Stafford

CSX is planning to shut down the railroad crossing at Seven Springs Road from Monday at 9 a.m. through Tuesday afternoon.

A fire in a Dumpster is reported at 8468 Seven Springs Road, toward the Clinton Street end. There is heavy smoke.

Town of Batavia and Stafford Fire departments are responding.

A fire is reported inside the maintenance shop of the Stafford Country Club. The shop is located off Route 5, just east of Route 237.

Stafford and Pavilion fire departments are responding, along with tankers from the Town of Batavia and fire police from Le Roy. South Byron fire is to fill in at the station for Stafford.

There is heavy smoke inside the structure.

UPDATE (5:53 p.m.): Firefighters are warned that there are chemicals stored inside the northeast end of the building. A firefighter says one piece of machinery is on fire but it is almost out. The roof does not need ventilating at this time.

UPDATE (5:57 p.m.): They are going to vent the north end of the building.

UPDATE (6:02 p.m.): The fire is confirmed to be contained to one piece of machinery and it has been dragged outside. Everything is under control. They are releasing some equipment to go back in service.

In hindsight, 21-year-old Danielle Lovett wishes she hadn't said it was OK for witnesses to leave the scene of an accident she was involved in Sunday night.

It turns out that after the witnesses left, so did the driver of the other car -- flat tire, damaged muffler and all.

Lovett's 1999 Buick was totaled.

Even though Lovett's insurance is giving her $2,100 toward a replacement, she still has to pay a $500 deductible.

"I'd just like to find him so he can pay me back the $500," Lovett said.

She describes the driver as a white male in his late 40s or early 50s. She believes he was driving a Pontiac Aztec or similarly styled car.

The driver's side rear suffered some damage, she said. The man drove off with a flat tire and the noise from his muffler made Lovett think his exhaust system was damaged in the accident.

Even though the Sheriff's Office is investigating the accident, Lovett has tried herself to find the driver, alerting area mechanics and body shops to the damage.

A Bergen resident, Lovett said she was heading home from Batavia at 11 p.m., Sunday, on Route 33 in Stafford when a car coming off of Prole Road failed to yield at a stop sign.

She was unable to brake in time and struck the rear of the car.

Lovett wasn't hurt, but she knew right away her car was majorly damaged.

She said when she got out of the car, the other driver approached her and asked if she was OK. She was, and he said, "OK, so I can leave now?"

"No," she said. "We need to do this the right way."

She called 9-1-1 and when she got off the phone, the man said, "OK, so I can leave now?" 

Lovett insisted he stay and suggested they exchange information. He said he would go to his car and get his documents and she searched her glove box for a pen. When she looked up, the man was getting his car and leaving.

Lovett said the man stumbled toward her after he got out of his car and had slurred speech. At first, she figured he was just as shaken up as she was, but after awhile, she realized it was more than just after-accident shock.

"That's when I thought, 'Oh, my God, he's drunk,'" she said. "He's totally wasted."

There was at least one witness to the accident, Lovett believes, and other people who may have seen the hit-and-run car. She's hoping somebody will be able to come forward with more information to help find the driver.

UPDATE: A possible suspect vehicle has been identified. About 20 minutes after this post appeared, Lovett received a call from a person who read the story suggested a car matching the description was parked at a local repair shop.  I happened by while Danielle was checking out the vehicle.  She said the car sure looked like the one from the accident and the paint transfer, she said, matched the color of her vehicle.  The deputy investigating the accident, Howard Carlson, doesn't come on duty until 11 p.m. and Lovett was told to call back then.

Here are four recent news items from the Genesee County Economic Development Center:

