Members of the John Gardner Society gathered, as they do every October, for a reading of selections from the work of Batavia's own John Gardner.

Top photo: Bill Kauffman reading a portion of an essay about Gardner by Susan Thornton, who was Gardner's fiancée at time of his death.

Byron Hoot, who began attending the readings a few years ago, driving to Batavia annually from his home in Pennsylvania. 

Jim Gardner, John's brother

Leona Pastore and Terry Abrams

Bill Kauffman

Brian Paris reading

Above are three pictures that illustrate the problem Alexander faced Saturday in its Class DD Section V semi-final playoff game against Avon in Honeoye Falls.

The problem's name is Joe Sotak, the 155-pound, 5'9" stick of butter who led the Avon offense to a tally of 26 points over four quarters of whack-a-mole.

When Sotak could be caught, he proved impossible to hold.

The senior QB was seven for 10 passing for 96 yards and a TD. He also rushed for 147 yards and two TDs on 22 carries.

In the sequence above, Sotak pumps but doesn't throw as Rick Amico and Derrick Busch appear to be closing in for the sack. Sotak glided a step or two forward, causing Amico and Busch to whiff, then lofted a pass just over the heads of Tristan Aldinger and Cody Trzecieski to where only Avon's Zack Loomis could catch it as he stood on the three-yard line. Loomis needed only turn and take a couple of steps into the end zone.

The Trojans managed to cross the goal line once all afternoon, and that score didn't come until the 4th quarter.

A bad snap prevented Alexander from putting at least three on the board in the first half.

Final, 26-7.

Alexander finishes with a 5-3 record while Avon advances to face Clyde-Savannah in the Class DD final next week.

"It wasn't the result we were expecting tonight," said Head Coach Tim Sawyer. "We had a good week of preparation; however, Avon controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage. Avon played physical and fast tonight.

"Our overall body of work for the season has been quite good," he added. "We won some big games along the way. I hate to see the seniors go, but they have left their foot print on this program over the past two years."

Just before the end of the half, with the Trojans down 12-0, an Alexander player got a hand on Joe Sotak and nearly dragged him to the ground, but Sotak spun away and turned what looked like a certain sack into about a 30-yard gain, all the way down to the two-yard line. The gain, however, was negated by a block to the back foul later in Sotak's run.

Tristan Aldinger scores for Alexander

Tristan Aldinger with the ball

Jared Browne at QB

Action early in the second half

Jared Browne with a pass

Avon's star running back Brandon Mynter was mostly contained by the Alexander defense.

Head Coach Tim Sawyer

Alexander HS grad Matt Szymaski, home on leave from the Marines, attended Saturday's game.

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As it has all season, Le Roy dominated its opponent in the first round of sectional play Friday night, beating Wayland-Cohocton 54-8.

Tom Kelso scored four touchdowns to help power the Oatkan Knights' offensive. Kelso carried the ball 11 times and gained 90 yards.

QB Mike McMullen was 7 for 13 for 85 yards and a TD.

Nate Flint carried the ball 12 times for 66 yards and a TD, and Anthony Natrigo had 12 carries for 63 yards and a TD.

Nick Egeling also scored on the ground, gaining 22 yards on three carries. 

Photos by David Boyce.

QB Greg Mruczek celebrated Batavia's first home sectional game in 18 years by tossing five touchdown passes, helping the Blue Devils crush Palmyra-Macedon 47-14.

It was pretty much a flawless performance for the junior who hit 13 receivers in 16 attempts for 227 yards without a reception.

Head Coach Brennan Briggs attributes Mruczek's success to hard work.

"He competes every single snap," Briggs said. "He wants to get better. It's not about any of the coaches or anything like that. It's about Greg wanting the ball in his hands and putting in that time and putting in that effort, asking to watch extra film, asking about the defensive coverages."

It helps that he's got some weapons on the wings and in the backfield.

Offensively, the Blue Devils feature three wideouts each with more than six feet in height -- Ryan Hogan, Malachi Chenault and James Cryer -- and speed with Dominick Mogavero, Jarrett Lasket and Anthony Gallo.

Mruczek said the height and athleticism of his receivers makes his job easier.

"I can throw with a lot of confidence with those guys," Mruczek said. "There's a lot of height. I can throw up the ball and they're great athletes. I've got a lot of confidence they're going to make plays."

Cryer led the receiving corps with four caches for 77 yards and three touchdowns.

Mogavero anchored the running game Friday night. He rushed for 124 yards on 24 carries.

"He's the back who has to get some tough yards, but he's also deceiving with the vision that he has," Briggs said. "He finds some holes and gets some big, hard yards for us. Defensively, his nose is always in there. He's a tough kid, a hard-nosed kid. That's how wrestlers are. He's a wrestler and that's how wrestlers are built. Not a big kid, but we have a lot of kids who aren't big or many not have a ton of mass to them, but their hearts are pretty strong."

