Stories from

Units from Genesee and Erie counties have responded to a structure fire in Corfu at 4 Main Street, the former location of Pizza Pantry. 

An ambulance was called to the scene for a firefighter who reportedly fell in the building, but he exited safely and the extent of his injuries, if any, are unknown at this time.

The building is a two-story brick structure that was apparently gutted, but there is no significant exterior damage.

The initial call came in at about 12:35 p.m.

Dan Fischer at WBTA is also working on getting information on the fire.  Updates as they become available.

UPDATE 1:50 p.m.: Tim Yaeger says the firefighter mentioned in our first report is fine. He was treated and released. A second firefighter was struck by a piece of equipment and broke a tooth.

Linda Doll of Corfu says she called in the fire. She was returning from a funeral in Batavia when she saw smoke as she pulled into the village. As soon as she turned onto Main Street, she saw flames coming from the back of the building, she said. She immediately called 911.

UPDATE: The following photo was submitted to The Batavian by James F. Gerber, photographer for the Alden Fire Department.

UPDATE: Joanne Beck reports that the cause of the fire is suspicious.

The cause remains under investigation. Yaeger said it started on the outside of the building, and a witness reported children in the area.

We've just received a copy of a press release from the governor's office which says the City of Batavia will receive $700,000 to repave Route 98 between Main St. and Noonan Drive. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.

From the press release:

Governor David A. Paterson today announced that the Rochester area is expected to receive at least $74 million in transportation and infrastructure funding through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This critical funding will go toward much-needed highway and road repair, bridge span work and other long-term improvements to the region’s infrastructure and will create an estimated 1,776 jobs. The Governor was joined by Senator Charles E. Schumer at a New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) Maintenance Facility in Canandaigua.

“I want to thank President Obama and New York’s Congressional Delegation for their work to secure these funds, which will provide Rochester-area projects with the financing they need to move forward,” Governor Paterson said. “These investments update aging infrastructure, making our roads, highways and bridges safer, while also creating jobs, bolstering economic development and ensuring a brighter future for our State.”

In addition to these funds, the DOT will also award $82 million in traditional highway and bridge contracts next year to the Rochester area. This region will also receive approximately $29 million in Consolidated Highway Improvement Program funding, which the recovery funds enabled us to restore to the State budget. In total, the Rochester area will receive more than $185 million in highway and bridge funding in State Fiscal Year 2009-10.

UPDATE: Shortly after originally posting this, I interviewed Charlie Mallow about the funding, then before I could post it, I ran out to cover the fire in Corfu. Here's a few minutes of Charlie talking about stimulus money, other grants and ongoing improvement projects.

Steve Ferry, a Darien Town Council member, made his case tonight that Genesee County Legislator should serve staggered four-year terms rather two-year terms with all nine seats up for election in the same year.

Legislators seemed inclined to favor the idea, but bristled at the idea that the Legislator could enact a change without proper study and community committee meetings.

At the end of the meeting, Ferry told the legislators that they are leaders and should lead.

"You are elected officials, public servants, and if serving the public means putting it on the ballot, then do it," Ferry said.

Ferry's position is that the current two-year system is a disincentive for people to get involved in the local policy decisions and that too many legislative seats draw only a single candidate each election cycle.

"It seem ridiculous to have a legislative board having all nine people up for election at the same time," Ferry said.

Legislators, by and large, rejected the notion that there isn't enough public involvement in the county government.

"One reason we don’t have a lot of people involved is this is a well run county and we don’t have a lot of controversy in the county," said Legislator John J. Hodgins.

We just received this message from City Council President Charlie Mallow:

I just received the word from the governor's office that Batavia will be included in the first round Transportation Stimulus announcement tomorrow morning in Canandaigua.  Although I have few specifics regarding the exact announcement as it pertains to our city, it is my understanding that there is at least one city project will be included. I will be attending to represent the city tomorrow, Thursday, April 9, 10 AM at  125 Parish Street, Canandaigua.

Governor Paterson will announce transportation Stimulus funds at a DOT maintenance facility in Canandaigua. Ground breaking for this work will start within 180 days.
 
