Stories from

The Lions Club and T.F. Brown's are getting everything ready once again to host their annual community Christmas Dinner.

The Christmas dinner is free to members of the community who wish to attend, but reservations are required.

Children who attend will receive presents from Santa.

If you would like to donate toys for the children, T.F.'s is hosting a happy hour Thursday evening. Bring in a toy and the first cup of cheer is on the house. Be sure to wear an ugly sweater and you could win a prize.

Seatings for dinners -- noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., Christmas Day.

To make reservations, call (585) 345-1000. You'll be asked to provide the number in your party, the seating you wish to attend, and the names, ages and gender of the children attending.

Pictured: Dan Milliman, Jeff Pangrazio, Rick Mancuso, John Murray, Joe Teresi and David Johnson.

Press release:

In another step to serve those in need throughout Genesee County, YWCA has developed the Care and Crisis Helpline, Executive Director Jeanne Walton says.

The Helpline will replace a portion of Regional Action Phone services 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. It will serve as a connection for people in crisis to find supportive and skilled responders who will assess the situation and provide real-time intervention and referrals as needed.

Genesee County Mental Health Department put out a request for proposal last month, which prompted YWCA officials to assess the nonprofit's current client services and develop a crisis-based Helpline. During its Dec. 10 meeting, Genesee County Legislature approved the contract and related funding for YWCA of Genesee County.

“When we found out that Genesee County Mental Health was seeking a provider for this service, it seemed a perfect avenue for us to extend our offerings to the community,” Walton said Wednesday. “Helpline Program Manager Holly Baxter has more than 30 years of experience in this field, and we felt that she will be key to making a smooth transition in the New Year. We are excited to add a Helpline to our other crisis and prevention services.”

The toll-free number (844) 345-4400 will be up and running as of Jan. 1. YW officials opted to keep their domestic violence hotline in place as well, since it has become widely established. That number is (585) 343-7513. While those calls are more concentrated on domestic violence issues, Helpline staff will be capable of taking those calls in addition to calls for any mental health-related issues, including depression, the loss of a loved one, suicidal tendencies, addictions, bullying, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.

Trained staff will connect the caller to specialized agencies when appropriate, such as law enforcement, the hospital’s emergency room department and county on-call therapists established by Genesee County Department of Mental Health.

“Our goal is to provide a valuable community resource that gives every person going through crisis the help, support and encouragement needed to guide them toward a better path,” Walton said.

Hours of service will be 24/7, which not only fills an emotional need in the community, but will also create the equivalent of three full-time jobs. On-call crisis workers will receive extensive training to respond immediately to calls for help with everything from the holiday blues to rape and domestic violence. Interested applicants are encouraged to e-mail jwalton@ywcagenesee.org.

Holly Baxter will be the program manager as of Jan. 1. She has worked with hotline services for more than three decades, including at Life Line in Rochester and at RAP. She brings a personal passion and a wealth of experience in the field of crisis services with specialized training and intervention skills. She is also no stranger to YWCA, having been a victim advocate at the agency several years ago.

"I think it's a tremendous opportunity for people to receive crisis care from members of their own community," Baxter said. "There's a tremendous need, and our staff will be able to address everything from anxiety attacks and bullying to someone diagnosed with a serious illness. And we will constantly be updating training so that it's ongoing learning. You have to have a heart for people."

Area agencies may want to consider adding this service as a way to ensure ongoing care of their clients, Baxter said. For more information, call YWCA at (585) 343-5808.

A local number of (585) 344-4400 will be in place as well as the toll-free number (844) 345-4400. Both will be up and running by Jan. 1.

New York Times: Sy Berger, Who Turned Baseball Heroes Into Brilliant Rectangles, Dies at 91

A man has been struck by a vehicle in the driveway of a location on Tower Hill Road, Byron.

The man suffered a head laceration but is conscious. 

Byron and South Byron fire responding.

UPDATE 8:45 a.m.: Mercy Flight requested on ground standby.

UPDATE 8:49 a.m.: Mercy Flight #4 requested to the scene.

A motor-vehicle accident with minor injuries, but blocking traffic, is reported on Attica Road in Alexander, between Townline Road and Bowen Road.