The Blue Devils will need to call on those big hearts, hard work and focus as they take a big step in the recent history of Batavia's football program -- a second-round playoff game, something that hasn't happened in about 20 years.

Next Saturday they'll face #3 ranked Penn Yan (6-2), coming off a 24-0 victory over Waterloo. 

Even with a record of 7-1, Briggs said the Blue Devils have yet to put together a complete, well-balanced game, but they're getting closer.

That is what it will take to advance.

"We need to tighten up the defense," Briggs said. "We need to be able to run the ball and throw the ball on a given night. We can't just rely on just the passing game or just the running game. We still have to put that all together for us to take that next step."

Top Photo: Cryer with a TD reception.

Trevor Sherwood, another of Batavia's tall receivers, uses his height for a reception in the third quarter.

Malachi Chenault goes up for the ball to haul in a TD reception in the first quarter.

Cryer with a long run after a reception for a touchdown in the third quarter.

Danny Williams scores on a running play.

The Batavia Cheerleaders introduced a new routine at halftime.

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Joe Marone, left in the file photo above, co-owner and co-founder of the Pok-A-Dot, has died, according to a post on the restaurant's Facebook page.

The picture is from the Pok-A-Dot's 60th anniversary party. On the right is co-owner Phil Pastore, with Pok-A-Dot regular James Pero.

On a beautiful fall day, I took a little time to drive around Batavia and see if I might be able to make any pictures.

The first two shots are from Richmond Avenue by the Blind School.

North Street.

Bottom three shots, one of my favorite, knarly old trees, on South Jackson.

A few weeks ago, as a writing assignment, a pair of kindergarten classes at Jackson School decided to send cards and a "police survival kit" to Batavia PD officers.

Today, three officers in the department returned the favor by going to the school and showing off their police cars and answering questions about their jobs.

Participating officers were Kevin DeFelice, Mich Cowen and Felicia Degroot.

The police survival kit contained candy and gum.

"We decided to come down and show them we appreciated what they did for us and that we're here for them anytime they need us," DeFelice said.

My father just left after a two-day visit to Batavia. Wednesday, we visited the Holland Land Office Museum, Oliver's and the Batavia Cemetery and then drove down to Letchworth State Park. Yesterday, I gave him a Genesee County ag tour that started at Post Farms, then the mucklands, then Mortellaro Brothers in Elba then Baskin Livestock in Bethany.  

The only pictures I took yesterday were of crates of onions on the mucklands at Torrey Farms property. These, I thought worth sharing.

Press release: 

With a $100,000 grant from the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, the City of Batavia Fire Department will help expand local emergency response teams and first responders throughout the County with equipment and training to reduce and respond to water emergencies.

The money will equip and train all first responders in Genesee County, to include 17 fire departments, five law enforcement agencies and three EMS agencies with water rescue awareness training and a basic water emergency response bag. Attica Fire and Police departments were also included with this grant.

In addition, this grant will also allow the City Fire Department to provide an annual water safety seminar for Genesee County residents to include topics such as: pool safety, open water safety, flooded road safety and what resources are available in Genesee County if you have an emergency.

“In our rural setting it is most likely that a police officer will arrive on location first,” said Lieutenant Bob Fix of the City Fire Department and Special Operations officer responsible for securing the grant. “With the basic kit and training supplied by this grant, an officer will be equipped with the knowledge and equipment to call for more advanced help and to try and effect a safe shore-based rescue.”

The City has been providing some level of water rescue protection for more than 50 years with minimal training and mostly donated equipment. Recent events in the City and Genesee County over the past several years have prompted more training and better equipment in order to provide adequate and safe response to residents.

City Fire Chief Jim Maxwell said, “We are pleased to have been awarded this grant through the New York State Homeland Security Program. These funds will be utilized by City Fire and Genesee County first responders to enhance water rescue response capabilities across the county. We would like thank the 24 area fire, EMS, and police agencies for their support of this initiative which will provide basic water rescue kits to emergency response vehicles throughout the county.”

All fire departments in Genesee County participate in the Genesee County Mutual Aid Plan. While the City of Batavia Fire Department will be the technician-level responders, it is important that local first responders throughout the county are trained and equipped for the initial response. A tiered-response partnership not only dramatically increases the capabilities countywide, but does it safely and effectively using manpower from throughout the county.

The Batavia Blue Devils JV team recorded another undefeated season with a victory yesterday evening over Le Roy, 29-16.

The varsity squad opens post season play tonight with a quarterfinals sectional playoff at home against Pal-Mac (3-4). Batavia enters sectionals with a 6-1 record and the #2 seed in Class B.

Le Roy, the #1 ranked Class C team in the state, opens sectional play with a home game against Wayland-Cohocton (2-5).

