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A man from Rochester and another from Batavia are facing narcotics dealing charges following a raid by the Local Drug Task Force on Wednesday morning of residence at 22 Hutchins Place, Batavia.

Donald Brown, 46, of Liberty Pole Way, Rochester, is charged with: two counts of criminal possession of controlled substance, 3rd; criminal possession of a controlled substance, 4th; criminal using drug paraphernalia, 2nd; criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th; criminal mischief, 4th; and unlawful possession of marijuana.

Ronnie K. Johnson, 50, of Hutchins Place, is charged with two counts of criminal possession of controlled substance, 3rd.

Both men were arraigned in Batavia City Court and ordered held without bail.

The press release from the Genesee County Sheriff's Office doesn't state what drugs the two men were suspected of selling.  

Also arrested was Madalyn R. Muntz, 34, of Hutchins Place. She is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th, and unlawful possession of marijuana. She was released on an appearance ticket.

Assisting in the investigation and raid were Batavia PD, the Sheriff's Office, State Police, City fire, Batavia Code Enforcement, and the District Attorney's Office.

Top photo: Reader-submitted photo.

Anti-slavery sentiment ran strong in Le Roy in the 1830s and 1840s, with much of the activity centered around the First Presbyterian Church, where at least five significant anti-slavery meetings were held, culminating in December 1847 with a speech by famed abolitionist and escaped slave Frederick Douglass.

Local history buffs have long believed Douglass once spoke in Le Roy, but the date was placed in 1838. That wouldn't be possible because Douglass was still a slave in Maryland in 1838. 

James Evinger, a Presbyterian minister in Rochester, noticed the discrepancy and that sparked his curiosity. He began digging. With the assistance of Lynne Belluscio, Le Roy historian, he started down a path where he uncovered secondary and primary sources for all of the notable anti-slavery activity in Le Roy, including the first important anti-slavery meeting in Le Roy in 1833 where Rev. Thomas James spoke.

James was an escaped slave and founder of the first Black church in Rochester. A few years later, while working as a pastor and abolitionist in Boston, James would find the recently escaped Douglass a capable speaker and mentor to the young man as a touring speaker in the cause of abolishing slavery.

The 1833 appearance of James also brought out the pro-slave racists who mobbed the church, throwing rocks at the windows, trying to drive James from the building. A Le Roy resident, Henry Brewster, sequestered James at his home. 

Thanks to the work of Evinger, the anti-slavery movement in Le Roy is now commemorated on a historical marker in front of the Presbyterian Church on Main Street.

You can read a complete account of Evinger's work and his findings in the latest edition of the Universalist Herald. Click here (pdf).

An investigation has concluded that a residential fire at 13 Hutchins St. on July 4, 2019, was intentionally set but police do not yet have a suspect and are looking for information from the public that might help them solve the crime.

The fire was reported at 2:45 a.m.

At the time of the fire, all four apartments in the building were occupied. Residents on the second floor became trapped and needed to be rescued. One person sustained a serious injury.

The Batavia Police Department can be reached at (585) 345-6350; the confidential tip line at (585) 345-6370.

Previously: City PD assisting in investigation into Hutchins Street fire

If you drive down Ross Street past the Richmond Memorial Library, you are likely to spot a full and beautiful bed of flowers along the driveway leading to the library entrance.

The flowers -- lisianthus -- are a gift of Nancy Mortellaro, who started buying and donating the plants to the library's garden four years ago. Billy Truitt has volunteered each year to plant the flowers and help tend to them.

"I think they’re gorgeous," Mortellaro said. "They look like roses. They’re gorgeous and they last a long, long, long time in a vase."

Mortellaro buys the seedlings from Aaron Harrington Byron. She also grows them at her own house and at the community garden. The plants at the community garden can be used to replace any at the library that fail to flourish. 

Truitt said he doesn't remember the flowers producing as many blooms as this season.

Lisianthus grows as an annual in the Northeast but is a perennial on the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico, where it's known as Prairie gentian or Texas bluebell.

With the assistance of the Emergency Response Team and City fire, Batavia PD executed a search warrant this morning at a residence on Hutchins Place.

Chief Shawn Heubusch said Batavia PD will issue a press release this afternoon with more information about the situation.

Reader-submitted photo.

Alabama Town Supervisor Robert Crossen acknowledged Monday night that he should already have a draft budget for town board members to review but given the uncertainty over revenue streams, he isn't quite ready to present a budget that could require drastic cuts to services.

