Press release:

The Batavia City Council is seeking City residents who are interested in volunteering as a member of the following:

• Audit Advisory Committee
• Batavia Housing Authority
• Centennial Committee

***The Audit Advisory Committee was established to provide oversight to the financial and compliance reporting process and external audit process. The Committee aids in the communication between the City Manager and the independent auditor in areas including integrity of the City’s financial statement, compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and the performance, qualifications and independence of the auditors. The Committee will be responsible for meeting with the auditor’s prior to the audit, reviewing risk assessment, reviewing the draft financial statements and making a recommendation on acceptance of the external audit reports to the City Council.

Additional responsibilities include reviewing the management letter and establishing internal controls. The Committee is made up of five members, two of whom are City Council members. The qualifications for audit advisory committee members are: an understanding of GAAP (General Accepted Accounting Principles; an understanding of GASB (Government Accounting Standards Board); a financial background in Municipal Reporting; recognition of significant deficiencies and risk exposures.

***Batavia Housing Authority -- Residents interested in applying can obtain an application from the City Clerk’s Office or can visit our Web site at www.batavianewyork.com/Files and download a Committee/Board Volunteer Application under Documents. 

***Applications for the Centennial Committee are being accepted by the Vibrant Batavia Committee. It is a planning committee for the City’s Centennial Celebrations in 2015.

Residents interested in applying to volunteer for a Committee or Board can obtain an application from the City Clerk’s Office or can visit our Web site at www.batavianewyork.com/Files.

Applications are due to the City Clerk’s Office by Friday, May 30.

Press release:

The Manhatten Dolls will perform for veterans in Batavia beginning at 3 p.m. this Saturday, May 17, and the public is invited. It's free.

Manhattan Dolls have traveled all over the world, performing at different military bases and air shows for United States veterans and service members. This Swing-style female vocal trio sings to the tunes of the 1920s, '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s. A throwback to the original USO group, the Manhattan Dolls have been written about in many publications for their performances and classic style.

The VA Western New York Healthcare System welcomes them to Batavia, where they will perform for veterans of the Community Living Center, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Residential Program facility, and the NYS Veterans' Home.

The location is 222 Richmond Ave., Building #4, Auditorium.

A Gun Raffle & Spaghetti Dinner to benefit Operation Injured Soldier will be held starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, at the Sacred Heart Social Center in Batavia. It's located at 17 Sumner Ave.

Cost for dinner only is $10. Gun raffle and dinner is $20. Plus there will be a Chinese Auction, 50/50.

For tickets, contact Edward Spence at 716-560-0697 or John McDonald at 585-509-6465.

The event is sponsored by the Medina War Veterans, General John S. Thompson, Post # 59.

The goal of Operation Injured Soldier is to help our disabled veterans get back to doing the sports and hobbies they enjoyed before being deployed. This benefit pays to take them on fishing charters this summer.

These are the guns to be raffled off:

• Thompson Center .50 caliber Bone Collector, muzzleloader
• Remington 750 semi-auto .308
• Ruger 10/22 w/ laser sights .22 caliber
• Browning X bolt .270 caliber
• Remington 783, bolt action 30/06
• Mossberg 500 8-shot .12 gauge
• Mossberg 500 combo .20 gauge 28 in VR
• Remington 870 .12 gauge rifled barrel
• Savage 42, 22/mag/.410 gauge
• Savage Axis .270 w/ scope

A flash flood watch is in effect from 2 p.m. today through Friday afternoon. According to the National Weather Service, this includes portions of Western New York, including Genesee County and the City of Batavia.

The Weather Service says showers and thunderstorms are forecast to develop in a warm and humid airmass this afternoon and tonight. These storms will be capable of producing localized downpours with rainfall rates of 1 to 1.5 inches per hour. As a slow moving cold front approaches from the west, the showers and thunderstorms will become more widespread Thursday afternoon and night.

A flash flood means the threat of flash flooding exists along rivers and creeks. If you are in the watch area, you should monitor weather conditions closely. Be ready to move to higher ground if flooding is observed or a warning is issued.

Jennifer L. Sprague-Clark, 31, of Vine Street, Batavia, is charged with assault, 2nd, menacing, 2nd and criminal possession of a weapon, 3rd. Sprague-Clark allegedly stabbed another person in the leg during a dispute at 9:20 p.m., Tuesday. The investigation was conducted by Officer James DeFreze. Sprague-Clark was jailed without bail

Zachari R. Morgan, 18, of Pearl Street, Batavia, is charged with criminal obstruction of breathing, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal mischief, 4th. Morgan was allegedly involved in a domestic incident at 11:38 a.m., Tuesday.

