A possible electrical fire is reported at 4346 Drake Street Road, the lower apartment, Elba.

Smoke is coming from the washer or the dryer.

Elba and Town of Batavia fire dispatched.

UPDATE 8:39 p.m.: Fire is out. Town of Batavia can go back in service, per Elba chief.

UPDATE 8:53 a.m.: Elba back in service.

An ambulance is requested to the Tim Horton's parking lot where a person has slipped and fallen, suffering a possible head injury.

City fire also responding.

UPDATE 8:21 a.m.: City fire back in service.

UPDATE 8:25 a.m.: The woman who slipped is being transported to UMMC with complaint of hip pain and back of the head pain. No loss of consciousness.

A car has hit a building at 852 Bloomingdale Road, Basom, the Arrowhawk Smokeshop, and a person is reportedly unconscious.

Alabama fire and Mercy EMS responding.

UPDATE 8:40 a.m.: Alabama back in service.

A tractor-trailer is on its side at the intersection of Route 63 and Route 20, Pavilion.

Injuries, if any, are believed to be minor. Fuel is leaking.

Pavilion fire and Mercy EMS responding.

Following a day of rain, temperatures dropped quickly tonight to below freezing, creating slick road conditions. Use caution if traveling.

UPDATE 2:21 a.m.: A firefighter notes, "There's spots on the road where you can't even walk, so you've got to be careful."

UPDATE 2:23 a.m.: No injuries.

UPDATE 2:24 a.m.: The driver tells another driver that the truck is not leaking full.

UPDATE 2:28 a.m.: The truck is off the road, on the side of the road, Route 63.

UPDATE 2:42 a.m.: The truck is hauling frozen and fresh food for restaurants. If the roads stay as slick as they are, a deputy reports, a wrecker is going to have a hard time moving it. Since it's not blocking, it may just stay where it is for the time being. 

UPDATE 11:10 a.m.: Route 63 between Roanoke Road and Route 20 is being closed while a wrecker rights the truck.

UPDATE 1:08 p.m.: Route 63 has reopened.

Town of Batavia volunteer firefighters are back in service after responding to College Village when a fire alarm sounded in the laundry room.

Crew members:

"They left the window open again?"

"Yep."

"They just don't get it."

In addition to heating soup and zapping microwave popcorn, laundromats are posing yet another challenge for some villagers.

A garage fire is reported on Bogue Avenue, Batavia.

City fire is responding.

UPDATE 1:24 a.m.: Engine 11 on scene reporting the fire may be out.

The call started as a report of a house filling with smoke, yet no fire seen, at 3065 Pearl Street Road, but when an East Pembroke chief arrived, he reported flames on the side of the house from an electrical wire.

Firefighters from East Pembroke, Town of Batavia and Corfu are all dispatched.

National Grid requested to the scene.

UPDATE 11:56 p.m.: Alabama requested to fill in at East Pembroke.

UPDATE 11:58 p.m.: Firefighters are starting ventilation of the house and checking for extensions. National Grid has a 35-minute ETA.

UPDATE 12:01 a.m.: No extensions located. The fire is out.

UPDATE 12:26 a.m.: Town of Batavia code enforcement officer responding to the scene.

UPDATE 1:31 a.m.: East Pembroke and all responding agencies back in service.

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Larry's Steakhouse is located at 60 Main St. in Batavia; call 585-343-3400.

Batavia High School cheerleaders visited the VA Hospital this morning to visit with residents and perform their basketball cheers. One resident told the girls, "this is what he fought for" while thanking them for their visit.

Information and photo submitted by Justine Bonarigo.

The DellaPenna family is pretty certain this has never happened before in the history of Batavia basketball: Two sisters, on opposite sides of the court, cheering for their respective teams, when Batavia High School and Notre Dame meet Monday in the championship game of the Lions Club Tournament at GCC. Danielle is a senior at Batavia and Gabrielle is a freshman at ND.

Information and photo submitted by Tim Tucker.

Local hoops fan will get their dream matchup Monday in the annual Lions Club Tournament as both Notre Dame and Batavia won opening round games Friday night at Geness Community College.

Notre Dame took the floor first, defeating Albion 55-40.

Both teams struggled to get going offensively, hampered as they were by the high volume of fouls called and poor free throw shooting.

