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Press Release from Detective Todd Crossett, Batavia Police Department:

The man in this photo is wanted for questioning in a larceny, that occurred today, outside the Tonawanda Valley Credit Union, at about 1220pm.  If anyone has any information into who this person is please contact the City of Batavia Police Department at 345-6444 or the confidential tip line at 345-6370.

I just called Todd with this information:  I saw this gentleman this morning in the Jackson St. parking lot, behind Main Street, half way between Ken Mislter's new gym and South Beach (I was walking down to take the picture of South Beach I used in this morning's post). That would have been about 10:30, I think. He was looking out at the parking lot like he was looking for somebody.  He did look at me and answered my "hello" tentatively. He had such a distinctive look, I was curious about him and all most stopped to chat -- wish I would have.

If you saw him around town, you should call the police department. I'm sure it would be helpful to trace his movements.

Council members Bill Cox and Rosemary Christian tell Joanne Beck they're representing the concerns of their constituents in raising a long-list of questions about the proposed Masse Gateway Project.

A hearing on the project -- a prerequisite to the city apply for a state grant to help fund development -- is scheduled for tomorrow at 5 p.m.

Both Christian and Cox recently sent a list of questions to City Manager Jason Molino to get answers about the project. In his letter to Molino, Cox said that "private contractors and developers in the city have also raised the concern that often with Genesee County Economic Development Center projects no competitive bidding is done and local contractors frequently do not even get invited to bid, which would create local jobs using local people," he said. "Collectively all of these citizens and local businesses have raised some valid points which need some answers and explanations before we vote on the application and hopefully before the public hearing."

Neither councilman has anything against the principal Masse Place property owner, Tom Mancuso or Mancuso Business Development, they said. But both have gotten calls from residents and are trying to represent those concerns

The list of questions, which Beck includes, should serve as good fodder for the hearing tomorrow night. Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: This afternoon I e-mailed City Council President Charlie Mallow for his comments on the Daily article and here is his response:

Questions are always good if your goal is to help move the city forward and avoid mistakes. That is a Council person’s job.

In the end our residents need real jobs and a turnaround in our local business climate. It is easy to oppose solution after solution; it is very hard to create alternatives. Batavia is stagnant because of the failure to reignite our central corridor and years of ineffective political leadership on this issue. There is this idea that doing nothing is seen as a better alternative than taking any action. Real leaders take point; they don’t throw rocks from the rear.  

Ken Mislter, who currently owns 9 buildings in Downtown Batavia by his count, has reached a purchase agreement for the former South Beach Restaurant location.

The deal will close May 1. Mistler said the building will be immediately available to a lessee looking to open a restaurant.  It's turnkey ready, Mislter said.

"The guy (Alex Giuliani) left the salt and the pepper," Mistler said, explaining how the restaurant is ready to open now.

Alex and Barbara left the location in pristine condition, other sources tell me.

The asking price for the building was $425,000. Mistler said he paid something less than that, but won't disclose the price until after it becomes public record. Separately, he also bought all the equipment.
 

Alex and Barbara Giuliani closed the restaurant unexpectedly three months ago, and the abrupt closure was controversial.

A note: I'll be curious if anything pops up in other that I should know about. Also, I didn't include places that serve deli sandwiches, such as some of the pizza restaurants -- just the delis. Also, for a future poll, I want to ask favorite places for hamburgers. I have three places I like, but e-mail me some other suggestions (obviously, none of the chains): howard (at) thebatavian dot com. Please e-mail me rather than comments so we can save that discussion/debate for another day.

Today's Deal of the Day: A $25 gift certificate from Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle in Batavia. The Batavian's Good Deal Price: $12.50 -- HALF off!

At Adam Miller's you can feel like a kid in a toy store again. It's a great place for gifts for kids of all ages, and for yourself. Adam Miller's is at 8 Center St. in Batavia.

The gift certificate must be used by within 30 days of purchase. It is not valid with other offers and has no cash value. Previous winners of this gift certificate are not eligible for this offer.

Rules: Purchase using the PayPal "Buy Now" button below. After the first person to hit the "buy now" button completes the purchase, PayPal will let you know that the item has been sold. Ideally, the winner will arrange to stop by my office on Main Street before 5:00 p.m. to pick up gift certificate. Mail is an option, but it would be better to hand you the gift certificate. 

If you want to be notified via e-mail of future Deals of the Day, sign up for the Deals of the Day e-mail list by clicking here.

Merchants: If you would like your business featured in Deal of the Day, call Howard Owens at 260-6970.

SOLD

Batavia Police Detective Todd Crossett has been honored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for his efforts to identify and arrest a suspected online predator.

Crossett was nominated for the award by FBI special agent Matthew Braverman. Crossett and Braverman worked together on the Dalton Wilke case.

Wilke allegedly made contact with a person he thought was a juvenile male and agreed to meet the youngster in Batavia for sex. Crossett posed online as the young male.

Wilke was arrested in Batavia with the assistance of the Buffalo FBI, LeRoy Police Department and members of the Batavia Police patrol unit.

