Press release:

The Board of Education of the Oakfield-Alabama Central School District has a vacancy on the board. This vacancy will be filled by a special election on Jan. 24.

The newly elected member will serve the remainder of a three-year term set to expire on June 30, 2015.

Qualifications for membership on a school board include:

• Must be able to read and write;
• Must be a qualified voter of the district; that is, a citizen of the United States, at least 18 years of age or older;
• Must be and have been a resident (but need not be a taxpayer) of the district for a continuous and uninterrupted period of at least one year;
• May not have been removed from any school district office within the preceding year;
• May not reside with another member of the same school board as a member of the same family;
• May not be a current employee of the school board;
• May not simultaneously hold another incompatible public office.

All interested candidates are invited to pick up a Petition for Board Member Nomination form from the district office, Monday through Friday between 7:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.

There was a long line of people waiting for tattoos this morning at 10 when High Voltage Tattoo and Piercing opened its doors for its second annual fundraising event.

The event continues on Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with patrons being able to choose from a set of predetermined designs for $30 per tattoo and piercings for $20 (includes jewelry).

All proceeds benefit Don Carroll's Toys for Kids and Golisano Children's Hospital.

High voltage is located at 110 W. Main St., Batavia.

Above, Kenny McCarthy inks John Veitch with a four-leaf clover.

H.E. Turner Funeral Homes hosted their annual Service of Prayer and Remembrance this evening at Grace Baptist Church, Batavia. The service is a chance for local families to remember and honor loved ones who have passed on in the last year. A candle is lit for each of the departed and family members are encouraged to take the candle home and light it on Christmas morning.

Pastor Donal Shirk spoke briefly during the service, which featured hymns and prayers.

For music lovers, the best place to be in Batavia this afternoon was Terry Hills, where Serendipity Swing serenaded a lunch crowd of more than 100 people.

Chef Gene Hewitt (pictured below) prepared a lavish buffet lunch that featured fish, roast beaf, soups (including Terry Hill's famous seafood bisque) and salad.

NOTE: A reader contacted us recently suggesting we look into what happens to dead deer left by the side of the road. So we looked into it ...

Dispatchers often call them car vs. deer accidents, but the deer never wins.

If it doesn't die on the spot, a deputy is called to deliver the coup de grâce. 

Some deer are just left to die by the side of the road and when that happens, there can be some expense to county taxpayers for disposal of the animals.

According to Tim Hens, county superintendent of highways, when the county had a contractor to remove the deer, the fee was $30 per animal.

On average, the county had 160 deer a year removed for an approximate expense of $4,800 per year.

The contractor used to feed the dead deer to mink he raised, but recently discontinued his deer pick-up business, Hens said.

That has left county workers the task of disposing of the carcasses.

"It is just not as cost effective when you factor in the loss of productivity to leave an active job to run across the county to pick up one deer," Hens said. "It might be different if you could wait a few days and pick up several in one trip, but most residents don't like the deer lying there for more than a day or two, especially in the summer."

Hens said the county is collecting quotes from potential new contractors and hope to resume a paid pick-up service in 2013.

Not all dead deer go to waste, however. Some become venison stew, steaks or hamburger.

If a driver reports a deer strike, the driver has first dibs on getting the animal tagged, or dispatchers maintain a list of people who might be interested in claiming the animal.

Drivers are only required to report the collision with a deer if their vehicle sustained more than $1,000 in damage or they need an accident report for insurance purposes.

So far in 2012 (as of a week ago), there have been 512 car vs. deer accidents reported to Genesee County dispatchers. In 2011, there were 514. In 2010, 406 (stats from earlier years are harder for clerks at the Sheriff's Office to retrieve from records, so we didn't request those figures).

There are no special permits necessary, according to Linda Vera, spokeswoman for the DEC, to remove deer for disposal purposes.

If a deer carcass is off the road, a farmer can just scoop it up with a loader or drag it off with a tractor and dump it in the woods.

"The DEC encourages the composting of animal carcasses, but the animals are allowed to be disposed of in landfills or other approved disposal areas," Vera said.

Christina Brown won our most recent Valle Jewelers Facebook Like Contest.

She wins a Chamilia bracelet.

We'll have another contest soon.

There's a new game shop in town and if the owner -- Bruce Reynolds, of Elba -- looks familiar it's because he's been in the retail entertainment business in Batavia before.

Reynolds is the former owner of CD Splash, which he closed five years ago when he had an opportunity to open a game shop in Warsaw.

"That business is doing really well and I always wanted to get back here," Reynolds said.

Gamezilla is located at 214 E. Main St. and the large space will give Reynolds plenty of room to stock up on video games, movies, music and other retail items as well as have space for a game room, sodas and candy.

Reynolds said he wants to create an atmosphere where gamers feel comfortable just hanging out, and regular tournaments are part of the plan.