“We struggled to find our offensive rhythm,” said Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Rapone. “Part of it is the game has no rhythm with so many fouls. You just go foul line to foul line, and when you don’t make free throws, it really takes away the rhythm.”

The Irish managed to take a 29-20 lead into halftime as Tim McCulley scored 18 of his game-high 26 points in the first half.

However, Albion came out hard in the second half, outscoring Notre Dame in the third quarter to take a one-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, and also held McCulley out of the scoring column in the frame.

The teams played to a stalemate early in the fourth quarter, as the Irish held a four-point lead midway through the period.

The Purple Eagles would lose their composure though, as Ryan Fannin picked up his fifth personal foul, followed by a technical foul.

The Irish cashed in on the opportunity, making 3-out-4 free throws to push the lead to seven and they never looked back.

McCulley scored eight points in the last quarter, including a three-pointer to put the game out of reach with a minute to play.

The senior also added four rebounds, three steals and three blocks on the night, while Alex Domkowski chipped in 10 points and 11 rebounds for Notre Dame (4-1).

The second game of the night started a little later than anticipated after University Prep failed to find the campus, but Batavia showed no ill effects from the delay and came out fast, winning 54-36.

The Blue Devils steadily increased their lead in spurts. Using a 7-0 run to start the second quarter and an 8-0 run to start the third.

Junior standout Jeff Redband struggled to find his shooting touch early, but senior Justice Fagan and an unlikely source off the bench picked up the slack.

Fagan finished with a game-high 22 points and six rebounds, while Tyler Crawford came off the bench to pitch in 11 points and eight rebounds.

“Tyler was huge,” said Batavia Head Coach Buddy Brasky. “Malachi [Chenault] got into some foul trouble early and Tyler came in and played big.”

Redband would find his touch in the second half, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds as Batavia improves to 4-2.

Notre Dame and Batavia met two seasons ago, but not in the current tournament format which has took a two-year hiatus.

Prior to this year, the two local teams have met in the finals five times since 2001, including three straight from 2008 to 2010, with Batavia winning each time.

“It’s really important to the kids,” Brasky said. “They get to come out in play in front of the entire community, and with us playing in the Monroe County League and Notre Dame in the Genesee Region League, we don’t get to play very often.”

Prior to the break from the current Lions Club Tournament format, Batavia had won seven consecutive championships and 9-of-10 dating back to 2001.

“This was a good tournament,” Rapone said. “We couldn’t get four teams for a couple years due to the strength of the tournament. The chance to get University Prep came up and them having a good team really rounds it out well.”

University Prep will play Albion in the consolation game on Monday night at GCC. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m., with the championship game to follow.

Photos by Howard Owens

To purchase prints, click here

This is the sixth in our series on Genesee County's farms and farmers. For previous stories, click here. (Obviously, I started this story in late fall and am only now publishing it.)

Onions. It seems simple, right? Plant a seed and a few months later pull up a bulb and soak in the pungent aroma of one America's most essential foods.

Try making a stew or a salad without an onion. Edible? Maybe. Good? Hardly.

But which onion? 

The cook considers white, red, yellow or perhaps green.

The farmer considers Bradley, Walla Walla, Candy, Sterling, Yankee, Sedona, Redwing and Crocket, among hundreds of other varieties.

A rose by any other name may smell just as sweet, but for the onion farmer, the name on the seed bag he plants in the spring has a lot to do with yield he can expect in the fall.

The seed, the weather, the soil depth, the week of planting, the plot location, length of storage and what's going on in onion markets all over the world are the layers an onion farmer peels away each season hoping to rediscover that savory recipe called profits.

"There are dozens and dozens of varieties," said Matt Mortellaro, co-owner with his brother Paul, of G. Mortellaro & Sons, and Elba-based onion farm. "It's hard to know each year which varieties are working well. Every piece of ground is a little different and every season is a little different. You can have varieties growing hundreds of yards apart and get different results. The rain falls more in one location. It floods a little more. There's the wind and the soil. You can have so many different conditions, which is why we grow so many different varieties."

Paul and Matt were born into this, growing onions on the muck.

Paul helped out on the family farm from a young age. Matt being younger was spared by more modern farm equipment the hours of grueling seed and sprout planting and weed pulling under the blistering sun on the black muck.

