The Allstate Foundation recently presented two $1,000 grants to the HomeCare & Hospice Foundation, Inc. in honor of local Allstate Insurance agents Mike Roth and Keith Roth, who are both event volunteers for HomeCare & Hospice. Pictured are Mike Roth Linda Cummings abd Keith Roth.
Press release:
Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) officials will hold a public information session on June 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the MedTech Center Building, located across from Genesee Community College (GCC) in Room 214. GCEDC officials are encouraging residents to attend the meeting to learn more about how the GCEDC fosters economic development in Genesee County.
Mark Masse, senior vice president of operations for GCEDC, will provide an overview of the organization, the incentives they offer, and how a potential company can be attracted to our community. A question and answer period will follow the presentation.
“This is a great opportunity for residents as well as local businesses to learn more about how our organization enhances economic growth in Genesee County,” Masse said.
Because the seating capacity is limited to about 100 persons, GCEDC is requesting that those interested in attending to please contact Rachael Tabelski, marketing and communications manager at GCEDC by calling 585-343-4866, ext. 12, or sending an e-mail to rtabelski@gcedc.com.
Press release:
Law Street, City of Batavia, is closed until 2 p.m. today for resurfacing.
Rock band Monster Johnson will be live rocking the stage at City Slickers tonight starting at 8 p.m! Stop by for great food and drinks!
Mark your calendars for June 21st as the Zac Brown Tribute Band takes over for a live concert at City Slickers!
Genesee County Economic Development Center is trying to get initial permitting completed on a proposed expansion of the Upstate Med-Tech Center on R. Stephen Hawley Drive just in case a specific medical device technology company wants to lease the space.
Mark Masse, VP of operations for GCEDC, told the County Planning Board on Thursday that a contractor has a potential leasee and is in negotiations now. Getting certain regulatory hurdles cleared now would help the process.
"If they reach an agreement, the potential leasee is working on a tight time frame," Masse said.
Masse doesn't know yet how many new jobs could be created by the company.
"They haven't gone before the board yet for incentives from us," Masse said. "More information would be available at that point in time, if it gets to that point."
The planning board unanimously approved site plan review for proposed 60,000-square-foot facility.
The board also unanimously approved a site plan review for a proposed 60,000-square-foot cold storage facility at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park.
Masse said GCEDC still owns the property the unnamed company is considering for the facility and sales negotiations are ongoing.
That company also has yet to come to the GCEDC board seeking incentives, so Masse doesn't know yet how many new jobs will be created by the facility.
In other board action:
For the first time since 2005, Batavia's commercial property owners are getting their parcels re-assessed and the effort has been greeted with some decidedly mixed reviews.
With some property owners being told their initial re-assessment shows an increase in value of 55 percent to 400 percent -- adding $70,000 or $95,000 or $120,000 per parcel -- there is a bit of a sticker shock.
Re-assessing commercial property when it hasn't been done for eight years isn't an easy process, explained Rhonda Saulsbury, the city's assessor. There are a number of factors to consider and the initial re-assessment is sometimes based, admittedly, on incomplete information.
That makes it important for property owners to help fill in the blanks for the assessor's office.
"The goal here is to keep property values as fair as possible citywide," Saulsbury said in an e-mail. "Without going through this process (after 8 years) that wouldn’t be possible. I have also reduced a great number of assessments citywide resulting from the same methodologies. I do not hesitate to make an adjustment down when given reasonable information to substantiate the change in value.
"Until someone reaches out to me with an issue," she added, "I can’t fix it."
Local property owners have confirmed that after responding to the initial re-assessment letter to the city and providing more evidence about the status of their buildings, Saulsbury has adjusted, and even rescinded the increase in value.
One local businessman with at least two commercial properties downtown was actually notified that the value of one property was reduced. He didn't complain about that re-assessment.
Another property owner said his assessment only increased 10 percent.
So while some property owners are being hit hard, the impact isn't uniform.
The criteria for reassessment is almost an endless list, Saulsbury said, and includes location, property use, rentable space, income generated, building updates, additions, demolitions and deferred maintenance.
The assessor, from just looking at the building, can't know all of these details, which is why property owner feedback is an important part of the process.
If a property value increases substantially, she said, the assessor's office believes there's a reason for it -- such as a former warehouse being converted to office space, but it's still important for a property owner to clarify any concerns.
City Manager Jason Molino said the process is intended to be one in which property owners provide feedback on the assessment.
"Review procedure and phone numbers are included in the notices sent to property owners that receive a change in their assessment, as we encourage an open door policy to anyone with a question or concern," Molino said.
One day during the winter I was at Genesee Community College walking down this walkway and thought, "um, wonder what this looks like in spring when the trees are in bloom." Last evening, I went back to take a look.
