Stories from

• Le Roy over Dansville, 35-6. Josh Laurie tossed four touchdowns and Jason Doemling hauled in three of them. Nate Flint had two rushing TDs. (Game photos by David Boyce.)
• Barker beat Notre Dame, 14-12. Brendan Klotzbach was 11-23 passing for 132 yards and a TD. He had one interception. Brad Misiak caught six passes for 30 yards. Ryan Moffatt had a TD reception on one catch of 45 yards. Jake Weatherwax gained 47 yards on nine carries. Caleb Wolcott had 11 tackles.
• Alexander beat Attica, 14-6. Chris McClinic gained 51 yards on 11 carries Dane Heberlein had 47 yards on 14 carries. P.J. Brennan rushed 10 times for 36 yards. He was 7-16 passing for 82 yards and was picked off twice. Derrick Busch had four receptions for 52 yards. The Trojans notched five sacks, including two by Busch and two by Dustin Schmeider.
• Oakfield-Alabama/Elba vs. Pembroke, delayed because of weather.

Photos are from Saturday.

From yesterday afternoon.

Nearly a year ago, Bergen's Barry G. Miller, a volunteer medic with the Bergen Fire Department, was killed in the line of duty while responding to a medical call.

Yesterday, by act of Congress and the signature of President Barack Obama, the post office in Bergen, was renamed in his honor during a ceremony attended by members of Miller's family, local dignitaries including State Sen. Micheal Ranzenhofer and Assemblyman Steve Hawley, and members of the Bergen Volunteer Fire Department. It was organized by the office of Rep. Chris Collins, who got the legislation through Congress to make the dedication possible.

A plaque will be placed on the outside wall of the post office building.

“Barry Miller was a pillar of the Bergen community and someone who spent his entire life serving others,” Collins said. “The ‘Barry Miller Post Office’ will keep his memory forever ingrained in Bergen.”

Tracy Miller, Barry's father, delivered a moving speech at the dedication ceremony.

"In a few short days we will be reminded of the worst day in our family's life," Miller said. "We are so thankful for the outpouring of love and caring from this small community and beyond. I recall the ribbons on all of the telephone poles, the sign on the library, the ladder trucks with the huge flag and the large turnout for the calling hours. These were a testimony of how people in small communities care for one another."

He added, "Thank you to the Bergen Fire Department. You were my son's heart and every young person that gets involved keeps Barry's memory alive and cultivates a desire to serve rather than to be served."

Timmy Bartz, 8, is selling vegetables he grew at a stand on Bank Street this afternoon.

Ray Leach dashed 80 yards, untouched, on the opening kickoff to set the tone for the first half of Batavia's second game of the 2016 season, leading the way to a 54-0 victory over St. Mary's.

The Blue Devils were up 48-0 at the half and by then Leach, a sophomore, had four TDs and 234 total yards. His TDs came on runs of 50 and 51 yards and a 24-yard reception.

Coach Brennan Briggs rested Leach in the second half along with QB Jerry Reinhart, who was 2-4 passing with two TD receptions.

Chandler Baker, who took over at QB in the second half and ran a run-only offense, caught Reinhart's other TD connection, a 50-yard reception. 

Antwan Odom had returned an interception 10 yards for a touchdown.

Cody Dioguardi also scored two touchdowns, on a seven-yard run and 10-yard run.

John Kindig had seven tackles, including three for a loss and one sack.

To purchase prints of photos, click here.

The Lei-Ti Campgrounds Association and Lei-Ti, in Bethany, hosted a charity auction on Labor Day and raised nearly $8,400 for Camp Good Days and Special Times.

Located on the shores of Keuka Lake in Branchport, Camp Good Days provides camping and recreational activities for children stricken with cancer and their families.

Photo: From left, Sandra Sekuterski, Gerald Sekuterski, Val Rosehart, Peggy McVea, Sheila Hollwendel (Lei-Ti's co-owner), Bob McVea and James McCauley, a coordinator at Camp Good Days.

Investigators are awaiting the results of toxicology tests to help determine the cause of death of a man whose body was found in the lake at DeWitt Recreation Area on Labor Day.

The victim's name has not been released because authorities are having a hard time getting in touch with appropriate family members for the purpose of notification.

Det. Todd Crossett said he expects notification to happen today and the identity of the victim to be released Monday.

"It should be clear when the information is released why this is taking so long," Crossett said.

The autopsy has been completed, but that procedure did not lead to a determination of the cause of death, Crossett said.

Asked if the extensive search of the area conducted after the body was found turned up anything related to the case, Crossett said he couldn't comment on that until information was released on Monday.

Crossett said he wasn't on scene Labor Day, so he doesn't know if identification was found on the victim, but he said somebody who saw the body did recognize him.

In past fatalities, it has taken a couple of months for toxicology reports to come back from the crime labs.

Press release:

In preparation for the construction of our new fire station, the Town of Batavia Fire Department, Inc., will be accepting written offers for the house and property located at 5007 Clinton Street Road, Batavia.

The house is two-story, 1584 square feet and is located on a 60’ x 128’ parcel. The house is currently configured as a 2-family home.