Alexander fire dispatched.

UPDATE 8:13 a.m.: A first responder reports extremely icy conditions. Caution is advised.

UPDATE 8:30 a.m.: A secondary accident on Attica Road, a fender-bender, is reported.

Photos and info from Charles Hull:

Lauren Hull, from Le Roy, won the National Junior Handler competition at the American Kennel Club/Eukanuba National Championship (AENC) Dog Show. This event is the highlight of the AKC show year. Participation in the junior handling competition is by invitation. To qualify, junior handlers must have gained 5 wins against competition during the qualifying period, and have a 3.0 average in school. This year's competition had an entry of 126 juniors.

Lauren is an A student at Notre Dame High School in Batavia, and had 10 wins this year. She has been showing dogs since 2007, and this was the 6th year in a row that she has qualified for and attended the AENC. She had to survive 3 rounds of preliminaries to make it to the finals.

Lauren's prizes included a $2,000 scholarship, a pink grooming box (available only to winners of Eukanuba-sponsored events), an engraved silver tray, a jeweled Best Junior pin, and two large rosette ribbons. Her name, and that of her Irish Setter, Kent (RedRidge's Kent Irish Fire), will be engraved on a permanent trophy housed at the AKC library in Raleigh, NC. Lauren also will be representing the United States at the prestigious Crufts Dog Show in England next March.

A 25-year-old Alexander man has been accused of going on a theft spree earlier this year in Alexander and Batavia, leading to six criminal charges.

Matthew M. Biggins is charged with burglary, 2nd, grand larceny, 4th, two counts of identity theft, 3rd, petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, 5th. 

On Oct. 18, a resident in the Village of Alexander reported that someone had forced open a rear door to the house and stole cash and loose change.

On Dec. 2, a Warsaw resident reported that cash was removed from her vehicle sometime in August while it was parked at a residence in Alexander. She also reported that while at the same address in November, someone stole her debit card and used it to wire himself two money transfers through Western Union.

On Dec. 8, a Batavia resident reported that sometime in October a person removed a mountain bike from the laundry room of his apartment building.

Following an investigation, Biggins was identified as the suspect. 

Biggins was allegedly found in possession of the missing mountain bike.

On Dec. 9, Biggins was arraigned on all the charges except possession of criminal property. He was jailed on $10,000 bail. Last week, he was issued an appearance ticket on the criminal possession of stolen property charge.

The investigation was handled by Investigator Timothy Weis, deputy Cory Mower and deputy Kevin McCarthy.

James V. Woyshner is indicted on four counts of burglary, 3rd, and a count of grand larceny, 3rd. Woyshner is accused of entering buildings on 5056 E. Main Street Road, Batavia, (the fairgrounds) on or about Dec. 26, 2013, and stealing property valued at more than $3,000, including 45 aluminum fence pieces, fences, mounting brackets, straps, heavy gauge wire, two semi-tractor batteries, a television, Sony Blu-ray player, vacuum cleaner and miscellaneous carnival prizes.

Jeremy D. Lyons is indicted on counts of burglary, 3rd, and grand larceny, 4th. Lyons is accused of entering a shed on Old Creek Road, Town of Alexander, and stealing property valued at more than $1,000 -- a Honda ATV.

David R. Cook, 20, of Lindsey Road, Attica, is charged with forgery, 2nd. Cook allegedly altered a prescription in an attempt to deceive a pharmacy into giving him more medication than original prescribed. Cook was jailed on $10,000 cash bail or $20,000 bond.

Daniel W. Hennebohl, 59, of Bethany Center Road, East Bethany, is charged with criminal mischief, 4th. Hennebohl is accused of scratching a car with a key while in the Walmart parking lot at 11:48 a.m., Sunday.

Nancy Ann Bennet, 44, of Center Street, Medina, is charged with petit larceny. Bennet is accused of shoplifting at Kmart.

Christina M. Sanchez-Anderson, 26, of Bank Street, Batavia, was arrested on a warrant for alleged failure to appear. Sanchez-Anderson is accused of failing to appear in court on a grand larceny charge in October.