County officials hope a proposed local law will make it harder for thieves to sell stolen property.
The law will be presented for the first time to the County Legislature at Monday's Public Service Committee meeting.
It would require certain secondhand retailers to:
District Attorney Lawrence Friedman said the proposed law went through a diligent review process that included looking at the successes and failures of similar laws in other jurisdictions.
Assisting in crafting the law were County Clerk Don Read, County Attorney Chuck Deputy Chief Jerome Brewster from the Sheriff's Office and Batavia PD Det. Pat Corona.
There have been burglaries solved in communities, like Rochester, because of such laws, Friedman said, which is why local law enforcement officials came to him with a request to draft something for Genesee County.
The law would also help the victims of theft recover stolen property.
We spoke to the DA just before the sentencing of Ryan P. Johnson -- who admitted to stealing $68,000 in precious family heirloom jewelry from a Batavia resident but the thief could only help recover $14,000 of the stolen items.
"We'll try to get restitution for the victim, of course, but what's that worth?" Friedman said.
A similar law in a Southern Tier county was eventually repealed because it was overly broad, Friedman said, taking in, for example, flea markets.
The proposed Genesee County law carefully defines covered businesses as pawn shops, precious metal dealers, transient merchants that deal in such items and scrap metal processors (scrap metal processors are exempt from a couple of the law's provisions, such as retaining items for 10 days).
"We tried to come up with a list who is affected by this and we came up with 10 businesses," Friedman said.
Those 10 business owners will be receiving invitations to attend a public hearing on the proposed law once the date is set.
The typical residential garage sale person isn't covered by the law, nor are thrift stores, which don't buy items for resale.
Reputable dealers will welcome the new law, said Jimmy Vo, owner of Batavia Gold Rush, at 4152 W. Main Street Road, Batavia.
Reasonable people, he said, don't want to see victims lose valuables and the law will put all of the secondhand dealers on equal footing, with all purchases handled the same way.
There are a couple of aspects of the proposed law Vo would like to see changed before it passes, however.
First, pawn shops, he said, should be required to hold typical retail items for 14 days before reselling them, while precious metal dealers (or pawn shops buying precious metal) should be allowed to sell those metals seven days after purchase.
Any delay in reselling gold, for example, puts a precious metal dealer at risk, he said, because prices can fluctuate quickly.
One day last week, he said, gold lost 20 percent of its value.
"Anybody holding gold lost his shirt that day," Vo said. "The longer you hold gold, the more you can lose."
Seven days should be enough time, he said, for law enforcement to help a victim identify and recover an item, but the proposed 10 days makes the delay unreasonably long.
Vo also takes issue with the requirement that dealers report suspicious sellers. He said New York has previously tried to get such laws through, but they don't work because just somebody is twitching, for example, doesn't mean a peson is on drugs. A police officer has to meet a higher level of probable cause to arrest somebody, so a dealer can't be expected to act as a law enforcement officer just because somebody is acting suspicious.
Overall, Vo said he's happy with the proposed law. As a one-time crime victim himself, he thinks it's important to give victims a tool that will help law enforcement capture criminals and victims recover stolen property.
Often times, the personal value of the property far exceeds any monetary worth.
"That ring that belonged to great-great-grandma may be worth only $100, but it can't be replaced," Vo said. "That's the gut-wrenching problem that can be solved with a law like this."
UPDATE 10 p.m.: We didn't get a chance to talk with Det. Pat Corona before writing the story, but he called us tonight.
Corona said it's his hope that the law will act as a deterrent to would-be burglars, help law enforcement solve crimes, help victims recover property, be convenient for resellers and serve the community better.
"My motive is help victims recover their property and help us hold people responsible," Corona said.
Yesterday, Ryan P. Johnson was reported as a fugitive from the law; today, he's a convict headed to state prison.
He will spend four years in prison for attempted burglary, 2nd, with a concurrent sentence of one and a third year for grand larceny, 3rd.
He could have received a short jail sentence followed by a term of probation if he had shown up for his original sentencing date in March.
Instead, Deputy John Baiocco, the warrant officer for the Sheriff's Office, had to go looking for him.
When Baiocco found him on Ross Street yesterday, Johnson reportedly took off running leading to a search of the area by three police agencies.
Johnson eventually surrendered to Baiocco and appeared today as a ward of the Genesee County Jail before Judge Robert C. Noonan.
Noonan wasn't pleased with Baiocco's reported violations of his release under supervision contract.
"You blew your opportunity," Noonan said. "You had an opportunity at shock probation. All you had to do was show up, tell the truth, and serve your time. You would have gotten shock probation even though the probation department recommended incarceration given your record, but I was prepared to honor your negotiated deal."
