An accident involving two vehicles is reported at Ford and Norton roads. Injuries are minor. Elba and Byron fire departments are responding along with medics.
UPDATE 3:07 p.m.: A second ambulance is called in for a subject with chest pain.
UPDATE 3:19 p.m.: Byron is transporting one patient to Strong Memorial Hospital.
UPDATE 4:07 p.m.: The other patient is a 38-year-old male who was taken to UMMC with an injured right hand.
Via WBTA:
Today is primary day in New York State. Genesee County residents can head to the polls for three positions in the towns of Byron and Stafford.
Byron
Republican – Supervisor:
-Robert A. Crnkovich
-Peter N. Yasses
Independence – Highway Superintendent:
-Gerald L. Heins
-Eric J. Toal
Stafford
Republican – Highway Superintendent:
-Steven B. Boldt
-Brian D. Landers
Here are two links to find your polling place: Genesee County Polling Places, Voter Registration Search
One year makes a big difference in high school football.
To start the 2012 season, Elba/Byron-Bergen had the size and experience over Alexander. The final score that opening game was 40-13.
The way Lancers Head Coach Michael Cintorino sees it, the Alexander players didn't forget that smackdown.
Yesterday in Alexander, the tables were turned and the Trojans came out on top 23-6 victory after dominating a rain-drenched second.
"I think the key to the game is Alexander returned an awful lot of guys who are very well coached," Cintorino said. "Their guys came ready to play. Not that we didn't, but they had a little fire in them from what happened to them last year against us. I think that stayed with those young guys and they put their time in during the off season."
The Lancers were powered last season by the legs of Zach DuBois and the arm of Zac Gillard. Both players graduated.
All but three of Alexander's 19 varsity players hit the weight room hard during the off season, said head coach Tim Sawyer. This year, the Trojans may lack the roster size of some other teams, but they can put some big guys on the field.
Senior running back Dylan Scharlau is 6' and 195 lbs. Quinn Furlong, at TE and LB, is an inch shorter, but the same weight. Alton Rupp and Will Burke check in on offense and defense at 190 and 195 lbs. On the offensive and defensive lines are anchored by Kelsey Patten (225 lbs.), Jonathon George (230 lbs.), Damien Hargraves (200 lbs.) and Alex Jewett (245 lbs.).
With Nelson Burke at QB and Zach Laird at wide out, the Trojans can also run and catch.
"Elba is a physical team," Sawyer said. "But we have some pretty good size this year combined with strength. I thought it was a good, even match-up."
The key to the game may have been the start of the second half, which didn't result in a score for Alexander (penalties killed their drive), but it did help turn the tide.
Up by three after Scharlau's 30-yard field goal gave Alexander a 9-6 lead to end the second quarter; the Trojans had the first possession of the third.
"This doesn’t show on the scoreboard but I think this is huge," Sawyer said. "To start the third quarter, we’re going into a strong wind into a driving rain and possessed the ball for seven minutes. We didn’t get any points, but it chewed up their offensive advantage of the wind and all."
The rain and the wind stayed steady throughout the fourth quarter, when the Lancers offense was facing the western end zone. With the wind at their back, the Trojans were able to engineer two touchdown drives.
Burke hit Laird for a 17-yard pass for a TD and Scharlau pushed the pile forward on a goal line TD run, followed by a two-point conversion pass from Burke.
Elba/BB's lone score came on a pass from Garrett Chapell to Kyle Dougherty, giving the Lancer's a quick 6-0 lead.
Last season the 2-6 Trojans had a tendency to get down early and then find it difficult to battle back, so Sawyer as much pleased with the way his team won as he is with a 1-0 start to the season.
"They boys believed in themselves and kept battling," Sawyer said. "To be down early and finish the game 23-6, that’s a big step for our football program."
Both coaches said they have work to do with their teams.
For the Lancers, there's no one glaring issue, Cintorino said. There's a lot of little things, but mainly the mental errors need to be addressed.
Two fumbles in the second half were costly for the Elba/BB.
"I have confidence in this group and I think we can work on those kinks, coach them up, and get them were they need to be," Cintorino said.
It feels good, Sawyer said, to go into the next week trying to improve the team coming off a win.
"We made some mistakes," Sawyer said. "We have some things to work on. It's nice to get the win, but when I got into the team room, it's going to be like, 'Hey, we've got to shore some things up here.' "
On the game Scharlau carried the ball 26 times for 157 yards and two TDs, plus the 30-yard field goal. Burke was six for 11 for 178 yards and one TD pass. Burke also gave up an interception. He ran the ball four times for 29 yards. Laird caught the ball three times for 44 yards and a TD. He had six carries for 36 yards. On defense, Patten had two sacks and four tackles. Laird had a sack, four and a half tackles and a forced fumble.
For Elba, Brandon Naylor gained 78 yards on 17 carries. Chapell was 4-13 for 40 yards and one TD. Austin Yockel caught two passes for 25 yards and Dougherty's one catch was the nine-yard TD reception in the first quarter. On defense, Naylor had 16 tackles and one forced fumble. Andy Underhill had 13 tackles and a forced fumble. Austin Hynes Fisher had six tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Dougherty had four tackles and an interception.
Other football action:
Football next Friday and Saturday:
To purchase prints of photos, click here.
Bonnie S. Olsandi, 44, of 31 Montclair Ave., Batavia, is charged with falsely reporting information about an actual offense/incident. Olsandi is accused of providing false information to police about an actual incident in an attempt to have the wrong person arrested for the alleged crime.
Haley H. Humphrey, 19, of 21 Wood St., Batavia, is charged with offering a false instrument for filing and falsely reporting an emergency. Humphrey is accused of falsely reporting a domestic incident.