"Mainly, I remember riding around in the truck with my dad," Matt said.

Matt studied natural resources, conservation and biology at Cornell before deciding to concentrate on ag production and plant biology.

Paul set out as a young man to be an engineer, earning a degree with the University at Buffalo and he worked in that field for a few years before feeling the tug of the family farm.

"It was strange," Paul said. "The engineering wasn't bad, but it really wasn't the lifestyle I was used to. You go to work and you're done at the end of the day. I feel like I'm a farmer twenty-four-seven."

As a farm owner, you get up early to check the weather. You take calls from customers needing to pick up a load of onions at 11 p.m.  You make repairs, check crop reports and answer e-mails long after the guy with an office job has hopped in his car, made the long drive home and is tuning into Sports Center.

"That's typical for employees and I can't say I blame them," Paul said. "Without the ownership interest, they just disappear and there is no way to retrieve them. I guess I don't need that. I don't need to feel like my responsibilities end at five o'clock."

Paul and Matt's grandfather started the family in the onion farming business in 1935 with eight acres of muckland. 

Gerlando Mortellaro didn't speak English and worked other jobs to make ends meet. By the time he handed the farm off to his two sons -- Paul and Matt's father and uncle -- the family owned 110 acres of muckland.

The farm is 260 acres today, and while other family farms in the area have diversified and added crops on the uplands, the Mortellaros stick with with what they know -- onions grown in the dark, decaying organic matter that made Elba famous.

"I think I would like growing anything, but onions is what I know," Paul said. "I've been exposed to onions for 41 years. It's kind of in my blood now. I don't know what else to do."

Paul said he kind of imagines if he was plunked down in a strange country, it wouldn't be long before he started growing onions again.  When he meets strangers, he said, it's hard not to assume they're onion farmers, too.

 "I have actually said it a couple of times, kind of as a joke, 'tell me about your onion operations,' " Paul said.

Matt is just as focused on growing onions on the muck.

"I don't have experience commercially growing other things on mineral soil, so it's hard to compare," Matt said. "I know the frustrations of growing on the muck, but I don't know if that's different from growing different things on other soil types."

Both Paul and Matt have been able to find enough time away from onion farming to get married and raise families.

Paul is married to Tricia and they have two daughters -- Rosalie, 19, an engineering student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Grace, 17, a student at Notre Dame High School.

Matt is married to Stephanie and they have two boys, Mateo, 13, and Tiago, 10.

With the variety of onions the Mortellaros might choose to grow in any one season, there is one trait they all share -- they're what's known as long-day onions.

There are short-day onions and long-day onions. The two types use different triggers for when to form a bulb. For the short-day onion, it's just a matter of time, how many days since the seed was planted. Long-day onions know when the longest day of the summer has arrived and that's its signal to form a bulb.

Long-day onions not only grow better in our region, they make for better storage onions.

The Mortellaros sell onions all year long, even when temperatures outside dip into the teens and no plow can possibly till any soil.

In a good growing season, those 260 acres of muckland have filled the Mortellaros 50,000-square-foot storage facility on Transit Road with enough pungency to last into spring.

When customers need onions, or the price is right, Paul and Matt -- under the brand name Crybaby Onions -- almost always have onions to sell.

"With storage onions, we don't have to discount it to get rid of it," Paul said. "Out West, they sell onions for three weeks and then they're onto melons or something else. Here, you can just wait. If you don't like the price, you can wait. When you get a price you like, you go. That is a much better way to maintain steady customers. That's the beauty of storage, whether it's onions, potatoes or cabbage. You can sell it all in one week, but that's usually a disadvantage."

Storage adds to the pungency of an onion and Paul likes a pungent onion -- hence the Crybaby brand, but Paul warned the home cook not to think that storing a store-bought onion will improve its quality.

By the time an onion reaches the produce section of a supermarket, it's been through cold storage and a warming period, which is the onion's signal to sprout (an onion in its first year produces a bulb; in it's second year, it goes to seed). 

"The onion only knows it's ready to go," Paul said. "There's no turning back. It's really hard to buy an onion that hasn't been through the cold and warm cycle, so my advice is to eat an onion fast. Sprouted onions are actually very good, but you can always buy more."

