We received a couple of snow photos from readers this morning. Above, from Maggie G.
From Raymond Richardson.
UPDATE: Here's a photo from yesterday taken at Hy-Hope Farms in Stafford on Horseshoe Lake Road. Sent in by Lori Totten.
UPDATE: Two more photos.
Submitted by Tiffany Ivison.
Submitted by Lisa Falkowski.
A two-car accident has been reported at Clinton Street Road and Griswold Road in Stafford.
One person is complaining of a back injury.
Stafford fire and a Mercy medic have been dispatched to the scene.
UPDATE 9:11 a.m.: One person is being evaluated and one person is refusing any medical attention. A deputy is on the way to the scene.
There is a two-car accident on Bank Street Road and Batavia Elba Townline Road with one person having a possible head injury.
Elba Fire Department and a Mercy Medic are responding.
Two patients are complaining of lower back pain in one vehicle.
The accident is not blocking.
UPDATE 8:55 a.m.: A second ambulance has been requested to the scene non-emergency.
UPDATE 9:18 a.m.: Two people have been transported to UMMC and Elba fire is back in service.
A tractor-trailer has taken down a service line to a house on Lawrence Avenue in Corfu. The lines are reportedly across the road.
The Corfu Fire Department is on scene and requesting a Sheriff's deputy to respond.
National Grid has been dispatched, no ETA given.
UPDATE 8:50 a.m.: National Grid says they will be on scene in 30 minutes.
Had enough snow yet? Good, because more is on the way.
A lake effect snow advisory has been issued for Thursday, starting at 10 a.m. through 1 a.m., Friday.
As much as two to four inches of snow could fall Thursday and another two or three inches Thursday night for storm totals of four to seven inches.
Winds of 10 to 20 mph are predicted.
With blowing snow, visibility could be dropped to a quarter of mile at times and places.
Travel could be difficult at times.
We just learned that our series on Genesee County Farms and Farmers is receiving an online feature writing award from the New York State Agriculture Society.
We entered the first installments from the series earlier this year.
The award will be presented at the Society's annual forum in Liverpool on Jan. 9.
Tom Rivers, former staff writer for the Batavia Daily News and editor now of Orleans Hub, has previously been honored by the society for his stories on local agriculture.
Here are some of the snow pictures we received in response to our request to see what it looks like in Genesee County today.
We also got a couple of pictures from Wyoming County and since they got hit a little bit harder, I thought we'd include those (the bottom two pictures).
Top photo submitted by Jessica Radam.
After just a couple of minutes outside, Julie Ingalls' dog was snow covered.
Submitted by Mat Fenton.
Submitted by Angela.
Submitted by Sam Tambe, from Attica.
Submitted by Nora O'Neill from Orangeville.
According to Batavia City School Superintendent Christopher Dailey, John Kennedy Intermediate School will be closed tomorrow, Thursday Dec. 12, due to power issues.
Jackson School, Batavia Middle School, and Batavia High School will all be open.
Route 77 at Route 20 is closed because a power outage caused by an accident has disabled the stop lights.
No one is injured, but there's no power in that area.
The vehicle apparently slid off the road and hit a meter box. National Grid has been notified.
UPDATE 3:54 p.m.: Darien fire says the meter box has power, but will have to be turned off so the DOT can fix the stop lights.
UPDATE 4:30 p.m.: Darien fire is back in service and law enforcement is at the intersection.
UPDATE 7:09 p.m.: Law enforcement on scene says the DOT may not be able to complete all the repairs to get the signal lights working again. They are requesting portable stop signs for the night.
Since Billie and I are missing all the snow Genesee County is getting, how about sending us your snow pictures. E-mail weather-related pictures to howard@thebatavian.com and we'll post the best of them.
The Pavilion Fire Department is responding to an incident on Peoria Road at Wallace Road in the Town of Covington where a truck driver was found down in the road.
The truck driver is unresponsive and an off-duty EMT from Perry was attempting to perform CPR, but the truck driver continues to be unresponsive.
