A motor-vehicle accident has been reported on the Thruway in the area of mile marker 386.7 in the eastbound lane.
As many as three cars may be involved and there are possible injuries.
Town of Batavia Fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.
UPDATE 4:52 p.m.: Fire crews on scene. There are no reports of any serious injuries.
Le Roy Christian Community Project celebrated its 15th anniversary today with a picnic in Trigon Park, which featured chicken BBQ, live music, games, booths and beautiful spring sunshine.
LCCP is a coalition of Le Roy churches that provides a variety of outreach and community services to the people of Le Roy, including after school programs, free weekly meals and a caregivers support group.
Press release:
Genesee ARC’s Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony is an opportunity to celebrate and say thank you to those who have made a difference to Genesee ARC over the past year.
In addressing guests at Friday’s event at the Clarion Hotel, Executive Director Donna Saskowski described the last 12 months as challenging.
“We have faced the loss of a major contract (trash and recycling) as well as state budget reductions that may change how we do business in the future,” Saskowski said. "However, through all of that I continue to see a very dedicated group of staff and supportive families working to help guide our way."
Looking to the future, Saskowski said, “We are not going anywhere; we are here for the long haul. I can say this with conviction because our mission is to provide supports and services to individuals with disabilities and their families.”
The 2013 Spirit of ARC Award was presented to the Genesee County Office for the Aging and Director Pamela Whitmore. This award was established eight years ago to recognize an organization, business, family or individual that exemplifies the mission of ARC. Genesee ARC’s relationship with the Office for the Aging began more than three years ago when they reached out to ARC’s vocational department to request assistance in setting up tables for various activities at the Senior Center on Bank Street. This has resulted in part-time employment for three or four people several times per week ever since.
Earlier this year, Genesee ARC’s Culinary Arts Program was awarded the contract to provide meals for Genesee County’s Meals on Wheels program.
“This was the beginning of four new jobs for people we support,” Saskowski said. “Ten months later we are producing more than 100 meals daily and this contract maintains employment for those four people who are also doing something they love.”
Additionally, the Genesee County Office of the Aging provides support to some ARC seniors and assistance with tax preparation each year for many people served by ARC.
Volunteer of the Year honors were presented to Dawn Fisher, a Human Services teacher at Genesee Valley Educational Partnership.
Saskowski said, “Dawn embraces the values of integrity, honesty, and independence and is always looking for integration opportunities for people with disabilities.”
Fisher coordinates many activities involving her human services students and individuals from ARC. The Volunteer of the Year is also active in the Challenger Sports program, is a key volunteer for the Challenger Winter Fun Day and is a longtime member of the Down Syndrome Parent Support Group of Genesee County that has been supportive of Genesee ARC’s mission.
In the youth category, the spotlight was on Ashley McCormack, 12, of Darien as she was presented Youth Spotlight Award. ARC Director of Development Shelley Falitico presented the award and shared that when Ashley has a goal in mind, she does everything she can to accomplish it!
“Last fall Ashley raised $875.00 for Genesee ARC through the Challenger Sports Bowling Party. In 2010, she raised $610,” Falitico said.
Ashley has been involved in Challenger Sports since ARC’s collaboration with the YMCA began seven years ago.
“Whether soccer, dance, bowling or baseball, Ashley always gives 110 percent,” Falitico said.
Friend of ARC Awards were presented to:
Laverne Bates, for helping develop a golf program for individuals with disabilities served by Genesee ARC and for enlisting the enthusiastic volunteer support of his family;
Ben Bonarigo, in recognition of his longtime support and commitment of Genesee ARC programs and services;
Deirdre Pehrson, a special education teacher at Genesee Valley Educational Partnership for going above and beyond to help her students excel and succeed;
Mosman Paint & Wallpaper for the difference they make in the lives of individuals with disabilities at the Genesee ARC Day Habilitation Center by donating items used for arts and crafts;
Brandon Armstrong, owner of City Styles Barber Shop, was recognized for his welcoming ways with individuals from one of ARC’s residences, who are customers of the shop;
and Cory Weber, a volunteer who has helped out with Special Olympics Track & Field, Softball and Snowshoeing competitions.
The following received Genesee ARC Achievement awards: Tyler Kreutter,
Stacy Gill, Deborah Lehman, Sarah Dieck, Jennifer Pawlak, Betsy Hamilton, Valerie Penepent, Terry Warters and Samuel Russell.
Genesee Staff Shining Star honorees for 2013 are: Vanessa Dempsey, Medicaid Service coordinator; Theresa O’Hearn, Day Habilitation specialist; Catherine Pangrazio, bus aide; Rebecca Podlasek, Culinary Arts specialist and Karen Roesch, residential assistant.
Longevity awards went to the following individuals: Dan O’Grady, Joe Barone and George Hughes -- 40 years; Madaline Cleveland, Jeff Glazier, Liana Harding -- 35 years; Julieanne George, Sherry Markle -- 30 years; Judy Chapell, Ben Conwell, Paul Alexander -- 25 years; William, Joseph Mergler, Paul Miller, Alan Nygard, Cheryl Squires, Dolores Wanser, Rebecca Ritz and Marguerite Rodriguez -- 20 years.
Staff longevity award recipients were: Sandy Konfederath -- 20 years; Joseph Hoak, Teresa Hodge, Nicole Mudrzynski and Traci Manes -- 15 years; Andrea Anderson, Leoti Cudney, Jennifer Elmore, Sandra Moskal, Catherine Schultz and April Zeilman -- 10 years.
The Master of Ceremonies was Assemblyman Steve Hawley. There were more than 325 guests in attendance at the banquet, which also serves as Genesee ARC’s official annual meeting.
Board Officers for the upcoming year are: Candie Pocock, president; Debrah Fischer, vice president; Jane Scott, treasurer and Deborah Riggi, secretary.
Photo from Genesee ARC. Pictured are, Pam Whitmore, representing the Genesee County Office for the Aging -- Spirit of ARC Award; Dawn Fisher -- Volunteer of the Year; Assemblyman Steve Hawley -- Master of Ceremonies; Donna Saskowski -- ARC Executive Director, and (seated), Ashley McCormack -- Youth Spotlight Award.