Johnson was arrested in January for the Oct. 5 burglary of a City of Batavia residence where is said to have carried off more than $68,000 in precious and irreplaceable family jewelry.
In court today, Johnson cried as he apologized to the victim (who did not appear in court, but had sent a letter to Noonan), his fiance and his three children.
He blamed his behavior on an addiction to drugs and his attorney William Tedford said Johnson was using hydrocodone at the time of the burglary.
Noonan was unmoved.
"Saying your children need a father is certainly not going to tug at my heart strings," Noonan said. "They don't need a father like you, not like you are now."
Tedford asked that the restitution hearing be delayed until June 20 so he can more fully review the restitution claim.
The insurance company paid only $1,000 to the victim, who is claiming another $55,000 in unrecovered jewelry.
Johnson said he knew where some of the jewelry went so he made efforts to recover as much as he could and reportedly returned $14,000 worth of jewelry.
A 77-year-old Thorpe Street resident has been arrested by the Wyoming County Sheriff's Office and charged with animal abuse.
His son, a Middlebury resident, was also arrested.
The arrests follow an April 28 report in Middlebury of 50 chihuahuas being dropped off on a property in Middlebury.
Joseph Wenzel Jr., of Bank Road, Middlebury, allegedly made the 9-1-1 call.
The day before, according to the WCSO, a Batavia PD officer responded to a residence on Thorpe after receiving a barking dog complaint. The officer reportedly observed eight dogs at the residence, but the homeowner did not come to the door.
The officer left a contact card and information was passed on to the city's animal control officer.
When Wenzel Jr., contacted law enforcement, he said he had fed the dogs and the dogs were contained.
An animal control officer and a deputy responded to the residence and decided to leave the dogs in place until the next morning.
Upon further investigation, Investigator Mayer and Deputy Ficarella determined that Wenzel Sr. allegedly dropped off the dogs after the visit to his residence in Batavia.
He reportedly told officers that he could not take care of the animals any longer.
Wenzel Sr. was subsequently arrested and charged with 44 counts of animal abuse and is being held in Wyoming County pending arraignment.
Wenzel Jr. was charged with 44 counts of animal abuse and falsely reporting an incident. He was jailed on $10,000 bail.
An Elba resident is accused of burglarizing an occupied residence at 1:40 a.m. on March 26 and he has been taken into custody.
Charged with burglary, 2nd, and grand larceny, 3rd, is 29-year-old Jon H. Bush Jr., of 7614 Oak Orchard Road, Elba.
Bush was arrested at Batavia City Court when he appeared on an unrelated matter.
Allegedly, Bush made off with a safe containing money and jewelry.
He was jailed on $20,000 bail.
The Wellness Center at the YMCA is getting an equipment upgrade today with 14 new pieces of equipment, including stair steppers, virtual bikes and treadmills.
The cost of the new equipment is about $60,000.
Pictured with one of the new virtual bikes is John Becker, Wellness Center coordinator, and trainer Stacie Ewert.
Press release:
House Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology Chairman Chris Collins (NY-27) today led a hearing to examine the economic effects of the upcoming health care law’s insurance tax on small businesses. Beginning in 2014, the health care law imposes a new tax on the health insurance policies that most small businesses purchase. The amount of the tax will be $8 billion in 2014, increasing to $14.3 billion in 2018, and increase based on premium trend thereafter.
Among today’s witnesses was Dean Norton, an Elba resident and president of the New York State Farm Bureau. Norton testified about the impact of the tax on farmers.
“The health care law is a massive piece of legislation that is making a major impact on our lives and the economy overall,” Chairman Collins said. “The numerous mandates, requirements and taxes, such as the health insurance tax (HIT), are driving up the cost for small businesses to provide health insurance for their employees. This assessment is not a partisan attack. This is a fact, substantiated by independent studies. Both the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office, among others, have said they expect a very large portion of this tax to be passed through to the purchasers of insurance in the form of higher premiums, driving up the cost of insurance for families and small businesses.”
“Although the law exempts self-funded insurance plans, small businesses typically do not qualify to self-insure, leaving them to pay higher premiums in a fully funded group plan,” continued Collins. “This law is bad for our economy. Without any relief in sight, it appears that the law will continue to be an anchor holding down small businesses.”
A recent NFIB Research Foundation study estimated that the tax will raise the cost of employer-sponsored insurance by 2 percent to 3 percent, imposing a cost of nearly $5,000 per family by 2020. The study also projects the price increases caused by the tax will reduce private sector employment by up to 262,000 jobs by 2020, with 59 percent of the losses falling in the small business sector.