Melissa A. Broadbent, 35, of 52 Walnut St., Batavia, is charged with obligation of a parent or guardian. Broadbent was arrested because of alleged curfew violations after her 15-year-old son was apprehended following an investigation of a report that two males were attempting to break into cars near the fire hall. The alleged incident was reported at 11:26 p.m., Sunday. Also charged was Priscilla M. Aiken, 40, of 2 Miller Ave., Batavia.
Joshua R. Hofer, 17, of 67 Mechanic St., Elba, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of alcohol under age 21. Hofer was arrested following an investigation by Batavia PD into a reported disabled vehicle on Walnut Street at 4:07 a.m., Saturday.
Lena M. Evans, 26, of 46 Washington Ave., upper, is charged with petit larceny. Evans is accused of shoplifting at Tops.
Micahel L. Kennedy, 26, of 45 Prospect Ave., Batavia, is charged with felony DWI, felony driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, aggravated unlicensed operation and driving a vehicle without an interlock device. Kennedy was stopped at 1:05 a.m. Saturday on West Main Street by Officer Felicia Degroot.
Ted E. Kingsley, 40, of 119 State St., upper, Batavia, is charged with petit larceny. Kingsley is accused of stealing an 18-pack of beer from Tops.
Douglas A. Porter, 43, of Basom, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater and consumption of alcohol in a motor vehicle. Porter was stopped by Deputy A.J. Previty of the Wyoming County Sheriff's Office at 1:15 a.m. Tuesday on Route 354, Town of Bennington. Previty responded to a report of an erratic driver coming into Wyoming County from Erie County. Porter was jailed on $500 bail.
Elan B. Pire, 24, of Elba, is charged with criminal obstruction of breathing and unlawful imprisonment, 2nd. Pire was arrested by State Police for an alleged incident reported at 8:51 p.m. Saturday in the Town of Byron. No further details released.
Honor, duty, country. For Jason M. Jewett, those words were more than platitudes, said family and friends following his funeral today in North Pembroke.
His coffin was draped in stars and stripes when it arrived at the cemetery after a procession of more than 100 cars through Batavia and East Pembroke. Two honor guards, with white cotton gloves and golden aiguillettes, removed the flag from the casket and with solemn precision folded it into a razor-sharp triangle.
A guard raised his white-gloved hand toward the deep blue sky. Honor, duty, country, he pronounced loudly enough for God to hear.
"For a young man, he was very patriotic," said his mother, Joyce Jewett, after the service. "He loved his country. He loved his fellow man. He helped people in need everywhere he saw people in need. For a young man with a short career, he accomplished a lot in a short time."
Jewett was an agent with ICE and helped train the agency's Special Response Team.
Team members traveled from as far away as Texas to honor their comrade, who died Friday in a traffic accident on East Eden Road, Eden, in Erie County.
More than 250 people attended his funeral.
The Oakfield native touched many lives, making friends instantly with everybody he met, regardless of race or background or means, said longtime friend Nathan Fix.
"He could walk into a room and, even though you never met him, you would smile," Fix said. "He would smile. He had no enemies."
Deputy Joseph Corona counted Jewett as his best friend.
It was Jewett who lured Corona into law enforcement.
"Law enforcement is a path we both enjoyed," Corona said. "He made me passionate about it and made me want to strive for more. He opened doors for me when I had turmoil in my life and uncertainty, and he always led me on the right path."
The outpouring of love for Jewett following his death came from all quarters and from around the country. It showed, said Corona, what a special man he was.
"I'm happy that he was so loved," Corona said. "Everything that he represented was represented here today."
Joyce Jewett said the funeral was not an end, but a transition.
"Right now, we don't consider him gone," Joyce said. "We consider him onto the next mission. God has a mission for him."
Jewett received a 21-gun salute, taps on a trumpet and "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes. His perfectly folded American flag was presented by a member of the SRT to Joyce and his father Joe. The gloves that folded the flag were laid to rest on the casket.
One-by-one, members of SRT placed their division patches on top of the casket. The INS guards filed through the tent where family sat and each gave each member of the family a hug. Then Jason's parents walked over to the line of SRT members and the line of Sheriff's deputies and officers and hugged each of them. Joe Jewett had a private word with each man. Men and women in the assembled gathering sniffled and cried.
"Jason deserved this," Joyce said. "He worked hard and he loved his job."
Fix said in their long friendship, they never drifted apart even as their careers took different paths.
"No matter what Jason did, it was always the right thing," said Fix, who first met Jewett when they were security offices together at Darien Lake years and years ago. Jewett helped Fix when he needed it most and they were neighbors in Oakfield for awhile.
"It was an honor to be at the funeral today," Fix said. "He was like a true guardian angel."
Everything happens for a reason, Joyce said. God has a plan. He brought Corona and her son together and built a special bond between them. That friendship helped form new relationships between ICE and the Sheriff's Office, she said (and Fix, who is a dispatcher and volunteer firefighter agreed). Before, agents and deputies might talk on the phone, but now they know each other personally, Joyce said. That relationship will improve both agencies, she said.
Corona said will never forget his friend.
"He is buried here in a part of a town that I patrol and I'll be here every day that I can be to pay my respects," Corona said. "He'll always be remembered as my best friend."
Joyce Jewett found a few bullet hole stickers among her son's belongings, so she gave them to SRT members and Joseph Corona. Jewett like a good practical joke, she said, and putting the stickers on his casket is the kind of thing he'd appreciate, she said.
A 47-year-old South Byron man continued to proclaim his innocence on sexual abuse charges today right up until moments before Judge Robert C. Noonan sent him to state prison for four years.
