Western Regional Off Track Betting (WROTB) President and CEO Henry Wojtaszek presented representatives from the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester (BCCR) with a check for $23,000 to help those who been affected by breast or gynecologic cancer.
On Aug. 18, a dinner and night at the races fundraiser with raffles to benefit the BCCR was held inside the Batavia Downs Clubhouse. Businesses and donors located in Western NY sponsored several races that night. Some monies came from the local harness racing community as some owners, trainers and drivers donated all or a portion of their earnings from the night to the BCCR. Through the dinner, donations, raffles and auctions for items, the event raised $23,000
“We are honored to once again host this event that raises awareness and funds for the BCCR,” Wojtaszek said. “Their efforts fund research and do so much more. The BCCR holds educational and support events to help raise awareness. They work hard to make sure that members of the community can come together to learn and receive support. The BCCR advocates for legislation at the local, state, and national levels to help further along funding in the search for a cure. This year the event held onsite was a success due to the continued hard work of their staff and ours.”
"On behalf of the Breast Cancer Coalition, we are deeply grateful for the astonishing effort Batavia Downs shows year after year. Of course, we appreciate all gifts to our organization, but it is particularly gratifying to have their support because they have never wavered,” said Holly Anderson, President and Executive Director of the Breast Cancer Coalition. “They connect with us well beyond October’s “Breast Cancer Awareness Month” and refer friends and family to our programs throughout the year. Moreover, they understand how difficult it is for a community-based organization to raise the critical funds necessary to offer our outstanding programs and services to grateful survivors across Central and Western New York. We can continue to serve our community because of Batavia Downs’ steadfast and ongoing partnership.”
Three trucks were spotted at about 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning at the Ellicott Station construction project, which has stalled after developer Savarino Companies announced it was going out of business six weeks ago.
A supervisor said a work crew was on the roof completing a project. He said the work was being done because it needed to be completed and not in response to building code citations issued by the city, which The Batavian first reported about this morning.
At 11 a.m., the workers were seen departing the construction site.
There's also recently been some weed removal on the property.
After one resident of College Village in Batavia accused another resident Sept. 24 of sending a message via Facebook to her aunt, she and two other young women allegedly jumped the female victim.
The victim reported sustaining a head injury and bruised ribs.
The three suspects were all charged with assault in the second degree.
Indya Denira Ford
According to a deposition provided Deputy Jonathan Dimmig, who investigated the case with Deputy Nicholas Chamoun, the victim was in her dorm room at 8:05 p.m. on Sept. 24 when her roommate told her somebody was at the front door to see her.
According to police documents, the three women at the door were Diantha Danish Diarha Quandt, 19, whom the victim said she only knows as "DiDi," and Indya Denira Ford, 22, and Evedshardeny Sealliah Domacasse, 18.
All three were charged following an investigation and all three reportedly reside at College Village.
Ford claims the victim started the fight and that she and Domacasse tried to break it up.
Evedshardeny Sealliah Domacasse
The victim told Dimmig that she stepped outside, at the request of Quandt, to talk. She said her statement, "DiDi kept asking me if I sent something to her aunt through Facebook. I told her no and that I didn't understand her."
At that point, the victim's roommate came out of the dorm room and the victim said she told her roommate that everything was fine and she could go back in side.
"The girls kept asking me if I sent DiDi's aunt messages, which denied," the victim stated.
A third person reportedly told DiDi that the victim had contacted her aunt and Quandt got that person on a speaker phone and that person stated the victim did contact Quandt's aunt.
Quandt then, according to the statement, set her phone and other items on the window sill near where they were standing.
"I put my hands in my head," she said. "While I had my head in my hands, I was able to see DiDi raise her arm as though she was going to hit me. I then felt something hit the back of my head repeatedly. When I felt the first hit, I dropped to my knees and shielded my head and neck. I felt multiple people kicking me and pulling my hair. I stayed quiet and didn't fight back. I began to feel dizzy and then (the roommate) came back out and began to push the girls off me."
She continued, "All three girls began laughing and kicking my phone and other property."
That night, she went to ER at UMMC to get evaluated for a continuous headache, dizziness, and nausea.
She was told she sustained a closed head injury and bruised ribs.
After she returned home, she tried to sleep in a temporary dorm room but when she laid down, she realized she couldn't lay her head on her left side due to pain in her left ear and neck.
"The following day, my body felt sore all over. I still had a headache, and I was still suffering from nausea and dizziness," she wrote.
According to police documents, Ford told Dimmig that she and her friends were playing Uno when "DiDi" looked at her phone and started crying and ran out the door. She and Domacasse followed her, according to the statement. She said they tried to calm her down.
"She just kept saying, 'I wanna have a conversation with her,'" according to the document.
Ford reportedly told Dimmig that Quandt and the victim were talking and that for "30 seconds I was froze," and then, the victim, she said, jumped at Quandt.
"In a blink of an eye, they were fighting."
She claimed that she and Domacasse tried to break up the fight.
