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The quarter finals of the GLOW-region mock trials were held Wednesday night in the Genesee County Courthouse.

The winners were:

• Batavia, 2-0 with 121 points
• Byron-Bergen, 2-0 with 108 points
• Attica, 1-1 with 112 points
• Pembroke, 1-1 with 104 points

The semi-finals are Monday in the Wyoming County Courthouse. The cases start at 5 p.m.

The case this year involves a lawsuit filed by a farmer over nearby hydrofracking.

To purchase prints, click here.

Press release:

Senator Mike Ranzenhofer today encouraged local student entries for the New York State Senate’s Earth Day Poster Contest, a statewide competition that raises student awareness of recycling and waste reduction.

“The New York State Senate takes this opportunity to celebrate the great strides New York has made in helping to improve our environment. By educating students about the importance of recycling, they can be a part of the many New Yorkers who are already helping to make a difference,” Ranzenhofer said.

The Earth Day Competition is for schoolchildren in grades K-6. Students are encouraged not only to be creative, but also to convey a real commitment to making the environment a better place. Entries should be photographed and submitted electronically, preferably in jpeg or pdf format, via Senator Ranzenhofer’s Web site, ranzenhofer.nysenate.gov. All submissions must be uploaded by April 11, 2014.

“The Earth Day competition encourages the exchange of ideas among schools, children and adults and inspires creative thinking about solutions to the environmental challenges we face in the 21st Century. Teaching children about the importance of recycling and waste reduction is critical, and I encourage children to submit their own poster,” Ranzenhofer said.

The theme of this year’s competition is “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” The winning posters will be displayed at Senator Ranzenhofer’s Web site. All participants will receive a certificate acknowledging their participation.

The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970. Since then, more than 20 million Americans have participated in the annual day, helping to improve the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink. In addition, landmark legislation has been passed to help support this effort, such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Tyquawn D. Bethel

Tyquawn D. Bethel, 23, of East Main Street, Batavia, is charged with obstructing governmental administration, 2nd, resisting arrest, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal trespass, 2nd, and petit larceny. Officers were dispatched to an address on Prune Street for a report of an argument at 10:06 p.m. Tuesday. Bethal allegedly entered the residence uninvited and refused to leave. Bethal allegedly argued with a person at the residence. He allegedly grabbed money from the purse of the resident and then attempted to leave with the money. When patrols arrived, Bethal was allegedly combative with officers and refused to comply with verbal commands. Bethal allegedly initiated a fight with the officers. Children were allegedly present during the scuffle. He was subdued and taken into custody. Bethal was jailed on $2,500 bail. The investigation was handled by Officer Kevin DeFelice and Sgt. Dan Coffey.

Robert L. Peachey Jr., 30, of Gibson Street, Oakfield, is charged with petit larceny. Peachey is accused of stealing a bottle of Jack Daniel's Honey from YNGodess on Feb. 28. (Previously)

Shaumyk Antonio Santiago, 21, of St. Paul Street, Rochester, is charged with burglary. Santiago is accused of forcing entry into a residence on Tinkham Drive, Darien, on or about Dec. 27, and stealing handguns, cash, jewelry and other property. Santiago was arraigned, released on his own recognizance and turned over to another police agency on unrelated criminal charges. A second arrest in the case is pending. The investigation was conducted by Investigator William Ferrando and Sgt. Ron Meides.

Christopher M. Colantonio, 34, of East Main Street, Batavia, is charged with failure to appear. Colantonio was arrested on a bench warrant. He was jailed on $1,000 bail.

Elizabeth A. Denise, 33, of Hutchins Street, Batavia, was arrested on a bench warrant. Denise turned herself in. She was released on $100 bail.

Kevin R. Baumgarte, 39, of Birchwood, Batavia, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, passing a red light, leaving scene of a property damage accident and failure to keep right. Baumgarte was allegedly involved in a hit-and-run accident on South Main Street at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Batavia patrols subsequently located Baumgarte. The accident was investigated by Officer Eric Foels.

Micahel Samuel Yamonaco, 41, of Trumbull Street, Mount Morris, Kathleen Melissa Pritchard, 35, of Spartan Drive, Farmington, Aaron Michael Higgins, 34, of Genesee Street, Piffard, and Miranda Ariene Ralston, 27, of Genesee Street, Piffard, are all charged with grand larceny, 4th. The four suspects are accused of stealing a TV from the Batavia Walmart. They were arrested by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and found with the allegedly stolen TV. 