John Chrisley, of Mechanic Street, was convicted following a jury trial in July of sexually molesting a young child.
The mother of the child spoke in court today saying that Chrisley used offers of auto repair services to befriend her family and gain access to her young daughter.
"I've been haunted by this baseless allegation since this started," Chrisley told Noonan. "Her statements are 100-percent false."
Chrisley said that the child's mother has also accused him of violating orders of protection and of smoking and dealing marijuana. He said he submitted to a drug test that came out negative.
"I didn't break the order of protection," Chrisley said. "I didn't deal marijuana. I didn't smoke marijuana. I didn't molest that little girl. I don't know why she's accusing me of those things. ... I think the jury judged me not on the law but on emotions."
He vowed that his case would be overturned on appeal.
Noonan said it isn't his role at this point in proceedings to decide whether Chrisley's conviction was proper. His job simply was to sentence him. But he indicated he found the evidence that came out at trial against Chrisley pretty compelling.
"I don't accept your conclusion, your statement that you've been subjected to some sort of torture from baseless allegations," Noonan said. "I heard all of the testimony at the trial and while it wasn't my job to determine if you were guilty, because that's for the jury to decide, it's hard to believe that you were convicted on anything other than the evidence at the trial. There was no emotional display from the jury. They appeared to make a decision by objectively weighing the evidence that was presented at trial."
The mother of the victim said her child now has trust issues, fears men -- even her own father when he tickles her -- and has anger control issues.
She said he could never forgive him for what he did, accusing him of seeing no wrong in harming innocent children.
"If it were up to me, you would be in prison for the rest of your life and then, and only then, would it be a guarantee that you would never touch another child again," she said.
More than 300 people showed up this evening for calling hours at the Gilmartin Funeral Home on West Main Street, Batavia, to pay respects to the memory and the family of Jason M. Jewett.
Among the mourners were about three dozen members of a nationwide car club that was proud to include Jason among its members.
Jewett, 31, of South Byron and originally from Oakfield, died Friday in a car crash in Erie County.
The car club members who attended tonight came from throughout the Northeast, but the majority were from Rochester. They represented three teams within the club: Style by Choice, Sunworks and Street Kings.
Any hardcore car enthusiast, regardless of make or model the member owns, is welcome into the club.
Jewett was all in once he became passionate about cars, according to Kyle McGuckin, team leader of Style by Choice.
His car was a black and yellow Mitsubishi Evolution club members called Pikachu.
"Jay loved his car and everybody knew his car," McGuckin said. "It was bright yellow. You could not miss it."
There's a tight bond between club members, McGuckin said. It just happens to bring them together.
"We wouldn't have known any of these guys without cars," McGuckin said. "We're definitely more about family than just a car crew."
Also honoring Jewett tonight were several members of the local law enforcement community, where Jewett had many friends. He was an agent at the Immigration Customs Enforcement & Deportation facility in Batavia along with being one of 13 instructors for the Special Response Team.
He had worked in and around law enforcement in Genesee County much of his adult life.
Calling hours will continue tomorrow from 3 to 8 p.m.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, at Resurrection Parish, 303 East Main St., Batavia. Interment will be in North Pembroke Cemetery.
Click here for Jewett's obituary.
Jason's nephew Nate Jewett, also a car club member, with his BMW. Nate is active duty Navy currently stationed at Port Hueneme in Ventura County, California.
Besides his car, Jason owned a gray Dodge Ram 1500 that he was proud of. A friend brought it to the wake. With it are Nate Jewett, Zach Hallatt and Huseyin Damlar.
A 31-year-old South Byron man died in a crash this morning in Erie County, according to the Buffalo News.
Jason Jewett and 28-year-old Hamburg resident Steven Webb died in an accident on East Eden Road, Eden, when Jewett apparently lost control of the car he was driving. The car struck a tree and flipped on its side.
Speed is a likely factor in the crash, police said.
A motor-vehicle accident with injuries is reported at Route 237 and Warboys Road. Byron Fire Department and Mercy medics are responding. There are two victims and one of them is trapped in a vehicle and extrication equipment will be needed. Mercy Flight out of Buffalo is available if needed.
UPDATE 12:17 p.m.: Mercy Flight is not needed. The vehicle is now open which had entrapped the patient.
UPDATE 12:19 p.m.: Two ambulances are requested to the scene. Fire police from Byron and South Byron are called in.
UPDATE 12:21 p.m.: Byron command requests all units en route to come in non-emergency mode.
UPDATE 12:29 p.m.: Mercy medics are back in service. One flatbed tow truck is requested.
UPDATE 12:52 p.m.: An 81-year-old male with back and shoulder pain is being transported to UMMC. All responding units are back in service.
It was a beautiful day. I didn't have much time to just drive around and take pictures, but as long as I was out and about, I did grab a few.
Above, a barn at Gillette and Ivison roads, Byron.
Below, three sunflower pictures from the Oderkirk Farm on Route 33, Stafford.
CORRECTION: I misread the press release on name redacted and name redacted and listed charges that were not correct. I apologize profusely to the suspects and their families.
UPDATE: Because of our prior mistake, we offered to remove the names of the first two individuals once this post was no longer on the home page.
name redacted, 18, of Peachy Road, Bergen, is charged with possession of alcohol under age 21. Sabb was arrested at 8:06 p.m. Thursday while at a reported party at an address on Byron Holley Road, Byron. name redacted allegedly possessed 24 beers.
name redacted, 18, of Swamp Road, Byron, is charged possession of alcohol under age 21. Maskell was arrested at 8:06 p.m. Thursday while at a reported party at an address on Byron Holley Road, Byron. name redacted allegedly possessed 18 beers.
