Friday was the gala opening of the annual Wonderland of Trees at the Holland Land Office Museum.
The event features trees decorated in themes selected by their sponsors, which are local businesses, government agencies and charities.
The Wonderland Of Trees will be open at HLOM through the holiday season.
Crash Team members were called to the scene of a fatal one-car accident in Elba yesterday evening, but their initial investigation reveals no reason why the Toyota Highlander driven by 69-year-old Vincentia Smith veered off the roadway and slammed into a tree.
All they know at this time is Smith was westbound on North Byron Road at 4:44 p.m. when her vehicle crossed the eastbound lane, went off the roadway and hit the tree.
There were no skid marks.
Smith was unconscious when first responder's arrived. Mercy Flight was called, but she was apparently not stable enough for air transport, so she was taken to UMMC by Mercy EMS, where she was pronounced dead.
The location of the accident, North Byron Road, a tenth of a mile east of Log City Road, is just yards from where Elba resident Linda Brown was killed one year and eight days ago in a single-car accident.
It's too early to determine if there is any common factor between the two fatal crashes.
"It’s a straight road, you’ve got some hills, you’ve got some deer out here, any number of things could be a factor here, or not," said Investigator Timothy Weis. "It could be simply, she drifted off the road."
A medical examiner will try to determine if Smith, a resident of Miller Road, Elba, had a health issue that contributed to the crash and investigators will take a look at her car and try to determine if there were any mechanical issues.
"If (the mechanical inspection) comes back fine and the medical exam comes back fine, this could be one where we never know the reason," Weis said.
Assisting at the scene was the Elba Fire Department and State Police. The investigation is being conducted by Weis, Deputy Kevin McCarthy and Sgt. William Scott.
A field fire has been reported in the area of 9384 Shepard Road, Batavia.
Town of Batavia fire responding.
UPDATE 5:23 p.m.: The fire is out. Town of Batavia is back in service.
There's a bit of myth and mystery surrounding the couple that lives at 71 Ellicott Ave., Batavia.
There's a rumor that it's "the couple who starred in L.A. Law."
Not true. Hiram Kasten has appeared in dozen of TV shows, mostly sitcoms -- and one episode of L.A. Law -- but never starred in any of them. His wife, Diana, an alumna of Alexander High School, had a theater career but spent most of the couple's 25 years in California working in information technology.
And there's the assumption that they're millionaires.
Not true. Kasten said the couple has the same financial struggles as any other middle-class family. One reason Diana bought a house in Batavia was real estate is so much more affordable here.
"It was time for us to stop living like Bohemians," she said.
And a lot of people assume that the couple only lives in the Rowell Mansion in the summer.
Once true. True no more.
In August, Hiram and Diana Kasten loaded up a trailer and moved from Los Angeles to the closest thing to a hill in Batavia. They now plan to make Genesee County their base of operations while Hiram continues his acting career in New York City.
"I like Batavia a lot," Diana said. "It’s a nice place to come back to at this point in my life."
When Hiram met Diana more than two decades ago, he was an up-and-coming comic on the New York-New Jersey circuit and she was a young actress whose career path had finally brought her to NYC.
Back then, most of the professional comics knew each other, Hiram said. It was before cable TV and the proliferation of part-time and wannabe stand-ups. It meant something then, Hiram said, to be a comic and the girls were always around.
His act was old school. He grew up with the likes of Alan King.
"I grew up watching Ed Sullivan," Hiram said. "A comedian should dress better than the audience. If he’s a Jewish guy, he should be a tough Jewish guy. He shouldn’t be a momma’s boy. He should be tanned. He should wear cufflinks."
After graduating from college with a performing arts degree, Kasten developed his stand-up routine, but he said he always had a quick mind and could ad lib if he needed to get a crowd's attention.
Kasten first met Jerry Seinfeld at a comedy club in New Jersey. It was a tough crowd, he said. Kasten was jeered and heckled, but he held his ground.
Seinfeld got up and just delivered his lines in his casual, soft-spoken way.
"I was doing like Milton Berle," Hiram said. "I would do anything, drop my pants, anything to get their attention, and then Jerry goes on. This was 1979. ... slowly the crowd quiets down. They’re turning to listen to him. He’s not raising his voice. They lower their voices. He had a self assurance. People say he took a little Scientology courses. I never asked him, but I’ve never known a more fascinating mind. I mean, I’ve seen it up close.
"So he got off stage," Hiram added, "and he says, he comes off and he says to me, that will be my second of five Johnnys."
Seinfeld was already planning his conquest of the Tonight Show (with Johnny Carson).
Both Hiram and Diana had made it to 30 without getting married before they met and found they made a good match.
