Stories from

A jury was picked today in the criminal trial of Jennifer L. Ferguson, charged with sexual abuse in the first degree.

The 30-year-old Batavia resident  is accused of sexually touching a two-year-old that she was babysitting on Nov. 23. She was arrested in December.

District Attorney Lawrence Friedman said he will start his presentation to the jury on Wednesday, and expects jury deliberation to begin on Thursday.

If convicted, Ferguson could be sentenced to up to seven years in state prison.

There is no court tomorrow because it is a state holiday -- election day.

Le Roy Fire is being dispatched to Tops Market, 128 W. Main St., for a general fire alarm.

UPDATE 12:46 p.m.: First responder, "Nothing showing."

UPDATE 12:48 p.m: Alarm company confirms, unintentional activation during maintenance.

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Residents in the Village of Alexander no longer need to boil water to make it potable.

The boil order for the Village and along Route 98 to Attica was lifted this morning.

The order had been in affect for several days.

(via WBTA)

City Fire is responding to 1 Treadeasy, the P.W. Minor plant, where a smoke detector has been activated.

We now hear, it's a false alarm.

Patrick L. Gugliuzza, 30, of 94 Exchange St., Attica, is charged with DWI, criminal possession of a controlled substance and following too closely. Deputies were in the area of 104435 Route 98 in Alexander investigating a motor-vehicle accident. The deputies received a report of a minor property-damage accident on southbound Route 98 near the accident scene. Upon investigation of that accident, Deputy J.M. Graff concluded that Gugliuzza was allegedly driving while intoxicated. Further investigation allegedly revealed that Gugliuzza had a small quantity of heroin. His passenger, Brandon Eck, 29, of 51 Bunnel St., Attica, was also charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument and unlawful possession marijuana.

Keith A. Finan, 44, of 10501 Bonnie Brae Drive, Darien, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, driving left of pavement markings in a no-passing zone. Finan was reportedly stopped on Bonnie Brae Drive in Darien on Friday. The investigation was conducted by Deputy Jason Saile.

William Daniel Nix, 48, of 55 Riverview Drive, Rochester, is charged with criminal mischief, harassment and disorderly conduct. Nix is accused of causing a disturbance at 48 Deli Express at 8204 Park Road. Nix was reportedly using foul language and was asked to leave. Nix allegedly continued to use foul language and got involved in a physical struggle with a clerk, tearing his shirt.

Ariana M. Busch, 19, of 10876 Bowen Road, Attica, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater and failure to dim headlights. Busch was arrested following a traffic stop on Route 20 in Darien at 2:25 a.m. on Saturday.

Dylan C. Miller, 21, of 3883 Eagle Harbor Road, Albion, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, driving an unregistered car and failure to yield right-of-way. Miller was stopped by Officer T.S. Mart on Oak Street at 2:18 a.m. on Saturday.

Brian L. Smith, 47, of 8655 Jones Road, Houston, Texas, is charged with DWI and driving with improper tail lamps. Smith was stopped by Officer Dan Coffey at 1:05 a.m. on Sunda. Smith was jailed on $1,000 bail.

Scott D. Kingdon, 43, of 6243 Sparks Road, Pavilion, is charged with DWI and driving with a BAC of .08 or greater. Kingdon was reportedly involved in a verbal argument with a friend. The friend called the Sheriff's Office and reported that Kingdon might be at her house. While Deputy Kevin McCarthy was checking the residence, Kingdon reportedly pulled into the driveway. McCarthy allegedly found Kingdon was driving while intoxicated.

Two teenagers, one from Alexander and another from Bethany, are charged with petit larceny for an alleged theft in Alexander. The original incident was reported to State Police on Sept. 15.

David H. Robinson, 45, of Corfu, and Amber M. Robinson, 40, of Batavia, are charged with identity theft. Amber is also charged with forgery of a public record. David and Amber were arrested by State Police at 3 p.m. on Thursday. No further information is available.

T.F. Brown's, at 214 E. Main St., Batavia, NY: T.F. Brown's is a great place for a good meal, good friends and to catch up on what's going on in the sports world. "If it happens in sports, it happens at Brown's." We have a $20 gift card for $10.

Delavan's Restaurant and Tavern, 107 Evans St., Batavia, NY: To me, Delavan's is one of those restaurants where you want to eat frequently until you try everything on the menu. We have a $20 gift certificate for $10.

Kravings, 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.

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.

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.

Adam Miller Toy & Bicycles, 8 Center St., Batavia, NY: Feel like a kid in a toy store again, or treat your kids to the greatest toy store they will ever see. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

Alex's Place, 8322 Park Road, Batavia, NY: People come from all over the region for a fine dining experience at Alex's. It's best known for its ribs, of course, but Alex's seafood is also a favorite of the restaurant's diners. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

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

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An anonymous poster on a UFO site claims she and her husband saw a strange object in the sky in the Pavilion area Saturday night.