• Gov. David Paterson awarded GCEDC a $3.9-million grant to upgrade the short rail line in and around the new Genesee County Agri-Business Park off of Route 5 in the Town of Batavia. The grant money comes from a 2005 bond act for transportation infrastructure in New York. The 202-acre park offers shovel ready industrial land for food processors. Business Facilities Magazine recently named Genesee and Livingston counties as the second-best food processing area in the nation, citing both the Oakta Milk Products facility and the new agri-park in its article.
• National Grid has awarded GCEDC with $275,000 in grants to further the development of the Buffalo East Tech Park in Pembroke. The 300-acre site is adjacent the Pembroke exit of the Thruway, giving the development area easy access to Buffalo and Rochester. Sixty-seven acres of the park are shovel ready for business development.
• Sale-tax exemptions totaling $12,000 were awarded to Bruce Scofield, LLC, for reopening a transfer station and recycling center at 8620 Sanders Road, Stafford. The location will serve area residents and businesses with a facility to dispose of waste and recyclables. The facility has been approved by the DEC to receive 150 tons of solid waste per day and 75 tons of recyclables per day. For every $1 of tax exemption, the project is expected to return $141 in public benefit over the next 10 years. Scofield will invest $150,000 in the project.
• Pineyard Acres, LLC, of 6256 Clinton St. Road, Stafford, is receiving a $29,500 property-tax exemption, a $14,600 sales-tax exemption and a $4,000 mortgage-tax exemption for expansion of its business from 1,400 square feet to 5,600 square feet. For every $1 of tax exemption, the local economy should receive $210 in public benefit over the next 10 years, according to the GCEDC.  Pineyard Acres is expected to invest $335,000 in the expansion.

A motor-vehicle accident with minor injuries is reported at 7906 Byron Road, near the Stafford Country Club.

Stafford fire department and Mercy EMS are responding.

A two-car accident, that is not blocking, has been reported in the area of 6177 Main Road, Stafford.

Stafford Fire and Mercy EMS are responding.

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A caller reports smoke in her basement at 1073 Bethany Center Road.  She said she started her furnace just prior to the smoke appearing.

Stafford Fire and Bethany Fire being dispatched.

First responder reports: "Nothing showing."

UPDATE 11:43 a.m.: Crews and equipment being held in their halls while the situation is further investigated.

UPDATE 11: 47 a.m.: Stafford standing down.

UPDATE 12:25 p.m.: Bethany back in service.

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On the way back home from the fire on Roanoke Road, Stafford, yesterday, of course I stopped along the way to take some pictures.

Above is a series of barn and silo structures on Sweetland Road, Stafford.  Below, the back of the barn at Ellicott Street Road and Stafford-Batavia Townline Road, and under that a railroad mile marker along the railroad track next to Lehigh Road, Batavia.

BTW: If you like my photography, you might enjoy the photoblog I set up: Vufindr.com. Of course, many of the shots will have appeared on The Batavian, but I set up Vufindr.com to allow for larger format pictures.

In 1823, James Monroe was president, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were still alive, and it would be more than six decades before Thomas Edison would start the first electric company.

It was also the year a brick house was built at 9418 Roanoke Road.

Today, electricity sparked a fire, driven by high winds, that gutted the little red brick house.

"It's a nice old house," said Betty Smart, who lived on the former farm property for 40 years with husband Terry.

It first started when winds disconnected a electrical wire leading from the house to the barn. The live wire hit the metal roof over the kitchen igniting combustible material under the tin.

Once there were flames, wind gusts quickly fed the fire.

“It’s an abnormal condition that we normally wouldn’t see, but that wind got into the interior and just moved the fire right through the house," said Tim Yaeger, emergency management coordinator.

The Smarts called 9-1-1 as soon as they spotted the fire and immediately got out of the house. Nobody was injured in the fire, or in fighting it, and the Smart's three pets live outside and were not harmed.

Yaeger said beside the winds, water supplies were a challenge. Firefighters used two hydrants, but one of them was nearly 3/4 of a mile from the scene. Crews also trucked water in from a pond two miles away.

Assisting Stafford were fire departments from Pavilion, Bethany, Byron, Bergen, Le Roy, Town of Batavia, Caledonia, York, along with Le Roy's ambulance service and Mercy EMS.

More pictures after the jump:

High winds blew live electrical wires onto a roof at 9418 Roanoke Road in Stafford. It's smoking and the fire has spread to the kitchen. It's now a second-alarm fire.

Stafford, Bethany, Le Roy, Town of Batavia and Pavilion are responding to fight the fire and control traffic. National Grid has been notified.

The location is between Sweetland and Westacott roads. The homeowner is outside with fire personnel.

UPDATE (3:12 p.m.): All available manpower in the area is called to the scene. There are three areas on fire inside the home. More traffic control is called for.

UPDATE (3:28 p.m.): Wyoming County is asked to standby in their own quarters with a full crew in case they are needed. Tankers, pumpers, hydrants are all being used and at the ready to fight the fire. Countywide, more crews are called to stand in at the responders' stations. Caledonia is called to help out. National Grid is at the scene. Power inside the house is out. The fire has spread to the garage.