Mark S. Allison, 52, of Medina, is charged with assault/recklessly causing serious injury with a weapon. The alleged incident was reported at 11:44 a.m., Jan. 17 in the Town of Alabama. Allison was arrested by State Police. No further details released.

Peter J. Gravante, 25, of Churchville, is charged with petit larceny. Gravante was arrested by State Police for an alleged theft at a location on Veterans Memorial Drive that was reported at 9:04 a.m., Sunday.

A semi-truck has broken down on Route 19 in Le Roy and is blocking the road.

Le Roy Fire Police requested to respond and close Route 19 at Perry Road. Pavilion Fire Police requested to shut down traffic at Stubb Road.

The trucking company has a tow on the way.

USA Today: Are annoying drunks criminals? Ind. high court to rule
New York Times: Top Court Champions Freedom to Annoy

A black male is reportedly walking along Main Street in Batavia and exposing himself, according to a caller to dispatch. He is allegedly accompanied by a female who was allegedly seen urinating in public.

In Chef K's kitchen, if it's not right, it's wrong

Even without the profanity, celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay is profane. He’s mean even when his soliloquies aren’t bleepin’ tirades.

Some of the students in the Culinary Arts program at BOCES compare Chef Nathan Koscielski to Gordon Ramsay. Even "Chef K" himself makes the comparison.

Of course, Chef K never drops f-bombs. No teacher would. But neither is he mean. There are no insults tossed around like pizza dough in Chef K’s kitchen. If he raises his voice, it’s more like a stern version of Hugh Beaumont than a vein-popping drill sergeant.

Ramsay — star of such shows as "Hell’s Kitchen" and "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" — has high standards and high expectations, which seems to be the fuse that ignites his expletive-deleted critiques of other chefs and restaurant owners.

Driving home those same points about quality and consistency is also the growl in Chef K’s bark.

“There have got to be standards,” Koscielski said. “Everything has got to be uniform and everything has got to be high quality. It’s got to be done the right way, the perfect way, or it’s wrong. If it’s wrong, we’re not going to sell it to a customer.”

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Oh, that smell. That whiff of manure spread on a farmfield. The odor of animal waste in a barn filled with holsteins or jerseys. The stench of a pigsty.

The first time Chef Nathan Koscielski brought a group of his Culinary Arts students into the animal science department at BOCES, their instant response was to pinch noses firmly between thumbs and forefingers. "Oh, that smell."

Animal Science instructor Holly Partridge remembers it well.

“They walked in and said, ‘oh, this is gross. What a disgusting stink,’ ” Partridge said. “Chef turned to them and said, ‘that is the smell of money, because without that smell, you don’t have anything to sell. You don’t have anything to cook. You don’t have a restaurant.’ ”

That visit came near the start of what has turned into a fertile partnership between Koscielski and Partridge, one that is perhaps unique in culinary education circles.

“We had a documentary film producer come in to show us his film ‘American Meat’ and he said visited 150 FFA (Future Farmers of America) programs and he saw what we were doing and said he had seen nothing like it,” Partridge said.

For the past three years, the animal science program has been producing the meat used in the meals prepared by the Culinary Arts students — chicken, eggs, lamb, pork and guinea hens. The partnership has helped the BOCES culinary program produce a three-peat in the Taste of Culinary Competition hosted by the American Culinary Federation of Greater Buffalo, but it’s also produced a new recipe for educating high school students about the source of their meals.

“If you ask my students at the beginning of the year where food comes from, they say it comes from the grocery store,” Partridge said. “Where’s your eggs come from? It comes from the grocery store? Where’s your milk come from? It comes from the grocery store. That’s the mindset that Americans tend to have now because we’re so far removed from production.”

Both Partridge and Koscielski said that by bringing the two programs closer together, they’re teaching future cooks to respect the ingredients that go into their recipes and teaching future farmers about quality ingredients. The farmers learn about how to raise animals properly and the cooks learn to reuse waste in a way that is better for the planet.

“I make every student hold a little chick that was just hatched in their hands and tell them that in 16 weeks, that chicken is going to be on your cutting board,” Kosciekski said. “I don’t do that to be mean. I do that to teach them respect for the ingredients. When you’re holding a living animal and you know in 16 weeks, that’s going to be on your cutting board and you’re going to cook it, well, I can’t teach that through a textbook. There’s no better way to teach them to respect the animals.”

“When they wheel it down, they wheel it down knowing it will feed animals that they will eventually use in their class,” Partridge said.