Glenn H. Wright Jr., 43, an inmate of the Genesee County Jail, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. Wright allegedly placed a phone call to a person he was barred from contacting by court order.
Sean Douglas Lacy, 26, of West Bergen Road, Bergen, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. Lacy was allegedly found in possession of marijuana during an investigation into a loud music complaint made at 11:55 p.m. Thursday on West Main Road, Byron.
I took a break from the Ramble this afternoon to go out to Ted and Patricia Hawley's barley field in Byron to get some pictures of the harvest.
The Hawleys are opening a malt house -- the first in New York in about 100 years -- and this barley will be used to create malt that can be used by microbreweries throughout the state.
All the rain we've had in the past week have made the harvest a challenge. The grain has to reach a search moisture level -- not too moist -- to be harvested. But in waiting for it to dry out there's a chance the grain could pre-germinate on the stock, which would affect the malting process.
This grain will need to be dried a bit before being stored in a bin because it's a just a bit too moist.
Above is barley grain that has been separated by the combine from the straw. The cut straw is left on the field and will be collected later. It can be used for a feed supplement, for mulch or -- according to Hawley -- dropped in ponds to purify the water. Hawley said it is very effective at cleaning pond water and the Hawleys may eventually try selling some of it for such a use.
Kevin Scroger gave me my first ride in the cab of a combine. Scroger has been operating combines since he was 14 years old. Back then, cabs weren't air conditioned. There weren't even cabs and Scroger said the combines were smaller and harvested fewer acres per hour. Not only are today's cabs air conditioned, they can be driven over a pre-defined route by a GPS system.
Jeremy K. Hogeboom, 38, of South Pearl Street Road, Oakfield, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th, speed not reasonable nor prudent, failure to keep right and unlawful possession of marijuana. Hogeboom was stopped at 12:06 a.m. Friday on Phelps Road, Pembroke, by Deputy James Diehl.
Tyler J. Aina, 21, of 13929 Waterport Circle Road, Albion, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, aggravated unlicensed operation, driving left of pavement marketings and failure to stop at stop sign. Aina was stopped by Officer Darryle Streeter at 1:09 a.m. June 15 on Oak Street.
Derrick R. Kio, 22, of 5471 Hudson Road, Pavilion, is charged with disobeying mandate. Kio is accused of violating an order of protection by calling the protected person.
Keith B. Besaw, 42, of 61 1/2 North Lyon St., Batavia, is charged with operating a motor vehicle without an inspection certificate. Besaw was taken into custody by Batavia PD on an arrest warrant issued in City Court.
Brad C. Doward, 23, of 10 Hall St., Batavia, is charged with aggravated harassment, 2nd, and harassment, 2nd. Doward was allegedly involved in a domestic incident.
A 17-year-old resident of Swamp Road, Byron, is charged with petit larceny. The youth is accused of shoplifting $39.72 in merchandise from Walmart.
Debra M. Davis, 53, and Samantha B. Steiner, 22, both of 620 Yacht Club Drive, Machias, are charged with petit larceny. Davis and Steiner were arrested by State Police in connection with an alleged incident reported in the Town of Alabama in October. No further details released.
Michael Barton Kropp, 49, of Coward Road, Byron, is charged with felony DWI, felony driving with a BAC of .18 or greater and aggravated unlicensed operation, 1st. Deputy Joseph Graff responded at 7:25 p.m. Monday to two reports of a suspicious vehicle on Ivison Road, Byron. Kropp's vehicle was located and he was arrested for allegedly driving drunk.
Jhenna Christine Warren, 23, of Daansen Road, Palmyra, is charged with possession of untaxed cigarettes. Warren was stopped at 3:33 p.m. Tuesday on Route 77, Alabama, by Deputy Joseph Corona for an alleged traffic violation and allegedly found in possession of cartons of untaxed cigarettes.
A 17-year-old resident of Ford Road, Elba, is charged with unlawful dealing with a child, 1st. The youth allegedly hosted an underage drinking party involving 20 people under age 21 at his residence last night.
The third in our series on Genesee County farms and farmers.
The house was ramshackle. There were broken doors and windows that wouldn't close, but the land was good. Carl Yunker knew it was soil he could grow something in.
"I was after the dirt," Carl said. "I said, 'if I got the dirt, I'll get the rest.' This is good land."
He couldn't buy the 200-acre farm and its 30 cows, but he could lease it. He moved his family from Sheldon to a house without plumbing in Elba. It was 1951. The house was more than 100 years old. The Yunkers, married in 1947, and with two young children, would put down roots near the intersection of Transit and North Byron.
Bernice went from cooking with gas to a wood stove in kitchen with warped floorboards.
That first Thanksgiving, she was expecting 17 people for supper. The night before, a cat crept in through the broken door from the cellar into the kitchen and feasted on turkey breast.
The day after Thanksgiving, Carl built a new cellar door.
In the kitchen, paint was peeling from one wall. Bernice drove into Batavia and bought the largest Rand McNally map of the United States she could find. She bought a series of smaller state maps. She decorated the wall with the maps, she said, so visitors would discuss the state of the union rather than the state of the house.
"I said if she lives with me for a year, she will stay with me for good," Carl said.
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| Craig Yunker |
Craig Yunker, the Yunker's second of five children, was born in 1951 in Sheldon. He was raised in the house on Transit Road.
Today, the house that was falling apart 61 years ago, is now the home of Craig and Kimberly Yunker.
It's fully restored, of course. Inside, the walls are white and the floor polished hardwood. Left exposed are structural beams that were hand hewn in the 1820s by strong men with axes and chisels.