The poster says they spotted the object just around 8 p.m. and that other cars on Route 63 apparently saw it, too, because cars were swerving and stopping along the side of the road.

It was very dark out and about 8:15pm when we saw an object with 5 LARGE white lights and 1 SMALL red blinking light hovering low above the road in the distance ahead. Coming from Batavia we thought it was a radio tower or airplane or something of that nature. As we neared it we noticed it was some type of aircraft. We both were pretty calm at first because neither my husband or I believed in UFO's. As we drove directly under this object we both became extremely nervous. I didn't know what to make of what I just saw, my husband couldn't even speak. I know we were not the only ones who saw it because there were several cars in front of us an behind us.

The woman claims that they spotted another object later that evening from their house, and that object made some sort of humming sound.  The couple awoke about 3 a.m. when the same sound started again.

This morning I discovered the art work of Jim Parker. He's an Upstate artist.

While none of his subjects seem to touch on Genesee County, I wanted to share this finding because I'm as fascinated by the style and quality of his work as I am by the subject.  

Billie and I have enjoyed what little exploration we've been able to do of New York. It's a beautiful and historic state full of charming rural scenery and buildings. 

Among Parker's favorite topics for painting are villages, landscapes and buildings from Upstate counties in the 18th and 19th centuries.  These paintings can really feed the imagination because so many of the buildings he paints are still standing, or buildings like them are still standing all over he state.

Three Genesee County companies made the 23rd Annual Democrat and Chronicle list of Top 100 companies in the region.

The local companies are: Lapp Insulators LLC, 130 Gilbert St., LeRoy; Liberty Pumps Inc., 7000 Apple Tree Ave., Bergen; and, Manning Squires Hennig Co. Inc., 8426 Seven Springs Road, Batavia.

Here's what the D&C says is criteria for making the list:

The Top 100 companies are ranked by revenue growth using a mix of dollar and percentage increases over the three most recent fiscal years. To be eligible, companies must be privately held, independent, have a minimum of $1 million in annual revenue and headquarters in the Rochester region, which includes Monroe, Ontario, Wayne, Livingston, Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming, Seneca and Yates counties.

The D&C said the average growth rate for the Top 100 companies over the past two years was 25 percent.

City residents, when you vote on the revised City Charter on Tuesday, Frank Klimjack wants you to consider one additional thing: You may be voting on whether Batavia has its own police department in the future.

Klimjack, president of the Police Benevolent Association, is asking city voters to just say no.

"I really think what this administration is looking to do is over time get rid of the police department," Klimjack said. "They will tell you it will be a merge, but there's no merging. You have to abolish your police department, and then hopefully the guys who are still hanging, maybe the sheriff's department picks them up or maybe they get picked up by another municipality."

The proposed change to the charter would strike the words "There shall be a police department ..." and add in "the City Council may choose to establish a police department. ..."

"That's huge," Klimjack said. "That's a total 180 degree change, where they tell you they're behind the police, 'we support the police,' and then they turn around and want to run this charter by you."

And Klimjack isn't sure what the city would replace the current police force with.  It can't be the State Police, he said, unless state law is changed, and he isn't sure bringing in the Sheriff's Office will really save city taxpayers any money.

Currently, the city is patrolled, usually, by four police officers. The Sheriff's Office would need to hire 30 additional deputies to keep the same level of service.

"The Sheriff is not going to do it for free," Klimjack said. "Is there savings? There may be some small savings, but what do you get for it? You get an occupational force that has no ties to the city whatsoever."

Klimjack worries that low voter turn out in an off-year election will mean that relatively few people are deciding the future of the police protection and service they get.

He's concerned, also, he said, that the level of service for the city, without a local police force, will be not as good as what citizens get now.

"The consolidation of dispatch," Klimjack said, "you'll hear it's been great, but it's been nothing but a disaster on the working end, for the guys who are actually working in the field. Did we save any money? I don't think we did. I live in the City of Batavia and I didn't see it in my tax dollars. I just look at that as the first step in consolidation and do you really want to get rid of the Police Department?"

T.F. Brown's, at 214 E. Main St., Batavia, NY: T.F. Brown's is a great place for a good meal, good friends and to catch up on what's going on in the sports world. "If it happens in sports, it happens at Brown's." We have a $20 gift card for $10.

Center Street Smoke House, 20 Center St., Batavia, NY: Authentic Southern BBQ, from ribs to brisket with all the fixin's. We have a $25 gift card for $12.50.

Delavan's Restaurant and Tavern, 107 Evans St., Batavia, NY: To me, Delavan's is one of those restaurants where you want to eat frequently until you try everything on the menu. We have a $20 gift certificate for $10.

