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The 59th annual Resurrection Parish Lawn Fete is under way.

Festivities continue tomorrow from 1 to 11 p.m., and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday outside the church, 2 Summit St.

The annual parade is tomorrow at 6:30 p.m.

There are rides, raffles, live music, games and a beer tent to keep both the kiddies and adults entertained.

The way Ron Panek sees it, there's no way the city should build a police station at the Salvation Army location on Jackson Street.

Panek is Batavia's certified floodplain manager, trained by FEMA in Washington, D.C., on issues related to floodplains in municipal areas.

The Police Facilities Task Force, which had winnowed possible locations for a new police HQ down to three locations, including Jackson Street, heard from Panek and Assistant City Manager Gretch Difante during a meeting Thursday evening.

"As floodplain manager, I have to strongly discourage (the Jackson Street location)," Panek said. "I can't tell you, you know, you can't do this, but common sense should tell you that in a catastrophic event, we don't want our critical response facility in a floodplain."

Panek said he decided to bring his concerns to the assistant city manager and city manager after he saw Jackson Street was still under consideration by the committee after eliminating several other proposed locations.

The task force considered what Panek and Difante had to say and as a matter of consensus, agreed to drop the Salvation Army location from consideration.

It's not just the obvious problem of the facility becoming potentially unusable during a flood emergency that concerned task force members, it's also what such a building decision could do to the price of flood insurance for city residents.

There are two programs that impact local insurance rates and evaluators for both programs would take a dim view of the city building critical response facility in a floodplain.

Both Difante and Panek hedged on any sort of guarantee that rates would go up, but certainly left the impression that would be the expected outcome.

The issue is important to all residents of the city, Difante said.

"There are 1,050 properties in the special flood-hazard area," Difante said. "Without some kind of relief, these individuals can't sell their homes. Some have had to abandon properties, or they can't afford repairs or they wind up in a short sale for a loss. Do we really believe that if 1,050 properties suffer we don't all suffer? It affects the whole city."

There are residents, City Manager Jason Molino said, paying more than $1,000 a year in flood insurance, which is higher than their city taxes. He said taking two houses, one in a floodplain and one not, and doing a comparison on lot size, building size and year built, a house in the flood zone is assessed at about 15 percent less than a house in a flood area.

The city has been a part of the National Flood Insurance Program since 1977. The current city fire station and Falleti Ice Arena complex was build with federal grants prior to 1977. If the city was seeking similar funding today, there's no way the government would fund that facility in a floodplain.

The location of the fire hall in a floodplain is another reason, Molino said, that the city shouldn't also build a police station in a floodplain, even though a new building would be elevated, use other strategies to mitigate flood damage.

"If you have a catastrophic event, I'm sure the building would be good, but it would be surrounded by water," Molino said. "You wouldn't have access to it. You wouldn't have utilities. You wouldn't be able to use it."

Under the NFIP, FEMA could tack on a $20 surcharge on everybody's flood insurance policy if the city built a new police headquarters in a flood zone.

"We are obligated to follow FEMA's rules and regulations," Panek said. "If we do not follow all of the rules of FEMA, which highly discourages building critical response facilities in flood zones, we could be sanctioned by the NFIP."

One of Difante's tasks since starting her job last year has been to get the city into a federal program that, essentially, helps lower insurance rates for property owners. The city's flood readiness and mitigation efforts are rated, points are assessed; and the higher the point total, the lower the insurance rates.

Difante met with a federal auditor May 14 and that date is a significant demarcation on how the city is scored going forward. In other words, the location of the fire hall doesn't hurt the city's score, because it's pre-existing, but building a new critical response facility in a floodplain could potentially lower the city's score.

"(May 14) was Day 1," Difante said. "That day started the new rules. They're going to look at things differently. It's not a clean mathematical scale. There is so much human decision making that goes into it. It's subjective, so I don't want to say it will hurt our score, but they can take points off for that, yes. Does that mean rates go higher? I don't know if we can say that. There are also other ways we can make up points. It's a very multifacited, multilayered system."

The decision to drop Jackson Street leaves the task force looking at two final locations -- Alva Place and Bank Street, in the heart of Downtown Batavia, and at the former Wiard Plow Factory location on Swan Street.  The task force is inviting the public to a 6 p.m. meeting June 23 to hear a presentation on how the task force arrived at the two final locations and to solicit public feedback. The meeting will be in Council Chambers at City Hall.

