Stories from

A handful of snowmobilers attended last night's Genesee County Legislature meeting, and though they were not allowed to speak, they did walk about with good news.

It may be possible for the Genesee County Sno-Packers to reinstall the bridge it installed on Sour Springs Road over Oak Orchard Creek.

The county highway department removed the bridge Oct. 22, with officials citing liability concerns since installation of the bridge was not authorized.

Two issues stand in the way of putting the bridge back in place: County liability and responsibility for maintenance. Both of those issue appear on the cusp of resolution.

"After some discussion I had tonight with the county attorney, it appears that the county attorney would be receptive to the town of Alabama giving a hold harmless and indemnification agreement to the county," said Legislator Ray Cianfrini. "I was told by Mr. Rizzo that he would be receptive to that, and that's a huge step forward."

Even though the Sour Springs Road runs through a national wildlife refuge, it is actually a Town of Alabama roadway.

County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens said he was confident an agreement could be reached with the Sno-Packers for maintenance of the bridge.

Kevin Fisher, speaking for the Sno-Packers after the meeting said the club would have no issue with taking care of the bride and would gladly reinstall it themselves.

“I’m sure the club will put it back in," Fischer said. "We did it once, I’m sure we can do it again.”

At which point another club member chimed in, "It's easier the second time."

"You got it," Fisher said.
 

Darren S. Jimerson, 44, of 5 Thorpe St., Batavia, is charged with sexual abuse in the first degree, forciable touching and criminal trespass. Jimerson was arrested by officer K.M. Defelice following an investigation. The alleged incident(s) that lead to the charge reportedly occurred at the residence of a female acquaintence. Jimerson was jailed without bail pending an arraignment today in City Court at 11 a.m.

We still have our election survey online (link below).

PLEASE READ: I have invalidated at least HALF of the surveys cast so far.  People are not following the instructions. If you say you're voting for one candidate for County Legislature in District 7 and then also select a candidate in District 8, I'm throwing out your survey.  That is by far the biggest reason for invalidating a survey.  I've also invalidated surveys for voting in every jurisdiction.

Also note that I've only included in the survey races that are competitive. For jurisdictions or districts that have candidates running unopposed, there are no survey questions.

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A Grand Jury indictment has been handed down against Ronald J. Wendt, of Alexander, charging him with 11 felony counts stemming from an accident on Aug. 14 that claimed the life of an 18-year-old Dansville girl.

Among the charges against Wendt, 24, is aggravated vehicular manslaughter, a new statute in New York that carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

WBTA spoke with District Attorney Lawrence Friedman about the unique charge.

Friedman said elements of the alleged crime, relevant to the more serious charge, is that it includes alleged reckless driving and causing serious injury to another person.

Wendt is represented by Batavia Attorney Thomas Burns, who issued a statement following Wendt's preliminary hearing in August challenging the validity of drunken-driving charges in this case.

In addition to challenging the actual charges, Burns asserted that there is ample evidence that Wendt was not intoxicated at the time of the accident.

Among key facts raised during the preliminary hearing were that Wendt passed one element of the road-side sobriety test.

Wendt was reportedly making a left-hand turn off Route 20 into the parking lot of My Saloon -- an area not far from where the speed limit changes from 55 down to 40 mph -- when his truck was struck by the car. It's unclear if the car left any skid marks.

According to testimony at the hearing, Wendt told Deputy Tim Wescott that he had a few beers, during and after work, on a nearby farm bailing hay. His BAC was reportedly right at .08 after the accident.

A local gun-rights lobby group likes what it sees in seven of the 11 candidates standing for election to the County Legislature on Nov. 3.

The Genesee County chapter of SCOPE (Shooters Committee On Political Education) ranked five of the candidates "highly favorable," including two running in competitive seats.

Democrat hopeful Chris Charvella, running for the District 8 seat received a "highly favorable" rating, while his opponent, incumbent Republican Hollis Upson notched a "favorable" rating.

In the District 7 race, Republican Robert Radley scored "highly favorable" while Democrat Rose Mary Christian was ranked "favorable."

The ratings were the result of a survey SCOPE asked each candidate to complete.

Two current county legislators up for re-election, but running unopposed, were classified "requires education on the issue."  They were Mary Pat Hancock and Anne Lawrence.