It is unclear if the driver was run over by a vehicle backing out of a driveway or if he suffered a medical issue and collapsed.
Emergency responders have been to told to slow down and there is nothing they can do at this point.
State Police out of Warsaw are responding.
UPDATE 3:30 p.m.: According to the Wyoming County Sheriff Department, a passerby stopped to help a tractor-trailer driver at Big Tree Road and Wallace Road as he was not able to make the turn and became stuck at the intersection.
The passerby, while helping the truck driver, had a medical emergency and died at the scene.
Pavilion Fire Department went back into service at 3:10 p.m.
A homegrown urban agriculture movement has gained momentum in recent years, as evidenced by the growing number of books and Web sites dedicated to the subject. Raising backyard chickens has caught on in big cities and small towns across the nation.
Often inspired by the expanding campaign to buy locally produced food, “locavores” hope to avoid the carbon emissions and energy consumption that come with transporting food.
The production cost is cheap: you can buy chickens for as little as a couple of dollars, and three hens will likely average about two eggs a day. Their waste provides good nutrients for garden soil, too.
Batavia residents Charley and Connie Boyd are vegetarians who have embraced the backyard chicken movement for the eggs, as well as to reconnect with nature.
“It’s nice to be able to raise chickens humanely and get fresh eggs in return,” Connie said. “We consider them to be our pets -- they all have names ( Ripley, LeeLoo and Tamcyn) and we never intend on eating them.”
The Boyds also like consuming products that come from cage-free and hormone-free chickens. The eggs from home-raised chickens are said to be tastier and can have stronger shells, brighter, richer yolks and higher levels of nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids than their commercially raised counterparts.
“Chickens are fun, they have a lot of personality. Sometimes we just sit in the backyard and enjoy watching them. They're really easy pets and they actually produce something in return,” Charley said.
They don’t have a lot of land behind their Montclair Avenue home, but it’s enough to house a large chicken coop with an attached roofed pen, which allows the hens to have daily outside time. It also keeps them safe from predators and from flying away. The coop is currently winterized with tarps and in the warmer months the tarps are removed. Their neighbors, frequent recipients of eggs, don't seem to mind.
For some of these urban farmers, eggs are just the beginning. Unproductive hens are eventually slaughtered. The older a chicken is and the more exercise it gets, the more flavor and texture the meat will have. Since most commercial chickens are confined in small cages and killed when they are about 6 weeks old, their flavor is weaker than their backyard-raised peers, who may be 2 or 3 years old before they make it to the dinner table. However, age does not always mean quality: some older birds may have more flavor, but they can be gamier, with tough, stringy meat.
Andy Martin, also on Montclair Avenue, has been raising chickens for the past two years. The father of four young children built a coop over the backyard sandbox after his children mentioned that it would be fun to have chickens.
“I went to the Tractor Supply store and bought hens,” Martin said. “It’s a hobby for our family and it teaches our kids responsibility as well.”
Although the family currently only uses the chickens for eggs, Martin hasn’t ruled out butchering the livestock for food once they stop producing.
“That’s why we haven’t named them and we don’t consider them to be pets,” Martin said.
Urban hen keepers are springing up around the country. Backyard Poultry, a magazine founded in 2006, caters to this segment of its audience with articles like “Chickens in the City.” On the Internet, thecitychicken.com offers tips to urban owners on how to keep chickens on a high-rise terrace and there are dozens of books on the subject, including Raising Chickens for Dummies.
Several cities have recently enacted ordinances regulating livestock. According to the Batavia Code Enforcement Office, the city currently does not have any ordinances or laws on raising chickens in the city. Pro-poultry people are free to start their own urban farms.
From The Batavian's news partner, WBTA:
Batavia Middle School and the high school are OPEN.
The announcement was made by School Superintendent Christopher Dailey shortly before 6 a.m. this morning in a voice mail message to parents.
Batavia's First Presbyterian Church will be alive with rousing holiday spirit when "Christmas with Vox, a Festival of Carols" comes around on Friday, Dec. 20.