Both games start at 7:30 p.m.

Tomorrow in Class D, #6 seed Elba/Byron-Bergen (4-3) travels to Bath (6-1) for a 5 p.m. game against the #3 seed.  

In Class DD tomorrow, Alexander (5-2 and the #2 seed) plays Avon (5-2 and the #3 seed). The game is in Honeoye Falls at 4 p.m.

Reader submitted photo.

The initial call sounded more serious than it turned out to be said Rob Yaeger, assistant chief, Batavia PD. 

Multiple law enforcement units responded 2:40 p.m. to Willow and State streets for the report of some sort of conflict involving a man with a knife.

The man reportedly ran west on Willow and went into a garage.

The knife turned out to be a pocketknife.

The incident also led to a lockdown at Batavia HS.  Students were kept inside the building for about 20 minutes.

The Lutheran school on Washington Avenue was also placed on lockdown, according to police.

Several Batavia patrol units responded along with Deputy Chris Erion and his K-9 Destro (seen above after Destro's work at the scene was done and he was rewarded with a little play time).

Batavia PD, Erion and Destro along with state troopers were just completing a planned exercise at the high school when the call to Willow Street came in, according to Principal Scott Wilson.

Press release:

The 22nd Annual Halloween Parade will take place this Sunday, Oct. 26. Line will form starting at 12:45 p.m. on the west side of Genesee Country Mall/City Centre near Dan's Tires.

Small children MUST be accompanied by an adult. Wagons or sleds strongly recommended.

Parade begins at 1 o'clock. There is no rain date. Listen to WBTA for cancellations by 11:30 a.m.

The first 100 children 10 and under in costume only will receive a special free gift compliments of Oliver's Candies.

Pizza and lemonaide /orange soda for kids in costume only will be served at the end of the parade, compliments of Batavia's Original. Popcorn will be provided by Vibrant Batavia.

For more information call 345-6420.

The event is sponsored by The Batavia Area Jaycees, Batavia's Original, Oliver's Candies, Batavia Youth Bureau and Vibrant Batavia.

The Town of Alabama Volunteer Fire Department will host to the public a Fire Prevention Fun Night and Open House this evening, Oct. 24, from 6 to 8. It will be held at the Recreation Hall at 2230 Judge Road/Route 63, Alabama.

Free food and drinks, door prizes, obstacle course, Mercy Flight Helicopter will land. Wear a costume for a chance to win Smoke Alarms.

Tobacco-Free Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, and Wyoming Program (Tobacco-Free GLOW) has opened an office in Batavia to begin its five-year contract with first-year funding of $325,000. The contract from the New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Tobacco Control is one of three contracts awarded to Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) and will be administered under the direction of Anthony Billoni.

The Roswell Park tobacco-free programs support efforts to locally engage community stakeholders and youth in changing policies and norms about tobacco and tobacco use. Tobacco-Free GLOW will be operated by Community Engagement coordinator Kevin Keenan and Reality Check Youth Engagement coordinator Angela DiRosa.

"With their extensive contacts and experience in tobacco control, Kevin and Angela will be local leaders as we strive to create healthier communities in Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, and Wyoming counties," Billoni said.

"I'm excited to continue my work in tobacco control and look forward to engaging local community leaders and the public to strengthen tobacco-related policies that prevent and reduce tobacco use," Keenan said.

DiRosa, a lifelong resident of Genesee County, added, "I have been so privileged to be involved with the many successes that the tobacco control program has had over the last several years. This is a unique opportunity to help my home community minimize the influence of tobacco so our friends and families can live in healthier lives."

The Tobacco-Free Erie-Niagara (TF-EN) Program and the Tobacco-Free Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany Program (TF-CCA) also will be administered by Roswell Park through five-year contracts from NYS Department of Health, Bureau of Tobacco Control.

Andrew Hyland, Ph.D, chair of the Department of Health Behavior at RPCI said "Roswell Park has a long history of leading national and regional tobacco control efforts. These contracts provide an opportunity to continue those efforts in an efficient way that employs local leaders as they strive to prevent youth smoking and create tobacco-free communities throughout Western New York."
 
The primary goals of the tobacco control programs are to:

• Reduce the impact of retail tobacco marketing on youth by educating communities about the manipulative marketing tactics of the tobacco industry;
• Establish tobacco-free community norms through clean outdoor air policies by working with communities to create more smoke-free parks, playgrounds and beaches;
• Lessen secondhand smoke exposure by working with landlords and tenants to implement smoke-free housing policies in multi-unit dwellings.
• Diminish tobacco imagery in youth-rated movies by working for change in the rating system to require an R rating for movies that contain smoking imagery.
• Decrease tobacco-industry presence on social media by working with stakeholders and internet sites to enact and adhere to policies that protect youth from tobacco imagery.