"I came from a small city and he came from a big city, but our values were very much the same," Diana said. "He had a great family, all of these cousins who lived in the Bronx, and I had a lot of cousins that I grew up with on both sides of my family. We both valued family, and I don't just mean immediate family, but extended family."
Hiram said he and his wife don't always agree on everything, but they agree on the big things, the important things.
"It's funny, but marriage is obviously not a barrel of laughs," Hiram said. "The word 'fun' isn’t in the contract. Read at the contract. People are divorcing. We’re not having fun any more, they say. That’s not in the contract. It’s two souls. The rabbis said, it’s two souls that become one."
After they were married, Diana told Hiram that if he wanted a career in TV, he needed to move to Los Angeles.
"If I hadn’t gotten married I would have stayed in the exact same rent-control apartment in the Bronx, descended into alcoholism and an early death," Hiram said.
It didn't take long for Hiram to establish himself in Hollywood. Over the next 25 years, he appeared in more than 30 different television shows, including Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Saved by the Bell, Without a Trace and, yes, L.A. Law.
Hiram got one shot at co-starring in a sitcom. A pilot was produced, but CBS turned it down.
There's a blueprint for sitcom success in Hollywood, Hiram said, and he just never bothered to follow it.
Before Carson retired, it was all about appearing on the Tonight Show, and if Johnny liked you, he would call you over to his desk.
If that happened, the next morning your agent's phone would be ringing and offers for starring roles in new sitcoms would come rolling in.
Drew Carey, Hiram said, struggled for years, then put on the horn-rimmed glasses, the thin tie and the white shirt and did the Tonight Show. Johnny loved the act and Carey's career was made.
"I don’t live with any regrets," Hiram said. "I knew exactly what they were doing. It’s an art. It’s the creative arts. It’s like I’m Jackson Pollack and this guy’s doing still lifes. I like ad-lib comedy. I like the Shecky Greenes and the Don Rickles. We have an act, but we play off of that. I’ve never done the same show twice."
A sitcom star used to make $2 million an episode (those days are over, Hiram said, disrupted by webisodes and reality TV), and the Kastens would have had it made if Hiram had gotten just one starring role under his belt.
But even so, he said, some of the residual checks he gets can be quite handsome (and some miniscule -- he carries around in his wallet a residual check for one cent).
Asked for a single key memory from his time in Hollywood, Hiram said it was getting to know Jerry Lewis a bit. He demurred when asked if Lewis was a friend. He just said, "he knew my name."
"Once I wrote him a note," Hiram said, "and he called me. I was in my kitchen in Los Angeles. 'Hello, Hiram, it’s Jerry Lewis.' You know, he has that voice, and I saw him at 9-years-old in the moves. That was big thrill. I could barely speak. I thought, 'Oh, I wish my mother was alive so I could call her up and tell her, 'Jerry Lewis just called me.' "
As Hollywood shifted away from paying actors and creating reality show celebrities instead, and as Hiram turned 50, he started to think it was time for a change.
Little did he know in December of 2004, his wife was putting in an offer on the Rowell Mansion. She didn't tell him about her plans to buy the property from Terry Platt until it was almost a done deal.
"She made me a martini and said, 'We now own real estate,' " Hiram said.
It would be quaint to imagine a young Diana Kisiel going past the Rowell Mansion and saying quietly to herself, "someday I'm going to live here."
Nothing, she said, could be further from the truth. Her dream house was on Creek Road, around the corner from her parents. Her aunt lived there and she would have bought it in the early 2000s if it hadn't been sold first to a local minister.
Unlike many middle-class couples, the Kastens never took regular family vacations -- no weekends in Mexico, holidays in Aspen or trips to the Grand Canyon. Instead, when they had time off, they came to Batavia.
Hiram said they flew into Buffalo from Los Angeles at least two or three times a year.
Diana's father, Henry Kisiel, founded Pinnacle Manufacturing Company, Inc., in the 1970s for his wife, Lois Quartley Kisiel, and his three children, and today, his children share responsibility for the company. Diana is secretary, her brother, Kim, is president and brother, Kevin, is vice president. Many of Diana's extended family remain in Genesee County.
Lois Kisiel passed away two years ago.
On one trip home to see family, Diana learned that the Rowell Mansion was up for sale. With her dream home on Creek Road recently sold, she started to think about the Rowell as a possible vacation home. On the next trip, the house was still for sale, so the Kasten family took a look inside, but more as a sightseeing adventure than real estate consideration.
Diana decided that if it were still for sale when she returned in October, she would make an offer. It was, she did, and after some negotiating she learned she would close on the house Dec. 29.
That Christmas she announced the purchase to her family during a dinner at Sunny's Restaurant. Nobody, she said, believed her at first.