Near the close of Thursday night's meeting, task force members raised the issue of what happens to the Brisbane Mansion if the police vacate the building for a new facility. A couple of task force members were worried some residents might raise that as a concern. Chairman Marc Staley said there is an easy answer to that question: The task force wasn't charged with deciding the fate of the Brisbane Mansion. That is beyond the purview of what it was asked to study.

Press release:

The Board of Directors of the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) accepted applications for assistance from Manning Squires Henning Co., Inc., and ADK Hospitality, LLC, at its June 4, 2015 board of directors meeting.

Manning Squires Hennig Co., Inc., is proposing to expand its corporate offices and maintenance facilities in the Town of Batavia by up to 5,000 square feet. The project also would include renovations of the company’s existing shop and office space.

Founded in 1958, Manning Squires Hennig Co., Inc., is a general contractor that has worked on various high profile projects over the years including work at the Rochester School of the Arts, Kodak Park, Buffalo Bills Fieldhouse, Monroe Community College, and Bausch & Lomb Rundell Library among many others.

Manning Squires Hennig Co., Inc., is seeking sales tax, mortgage tax and property tax exemptions totaling approximately $170,556 in estimated incentives. The capital investment would be approximately $1.3 million and would retain 88 jobs and create five new jobs.

ADK Hospitality, LLC, is proposing to build an 82-room hotel connected to Batavia Down’s gaming facility. ADK Hospitality, LLC, is seeking an estimated $638,193 in sales tax, mortgage tax and property tax exemptions. The planned capital investment is approximately $5.49 million.

The Smokin' Eagle BBQ & Brew in Le Roy kicked off a summer series Battle of the Bands on Wednesday night.

For each of the next 10 weeks, 10 bands will compete to move on to the next round. One band each Wednesday is playing from at least 8 to 9 p.m. (the period of judging, the bands may play longer).

The series kicked off with a performance by JP Shaggy, from Syracuse.

There will also be bands in the competition from the local area as well as Buffalo and Rochester, said Jimmy B, from Jimmy B entertainment, who is organizing the event with Smokin' Eagle co-owner Jon Marcello.

There is a panel of five judges. They will judge the bands on stage presentation, time management, sound quality, band synchronization, band enthusiasm, and attitude and audience response.

The top six bands move onto the semi-finals. Round 2 will be three weeks of two bands each week, top seed vs. bottom seed. 

The finalists will compete Sept. 19, which is a Saturday, from 2 to 10 p.m. That event will be a fundraiser for a charity yet to be selected. There will be other entertainment along with raffles and drawings.

JP Shaggy is Jason Krueger.  To find out more about him, visit his Facebook page.

Le Roy High School hosted a student Fine Arts Festival yesterday evening. Here are 12 photos from the event.

Some 1,270 customers are without power in the Darien Area, around Richley Road, but the cause has not yet been determined, a spokesman for National Grid said.

Stephen Brady said crews have been dispatched to investigate the issue and devise a repair.

A Genesee County dispatcher said there was no related emergency call that might help suggest a cause for the outage. Dispatchers have received several calls from residents about the outage. They know about it, but don't know why it happened and have no further information to provide to callers.

The incident has been reported as three separate outages.

We'll update this post with more information as it becomes available.

UPDATE 12:46 p.m.: Stephen Brady, spokesman for National Grid, said: "Stations and lines were re-energized at 11:24 a.m." There was a problem found with National Grid equipment on one of the utility's lines that caused a trip, he said.

A 7-year-old girl had to run a half-mile to get assistance from an area farmer after the ATV she was riding in overturned and trapped the driver under the rollbar in an accident that occured at 6:50 p.m. near Colby Road, Darien, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The driver, James E. Lipinski, 52, of Richley Road, was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later by Coroner Karen Lang.

The child was a family acquaintance.

She and Lipinski had stopped a short time before the accident and visited with local farm owner Daniel Miller. Lipinski then drove off toward another field.

The ATV, a 2012 Polaris Ranger, was reportedly driving in a field along a wood line when it came down a slope. Lipinski apparently attempted a right turn. It's unknown if the Ranger came down the hill too quickly or if Lipinski attempted too sharp a turn, but the ATV overturned onto the driver's side. Lipinski was partially ejected and trapped under the rollbar frame of the Polaris.