A couple is roadside in the area of Prole Road and Horseshoe Lake Road with a Great Dane who is "very friendly" that they found wandering in the area.
The animal control officer is on another call and about to go off shift, so a dispatcher raised a deputy on air and informed him, "I guess you're the Great Dane catcher today."
"It's what I live for," responds the deputy drolly.
UPDATE: The owner has been located and the deputy can stand down.
The Notre Dame girls softball team closed out the season Friday with a come-from-behind victory over Lyndonville in game played at GCC.
As the defending state champions, the Fighting Irish finish out the season with a 10-8 record, which is good enough to make it to the first round of sectional play, but Head Coach Rick Mancuso said the team still needs to eliminate some mistakes to advance further.
"We're getting better," Mancuso said. "The girls are working really hard. We're not probably where we want to be, but we'll see what happens. We'll throw our hat out there and see how it goes."
Friday's game was a seesaw battle, with Notre Dame and Lyndonville exchange the lead just about every inning.
Going into the bottom of the seventh, down 10-9, the Irish needed to string some hits together and plate two runs to pull out a victory.
The team was loose and confident at the start of the inning and got the job done to notch an 11-10 victory.
"The girls did a great job of rallying back any time we got down," Mancuso said. "They showed a lot of character today."
In the slide show is the sequence of shots from Maddie Mancuso's slide into home in the 4th inning. She was called out. You make the call.
To purchase prints, click here.
The Lyndonville Tigers, a semi-pro football team that plays all of its home games at Pembroke Town Park, will hold a scrimmage at 3 p.m. tomorrow and is inviting local football fans out to the park to see the team.
The event is free.
Players 18 and older are also encouraged to come out and learn more about the team.
The Tigers are entering their third season playing in Pembroke and the team is 10 years old. The NFA has 16 teams.
"We have a great returning roster but are always looking for new players and I think our pre-season scrimmage is a great way for interested parties to come feel out the team," said Taylor McCabe, president of football operations for the Tigers.
Press release:
Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,I,C-Batavia) recently voiced his support for the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) and its successful efforts to attract a Dick’s Sporting Goods store to Towne Centre Mall in Batavia. The group was able to secure the store’s move through pro-business tax incentives, which will create local employment opportunities and increase sales tax revenue to support local programs and services. Hawley defended GCEDC against attacks from Buffalo-area Assemblyman Sean Ryan, who has publicly criticized the local economic development effort.
“Here in Batavia and across Genesee County, we deserve access to both consumer choice and employment opportunities. By attracting Dick’s to Towne Centre Mall, GCEDC has helped bolster both,” Hawley said. “Assemblyman Ryan’s attacks on our local economy are completely uncalled for. While he purports to be concerned with the use of state tax dollars, surely he would agree that one of the highest-taxed states in the nation has bigger fish to fry than Genesee County’s legal ability to strengthen its own economy. I believe it is in the best interests of all involved that assembly members focus on their own constituents and that he focuses on revitalizing Buffalo’s economy.”
“The GCEDC was created to help increase the tax base, create new jobs as well as bring new investment and revenues into our community. This project fulfills all of these criteria and without our assistance, these benefits would not be realized,” said Steve Hyde, president and CEO of the GCEDC. “The project will create jobs, increase sales tax revenue, bring new goods and services into the community, and reinvigorate what is currently a large, vacant space located at the gateway of our community off of I-90.”
Hawley noted the crucial role the GCEDC has played in attracting job creators to Genesee County and keeping them here long-term.
“Between the Genesee Valley Agri-business Park, Oakta Hills and countless other projects, GCEDC has long been at the forefront of job creation and economic development in our community,” Hawley said. “Throughout my time in the Assembly, we have worked diligently to revitalize our local economy, and GCEDC has my full support in its effort to bring jobs to our community.”
Press release:
“The Genesee County Economic Development Center requested and received a legal opinion regarding the approval of tax incentives for the COR Development project in the Town of Batavia as well as whether the project is legally exempt from new retail provisions recently passed into state law.
“We are pleased to announce that this opinion supports the recent vote by our board to approve these incentives as well as the exemption to the new law.
“The GCEDC strongly believes that this project will bring goods into the community that are not currently available to area residents. It should be noted that other tenants also will be opening in near future providing residents with other goods and services in what is currently a large vacant space located at the gateway of our community off of the I-90.”
“More importantly, the sales tax revenues that will be generated in just one year will be more than the incentives provided to the developer. The GCEDC was created to help create new jobs as well as bring new investment and revenues into our community. This project fulfills all of these criteria and without our assistance these benefits would not be realized.”
Downoad: PDF of Attorney's Letter.
Batavia PD is looking for the public's assistance in identifying a hit-and-run driver who struck a parked car in front of 19 Vine St., Batavia, at 8:24 a.m., Thursday.
Both vehicles were damaged in the accident.
The suspect vehicle is described as a dark colored compact. It is missing its right side view mirror. It was last seen heading southbound on Vine Street.
Anybody with information to share can reach out to Officer Thad Mart, (585) 345-6450.
This is the second in a series of profiles of Genesee County's farms and farmers.
Working the muck has never been easy.
When third-generation muck farmer Joe Bezon was a boy, he would work alongside his mother, each on their hands and knees, pulling weeds.
Seeds were planted by hand and it took manual labor to bring in the crop. When muck is wet, it's deep and muddy ground. When it's dry, the fine dust gets in your eyes and nose and the sun's rays radiate heat off the black soil.
Today, machinery and chemicals make sowing, harvesting and weeding easier, but no machine can control Mother Nature, or the government.
Winds damage crops and workers are harder to find as the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) rounds up all the farm labor.
Still, Bezon, in his 75th year, toils on, and is quite happy doing it.
"I enjoy it and I got this (highland in Byron, where we were standing talking) and that (muckland in Orleans County) down there and I've got a son who helps me all the time," Bezon said. "If I had to do it all myself, it would be a different story."