UPDATE (3:40 p.m.): This is now a three-alarm fire. Firefighters were ordered out of the garage, which was "buckling" due to fire damage. There are four fire sites inside the structure now. It has spread to the second floor.

UPDATE (3:46 p.m.): A thermal-imaging camera is requested at the scene. Fire is now in the attic, too.

UPDATE (3:53 p.m.): Inside fire crews are getting out of the structure. They will be fighting it now from the outside only.

UPDATE (4:48): Fresh crews have been called in to replace tired firefighters. The structure is still smoking. The Wyoming County Correctional Facility Fire Brigade is being contacted to aid with equipment, we believe additional lengths of fire hose. Refreshments for the firefighters are requested. The modest, brick home appears to be a total loss. It was built in 1823 and for the past 40 years it has been the home of Terry and Betty Smart.

UPDATE 7:33 p.m.: All units back in service.

The Stafford estate of Vaughn Hahn was auctioned off by Bontrager's this afternoon. More than 150 bidders registered, according to owner and auctioneer Todd Jantzi.

There was a wide range of items available, from Victorian-era couches, dressers, dishes, books and pictures, as well as a car and yard equipment.

Hahn died April 29 when he was hit by a car while standing beside the roadway across from his house, which had been in the family for generations. Hahn was 87.

Jantzi said there were rooms on the second floor that hadn't touched in years.

He said estates such as Hahn's only come along once a year or only every other year.

People came from as far as Palmyra and Toronto to particpate in the auction. Cars lined both sides of Route 5 for at least a 1/4 mile.

The building is 120 years old, and lately it's been showing its age. But the Odd Fellow's Hall building at four corners in Stafford -- the former location of the Stafford Trading Post -- is such a central part of the community that members of the Stafford Historical Society are fretting over its future.

Owner Terry Platt has set a Sept. 2 auction date to sell the parcel to the highest bidder over $20,000.

Members of the historical society are concerned a new owner might tear down the structure, which is on the National Historic Registry.

"A lot of people think that because it's a historic landmark, it can't be torn down," said Laura Giacchino. "That's not the case, at least not in this town."

"I realize it's a historic piece of property -- at least the awning part, the front of the structure -- I'm not sure about the whole building," said Platt. "But it's an investment for me. It always has been."

Stafford values its history. Giacchino said the community has always had a sense of continuity and there are many families in Stafford that have lived there for generations, 200 years or more.

"We've been here 25 years and we're considered newbies," Giacchino said.

And the Odd Fellow's Hall -- which Giacchino remembers as a post office and place that sold groceries and guns many years ago -- has been a community gathering spot and community store location as far back as anybody can remember.

But for Platt, who's owned the property for more than 20 years, it's just time to move on.

Platt said with the business vacancies, and particularly since the Stafford Trading Post moved to its new location, its time get the property out of his portfolio and use whatever proceeds come from a sale to reinvest in his other holdings.

He said, "I'm getting older," and he doesn't want to take the time or spend the money on needed repairs to the building.

And it likely needs some substantial repairs, acknowledged Giacchino.

"We know it needs a new roof, and there's likely water damage in the basement," she said.

Members of the historical society are very interested putting together a group of investors -- and Giacchino indicted there are people with money to invest who are interested -- to buy the property. But with all of the unknowns about the shape of the building and less than a week until the auction, there just isn't enough time to commit to buying the property.

Platt said he had the building up for sale for some time with no takers, but he's still open to making a deal.

"I'm still willing to hold the paper if the number is high enough," Platt said. "So if somebody wants to buy it, they can do what they want with it. If somebody wants to save it ... Is somebody going to buy it and tear it down? I don't know."

For more on the Stafford Village Historic District, click here.

The clouds yesterday and today have been fantastic. I've really wanted to get out into the countryside and look for interesting things to photograph, such as barns. Unfortunately, my time has been limited. I did manage to drive down Sanders Road in Stafford today and spotted this barn under a great sky and hiding a bit behind a cornfield.

It wasn't easy getting the new Stafford Trading Post location open.

Owner Michelle Macan-Mouery said she had to go through paperwork like you wouldn't believe, most of it dealing with the transfer of her liquor license.

