Holly Sharpe delivers two dinners to a customer Saturday evening during the annual Joe Gerace Spaghetti Dinner sale at Ascension Parish, an annual fundraiser for Genesee Cancer Assistance.
An accident is reportedly blocking traffic and there are injuries at East Main and Summit streets in Batavia.
City fire and Mercy EMS responding.
UPDATE 6:24 p.m. It appears one vehicle rear-ended another on Summit. The damage to the vehicles was minimal.
In order to comply with COVID-19 social distancing requirements, GCC held a drive-thru open house on Saturday for prospective students.
Officer Wesley Rissinger, Batavia PD, collects a bag of no-longer-needed medication from a Batavia resident yesterday during the semiannual Drug Take-Back Day, this time located in the city parking lot off of Alva Place. The Sheriff's Office and Le Roy PD also participated with their own locations.
Press release:
Congressman Chris Jacobs (NY-27) honored student artists and announced the winners of the NY-27 Congressional Art Competition at a reception this morning in Batavia.
“Students from around the district submitted pieces of artwork for this competition; we clearly have some incredibly talented young adults in Western New York,” Jacobs said.
“I want to thank all of our teachers and parents who helped our participants create and submit their work, and most importantly, I want to congratulate all of our contestants for their hard work, dedication, and impressive pieces. I look forward to this becoming a tradition we celebrate every year.”
The Congressional Art Competition was first created under a different name in 1982 and is sponsored by the Congressional Institute. In NY-27, three winners were selected, their pieces will be displayed as follows:
- The First Place piece will be hung in the U.S. Capitol for all representatives and staff, and the winner will also be flown down to Washington, D.C.
- The Second Place piece will be hung in Rep. Jacobs’ Washington, D.C., Office.
- The Third Place piece will be hung in Rep. Jacobs’ Clarence District Office.
Pieces are judged and given their awards by an independent panel of judges. The winners for the 2021 NY-27 Congressional Art Competition are:
- First Place: "A New Chapter" by Isabella Houseknecht from Batavia (colored pencil).
- Second Place: Self Portrait by Molly Regan from Holland (charcoal).
- Third Place: "Creation of Bee-dam" by Madison Dugan from Albion (acrylic paint).
- Honorable Mention: Self-Portrait by Amaya Cleveland from Medina (handpainted negative-digitalized and painted on photo paper).
“Congratulations to our winners. I look forward to hanging these pieces in each of my offices and having a constant reminder of the exceptional talent in our district,” Jacobs said.
Photos by Howard Owens.
Molly Regan, second place, with Jacobs. First-place winner Isabella Houseknecht and her family were unable to attend the event.
Isabella Houseknecht's first-place drawing.
Second Place
Third Place
Volunteers turned out in droves yesterday for two big Earth-Day-related cleanups of public spaces in Batavia.
First was an effort to pickup litter along the Ellicott Trail. Also, County Parks officials hosted an Earth Day event at DeWitt Recreation Area that included not just a cleanup but Scouts involved in projects and games and information booths about taking care of our planet.
Batavia resident Dan Crofts reading "The Dark Night" by John of the Cross for National Poetry Month.
Social distancing, mask-wearing, and keeping symptomatic children home are all key parts of slowing the spread of COVID-19, said Dr. Steven Schulz, pediatric medical director for Rochester Regional Health, in a conference call this morning with reporters.
"I think the biggest thing is looking at your situation from a community approach and wanting to make sure everybody in your child's class is maintaining health and the community as well," Schulz said.
"That involves following the rules that have been, again, set forward through the CDC and Department of Health. And so wearing those masks is important.
"Keeping your kid home from school, if they have any potential illness symptoms and having them evaluated is important; filling out those daily assessments to make sure your kid is safe to go to school and working with them and talking with them about the importance of continued masking, especially outside of school when they might be getting together with friends, whether that's in a school sport or just on their own.
"That's the area where we can see the spread. And it's important that they're continuing to mask and keep social distancing even in those social settings."