Ed DeJaneior and Esther Leadley did not respond to the survey, according to SCOPE.

Also receiving "highly favorable" ratings were Ray Cianfrini, Jay Grasso and Charles Zambito.

Also, SCOPE announced that John O., of Genesee County, won the group's raffle. The prize was a Thompson Triumph Black Powder Rifle.

As a baker's son, I'm generally pretty aware of my surroundings when it comes to availability of cakes and bread. I've had a few conversations in the past few months with people along the lines of, "how come there's no bakery in Genesee County?"

Well, there is a bakery in Genesee County, and it just hadn't sunk into my head yet, but I happened to make a couple of trips out to Bergen this week, which reminded me about Greg'ry's Bakery and Cafe.

I stopped in there today -- they have a fine selection of locally made bread, cakes, scones, muffins and cookies. I'm glad I came across it again.

Kravings Kafe, Valu Plaza, W. Main Street, Batavia, NY: Recently opened, it offers soups, salads and sandwiches, fresh and flavorful; Monday through Saturday. We have $10 gift certificates for $5.

Great Kutz, in the Valu Plaza, 4152 W. Main St. Road, Batavia, NY: Great Kutz is Batavia's newest full-service hair salon. Women, try Great Kutz for a haircut at the incredibly low price of $7, exclusive offer from to The Batavian. (gift card can be applied toward other services, but not products).

Matty's Pizzeria, 4152 W. Main St., Batavia, NY: Matty's is another Batavia favorite for pizza and wings. We have a $20 gift certificate for $10.

Herbly Wonderful, 3701 Pearl St., Batavia, NY: Winter teas, spices and fall colors for your home in stunning floral arrangements and seasonal wreaths are now available at Herbly Wonderful. We have a $25 gift certificate for $11.

South Main Country Gifts, 3356 Main St. Road, Batavia, NY: Handcrafted items, gifts with a regional flair, candles, teas and spices -- South Main has a wide selection to please most any interest. We have a $20 gift certificate for $9.

Settler's Restaurant, 353 W. Main St., Batavia, NY: Settler's has a 25-year history of serving great, affordable breakfasts, lunches and dinners to Batavians. We have a $20 gift certificate for $10.

NOTE: If you've never bought Deal of the Day before, or are otherwise unfamiliar with the rules and process, click here.

SOLD OUT

Ronald Eugene Murphy, 29, of 409 Cedar Circle, Spencerport, was picked up by the Genesee County Sheriff's Office on a warrant for alleged criminal possession of a controlled substance in the 7th degree out of Monroe County. Murphy was turned over to the Monroe County Sheriff's Department.

Batavia will finally get to see what a roundabout is all about starting Friday when construction of the Walnut Street project is finally finished.

No more construction cones or workers holding up traffic. Drivers will be able to navigate through the circle in real time and see if they like how traffic flows.

The roundabout will be closed Friday Thursday from 5 to 7 a.m. for a final repaving, and then the route will open Friday morning with no fanfare -- no ribbon-cutting, no speeches, no coffeecake and donuts -- you can just drive on it.

A police officer is being dispatched to Tops Market where a woman says she spotted a possibly rabid fox.

The caller said the fox came up to her car snarling and drooling at the mouth and looked very skinny.

The woman is staying on scene to point out the location of the fox.

UPDATE 11:28 p.m.: The police officer who responded reports that the animal is gone, but he's checking the area.

"I fought the law, and the law won."

Peter H. Scrooby is going to try and do what Bobby Fuller and The Clash said they couldn't do, fight the law and win.

Scrooby asked for a jury bench trial (the charge is not serious enough to warrant a jury trial) tonight in Darien Town Court on his disorderly conduct charge. Scrooby was arrested at the Kid Rock concert July 15. The Batavian featured him as one of three defendants arrested that night as part of a story about the Darien court on a concert night.

While the other two defendants featured in the story long ago accepted guilty pleas and have moved on, Scrooby isn't rolling over for the law.

The Rochester resident has retained Batavia attorney Thomas Burns, and Burns indicated his client doesn't think he did anything to warrant his arrest and the charge.

"It's very important to him," Burns said. "It's a matter of principle. Despite the fact that it's a minor charge, he's willing to invest the time and effort to let the truth be known as to what happened."