Some applications needed to be filled out multiple times because the ABC was apparently not clear on what it wanted.

“Each application was $35, and I had to fill out three of them,” Macan-Mouery said, “the first one I didn’t fill out right, and the second application they sent me was the wrong one.”

She started filling out paperwork in October of 2009 and it took her until May of 2010 to get her liquor license back.

After 14 years running the Stafford Trading Post at a location in a historic building at the intersection of East Main Street Road and Morganville Road in Stafford, Macan-Mouery decided to move her business less than 50 feet, to a brand-new structure right next door.

Those few feet could have been a hundred miles as far as the state was concerned. The state scrutinized every detail of the liquor license transfer, and according to Macan-Mouery, didn't provide a lot of instruction on how to get it done.

"It was difficult because they didn't tell you exactly what they wanted."

Known to her longtime and loyal customers as "Shell," she opened the new location in February and couldn't sell beer for three months while working things out with the state.

“I lost a lot of business when I didn’t have my license."

Less of a problem, as it turned out, was her decision this summer to stop carrying tobacco products. She balked at paying a $1,000 hike in the license fee to sell cigarettes. But those goods have hardly been missed.

“It hasn’t been a problem, and most people go to the reservation to get cigarettes."

Overall, the move of the Stafford Trading Post, which has served Stafford under various owners for generations, has meant a big boost for the deli and convenience store, Macan-Mouery said.

The friendly atmosphere seems to have moved with the business, and expanded space and a seating area have helped boost food sales, but liquor sales remain half of what they were in the old location.

Macan-Mouery grew up in the Stafford area and worked at the Trading Post when she was 11.

She first decided to move because the building was old and needed many repairs and upgrades.

“This historic site keeps alive the nostalgia of the corner store and makes you feel like you should be purchasing pickles out of a barrel," she said.

But it was no longer meeting customers' needs.

“It wasn’t handicapped accessible and the interior needed a lot of work, and since it is a historic landmark we couldn't change the outside to make it handicapped accessible."

Macan-Mouery has some advice for people that are thinking about moving their business; “you need to know in a year advance that you want to move -- and be sure -- because in New York State you have to start from the beginning.”

A driver says a female passenger struck him in his arm while he was driving, causing him to lose control of his car Thursday evening, resulting in a one-vehicle rollover accident.

No one was injured. The accident occurred at 6:43 p.m. on Route 33 near Caswell Road, Stafford.

The 2008 Chevy sedan was driven by 27-year-old Romer M. Williams, of East Bethany-Le Roy Road, East Bethany.

Williams told Deputy Matthew Butler that when he was struck in his arm, he lost control of the car. He swerved to the right shoulder, tried to correct and the car went into a sideways skid across the roadway and onto the opposite shoulder, where it rolled onto its side.

His passengers were Yalawn J. Christin, 22, and Charles A. Small Jr., 26.

No citations were issued.

An Albion man was taken to Strong Memorial Hospital last night following a single-car accident on Fotch Road in Stafford that knocked down power lines and caused a car fire.

He's been charged with DWI and additional charges are possible, according to Chief Deputy Gordon Dibble.

Jeffrey A. Mooney, 57, of 4928 Quaker Hill Road, Albion, was reportedly driving his 1999 Ford Taurus on Fotch Road when his car left the road at the 90-degree turn.

Mooney got himself out of the car and passersby pulled him away from the car, which became fully engulfed in flames, and downed electrical wires.

Dibble said Mooney complained of internal pain.

The investigation is being conducted by Deputy Howard Carlson and is continuing.

(initial report)

A call has come in of a single-vehicle accident, car vs. pole, in the area of 7789 Fotch Road, Stafford.

The initial report is of a person down, in the roadway, with wires over him and the caller afraid to touch him. A car is on fire.

A first responder says the victim is on the side of the road, conscious but in pain.

Mercy Flight is is being dispatched.

Mercy EMS and Stafford Fire is on scene.

UPDATE 11:24 p.m.: Both high-voltage and low-voltage wires are damaged. National Grid has a 30 minute ETA to arrive on scene. Also a fiber optic cable belonging to the phone company has been completely burned through.

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A hedgerow fire has been reported in the area of 9163 Roanoke Road, Stafford.

Stafford Fire is responding.

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