Today, Bezon & Sons Farm is 383 acres, with 110 acres of muckland, and is run by Joe, his wife Edith, son Joey and son-in-law Jim.
The Bezons, along with the Mortellaros and the Halats, are the last of the original muckland farmers in Genesee County.
Before the 1950s, there were as many as 160 families working the muck, each with plots of three to 10 acres of land.
As machinery was invented to make farming muck easier, and more and more farmers figured there has got to be an easier way to make a living, the families of the muck thinned out.
The Bezons were among the first to start consolidating their holdings.
Joey Bezon, who like his father has been working the muck his whole life, is perhaps the last Bezon who will farm the muck, unless his son, who now works for CY Farms, decides to work the Bezon land some day.
"I have a little bit of pride in it because we're one of the only ones who stuck with it," Joey said. "There was something like 160 some 40 or 50 years ago and everybody just kind of threw in the towel except for only a handful who are left and could stay with it. We used to be big or medium size and now we're one of the smallest ones. How long we can stay in the game with everybody else getting bigger, that's the challenge."
Muckland is reclaimed swampland. Over hundreds of years, trees and vegetation rotted in standing water to create a rich black soil that is full of tiny wood chips, making it both porous and a good medium for retaining moisture. It's about 80 percent organic matter.
Early muckers grew carrots, lettuce, spinach, potatoes and onions. Today, onions are the big muck crop locally, with some potatoes, and some of the more played-out muck west of Route 98 is used to grow turf.
Onions need deep, loose well-drained soil that retains moisture. There's big onion production in the desert soil of California, but the black muck of Genesee and Orleans counties has more organic matter and retains moisture better.
"Muck is special because unlike sandy soils or clay soils, the roots grow aggressively in it and they get enough moisture to form the onion," said Paul Mortellaro who has also been working mucklands his entire life with his family.
We call it the Elba Muck, but a majority of the 6,000 acres of muck still being farmed is in Orleans County. There's a lot in Byron, and just a corner of the southwest part of the fields are in Elba.
Elba may host the Onion Festival, but there hasn't been an onion grown in Elba for years, as far as anybody knows.
There was once more farmable muck in Elba, but to be useful, the mucklands need to be several feet deep. Much of the muck farms in Elba have been lost to oxidation and wind. What little of it left is used to grown corn and turf.
The local muckland was once part of the Alabama Swamp, which once covered 25,000 acres.
After the turn of the 20th Century, local residents were increasingly concerned about odor, mosquitoes and disease associated with the swamplands in Elba and Byron. (source for historical background)
Perhaps the entire Alabama Swamp would have been drained at the time, but much of the area has rocks and stone much closer to the surface than the Elba Muck. To be tillable, muck must be several feet deep.
And even to this day, farmers still pull out rotting tree stumps that work their way to the surface of the muck every spring.
It took the invention of the steam shovel to make draining the swamps possible.
Western New York Farms Company, based in New York City, owned 9,000 acres of muckland, and at the urging of state officials, drainage work started in 1913. By 1914, there were eight miles of canals 20 feet deep in place and lumberjacks started removing trees.
Farming started in 1915.
While muck farming was immediately successful, Farms Co. always intended to lease the land to tenant farmers, and the first leases were signed in 1916. The first year, Farms Co. leased land for $50 an acre and made machinery and assistance available to farmers. The next year, prices dropped to $35 an acre, but no more help came from Farms Co.
In 1927, Farms Co. decided to sell off its land, offering plots on favorable terms to farmers.
Edith Bezon isn't sure when Joe's father and mother first bought into the mucklands. It was before 1936.
The elder Bezon was the son of a muck farmer 17 miles to the west. Joe Bezon said when his grandfather died he had a chance to take over that farm, but he couldn't see farming Elba Muck and muck 17 miles away.
The Bezon's started out with a couple of 10-acre plots that they worked by hand.
When Joe's mother was weeding, she used onion crates as cribs for her boys.
"I can picture that," Joe said. "I can take you down where the shade was. There was a lean-to. They'd put us in a crate and put another one on top of it. There was a ditch right along the muck. I filled it all in and put tile in it. She would put us in the lean-to and she'd take straps and tie two crates together and set us there."
It was the only way to keep the rambunctious boys safe while she worked.
"We would say we wouldn't, don't worry we won't, we won't go out there," Joe said. "But as soon as they got down to the second plot and they'd have their backs to us, we'd run down the road with a wheelbarrow that they carried the weeds with. We would run up and down the road with it. Of course, in those days, there was traffic going, but heck, today, there's no traffic down there."
As time went on, Joe's father diversified his holdings. He bought other land, including ranch land on Oak Orchard Road in Elba where he started raising Angus. Today, that land is a dairy farm owned by Joe's younger brother, Eugene.
Joe's older brother left the muck for good when he went off to fight in World War II.
When he returned, he helped his father run his two motels -- the Sunset Motel on West Main Street Road, Batavia, and the Park Oak Motel, once just off Route 98 and the Thruway exit in Batavia.
Joe and Edith grew up together. Both went to Elba Central School.
When they were first married, they had a place on Pekin Road, but in 1966 bought a farm and farmhouse on Searls Road, Byron.
There they raised their two sons -- Joey and Rick -- and two daughters -- Laurie and Amanda.
Laurie now lives just down the road. She married Jim, who works with Bezon & Sons and Amanda went to work in pharmaceuticals and lives in Philadelphia.
"She enjoys the city life," Edith said. "She always said, 'I only showed 4-H because my dad made me.' "
Rick works at Genesee Community College.
Joe and Edith have five grandchildren.
"The family is growing, but I don't know about being farmers," Edith said.
"We don't have any of the grandchildren working here because it's such a hard life and most years there isn't a lot of money in it," Edith said. "The past few years, we've been doing good, but in 2010, we had no crop at all on the muck. We got flooded out and it was so late, we couldn't put seed in. We had to go to crop insurance, but that's the first time we ever had to do it."
Besides onions on the muck -- the only crop the Bezons have ever grown on the muck -- the family grows on its upland farm cabbage, corn and soy beans.