It’s a long walk down hallways with tile on the walls and past many, many classrooms to get from the cooking class to the animal class. There’s a right turn, a left, a right and a left again. A walker might be tempted to leave breadcrumbs the first time on the trail, but it is a two-way path. Students from both classes will visit each other during the course of a school year as eggs hatch, grow into chickens, are sent off to a meat processing house and finally return to Chef K’s kitchen so they can fulfill their culinary destiny.

When chicks grow into chickens, the culinary students weave through those hallways to pay a final visit to the birds that will soon provide broth for their noodle soups or thighs for their cacciatores.

“They get to feel what a live bird feels like; to feel what the breast of a live bird feels like; to feel the weight of a live bird; to feel its breathing and its warmth,” Partridge said.

Poultry is slaughtered off campus by professionals. The plucked and dressed birds are returned to BOCES frozen and ready for whatever recipe Chef K might be cooking up for his students to learn. The Animal Science students are then invited into the kitchen to see how a bird is broken down for meal preparation.

“I don’t know of a college that is doing what we’re doing here with the integration of the farm,” Koscielski said. “That’s one of the reasons I work here, because I can’t get this anywhere else. Being able to work with my farmer on a daily basis, I don’t get that anywhere else.”

Two years ago, BOCES hosted members from throughout WNY of the American Culinary Federation. The main course: chicken. The cooks: students. The guest speaker: Holly Partridge. The federation members learned about the breed of bird and how it was raised and then got a taste of what Partridge preached.

“They were blown away,” Partridge said. “I showed them the difference between a commercial chicken, which is a very different breed of bird, and the chickens we produced. They were amazed at the difference in flavor because of how they were raised and the breed of the animal.”

The animals raised by Animal Science are farm fresh, which makes for a better meal, but they’re also organic, which Koscielski said not only means a richer flavor, but also a farming process that is healthier for the environment.

Books such as "The Omnivore's Dilemma," "Food Inc." and "King Corn" are required reading in Koscielski’s class, he said.

“We want students to learn about organic, healthy food that leaves a small footprint on the environment,” Koscielski said. “It’s something I’m very passionate about.”

The partnership is only going to expand in the coming years, both Koscielski and Partridge said.

By next year, Animal Science will have an expanded hen house, producing more eggs — enough eggs to stock Koscielski kitchen for the entire school year. With 100 percent of the culinary program’s eggs grown on campus, BOCES will save money on egg purchases.

Partridge and Koscielski are also hatching a plan to sell duck eggs along with breads and pastries at a local farmers market this fall.

“The goal is to not only promote the Animal Science Program, but also give kids an opportunity to run a business venture,” Partridge said.

The plan will need approval of the BOCES board.

Animal Science students spend a lot of time with the pigs, lambs, ducks and chickens they raise. They hold them, feed them, shepherd them and learn their traits and personalities. Learning to read an animal is an important skill to develop, Partridge said. They’re easier to herd when you can predict their next move and you can avoid trouble if you understand their moods.

Students also help care for the dogs of BOCES faculty and students. There are lessons, too, in canine socialization, grooming, feeding and walking.

Rather than a contradiction between mixing household pets with animals raised purely to provide sustenance, Partridge said students learn valuable lessons about farming and the humane treatment of livestock.

“They understand that if you want to eat meat, you’re going to raise the animal humanely, but you’re not going to raise them like your dogs,” Partridge said. “You’re going to raise them in an environment that is economical and humane for that animal. The needs of a pig are different than the needs of your dog. The needs of a chicken are different than the needs of your canary. They understand that food comes from an agriculture process. It comes from driving down the road and watching that manure spread on the field and understanding it’s not just there to make your life miserable because it smells. It’s a byproduct of what we’re doing so you can eat.”

It’s a lesson that doesn’t take long for students to learn, Partridge said.

“The kids have really gotten over that, ‘oh, I don’t want to eat that pig, it’s so cute,’ to ‘we are raising a quality product for a reason,’ ” Partridge said. “I’m not getting kids coming in crying that that little pig is going to get killed for somebody to eat. I’m getting kids with the understanding that production animals that we raise, we handle different than the companion animals that we raise.”

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Press release:

Notre Dame High School will publically launch a $5 million capital campaign on Tuesday evening at Stafford Country Club. This will be the most significant capital campaign in the school’s 62-year history. The "Faith in the Future" capital campaign will allow the school to invest in facility improvements, technology upgrades, and endowment fund growth.

“We are excited to be investing not only in our school, but in the lives of many students from the Western New York area,” said Joseph D. Scanlan, Ph.D., principal. “Providing a world-class education is costly. As our building ages, there is an increasing need for repairs and improvements. This holds true for the physical structure, building utilities and internal technology capabilities.