After the accident, the girl ran to Miller's location and took him back the site of the accident. Miller called 9-1-1 and assisted law enforcement in getting to the accident scene.

It's unknown whether the girl was wearing a seatbelt or if she was also ejected. She appeared to have sustained only bumps and bruises.

Lipinski's remains were taken to the Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office by C.B. Beach Funeral Home, of Corfu.

The girl was transported by Darien Ambulance to Womens' and Children's Hospital in Buffalo for evaluation.

The Darien and Corfu volunteer fire departments assisted at the scene. Also assisting the Sheriff's Office were Officer Richard Retzlaff, Corfu PD, and a state trooper. 

The ongoing investigation is being conducted by Deputy Michael Lute, Deputy James Diehl and Investigator William Ferrando.

Mercy Flight is landing at a location off Route 33 in Stafford following a report of a car hitting a deer in the area.

A person was initially reported suffering a head injury.

Stafford fire and Mercy EMS are on scene.

UPDATE 10:19 p.m.: Mercy Flight is in route to Strong Memorial Hospital.

Bruce Reisdorf stopped at Adam Miller Toy and Bicycle today for some repairs while in Batavia as part of his "Tour de Empire." Reisdorf is riding from New York City to Niagara Falls to help raise money for diabetes research and education. 

In Niagara, Reisdorf will take part on the Tour de Cure, sponsored by the American Diabetes Association.

One reason he came through Batavia is his brother-in-law is Mike Easton, manager of the M&T Bank branch here.

You can find out more about Reisdorf and his ridet on his blog.

Also pictured, Adam Miller's owner, John Roche.

Fifth-grade students at Batavia Middle School completed a 10-week course of study today into various worldwide leaders in human rights. The course culminated with each student dressing as their chosen leader and making a presentation for parents who attended the event in the school's library. The students were required to read a book, research a Web site and a database on their chosen leader. They also drew posters of the leaders.

Above, Betty Cherry as Maya Angelou.

Allyson Clemm as Julia Ward Howe.

Roger Jones as Booker T. Washington.

Hanging out this morning on Lehigh Avenue and later on South Jackson waiting for an Amtrak train (for another story) that we never saw (a long story), I took pictures of these two CSX trains.

Press release:

The Genesee County Dairy Princess honored the first baby born in Genesee County during the month of June 2015 as the Dairy Baby. Marleigh Grace Wright, a baby girl, was born to Tammy and Jeffery Wright, of Warsaw, on Monday, June 1st at 3:51 a.m. at United Memorial Medical Center. She weighed 5 pounds, 5 ounces and measured 19 inches long. She was delivered by Dr. Richard Edwards. Marleigh joins an older brother, Mason, 14, at home.

June is National Dairy Month which honors traditions and celebrates the contributions of the dairy industry by promoting nutrient-rich dairy foods.

The Genesee County Dairy Princess, Pavilion sophomore,Emily Mikel, and her mother, Sue Mikel, presented the Wright family with a basket of dairy products including yogurts, product coupons, cheeses, and a number of other infant items.

Byron-Bergen Elementary School’s Celebration of Reading Challenge proves that Principal Brian Meister and Assistant Principal Amanda Cook, along with the entire student population, are “stuck” on reading.

Press release:

The Byron-Bergen Elementary School’s Celebration of Reading Challenge began on Dec. 5 — students pledged to read 20,000 books before the school year ended. On May 28, the entire school population gathered to hear the results, delivered by teacher Debbie Slocum: just over 510 motivated young readers had exceeded their goal, reading a total of 23,473 books.

And the students’ reward for all that reading? Inspired by the book “Stuck” by Oliver Jeffers, about an impossible tree where everything thrown into it gets stuck, Principal Brian Meister and Assistant Principal Amanda Cook promised to allow themselves to be duct taped to chairs during the assembly, and to wear clothes made of duct tape the next day.

“It’s a fun way to get students 'stuck' on reading,” Meister said. “It keeps them excited and wanting to read more, while the duct tape event itself is something they will always remember.”           

The Celebration of Reading is the brainchild of Byron-Bergen’s English Language Arts (ELA) Committee, which began the challenge in 2013 with a goal of reading 10,000 books (a target also exceeded by more than 8,000). The assembly included guest speaker Nancy Bailey from the Bergen Public Library who invited the children to visit the library and to keep reading over the summer. Selected readers from each grade level received new books to jumpstart their summers, some of which were signed by the authors or illustrators.