For years, the Bezons would put in 20 acres of cabbage, which can be a pretty lucrative crop in good years, but the short supply of farm labor has them cutting back to 12 acres this year.
"It's all gone back to the family doing all of the work," Edith said. "I wish they would come up with a program for us where we could hire workers and not worry about the INS coming in and getting them all."
She said when there are immigration raids, officials round up all the workers -- here legally or not -- and take all of them back to Batavia to sort out, which is a major disruption the farm work.
On the farm, Joe also raises beef cattle. Edith calls it his hobby. Joe says it's the favorite part of farming.
All of the Bezon cattle is slaughtered and butchered right on the farm by Joey. The meat is sold to local residents -- the ones who pay their bills, Joe said.
By this time of year, the Bezons have finished planting their onion seeds.
While the Torreys and some other muck farms plant seedlings, the Bezons prefer seeds.
Onion seeds are very, very tiny. They are rolled in clay, which helps make it easier to plant the seeds using machines.
Rows of barley are planted between the rows of onions to help prevent wind erosion of the muck and protect the tender baby onion leaves from wind damage.
There are little wood chips in the muck that can tear an onion leaf to shreds.
"The wind moves those little chips around like buzz saws and they will cut the tops right off," Edith said.
In the early part of the growing season, onions are in a precarious state. Paul Mortellaro said it isn't unusual to lose one in four acres of new plants to wind.
The Mortellaros typically plant seedlings, but whether seedlings or seeds, when you account for the plants, the fertilizer, the labor, the land costs, taxes and the water, expenses for an acre of onions is from $2,500 to $5,000.
The good years -- which don't happen often, Mortellaro said -- can generate about $12,000 per acre in revenue.
Some years, there's no profit, and perhaps even a loss on the onion fields of the mucklands.
The muck is like its own little microclimate, Mortellaro said. The black soil radiates the heat and makes the flatlands much like a desert in the midst of lush Western New York.
"I've seen it," Mortellaro said, "since the time I was 10 out there weeding -- clouds coming in from Buffalo and they totally disappear by the time they get to the Elba Muck. My brother and I used to speculate that there was a column of warm air rising up from the muck. It is a mini desert during the summertime. It can be really really dry."
If you have good eyes, on a dry, windy day, you can see spirals of dust rising 500 feet into the air, looking like a tornado, Mortellaro said.
The Torreys have added their own above-ground, automated irrigation system to their muck property, but the Bezons largely irrigate by hand.
There were years, Edith said, when she and Joe would sleep in their truck all night, waking at regular intervals to move the irrigation lines.
The Bezons put down about a ton of nitrogen fertilizer per acre of muck, Edith said.
You might think muck, being such an organically rich soil, wouldn't need fertilizer, but new plants in the spring need a lot of nitrogen to get started. After that, the wonders of the muck do the job, but the nitrogen once trapped by the swamp was long ago depleted.
"When they first broke up the muck, all this compost was giving up its nitrogen and it got to the point where it was all leached out," Mortellaro said. "After about five years, you couldn't grow a decent crop without putting those inputs into the muck, so going back as far as anybody can remember, you've had to put in quite a bit of fertilizer."
The onion harvest for the Bezons will be in late August or early September. Edith helps drive the harvest truck when the time comes.
The onions are first pulled out of the ground and left to sit in the sun for three days. The tops need to dry so they will fall off and not get caught up in the machinery. Without that proper topping off, the onions are more susceptible to disease.
If there isn't three days of warm sun, it jeopardizes the harvest.
The onions are scooped up by a self-propelled onion harvester that was invented and built in Elba by Lee Shuknecht and Sons.
Throughout the growing season, the Bezons battle two of nature's persistent elements: Wind and weeds.
To Joe, some of his neighbors aren't very good muckers. They let weeds grow around their plots and don't do a very good job of maintaining their hedgerows.
Hedges, only about four-feet tall, separate plots in the mucklands. They act as wind breaks and catch some of the muck that might otherwise blow away.
Edith estimates that wind carries away about an inch of muck a year. She figures by the time her grandson is ready to retire -- if he becomes a mucker -- there won't be any muck left to farm.
It's not just wind, but also oxidation that depletes the muck, Mortellaro said.
The little particles of wood that make up muck dry out in the summer heat or during a winter drought just like old barn wood, Mortellaro said.
Even with wind and oxidation, Mortellaro isn't sure the muck is declining at the rate of an inch a year -- the process probably isn't that linear, but certainly, a lot of muck has disappeared over the past 90 years.
He's excavated enough around the the gravel roadways -- built on top of muck -- to see what the original level of the muck used to be, he said. He estimates that areas that were once 12-feet deep in muck are now nine-feet deep.
"It is discouraging," Mortelloro said. "You see the gravel road out there. The road doesn't go away and the fields keep getting lower."
The Bezons own 110 acres of muckland, but only 98 acres are tillable. There are swaths of former muckland that are now just rocks.
As for weeds, Joe is obsessive about weeds, Edith said.
You don't get good onions when weeds are growing in the fields, Joe said. Onions don't do well when competing for nutrients. At harvest, the weeds get all tangled up in the machinery and have to be picked out during grading.
"Joe has always really taken care of the land, because that's what he lives for, being down there mucking," Edith said. "He's been down there since he was born."
It used to be that weeds had to be removed by hand and carried off in bags or buckets. Now Joe uses mostly chemicals, he said.
"Weeding is not like it used to be," Joe said. "You were out there on your hands and knees. I've got pictures of my mother out on her hands and knees weeding in the muck. We didn't have chemicals in those days. Now, heck, you can put it out there and keep it clean."
Sure there are some hardships with farming muck, Joe said, but it's nothing like the old days. The worst part of machine farming is maintaining the equipment. When it breaks, it is a lot more expensive to fix.
So long as he's got help, though, Joe said he can handle the work.
All the machinery in the world can't change the weather or the wind or the nature of muck, Edith said.
"You've always got to be one step ahead of Mother Nature," Edith said. "Out here, some days, she can be very cruel."
Joe and Edith on one of their upland plots. Joe was plowing that day, preparing the field for planting.