Carl, who turns 90 next month, lives with Bernice in a farmhouse built in 1900. When the Yunkers first moved to Elba, the Merrimans, who farmed the land before the Yunkers, lived in the newer house while the Yunkers lived in the older house. After Carl and Bernice moved in, Bernice wanted a little storage room at the back of the house fixed up to use as an artist studio. Carl expanded the room and added a second level, giving Bernice all the space she needed to paint and draw and display her work.
When Carl and Bernice met, she was a preacher's kid in Sheldon. They saw each other for the first time in the foyer of a church.
"When I saw him, he was sort of looking me up and down one Sunday when I went into church and I thought, 'you young snip, you,' " Bernice said. "I thought he was 17 years old and he was 25."
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| Bernice Yunker |
Bernice knew nothing about farming when she met Carl, but she's proud to call herself a farmer's wife. That's the name of her studio -- Farmer's Wife Studio -- where she paints and teaches art classes.
Bernice has been a member of the Genesee County Art Society for more than 50 years.
Her favorite subject is trees. She paints and draws a lot of trees. Well, she paints and draws a lot. Carl said she's a workaholic when it comes to art. When she has five minutes, he said, she's in the studio working on something.
Bernice has completed thousands of pieces of art. Earlier this year, she threw out about 700 of her paintings.
Living on a farm, Bernice said, her children learned the value of work. The boys started working in the barns when they were 7, getting paid for their work. By the time they were 12, they were buying their own clothes.
"I don't see how the city people to it," Bernice said. "These boys were never under my feet because they were working."
After all that farm work, Craig wasn't sure he wanted to be a farmer. His mother dropped him off at Cornell University for his freshman year and that's when he told her, he wasn't sure he wanted to farm.
He read Jack Kerouac. As Dean Moriarty took to the road, so did Craig Yunker. After the first semester of his second year at Cornell, Craig left on a six-month ramble across America. He drove a 1963 Chevy. He packed a Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DLT camera. In Las Vegas, his car was done and he was out of money. He managed to make it to California and spent some time at a commune before returning to New York.
He came home and went back to Cornell. Craig has a degree in agricultural economics and a master's in resource economics.
Carl had gone from tenant farmer to farm owner in 1963. When Craig came home, father and son became partners.
All of Craig's siblings found pursuits other than farming. Gail, the oldest, lives on a boat north of Seattle. Chris, three years younger than Craig, is a military man and lives in Virginia. Joy lives in Troy and Heidi lives in Medina.
CY Farms is owned today by Carl, Craig, Craig's son, Christian, and P.J. Riner, who is now retired but for years handled the day-to-day operations of the farm while Craig managed the business and CY's growth.
What started as a 200-acre tenant dairy farm is now 6,000 acres of turf, corn, wheat, soybeans, alfalfa, onions and green peas.
How CY transformed from a small dairy farm to one of the largest crop farms in WNY is as much a story of persistence and hard work as good fortune, Craig said.
"I'd like to be able to tell you that I had everything planned out, but some things just happen," Craig said. "Our success is sort of a hybrid of luck and timing with some hard work thrown in, but a lot of it is just luck."
The big turning point came in 1986, when CY Farms was a 400-acre operation with 300 cows.
The federal government decided the country was awash in dairy products. The USDA wanted fewer cows and fewer dairy farms. The government set up a reverse auction -- farmers would set a price for their herd and the government would start with the lowest bid and buy up more and more herds at higher and higher prices until the target number of cows were purchased.
If farmers put in a bid, they obligated themselves to destroying their cows or exporting them to a foreign country.
"We submitted a fairly high bid and I was fairly confident that we wouldn't get taken," Craig said. "We only bid it because it's just one of those things where everything has it's price, so we said let's put in a number high enough that if we get taken we'll be happy. We didn't expect to get taken and we did. We were surprised that our bid got accepted, but we had already signed it so we had no choice at that point."
The Yunkers had a year to dispose of their herd. By contract, they couldn't produce milk for five years.
The story continues after the jump. Click on the headline to read more.
They were left with 400 acres of land. As Carl said, good land. Good soil. You can grow things in good soil, things like corn and peas and cabbage.
"I thought at that time, maybe we'll get back in the dairy business, but we never went back to milking cows," Craig said.
Carl Yunker made the right decision in 1951. He came to Genesee County because he thought the good, flat farm fields of Elba would give him more flexibilty as a farmer than the hill country around Sheldon.
Without cows, CY Farms became a crop farm and began to grow.
Carl was also working on his own plan. By age 65, he wanted to start backing out of the business and handing over more control to Craig.
Too many farmers, according to Carl said, don't have a plan for handing their farms off to their children.
"That's one of my big criticism of family farms where dad hangs on so long and doesn't give the younger generation the opportunity to develop themslves and move on," Carl said.
Family farms that cease being family farms have meant opportunity for the Yunkers.
There was, for example, a 900-acre farm -- including muckland -- that fell into the hands of four brothers. Four feuding brothers. The brothers sold off their farm equipment and leased the land to CY Farms.
Craig knew better than to sit all four brothers in a room and try to buy their land.
"If one guy liked this deal the other guy wouldn't like the deal because the other brother liked the deal," Craig said.
He was patient. He stayed friendly with each brother.
"It took, I think, two years, but I got that deal," Craig said.
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| Mucklands |
It was a big deal. Too big for CY to handle on its own. To help finance the purchase, Craig sold off some of the land to a neighboring farmer.
The purchase included muck, good onion-growing muck. CY Farms added onions to their product line.
Next, they added grass.