Jackson St. Grill, 9 Jackson St., Batavia, NY: Try the fresh, skinless haddock fish fry on Fridays. We have a $10 gift certificate for $5.

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.

Total Image Hair Salon/Sarah and Amanda Lowe, 226 Ellicott St., Batavia, NY: Time to update your style? Try something different or finally get the hair styling you've dreamed of, give Sarah or Amanda at Total Image a try. We have a $22 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.

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A car has reportedly run into a telephone pole in the area of 20 Washington Avenue.

There are reportedly injuries.

Batavia Fire, Mercy EMS and police have been dispatched.

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A deer that was struck by a car at Main and Oak is trapped in a fenced area at Prospect Avenue and Mix Place.

It is bleeding profusely, according to the report.

Police had received a report about the car striking the deer, and then the deer left the area, so police were searching for it when the call came in about its current location.

UPDATE: DPW has been requested to respond to scene and dispose of the carcass.

It's no fun to trick or treat in the rain, but ghouls, goblins as well as princesses and pirates shouldn't worry too much.

The forecast for this evening ranges from 0 percent to 10 percent chance of precipitation.

But it is going to be a little cold. The temperature is expected to drop into the high 40s.

The good news is, the wind will have died down by then.

Wind, did you say? Yes, there's a wind advisory in place from 4 to 6 p.m., with gusts of up to 40 mph expected.

Happy Halloween. Be safe.

There are 215 carved pumpkins in front of the home of Julie Allein, but that's just the introduction to a haunted house that has been scaring the bejeebus out of kids and adults alike for nearly two decades.

"It's all about the fright," says Allein.

Her barn is converted into two stories of horror show, with carved up body parts, cadavers and sculls and a ghoulish funeral that features a dead Michael Jackson as a guest.

Amazingly, it takes Allein and her family only about a month to prepare for the Halloween haunt, and that includes each of the 215 carved pumpkins, gutted by her mother-in-law and cut by Allein. Each one has a unique design.

She might not start the work until early October, but "the mind's always turning" she says, and she tries to think of ways of improving on the previous year's effort.

"It’s grown throughout the years, adding a bit here in there, but probably the last five years we can’t grow any more, so we just change it every year," Allein said. "This year, we made a real casket. It’s a lot of fun."

The Allein's haunted barn is located at 8894 Boyce Road. It will be open Halloween evening and admission is free.

Top photo, courtesy Julie Allein.

Mark Fry started turning their barn into a horror of haunts about three years ago just to scare their kids, but as more and more people stopped by, they kept adding to the show.

"This is the biggest yet, 11 rooms," Fry said. "Everybody this year tells us, keep it going. We were going to shut it down, because last year we had about 40 (visitors) but this year we’ve probably already had over 200 come."

And those are 11 pretty scary rooms, filled with more than a dozen local actors portraying everything from ghouls to flesh-eating surgeons.

If you don't get a little jolt of fear before the tour is over, your heart isn't beating.

The haunted barn on Alexander Road (Route 98) is free, and Friday night was going to be the last show, but on the spot last night, Fry and his wife decided to open for three more hours, from 3 to 6 p.m., on Saturday.

It's hard to close a good show.

Below are the results of the election survey taken of readers of The Batavian over the past three days.

Please keep in mind: 

• This is somewhat experimental. We're curious how close we can get to accurately reflecting how the election will go. That question won't be answered until election night. But as a matter of transparency, we're releasing the results tonight (also, even while acknowledging the potential pitfalls of this survey, candidates are expressing an eagerness to know the results.
• This is a non-scientific survey. Participants are self selected, which statisticians will tell you can skew results.
• An online survey isn't beyond being gamed, or tricked, but I see no evidence of that taking place in this case.

All of that to say: You shouldn't let these results influence your voting decisions, from who to vote for or whether to show up at the polls. Treat this as a potentially interesting reflection of how readers of The Batavian are responding to the candidates, but not necessarily a prediction of what will happen on Election Day.

Two other notes. We are not randomly deleting responses as we previously said we would. We had to delete too many as it is because SOOO MANNNNY people didn't follow the instructions on the survey.

The most common reason we deleted surveys (and whole surveys were deleted, not just specific questions) was people voting in BOTH district elections for the County Legislature. The next most common reason, was saying you lived in the Town of Batavia or another town and then voting in Batavia races or on the charter question.

We have 165 completed surveys. We trashed at least 200 more for failure to follow the instructions and another 25 for stating not registered to vote and unlikely to vote (you see, those were trick questions). We also deleted five surveys with duplicate IP addresses.

We're also not displaying results for jurisdictions that had only one or two respondents.