With onions such a staple of America's diet, Paul and Matt always want to grow the best quality onion possible at the highest profit margin possible, even if Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate.

"Growing onions is somewhat of an art and somewhat of a science," Matt said. "Certain onions are ready for harvest in 95 days, others in 120. Depending on where you're planting, some need more time. Certain varities do better in different ground and some are marginal. Certain varieties produce more tonnage, but the bulb is not that great, and others don't have as high a yield, but have big, beautiful bulbs. So there's a lot of thought that goes into deciding what to plant in a particular piece of ground."

Onion farming, like the onion itself, may look simple from the outside, but then, just start peeling away the layers. The Mortellaros do it, day in and day out, 365 days a year.

In lieu of flowers, the family of David M. Russo are asking donations be made for an education for the two children Russo leaves behind.

Russo died yesterday following an accident on a snow-covered Route 63 in the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.

The 43-year-old Stafford resident had two children, Josilynn and David.

There will be visitation for family and friends from 4 to 7 p.m., Sunday, at Falcone Family Funeral & Cremation Service, Inc., 8700 Lake Road (Route 19), Le Roy, with a prayer service at 7:30.

For the full obituary, click here.

The cab of a truck hauling onions on Old Oak Orchard Road is reportedly on fire and stopped just south of Ridge Road, Elba.

Elba fire is responding.

UPDATE 4:08 p.m.: A chief is on scene. The fire is out.

The YMCA -- for youth development, for healthy living and social responsibility! A New Year for a New You! Our new winter session of classes begin on January 5, 2014. Below is a listing of some of our class offerings. Please click the graphic above for the full winter session guide. Register for one of our many classes today!

Youth Development Classes & Events

• Taekwondo
• Adult Taekwondo
• Youth Indoor Soccer
• New! Pee-Wee Champs
• Challenger Sports
• Winter Club Soccer
• JV & Varsity Club
• Vacation Fun Camp
• NEW! Youth Weight Training
• Gymnastic Classes
• Swim Lessons
• YMCA Day Camp
• YMCA Kinder Camp
• YMCA Camp Hough
• Birthday Party options
• Preschool Classes

Wellness Classes & Healthy Living

• Water Wellness Classes
• Spiritual Wellness
• Silver Sneakers Classes
• Cycling Classes
• Yoga
• New! Personal Training
• Pilates
• Zumba
• Sunday Strength & Sweat
• Athletic Aesthetics
• Ageless Fitness
• Interval Sculpt
• Cardio Sculpt
• Kickbox Cardio
• New! Full Body Blender
• New! Re-Boot Camp
• Adult Sports
• Adult Soccer League
• Pickleball
• Social responsibility & volunteer programs

Special Events

• Parents night out
• Family movie night

For more information on membership, classes and programs, please visit us online at: http://www.glowymca.org/

Press release:

The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office recently hired Andrew Hale to fill the position of Deputy Sheriff; a position that was left vacant by a Deputy Sheriff who was promoted to Sergeant earlier in the year.

Deputy Hale is a 2002 graduate of Batavia High School. Following high school, Deputy Hale enlisted in the Marine Corps from 2002 to 2006 and then continued his education, earning a bachelor of arts degree in History with a minor in Sociology from St. John Fisher College. Deputy Hale was previously employed by Fed Ex Express as a driver. Deputy Hale graduated from the Niagara County Law Enforcement Academy at Niagara University on December 20, 2013. The keynote speaker at the graduation was the newly appointed Buffalo Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Resident Agent In Charge Michelle Spahn.

Sheriff Maha stated, “Deputy Hale has been participating in our 14-week field-training program and is performing exceptionally well. He will be a great addition to our road patrol.”

Sonya Marie Nashwenter, 30, of North Avenue, Medina, is charged with petit larceny. Nashwenter is accused of shoplifting at Kmart.

Rodney Allen Atkins, 38, of North Avenue, Medina, is charged with petit larceny. Atkins is accused of shoplifting at Kmart.

Washington Post: New gas tax can help pay for roads and transportation

A county worker clears snow from the sidewalks around County Building #1 and the Old Courthouse following this morning's mild snow shower. More snow is expected over the next 24 hours or so with as much as an inch accumulation.