Children, Schulz noted, who catch COVID-19, have a high likelihood of being an asymptomatic spreader of the disease, which is why it is important they abide by the protocols. They can feel fine and still be spreading a deadly virus.
Children who are symptomatic should definitely stay home, Schulz said.
"I completely agree with erring on the side of caution in this case," Schulz said. "The (symptoms) that we worry the most about are fever, sustained headaches that are unusual for your child, loss of taste or smell, or especially if they have any symptom and have had exposure recently to somebody with COVID, they should definitely stay home. Other symptoms that can go along with it are runny nose, cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, decreased appetite, abdominal pain."
Because there are symptoms that overlap with season allergies and other illnesses, parents should consult with a doctor and get the child tested with a negative result before letting asymptomatic child leave the house.
This is especially important at a time when there is a greater spread of a COVID-19 variant that, while no more dangerous, does infect people more easily. That variant now accounts for 60 percent of the cases locally, the doctor said.
Schulz's message comes alongside news that nationally 20 percent of the new, identified COVID cases are now among children, the highest percentage yet.
A two-vehicle accident is reported in the area of 8595 Lake Street Road, Le Roy.
Minor injuries are reported.
Le Roy fire and Le Roy ambulance are responding.
Fire police requested for traffic control.
UPDATE 3:03 p.m.: A second ambulance, basic life support, nonemergency, is requested to the scene.
A two-car accident with minor injuries is reported at Dellinger Avenue and West Main Street, Batavia.
One person has a complaint of back pain.
City fire and Mercy EMS dispatched. Law enforcement on scene.
Three new orders in the bankruptcy case of Michael Tomaszewski put 19 more of his victims at the front of the line -- at least as far as the bankruptcy proceeding goes -- for getting at least some of their money back from his scheme to divert funeral deposits to his own expenditures.
Tomaszewski was arrested last summer on more than 200 charges stemming from complaints that he mishandled deposits, known as prearrangement fees, for funerals and defrauded victims out of more than $500,000 in total.
Earlier this month, he entered a guilty plea to grand larceny, scheme to defraud, offering a false instrument for filing, and untimely burial and is facing a possible prison term as a result.
Separately, in February 2020 he filed for bankruptcy in Federal Court. He listed $1,094,346 in assets against $3,242,390 in liabilities.
As part of his plea deal, he agreed to pay restitution to his victims. The exact amount of restitution has yet to be determined but it was revealed during his last court appearance that he has already reimbursed some of his victims.
The amounts owed to victims listed in the three recent orders are:
Many of the victims are married couples with each person having a separate claim for their individual deposits.
Under federal bankruptcy law, any money gained through fraud is a debt that is not dischargeable through Chapter 7 and victims receive priority for repayment for the first $3,025 owed to them.
For previous coverage of the Tomaszewski case, click here.
Today was "Drive Your Tractor to School Day" in Elba.
Photos submitted by Debra Reilly.
Photo submitted by JoAnne Meiser of yesterday's sunset in Pembroke.
Eric Zwieg, a writer and musician from Batavia, reads "Sometimes We Wake Transformed" by Jason Irwin for National Poetry Month.
An injury accident is blocking Route 20 in the area of 1013 Broadway, Darien, between Harlow and Warner roads.
Darien fire and ambulance are on scene.
A lot, it turns out, according to Mike Waller, Rochester Regional Health’s director of Sustainability, who spoke with reporters this morning about keeping masks away from animals and using masks that do less to deplete natural resources, such as reusable masks.
"I have three kids, and I want to say we probably have like a hundred different reusable masks at this point," Waller said. "They are really not that expensive any longer. But if you are using a disposable mask, there are ones made with more environmentally friendly materials made such as hemp and other natural fibers. If you do dispose of them, there really is no good way to recycle them because they are made from multiple materials. And so disposing of them in the regular trash, as you would any other items, is the best way to go."