Perhaps the biggest deal for the Yunkers was the purchase of Batavia Turf. Initially Craig was just interested in acquiring more crop land. Tony Peca owned 600 acres of farmland. Craig was thinking about the land, not the business.
Peca started Batavia Turf in 1960 and it was the original turf farm in New York. When the Thruway was constructed through Genesee County, part of the deal was Peca could keep his billboard next to the I-90. Batavia Turf has the only billboard in New York on Thruway Authority property.
"(The business) was very well known," Craig said, and as he dug into the particulars of the deal, he realized it would be a good thing to buy not just the land, but the business.
"We looked at it as an opportunity to expand," Craig said.
Peca's two sons signed on as Yunker employees to oversee turf production and manage the marketing for two years. They were paid above-average salaries, Craig said, to help the Yunkers break into the business.
"We didn't know anything about growing turf and we didn't know anything about marketing turf," Craig said.
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| Calves at CY Heifer Farm |
The Yunkers, of course, as former dairy farmers, do know cows, and in a different way, the next CY Farms expansion got the family back into the dairy business. Rather than milk cows, they raise them for area dairy farmers.
The opportunity came to the Yunkers when Agway let one of its business units fall into bankruptcy.
A few years before, Agway managers decided one of the secrets of success for dairy farmers in California was the replacement heifer business. Rather than dairy farmers raising their own calves, there are whole farms that do nothing but raise calves for other farmers. Agway thought that might be a good business line in WNY.
The company picked land owned by CY Properities for the operation. Raising calves means manure. Manure means noxious odors. Cow odors can cause complaints from nearby residents. The Yunkers owned a plot of land just southwest of the mucklands. Up on a ridge, overlooking the onion fields, a bit isolated from residential neighborhoods. The wind carries odors away from any homes in the area and out over the farmfields. It seemed like a smart spot to raise calves and convert manure into plant food.
CY Heifers takes in calves from about 10 dairy farmers in the area. As they grow, they move through a series of barns according to size and age until they're old enough to be moved back into the farmers production herd. The dairy farms can concentrate on milk production rather than raising their own calves.
The 6,000 acres of CY Farms is divided among 60 or so parcels in Elba, Byron, Batavia and Stafford. All of the land is owned by CY Properties, which leases land to CY Farms, Batavia Turf and CY Heifers.
Each business unit operates on its own P&L (profit and loss statement), but farm equipment and employees are shared among the operations.
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| The morning managers' meeting |
It takes a lot of coordination to manage the crops, the land, the equipment and the people (just under 50 employees total). Each morning at 6:30, Craig Yunker and the farm's five managers meet in a Mid-century ranch home that has been converted to office space on the southeast corner of Transit and North Byron.
Meeting with Craig every day are Christian Yunker, Charles Augello, Chuck Barie, Mac Ewell and Mike Riner.
First topic each morning: The weather. Cold, rain, wind and sun -- whatever the elements -- will determine much of the work schedule for the day. It's hard to plow a field when it's muddy and darn near useless to spray pea plants in the wind.
"Everything starts with weather and then you plan your day," Craig said.
The morning meeting is a time to balance priorities against available resources. There's usually more work than hours in the day or feet on the ground.
"There are five us every morning judging who needs what tractor, who needs what truck, who needs what personnel or this or that, and sometimes, you know, something has to wait," Craig said. "One man is going to be frustrated because he's got his plan, but there aren't enough tractors, trucks and people to do everything."
What crops are grown each season is planned out up to a year in advance.
Craig and his team make a P&L for every crop they grow.
"Each crop is analyzed on its own for its own profitability," Craig said. "If crops are not profitable in one year, that's normal, but if it's a trend and they stop making us money, then we stop growing them. We did that with tomatoes."
This year, you won't find any cabbage growing on CY property. When the management team analyzed the potential for cabbage, two problems loomed large: The Affordable Health Care Act and the difficulty in hiring migrant labor.
Cabbage may grow again on CY Farms, but first Craig said he needs to be assured that employing more than 50 people won't drive up the cost of health insurance and he needs to know he can hire legal workers that won't get swept away in immigration raids.
Solutions to those problems, if there are any, will only come out of Washington.
Then, there's the price of corn. Last year and this, corn prices have hit historically high levels.
Craig's office is dominated by a large wooden desk. He has a bookshelf and filing cabinet. On one wall are original color pen-and-ink drawings by Don Carmicheal of the Old Courthouse and County Building #1, momentos of Craig's tenure as chairman of the Genesee County Legislature in the 1980s.
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| Corn |
On the back of door, Craig keeps a poster of corn prices.
For more than 100 years, it shows corn prices fluctuating in a fairly nominal pattern, then there's a big spike -- prices climbed above $5 a few years back -- then prices returned to a fairly normal level.
Craig points to a spot off the chart and says, "now prices are here."
That would be somewhere over the $6 mark.
Six-dollar corn is another reason not to grow cabbage.
Last year's drought in the Midwest and this year's flooding in the Eastern Corn Belt have been good things for WNY corn growers.
"Last year we got prices higher than we ever expected and we had a very good year because of that," Craig said. "We forward-contracted our corn and sold a good portion of the next year's crop."
Near the corner of Route 262 and Ivison Road are a half dozen storage bins that glisten in the sun. They're made to store feed corn. Cabbage is a perishable crop and must be sold close to harvest. Corn can be stored much longer.
"The idea is to sell it when it's profitable and not when you have to sell it," Craig said.
Onions are a crop that must be sold at harvest, too. It's one of the most challenging crops CY Farms grows. Out on the muck, farmers battle wind, rain and weeds. It's no different for the small muck farmer or the big muck farmer.