"Competitive gamers always like to show off how good they are," Reynolds said.

Most avid gamers are 13 to 19 years old, but there are plenty of gamers in their 20s, 30s and 40s, and Reynolds said his inventory will carry the kind of variety all ages like to play.

He's still stocking up the store, but he said the inventory at Gamezilla is always evolving.

"We're always buying. We're always selling. We're always trading," Reynolds said. "You never come in and see the same thing every time."

The store will be open six days a week for 10 hours and on Sundays from 1 to 6 p.m.

The extra hours and the store's central location, Reynolds said, will be a competitive advantage, and he said Gamezilla offers the highest trade-in value for games.

"We offer friendly, honest service and we treat people nice," he said.

Tonight, the St. James Bell Choir and the St. James Choir performed a Christmas recital for the residents of Manor House.

The Christmas displays in the former Carr's building won this year's Downtown Batavia Holiday Window Display Contest, the BID announced today.

The windows were sponsored by Next Level Fitness & City Slickers.

Honorable mentions went to Valle Jewelers, Adam Miller Toy & Bicycle, The Spa at Artemis, Genesee Patrons, and Charles Men’s Shop.

This year’s judges were City Manager Jason Molino, GO ART! Director Kelly Kiebala and Diana Wyrwa, director of the Richmond Memorial Library.

The winner of the contest will receive $200 in cash.

Press release:

United Memorial Medical Center will adjust the hours of operation for outpatient services for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

On Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, Urgent Care at 8745 Lake Street, Le Roy will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Services closed for the day include Cardiac Rehabilitation, Urgent Care (Batavia location only), the Pain Center, and the Women’s Care Centers in Medina and Batavia. Closing at noon on Christmas Eve are Jerome Center Diagnostics, the Corporate Health Center, Batavia Family and Pediatric Care, Pembroke Diagnostics, Le Roy Diagnostics, Tountas Family Care, and Summit Physical and Occupational Therapy Center. Outpatient services located at the hospital will close at 5 p.m.

For Christmas Day, Tuesday, Dec. 25, Urgent Care in Le Roy will be open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. All other outpatient services will be closed.

All locations will be open regular hours on Wednesday, Dec. 26.

On New Year’s Eve, Monday, Dec. 31, Cardiac Rehab will be closed. The Pain Center and Women’s Care in Medina and Batavia will be open from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. All other outpatient sites will be open for regular hours. Urgent Care at the Le Roy and Batavia sites will be open for regular hours from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For New Year’s Day, Tuesday, Jan. 1, Urgent Care will be open for regular hours at both locations. All other outpatient sites will be closed in observance of the holiday.

The time changes reflect only outpatient services. The hospital and Emergency Department will continue to be available around the clock to care for our families, friends and neighbors during the holidays.

It's become harder to recruit and retain emergency medical technicians and the manpower shortage has led the Oakfield Fire Department's board to the difficult decision to discontinue its ambulance service.

Department President Mike Ognibene said it would take at least 10 EMTs to run a service that could dependably respond to calls and the department has only three volunteer EMTs now.

Out of about 15 calls for service a month, Ognibene said, the ambulance might roll on one or two calls. He said, as a driver, there are many times he shows up at the fire hall and waits for an EMT who never arrives.

After a couple of minutes of waiting, the call is turned over to Mercy EMS.

“Mercy EMS has done a great job since they’ve taken over (ambulance service in the county)," Ognibene said. "They’ve done a great job of responding, so it benefits us more to be there to help them, which we can do with our rescue truck. Since we don’t have to have an EMT, we can get there fast to assist them with the rescue truck.”

Truck 70 will go out of service at midnight, Dec. 31.

There is a bit of cost savings that goes with discontinuing the ambulance service, and that money can be rolled over into support of the firefighting service, but the biggest issue is manpower.

"My fear all along has been that we start having manpower shortages and that some agencies would discontinue EMS service," said Tim Yaeger, emergency management coordinator for Genesee County.

Losing Oakfield's ambulance, he said, means there's one less rig to roll in any kind of major event where multiple people are hurt.

That's why Genesee County Emergency Services embarked on a recruitment and retention drive earlier this year. The campaign includes media ads, hiring a recruiter and producing marketing products to attract people to volunteer services in firefighting and medical response.

"If anyone has ever thought about becoming a firefighter or EMS volunteer, now is the time to act," Yaeger said.

For an EMT, state mandated training takes close to 200 hours to complete. Ognibene said his department has had a few people sign up for training but not complete it.

It hasn't always been that way said longtime department member Robert Hilchey. 

Oakfield started its ambulance service in 1974, at a time when the only ambulances in the county were owned by St. Jerome's and Genesee Memorial hospitals.