There is some hope that Congress will pass a new stimulus bill that will include aid to local governments, all the way down to the town and village level.

If that happens, the town could get $100,000 in aid, and if the county and the other municipalities get proportional aid from the Federal government, it could give the County Legislature enough leeway to share sales tax with towns and villages.

The Town of Alabama's typical share has been $450,000.

"We're not a very big town so when you take out $450,000, that's a lot of money," Crossen said. "That's people. That's things we're not going to be able to do."

That could mean, Crossen told the board, eliminating a town justice, not paving roads, eliminating part-time employees.

It's likely the town will need to raise property taxes in excess of the state limit and in preparation of that anticipating increase, the town board unanimously approved tax cap override legislation Monday night.

Crossen said county officials have been as cooperative as they can be while trying to negate the current financial crisis -- brought on by the  global coronavirus pandemic.

"They have bent over backward to say we're under a lot of pressure here and we're going to work this out together with you guys," Crossen said.

If solar farms are coming to the Town of Alabama, local officials have determined that they would rather have some local control than letting the state have all the power.

Monday night, the town board approved a local ordinance that will allow the town to set some parameters on solar farms and perhaps keep the largest of them off good farmland.

"The planning board struggled with this over the months and months," said Supervisor Robert Crossen. "The town board did, too. None of us are about losing farmland but we with Article 10 saying this will happen, I guess my view is that this is part of what you have to do to stay in the game. If we don't participate in it, then we won't have a lot to say."

In other words, without adding Section 624 to the town code, the town won't have any say in the planning and siting of solar farms in the town.

Article 10 of the Public Service Law, passed in 2011, lays out the process for permitting new major electric-generating facilities, giving the responsibility for permitting and siting resides with the State Energy Siting Board. Without local building codes, local jurisdictions have no say in the size, scope, location, setbacks, visual screens, or decommissioning plans for the facilities.

"Our regulation attempts to put a footprint in the sand and say this is what we’d like to see," Crossen said after the meeting.

While the new law sets code standards for small installations for the personal use of solar energy on residential, commercial, and farm property, the key aspects of the new law cover what are considered Tier 3 and Tier 4 solar farms.

A Tier 3 installation is one of up to 1,500 square feet but generates more than 110 percent of the electricity used by the property it is installed on.

A Tier 4 installation is more than 50 acres in size.

Crossen said the town hopes it can use the new law to avoid large industrial installations but indicated the final decision will be part of the Article 10 process.

The town put in place a moratorium on new solar farms while it reviewed its options and Crossen said now that the new law is in place, he expects to see applications flowing in.

"We are well aware that there are many companies that are ready to propose many projects," Crossen said.

There are potential economic benefits to the town, in the form of fees (perhaps as much $5,500 per megawatt), as well as the county and the school district, for any commercial solar projects installed in the town.

The new ordinance also requires large projects to negotiate a host community agreement that should generate additional revenue for the town.

The sole resident to speak at the public hearing prior to Monday's town board meeting was resident Dave Bencic who questioned the town's commitment to protecting farmland by enacting a law that would permit solar farms on prime farmland.

Trustee Kevin Fisher recalled all the work that went to creating the town's farmland protection regulations but conceded town officials were hemmed in by state law.

"So much for home rule," Fisher said.

"So much for home rule, correct," Crossen said. He then called for the motion to adopt the new law. It passed unanimously.

One person was transported to an area hospital for evaluation after a two-car accident on Lewiston Road in Batavia at about 5 p.m. today.

The preliminary investigation, according to Sgt. Andrew Hale, indicates a man driving a pickup southbound on Lewiston Road pulled to the side of the road and then attempted a U-turn. A car following the pickup truck hit the truck broadside.

The driver of the truck was transported by Mercy EMS for evaluation. The driver of the passenger vehicle was not injured.

A written accident report has not yet been released by the Sheriff's Office.

A driver leaving the Country Max store on Veterans Memorial Drive late this afternoon was looking one way while a bicyclist was coming from the opposite direction and then the driver pressed the gas peddle.

The car struck the bicycle. 

According to Sgt. Andrew Hale, the driver stopped the car, got out, and checked on the condition of the bicycle rider, as he's required to do by law. The rider was fine. The driver pulled a wad of cash from his wallet, Hale said, and handed the rider $200 and said, "this is for your bicycle." He then got into his car and drove off.