Joey Bezon in a field that will soon be growing corn. The tractor is a loaner because one of the Bezon's tractors was in the shop being repaired. As farm machinery has gotten more complex, it's more expensive to fix and harder for the farmer to do it himself.
Muck -- sifted a bit by the wind so that the wood chips are a little more visible.
Onions and barley growing in a muck field. If you look at the picture in the slide show below at full-screen resolution, the little onion sprouts will be easier to see. In the distance, rocks that were once buried by muck. Wind and oxidation are reducing the amount of muck in the mucklands every year.
Press release:
The Landmark Society of Genesee County announces the winners of the Society’s 2013 4th Grade Architectural Drawing Contest.
The 2013 Awards Ceremony held on May 9 at the Richmond Memorial Library in Batavia. Fourth-grade students from Elba Central School and Byron-Bergen Central School participated. The following awards were given:
First Place -- Mason Singer; Byron Bergen; drawing. He received $50, a framed certificate and a copy of the book "The Architectural Heritage of Genesee County."
Second Place -- Zachary Howard; Elba; watercolor
Third Place -- Lilliana Thompson; Elba; cardboard bas relief
The second- and third-place winners each received $25, a framed certificate, and a copy of "The Architectural Heritage of Genesee County."
Honorable Mentions from Byron-Bergen included: Eden Goft, Jonah Clare, Sara Goodman, Ricky Denson, Joshua Swapceinski, and John Mercovich.
Honorable Mentions from Elba included: Kiah Rosendale, Brynn Walczak, Jessica Andrade, Anthony Zambito, and Madison Meuhlig.
The judges for this year’s contest were Laurie and Felipe Oltramari. Mrs. Oltramari is employed at the City of Batavia Business Improvement District. Mr. Oltramari is director of planning for Genesee County. Both are members of the Landmark Society of Genesee County and Mrs. Oltramari has previously served as president of the organization. Stephanie Rudman from Elba Central School coordinated the contest and Melissa Coniglio from Byron-Bergen Central School assisted.
A one-vehicle rollover accident with injuries is reported on Ellicott Street Road, near Shepard Road, Town of Batavia.
Town of Batavia Fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.
A chief on scene reports the vehicle is on the shoulder and on its wheels.
UPDATE 7:08 a.m.: Town of Batavia back in service.
Was the Genesee County Economic Development Center Board of Directors' decision to provide $1.7 million in tax abatements to COR Development legal?
That depends on who you ask.
A Buffalo assemblyman thinks the GCEDC board violated provisions of the 2013-14 budget act, which attempts to curtail state sales tax abatments for retail projects.
Assemblyman Sean Ryan is asking for an investigation by the state's tax commissioner, but when The Batavian contacted Taxation and Finance Department last week, it took awhile to get a response and when we did, the agency passed the buck to the state's Budget Office.
So far, no state agency has expressed much interest in taking a closer look at GCEDC's actions.
At issue is a resolution passed by the GCEDC board that found COR's proposal to redevelop the former Lowe's location in Batavia Towne Center meets the necessary legal requirements to receive state aid.
Specifically, under terms of the law, an IDA cannot provide relief on state sales tax without making certain findings. Among the possible findings are that the project will serve as a tourist destination or that it's in a highly distressed area.
The finding for the COR project by the GCEDC board was that the project provides goods and services that are not readily available to local residents from current retail stores.
At the time the board passed the resolution, the only publicly announced tenant for COR's project was Dick's Sporting Goods.
Last week, at a Town of Batavia Planning Board meeting, it came out that Kohl's is a likely tenant.
There may be at least one other, and possibly a fourth, tenant, but there's no reliable indication of who those tenants might be.
Today, GCEDC Chairman Charlie Cook said at the time of the vote, the board had been given two other names, but acknowledged negotiations were still under way between the retailers and COR at the time of the vote. There is no guarantee that those retailers will be the ones to eventually occupy the space.
The big question is whether Dick's meets the requirement under the law for providing goods and services not readily available in the local market.
Ryan has pointed out -- as most Genesee County residents know -- there are four sporting goods stores in Batavia. There are also three department stores that sell sporting goods.
Cook said he's not much of a sporting goods shopper and is largely unaware of the type of merchandise carried by Dick's or what local retailers might offer that is similar or different.
"I feel the input that I had from the people in the community was that having Dick's here would be a huge draw for the surrounding area, and I guess that's something people will always have a differing opinion about," Cook said.
Prior to approving the COR abatements, the GCEDC conducted a public hearing on the project, as required by law.
COR VP Joseph B. Gerardi made a presentation about the project at the hearing, but no GCEDC staff covered the agency's position on the project.
The pending resolution, with its key finding about the uniqueness of the project, was not made available by GCEDC staff at the meeting or prior to the vote by the board the following Thursday.
In other words, the public had no opportunity to review specifically what the board would vote on and comment on it.
State law enacted in 2012 requires "to the extent practicable" that resolutions to be voted on be made available to the public prior to the meeting.
We requested an interview with GCEDC CEO Steve Hyde this afternoon, but he was tied up in meetings and unavailable.
After the May 2 vote approving package of incentives, The Batavian began making inquiries trying to find out who, if anyone, would enforce the IDA law if there was any question about its application for a retail project.
We found press offices with state agencies willing to provide information "on background," but nobody willing to provide on-the-record information about the law and how it's enforced, if at all.
One exception was the Comptroller's Office, where spokesman Bruce Butry was willing to be as helpful as he could be.
The Comptroller's Office could conceivably audit the GCEDC and even focus on this specific project, but an audit would merely result in a written report, leaving it up to the County Legislature to act, or not, on any findings.
"At the end of the day, it's up to the people in the local community," Butry said. "Some of these IDAs operate with very little accountability other than the pressure put on the boards by the public regarding the types of projects they're going to approve."
The Governor's Office had no on-the-record comment about the law or the local situation.
Butry suggested we try Taxation and Finance. Once we reached the right person, he was very friendly, but he said it was up to the state's Budget Office to answer any questions about the law.
