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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.

The Batavian: Downstate urban legislators trying to push through farm labor bill

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:

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:

1. Talk with the assessor -- Often, an informal discussion between a property owner and an assessor can be beneficial to both parties.
    
2. File an assessment grievance -- If an informal meeting doesn’t result in relief, property owners can file for assessment review. The local board of assessment review will review and respond to the information provided.
    
3. File for small claims assessment review -- Available only to homeowners who don’t receive relief through the formal grievance process. Cost is $30 and review will be conducted by a court-appointed hearing officer. 

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.  

• Learn more about determining the market value of a home.  

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.  

• Learn when cities and towns last reassessed property.  

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:

• Visit Municipal Profiles for local contact information, grievance dates and more;
• Watch videos on assessments and the grievance process.

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.

Sarah Della Penna takes walks with her Great Danes out on a piece of property off Creek Road, Batavia, and always takes her camera. She sent in some of her recent pictures.

Washington Post: US officials recommend lowering drunken driving threshold to .05 blood alcohol to save lives

County legislators got their first look today at the proposed 2013-2014 for Genesee Community College, which asks the county for another $100,000 in local share and includes a $75-per-semester fee increase for full-time students.

While other community colleges in the region are suffering declining enrollment rates of 5 to 8 percent, those trends aren't hitting GCC quite as hard, College President Jim Sunser said.

Next year, the college could even see a slight bump in enrollment, thanks to more programs and students looking for mid-career training.

"Some of that (anticipated increase) has to do with our effort to reach out to the non-traditional population," Sunser said. "We can help them retool their skills. I thnk that's an area where we can look at providing new services and move enrollment."

Examples include a supply chain management and food processing -- programs that were created in response to construction of two big yogurt plants at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park.

The college's veterinarian tech program has also proven to be popular, Sunser said.

GCC is not exempt from the decline of enrollments of high school graduates. Throughout the state, Sunser said, population declines mean fewer high school students, but GCC has done better at attracting those students, Sunser said, because GCC has a solid reputation for preparing students for four-year programs.

The total budget is $38 million, a 2.7-percent increase over this year's budget.

The county share is proposed to jump over $2 million for the first time, with an increase of $100,000, but the share remains at 5.3 percent of the school's total budget.

There was no push back from legislators during today's Ways and Means Committee meeting, where Sunser presented the budget.

Sunser said the college expects to neither lay off employees nor create new positions.

The committee set a public hearing on the budget proposal for 7 p.m., June 12.

Local governments, including Genesee County, that participate in pooling a workers compensation insurance program have a chance to get help reducing workplace injuries using consultants for essentially no cost.

Bill Fritts, president of Lawley Genesee, explained what his company is prepared to do for local governments if Lawley becomes the worker compensation insurance broker.

The possibility came to Fritts's attention, he said, after receiving a request for proposal from the county for a new workers comp plan.

As a broker, Lawley can apply its commissions to provide a variety of services to members of the pool.

Genesee County, along with all of the local school districts and most towns and villages (but not the City of Batavia) are part of a self-insurance pool for workers compensation.

If a worker is injured on the job, the pool will pay the first $500,000 of coverage.

What the county has been shopping for is a new carrier for "excess coverage" -- an insurance company that pays any claims in excess of $500,000.

There are only three such carriers in the nation.

Under the plan presented by Fritts, Lawley will accept bids from the carriers, select one and manage the relationship.

With its commissions, Lawley will then use its own experts to identify areas where worker safety can be improved and look for other cost-saving opportunities.

Lawley's consultants will study claim history, look for departments that have safety records that can improve and then study work that's going on in those workplaces to see what safety improvements can be made.

"We'll look at what members are hurting and helping you," Fritt said. "We send in loss-prevention consultants to those areas first that hare hurting you and see what safety programs are needed. We might create incentive programs if they need to change their culture and help them change their culture."

There is no additional fee for the pool members for the extra services.

"I've seen the results and it's pretty amazing," Fritts said. "It makes you feel pretty good because you're preventing injuries."

At the next Ways and Means Committee meeting, legislators will have a chance to vote on the offer.

When I showed up at the park between County Building #1 and the Old Courthouse, I spotted a new directional sign near the main county administration building.

Our friend Sean Carroll from WHAM 13 was in Oakfield today to talk with Scott McKenzie, the 26-year-old accused of driving a lawn mower while intoxicated late at night. It's a good story by Sean.

Yesterday, for the first time -- believe it or not -- I visited the mucklands. I was back out there today (yes, there's a related story coming). The mucklands are an impressive sight, to say the least, and entirely fascinating, as I have learned over the past 48 hours or so. There are several of these type of old, low-slung barns out there.

Press release:

Outraged over recent revelations that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) singled out and targeted conservative political groups, Congressman Chris Collins (NY-27) has signed a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew voicing concern and demanding answers.

Drafted by Congressman Jim Bridenstine (OK-1), the letter calls for an explanation regarding reports that Lois Lerner, the IRS head for tax-exempt groups, admitted that the IRS treated conservative political groups unfairly by screening organizations with “tea party” or “patriot” in tax-exempt status applications, and violated IRS policy by asking these groups for donor lists.

“The actions of the IRS are inexcusable. The American people have questions and Secretary Lew, with the ultimate authority over the IRS, must provide answers,” said Congressman Collins. “I am one of many members of Congress, on either side of the aisle, who continues to seek more information.”

This letter is a first step in calling for the responsible individuals to be held accountable, and requests assurance from Secretary Lew that the targeted groups are notified, among other actions.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

An Alabama resident this morning watched his car go up in flames following a one-car accident on Lewiston Road, then he was hauled off to Town Court on a DWI charge.

Joseph Bennett Clark, 20, of Reuben Road, Alabama, reported the accident at about 6 a.m. in the area of 383 Lewiston Road.

By the time the first deputy arrived, his car was on fire. By the time the first Alabama fire chief arrived, it was fully engulfed in flames.

A deputy had a hard time getting identifying numbers off the car once the fire was out, it was so badly burned.

Clark was taken into custody by Deputy Jason Saile and charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or higher, speed not reasonable and prudent, moving from a lane unsafely and driving left of pavement markings.

Clark reportedly suffered a minor injury as a result of the accident.

(Initial Report)