Daniel J. Saeva, 35, of Central Avenue, Batavia, is charged with strangulation, 2nd, criminal mischief, 3rd, endangering the welfare of a child, harassment, 2nd and assault, 3rd. Saeva is accused of putting his hands around the next of another person and shoving another while in the presence of three children during an alleged incident reported at 9:01 p.m., Friday.

Donya M. Vaughn, 48, of Richley Road, Corfu, is charged with issuing a bad check. Vaughn was arrested on a warrant issued by City Court.

Carter L. Hall, 37, of Oakfield, is charged with DWI and driving with a BAC of .08 or greater. Hall was stopped at 9:10 p.m. Friday at Route 63 and Veterans Memorial Drive by State Police.

It's still important to us that you join The Batavian Club. As I've said before, every membership is important to us. We appreciate the support. It goes a long way toward helping us meet all the expenses associated with The Batavian (expenses that are growing all the time).

This isn't just about us, however. It's also about you. You receive valuable savings at local businesses for an amount far exceeding the cost of the membership, and if you enjoy getting your local news from The Batavian, you are helping to sustain that effort.

So many people every day tell me how much they love The Batavian. All we're asking is for those loyal fans to make a small financial contribution to help support and sustain our news coverage and in exchange we'll send you gift certificates worth a lot more than the membership price.

NOTE: If you've joined in the past two months (a handful of people have, even without prompting by a post like this), we will send out your membership get with the batch generated by our effort over the next three weeks to invite more people to join. Sorry for the delay, be putting together the kits is a time-intensive process, so we do them in batches).

TO JOIN: Use PayPal buttons below, or to pay by check (annual only) or credit card, click here to download form. Or call (585) 250-4118 to pay by credit card.

Annual Single Membership - $50 per year (a recurring annual payment)

Includes membership card, bumper sticker, one package of gift certificates to local businesses.

Annual membership, one-time payment of $60

Includes membership card, bumper sticker, one package of gift certificates to local businesses.

In hockey today at Falleti Ice Arena, Notre Dame beat Batavia 3-0.

It's the first of three meetings this season between the two rivals.

Goals were scored by Peter Madafferi and Spencer Misiak, who scored twice.

Top photo: Notre Dame's first goal in the net.

To purchase prints, click here.

Batavia Farm Equipment has set up a holiday display using an irrigation system as a scaffolding for lights at MY-T Acres Farms on Lewiston Road.

Santa and Mrs. Claus paid a visit Friday night to Genesee Sno-Packers Snowmobile Club at its Oakfield Club House, giving children who stopped by a chance to visit with Santa.

With Santa above, Rachel Chaddock and Jamison Liles.

Aaron Burch takes a picture of his daughter, Rylee.

Zoey Church with a giant stuff moose that actually belongs to a snowmobile club in Colorado. It's made the rounds at several snowmobile clubs in New York, awaiting a ransom payment from the Colorado club.

Johann (seated on the floor) and Coco got their picture taken with Santa today at PetCo. Members of Volunteers For Animals served as elves for Santa and proceeds from the pictures benefit the organization. Johann and Coco's owner is Barb Nowicki.

The normally stingy Batavia Blue Devils defense got scorched for 62 points earlier this week by Pittsford-Mendon, so over the past couple of days, Head Coach Buddy Braskey has drilled his team on defensive fundamentals.

The Brighton Barons paid the price Friday night.

Coming off a 58-point game against Greece-Odyssey, the Barons found it much harder to score against the Blue Devils.

In fact, they were held scoreless for the first six minutes of the game and managed only two points in the first quarter.

By the end of the game, Brighton was only 8 for 51 from the field (a 16 percent field goal percentage) and lost 47-27.

"I thought against Pittsford-Mendon on Tuesday, our defense really wasn't up to par," Braskey said. "We made a lot of fundamental mistakes with our principles.  We showed it to them on field, worked on it in practice, and I thought today, we took what we learned in practice and transferred it to the game."

Right from the tip-off, Batavia employed a press to pressure ball handlers, create turnovers and limit shot attempts. 