Quandt, Domacasse, and Ford were arrested the following day. All three were arraigned and ordered held on bail.
Gerald Mead, who has more than 1,700 works of art by Western New York Artists, with a piece by photographer Cindy Sherman. Sherman is portraying Mrs. Claus in a version of a piece commissioned by New Yorker Magazine for a cover. Photo by Howard Owens.
Some of her works have sold for millions, setting records for photographic prints.
That notoriety helps make Sherman interesting to Gerald Mead, who has acquired 23 of her pictures, but that's only, at best, half the reason he collects her work. Mead's interest in Sherman is both parochial and personal. Sherman and Mead both attended Buffalo State University (though about a decade apart), and Mead's passion and specialty is collecting the works of Western New York artists.
He has more than 1,700 pieces in his collection.
"She's really kind of an icon in Buffalo," Mead said. "Her name is known far and wide as one of the most significant photographers, and she has that connection to Western New York. I was really familiar with her whole body of work, and because I was a curator at the Burchfield Penny, we had her works in our collection. It just became a special interest of mine when I first started collecting."
Over the next six weeks, art lovers from the area won't need to travel to London, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, or even Buffalo, to see examples of Sherman's work. They can just take a little trip to GO ART! at 201 East Main St., Batavia, to see a portion of Mead's collection on display.
The show's run starts today (Wednesday) and concludes on Nov. 25, with an opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 19.
The show is a real coup for GO ART! said Mary Jo Whitman, education/SCR director for the arts council. She wrote her master's thesis on Sherman.
"I'm very excited to get to know a lot of people in this area who don't always get to travel out to the bigger museums to see this kind of work will get to see it," Whitman said. "It's exciting to be able to bring these works to people, essentially."
Whitman said Sherman's work is important to her because it speaks to her in a personal way, because in her work, Sherman presents herself as a chameleon, taking on different roles as the main subject of most of her photos.
Sherman started her rise in prominence with what is still probably her most famous body of work, Untitled Film Stills.
The series was created mostly between 1977 and 1980, mostly in New York City, with the city as a backdrop, or in her apartment. The black and white prints mimic the kind of studio publicity shots that were once produced for film noir or French avante-garde movies. Sherman conceived of the shots -- only a few directly inspired by actual movies -- created the costumes, did her own makeup, and created the pose that seemed to capture the movie's star at a pivotal plot point.
"I felt this immediate connection with her," Whitman said. "I think it's really this idea of, you know, the constructed identity that you can be so many different people. You're in social situations, you're in professional situations, and that kind of really dictates who you are at that moment and really how many different people you can be. I know, for myself, I feel that way. I grew up in a very small town as a country girl, and I went on to be an artist, I can be a crazy hippie at times, and I can be in galleries like this as the pretentious curator. So I play a lot of different roles. I think that I just kind of felt a kinship with her after seeing her work.
After Untitled Film Stills, Sherman moved on to other series that, again, feature her in various roles and characters, such as Fairy Tales, Disasters, Centerfolds, History Portraits, Clowns, and most recently, Instagram Portraits
Mead, whose collection started with "Letraset Art Sheet #1," a collage Sherman made from British clip art in 1966, which he won as a door prize at an afterparty in 1995 for the 20th Anniversary of Hallwalls Contemporary Art Gallery (which Sherman co-founded while at Buffalo State), said his goal has been to collect something of Sherman's from each of her eras and from each decade of her career.
"I've been able to do that over the course of 35 years," Mead said.
Sherman's work appeals to him, Mead said, for that same chameleon character that inspired Whitman to study her work.
"She's used herself as the subject, but she's converted and transformed herself into personalities, personas, characters," Mead said. "She doesn't consider them portraits of people generally because she's the subject of all of them. I think it can be fascinating to see how a person can use their own appearance and alter it to have such a wide spectrum of, again, personalities, personas characters."
Also, Mead said, each photo tells a story that also allows the viewer to help fill in the narrative.
"What's interesting about her work, too, is that it's meant to sort of evoke a response or a reaction because the person in it -- they're all actors or actresses, right? Is just being caught mid-performance. So when you're looking at it, you have to get out it, 'what happened before? What's going to happen right after?' She's telling the story. The interesting thing is, a lot of times, I think people sometimes look to see what the title is to figure out what exactly is going on, but they're all untitled. She intentionally has no title on them because she wants you to bring your own understanding and your own kind of reaction to it."
It's that nuance of story and character that is one reason people should come to see Sherman's work while its on display at GO ART!, Whitman said.
"It's just really cool," Whitman said. "She's got a great idea that's really unique. I mean, she plays all the roles. She is the artist. She's the model. She's the makeup artist. She's creating the work all based on herself. There's all these different guises that she has. It's really fascinating when you kind of break it down to what it took to make each individual work. You're gonna come in, and you're gonna see what looks like a portrait to you, but when you kind of break it down, like okay, this is her in every single portrait, and you will be able to tell it's the same person. So, it's just impressive."