In response to a long list of e-mailed questions, Morris Peters, spokesman for New York State Division of Budget, provided some information "on background," and this statement for publication:
“Under these reforms, grocery stores will no longer be given tax breaks to move across the street. Tax dollars will be focused on those industries that create jobs and companies who will move to New York to help build our economy.”
Assemblyman Steve Hawley, who represents Genesee County, isn't surprised that Albany is keeping this issue at arm's length. He believes the decisions to provide abatements is a local issue and should be considered beyond interference from state agencies.
"I try not to meddle in local decision-making because there are too many people who do, like Mr. Ryan," Hawley said.
In response to Ryan's making public statements about the COR abatements, Hawley and Sen. Mike Ranzenhofer, who also represents Genesee County, were trying to organize a press conference for tomorrow to highlight the successes of GCEDC and invite Ryan to take a closer look at the agency, with an eye toward how he might better help his own constituents in the City of Buffalo achieve greater economic prosperity.
Scheduling conflicts may prevent that press conference from taking place.
Earlier today, Ryan and Hawley had a brief phone conversation in which Hawley said he asked Ryan, "Have you moved to Genesee County?"
When Ryan returned a call to The Batavian, he said, "I understand some people there are upset with me."
But Ryan said it was legitimate for him to call into question the GCEDC giveaway of state tax money because it affects his constituents, too, as it does all taxpayers in the State of New York.
"It all goes back to this: whose tax dollars are they handing out?" Ryan said. "Those tax dollars belong to every taxpayer in the State of New York."
A cynic might think that Ryan's real motive is to keep Dick's Sporting Goods out of Batavia so that Genesee County residents continue to drive to Erie County to shop.
Ryan said, "You could say that, but you should say he wants high wage jobs so that people can raise families and that we should use our scarce revenue to bring in those high wage jobs, not low-paying retail jobs that require people to draw on Medicare and food stamps because the wages are so low. That's not good for our economy and that's not good economic development."
To Ryan's point, the Comptroller's Office has a long history of taking a critical look at IDAs, even before Thomas DiNapoli held the office, particularly in the area of tax abatements for retail projects.
The current law attempting to curtail tax breaks for retail projects is based on a similar law that the state Legislature allowed to expire in 2008.
In 2006, the Comptroller's Office issued a report looking at implementation of the law and found that IDAs found creative ways to skirt it.
(The) exceptions, all of which are applied at the discretion of local IDA boards, can make the retail prohibition ineffective.
Since the application of these exceptions is determined at the discretion of each IDA, these criteria are sometimes subject to expansive interpretations.
The examples given were out of Erie County and included "tourism destination" designation for projects because they were located near an airport or Thruway exit.
Last week, the office again issued a report on IDAs and included a discussion of why it's important to curtail tax breaks for retail projects.
Retail projects generally do not increase the level of jobs available in a region or economic activity, as project-related gains often come at the expense of other retail enterprises in the area, and the jobs associated with retail trade tend to pay significantly less than manufacturing or other professional jobs. The restriction on retail projects was reinstated in the 2013-14 State Fiscal Year Budget, indicating that State policymakers understand the limited usefulness of these projects for economic development.
And ...
Very few of the IDAs sponsoring retail projects reported the estimated salaries of the jobs to be created, but data from the New York State Department of Labor shows that the average starting salary for a retail salesperson is $17,250, while the average for first line retail supervisors is $28,720.
IDAs, Ryan said, have become "subsidy machines."
"COR gets these subsidies from Buffalo to Syracuse," Ryan said. "They've figured it out. They know they can come to these IDAs and have their project viewed favorably because they say, 'see what a great thing we're doing for the community,' and everybody can say they're a part of it. The politicians run for election and stand in front of the place and say, 'look at what we brought here.' "
Ryan doesn't even believe it's about the commission check GCEDC will get for the project, which could total $100,000. It's about looking good, he said.
Even if Ryan is successful -- and Hawley doubts anybody in Albany will take serious an out-of-district assembly member calling for an investigation -- in getting the tax commissioner to look at the project, it's unclear from the IDA law what power, if any, the commissioner has to overturn a local decision.
Here's the relevant section of the law:
The commissioner is hereby authorized to audit the records, actions, and proceedings of an IDA and of its agents and project operators to ensure that the IDA and its agents and project operators comply with all the requirements of this section. Any information the commissioner finds in the course of such audit may be used by the commissioner to assess and determine state and local taxes of the IDA's agent or project operator.
And even if the commissioner can recapture the tax revenue, Butry, from the Comptroller's Office, said it only applies to the state sales tax incentive.
COR received a tax break on state and local sales tax for the purchase of building material, as well as a revised PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) on the increased assessment and mortgage tax relief.
Ryan agrees that there is no provision in the law for anybody in Albany to overturn the PILOT, the local sales tax or mortgage tax abatement. Those are entirely local decisions.
At the public hearing, Gerardi said the local share of sales tax revenue from the project would be $1 million.
Using that as a base for calculation, that puts projected annual gross revenue at build out at about $26 million.
Gerardi said the retailers coming into the project would invest $11 million.
Those don't sound like numbers, Ryan said, of companies that need tax incentives to build retail projects and create a playing field that isn't level for existing retailers.
Charlie Cook said he truly believes that in a small market like Batavia, big retailers won't come here without a reduction in their operating costs.
"You hate to see that big empty building just sitting there," Cook said. "They are offering an opportuinty to fill it with something that is vibrant and exciting and has the potential to draw in outside people."
Mike Barrett of Batavia Marine and Kurt Fisher of Fisher Sports have said they believe they can compete with Dick's on quality and service and Cook said he is hoping that is true.
"As you pointed out, these businesses have proven to be resilient and able to find niches and services that continue to make them very successful," Cook said. "That's my hope, that everyone is going to be a winner in the long run."
Cook said he and the GCEDC board are just trying to do the best they can for the community and there's no intent to subvert the law.
"We're a board of volunteers and the one thing we're interested in is promoting business development in Genesee County," Cook said. "That's our only motivation to sit on the board and when those opportunities come up, we embrace them."