A 2011 report by actuarial firm Oliver Wyman provided national estimates of the impact of the tax on health insurance premiums. The report found the insurance tax alone “will increase premiums in the insured market on average by 1.9 percent to 2.3 percent in 2014” and by 2023 “will increase premiums by 2.8 percent to 3.7 percent.”
Materials for the hearing are posted on the House Small Business Committee’s Web site HERE.
Notable Quotes:
Dean Norton, president of New York Farm Bureau in Elba, NY, said, “…health insurance costs for small businesses are already rapidly trending higher, increasing 103 percent since 2000. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the HIT tax will further increase family premiums by $400 or 2.5 percent in the year 2016, making it even harder for farmers to purchase coverage for themselves, their families and their employees.”
William Dennis Jr., senior research fellow at NFIB Foundation in Washington, DC, said, “The health insurance premium tax was one of the largest revenue components included in the original law to offset the budgetary costs posed by PPACA. Formally structured as a fee on health insurers, this tax was intended to raise more than $100 billion over a decade beginning in 2014. However, both government and independent analysts believe that the tax will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher health insurance premiums.
“The tax falls almost exclusively on small businesses. Their larger competitors have no equivalent obligation. Small businesses, therefore, are asked to absorb a significant share of the financial load of the program while placing them in a less competitive position to do so.”
Ryan P. Thorn, of Ryan P. Thorn Insurance Planning in South Jordan, Utah, said, “The new national health insurance fee that will be imposed on all individual and fully insured group health insurance policies sold in this country from 2014 and forward will impact about 45 percent of all insured residents in Utah. These are the people who are covered by individual, private Medicare and group policies that are fully insured. This means that all risk for the policies is borne by the insurance company. These are the only type of policies that are impacted by the new tax, which means that the Americans who work for and own small businesses around the country are disproportionately affected.”
A woman was sexually assaulted in her home in Le Roy overnight and Le Roy PD is looking for the suspect, described as a black male, thin build and 20 to 30 years old.
The perpetrator forced his way into the woman's home on Gilbert Street in the Village, according to Chief Chris Hayward, at approximately 1:30 a.m., and assaulted the woman at knife point.
She suffered a minor cut on the chin from the knife.
A multi-agency search of the area following the report failed to locate the suspect.
Assisting Le Roy PD were the Sheriff's Office, Monroe County Sheriff's K-9 unit and the State Police.
Felipe Fernandez, 42, of Borinquen Plaza, Rochester, is charged with aggravated unlicensed operation, 1st , and motor vehicle lights not meeting standards. Fernandez was stopped by Deputy Joseph Corona at 11:48 p.m. Tuesday on Pearl Street Road, Batavia, for an alleged vehicle violation. Fernandez was jailed without bail.
Saul Doynsaday Standsblack, 34, of Parker Road, Basom, was arrested on a bench warrant related to an aggravated unlicensed operation, 3rd, charge. Standsblack was taken into custody on a Batavia City Court warrant following his release from the Erie County Jail on an unrelated matter. Standsblack appeared in City Court, entered a guilty plea, and was sentenced to 15 days in jail.
Michael Thomas Coffey, 44, of South Main Street, Albion, is charged with petit larceny. Coffey was arrested on a warrant out of Town of Elba Court.
Andriana D. Green, 19, of Amherst, is charged with assault, 3rd, and criminal mischief, 4th. Green was arrested Wednesday morning by State Police for an alleged incident reported at 2:14 p.m., Monday, at College Village. No further details released.
Press release:
A collaborative effort between Genesee Community College and the Genesee County Park and Forest is giving photography students a first of its kind opportunity. Their work will be displayed in an exhibit at the Park’s Interpretive Center, marking the first time a student exhibit has been shown in the newly expanded exhibit space.
An opening reception is set for Friday, May 10, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Genesee County Park and Forest Interpretive Center, 11095 Bethany Center Road, East Bethany. The public is invited. Refreshments will be provided.
For their final project, GCC Photography instructor Joe Ziolkowski had his COM 103 (Introduction to Black and White Photography) students explore the landscape of Genesee County and surrounding areas in Western New York. The black and white photographic prints the students created offer their interpretation of how we are preserving and how we are hurting the landscape that surrounds us.
“I think visitors will be as impressed as I am with the work these students created,” said Joe Z. “Sometimes we don’t realize how the things we do every day impact the landscape. We hope these photos give visitors a lot to think and talk about.”
The exhibit, entitled “Around the Bend: The Shared Landscape,” will be on view through Saturday, Aug. 31.
Photo: By Robert Garland, "Trestle, Avon, NY."
A Batavia PD officer has been dispatched to a residence on Walnut Street to take a report on the theft of tomato plants.
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