The Fire Department purchased the house as it was included as part of the land acquisition for our new fire station. After a formal needs review examination, it has been determined that the house it is not necessary for our current or future needs.

There will be an Open House on Wednesday, Sept. 14, from 2 until 6 p.m. for anyone interested in viewing the house and property.

Written offers will be accepted until Monday, Sept. 19 by U.S. Mail at Town of Batavia Fire Department, Inc., P.O. Box 417, Batavia, NY 14021-0417.

The Town of Batavia Fire Department, Inc., reserves the right to reject any and/or all offers that it deems in its best interest.

By order of the Board of Directors

A caller complains that at a residence on Dellinger Avenue, a dog is being left outside all day, in the heat, without shelter.

The City's animal control officer is responding.

A deputy has been dispatched to Walmart to investigate a report of a girl, about 5 or 6 years old, in a pink outfit, panhandling.

Press release:

The Batavia City School District has always been committed to its girls’ athletic program. We are proud of our student athletic program and continuously work toward achieving equality across all sports. This is of paramount importance to the District.

The District has recently received the Court’s decision awarding attorneys’ fees (totaling $68,000) to the Empire Justice Center in the 2013 lawsuit concerning the girls’ softball fields. The District disagrees with, and is disappointed by, the award of attorneys’ fees to the Empire Justice Center. Most importantly, the lawsuit was simply unnecessary – and only served to waste taxpayers’ money.

The improvements to the girls’ softball field were already approved by the Board before the lawsuit was filed, and they were commenced immediately upon taxpayer approval of the funding. The changes would have been made regardless whether the lawsuit was filed. This was conveyed to the Empire Justice Center, but their attorneys chose to proceed with the lawsuit – and generating unnecessary legal fees for their organization – anyway.

In the end, the Empire Justice Center achieved almost nothing outside this award of fees. There were no substantial differences between the settlement and the capital improvement plans that the Board of Education proposed and approved at its February 2013 meeting for presentation to the voters in May 2013. In addition to routine maintenance, there was only one additional improvement requested in over and above the capital improvement project – the addition of a safety cap to the track and field fence that is adjacent to the no longer used JV softball field.

The District looks forward to continuing to provide a safe and nurturing environment to develop students with high moral character who are able to meet life’s challenges. 

The sale of the Genesee County Nursing home to Premier Healthcare won't exactly lead to the county government pocketing a cool $15.2 million and walking away from the deal scot-free.

Getting disentangled from the white elephant of a facility will take months and cost millions of dollars.

"The costs don't stop on the day of the sale," said County Manager Jay Gsell.

The revenue to the county, as insufficient as it's been for the past decade, stops the day Premier takes over, but some of the costs will drag out, such as final payments to employees' retirement accounts, paying out unclaimed vacations and leaves, paying ongoing workers comp claims, closing out obligations for patient care, among other expenses.

It could be at least a year before the county knows how much of that $15.2 million is left over after all of the expenses are covered.

Right now, best guess, those expenses will eat up at least 75 percent of the sale price, Gsell said.

It will be up to the county legislature to decide what to do with the balance, whether put it back into the general fund, put it into roads and bridges or toward building a new jail.

There are also unpaid bills from patients to be collected. The floating balance of unpaid bills, called accounts receivable, is about $1.3 million.

The county will need to make a decision on how to handle those accounts, whether sell them to Premier at a discount or assign staff -- perhaps more than one staff member, plus attorney time -- to try and collect those payments, or the accounts could be turned over to a contractor for collection. An accountant with Freed Maxick  is working to determine which option might be best for the county.

The county is also owed money from the federal government, which passes through the state, called IGT funds. This money is designed to help county governments fill the gap between revenue and expenses on facilities such as the nursing home. That is money owed the county for expenses already incurred, but by law, the money must be paid to the nursing home, so Premier will need to transfer the money to the county, once the funds are received.

Whatever the final "net proceeds" from the sale might be, the county will never be able to claim it made a "profit" on the sale, Gsell said.  

The sale will close after Premier receives its second regulatory approval, called a certificate of need, from the state's Health Department. One has been approved, for the skilled nursing home, but the other, for the adult home, is still pending.

Gsell expects the deal to close in the fall, meaning between Oct. 1 and the first day of winter.

The nursing home has been bleeding money from the county's general fund for the last 10 years, and to a tune of more than $2.5 million a year for the past five. Those are deficits on operations that will never be recovered.

"We will never be able to use the word 'profit' when it comes to the Genesee County Nursing Home," Gsell said. "That equation has left the building."

There is one registered member of the Reform Party in Genesee County, and with a potentially contested race for the nomination in the 61st Senate District, there must be, under state law, a countywide primary election.

That would be the case even if there wasn't also a primary in the 61st District for the Working Families Party, which has 221 registered members in the county.

Those two primaries could have cost county taxpayers $17,000, but election commissioners Dick Siebert and Lorie Longhany worked out a plan and developed a new policy, with guidance from state election officials, to have one consolidated polling station, in County Building #1, for the Sept. 13 primary.