My apology for the the lack of information as to what streets will be receiving the repairs, I will have more for you after the meeting.

UPDATE: Rose Mary Christian left the following remark in the comments:

I'm very happy that our city will be on Governor Patterson list to recieve some of the stimulus money from the state. I must say Jason Molino and Sally Kuzon worked very hard for Batavia to compete against other communities. The city taxpayers should be very pleased with this process because it was their money ( from the VLT) to put into this project. It was our manager and his assistant who presented this to our Albany officals. Great job Jason and Sally, Rose Mary

The cause of death of 9-year-old Michaela L. Fidanza is still unknown, but school officials have notified parents of children attending John Kennedy Elementary School that New York health officials have not ruled out Meningitis.

Yesterday, the school had told parents that the Genesee County Health Department had determined it wasn't Meningitis.

Now the school is telling parents that "persons who may have exchanged saliva" with Fidanza in the past seven days should contact a physician.

WBTA obtained the letter to parents this afternoon and posted a copy on its Web site. The full text reads:

This is a message from the Batavia City School District for families whose children attend John Kennedy Elementary. You received a letter yesterday about the deal of a student at JK. In the letter, we indicated that the Genesee County Health Department had ruled out Meningitis as the cause of death. The NYS Health Department, because of the seriousness of the situation, feels that meningitis cannot be ruled out even though the tests are negative, because all symptoms support the meningitis diagnosis. The New York State health Department advises that persons who may have exchanged saliva with the patient during the last seven days should contact their physician. Any child who becomes ill with fever, rash or stiff neck, should be seen by a doctor immediately.

In today's edition of the Daily News, Scott DeSmit reports:

The ME's office looked immediately for signs of meningitis, a contagious viral disease.

"They were thinking that it was possibly meningitis but so far, the cultures have been negative for that," he said. "But they told us it takes four days to be sure. They don't think that's a cause but we don't know."

There's still a chance of snow in our immediate future, with light snow predicted for this morning and a chance of snow on Friday.  It looks like it we will have cold nights, mild to cold days the rest of the week.

Here's the National Weather Service forecast:

Today: Scattered snow showers, mixing with rain after noon, then gradually ending. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44. Breezy, with a west wind between 16 and 22 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. West wind between 6 and 13 mph.

Thursday: Partly sunny, with a high near 48. West wind between 10 and 15 mph.

Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 29. West wind between 3 and 8 mph.

Friday: A chance of rain after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 50. East wind between 6 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Friday Night: A chance of rain and snow before 10pm, then a slight chance of snow between 10pm and 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 47.

Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 26.

A Conesus couple is charged with grand larceny in the fourth degree for allegedly stealing four chain saws from Morg's Sawz & Stoves in Pavilion. The crime allegedly took place March 26 in the afternoon. The suspects were picked up that day by the Livingston County Sheriff's Office. Arraigned yesterday in Pavilion Town Court were Michael G. Boggs, 31,and Jennifer R. Boggs, 26.  The couple remains incarcerated in Livingston County.

Kenneth Laird, 56, of Bethany, is accused of getting into a domestic dispute yesterday with a person he has been ordered not to contact. Laird reportedly threw rocks at this person's car as the person tried to leave the scene of the dispute. Laird is charged with criminal contempt in the 2nd degree and harassment in the second degree.

Buffalo attorney Jim Ostrowski lost the first round in his legal fight against New York State grants and government loans to businesses, but he's pushing forward with his crusade against "corporate welfare."

GCEDC's VP of marketing and communications, Chad Zambito is concerned that efforts such as Ostrolwski's could undermine economic development tools such as empire zones and damage efforts to bring business to Western New York.

"What it really does is it sends ends a message to site selectors nationwide that New York is really unfriendly to business," Zambito said. "It certainly sends a message to business people who might be looking at New York State that we might not be the most stable environment."

Zambito said Ostrowski's effort, if successful, would hurt the state because of New York's excessive tax burden.

Ostrowski doesn't buy it.

"That’s a really bad argument," Ostrowski said.  "If you look at Pennsylvania and Ohio, to reduce our taxes to their level, we would have to cut $40 billion out of the budget. Now corporate welfare only moves around about $1.5 billion per year, so it’s not an effective tool to compete with other states (with lower taxes)."