Mary Jo Whitman and Gerald Mead hanging one of Cindy Sherman's photos in a gallery at GO ART! Photo by Howard Owens.
On the back of the Mrs. Claus photo by Cindy Sherman is the New York Times cover version of the picture, which is a bit more anodyne than the photo Sherman released as a print for the general public to purchase. "She's not all bloated and blushed," Mead said of the cover version. "That was the more tame version they used for the magazine. This (the print Mead has in his collection) is the one she preferred. This is described as an unlimited edition. You could actually purchase it from -- we're talking back in 1990 -- you could purchase it from her gallery. When it was produced, it was only $100. Eventually, it stopped. You know, they didn't continue to produce it, but she wanted it available because everybody had seen it on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. She wanted it to be accessible and for people to be able to afford and have something of hers." The back of the framed print also contains cards from the various galleries where it has been displayed. Photo by Howard Owens
Teressa Hirsch, playing Juror #7, doesn't hide her anger after Juror #8 refuses to join the other 11 jurors for a quick unanimous guilty verdict in the Batavia Players presentation of 12 Angry Jurors. Photo by Howard Owens.
A simple plot -- 12 ordinary people deliberating the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of murder -- became a riveting drama on Sept. 20, 1954, when it first aired on CBS's Studio One.
In the 1950s, women couldn't serve on juries, so the title was to the point: 12 Angry Men.
A lot has changed over the past seven decades. Women have been able, for example, to serve on juries for decades, so now the play is called 12 Angry Jurors (12 Angry Men was also an award-winning movie in 1957 starring Henry Fonda).
And a lot hasn't changed. Not all is equal just yet. Society is still beset by prejudices, and people still have biases and personal histories that color their views of events.
So juries can still sometimes find it hard to agree on a verdict.
That's why the play originally written by Reginald Rose is still performed all over the country, is taught in schools, and is the subject of scholarship.
"It's still relevant," said Director Kristy Walter. "It's like one of those timeless plays that speaks to justice, it speaks to humanity, it speaks to people's prejudices and biases. And that's, I think, what makes it so compelling because when you watch the play, you see yourself in those characters. So I think that's what makes it worth seeing."
The first Batavia Players performance is at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, followed by 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.
The play begins with an off-stage charge from a judge in a murder trial: The jury must reach a unanimous verdict.
Once in the jury room, Juror #7 (the jurors are only identified by their numbers until the close of the play), played by Teressa Hirsch, says, “Yeah, lets vote. Who knows, maybe we can all just go home.”
She has someplace else to be, she reveals.
And the vote? It's 11-1. Not unanimous.
The lone holdout, Juror #8, played by Steven Coburn, confesses, “It's not easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first.”
The jury decides it's up to them to convince him why they are right -- that the young man on trial stabbed his abusive father and killed him. A guilty verdict would send the kid, from an impoverished background, to the electric chair.
The disagreements erupt for the jurors to confront their own morals and values, their own histories and beliefs.
You can probably guess the resolution -- if you've never caught the movie on late-night TV -- or better, no matter how well you know the story, you can join Batavia Players at 56 Main Theater this weekend to see how it plays out. The play holds up over decades of changing cultural norms and multiple viewings.
Photo by Howard Owens.
Photo by Howard Owens.
Photo by Howard Owens.
Steven Coburn, as Juror #8, cast the lone "not guilty" vote at the start of Batavia Players production of 12 Angry Jurors. Photo by Howard Owens.
Notre Dame took a five-set match from Oakfield-Alabama in Girls Volleyball on Monday.
The games were scored:
25-18
19-25
25-17
25-27
15-9
Stats for the Irish: Kaitlin Kratz had nine kills, Loretta Sorochty, 26 assists, one kill, one block, three aces and five digs, CJ Campagna, six kills, four blocks, two aces and two digs.
For the Hornets, Jessica Sosnowski. three aces, 10 digs and 17 assists, Cara Williams, two aces, five kills, 19 digs and one assist, Sayde Bush, four aces, fiver kills and 15 digs.
The Batavia boys soccer team picked up its sixth win of the season, against four losses, by beating Attica 2-1 on Saturday.
"It was a contentious game in which Attica gained a 1-0 lead early on before Troy Hawley eventually equalized on an assist by Owen Halpin," said Head Coach Graham Halpin.
Hunter Mileham's game-winning goal in the second half was assisted by Owen Halpin..
The defensive line and goalkeeper Ben Stone were instrumental in containing Attica's offense, along with notable contributions from Noah Whitcombe, Finn Halpin, Patrick Suozzi, and Eli Michalak, said Coach Halpin.
The Pembroke Dragons improved to 5-0 on the season with a 69-28 win over C.G. Finney/Northstar on Saturday.
The Dragons amassed more than 500 yards in total offense while running only 30 plays.
Tyson Totten ran for 249 yards and five touchdowns on eight carries. The effort put him over 100 total career touchdowns.
Fullback Caleb Felski had 136 yards rushing and three touchdowns on four carries.