Scrooby's trial is set for Feb. 1 at 5:30 p.m. in Darien.

We are experimenting with an online survey for the County's 2009 Election. The survey will be up until Friday evening. We will publish the results over the weekend. Please read the instructions carefully.

NOTE:  Please follow the instructions. Do not vote in multiple jurisdictions.  I just deleted half of the first 12 survey responses because people voted in every race, or, more common, both contested Legislature races.  You can't vote in both District 7 and District 8.

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Neighbors need to start talking with each other more, said City Manager Jason Molino during Monday night's City Council meeting.

Molino was giving the council an update on the work of the Neighborhood Improvement Committee, which previously brought forward programs for additional enforcement of yard clean up and property improvements.

There's a three-pronged approach to neighborhood improvement the city should pursue, Molino said:

• Compliance with property standards use and regulations
• Community Development Block Grants to help low-income property owners fix up and maintain their houses
• And community engagement.

Here's Molino's full comment from last night on the community aspect of neighborhood improvement:

We’ve had some preliminary talks about how we can also facilitate the possibility, facilitate neighbors getting out and communicating more with each other, whether through national night out types of events, where you’re getting neighborhoods, blocks, streets out so that they’re socializing and communicating with their neighbors.

A good question to ask is, "Do we know 50 percent of the neighbors around us?” If you don’t, why not?

Those types of things are really going to be the crux of improving what you want to improve in terms of neighborhoods. You want to get neighbors communicating with each other, creating a dependent neighborhood where people look out for each other, they communicate, they talk, because if you’ve got undesirables that want to relocate into the area, they’re not going to want to come to a neighborhood or a street where neighbors are looking out for each other, neighbors are talking, neighbors have good relationships with law enforcement in the city to be able to report problems. That’s going to deter them from coming to that neighborhood, if  they’re non-desirables, so to speak.

It’s going to help with a little bit more pride, a little more esprit de corps. People are going to want to talk with each other, to communicate, to bring a little more of that sense of community back.

We’ve seen a little bit of a down spiral, and I don’t think Batavia is uncommon. It’s like a lot of communities. People are not volunteering as much, people are not familiar with their neighborhoods anymore. I think we want to try and bring that back. The way we want to do that is working with some of the departments, getting into select neighborhoods -- each is going to be different -- getting the people on the streets communicating with each other and talking with each other. Those are the types of things that I think are really going to make a difference in the long term.

I told Jason after the meeting that his little speech sounded a lot like something I might say on The Batavian. So many community problems can be solved just through a higher ratio of social connectedness. Communities with higher connectedness have less crime, better graduation rates, higher average income, less disparity between high- and low-income wage earners, better physical health, lower infant-mortality rates and lower teen-pregnancy rates. 

I recommended to Jason a book you've seen me mention before: Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam. Putnam's work (Putnam is a sociologist) pretty much backs up everything Molino said.

More chatter about trash in council chambers last night.

The city continues to wrestle with garbage. Who should pay for its removal and how much?

City Manager Jason Molino, responding to a council request a few weeks ago, presented a report on what 11 other municipalities do, ranging from no garbage pick up to pay-per-bag formulas.

In the end, the council decided, more or less, to have Molino come back with more information. Molino said staff is working on presenting information on models like the one currently employed in Orleans County (per parcel) and a unit-by-unit fee model.

Council President Charlie Mallow asked what's wrong with the current system. Currently, the cost of garbage collection is wrapped into the city's property-tax rate and accounts for about 7 percent of the bill.

One concern, raised by Councilman Sam Barone and others, is that tax-exempt properties (possibly up to 24 percent of parcels in the city) aren't paying for garbage collection, though they benefit from the service.

"I’d like to expand it. I’d like to see leaves picked up," Mallow said. "It seems like a good service now, I don’t see why you would change it. If anything, I hear from elderly people who can’t get rid of their leaves and twigs now. They don’t have a car and have no way to get rid of it."

Mallow also pointed out that by including garbage collection as part of property taxes, the money can be deducted from the homeowner's Federal incomes taxes. Going to a fee-based system would end the tax deduction.

Councilwoman Marriane Clattenburg said she thought the payment method currently in use is fine, but asked Molino to look further into the new system in Auburn. It's like Batavia's, but that city recently added an opt-out/fee system for tax-exempt properties. In Auburn, nonprofits can opt-out of the service, but if they continue to use it, they must pay for it.