A vehicle, possibly a tractor-trailer, has reportedly rolled over on the Thruway near the Kelsey Road bridge. There are no injuries reported.

The mile marker is reported as 393.4.

East Pembroke fire was originally dispatched, but the accident has been determined to be in the Town of Batavia's district, so that department is being dispatched.

UPDATE 10:32 a.m.: Mercy medics confirm no injuries. State troopers on scene indicate a fire department response is not required. East Pembroke chief already well in route is continuing to confirm.

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It's important, we think, that our regional economy grow. We work constantly to promote local businesses, but an important part of that picture is seeing people find good jobs and employers finding the right people to hire. As long as I've been running The Batavian, I've wanted to launch a regional employment Web site.

There's been a missing link, I think, in between Rochester and Buffalo, for finding and posting jobs in our rural counties.

I searched a long time for the right technology platform for such a site and I think I found it with a company called Real Match.

Today, with their help, we're launching GLOWJobs.Net.

Job Seekers: If you're both actively looking for a job or just want to keep your name out there waiting for the next great opportunity in your career, you'll love GLOWJobs. You can post your resume and have the site's technology match your qualifications with the right available jobs and then apply online. If you don't find the right match right away, the search engine will be working away in the background 24/7 watching for good job matches for you as they become available in the network.

Employers: Now you have a one stop, local shop to post your openings and have them distributed across thousands of job boards, including ones specializing in your industry, along with promotion on social media sites. You will also have access to our resume database and receive notifications of potential candidates with the right qualifications for your jobs. The job-matching engine will also notify you of potential candidates on LinkedIn.

Press release:

Several of the initial water samples collected this week from private drinking water wells located near Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road -- east of Route 63, and Lewiston Road south of Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road -- have confirmed bacteriological contamination of coliform bacteria and E. coli. Residents who had their water tested and confirmed positive have been notified at this time. These organisms can cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms. They may pose a special health risk for infants and people with compromised immune systems. Residents in this area who are experiencing these symptoms should contact their medical provider.

Although the contamination has been confirmed, the exact origin and extent cannot be determined without further analysis, the Genesee County Health Department will assist the Department of Environmental Conservation in this process in the near future.

Impacted residents are urged to continue to follow the instructions below until their water can be confirmed safe to drink. With the extent of the contamination unknown at this time, re-occurrence of contamination is possible.

If you are living in the identified area and would like your well water tested, please contact the Genesee County Health Department at (585) 344-2580, ext. 5525. There is no charge for this testing.

The ball is rolling on a new fire station in the Stringham Drive area for the Town of Batavia Fire Department.

The first steps were taken toward plan approval last night at the Town of Batavia Planning Board meeting when the board agreed to seek lead agency status for the environmental review process.

David Morrill, building committee chairman for the department, presented initial site plans to the board during the meeting.

The department has acquired 12 acres between Clinton Street Road and Stringham. The acreage runs west roughly to the area of North Street, but the back of the lot won't be used by the department. The seller didn't want to keep the potentially landlocked parcel. The department may someday sell that portion of the property.

The plan calls for a firehouse with drive-thru bays large enough to accommodate a new engine and a new ladder truck, as well as space for administrative offices, a kitchenette, a turn-out gear room, a washroom and storage.

The primary entrance and exit will be on Stringham with a secondary driveway on Clinton Street Road.

The new station will replace a small firehouse at the corner of Stringham and Clinton.

"We've long since outgrown that station as our trucks have gotten bigger and our equipment has gotten more specialized," Morrill said.

Besides conducting fire calls out of the station, the department will use the facility twice a month for Monday night training, which usually runs from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

"Other than that, you'll hardly know we're here," Morrill said.

There will be no big fundraisers held at the new station, no carnivals, and the annual Harley Raffle will continue to be held at Station 1 on Lewiston Road.

"There will be no Ferris wheels in your back yard," Morrill said.

With growth at the ag park, fire officials see the need for a ladder truck on the east side of the Town of Batavia. The location, however, needed to be on the college side of the train tracks running through the town to aid in responses to GCC and College Village.

The department plans on acquiring a 75-foot "straight stick" (no platform) ladder truck within 12 to 18 months. It will also purchase a new, larger rescue truck.