"Additionally, for an increasing number of families the cost of a Notre Dame education remains challenging and tuition assistance funded by an endowment can often be the deciding factor in a student enrolling.”

Co-chairpersons Don and Joan Bausch, Thomas and Lynn Houseknecht, and Jerry and Carmela Reinhart, along with Major Gift chairpersons Bill and Terry Fritts, are also pleased to announce the significant progress made toward the $5 million goal. During the early phases of the campaign, the school has been successful in securing more than $2 million due to the generosity of friends and alumni of the school.  

The capital campaign will be a five-year effort with the active portions of the campaign running through the end of the year. Notre Dame will be asking for support from the school’s family, friends, faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents and the general community.

Notre Dame High School has been named as Buffalo Business First’s  #1 Private Catholic Co-educational High School in Western New York; #1 Academic High School in Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties; and ranks in the top 15 percent academically for all Western New York high schools for the last six consecutive years.

For more information on the capital campaign and how you can support Notre Dame High School, please contact Gloria Snyder in the school Advancement Office at 585-343-2798.

City employees who are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union can expect annual raises over the next five years with the unanimous approval of a new contract by the City Council last night.

The three key components to the new contract, according to City Manager Jason Molino, are elimination of retiree health benefits for new hires, putting AFSCME members on the same wellness program as other city employees, and a reduction in the salary schedule for new hires going forward.

While those changes are expected to save the city money, the anticipated direct expense of the new contract is an additional $265,000 over the next five years. Annual raises are built in at 2.50 percent in three of the five years and 2.75 percent in the remaining two years.

This year, the council was asked to approve a shift of $63,100 from the contingency fund to cover the increased costs.

Molino is proud of the city's wellness program and glad to get the AFSCME members involved.

"It's a very good wellness plan and we're starting to see some results with it," Molino said.

Negotiations have been ongoing since March, 2012.

"It was a long and challenging process," Molino said.

Tishaun H. Conde, 19, of 16 Harvester Ave., Batavia, is charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, unlawful possession of marijuana, petit larceny and trespassing. Conde was arrested following a report at 10:06 a.m., Monday, of a car being broken into on Harvester Avenue. Conde was jailed on $2,500 bail. (Previously: Man suspected of rifling through cars on Harvester Avenue is subject of manhunt)

Sharon E. Herdtner, 51, of North Street, Batavia, is charged with criminal mischief. Herdtner allegedly punctured a tire of a vehicle on Tracy Avenue.

Tracy A. Hilton, 33, of Jackson Street, Batavia, is charged with menacing, 2nd, unlawful imprisonment, 1st, criminal possession of a weapon, 3rd, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal contempt, 1st. Hilton was allegedly involved in a domestic incident with his girlfriend at 5:50 p.m., Sunday, at their residence on Jackson Street. Hilton allegedly restrained his girlfriend and threatened her with a knife while in the presence of their two children. In the process, Hilton allegedly violated an order of protect. Hilton was held without bail.

Kimberly M. Douglas, 32, of Buell Street, Batavia, is charged with criminal tampering, 3rd. Douglas was arrested after police were dispatched at 7:40 a.m., Saturday, to a residence on Buell Street for a report of a disturbance. Douglas is accused of spitting on the screen door of a house on Buell, "causing a substantial inconvenience for the owner to clean."

Justin J. Caryl, 26, of Batavia, was arrested on a warrant. Caryl was arrested by a Wyoming County Sheriff's deputy at 5:30 a.m., Sunday, on Bank Road, Town of Middlebury, after he was located during an unrelated investgation. Caryl was turned over to the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

Jeffrey Lewis Smith, 44, of Vinton Road, Rochester, is charged with petit larceny. Smith was arrested on a Town of Batavia warrant after being released from the Monroe County Jail. Smith was jailed in Genesee County on $2,500 bail.

Felicia Mae Downs, 20, of Broadway Road, Darien, is charged with identity theft, 3rd, and petit larceny. Downs allegedly used another person's credit card to make purchases without permission.

Randall W. McKeown, 52, of South Brooklyn Avenue, Wellsville, is charged with three counts of criminal contempt, 1st. In a violation of a stay away order of protection, McKeown allegedly sent text messages to the protected person on three separate dates. McKeown was released under supervision of Genesee Justice.

Modern Farmer: Why Don’t We Eat Swans Anymore?

The unintended discharge of a police officer's weapon while at a residence on Grandview Terrace on April 22 was the subject of a closed door discussion by the Batavia City Council on Monday night, but officials emerged vowing to remain mum on the subject.

City Manager Jason Molino said he's not going to answer any more questions on the topic.