The Rowell Mansion was built in 1920 by E.N. Rowell, who opened a box making company in Batavia in 1888. Rowell is best known for killing the lover of his first wife in their home on Bank Street in 1893.
After shooting the naked man, Rowell told a neighbor, "I found this man in my house and I shot him. He had seduced my wife. I caught him in the act."
Rowell was charged with manslaughter and a jury found him not guilty. The case was a national sensation at the time.
The E.N. Rowell Box Factory grew into one of Batavia's largest industries and after Rowell's death in 1929, May Emke Rowell, his second wife, ran the business and lived in the mansion until her death in 1972. Their children had no interest in Batavia or the business, sold it, and the new owners closed it in 1980.
The Rowell Mansion passed through a few owners, at one point falling into a good deal of disrepair, until Diana Kasten acquired it in 2004.
She understands the home is a historical landmark, she said, and wants to see it restored to his former glory. While the exterior needs some masonry work, so far her efforts have been focused on the interior.
She's redone the electrical, removed or moved book cases that weren't original, repaired plaster and molding damage, and refurbished fixtures.
"This is all work that nobody sees so people think you're not doing anything, but that's where you're sinking the bulk of what you're doing," she said.
As part of her restoration goals, Diana is hoping there may be people in the area who have old photos of the house. She has had a particularly hard time -- she's search the library, county history office and Holland Land Office Museum -- finding pictures of the house when there was a wrought-iron fence in the front yard. She wants to restore it.
One of the "most exquisite" features of the interior, DIana said, is the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese tile flooring in nearly every room. The tiles are pressurized, not baked, and have a matte rather than glossy finish. Each room is accented with a different tile color.
"Over the years people really ruined it," she said. "They didn’t take care of it."
One former owner drilled holes through the tile in the foyer, she said.
Kasten hired an expert from Buffalo to clean it and lightly sand it to bring back the original look. She also has replacement tiles Rowell left in the basement.
"We've got three rooms done," Diana said. "It's terribly expensive, but the tile is really lovely."
Meanwhile, Hiram is working on getting work in New York City. If not for Superstorm Sandy, Hiram would have been in the city signing contracts with a new agent and new manager.
Hiram said he owes it to Diana to make a go of it on the East Coast. She's meant so much to his life and career.
Diana said she has a lot of confidence in her husband.
"You don’t make a living in this business and last and preserve in this business for 40 years unless you’re talented," Diana said. "He’s extremely talented. It's amazing how he can stand on stage make people laugh by just saying what comes into this head."
Black and white film photo of the Rowell Mansion by Howard Owens, October 2011.
The Grand Jury of Genesee County has issued the following indictments:
Kevin C. Johnson is indicted on a count of failure to register change of Internet access. Johnson, a convicted sex offender, is accused of not notifying authorities within 10 calendar days of a change in Internet access accounts.
James D. Ferguson is indicated on counts of DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater and aggravated unlicensed operation. Ferguson is accused of driving drunk May 28 in Pembroke while having a revoked license due to a prior conviction in Buffalo in 2011 of driving while ability impaired.
Xzavier A. Davis is indicted on felony counts of DWI, driving with a BAC of .18 or greater and aggravated unlicensed operation. Davis is accused of driving drunk May 13 in the Town of Darien. Davis has a prior DWI conviction in the Town of Cambria in 2012.
Shawn A. Johnson Jr., is indicted on four counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument, 1st. Johnson is accused of possessing forged $20 bills in the Town of Darien.
Robert L. Hizer is indicted on counts of felony DWI, aggravated felony DWI and robbery, 3rd. Hizer is accused of driving drunk June 23 in the Town of Le Roy while children under age 15 were in the vehicle. He is accused of, on that same date, stealing $138 and a pack of cigarettes from the Wilson Farms store at 13 Lake St., Le Roy.
Laszlo Szabo is indicted on counts of felony DWI and driving with a BAC of .18 or greater. Szabo is accused of driving drunk Sept. 23 in the Town of Le Roy. Szabo has a prior DWI conviction from 2005 in the Town of Greece.
Drivers who illegally park in handicapped spaces, be warned: James Sheflin is on the job.
Sheflin started three weeks ago with Batavia PD as the city's new parking enforcement and dog control officer.
The part-time position was vacant for a few months before Sheflin's hire.
The 22-year-old Sheflin is from Le Roy, the son of a former Le Roy Fire Department chief, and is a part-time dispatcher for the Sheriff's Office.
Chief Shawn Heubusch said among the things he likes about Sheflin is that he will take on the job enthusiastically, but not over zealously.
Parking enforcement downtown is important, Heubusch said, but parking 30 minutes in a 15-minute zone is not the same as parking in a handicapped spot.