Even when Brighton appeared to get open looks, the shots weren't falling, and Brasky said that even with those seemingly open shots, looks can be deceiving.

"I think we rushed them," Brasky said. "We never let them get comfortable. ... Even when they were getting open shots, they really never could get their feet set because we were closing out really hard on their shooters."

With only 47 points, though, Batavia still needs to find away to get some scoring help for senior standout Jeff Redband.

Redband scored 21 points Friday, coming off a 32-point performance Tuesday.

In both games, only Malachi Chenault got into double-digits scoring, with 10 points each night.

None of the guards have yet stepped up and shouldered some of the load.

"It's not happening yet (getting help for Redband)," Brasky said. "We're searching. (Jerrett) Laskett, (Tee Sean),  Ayala, (Alex) Canty are three guys that are all good shooters, but they haven't found their rhythm yet. Malachi is contributing inside, but we've got to find some more scoring from the guard position, for sure."

Brasky is pleased with the progress Chenault is making under the boards.

"We're working hard with him to get the ball and go strong and not hesitate," Brasky said. "Malachi tends to think when he gets the ball. We're trying to get him to get the ball, make a quicker decision and just go strong.  I thought he did a much better job of that tonight."

It would also help Blue Devils scoring to take better care of the ball. Batavia turned the ball over 23 times against Pittsford-Mendon and 19 times last night. Brasky said that number needs to get down to eight or nine.

Overall, Brasky said his team is responding well in practice, working hard and getting better and better.

Next up, Bishop-Timon, a private school in Section 6, at home Tuesday. Game time is 7:45 p.m.

Top photo: Greg Mruzcek.

Trevor Sherwood

Jeff Redband

Malachi Chenault

To purchase prints of photos, click here.

Batavia Middle School students took time today to give back to the community that has given all year long to them.  They delivered holiday cards, paper snowflakes and snowman soup to local businesses and charitable organizations.

The students spent the first hour or so of the school day preparing the packages for delivery and then a small group of them got on a school bus and drove around the city delivering holiday cheer.

It's the first time the school has taken on such a project said 7th and 8th Grade Assistant Principal Maureen Notaro, who came up with the idea.

"We wanted to give back to some of the community agencies that give so much to us every day," Notaro said.

Student Genevieve Cutro said she hoped the event would spread a little holiday cheer.

"I like helping people very much," she said. "It's good for making people more happy."

The winner was Dave Olsen, of Basom.

Dave was the 12th person to find the secret code, flipped under the Alli's Cones & Dogs ad, which was "Dean Richmond."

We'll play again on one day next week.

Some might call the Oliver's Candies sign iconic, but objects only become iconic with age, and age means expensive to maintain and problem-plagued.

That's the case with this sign, according to Jeremy Liles, general manager of the family business.

The sign really needs to be replaced, Liles told members of the Genesee County Planning Board Thursday night, which reacted initially with kind of a collective gasp.

The planning board was asked to review the proposal because Oliver's is seeking a special sign permit for the replacement sign. While smaller than the old sign, it will still stand 20 feet tall and be nine feet wide.

If you grew up in this community, you grew up with this sign and all that it represents. The sign has been in place since at least the 1950s. Liles is nervous some might react negatively to replacement of the sign, but he said every effort has been made to ensure it maintains its classic character.

The logo will change, the color scheme will change, but it will still be close to the same size and shape, will still be lit with neon and bordered by white light bulbs.

The new sign will be more energy efficient and will also feature a programmable message board, which, by law, will only post a new message in each 24-hour period. The update will mean no longer assigning an employee the task of changing the message on the board by hand on a less frequent basis.

Such a change of a seemingly iconic sign in Batavia isn't anything new. In 2012, Batavia Downs took down its classic neon sign and replaced it with a sign that uses LED lights, but otherwise looks exactly like the old sign. If you didn't know better, it would be hard to tell the difference.

That's the hope of Liles with this sign change, he said. In fact, Oliver's will hire the same company as Batavia Downs to build and install the new sign.

After cutting the expense of maintenance and electricity, the next important reason for changing the sign is for Oliver's to be consistant in its branding. The current logo is the Oliver's name with a cup pouring chocolate, which is not part of the current Oliver's sign.