Quarterback Vijay Dhanda added 72 rushing yards and a touchdown while also throwing for 42 yards and the Dragons' first passing TD of the season to receiver Sean Pustulka.
Defensively, the Dragons were led by Caleb Felski, with 11 tackles and two interceptions. Totten added nine tackles of his own, while Octavius Martin, Jayden Mast, Madden Perry, Landon Suro and Jayden Bridge all added at least five each.
The Dragons have yet to punt this season.
The Dragons Host 4-1 Allegany-Limestone out of Section VI next Friday for Homecoming.
Also, on Saturday, Notre Dame beat Geneseo/Mount Morris 35-0. Jay Antinore was 8-14 passing for 133 yards and two touchdowns. Antinore ran four times for 74 yards and a TD. Roy Ricks had 59 yards on seven carries. Ryan Fitzpatrick scored a TD while hauling in five passes for 85 yards. Jacob Sherwood and Antinore also each had TD receptions.
Canisteo-Greenwood beat Oakfield-Alabama/Elba, 19-12. Avery Watterson gain 172 yards on 24 carries and scored twice. Gavin Armbrewster was 7-12 passing for 83 yards. Jack Cianfrini had three receptions for 52 yards. Ashton Bezon had 14 tackles.
York/Pavilion beat Avon 28-18
LeRoy’s Merritt Holly (15) soars at the Attica-Alexander PAT kick. Photo by Ed Henry.
Le Roy’s Drew Strollo (34) and DJ O’Geen (54) look to stop Landyn Thomas (3). Photo by Ed Henry.
The Le Roy defense converges on Attica-Aleander’s Tyler Marino (22). Photo by Ed Henry.
Xavien Walker is a valuable return specialist for the Knights. Photo by Ed Henry.
The Le Roy defense looks to stop Attica-Alexander star Clayton Bezon (44). Photo by Ed Henry.
Le Roy’s Connor Hegeman hauls in a Le Roy TD pass against three defenders. Photo by Ed Henry.
Le Roy’s Tony Piazza (22) follows his O-line for a late-game TD. Photo by Ed Henry.
The Le Roy defense swarms Attica-Alexander RB Levi Pearl (33). Photo by Ed Henry.
After a long reception early in the third quarter, Vertus Charter was threatening to score near the goal line when Batavia's Mekhi Fortes grabbed QB Malachi Jones, knocking the ball loose, allowing Maggio Buchholz to recover the fumble. Photo by Howard Owens.
With an aggressive Blue Devils defense harassing Vertus QB Malachi Jones all night, forcing turnovers and lost yardage, Batavia was able to securing a convincing win over Vertus Charter 37-16.
Bronx Bucholz was 11-16 passing for 139 yards and two touchdowns.
Cole Grazioplene had two receptions for 18 yards, and 22 yards on one carry, with two TDs and a defensive interception.
Zailen Griffin had 10 carries for 89 yards.
Carter Mullen had four receptions for 44 yards and touchdown.
Mekhi Fortes, who was also a dominant presence on defense, had three receptions for 43 yards and ran for a touchdown.
The Blue Devils are now 2-2 on the season.
This is exclusive game coverage by The Batavian. You can help support The Batavian's coverage of the community by joining Early Access Pass.
To view more photos for purchase prints, click here.
Flushed from the pocket, QB Malachi Jones spikes the ball to prevent a sack by Mekhi Fortes in the first quarter. Photo by Howard Owens
Zailen Griffin sprints away from a defender in the second quarter. Photo by Howard Owens.
Mekhi Fortes with the ball over the endzone in the second quarter. Photo by Howard Owens
Zailen Griffin Photo by Howard Owens
Mekhi Fortes with the stiff arm in the second-quarter. Photo by Howard Owens
A defensive stop in the second quarter left Vertus inside the one-yard line. Photo by Howard Owens.
Leading to a touchdown on a fumble recovery. Photo Howard Owens.
DaShaun Wright and teammates celebrate his fumble recovery in the endzone for a touchdown. Photo by Howard Owens.
Maggio Buchholz with the reception on the PAT. Photo by Howard Owens.
Cole Grazioplene with a third-quarter interception. Photo by Howard Owens.
Offensive lineman Karvel Martino with a block. Photo by Howard Owens.
Engineer Michael Metzger points out some of the changes to a proposed apartment complex on Route 77 in the Town of Pembroke during Wednesday's Town Planning Board meeting. Photo by Howard Owens.
Based on feedback from the community, the engineer and property owner planning an apartment complex at 8900 Alleghany Road, Pembroke, have scaled back the project, the Pembroke Planning Board learned on Wednesday night before voting 6-1 to let the development move forward.
A month ago, when the plan was last publicly discussed, developer Michael Schmidt and engineer Michael Metzger were planning six buildings in the complex and a total of 144 apartments with 326 parking spaces.
The new site plan calls for four buildings -- plus garages -- with 96 apartments and 168 parking spaces.