"Vox Lumine," a professional chorus group made up of 25 members from all over Western and Central New York, is performing for the public free of charge at the church, at 300 E. Main St. in Batavia.
Ann Emmans, minister of music at First Presbyterian, says this is going to be "the church's gift to the community."
"We had ('Vox Lumine') at the church for a concert in May," Emmans said, "and it was delightful. We thought, 'What would be more wonderful than to have them back for Christmas?' "
Costs are being covered by the church's memorial donation funds from the last few years.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. and will probably run about an hour and a half, according to "Vox Lumine" first tenor Mark Ross.
A reception with Christmas cookies and punch will follow in the church's fellowship area.
The performance will feature 17 Christmas songs, including classics such as "Carol of the Bells" and "Joy to the World" and lesser know works, as well as pieces with different ethnic backgrounds (including Polish and Italian).
Emmans stressed that the music is "non-commercial" and has a "sacred character."
"It's more about the joy of the season," she said.
"(The Christmas season) is a time when people appreciate music even more than they normally do," Ross said, "because it's associated with the events of the holiday."
"Vox Lumine" was formed in March 2010 by founder and director Brandon Johnson, D.M.A, director of choral activities at Houghton College.
Ross, of Batavia, said they have done concerts as far east as Ithaca and as far west as Orchard Park.
Because members live in scattered locations (the member living at the farthest distance from Batavia is from Syracuse), Johnson sends the music to each of them individually. They will come together in two rehearsals between now and Dec. 20 to "meld" (in Emmans' words) what they have learned together. So each will quite literally bring his/her own voice to the performance.
A Houghton graduate, a member of First Presbyterian Church for 41 years and currently commissioned lay pastor at Stone Church Presbyterian in Bergen, Ross is very happy to be a part of the upcoming performance. It coincides with his retirement from New York Central Mutual Insurance, where he worked for 27 years as an insurance adjustor.
"It's a wonderful combination," he said with a smile on his face.
For more information, call the church at 343-0505 or e-mail Emmans at HEmmans@aol.com.
Pictured Emmans and Ross at the First Presbyterian Church sanctuary.
Top photo submitted by Mark Ross.
Samuel R. Smith, 27, of Townline Road, Bergen, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Smith was allegedly involved in a motor vehicle accident at 9:22 a.m., Sunday, and his children, ages 7 months and 3, were not secured in any sort of child restraint in the back seat at the time of the collision. The arrest report did not indict whether the children were injured or not.
Amanda Ann Mull, 29, of Mill Street, Akron, was arrested on bench warrants related to charges for aggravated unlicensed operation and following too closely. Mull is accused of failure to appear on the charges. She was arrested following her release from the Erie County Jail where she was held on unrelated charges. She was arraigned in Town of Batavia court jailed on $300 cash bail or $500 bond.
A semi-truck driver hit an icy patch on Route 63 near Transit Road early Monday morning causing the truck to leave the roadway, strike a utility pole and overturn.
The driver, Benito A. Taveras Fernandez, 43, of North Bergen, was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital.
Taveras Fernandez was driving a 2004 Freightliner northbound at 3:42 a.m.
The accident was investigated by Deputy Matthew Fleming.
From six to nine inches of lake effect snow are expected to fall on portions of Genesee County today and a lake effect snow warning has been issued through 7 p.m.
The National Weather Services says the heaviest snow will fall south of, and along a line between, Corfu and Le Roy, meaning the bulk of the storm should stay south of Batavia.
Winds will be 15 ot 30 mph, producing blowing and drifting snow. Visibility will be as low as a quarter of a mile at times.
The Alabama Fire Department is on scene at 5912 Knowlesville Road with a car partially submerged in the water.
The driver called 9-1-1 after the vehicle began to fill up with water after going off the road into the swamp.
Alabama fire units on scene say the victim has been extricated and other emergency personnel can come in non-emergency. The Shelby Fire Water Rescue unit will not be needed.
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