She said she was concerned about changes that might lead to higher garbage costs for lower-income families.

“It’s not just the $200,000 house, you also have to think about the million-dollar piece of property," Clattenburg said. "Now you cut their taxes 7 percent, where do you distribute that cost to? Back to the person that’s living in $50,000 house. So to me, that’s the problem with this kind of thing and that’s what I’d be looking at – how that adjusts and how it makes everyone’s cost go up.”

Molino will report back to the council with a narrowed list of alternatives at a future council meeting.

In the little town of Scituate, Rhode Island, everyone has primary health coverage -- even the people who can't afford health insurance.

No, Scituate hasn't become an experiment in some single-payer scheme. People in the town banded together and figured out how to make it happen.

The people of Scituate, Rhode Island did it themselves.

No, we don’t give away health insurance – that’s too darn expensive. Instead, we make sure everyone who lives here has primary care (which only costs $25 a month). By coupling together grants, and a little money from the town, and doing bake sales and walk-a-thons, something called the Scituate Health Alliance decided, 10 years ago that we could fix the health care system ourselves – or, more accurately, build one from scratch — by providing primary care medical for everyone in town who doesn’t have insurance. (We also do flu shots for anyone in town who wants one and organize prenatal classes for anyone who is pregnant.)

While the effort isn't without taxpayer support (read, grants and money from the town), it does show how a community can come together to provide a service.

Fire Chief Ralph Hyde will get his light-rescue vehicle, and it's the one he's requested during at least three City Council meetings now.

After a 20-minute discussion at last night's council meeting, the council sort of collectively shrugged and said, "go ahead."

At the end of the discussion, after saying Hyde has "our blessing," Council President Charlie Mallow motioned his hands like a priest, which drew a laugh.

Hyde has sought permission to convert one of the former ambulances -- the newest one, bought within the past year with a state grant -- into a vehicle that could carry additional rescue equipment that doesn't fit on either Ladder 15 or Engine 12.

Council members dithered, asking him to justify the need for the ambulance as a rescue vehicle. Then they asked him to research the option of selling the ambulance and purchasing a new truck, since the ambulance already has 50,000 miles on it.

Hyde's report Monday night put the cost at a new vehicle at between $65,000 and $189,000.

"It would take a $1,000 to convert it, so it’s far cheaper than going out and getting a new vehicle," Hyde said. "And It’s something that we’ve needed for many years."

Previously, Hyde's argument for the ambulance didn't include using some space inside the vehicle to give people displaced from their homes by fire a place to stay warm.

"In the past, we've had people have to wait outside for 30 minutes to an hour, and had to send firefighters in to retrieve shoes and jackets," Hyde said.

The table and benches inside could also serve as a convenient place to interview fire witnesses.

Councilman Bob Bialkowski complained that he thought the purpose of getting rid of the ambulance service was to save money and he expected all six of the city's ambulances to be sold. Mallow pointed out that previously, the council resolution only authorized the sale of the five older ambulances.

A vote was not required on the decision to convert the ambulance into a light-rescue vehicle since the city owns it and it's already assigned to the Fire Department.

Kyle Christopher Monroe, 20, of 4036 W. Main St. Road, Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of stolen property in the 4th degree and criminal possession of stolen property in the 5th degree. Deputy Sanfratello stopped Monroe for allegedly operating his car without headlights on Route 63 in front of Tops Market at 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 24. The vehicle was a 1997 Dodge Caravan, which had been reported stolen in the City of Batavia on Oct. 21. The license plates were reportedly stolen from another vehicle parked at GCC on Oct. 22. Monroe was jailed on $5,000 bail. He was also charged with unlicensed operation, switched plates, unregistered motor vehicle, uninspected motor vehicle and operating without insurance.

Matthew Ryan Smith, 18, of 1705 Lewiston Road, Alabama, is charged with unlawful dealing with a child. Smith is accused of hosting an underage drinking party on Oct. 12 at his residence. He was arrested at 12:04 a.m. today.

A 16-year-old from Byron has been charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. She was arrested after a K-9 alert on her car while it was on Byron-Bergen High School property during a narcotic sniff sweep of the western parking lot. The arrest was made by K-9 Deputy Brian Thompson.