The demand for onions doesn't change much year to year.
As Craig put it, a restaurant isn't going to buy more onions just because the price drops. If the price is high, it doesn't suppress demand.
That can make growing onions at a profit a challenge.
Which is why Craig thinks CY Farms has an advantage with its 6,000 acres and more than half a dozen crops it grows. Farm managers can rotate crops, react to changes in the market and the weather and absorb, in most years, unexpected price fluctuations.
"One of the advantages we have over somebody that just grows onions is that diversity and that stabilizing effect," Craig said.
The production numbers for CY Farms in a typical year are impressive:
Batavia Turf grows more than 100 acres of grass per year, but it takes 18 to 24 months to bring grass from seed to sod, sliced and rolled onto pallets ready for delivery to customers from Pittsburgh to Watertown.
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| Jose Castanada and Katie Houseknect |
With 5,000 acres available for crop rotation, the grass-growing business has benefited from being absorbed into CY Farms. One problem smaller turf operations run into is that with only a few hundred acres available, used year after year for the same crop, the sod is more susceptible to weeds and disease.
Jose Castaneda manages the turf operation and Katie Houseknect and Chuck Hoover sell the grass.
"Jose makes it easy to sell a quality product," Houseknect said. "We do have the finest quality sod in WNY because of our quality soil. The emerald green color, the guarantee of quality, the fact that we can rotate our crop and keep the sod clean of any type of infestations makes it easy to sell."
The grass is 20 percent Kentucky Bluegrass and varieties of fescue. The fescue is more drought and disease tolorant than Bluegrass and helps Batavia Turf's sod keep its emerald green color even in dry summers.
Every day (except rain days) during the spring and summer, crews use a precision, computer-controlled grass harvester to cut and roll the turf. Grass is delivered to clients the same day or the day before it's scheduled for planting.
Customers include homeowners, schools, landscapers, contractors and sports field owners.
Yunker is clearly proud of the role Batavia Turf has played in helping diversify the family business and add to its overall growth.
Running a big farm keeps Craig busy, but he still has time for himself. He's never lost his love of adventure.
In his office, behind his desk, is a large photo of a sailboat charging through the waters of Lake Ontario.
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| Craig Yunker with his Hemingway collection |
Craig loves sailing. The man who once drove a '63 Chevy across America still loves to travel. And he loves Ernest Hemingway.
When Craig travels, he prefers to stay where Hemingway stayed.
Hemingway lived in Havana for a time, so Craig has been to Cuba.
When visitors enter the home of Craig and Kimberly Yunker, they find themselves first in a room with few pieces of furniture. There are a couple of paintings on the walls. To the back of the room is a floor-to-ceiling window that frames a green back yard. Yellow roses grow by the patio. On the south wall of the room, at the center of the house, there is also a cabinet filled books by Hemingway and about Hemingway.
Craig and Kimberly have three children: Christian, 33, Cyrus, 35 and Katherine, 31. There's a picture of their children with the Hemingway books.
Upstairs in the old farmhouse, Craig pointed to a wineskin hanging from a single nail pounded into one of the exposed, hand-hewn beams of a guest room. The wineskin is autographed.
The skin is from Pamplona, Spain. Hemingway made many trips in his time to Pamplona. He wrote about the bullfights there. In "The Sun Also Rises" men drink wine from bota bags in Pamplona.
When Craig sojourned in Pamplona, he stopped in a shop to buy a wineskin. Craig spoke to his travel companion. He mentioned Hemingway. The shop owner exlaimed, "Oh, Ernesto!" The little man scurried to the back of the store and retrieved a photo. It was a framed print of the shop owner with Hemingway standing behind him while the shop owner signed a wineskin.
Next to the wineskin, hanging from that wooded beam is a photo of Craig Yunker standing where Ernesto once stood while the shop owner signed his wineskin.
"What do you like about Hemingway?"
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| Christian Yunker |
"His sense of adventure. He was his own person. He lived his own life. I like his style of writing. It's straightforward."
CY Farms is a big operation now, and Christian Yunker is next in line to run it. Like father, like son, Craig is giving Christian increasing responsibility for the farm over the years, just as his father did with him.
Christian is also a graduate of Cornell. After college, he worked in New Jersey for six years handling farm loans for Farm Credit East. It was good experience. It gave him a broader knowledge of what it takes to run a modern farm.
Like a lot of sons, Christian admires his father and thinks Craig has a real talent for the business.
"He has the ability to deal with people and negotiate deals," Christian said. "He's much more of a big-picture thinker. Most of his decision-making is about five, 10 years down the road, which for some people doesn't come as naturally as it does for him."
Christian has two young daughters -- much too young to know if they'll take to farming.
"I want them to be successful in life, so I'm not going to presume anything," Christian said.
Looking down the road, Christian said, perhaps they won't run the farm. Perhaps it will become an employee-run operation. It's too soon to say.
So these days, while little girls play and farmworkers work, one of the favorite pastimes of Carl Yunker is sitting on his porch reading novels and watching the traffic pass on Transit Road. Carl figures half the traffic is trucks and tractors owned by CY Farms.
He said he's proud of what the little farm in Elba has become. He thinks it will be around for a good long while now.
"I hope it keeps going successfully, and I'm sure it will," Carl said. "We've got a great team of people put together. People are the heart of an operation. You've gotta have good people or you don't have much."
These two pictures were made from just about the same spot on Ivison Road, Byron, just before sunset yesterday.
Major General Patrick A. Murphy, the Adjutant General, announced the recent reenlistment of members of the New York Army National Guard in recognition of their continuing commitment to serve community, state and nation as part of the Army National Guard.
