is to create welcoming communities of no cost support to those living with cancer – men, women, teens and children – along with their families and friends. Gilda’s Club Rochester’s innovative program is an essential complement to medical care, providing networking and support groups, workshops, education and social activities.

The winning organization for each Community Minute Challenge is determined by public voting on the Tompkins Bank of Castile Facebook page, where visitors watch one-minute videos produced by participating non-profits and then vote for their favorite.

The other organizations that participated in round four included:

• Delphi Drug and Alcohol Council Inc. (Monroe County)
• Friends of Letchworth State Park (Wyoming County)
• Friends of the Richmond Memorial Library (Genesee County)
• Genesee Cancer Assistance (Genesee County)
• Geneseo Parish Outreach Center (Livingston County)

Launched in August 2016, the Community Minute Challenge has now awarded $10,000 to date.

“As proud members of the communities where we operate, we’re thankful for the important services that are provided by not-for-profit organizations in our area,” said John McKenna, Bank President and CEO. "We’re thrilled to be able to bring attention to their positive work.”

The program has helped organizations with much-needed funds, and has increased exposure within their communities. The first-round winner of the Community Minute Challenge was Going to the Dogs Rescue in Wyoming County, an organization dedicated to helping homeless pets find loving forever homes.

The second-round winner was Arc of Genesee Orleans, a resource of choice for people with disabilities and their families in both Genesee and Orleans counties.

“We used the proceeds to purchase new equipment for our family support group,” said Donna Saskowski, executive director, Arc of Genesee Orleans. “Our participation in the challenge was a wonderful opportunity for everyone involved in our organization to rally together, from our staff to the families of the individuals we support.”

A 10-year-old child from China who was struck by a car last night on Route 77 by the Flying-J is listed in critical condition at Women and Children's Hospital, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The child, whose name has not been released, remains in the Intensive Care Unit.

The accident was reported at 8:17 p.m. after the child reportedly failed to yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic.

No charges were filed against the driver whose car struck the child.