As to any legal concerns raised by Ryan, Cook said that GCEDC has asked its attorneys to review Ryan's assertions, but Cook also said that prior to the board's vote, legal counsel assured the board that the action it was about to take was legal and proper.
"We're not out to push anything through that is improper," Cook said. All the information we had said it was perfectly proper and I guess at this point, we'll defend that. If it turns out that it wasn't, we'll review our policies and not do that anymore."
Tonight Genesee ARC hosted its annual Stardust Ball at the Byron Fire Hall.
Some 65 people, including ARC clients and family members, attended the event.
Couples were encouraged to wear the best gowns or suits and each received a handmade -- by volunteers -- corsage or boutonnière. Attendees could also get a formal portrait taken as a keepsake.
Top photo, Josh Derick (a big fan of The Batavian) and Jennifer Pavlick.
Steven Jenney and Joanne Ladd
Collin Wickings and Nicole Hirtzel
Justin Shaw and Colleen Fisher
Press release:
Warm weather is back and Darien Lake is helping Western New York cool off this summer with more than one million gallons of water. Darien Lake’s water park will open this Saturday, May 18, 2013, from 10:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
“We made a big splash for our 50-year anniversary with new attractions and upgrades at our opening last weekend,” said Bob Montgomery, general manager at Darien Lake. “Now, with summer weather here again, families can beat the heat and have a blast as we open our water park.”
Free with the price of park admission, the water park is a 10-acre water park keeping park guests cool with more than 1 million gallons of water. There is something for everyone, with slides, tube rides and more.
Take the plunge on the Tornado, which boasts a high-speed 132-foot long tunnel that rockets thrill seekers at speeds of 20 mph or take a break as you relax and float down the lazy river on the Flotation Station. Guests can soak up the sun and ride the waves in Crocodile Isle, a 600,000 gallon wave pool.
At Hooks Lagoon, children will have barrels of fun with pirate ships, water slides and pools. Also perfect for families is the Big Kahuna, a four-person rafting adventure.
The water parkwill be open during every park operating day from now through Sept. 2. For the months of May and June, Darien Lake’s operating schedule is primarily weekends and holidays, with full-season daily operation beginning June 14.
For additional details on the water park and all of attractions and lodging available at Darien Lake, please visit www.DarienLake.com.
Press release:
Congressman Chris Collins (NY-27) voted yesterday to approve the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act of 2013 and move it out of the House Agriculture Committee. The bill was passed by a large, bipartisan vote of 36-10.
“I am proud the committee was able to come together and pass a farm bill that will give American farmers the certainty they need to plan for the future,” Congressman Collins said. “Agriculture is critical to the economy of Western New York, and I am proud to have been able to represent the farmers of my district on this important issue.”
Congressman Collins also helped secure additional funding for the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI), which provides funding to land grant universities, such as Cornell University, to conduct research on specialty crops. Last year’s Farm Bill, which was not passed on the House floor, included $450 million in funding for the SCRI over 10 years. The FARRM Act of 2013 includes $600 million in mandatory funding for the program, which had expired under the current nine-month extension.
Securing funding for the SCRI was important to Congressman Collins as specialty crops farmers across Western New York have consistently cited how critical the ability to conduct research is to their enterprise and industry as it will pioneer new technologies, advanced plant varieties, and help New York farmers generate higher profits.
“New York Farm Bureau is very appreciative of Congressman Chris Collins’ commitment to New York’s farmers. His support in committee of the 2013 Farm Bill sets the stage to provide a stronger safety net for our dairy and specialty crop farmers who help support their local economies,” said Dean Norton, president of New York Farm Bureau.
The legislation also contained major reforms to current U.S. dairy policy. The Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program and Dairy Product Price Support Program have been replaced with a new margin protection program that will better reflect a dairy farmer’s real costs by now equating the cost of feed. This program will ensure Western New York dairy farmers get the support they need to meet the market demands.
The program known as the Dairy Market Stabilization Plan or “supply management,” which would dictate how much a dairy farmer could produce, was also included in the bill. Congressman Collins supported an amendment that would strike this program after hearing near unanimous opinion from his Agriculture Advisory Board that “supply management” would inflate prices for consumers, restrict dairy industry growth, and burden farmers with additional government intervention.
Similar legislation was completed on Tuesday in the Senate Committee on Agriculture. The Farm Bill will now need to be debated on the House floor.
"I am proud of the Committee's effort to advance a farm bill with significant savings and reforms. We achieve nearly $40 billion in savings by eliminating outdated government programs and reforming others. No other committee in Congress is voluntarily cutting money, in a bipartisan way, from its jurisdiction to reduce the size and scope of the federal government. I appreciate the efforts of my colleagues and the bipartisan nature in which this legislation was written and approved. I look forward to debating the bill on the House floor this summer," said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (OK-3).
Highlights include:
-- FARRM saves nearly $40 billion in mandatory funds, including the immediate sequestration of $6 billion;
-- FARRM repeals or consolidates more than 100 programs;
-- FARRM eliminates direct payments, which farmers received regardless of market conditions;
-- FARRM streamlines and reforms commodity policy while also giving producers a choice in how best to manage risk;
-- FARRM includes the first reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, saving more than $20 billion;
-- FARRM consolidates 23 conservation programs into 13, improving program delivery to producers and saving more than $6 billion;
-- FARRM builds on previous investments to fruit and vegetable production, farmers markets, and local food systems;
-- FARRM includes several regulatory relief measures to help mitigate burdens farmers, ranchers, and rural communities face;
For more than 20 years, CY Farms has been a major cabbage producer, but this year, not one seedling of cabbage will be dropped in the 400 to 500 acres of land normally set aside for the typically lucrative crop.
Instead, CY will grow a crop less labor intensive -- corn.
Craig Yunker said it was a difficult decision, but the twin challenges of Obamacare and the lack of immigration reform made growing cabbage this year untenable.
The decision will take millions of dollars out of the local economy, Yunker said.
Yunker and his staff made the decision in February because CY had to notify Pudgie Riner, owner of Triple P Farms, that CY wouldn't buy cabbage seedlings from him this year.