The change helps reduce the amount of impervious developed service to less than 50 percent, leaving 57 percent greenspace on the 8.2-acre lot.
The changes will make the complex more attractive from the roadway, Metzger said.
"There was some talk of making the project a little bit more of a park-like as opposed to what we had before where we had six buildings in there and a lot of asphalt," Metzger said. "With these large tracts of natural vegetation, we're trying to replicate a park-like setting that would be better for the aesthetics for the community as well as the residents that would live in this facility."
Chairman David Knupfer voted no after expressing his concern about setting a precedent while not expressing any specific objections to the project.
"This project is a precedent-setter for this town," Knupfer said. "There's no other project like this in this town. So whichever way it goes, it sets a precedent with stipulations or no stipulations. So if this is approved, and somebody else, some other developer comes in, you gotta be careful. So make sure you have what you want in here."
There were two big concerns raised by planners and community members. First, access for school buses; second, whether Schmidt would pull a bait-and-switch, which speakers expressed concern about in light of what happened with Ellicott Station in Batavia, and turn the complex into low-incoming housing.
Metzger explained the plan for school buses, worked out with Pembroke Central School Superintendent Matthew Calderon, and Schmidt said there is no way the complex will become low-income housing.
Calderon sent a letter to the planning board expressing his thoughts on school buses, which Metzger acknowledged.
"He goes into detail there about various options, and actually, some of the options he's suggesting would work quite well," Metzger said. "He also offered the opportunity for the buses to actually come on site. One of the things that he talked about, and he talked about it with Mr. Schmidt, and he would be agreeable to is allowing the buses to actually come on site and stop at each one of the buildings, each of the four buildings. Because of the geometry that is set up for the largest of emergency vehicles and fire trucks, there's way more than enough capacity and room for buses to maneuver on the property."
Metzger explained that the driving lanes and turning lanes through the parking lot are compliant with state fire codes so that fire trucks can easily maneuver through the area. School buses, he noted, have shorter wheelbases than the largest fire trucks.
Schmidt said he favors the buses stopping at each of the four buildings because it will be safer for the children of his tenants.
"As you know, it can be snowing, raining, sleeting," Schmidt said. "So if you have a tenant in the back building who has a little seven-year-old and the bus was to come in and park in a spot (up front), now that seven-year-old is going to be trucking down (the parking lot) with a backpack to get out on the bus where other people might be leaving for work. We talked about it being a bad situation from a safety standpoint for the children and said the best-case scenario in my mind is to have the bus be able to come around to each building. There will be plenty of clearance. So he (Calderon) was agreeable to that."
That scenario, Schmidt also noted, would allow the children to wait in the building's vestibule during inclement weather.
As far as concerns about low-income housing, Schmidt noted that, unlike Ellicott Station, his project is not subsidized by any state or federal agencies.
"They already had all the agencies lined up to work with them," Schmidt said. "We are here alone. Mike's my engineer. We have no intention of doing that. I can put that into writing. We certainly aren't going to be looking for any state financial aid or any type of anything from the government to help us."
While the apartments will be available to anyone who can demonstrate the ability to pay the rent, he indicated that a person who qualifies for subsidized housing isn't likely going to be able to qualify to rent an apartment in his complex.
Applicants will need to be able to demonstrate full-time employment with a credit score of at least 700 and an income of at least three times the monthly rental rate. The rent on a two-bedroom apartment will be at least $1,695 per month and $1,395 for a one-bedroom.
After one resident complained that apartments will just bring in a bunch of "riff-raff" and drive down property values, Schmidt, who owns and operates several other similar complexes in the region and repeatedly drew on his experience to explain the kind of tenants who fill his complex, told the man, "respectfully," that he had it backward.
"The people who are gonna live here are going to make a minimum of $50,000 with a credit score that is going to have to be very strong," Schmidt said. "In my experience, once they live here for a while, they're going to realize if they're moving in from another place, which a lot of people will be, I think -- we all know your whole corridor is growing -- and some of you don't like that, I understand. I grew up in Akron, a small town that has grown a little bit. But the reality is it's happening. The STAMP project and other things that are going on are gonna lead other people to want to move in.
"When they move in, they're gonna look for a nice place to move, and hopefully, we will be able to provide some of that," Schmidt added. "And then what they're going to do is look for places, homes to buy, which is going to take the prices of the homes up like it always does. When more people come in, the value of the homes goes up. That's good for everyone. You have more people coming in to help pay taxes and pay for the infrastructure ... You've got a great town. I'd say one of the towns in Western New York that's on the move. So I think it's going to be the opposite. I think what you find is when more people move in -- nice, good, hardworking people -- they're going to be looking for homes to buy. You're going to see the real estate values start climbing."
Related to the school bus issue, as well as traffic in and out of the complex, as well as the number of parking spaces, and the nature of the up-and-coming workforce quality apartments attract, is there simply won't be a lot of children living in the apartments, Schmidt said. He predicted fewer than 20 children at any one time.