It's not feasible financially for recycling companies to break down masks into their component parts so they can be processed into materials to make new products. But if disposables aren't disposed of properly, they're not only an eyesore on our city streets, they become a problem for wildlife. Potentially, a deadly one.
"A lot of turtles like them when they end up in the waterways," Waller said. "I read that mold and algae grow really easily on these masks. When that happens, it just looks like there's a green floating piece of algae. Fish and turtles think it's food and then they'll swallow the whole mask."
"Make sure they go in the trash," he said. "That's definitely the number one thing to do."
Reusable masks can, of course, be used dozens of times (washed between uses) and maybe hundreds of times before they need to go to a landfill. That will cut down on swallowing up the earth's resources to make masks.
While Waller isn't an epidemiologist and can't predict the course of the pandemic, he expects, as a personal opinion, that mask wearing will be with us for a good long time yet.
"I always thought it would take quite a few years," Waller said. "I think of my three kids in school and some of the folks in the school the district, they share, they predict we'll have masks through next year as well in the school. I think that that would probably make sense as well. I hope like everybody else, it's no longer than that.
"But, you know, I notice with my kids, I think it's very interesting, they don't -- my youngest is 3 -- and they don't really care about wearing masks at all. It's really not a big deal to them. And they do a great job of keeping them on. It's usually the adults that have all the issues."
Genesee County's unemployment rate for March was 6.1 percent according to the NYS Department of Labor, which is a percentage point higher than the previous year, the month local pandemic-related lockdowns started.
While layoffs started in late March 2020, the reported unemployment was 5.2 percent. The layoffs didn't hit the books through unemployment claims until April when the rate jumped to 15.9 percent, the highest local unemployment rate since 1990 (the earliest data available from the DOL). In May, the rate was 11.1 percent and the rate has remained in single digits since then.
The lowest rate for March since 1990 was in 2019 when the rate was 4.6 percent.
The labor force for Genesee County (people who have work or are seeking work) was 28,200 in March, the lowest level since at least 1990. A year ago it was 28,700 and 29,100 in 2019.
There are 26,500 people living in the county who are employed and 1,700 without jobs who are seeking jobs.
The state's unemployment rate is 8.5 percent and the nation's is 6.2.
There were 20,700 non-farm jobs reported in Genesee County for March compared to 22,200 in 2020.
Government jobs declined from 5,700 to 5,200 and private sector jobs declined from 16,500 to 15,500.
Buffalo developer Sam Savarino, who has been working for years to close financing on Ellicott Station (former Soccio & Della Penna and Santy's Tire properties), met via Zoom this morning with the Batavia Development Corp. Board of Directors and gave the members an update on the progress of the project, which should start with site cleanup soon.
Elba resident Bill Kauffman reads 'To a Siberian Woodsman' by Wendell Berry for National Poetry Month.
The Batavia Blue Devils came ready to play Tuesday night, taking on Palmyra-Macedon and then dominating the Red Raiders for a 48-7 victory.
The win keeps them undefeated at 6-0 and slots them as the #2 seed heading into sectionals.
The semifinal game will be against Newark at 6 p.m. Sunday against Newark. The winner of that game will play the winner of Honeoye Falls-Lima vs. Pal-Mac. HFL is the #1 seed and if HFL wins, the championship game will be played at HFL.
Terrez Smith rushed for 204 yards on 17 carries. He scored three touchdowns. Carter McFollins carried the ball 11 times for 86 yards and a TD. QB Jesse Reinhart was 7-12 for 71 yards and a TD.
Alex Hale caught three passes for 44 yards and a TD.
The Red Raiders were able to intercept Reinhart three times but the Batavia defense held firm after each turnover. Kaden Marucci had 16 tackles, an interception, a blocked punt, and two sacks. Mathew McWethy, seven tackles, Dan Saeva, seven, Garrett Schmidt, six, and Reinhart two tackles and an interception.
Photos by Steve Ognibene. To view or purchase prints, click here.
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