A caller reported a hit-and-run pedestrian accident and Town of Batavia fire was dispatched and a Mercy ambulance called but the rider was uninjured and everybody went quickly back into service.

First, there was a pickup truck accident with a car fire and just as Stafford fire had things under control at the first location on Clinton Street Road, an MVA with serious injuries was reported a quarter-mile away on Route 33 at the intersection with Horseshoe Lake Road.

It turned out there were no serious injuries in either accident.

But it was a hot, humid day for the volunteer firefighters, deputies, and medical personnel who responded to both incidents.

Previously: 

• Pickup truck in flames on Clinton Street Road, Stafford
• Crash reported at Clinton Street and Horseshoe Lake roads, Stafford

More than 1,500 flags received by the local veterans' groups were piled several feet high at the Northwoods Sportsman's Club on Sunday afternoon and given a dignified retirement as prescribed by the U.S. Flag Code.

Title IV, Section 8(k) states, “The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem of display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”

The event was organized by the Botts Fiorito American Legion Post #576 in Le Roy and Commander Dave Rumsey thanked Bill Joyce, Genesee County Veterans Service Officer, and the Legion posts in Bergen and Caledonia and the VFW post in Caledonia, each of which provided their communities with a flag deposit box. 

Photos by Philip Casper.

Two people who were located with a disabled vehicle on Clinton Street Road, Stafford, at 6 p.m., Friday, are facing multiple charges including drug dealing and assault.

During an interaction with the subjects, deputies determined that Shonje Kaliq Jefferson, 22, of Norton Street, Rochester, might be in possession of drugs. A subsequent search revealed he allegedly had a quantity of crack cocaine on his person.

Due to the amount of crack cocaine deputies believe they located, Jefferson was arrested on a count of criminal possession of a narcotic drug with an intent to sell.

Deputy Erik Andre and Investigator Chris Parker arrested Jefferson on charges of criminal use of drug paraphernalia, aggravated unlicensed operation, 2nd, unlicensed operator, and pedestrian failed to walk facing traffic.

A passenger in the vehicle, Chaniah Lache Wellington-Martino, 19, of Danforth Street, Rochester, was interviewed by Parker and Sgt. Andrew Hale. She allegedly threw her purse over a guardrail and an attempt to destroy evidence in the purse while fighting with the officers. She is also accused of attempting several times to bite the officers.

She is charged with attempted assault, 2nd, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, tampering with physical evidence, and unlawful possession of marijuana.

Jefferson was arraigned in Genesee County Court and ordered held on $2,000 cash bail or $5,000 bond. The release status of Wellington-Martino was not included in the press release.

A deputy is responding to Kiwanis Park on West Main Street in Batavia to meet with a caller who claims he fell in "quicksand."

In the age of coronavirus, the YMCA has been carrying on with socially distanced summer camps. Kids are taught to use their "alligator arms" to ensure they're keeping their distance from other kids and there's ample sanitizer on hand.

This week, the kids competed in their Camper Cup, an Olympic-style event that culminated in a color run at the Notre Dame High School football field.

"Rudy" is an artiste. She has her own expressive way of coloring a canvas and today, area children got to help her make individual pieces of art for them to take home.

The art event was held outside the Interpretive Center at Genesee County Park & Forest.

The children also learned about 14-year-old Rudy and her fellow red-eared slider turtles, which hail from the Southern United States.

On the drive back from Genesee County Park early this afternoon, I stopped for some scenic shots along Bethany Center Road.

Previously: Fully involved barn fire reported on Lockport Road in Oakfield

Press release:

Last week, I met with local restaurant owners to discuss the process and the effects the pandemic is having on their businesses.  Despite Upstate New York being in Phase 4, the reopening process continues to be plagued with questions and uncertainty.

Today, I am calling on our state leaders to take action. Guidelines must be streamlined and transparent to ensure everyone knows the rules. It seems as though the Governor is making changes to the regulations every day and is constantly moving the goalposts, even going as far as defining “food."

I understand that the situation is ever-evolving, but it is government's responsibility to develop clear and transparent regulations that restaurants, and all businesses, can understand. Small businesses that are struggling to survive should not be left to interpret new rules on their own.

In honor of the retirement of Jay Gsell's retirement as county manager, the Batavia Rotary Club -- he's a member -- has purchased yard signs and they've been distributed around the city.

Gsell will be guest on a special hour-long segment of WBTA's Main and Center tomorrow morning (Thursday), from 9 to 10 a.m.