He said the apartments are on the smaller side, and most are one-bedroom, and in his experience, even the two-bedrooms don't tend to attract adults with children.
Eight units in every building will be one-bedroom, and six will be two-bedrooms. There are no three bedrooms.
"They're not large units," Schmidt said. "They're very medium-sized units. So really, our experience is that we have very few children. And when people start having children, they look for a house."
Schmidt said he maintains high standards for his tenants. For example, tenants can have dogs under 30 pounds, but if a tenant's dog bites anybody, the dog has to go.
"We don't tolerate anything," Schmidt said. "That's why we keep the standards very high in who we rent to. If you don't, good people will not live around bad people, but bad people love living around good people. So you have to take care of the good tenants that you have."
And that's why he's attracted to building in Pembroke, he said. He believes Pembroke is a community that attracts good people.
"It's a community built around hardworking people," Schmidt said. "Hardworking people don't have a lot of time usually to screw around. We're going to protect that. I think you're gonna see there's a lot of great people that move in here."
Engineer Michael Metzger and Developer Michael Schmidt. Photo by Howard Owens.
The Town of Pembroke Planning Board approved a proposal for a new travel plaza off Exit 48a of the Thruway on Wednesday, clearing the way for construction to begin in the spring.
When completed, the as-yet-unnamed travel plaza will join Flying J, TA, and Speedway as locations on Route 77 where travelers and truckers can rest, get a bite to eat, refuel and perhaps get a wash.
The vote to approve the environmental review and site plan passed 6-1, with board member Thomas Marshall casting the lone "nay."
In a brief presentation before the vote, Engineer Michael Metzer addressed some of the issues raised at last month's public hearing before the board and by the Genesee County Planning Board.
Previously, there were concerns expressed about sight lines coming from the Thruway overpass and the increase in traffic the new travel plaza is likely to bring to the interchange.
Metzer said since the last meeting, a traffic study has been completed.
"The results of that study were that there are no sightline issues whatsoever," Metzer said.
As for additional traffic, that won't be an issue either.
They've determined that there would be no impact on the level of service in the area, interchanges or intersections," Metzger said. "They looked at seven intersections altogether, and every one of those still meets code. There are no adverse impacts to the intersections; obviously, there's gonna be more traffic, you know, nobody's debating that. But what this traffic impact study does is that it makes a determination of whether the impacts are adverse or not, whether they create a problem. And so, in summary, ... (there is) no significant impact as a result of this project."
Through the environmental review process, it was determined the project could impact an endangered species, the northern long-eared bat.
The developer has two options: Conduct a detailed study to see if the bat is present on the property, or not cut down any trees on the property during hibernation season -- from Nov. 1 to March 31.
The second option is the one the developer will take, Metzger said.
"If you don't remove any trees (during those months), you are in compliance with DEC guidelines and federal guidelines as well," Metzger said.
To address another issue, Metzger said the project is designed in full compliance with floodplain regulations.
As for historical preservation, Metzger said, "One thing that was identified through the environmental review through the State Office of Parks and Historic Preservation is that we are in a potentially archaeologically sensitive area. As such, we would commit to -- actually, we've started the process of doing a phase 1A and a phase 1B study. We will do that and provide the results prior to a request for a building permit."
During the board discussion, Marshall indicated he didn't agree that the project would have no traffic impact.
"I just think it's way too much volume for that intersection through the interchange," he said.
Board member Greg Kuras said he thought the additional travel plaza would actually help with truck traffic, especially during winter storms.
"Whenever you get storms, you get the states basically begging for parking spots for these things," Kuras said. "They want to get them off of (routes) 5 and 77. It's better to have a big parking lot for them than having them sit on the road."
Following a raid by the FBI on a residence in Batavia Wednesday, two men have been arraigned in U.S. District Court on a sex trafficking indictment, including Joseph Barsuk.
The listed owner of the residence at 3604 South Pearl Street Road, Batavia, according to county tax records, is Barsuk Buffalo Properties LLC, and records list Joseph Barsuk Jr. as a former owner of the property.
Barsuk and Brian Rosenthal are indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Barsuk is also accused of sex trafficking by coercion.
On the first count of the indictment, Barsuk and Rosenthal are accused of working together, and perhaps with others, to "knowingly recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain" sex workers for financial gain.
Barsuk is accused of using force, threats of force, fraud and coercion to get a victim, referred to as "Victim 1," in paid sex work.
The Buffalo News reported today that the case may be linked to an investigation of Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club in Buffalo. Rosenthal is reportedly a long-time employee of the club.
Much like it did in early August, Batavia's Graham Manufacturing shipped another large package from its plant on the east side of the city at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. There is no information on this particular piece of equipment but The Batavian learned later that the previous shipment was destined for a Navy aircraft carrier. Reader submitted photo.