Rather than expending $150 per election machine to have them moved to each of the 17 polling locations in each town and the city, a member of the county's maintenance staff will move five or six machines to County Building #1, the location of the election board's offices, eliminating that cost.

The plan also means fewer ballots need to be printed.

Siebert said the expected turnout is only 15 to 16 voters.

"That might be a high estimate," Longhany said.

The commissioners briefed members of the county's Ways and Means Committee at yesterday's meeting.

The members of both parties were notified of the polling place change through First Class mail and told that if the change presented a hardship, the voter could request an absentee ballot. The commission has received one ballot request.

"I think we have all the bases covered," Longhany said.

For the Reform Party, Sen. Mike Ranzenhofer is the sole official nominee, but a member of the party in the district filed a request  for an "opportunity to ballot," which opens the door for a write-in vote.

For Working Families, there are two nominees for the 61st District line, Thomas A. Loughran and Andre N. Liszka.

County Building #1 is located at 15 Main St., Batavia. The polling stations will be on the second floor and will be handicap accessible through the building's elevator, which is by the entrance on the west side of the building near Ellicott Street.

For 2017, the STOP-DWI program will spend a little more of its reserves, with the extra money allocated toward increased DWI enforcement and educational programs, Assistant County Manager Matt Landers told members of the County Legislature's Ways and Means Committee at Wednesday's meeting.

The increase in spending follows a year in which revenue from DWI fines lags behind the previous year, but the program has more than $200,000 in reserves against an approximate annual spending plan of $200,000 and the state agency that overseas STOP-DWI programs thinks that level of reserves is too high, so Genesee County needs to spend its program reserves down a bit.

The law enforcement leaders on the STOP-DWI committee also want to see an increase in spending on anti-drunk-driving efforts, so spending reserves now doesn't worry them.

"Everybody understands this could mean cuts in the future," Landers said.

The program is funded through fines paid by drivers convicted of DWI.

The number of arrests for DWI in the county declined steadily from the 1980s until 2014, when changes in laws brought about a slight uptick in arrests.

In 2015 there were 228 arrests, generating $190,000 in paid fines. For 2016, the fine revenue is projected to be $183,000.

The projected revenue for 2017 is $190,000. Landers is proposing a 2017 budget of $226,000.

That would require transferring $36,000 from reserves.

The portion of reserves earmarked for law enforcement is $16,000.

Spending more on enforcement could mean more arrests, which means more revenue, but that really isn't the goal, Landers said after the meeting.

"It’s both sides," Landers said. "Obviously when arrests are up, it generates more revenue and it shows that we’re getting drunks off the road, but then again, when arrests are up, it shows there are more drunks out there. The idea is that in a perfect world the program would go away someday because there are no more drunks on the road.

"So, yes, it’s a double-edged sword. It’s good when arrests are up for revenue purposes. We can do more initiatives, but it means there are more drunks out there and it shows there is more work to be done."

It's the first day of school, but not just for students, but for some staff, too, including Batavia Middle School's new principal, Ashley John Grillo.

Grillo, originally from Albion, was most recently assistant principal at Holley Central School and was appointed to his new role this Spring.

He said he's very excited by the prospects of his new position.

“Fortunately, I’ve got a great team I’m working  with; the staff I’ve met so far have been wonderful," Grillo said.  "They’ve been very welcoming, very helpful. I’m very excited about this year. I only see nothing but positive things happening."

Grillo said he also received a warm welcome from the student's this morning.

"It’s been a blast," Grillo said. "I’ve been shaking hands all morning with kids and saying hi and introducing myself, and they’ve been coming to me, too, so it’s been nice."

A motorcycle accident is reported in the area of 7550 Telephone Road, Pavilion.

Injuries are reported.

The motorcycle is off the roadway.

Pavilion fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.

Mercy Flight is on ground standby.

UPDATE 7:35 p.m.: There are two victims. Mercy Flight isn't necessary.

UPDATE 7:41 p.m.: Second ambulance requested to the scene.

A deputy has been dispatched to the Mount Rest Cemetery in Bergen, Route 262 and Route 19, to investigate a complaint of damage to headstones.

Press release:

The City of Batavia Police Department has been investigating the discovery of a deceased male in the sand wash at DeWitt park. The City of Batavia Police Department is issuing a clarification in the timeline of the originally reported events.

The timeline is as follows:

• 08:54HRS: Fisherman discovers deceased male, contacts Genesee County Dispatch Center 09:03HRS: Officers arrive on scene
• 10:30HRS: Genesee County Coroner Douglas pronounces time of death
• 11:13HRS: City of Batavia Fire Department and Batavia Police Department Detectives perform water recovery

Cause of death is still under investigation. The Batavia Police Department will not be releasing the identification of the deceased male until the next of kin has been notified. The Batavia Police Department will update the media with any new information as it becomes available. 

The city's animal control officer has been dispatched to an address on Union Street where a caller reports that a dog is tied up outside every day and barks all day.

"The caller has had enough," the dispatcher told the officer.

A second caller, who heard the dispatch, says he believes the dog is on Woodrow.