The department will retain the old fire station at Stringham and Clinton for the time being. It will be needed for storage once the department's current rec hall on Lewiston Road is torn down to make room for a new station there. Long-term, the department hasn't decided what to do with the property.

Watertown-based Johnson Newspapers has selected the former publisher of Portsmouth (Ohio) Daily Times to head its Batavia-based news operation, which includes the Batavia Daily News and the Livingston County News.

Michael D. Messerly led the 12,000 circulation paper for three years. His prior experience includes time in the digital divisions in two other newspaper companies, Morris Communications and Gannett.

Messerly claims to be a digital publishing expert who has grown revenue and audience in his previous jobs.

According to Quantcast, the Portsmouth paper, with a slightly larger print circulation than the Daily News, has 70,000 unique visitors monthly compared to 98,000 for the Daily News. Quantcast measures 129,000 monthly unique visitors for The Batavian.

It's hard to say when Bed, Bath & Beyond will reopen in Batavia, but it will be awhile, the town's building inspector told the Town of Batavia Planning Board on Tuesday night.

It's not as simple as it might seem after a fire in a commercial structure to get the store ready for customers again, said Dan Lang.

"It's a full revamp of the store," Lang said. "It's not a quick process. It will be roughly the same layout, but there's a lot of components that go into a structure to make it safe and sound again that they have to look at when there's been a fire."

All of the electrical has to be inspected and possibly replaced. The fire walls need to be replaced. The duct work must be examined and possibly replaced. The fire suppression system may need to be replaced. And, of course, all new fixtures and shelving must be installed.

The store was heavily damaged by smoke, fire and water in January. It's been closed since.

Lang said contractors are on the job trying to get the store ready to reopen, it's just a long process. He said Batavia Town Center's owners, COR Development, have been cooperative and easy to work with throughout the process.

It's also a learning experience, Lang said, because a commercial structure fire isn't something the town has had to deal with in more than 20 years.

"Things are moving, but they're going to move slow," Lang said.

Corey Snyder

Corey S. Snyder, of Route 33, Stafford, is charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument, 2nd, grand larceny, 4th, criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th, criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument, unlawful possession of marijuana and operating with no front bumper. Snyder's vehicle was stopped by Village of Attica PD on Route 99, Attica, at 10 p.m. Monday for an alleged traffic violation. He was allegedly found in possession of a controlled substance, hypodermic instruments and marijuana paraphernalia. He was also charged in connection to an allegation that he cashed a check that had been reported stolen. Snyder was arraigned and jailed in Wyoming County Jail on $10,000 bail or $20,000 bond.

Gregory Allan Merritt, 27, of Rose Road, Batavia, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, leaving the scene of a property damage accident and unsafe starting. Merritt is accused of striking another vehicle in the T.F. Brown's parking lot at 1:49 a.m. Tuesday and leaving the scene of the accident. The incident was investigated by Deputy Joseph Corona.

The only election in Genesee County tonight that was supposed to be contested was in Le Roy, but a last-minute write-in campaign in Corfu made that vote suddenly interesting.

Nick Skeet -- son of former mayor Todd Skeet -- decided just a week ago or so that he wanted to try and win a seat on the village board.

He got 17 write-in votes tonight, which wasn't enough to close the gap on incumbents Art Ianni (31 votes) and Ken Laurer (53 votes).

"I don't like some of the things going on at meetings," Skeet said after the votes were tallied. "I still don't like the way the village is being run. I think we can do a better job. I just think everything can done for the better interest of Corfu. There are details I don't like that I'd rather not get into."

Asked if he was targeting a specific incumbent with his write-in campaign, he said he wasn't. Asked to explain what was bothering him at meetings, he wouldn't go into details.

The village government has been a bit of a soap opera for about two years, ever since an investigation was opened into missing court funds. A year ago, Ralph Peterson was elected mayor and immediately became a controversial figure in local politics. Facing pressure to resign, Peterson took medical leave and has been on leave for about six months.

Meanwhile, in Le Roy, one incumbent won reelection and another lost.

The winners were Robert Taylor, a longtime village trustee, and Bill Kettle, a local businessman. Trustee Jennifer Keys lost as did challenger John Mangefrida.

Taylor had 279 votes, Kettle, 267, Mangefrida, 228 and Keys, 191.

It almost felt like a spring day today, with a high 40, but the cold and snow isn't necessarily over for March.