From L to R: (Front) Melissa Lindner, Notre Dame High School; Karen Green, St. Joseph’s School; Jason Smith, Batavia City School District; Susan Wakefield, St. Paul’s School; Jacqueline Simpson, New York State School for the Blind; (Back) Matt Lutey, Batavia Police Department; Connor Borchert, Batavia Police Department/BCSD SRO; Eric Hill, Batavia Police Department; Lynn Eick, St. Paul’s School. Photo by Howard Owens.
Mr. Simpson’s in the building.
If you don’t know what that means, you’re one of the many students, staff and faculty at the school districts that don’t use such lingo as a secret indicator of a particular message to be broadcast when necessary over the public address system.
Just imagine what it would be like as a visiting student or substitute teacher on a day when this cryptic notification is aired, and all of the other school members respond in a knowing awareness. What if this message held special significance in relation to a school threat or community emergency? On the other hand, there are two very common terms used by most every school that have caused much confusion as well: lock out and lock down.
Now that a Standard Response Protocol has been implemented this summer, the language and related directives during school incidents will be the same for each of the city school district schools, St. Paul Lutheran, St. Joseph’s, Notre Dame High School and the state School for the Blind, and for Batavia Police Detective Eric Hill, it's about time.
“They've had the lockdown procedure in place and lockout procedure in place for a very, very long time. It's just now we're calling the lockout secure, so there's not that confusion any more. I'm really trying to push the education portion of it. Because a lot of times, you know, because of the very similar wording between lockout and lockdown, the general public would get confused as well. So we'd call for a lockout. And people would be like, 'Oh, my gosh, my kid was in lockdown.' They weren't, but it was just that the language is so close to one another that you don't understand what the difference is between them,” Hill said. “So we're trying to get that information out to the general public, and schools have actually had Parent Night and stuff like that, where they've been pushing out this wording and what it actually means. So when a parent hears 'Oh, you know, my school or my kid was in a Secure,' they understand that there wasn't any threat to the child at all … so we're hoping that that'll alleviate some of the anxiety that comes along with this kind of stuff.”
There have been some districts that used phrases such as Mr. Simpson is in the building to indicate a certain message to the student body, and a more universal language would help to clarify those messages as well, he said.
As for the wording, the new language to be used in this protocol will be:
Hold — is followed by “in your room or area,” and is the protocol used when hallways need to kept clear of occupants.
Secure — is followed by “get inside. Lock outside doors,” and is the protocol used to safeguard people within the building.
Lockdown — is followed by “locks, lights, out of sight,” and is used to secure individual rooms and keep occupants quiet and in place
Evacuate — may be followed by a location, and is used to move people from one location to a different location in or out of the building.
Shelter — is to include the hazard causing the incident and safety strategy for the group and for self protection.
These words will be announced by public address system when necessary, although Hill would like to eventually move to having the software available for use on cell phones, laptops, computers and Smart Boards. That will take future grants or other types of funding, he said.
An example of a Hold would be if a student is sick and other students need to be kept away and out of the hall, a Hold may be called out over the PA, he said.
A secure might be if there’s a threat outside of the building — there was a recent real example when police had a car chase, and the driver bailed from his vehicle and police officers chased him on foot. Previously that would have been a lock out, but now is a secure, meaning keep everyone inside and safe, and go about your business with the doors locked to prevent anyone from getting inside.
A lockdown is when the threat is inside the school and students and staff need to keep themselves safe inside, perhaps locked inside a classroom.
Evacuate is to move out of the building, and shelter is to find a safe place to be in a time of crisis, perhaps a blizzard or other natural disaster.
An initiative that began from tragedy — a school shooting that took the life of Emily Keyes — the I Love U Guys Foundation was founded by her parents, Ellen and John-Michael, in 2006 to “restore and protect the joy of youth through educational programs and positive actions in collaboration with families, schools, communities, organization, and government entities.”
The couple drafted these directives as ways to provide more uniform responses for kids to follow when incidents occur in schools, up to the point when the incident ends, Hill said. So if it’s a threat inside of school, no one would leave a locked classroom until an authorized person with a key unlocks that door. Because “no one, under any circumstances should open that door for anybody,” Hill said.
“Because, you know, we'll be opening that door. But we specifically set it up that way. The SRP is they've literally thought of everything at the I Love U Guys Foundation. They've put a lot of time, a lot of effort into this,” he said. “And we've actually had several trainings with them over the summer, and with school staff, both private and public school staff, to really understand their SRP and where it would be beneficial to everybody in our community, law enforcement, staff, students in the public, just to get everybody on the same page. So we're all talking the same language.”
The program’s name stems from when Emily was held hostage during her school’s shooting, and she texted that message to each of her parents. One goal is to get schools across the country to sign up and train using this standardized response protocol. Hill wants to ensure that the city’s program is up and running strong before then moving onto spreading it throughout Genesee County.
“Once we kind of get that in place, then we do want to hopefully grow the school safety team by pulling the Sheriff's department in with us. And then rolling it out county wide,” he said. “So that way, all the schools in Genesee County are using the exact same language, they're using the exact same protocols. And we all know what each other is doing. But we just haven't gotten to that step yet. So we're working towards that.”