Here's the results:

Very likely to vote: 149 (90%)

Batavia City Council - Council at Large   Answer   Marianne Clattenburg 49 (22%)   Timothy E. Buckley 45 (21%)   Frank C. Ferrando, Jr 44 (20%)   Phillip J. Ricci 39 (18%)   Sara J. Balbi 26 (12%)   Julie Ann Wallace 15 (7%)

 

City of Batavia Charter Revision   Yes 52 (64%)   No 29 (36%)

 

Genesee County Legislator District 7 (Wards 1 & 6)   Robert H. Radley 22 (59%)   Rosemary Christian 15 (41%)

 

Genesee County Legislator District 8 (Wards 2 & 3)   Christopher M. Charvella 17 (55%)   Hollis D. Upson 14 (45%)  

 

Darien Town Clerk   Alice E. Calmes 5 (56%)   Linda P. Graber 4 (44%)

 

Darien Town Council (Vote for 2)   Michael A. Plitt 7 (35%)   Stephen J. Ferry 5 (25%)   Christopher M. Nicastro 4 (20%)   Charles J. Flagg 3 (15%)   Jimmie E. Flaming 1 (5%)

 

Darien Town Council, unexpired term   David D. Riker 7 (70%)   Samuel E. Williams 3 (30%)

 

Le Roy Town Justice   Answer   Kermit Arrington 13 (65%)   Darryl D. Sehm 7 (35%)

 

Le Roy Town Council (Pick 2)   Thomas Stella 15 (58%)   Christine M. Smith 8 (31%)   Jay E. Whipple 3 (12%)

 

Le Roy Town Council, unexpired term   Kelly J. Lathan 14 (67%)   Jennifer AO Keys 7 (33%)

 

Stafford Town Council (Vote for 2)   Ronald Panek 10 (38%)   Donald L. Mullen 9 (35%)   Michelle Mouery 7 (27%)  

 

Stafford Superintendent of Highways   Answer   Steven Boldt 13 (87%)   James D. Pontillo 2 (13%)

 

"The children" is a key part of the City Council campaign platform for Julie Wallace, but when it comes to her claims of serving the kids of Genesee County, there appears to be inconsistencies in her resume.

In our Oct. 15 candidates' forum in which The Batavian and WBTA interviewed Wallace, Wallace said, "I do a lot for the children. That's basically what I want to do. I want to do more for the children than anything."

She also claimed that evening that she is a volunteer for CASA, a claim repeated in her bio in the Daily News interview earlier this week.

"I do a lot of volunteering," Wallace said Oct. 15. "I volunteer for CASA."

After being tipped by a reader, The Batavian called Tara Pariso, executive director of CASA, and Pariso said Wallace has never volunteered for CASA.

CASA stands for "Court Appointed Special Advocates" and the job of volunteers is to help children in foster care.

Pariso said her predecessor, Sara Munger, had started the application process with Wallace, but Wallace never completed the interview process required for all volunteers. Pariso said Wallace was supposed to do one of the two required interviews last week, but missed her appointment. She also said volunteers require an extensive background check, checking for any criminal record, and Wallace has not yet had a background check.

Wallace today had a different story. She didn't explicitly repeat the claim to volunteer for CASA, but she did say that Munger interviewed her and cleared her for training to begin in November.

When asked if she had that in writing, she said she did not.

"I just touched base with Tara last week, since Sara had left," Wallace said. "Everything was all set to go with Sara."

Wallace was adament that she will start training in November. 

When we spoke to Pariso yesterday, she was equally adament that Wallace had done no volunteering of any kind for CASA and that she needed to be interviewed and pass a background check before she could start volunteering.

UPDATE Monday, Nov. 2, 9:42 a.m.: We just received this e-mail from Sara Munger:

As the former director for Genesee County CASA for Children I would like to   verify some misconceptions that have been shared with your readers.  I did in  fact interview a Julie Wallace near the end of my service as the Director for  CASA for Children.  At no time during the interview did I tell Ms. Wallace  that she was accepted as a volunteer for CASA, or that she would be going  through the training process as a volunteer.  When interviewing CASA  advocates it was my policy to review all of the materials after our  interview, check at least three references (by phone, or through mail) and  complete a thorough back round check on all potential candidates.  When I  interviewed Ms. Wallace I explained to her that after reviewing her  application and completing these appropriate steps, I would then contact her  to set up a time for training.  Shortly after our interview, I stepped down  from my position as the Director, and Mrs. Tara Pariso was hired as the new  CASA director.  At this time Ms. Wallace's application was handed over to  Mrs. Pariso, and the application process and background checks had not been  completed.  Ms. Wallace did contact me to follow up with the interview, and  it was explained to her that due to current circumstances, I was not able to  move forward with her application, but ensured her that I would hand over her  information to the new director.  At no time did I indicate to Ms. Wallace  that she was accepted as a CASA advocate, or indicate that she would be  training in November.