"We're not selling our cabbage equipment and we're not selling our cabbage facility," Yunker said. "We're taking a year off to see if this immigration thing settles out and to see if they can come up with more farmer-friendly regulations for Obamacare. If they do, we may grow cabbage again next year."
Typically, CY Farms employs 68 full-time equivalents, and 20 of those workers handle the cabbage operation.
Eliminating those 20 jobs, brings the CY workforce to 48, two below the 50-worker threshold that requires healthcare coverage under President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The act requires employers with 50 or more employees, regardless of revenue, to provide health coverage or pay higher taxes.
There's also a farm labor shortage in Western New York because of decades of immigration mismanagement.
Yunker is hopeful, to some degree, that the House and the Senate will be able to agree on immigration reform this year.
There is a bill under review in the Senate this week that both farmers and ag-worker groups seem to agree is a good move.
The bill would create a "blue card" for experienced workers already in the country. The workers would pay a $400 fee, need to prove they've paid taxes on their earnings and show they've not been accused of committing crimes. Up to 113,000 workers annually who are currently in the country without documentation would be eligible for the newly created blue cards over the next five years.
The bill also sets new visa policies for farm workers to cross the border legally for temporary farm work.
Ag-worker advocates applaud the bill's new minimum wage requirements in several ag-worker categories and praise the chance for workes to gain legal status, which advocates believe will improve working conditions.
The bill also puts farmer worker immigration under the oversight of the USDA, which is where it belongs, said NYS Farm Bureau President Dean Norton.
"We brought together a coalition of agriculture and the farm workers unions and negotiated," Norton said. "Do we get everything we wanted? No, but if this becomes law, it will be a lot better than what we have now."
Maureen Torrey, who has been working on immigration reform for 17 years and has seen attempt after attempt at reform go down in flames, is worried the highly partisan climate in Washington these days will kill this effort as well.
Reform is absolutely necessary if New York wants to keep its dairy industry, she said.
"If Congress doesn't get this passed fast enough, our dairy industry is in trouble," Torrey said. "We don't have enough people to work on the dairies and the dairies have no other option."
Non-dairy farms can use the H2A visa program to bring in a limited number of temporary workers for seasonal work, but dairy work is year-round and there is no visa program to address that need, she said.
The lack of immigration policy is having an ongoing effect on the nature of agriculture in WNY, Torrey said, and not in a good way.
More and more farmers are growing more and more corn because it's cheaper to grow and less labor intensive, but with fewer workers and lower profit margins, millions and millions of dollars are being drained out of the local economy.
Torrey said the labor costs are from $70,000 to $90,000 to grow one thousand acres of field corn, but from $1.5 million to $2 million to grow one thousand acres of cabbage.
Even with the lower cost, she said, the amount of profit on corn isn't what it is for cabbage.
"I'm really concerned about our rural communities," Torrey said. "The ag community has always been very, very good about supporting nonprofits, the hospitals, the colleges, the Boy Scouts, but if you don't have a chance to generate a profit, you don't have a chance to make the community a better place."
Ag workers are also an important part of the local economy with a real multiplier effect when they spend their earnings at local stores, car dealerships and restaurants.
Some local farming families began as immigrant families, Torrey said, migrant workers also gain experience and fill other needed roles in the economy.
Migrant workers and their children tend to be the most qualified to take on food processing jobs, she said. They have the skills and experience necessary to do the work.
"Do you think a degree from a two- or four-year school is going to prepare you for food processing work?" Torrey said. "It isn't. Only hands-on experience is going to do that. Because of the lack of an immigration policy, we've lost two generation of workers."
Yunker is worried that the House and the Senate won't be able to arrive at a compromise with the biggest sticking point being the Senate version's "path to citizenship."
"My take on it is the Senate is intent on passing a comprehensive immigration reform package that includes a path to citizenship," Yunker said. "Personally, I don't object to that at all. The House has a conservative wing that is objecting to that pathway."
Yunker said he's spoken personally to Sen. Charles Schumer -- one of the key architects of the reform bill -- and Rep. Chris Collins about the legislation.
"Selfishly, I say the blue card is adequate and just get me workers," Yunker said. "I'm not sure that's the right thing in the long run. The House wants to go piecemeal on this and just solve some problems. The Senate will want a comprehensive package and they'll deadlock.
"I think Collins believes if the House pushes back on the path to citizenship and just takes care of agriculture that the Senate would accept that as a compromise," he added. "I'm not so convinced."
Press release:
New York State Taxpayer Rights Advocate Camille Siano Enders today encouraged homeowners, businesses and others who own property to review their assessments before the deadline, which is May 28 in most communities.
“In only two years, the property tax cap is controlling the growth of property taxes and shining unprecedented light on local budgets,” Enders said. “By visiting your city or town’s Web site and checking your assessment, you can make sure that you are not paying more than your fair share of local taxes.”
Local assessment rolls, required to be available from local Web sites, list the property’s estimated market value and property tax exemptions. If the market value is significantly higher than the price for which the property could be sold, the property owner should consider the following steps:
When requesting an assessment reduction, it is helpful for property owners to have an estimate of the market value of their home and documentation to support the decrease.
Is your community keeping assessments up-to-date?
Reassessments enable cities and towns to ensure that assessments reflect current market values. During a reassessment, all of the properties in the community are reviewed, and assessments are increased or decreased where appropriate.
“The longer it has been since your locality has done a reassessment, the more likely it is that your assessment no longer reflects the market value of your property,” Enders said. “For each property that is under-assessed, there is another property that is paying more than its fair share of taxes.”
Some municipalities keep assessments up-to-date annually, while others haven’t reassessed in decades.
When properties do not reflect market value and are under-assessed, it does not mean the town, county or school district is collecting less in taxes. Rather, the under-assessment shifts the tax burden to other properties that are over-assessed or assessed fairly.
For more information:
Residents on Trumbull Parkway between Farwell Street and North Street are asked not to park on the street at any point on Friday before 7 p.m.
City crews will spend the day repairing a pipeline.
Residents and businesses in the area may experience limited and delayed access to their property during the hours of operations, which start at 8 a.m.
Motorists are asked to seek alternative routes.
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