A lawsuit filed by Ostrowski on behalf of a number of people claims that New York's state Constitution forbids government loans and gifts to private enterprises, and for good reason.

Part of the lawsuit reads:

Prior to 1846, the State of New York provided large loans and grants to private
business allegedly for economic development.

When many of these projects failed, state taxpayers were left with a fiscally
unstable state government and much higher taxes to pay off loan guarantees.

To remedy this problem, the state constitution was amended in 1846 to ban loans
to private firms.

The voters approved the amendment, 221,528 to 92,436.

In 1874, the provision was expanded to include a ban on giving the money of the
state to private firms.

State lawmakers sought to amend the Constitution in 1967, but voters defeated the proposal by more than two million votes.

"In the years that have passed, state officials have acted as though the 1967 amendment had become law," the lawsuit reads.

Ostrowski lost his lawsuit, but the decision is now on appeal.

"There is no scientific or economic study that has ever shown these (economic development) policies to be effective," Ostrowski, adding later, "The main question is what gives these bureaucrats that run these agencies any expertise at all what business projects to pursue. Those decisions should be made by entrepreneurs in the market place."

The ECEDC has a number of promising projects on the board, however, has three major projects on the board, including Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park, Upstate Med & Tech Park and Commercialization Center, and the Science, Technology, Advanced Manufacturing Park in Alabama. There is also the possible revitalization of the Harvester Center area, which could also potentially use some extra government funds.

Zimbito doesn't think the lawsuit is any threat to these ongoing projects, but he does think it runs counter to the stimulus incentives being laid out by the Obama Administration.  The suit, if successful, could prevent New York from getting further stimulus aid, with that money going to other states instead.

"The stimulus money is taxpayer dollars to spur investiment and stimulate the economy," Zambito said. "That’s based on a lot of grants and a lot of low interest loans. So I’m not sure how that’s going to play with all this stimulus money that’s coming through state channels. I think that would put a damper on it, and by the sound of it it would put a halt to stimulus dollars as well."

Naturally, given that this is New York, Ostrowski may not even need to win the appeal to achieve the same effect. According to this Dave Catalfamo column, the governor is doing his best to kill of empire zones by making them uninteresting to migrating businesses.

Manufacturers, which are already in danger of joining New York’s Karner blue butterfly on the endangered species list, are now required to generate $10 in economic activity for every $1 in state tax breaks. And the state is ... demanding non-manufacturers to deliver a 20-to-1 return.

Finally, when thinking about government money going to private enterprise for large scale projects, it's always best to keep the downtown mall in mind.

Ten voters showed up to the Village of Alexander election meeting last night, five of them were candidates for village offices.

The voters also approved a $373,450 budget. The tax rate remains unchanged at $1.66 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Elected unanimously to one-year terms by the 10 voters:

• Mayor: Richard Scharlau
• Clerk/Treasurer: Vera Antonucci
• Tax Collector: Nancy Bartz
• Constable: Ralph Robbins

William Wagner was elected to a two-year term as village trustee.

No Elba residents attended the Village Board meeting last night were the board unanimously approved a 2009-2010 budget.

General fund spending decreases by 5 percent, according to Village Clerk/Treasurer Beverly Hillabush. The water fund is down 5 percent and the sewer fund is down 1 percent.

"The decrease is due mostly to paying off a fire truck," Hillabush said.

Meanwhile, tax collections will be up slightly, to $73,275, though the village tax rate remains unchanged, at $3.25 per $1,000 of assessed value.

There was an increase in spending in the youth program, Hillabush said, because the village has decided to split its youth program from the Town of Elba's program. Hillabush explained that the town wanted to add more programs that the village didn't think it could afford. "We just couldn't come to terms," she said.

The village programs will be open to all students in the Elba Central School District.

I stopped in LeRoy today and spotted this scene and snapped a quick pic -- snow in LeRoy in April.

Lisa M. Derrett, 18, of Batavia, is charged with stalking in the 4th degree. Derrett was taken into custody following an investigation at Genesee Community College where she allegedly approached an individual she had been advised by law enforcement not to contact. She was released on her own recognize. An order of protection was issued.