"Some in the department thought we should have an ambulance out in this part of the county, so Oakfield was the first (fire company) to provide ambulance service," Hilchey said.

There was a time when Oakfield had enough EMTs to assign nightly rotation to responders. One crew would be on call from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Monday, another on Tuesday and so on.

Hilchey said members of the department just don't think they can get back to that level of service.

Recruiting new EMTs. however, is critical, Yaeger said, to maintaining levels of service throughout the county.

There are ambulances in Bethany, Le Roy, Byron, Bergen, Darien and Alexander. Those services are important to their communities, but also provide fill-in capabilities in those rare times when all of Mercy's rigs are tied up, and would be essential in a mass casualty type of situation.

With the loss of Oakfield's ambulance, however, neither Ognibene nor Yaeger anticipate any less service availability on a routine basis for the citizens of Oakfield.

Typically, Mercy EMS can roll to Oakfield quickly and, as Ognibene noted, the department still has medic-trained personnel to provide first-aid and basic life support and volunteers can respond to any emergency with the rescue truck.

Hilchey agreed.

"I'm very confident that Mercy EMS has taken over our responsibility and our residents and our taxpayers in the village will not be short changed in any way," Hilchey said.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities in Oakfield and the rest of the county, visit Ready Genesee.

A Tim Horton's is only the first phase of planned development for a parcel of property wedged in between Lewiston Road, Main Street and Colonial Boulevard, the developer revealed Tuesday night at a Town of Batavia Planning Board meeting.

Besides the coffee shop, Benderson Development Co. plans to erect a retail building and a drive-thru ATM location.

No tenants have been found for those uses, yet, said Matthew J. Oates (photo), the company's chief engineer, but the company didn't want to surprise planners later, after Horton's is approved -- assuming it is -- with an expanded development.

Kathy Jasinski, board chairwoman, said the town only found out about the planned additional uses on Monday.

Benderson has recently completed a traffic study covering the anticipated impact of both Tim Horton's and the proposed retail location and those results were turned over Monday to the town and the DOT for analysis.

Town Engineer Steve Mountain said that traffic study will be given to the town's traffic consultant for review.

Traffic was one of the chief concerns raised by town residents, primarily those on Colonial Boulevard, who attended Tuesday's public hearing on the Tim Horton's plan.

Lewiston and Main is already a congested intersection and traffic patterns down Main Street can make it difficult, Colonial Boulevard residents said, to get on and off their street.

What that traffic impact will be and how any problems might be mitigated remains an open question until both the town's consultant and the DOT complete an analysis of the traffic study.

The board made no decision about the planned development, but did begin the process of declaring itself the lead agency for environmental review purposes.

Residents also expressed concern about light and noise coming from the 24-hour operation.

Amy DiSalvo said her house is right next to the proposed Tim Horton's location and she's concerned about parking lot light spilling over onto her property as well as headlights shining on her house.

Oates said the position of the building will act as a buffer for headlights and noise for Colonial Boulevard residents, and Bob Bender, real estate project planner for Tim Horton's, said the project will use "dark sky lights," which will have zero spill over onto adjacent property.

A bit of the Bonduelle food processing property in Oakfield, off Pearl Street, this afternoon, just before the rain started.

Families in need can stop by the Oakfield Community Bible Church, 80 North Main St., Oakfield, on Tuesday's from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. for free bread, and perhaps other food items when available.

The free-food ministry is supervised by Carol Lowe (who wasn't able to be at the church today) and has been ongoing for three or four months now.

Families can receive up to three loaves of bread and when available canned and boxed food items such as tuna, vegetables, mac and cheese and peanut butter and jelly.

"When we can we try to provide a meal," said Jacquie Lindke, (right in the photo).

Availability depends on what has come in from donors.

All of the food is free, no questions asked.

Pictured with Lindke is Tom Petter. Both are residents of Basom.

From 10 to 2 p.m., Dec. 8, the church will be giving away clothes to anybody who needs clothing items, including coats, boots, hats and gloves for men, women and children.

The stop-and-go lights at Lewiston and Main weren't doing a great job this afternoon of managing traffic. Drivers were pretty much on their own in the congested intersection to take turns based on the flashing yellow for Main Street cars and the flashing red for vehicles on Lewiston Road. The DOT has restored the lights to proper operation now.The exact cause of the technical problems has not been released.

A fire is reported in the basement of 8706 Haven Lane, Le Roy.

Le Roy fire and Bergen's ladder truck are dispatched.

UPDATE 4:31 p.m.: Chief on scene reports a house full of smoke, fire may be out, but undetermined at this time.

UPDATE 4:33 p.m.: "Working fire" reported in the basement. Stafford and Pavilion asked to stand by in quarters.

UPDATE 4:37 p.m.: Fire contained to the furnace. Ventilation needed.

UPDATE 4:44 p.m.: Fire knocked down.

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