Teachers read selections from a few favorite books, complete with comic flourishes. Craig Schroth read from Mo Willems’ “Knuffle Bunny”; Taylor Farruggia read from “Strega Nona” by Tomie DePaola; Heather Young entertained with “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz; and Daneen Williams read from “Miss Nelson is Missing” by Harry G. Allard Jr. and James Marshall. Many other teachers participated in the event, including Nicole Newton, Mariah LaSpina and Karen Tischer.

A highlight of the readings was a hip-hop version of the Dr. Seuss classic “Green Eggs and Ham” by teachers Ken Rogoyski and Megan Wahl, assisted by student Katherine Rogoyski as “Fox I Am.” Students were also treated to a showing of the school’s video “Read a Book” (based on Taylor Swift’s song “Shake It Off”), which was produced at the beginning of the school year.

Byron-Bergen student Katherine Rogoyski and teacher Mrs. Wahl make Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” come alive.

Mrs. Cook and Mr. Meister sport their custom-tailored duct tape regalia to celebrate Byron-Bergen Elementary students reading 23,473 books.

The roads leading into the Village of Corfu will soon be spiffed up with new gateway signs, designed and created by a group of talented Pembroke High School students under the guidance of Art teacher Eric Johnson.

The village has been working with Johnson's students since February 2014 on the design and selection process for the new signs, said Trustee Ken Lauer. 

"They did many sketches, redesigns and adaptations of their concepts," Lauer said.  "The final selection was very difficult since all the concepts were unique and professional."

The village is currently getting the signs clear coated and should have them up in a week or two.  

Pictured are Sabrina Sanner, Nikita Harding, Emily Verdaasdonk, Morgan Smykowski, Nicole Franclemont and Bailey Groth.

Submitted photo.

Press release:

The Genesee Valley Educational Partnership is pleased to announce that Brian Mayer was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for 2015. This recognition honors his work, both locally and nationally, for the development of gaming programs to support libraries and classrooms.

“Brian's recognition as one of 50 Library Journal Movers & Shakers this year is greatly deserved, said Christopher Harris, director, School Library System at the Partnership. “He exemplifies the goal of the School Library System to deliver local support and services at a national level. Brian’s work with game-based learning in our districts and his dedication to service within the Games and Gaming Round Table of the American Library Association are great success stories.”

Locally, Mayer is a regular visitor to many of the Partnership’s component-district schools where he co-teaches in libraries and classrooms using games from our curriculum-aligned board game library. As a game developer himself, Mayer has also helped lead local classes in exploring game design as a way to promote critical thinking and creative expression of student understanding.

Nationally, Mayer has been a huge force within the Games and Gaming Round Table of the American Library Association. For the past few years, he has led the move to reinvigorate the ALAPlay gaming event at the ALA Annual Conference. Last year, more than 400 people came to the event to play board games, interact with cosplayers, and learn more about running game programs in libraries. Mayer was also able to bring game companies back to the ALA exhibit floor through creative partnerships with the GameRT booth.

This summer, things will continue to grow with the addition of a pre-published game review event at ALAPlay and the inclusion of a board gaming space for attendees and families on the ALA exhibit floor.

Mayer joins fellow Partnership employees, Christopher Harris, director, School Library System and Andy Austin, library technology specialist, who were previously recognized as Movers & Shakers. The Partnership is now the only School Library Services organization in the country that is fully staffed by Library Journal Movers & Shakers.

Caption: Brian Mayer. Photo credit: JMS Studio and Gallery.

Lower oil prices could hurt Batavia-based Graham Corp. in the coming fiscal year, company officials say, so they're looking to trim the company workforce by 10 percent through a retirement incentive program.

The workforce reduction announcement was coupled with news that the publicly traded company posted $4.2 million in profits, up 80 percent from a year ago.

For the fiscal year, company revenue was up 45 percent to $14.7 million.

For more on this story, visit the Buffalo News.

Press release:

The Board of Directors of the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) will consider three projects at its June 4, 2015 board meeting.

ADK Hospitality plans to build an 82-room hotel connected to Batavia Down’s Gaming facility which will serve as an important amenity to the gaming, restaurant, banquet and racing activities at Batavia Downs. The capital investment is approximately $5.49 million.