So what do you think about the out-of-season snow fall? It looks like we will get a little more this morning:

... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 AM EDT THIS MORNING...

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 AM EDT THIS MORNING.

PERIODS OF SNOW WILL CONTINUE ACROSS THE ADVISORY AREA TODAY... WITH ADDITIONAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES EXPECTED.

ALTHOUGH THIS SNOWFALL IS NOT EXPECTED TO BE SIGNIFICANT AS FAR AS ACCUMULATIONS GO... IT WILL LIKELY CONTINUE TO IMPACT TRAVEL ACROSS THE REGION THROUGH THIS MORNING.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS NORMALLY ISSUED FOR A VARIETY OF WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS INCLUDING SNOW. WHILE THE WEATHER WILL BE SIGNIFICANT... THE WORD ADVISORY IMPLIES THAT SEVERE WINTER WEATHER IS NOT ANTICIPATED.

What is it with Republicans and posting on The Batavian? It seems not many of them post, and when they do, too often we figure out later that they are not using their real names.

• MIchael Barney
• Michael Farnsworth
• Maddie LaNova
• Niel Hamburger
• Robert Drewinski

And now Frank Michaels: All apparently fake names espousing conservative, if not overtly, Republican views.

I'm not interested in making this a partisan issue, but geez ... the trend here is disturbing. Why can't local Republicans do, as many active local Democrats do, and comment freely under their real names?

Michael Barney, of course, turned out to be County Legislator Jay Grasso.

Farnsworth and LaNova left pro-Grasso comments on the post about Grasso, such as:

This is so not cool! Everybody goes on line with other names! I sat in a high school class that Legislator Grasso came to when I was a Senior. It is a local government seminar. He was pretty decent. He talked about how to access your local government and things like that. He also helped some kids with their exit projects. He did not come accross as political and I did not know his party from it. If he was posting s**t like "vote for grasso", then you should hammer him. He did not do this. Not cool at all.

Farnsworth, LaNova and Frank Michaels all have one thing in common:  They're using the same Road Runner business account IP address.

Grasso, for his part, denies emphatically that he is Frank Michaels.

"I give you my word," Grasso said. "I don’t need the aggravation from the Dems. They would eat me alive."

So here's my plea to local Republicans: We want your comments as much as anybody's on The Batavian, we just ask that you use your real names. Is that too much to ask?

And apologies to the Republicans on the site who are posting under their real names, and there are a few, but I wish the attempts at fake names would stop.  It would be good to have more conservative voices on the site (we often get accused of being a Democratic haven). We just expect both conservatives and progressives to use their real names.  Why try to subvert that? We almost always figure it out.

I wanted to set up a system that would allow me to record some of my interviews and then post those MP3 files to The Batavian.

Today, to test out my new system, Brian Hillabush (whom I meant to refer to as the "once and future sports editor of The Batavian" in the recording) talk a little baseball.

You can download the MP3 audio file here. The file is about 10 minutes long.  We cover the majors, Muckdogs and our recent fantasy league draft.

Here's a good bit of writing and reporting from Scott DeSmit on the pinch, if not outrage, from local business owners over the fee and tax increases in the new state budget.

Great lead:

The New York state budget will be enacted this week and you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who isn't harboring thoughts of revolution.

The print edition includes a good breakout box of 19 increases hitting consumers and businesses.

Among the largest, up to 5,000 percent increase in cigarette taxes.  As Scott writes, you read that right: 5,000.

Jeff Heubusch, owner of Southside Deli on Ellicott Street in Batavia, said he already knows what he's going to do about the new fee. He's not going to pay it.

"I definitely won't carry cigarettes," he said. "The profit margin just isn't worth it. If I stop selling them, so what? Our main business is food."

Heubusch said he would have to pay $2,500 to sell cigarettes.

"We used to sell 150 cartons a week in the 1990s," he said. "Now, we're lucky to sell 20 a week. I'm sure there's a motive for this. I think what's going to happen is you'll find that instead of 50 places to buy cigarettes, you'll be down to two or three."

Read the whole thing.