Statement from the press release:

Competition for the National Awards given by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Center is always high. Detective Crossett was given the award for his unwavering commitment, determination and expertise in ensuring a safer world for our youth and children    

Here's a video interview with Det. Crossett that Philip Anselmo shot last May.

Fire units were dispatched to 33 Ross St. for a reported fire in the basement of a residence.

When firefighters arrived, they found an overheated boiler, but no fire.

Ken Mistler gave me a deluxe tour this morning of the gym at the corner of Jackson and Main he hopes to open in about six weeks.

The picture above is of a staircase that will lead to the lower level work out area and men's locker room. Mistler said a previous tenant built the staircase, but when the city would not let the business put an entrance to the building on Jackson, the staircase was floored over.

I copied the photo off the Facebook page Ken set up for Next Level.

Mistler seems to be putting forth the effort to create a first-class gym. The building is being completely renovated with new electrical (an upgrade required by new building codes implemented since the building's 1967 construction), new heating and cooling and such attention to detail as ceiling lights that defuse light so that people laying on a bench lifting weights won't have a bright light shining in their eyes.

There will also be a full sevice coffee bar accessible from Main Street.

The four-level building will also eventually serve as Mistler's home. He's building a residence on the fourth floor.

When I saw how much work is left to be done, I expressed surprise that it would take only six more weeks of work to get the facility open, but Mislter said the hard work is done (he did much of the jack-hammering in the cement floors himself to improve drainage (did you know there is an artesian well under that part of downtown?) and lay in new plumbing in the basement).

Previously, Ken told me a number of membership have already been sold -- and who can argue with the price? People can join for as little as $20 per month.

Mistler's gym looks like it's going to be a great addition to downtown, helping to bring a lot more people into the center of the city on a regular basis.

Today's Deal of the Day: A $25 gift certificate from Main St. Pizza Company in Batavia. The Batavian's Good Deal Price: $12.50 -- HALF off!

I've become a fan of Main St. Pizza not just because it's convienently located to our office, but because everything I've tried from Main Street has been outstanding. Main Street Pizza is more than just pizza.

The gift certificate must be used by within 30 days of purchase. It is not valid with other offers and has no cash value.

Rules: Purchase using the PayPal "Buy Now" button below. After the first person to hit the "buy now" button completes the purchase, PayPal will let you know that the item has been sold. Ideally, the winner will arrange to stop by my office on Main Street before 5:00 p.m. to pick up gift certificate. Mail is an option, but it would be better to hand you the gift certificate. 

If you want to be notified via e-mail of future Deals of the Day, sign up for the Deals of the Day e-mail list by clicking here.

Merchants: If you would like your business featured in Deal of the Day, call Howard Owens at 260-6970.

SOLD

There probably aren't too many people around who remember the players from the 1948 Batavia Clippers, but one of those men popped up in the news this week.

Joe Macko, a 6' 2", 200 lbs first baseman spent his first year of professional ball in Batavia. He smacked 11 home runs, hit .315 and also served as the team's bus driver.

Those 11 home runs would be the first of 306 he would hit in his 18-season minor league career. 

Alas, Macko never mastered hitting a curve ball, and thus never saw a single pitch in a major league ball game.

Macko was a coach with the Chicago Cubs in 1964. His son, Steve Macko, played 24 games with the Cubs before dying of cancer at age 27.

Macko, 81, who recently served as an ambassador for the Texas Rangers, was inducted this week into the Texas League Hall of Fame.

A motorcyclist who reportedly was driving fast on Fox Road in the Town of Oakfield lost control of his bike and struck an embankment, ejecting the rider from his bike.

George Latko, of Perry, suffered a head injury and was taken by Mercy Flight to Erie County Medical Center.

The accident occurred Saturday night around 8:15 p.m.

The Sheriff's office is continuing its investigation and charges are pending.

Robert C. Synder, 48, of Batavia, allegedly pulled a woman from a chair and began dragging her across the floor by her hair Friday night. He is charged with harassment in the second degree. He is held on $1,500.

Daniel K. Norton, 22, of Batavia, was arrested early Sunday morning on a DWI charge following a traffic stop Lear Road. He is accused of having a BAC of .08 or more.

William E. Schneider, 23, of Bergen, is charged with a felony count of DWI. Schneider is also accused of driving 75 m.p.h. in a 55 m.p.h. zone. He was stopped on Route 33 in the Town of Stafford.

O.V. Murphy, 50, of Batavia, was charged with felony DWI on Sunday evening. Murphy was reportedly stopped on Route 5 in the Town of Batavia. He is accused of operating a motor vehicle while drinking and having a BAC of .18 or greater.

This is my interview yesterday with LeRoy 2nd Asst. Fire Chief Tom "Woody" Woods.

Woods was the chief overheard asking for more help yesterday, saying if he didn't help quickly, "we're going to lose this truck and us."

When I first spoke to Wood yesterday, he said it was quit a battle with the fire jumping out of the woods quickly before he and his crew beat it back.