Crisis response training for each of the schools began in August and will continue throughout the year. This protocol is not to be a replacement for any school safety plan, but an enhancement for critical incidents, officials said.
Clear communication is critical in a crisis situation, City Schools Superintendent Jason Smith said, and the “standardization of these terms will provide clear direction to our students, staff, families, and community in case of emergency.”
“Thank you to our partners at the Batavia Police Department for leading this effort and for their consistent prioritization of school and community safety,” Smith said. “I’m thrilled to see Batavia’s educational community come together to implement these essential protocols.”
Part of the program includes posters that can be downloaded and printed out for schools to place on walls for free use in times of crisis — especially when someone forgets what a directive means or the steps involved, Hill said.
There are also other posters that may be placed in windows to alert visitors that “School is Secured” with monitored entry, or “Drill in Progress” with no one in or out, or other such messages, and trainings offered through the program’s website.
A North Carolina man suspected of extremist ties and caught in Genesee County in March 2022 with an illegal firearm and subsequently charged by federal law enforcement was sentenced on Wednesday to time served.
Michael Alan Jones, who reportedly had ties to white supremacist groups, served 10 months in federal custody after his arrest in by deputies Kenneth Quackenbush and Nicholas Chamoun, who relentlessly questioned Jones and a companion during a traffic stop on School Road in Le Roy after a vehicle driven by Jones tried to make apparent evasive moves.
It turned out Jones did not have the proper license plate on the vehicle he was driving, giving the officers the authority to impound the car and inventory its contents. While compiling the inventory, they discovered an illegal AR-15.
The video of his arrest, above, is edited from body-worn camera footage obtained by The Batavian in February through a Freedom of Information Law request filed with the Sheriff's Office.
Once the FBI learned of the arrest of Jones, an agent with the Joint Terrorism Task Force responded to the Sheriff's Office on Park Road and questioned him.
The FBI took over the case and filed federal charges against Jones because he was a convicted felon -- in North Carolina -- who crossed state lines in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Jones admitted to the Federal charges in December and was eventually released under supervision, returning to his parents' home in North Carolina, pending sentencing. He was apparently released, in part, because of a serious medical condition involving his leg.
In a letter to Judge David G. Larimer, Jones said the release probably enabled him to receive the care he needed to keep his leg.
A probation officer also noted for the court record that Jones was in full compliance with the terms of his release.
In his letter, Jones admitted he had made mistakes.
"I would like to apologize for my actions that have led me to your courtroom," Jones wrote to the judge. "I have had time to reflect on what circumstances led me there and what thought processes led me to believe I was doing the right thing, and I can see now that I was simply wrong. There is no justifying it. We have laws in place for the betterment of society, and it is not up to me or anyone on my level to try and decide which ones are to be followed or not. I regret the steps I took that led to us being in my position today, but I can honestly tell you that I have learned from my mistakes, and I have no desire or intention of ever putting myself in a situation to end up in any situation like this again."
UPDATE 5:30 p.m. Since publication of this story, The Batavian has obtained a copy sentencing memo presented to the court by Federal Public Defender Steven Slawinski in support of a time-served sentence for his client. In it, Slawinski states that Jones, who had a leg injury prior to his arrest, was in danger of losing his leg and was barely able to walk because of inadequate medical care while in the custody of the Monroe County Jail. The wound had become infected, and Jones had been denied antibiotics in jail. Slawinski asked the court to consider the possibility of Jones again not receiving adequate health care if he were incarcerated again.
Slawinski also confirms that Jones was a former member of Proud Boys, which Jones joined when he was a teenager. Over time, his views changed, and Jones became a paid FBI informant. Jones infiltrated the Charlotte chapter of Proud Boys and provided the FBI with "valuable information" about the organization. He writes, "Jones has since matured and no longer harbors these views. In fact, renouncing these views was a prerequisite for his parents allowing him to come back to their home after he was released from jail."
Slawinski said Jones is considering becoming a trucker or going back to college to earn a degree in agriculture.
The FBI executed an arrest and search warrant at 3604 Pearl Street Road, Batavia, on Wednesday morning. Details of the case have not been released. Genesee County tax record photo.
Federal officials confirmed with The Batavian on Wednesday afternoon that an arrest warrant and search warrant were executed by agents of the FBI at 3604 South Pearl Street Road, Batavia, earlier in the day.
Jeannie McBride, public affairs officer for the FBI, referred The Batavian to the U.S. Attorney's Office for details on the arrest.
A spokeswoman confirmed a subject did appear in U.S. District Court on Wednesday afternoon and is scheduled to appear again at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. She said details of the case could be obtained through PACER, the website where federal court documents are made available to the public.
As of Wednesday night, no documents had yet been released related to the case.
McBride said the investigation is "ongoing."
County records indicate the registered property owner is Barsuk Buffalo Properties LLC. The LLC was registered with the Secretary of State in 2018 with a postal box address in Batavia.