Still, the weather was good enough to entice Ray Williams and Joe Watts to Williams Park.

"We wanted to the first to hoop at Williams," Watts said. "We've been playing here since we were little."

It's NCAA Tournament time, March Madness, and neither Williams nor Watts are wedded to any teams as potential champions, but Williams went with Syracuse and Watts picked Louisville to take the national title.

The 2014 Men's League champions are the Blues. The Blues doused the Flames 2-1, the winning goal coming 38 seconds left in regulation on a goal by Brandon Pisano. The Blues championship last year put the tournament cup in the hands of Charlie O'Geen (center), one of the league founders, for the first time in 36 years.

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Batavia celebrated St. Patrick's Day, of course. I made it by Center Street for the McMahon Irish Dancers and came back later for music by Steve Balesteri with Michael DiSanto on guitar. I also stopped by O'Lacy's, but got to City Slickers (where there was live Irish music) after the party had wrapped up for the evening.

More pictures after the jump (click on the headline):

 

 

Godzilla's got a new home. At least for a few months. Right here in Batavia, New York.

He'll be hangin' with Rashaad Santiago and Tim Schiefer and their associate from Watertown, Greg Graves, while making a moving staring himself, the King of Monsters.

It's a small budget production -- less than $20,000 -- but much of the filming will be done in Batavia and involve some very talented people, such as Santiago, a costume and monster designer, and Christopher Bloomer, a visual effects expert.

It's mostly a labor of love made for the filmmakers' own enjoyment with an eye toward showing it in Chicago at the 21st annual G-Fest.

That's right, there's a whole festival devoted to the creature who terrorized Japan in the 1954 classic "Godzilla," and went on to star in more than 28 other feature films.

It's that G-loving community that brought Santiago, Shiefer, Graves and Bloomer together.

Right now, Santiago is kind of the star of the show. After signing on to the Godzilla movie project -- the title of the film is "Godzilla: Heritage" (here's the Facebook page) -- Santiago won a sport on the Sci-Fi Channel's reality series, Faceoff.

Originally from the Bronx, Santiago moved to Batavia a couple of months ago, first to work on the Godzilla project, but also because he thought Batavia would be a better place for his two children.

Santiago has had a passion for monsters ever since he saw the original Godzilla for the first time when he was was 5.

"Just seeing something different than a dinosaur, because I was a big dinosaur guy, so seeing something that was like a dinosaur, but different, and the size he was, really got my mind going on monsters," Santiago said.

Already of an artistic bent, Santiago started drawing his own monsters.

And his fascination with monsters grew as movies such as Alien, Predators, Tremors and Jurassic Park, came along.

He went from drawing monsters to building monsters.

People who saw his work encouraged him.

"I didn't know this was a career when I was younger," Santiago said. "As I got older, people would say 'why don't you sell this or why don't you get paid for doing this', and me, being naive and young, I didn't know, and now I'm doing it."

He said he dreams of owning his own monster studio someday.

Faceoff might be a jumping off point to that next career level.

He was selected for the show after an audition in Burbank (where all the filming took place).

The show airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m., and on those nights, Santiago is appearing at City Slickers to watch the show and answer questions from the fans who watch it with him.

Ken Mistler, owner of City Slickers, is giving a good deal of support to the local moviemakers. City Slickers will be a location in the film, as well as other Mistler properties, and his former gym location on East Main Street will be where the filmmakers build their sets and do all of their interior shooting (some filming will also take place in Watertown).

Shiefer said watching Santiago build the Godzilla suit for the movie is truly seeing a master at work.

"After three our four hours he had only the body outline and we're like, 'that's really impressive,' " Schiefer said. " 'This is only the outline. There's not any detail,' he said, and we were like blown away. Then he started detailing the head, making the little grains of the scales with tweezers. It's just the most impressive thing you can possibly see."

Shiefer said that anybody who tunes into Faceoff will be impressed with Santiago's work.

Santiago -- the monster expert -- is also working, appropriately, at Foxprowl, the collectables store on Ellicott Street. So if you want to meet him and miss him at City Slickers, there's Foxprowl on week days.

Photo by the producers of Godzilla being made for the film "Godzilla: Heritage." Used with permission.

For two consecutive winters, Genesee County used very little salt on roadways to help keep motorists safe, but what was saved disappeared quickly this winter, County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens told the Public Service Committee on Monday.