Wood said the recent spate of brush fires have kept firefighters pretty busy and he said the only way the fire season is going to slow down is if people stop burning stuff.

Sheriff's deputies and members of the Drug Task Force executed a search warrant last night at 5430 School Road, Apt. A, in Stafford last night and reportedly found $1,500 worth of cocaine and $500 in cash.

Taken into custody was Derek R. Leach, 29, of Stafford.

He is charged with two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance.

Leach was locked up in Genesee County Jail and is being held without bail.

No so fast. Two days ago, we picked up on a D&C story that said Time Warner Cable was dropping it's plan to set up a tiered pricing model for broadband usage in the Rochester (which includes Batavia) market.

Now Evan Dawson at WHAM 13 has Time Warner officials putting a rather different spin on their plans.

Robin Wolfgang of Time Warner said, "We really didn't think the customers were educated very well on what the plans were, and there's a lot of information in the marketplace. We want to take some time. We want to give them a chance to understand our plans."

Wolfgang says there is no timetable for how long the company will take to re-evaluate its plan to charge customers based on Internet usage.

But Time Warner is certainly not giving up on the idea.

"As we tried to tell you, in the first phase of the trial we found that most customers were able to right-size and pay less based on their usage,” Wolfgang said. “It takes a lot to use five gigabytes of space. A lot of emails, a lot of songs. So most customers would not be affected."

It's hard not to read between the lines here and conclude: Time Warner customers can expect, at some point, to get a new pricing plan, and it will likely attempt to punish heavy users with higher prices.

A tipster told me the other day -- you should go over to Mill Street, by the GCEDC and see what's going on.  She mentioned trains.

With all this talk of a possible new Albany-Buffalo passenger rail, trains were a bit on my mind. And up until this point, it had been a slow news day.

At this point, I knew there used to be a roundhouse or train turntable in Batavia, but I frankly didn't know where it was. And I had forgotten that New York Central System Historical Society was going to be in town today for an open house at the facility.

When I arrived at the Genesee Valley Transportation Co. complex on Mill Street, sure enough, there was a big piece of equipment digging a big hole.

Doug Eisele, director of operations for GVTC told me later his company is building a new train-to-truck warehouse. When completed it will employ 10 people.

As I walked to a big brick building, I began to suspect that this was part of an old roundhouse and that there was a tour going on. There were several men milling about and a few were snapping pictures.

It turns out, it was indeed the historical society, and by the time I got inside they were watching a video about the old train station.

After Doug finished showing me around the facility, explaining the history and showing me some pictures, he suggested I head over to Lehigh Avenue and take a look at the old New York Central train station, which is owned by CSX (and it's next to CSX track, which might the the route of the proposed new rail system, so if Batavia turns out to be a stop, might be the location of a future train station?).

A man in the neighborhood told me is the old train station (and hardly suitable to be a modern train station).

Across the street I found this old train rail sticking out of cement and a pile of track ties, which struck me as interesting subjects for pictures, so here you go:

As I left the office this afternoon in search of some news, I found Pastor Marty MacDonald operating a fork lift, hoisting a large container of adult diapers into a small pick up truck.

A whole crew of people were outside The City Church warehouse loading up cars, vans and trucks with food, household cleaners, shampoo and other necessities.  MacDonald said his church was distributing about 50,000 lbs of items today.

Representatives from churches from throughout WNY were retrieving the good to distribute in their communities.  They came to Batavia from Niagara, Penn Yan, Arcadia, Akron, Rochester, Churchville and North Tonawanda, and other towns.

"They will take these items back to their communities to help people in these tough economic times," MacDonald said.

He said distributions of this scale happen about every six to eight weeks.

Firefighters are scrambling to fight a fire near in the LeRoy/Caledonia area, with firefighters responding to Asbury Road and Flint Road.

One firefighter in asking for more manpower said, "They better get out here quick or we're going to lose this truck and us."

When a dispatcher asked another dispatcher about more crews responding, the second dispatcher said, "Send everybody you can get. They need lots of manpower."

I'm heading out that way now.

UPDATE 4:50 p.m.: The fire was declared under control at 4:09 p.m.  The fire was actually in Mumford, but LeRoy found the fire first (units were returning from covering another fire), while Caledonia was out covering an other fire. Crews from Genesee County (I saw trucks from Bethany, Pavilion, Stafford and LeRoy on scene and spoke with a firefighter from Bergen), Livingston and Monroe counties help battle the flames. The fire was contained to a wooded area that covers a couple of acres.  I'll have pictures shortly, and a video in a couple of hours.  The video is an interview with LeRoy 2nd Asst. Chief Tom "Woody" Wood, who found the fire and was the one mentioned above asking for more crews quickly.

UPDATE 5:17 p.m.: Most of my photos turned out to not be very interesting.  Here's this one (video TK).

Fire crews are responding to a field fire at 2893 West Main Road, between Hopkins and Powers.

The nearby house is not threatened, according to reports.