All counties in New York State now have the resources of a community engagement program and a Reality Check youth action program through the Bureau of Tobacco Control. These contracts build on previous tobacco control funded work which supports the region's public health efforts and provides more comprehensive programing across the state.

Press release:

Genesee Community College recently received notice from Empire State Development that the College's Start-Up New York Plan has been fully approved. GCC's plan is part of the statewide initiative introduced last year by Governor Andrew Cuomo to encourage potential development on or within one mile of each of the State University of New York's (SUNY) 64 campuses by offering tax-free status to both the company and new employees for up to 10 years.

Each SUNY institution can designate up to 200,000 square feet of off-campus space in addition to available space on-campus for Start-Up New York projects that create new jobs associated with the academic curriculum offered by the connected campus.

With ESD approval, GCC can now accept business applications for Start-Up New York proposals. Each application must also include a Related Persons Report and a Competition Analysis to help ensure the business entity and proposal are new opportunities in New York State and do not compete against existing businesses.

To review the online Start-Up New York application, go to: http://esd.ny.gov/index.html

For general information about Start-Up NY go to: http://startup-ny.com/

All Start-Up NY proposals presented to Genesee Community College will be reviewed by the College administration and the Board of Trustees. Among the potential business types identified as appropriate for a Start-Up New York proposal with GCC are agricultural research, rural energy development, private protection or security services and advanced manufacturing. GCC will not consider industries or businesses that do not meet the Start-Up New York requirements including companies working in finance, business administration, support services, retail or food services.

"The creation of new jobs while not hurting existing businesses is the central objective of Start-Up NY," said William Emm, GCC's executive vice president for Planning and Institutional Effectiveness. "For GCC, program opportunities that support the College's mission can exist at or near the Batavia Campus in Genesee County, but also at or near the College's campus centers in Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming Counties."

Press release:

The Genesee County Conservative Party has endorsed the reelection of Assemblyman Steve Hawley.

He has shown over and over that he represents the thoughts and wishes of the district. It has been hard for him with the Downstate liberal majority controlling the State. But he has kept on trying and has not gone the path of “go along to get along” that many have taken.

He has been a very strong supporter or the 2nd Amendment and our right to own firearms if we want. He supports the full repeal of the SAFE ACT, which only punishes legal gun owners and does nothing to stop crime. Steve Hawley has been endorsed by the NRA and the local pro 2nd Amendment group, SCOPE.

He is pro-business and has received a 100-percent rating from Unshackle Upstate and the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Steve owns his own local business, hiring local people.

This November, we ask you to vote on the Conservative Party line (Row C) and show your support for Steve Hawley.

On Behalf of the Executive Committee,
Dann G Neale
Vice-Chairman Conservative Party of Genesee County

From the city's Bureau of Maintenance:

Citywide leaf collection is under way and will continue until Nov. 21.

Residents of the following streets can rake to the parkway but do not put the leaves in the street:

• Clinton Street
• Oak Street
• Main Street (including East and West Main street)
• Pearl Street
• South Main Street (Between Oak and Walnut)
• Walnut Street
• Richmond Avenue (between Oak and Prospect)

If your street has a route number (i.e. Route 5, Route 33, Route 63 and Route 98), then please keep leaves out of the roadway.

All other streets are asked to rake leaves to the curb line, taking care not to block storm drainage structures/catch basins.

Leaf operations typically have one crew on the Southside beginning on River Street, moving east in areas south of Main Street. A second crew on the Northside will work from Grandview Terrace, moving west, in the area north of Main Street. A third crew will work using a vacuum along main roads and numbered routes.

It takes about a week and a half to go through the entire city.

Any resident with leaves can also bring them to the yard waste station until it closes for the season on Dec. 6.

Here's some important information about leaf collection:

• Leaf piles must be clear of sticks and other debris;
• Grass clippings, flower pots, branches and pumpkins cannot by picked up and residents are encouraged to bring those to the Yard Waste Station on Law Street;
• Leaves should not block traffic;
• Leaves should not be piled near intersection corners as this causes sight issues for motorists/bicyclists/pedestrians;
• Keep leaf piles clear of drainage ways and catch basins. Blocked drainage leads to localized flooding.
• Leaves should not be piled around mailboxes, power poles, fences, fire hydrants or other obstacles.
• Do not park on leaf piles. Heat from a vehicle exhaust system could start a fire.
• Do not wait to get your leaves out. We will normally collect leaves twice within the month of leaf collection.
• If it is snowing, we plow first. If it continues to snow, then leaf operations will be suspended.
• There is no leaf pickup in the spring.

An all-black, short-haired male cat has gone missing since Oct. 10 from Darien Lake Theme Park and Campground. It is neutered and microchipped and very much missed by his family and his BFF -- the family dog. He answers to "Phoenix" or "FeeFee."

There is a reward if found. Please call Kathy at 716-472-8968.