Sergeant First Class Charles Jensen, from Byron, has reenlisted to continue service with the Company A, 2-108th Infantry.
"The New York Army National Guard has sustained our force at or above 100 percent strength for the better part of five years now," Murphy said. "Keeping those ready forces in our ranks mean that New York is ready to provide forces for state missions here at home, as we saw during Hurricane Sandy or for the federal missions supporting our nation around the country and around the world."
"Each of our 16,000 men and women serving in the Army and Air National Guard as an important role and I'm pleased that so many continue to reenlist and remain part of our New York National Guard family."
Three local students were named to Clarkson University dean's list for the Spring 2013 semester:
Patrick Flynn, of Batavia, a sophomore majoring in Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
Jacob Muench, of Darien, a sophomore majoring in Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
Casey Engle, of Byron, a senior majoring in Electrical Engineering.
Dean's list students must achieve a minimum 3.25 grade-point average and also carry at least 14 credit hours. Clarkson University is located in Potsdam.
Wind and rain over the past few weeks are making muck farmers a little edgy about their onion crop for this season.
They know now they won't have a bumper crop, especially from fields planted with seed rather than transplants, but what happens with the weather over the next four weeks will be critical.
Following two-and-a-half inches of rain last week, they need some dry whether, but another inch of rain is forecast for tomorrow (Thursday).
"It would be nice if it were 80 degrees, sunny and a little bit of breeze," said Paul Mortellaro of G. Mortellaro & Sons.
On a tour of the muck today, Mortellaro pointed out the fields planted with transplants look pretty healthy. They're less susceptible to rain and the bigger plants are better equipped to respirate (pump off the water from the ground).
Fields planted with seedlings have been thinned out by wind -- wind can shear off an onion top -- or have been too saturated by water and there's been some die-off.
The right time for some rain would be when the onions start to bulb, which is three our four weeks from now.
"What determines the size of the onion is its size when it starts to bulb," Mortellaro said. "We need some good rain during that time."
Even with the slow start, the muckers could get perfect whether the rest of the season and enjoy a good harvest.
"Three or for weeks from now, this all could be forgotten," Mortellaro said.
"He's right," said Maureen Torrey of Torrey Farms. "We have a long way to go before our crops are made."
Beyond that, Torrey was hesitant to comment because she didn't want to jinx anything.
Christian Yunker at CY Farms said early indications are yields will be down this year, but how much depends on what happens with the weather the rest of the growing season.
Right now, he said, a lot of onions have "wet feet," and that inhibits their growth. Like other farmers of the muck, he's hoping tomorrow's storm doesn't do too much damage and then we get some dry weather.
"It's pretty early to tell, but we've taken a little bit of a hit," Yunker said. "They're not off to a great start, but it's too early to say your yield will be down to X."
Photo: A seeded muck field. The dead-looking plants in between the green rows of onions is barley, planted along side the onion seeds to act as a wind break. Once the onions reach a certain stage of grow, the barley is killed off.
Rhonda L. Reisman, 40, of 105 State St., is charged with dog running at large. Batavia PD received a complaint of a dog running at large on State Street. Reisman was identified as the owner.
Heather E. Schramm, 33, of 48 South Main St., Batavia, is charged with aggravated harassment, 2nd. Schramm is accused of sending a threatening message to another person.
Arron Lee Zimblis, 49, of 114 Vine St., Batavia, is charged with DWI, failure to stop, unsafe movement of a stopped motor vehicle and failure to yield right of way to an emergency vehicle. Officer Jamie Givens allegedly observed Zimblis commit traffic infractions Wednesday after receiving a report of an intoxicated person leaving a residence.
Daniel S. Anderson, 37, of 239 S. Swan St., Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of a weapon, 3rd. Anderson was arrested Friday following an investigation into a prior complaint. He was ordered held pending a court appearance today.
Billy Joe Johnson, 35, of 3910 W. Main Street Road, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd. Johnson was arrested following an investigation into an alleged incident reported at 7:02 a.m., Sunday, at a location on State Street.
Shawn Allen Bush, 43, of Alleghany Road, Pembroke, is charged with two counts harassment, 2nd. Bush allegedly threatened to harm his ex-girlfriend and son while in an intoxicated condition.
Brian Russell Wilson, 24, of Back Street, Pembroke, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. Wilson was allegedly found in possession of marijuana during a traffic stop at 12:58 a.m. Sunday on Main Street, Oakfield, by Deputy Patrick Reeves. Matthew Metehan Osmancikli, 20, of Lewiston Road, Basom, was also charged.
Anthony Mark Matla, 42, of Park Avenue, Oakfield, is charged with harassment, 2nd. Matla allegedly threated to harm another person Saturday during an argument at a residence on Pratt Road.
A 16-year-old resident of Warboys Road, Byron, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance. The youth was allegedly found in possession of half a hydrocodone pill while at Byron-Bergen High School.
Jennifer L. Sprague, 30, of Pringle Avenue, Batavia, was arrested on a child neglect charge out of Family Court. Sprague was arrested after a bit of an alleged confrontation with police at her residence. Deputy John Baiocco reports that Sprague slammed the door after he arrived at the residence and locked herself inside. The house was surrounded with the help of Batavia PD and following some negotiations, Baiocco was able to arrest Sprague.
Heather D. Stone, 18, of Ellwood Drive, Rochester, is charged with burglary, 3rd, and petit larceny. Stone was turned over to the Sheriff's Office after being released from the Monroe County Jail on an unrelated matter. A warrant had been issued in Town of Le Roy Court for Stone's arrest. She was jailed on $2,500 bail.
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