Manning, Squires Hennig Co., Inc., plans to expand its corporate office and maintenance facilities in the Town of Batavia to include a 5,000-square-foot shop and additions to its main office space. The capital investment is approximately $1.3 million. The project is expected to result in 88 retained jobs and the creation of five new jobs. 

O-AT-KA Milk Products plans to add 205,000 square feet of warehousing space to its manufacturing facility on the corner of Ellicott Street and Cedar Street in Batavia. The project will retain 334 jobs and create 21 new jobs. The capital investment is approximately $10.25 million.

The GCEDC Board meeting will take place at 4 p.m. and is open to the public.  Meetings are held at the Innovation Zone Conference Room at MedTech Centre -- 99 MedTech Drive, Batavia, on the first floor, across from Genesee Community College.

The controversy that erupted two weeks ago over a health department demand that the Batavia Little League secure the proper permits to sell hots and pizza was actually years in the making, department officials told members of the County Legislature yesterday.

At the request of the Human Services Committee, Paul Pettit, Public Health director, and David Whitcroft, Environmental Health director, attended the committee's meeting at the Old Courthouse and answered legislators' questions.

The fee schedule for various permits issued by the department changed in 2003 and that made it mandatory for most of the area nonprofit groups that hold events and serve food to acquire health permits. 

It was sticky issue when nonprofits were exempt because it isn't always clear what qualifies as a nonprofit, or what events should get exempted, Whitcroft said.

"It was an ethical problem," Whitcroft said. "It was entirely subjective. Who determines who doesn't have to pay? There was no standard to decide and that gives a lot of power to individuals to decide who gets waivers. I wasn't comfortable with that power."

In 2013, the county's Public Health Committee learned that for some reason, youth baseball had been exempted from the permit requirement, and nobody really knew why that was or how that happened.

"It seemed unfair because if I'm playing with a bat and ball, I don't have to pay, but if I'm playing with a soccer ball, then I have to pay," Pettit said.

Most of those bat-and-ball organizations complied with the new rules once it applied to them, Whitcroft said, and in many cases, the department was able to work with organizations to help better determine which permit was appropriate to the situation, or how food operations might be changed to lower permit costs.

The rules can be "interpreted generously" when organizations are cooperative, Whitcroft said.

Whitcroft implied that Batavia Little League was less than cooperative, telling officials that they refused to comply. That left the county with no option but to require a permit level with a $175 price tag.

Now, the league is more cooperative and the department is working with league leaders on what could be a lower cost option.

Permit fees barely even cover the costs of field inspections of food services, Pettit said. The department is not looking to turn a profit on permits, just cover the direct costs of inspections, he said.

Every business, group or organization that serves prepared food (rather than pre-packaged food) is required to obtain some level of Health Department permit. It's not just a piece of paper, Pettit said. It serves as notice to the county that food service is taking place and triggers an automatic inspection of the food service. There is an inspection with each and every permit issued.

There are some exceptions to the permit requirement. Churches with kitchens that serve only their own members need only obtain a letter of permission. There are about 60 letters of permission on file in the county.

Outside groups that use church kitchens for fundraisers or other public meals are required to get a temporary health permit.

Bake sales involving anything that doesn't need to be refrigerated are not required to get a permit.

Your kid's lemonade stand, however, is required to have a health permit.

"It's required under New York State law and I should enforce it, but I never have," Whitcroft said.

In all, various permits issued by the Health Department generate about $90,000 in revenue annually. Less than $8,000 of that revenue comes from groups that could be considered nonprofits.

Bloomberg: Even Big Oil Wants a Carbon Tax
NPR Planet Money: Economists Have A One-Page Solution To Climate Change

Traci Turner will spend the next eight weeks interning for The Batavian. Her internship is possible through the generosity of the New York Press Association.

She will work full time covering news through the end of July.

Born and raised in Bergen, Turner is a 2013 graduate of Byron-Bergen High School and is a third-year journalism major (minor in advertising and public relations) at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Previously, she's been an intern for WBTA AM/FM and currently holds a studio producer position at the radio station. 

"I'm happy to be interning at The Batavian and I’m looking forward to serving its readers," Turner said. "I couldn’t imagine pursuing any other career but journalism."