Because of the mild winters, Hens started the year with salt in salt barns that was two years old and an unspent salt budget from last year. By Jan. 1, it was all gone and spent.

"We burned through both the pile and the money in November and December," Hens said. "So coming into January 1, I was already anxious to buy more. We had our new budget and filled the barns up with salt again. We burned through all the money we had budgeted for salt this year in about a month and a half."

So far, Hens said, the highway department is about $25,000 in the red for road salt in 2014.

"I've still got, theoretically, a few more storms this spring, storms or ice or whatever we end up getting, and I've got to figure on next November, December, too, and anything outside of it," Hens said.

To ensure an adequate salt supply, Hens is shifting money from the summer and fall road maintenance budget.

That probably means there are some potholes that won't get fixed.

"As everybody knows from driving around, pothole season is just starting," Hens said. "As bad as the winter's been, the temperature fluctuations, the extreme temperature fluctuations, where it's 20 below to 50 in two days, that freeze, thaw cycle just tears the pavement apart.

"We've had three or four of those huge swings this winter," Hens added, "and the pavement's starting to show it. As that frost comes out the ground, it's only going to get worse."

Hens also shared the observation that during our heavy snowstorm a week ago, there were few drivers on the road.

That made road maintenance a lot easier.

People stayed home, Hens figures, because the memory of January's blizzard was still on their minds.

"That was a bad storm," Hens said. "That was probably the worst that I'd seen since the Blizzard of '77. That storm caught a lot of people off guard just because we hadn't had a bad storm like that in a long, long time. That was very fresh in people's minds, and when they said the word blizzard this time -- the National Weather Service was pretty good about putting a blizzard warning out -- everybody was like, 'OK, last time we had a blizzard, it was nasty. I'm staying home.' "

A single positive well test Friday set off an alert for residents in the area of Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road and Lewiston Road to boil their drinking and cooking water, officials confirmed this afternoon.

The test found bacteria in the well water of a single residence on Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road, said George Squires, manager of the Genesee County Soil and Water Conservation District.

"It may be attributed to some manure spreading that may have gone on in the area," Squires said. "I was out of town all last week and just found out Friday myself. I don't have a lot of details because I've not been out there myself yet. I spoke briefly with a farmer and his consultant this morning and the health department this afternoon. I don't have a lot of details and I don't feel comfortable about making any conclusions yet."

County Health Director Paul Pettit said the affected area is no more than 25 parcels.

"We haven't pinpointed the exact source," Pettit said. "We wanted to alert the residents of those houses right around that area that there may be an issue with wells in the area."

There was a communication miscue on Friday, Pettit said. The health department alerted the Emergency Dispatch Center and the Emergency Services Office with the expectation that the alert they drafted would be sent only to the affected 25 or so residents. There was no intention to send out a media release, since it was such a small section of the county. Instead, the alert was sent out countywide and regional TV stations mistakenly reported that there was a boil water advisory for all of Genesee County.

The confusion led today to the City of Batavia putting out its own announcement informing residents that there is no boil water advisory for the city.

The communication Friday is "something we need to review and look at," Pettit said.

Both Squires and Pettit discussed the difficulty farmers face this time of year. They're eager to prepare crop lands for tillage and planting, which requires properly timed manure spreading, but there are also regulations for larger farmers that govern when they can do it.

"Larger farms are supposed to monitor weather and predict significant melting events," Squires said. "They're not supposed to spread in advance of an event like that. This time of a year, predicting warm temperatures in advance gets to be a little bit of a challenge."

It's a violation of a farm's permit, Squires said, to contaminate ground or surface water.

There may have been one or two other spills in county recently, Squires said, but there's been complaints about wells elsewhere in the county (Squires said he didn't have details yet; the spills could have been in areas that are already on public water, therefore well water wouldn't be contaminated).

"I need to get ahold of the DEC and find out what's going on," Squires said.

A week ago, a reader in Oakfield contacted The Batavian to complain about a possible manure spill. We requested info from the DEC but have not received any further information. Neither Squires nor Pettit were aware of any reported spills in the area prior to the well complaint received on Friday.The single well on Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road is the only confirmed instance of well contamination at this time.

For more on what to do when a boil water advisory is issued for your area, click here.

UPDATE: Here's a map of the affected area, provided by the County Health Department.