"We've given you all the reports," Molino said. "The chief made a statement. There are no injuries. I believe that to be the accurate statement. I'm not going to get into any more discussion about it."

About an hour before tonight's council meeting, City Clerk Heidi Parker e-mailed a PDF of the incident report from April 22 and said the redacted report constituted all of the publicly releasable information.

The incident report merely covers the alleged domestic call that prompted a police response. The narrative of the incident doesn't mention the weapon discharge at all.

On Friday, the city released the memos written by the five police officers on scene, but all of the narrative was redacted. Only the header information remained.

The city's position is that the weapon's discharge and possible minor injuries to a police officer are personnel matters and are not releasonable under Civil Service Law Section 50-a. 

There is no known prior incident of a Batavia police officer's weapon firing accidentally, so there's no precedent on what information the agency releases on the topic.

There have been police officers injured while on duty within the past few years, however, and the information has not been routinely kept from the public.

The domestic incident report had the names and other personal information redacted of the two people involved in the alleged domestic at Grandview Terrace.

The call began when a resident on Grandview Terrace reported that her ex-boyfriend was breaking items in the house. When police arrived, they found no evidence of a crime being committed and the ex-boyfriend was transported by a police officer to his mother's residence. The ex-girlfriend was advised to go to family court to get an order of protection. A shotgun owned by the ex-boyfriend was taken to a police storage locker for safe keeping.

City Councilman Eugene Jankowski, a former Batavia police officer and one-time acting chief of police, said he was directed not to comment on the personnel matter discussed in closed session, but that the issue was discussed fully.

"My questions were answered in the appropriate fashion and I have a full understanding of what happened," Jankowski said. 

Asked what the chief said about possible injuries, Jankowski answered, "The chief of police is claiming that there were no injuries. He's standing by that statement."

Previously: 

• Accidental weapon discharge leads to internal police investigation
• City denies request for public records related to unintended discharge of officer's firearm

Pavilion High School juniors and seniors got a pre-prom reminder not to drink and drive from local emergency responders.

With Pavilion Fire Department in the lead, personnel from Bethany fire, Stafford fire, Mercy EMS, the Sheriff's Office and State Police put on a demonstration this morning of what a fatal DWI-involved accident is like.  Also participating were Coroner Barry Miller and Michael Tomaszewski, owner of the Tomaszewski Funeral Home.

The accident victims were played by Jacob Hoffman, Amanda Sauer, Cody Greene and Kelly Kraft. Their parts were student drunken drivers, two seriously injured (Mercy Flight was scheduled to participate for one of the victims, but had to cancel), and one dead-at-the-scene passenger.

Narrating events was D.R. Roblee, of the County Emergency Management Office.

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An unknown type of fire, possibly burning tires, is reported in the woods behind 68 S. Lake Ave. Bergen firefighters are responding.

A man who was allegedly rifling through vehicles near 16 Harvester Ave. is said to be hiding after running from officers. An area spanning three houses has been cordoned off.

Batavia police, Sheriff's deputies and a canine unit believe the suspect is contained within that area.

UPDATE 11:38 a.m.: Law enforcement is opening the area that had been cordoned off.

UPDATE 11:58 a.m.: The subject is in custody.

UPDATE 12:48 p.m.: Batavia Police Sgt. Dan Coffey recapped the incident for local media: "We received a 9-1-1 call of a larceny in progress from an unlocked motor vehicle. The witness was giving us detailed accounts of what was going on while our patrols were responding. Patrols arrived on scene, established a perimeter; the subject fled on foot. There was a brief foot chase. We believe the subject ran into a house here at 16 Harvester Avenue. We set up a perimeter there. We were eventually able to gain access to the residence and we located the subject hiding in a room who later was positively identified by our witness as the subject they saw breaking into the car. ... There was no physical confrontation or anything like that. He did become cooperative." Asked if there was any indication of illegal activity in the house, Coffey said drug paraphernalia was found inside the residence as a result of their investigation. ... "This is a rooming house, and through the process of elimination, (the suspect) was the only person that we couldn't account for. We started tracking him ... and from there we were able to positively identify him." Coffey could not confirm that anything was missing from the vehicle at this point. Possible charges could include attempted petit larceny, petit larceny and the drug parphernalia allegedly found in his room. The investigation is ongoing. Asked about the house being a problem in the neighborhood, Coffey conceded there have been "some issues there -- noise complaints and quality-of-life issues within the City of Batavia. So it's certainly been a house on our radar. ... It's a residence where some of our local college kids have been staying, so, again, it's a house that's been on our radar."

City fire is responding to 230 W. Main St., Batavia, for a report of the strong odor of natural gas in the kitchen of Burger King.