"Brand recognition is important," Liles told the board. "You all recognize the Nike swish when you see it and when the world sees that logo I want them to think chocolate."

The new sign will also use the brown chocolate color that is part of Oliver's branding scheme now.

The county planning board recommended approval of the new sign permit. The City's planning board must approve it next before work can begin.

Below is an artist's rendering of the proposed new sign.

Dollar General would like to build a new store in Pavilion, but the proposal got a cold reception from the Genesee County Planning Board on Thursday night.

The proposed location is less than 1,000 feet from the high school, and with heavy, speedy truck traffic on Route 63 and no sidewalks between the school and the store, board members thought the location presents a safety hazard.

Planners also thought the proposal doesn't fit within Pavilion's comprehensive plan.

However, the location is the one picked by town officials, Todd Hamula, a development manager for Zeremba Group, who is representing Dollar General in the project.

Originally, the company was looking at a location closer to the school, but town officials were worried about students leaving campus to go to the store, so a compromise was found with the location further away.

The location also gives the town a chance to appeal to the Department of Transportation to lower the speed limit along that stretch of road to 35 mph (the location is right near the current dividing line between a 35 mph zone and 55 mph zone).  

Hamula said Dollar General wants its stores on roads with speed limits less than 55 mph, which ruled out locations further south.

He also said the company picked the location because they believe it's well suited to the comprehensive plan. He said rezoning the property would merely extend the current business district area around Route 63 and Route 19.  

Planners thought it too far away from the current business area to meet that goal.

"We work really hard to make sure we don't bring a proposal for rezoning unless we have local support and that it doesn't go against the comprehensive plan," Hamula said.

While the town seems to take a dim view of a store within walking distance of the school, county planners were scratching their heads over the decision. The original proposed location would have sidewalks and a pedestrian tunnel nearby.

"If the concern here is traffic and kids walking, moving the location does not really solve that," said Board Member Lucine Kauffman. "I think it makes the danger even greater. Now they're walking further and there's no sidewalks."

She thinks regardless of the location, kids are going to walk to it for drinks and food.

"I think it's great idea to have place where kids can walk to after school to have a snack," Kauffman said.

The negative vote doesn't kill the project. The town planning board can still approve it with a vote of a majority plus one.

Hamula said he will pursue that outcome with the town planning board.

Local businesses are supporting the education of local kindergarteners and first-graders by displaying framed examples of their drawings and writings in their shops.

The unique program to highlight the creative work of students was created by the administrators and teachers of Jackson School.

Above, Ken Mistler, left, owner of Showtime Cinema in Batavia accepts the framed work of Mark Bomdaruk, pictured with his teacher Ann Marie Koukides.

Here's a list of particpating businesses and institutions and the names of first-graders with works displayed for January.

• Art a la Cart, Emma Englehardt
• Southside Deli, Gretchen Redder
• T.F. Brown's, Mikaylah Sweet
• Big Pauley's Pizza, Landon Hamilton
• Kreative Kitchens, Karvel Martino
• Wendy's, Bryce Nicometo
• Main Street Pizza, Alexandra Crater
• The Rack Shack, In February
• Holland Land Office, Anthony Lecointe-Naegely
• Bank of America, Liam Walker
• Five Star Bank, Zofia Bailey
• Richmond Memorial Library, Marley Santos
• Alex's Place, Emilio Rosales
• Genesee Community College, Emma Godfrey
• City Hall 1, Harry Malander
• City Hall 2, Helaina Staley
• Tim Horton's, Julia Plath
• City Slickers, Michala Faulkner
• Next Level, Ella Shamp
• Max Pies, Will Stevens
• Showtime Cinema, Mark Bomdaruk
• GO ART!, Sydney Parker
• YMCA, Kayli Palone
• YWCA, Drew Stevens
• Sunny's, Elaina Stringham
• Dunkin' Donuts, Lila Fortes
• Sport of Kings, Elijah Fancher
• T Shirts, Etc., Ethan Bastedo
• McDonald's, Jacobi Childs