And Sheflin said that illegal parking in handicapped spots is one of his personal pet peeves.
"To me I think it’s just complete laziness when somebody who is not handicapped parks in one," Sheflin said. "That’s not acceptable to me. Those spots are there for a reason and you need a permit for a reason."
The job is a uniformed, civilian position in the department. Parking enforcement officers are responsible for patrolling the entire city limits and enforcing all parking regulations.
Part of the dog control officer's job is to ensure dogs in the city are licensed and to protect animals from inhumane treatment. The dog control officer enforces state, county and city ordinances.
Sheflin said he's a dog lover and isn't concerned about dealing with vicious dogs and wants to protect animals against mistreatment.
His ultimate goal is to become a police officer, ideally in the City of Batavia.
"It's good to get my foot in the door and prove to Chief Heubusch I can be a good employee," Sheflin said. "I figured if I come here, do a good job, it looks good on the resume, at least.”
Press release:
Sheriff Gary T. Maha announces that effective Saturday, Nov. 24, Sergeant Gregory Walker, a 25-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office, will be assigned as Criminal Investigation Sergeant and will oversee the Local Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Sergeant Walker started his career with the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office in October 1987 as a deputy sheriff. He was promoted to investigator in 1994 and gained experience in drug enforcement. In 1997, he was promoted to sergeant and was assigned as a road patrol supervisor. Sergeant Walker is a 2006 graduate of the F.B.I. National Academy.
Sheriff Maha also announces the promotion of Deputy Ronald Meides to sergeant, effective Nov. 24. Sergeant Meides will be assigned as a road patrol supervisor.
Deputy Meides started his career with the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office in March 1991 as a correction officer. In 1993, he was appointed a deputy sheriff and assigned to road patrol. Deputy Meides was the Sheriff’s Office “Officer of the Year” in 2009 and was recognized by the Kiwanis Club of Batavia in 2011 for his law enforcement service. Deputy Meides has vast experience in road patrol operations and D.W.I. enforcement.
Last week's winner was Matt Scott, who was selected in a random drawing from among the 10 people who correctly named Arian Foster as the running back most likely to rack up the most rushing yards (from among the 10 choices in the contest).
To play this week's contest, click here.
Press release:
As we all know, the East Coast was recently struck by Hurricane Sandy and has much devastation. Members of our community have decided to start a donation drive at the Pembroke High School (routes 5 and 77 in Corfu) on Friday, Nov. 16, from 3 to 7 p.m. with the help of students of the high school.
The students are really coming together to all participate in making this happen. We have been in direct contact with the location where we are making our drop and the following are their specific needs.
We will be accepting: bottled water, toiletries, non-perishable food items and bulk food items for the location because they are making daily hot meals for those who continue to have no electricity. Also needed are: blankets, gently used coats, hats and gloves, and new or gently used toys and Home Depot gift cards, but please no money.
But money can be given to the American Red Cross <www.redcross.org> and checks made out to the American Red Cross can be accepted during the charity drive at the high school.
After, we will be joining with Alden Presbyterian Church to move the goods to another church in New Jersey. Thank you for your time and generosity!
Also, an update on the Rotary drive, from Samantha Vagg, who said specific items are needed:
The drop-off location for the Rotary drive is the American Legion post in Le Roy, 53 W. Main St. Donated goods will be accepted until 6 p.m. today.
Press release:
The seasonal Yard Waste Station hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The Yard Waste Station will be closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 22. The seasonal hours will resume on Friday, Nov. 23. The station will remain open through Dec. 8, weather permitting.
Residents are encouraged to bring yard waste debris to the Yard Waste Station.
Curbside leaf pickup will continue as weather permits or through Wednesday, Nov. 21.
Press release:
As part of MVP Health Care’s fall brand campaign, MVP asked the community “Who Inspires You?” and received more than 150 nominations and 40,000 votes in its quest to find the Ultimate Game Changer.
The contest — which was looking for people who make a significant difference in their communities by making them better, healthier places to live — concluded with an event on Saturday, Nov. 10, honoring the top 10 finalists and naming the Ultimate Game Changer.
Donald Carroll, of Batavia, NY, is the grand prize winner in the Ultimate Game Changer contest. Don, who is battling inoperable cancer of the stomach and esophagus, was not able to travel to Clifton Park for the event, but was there in spirit.
Don, who was orphaned at the age of 5, said that the kindness of family, friends and strangers deeply moved him as a child and young adult. It motivated him to “pay it forward” by sending local kids to summer camp, raising money to buy underprivileged kids toys and clothing at Christmas and funding college scholarships at Genesee Community College.
“I strongly believe all of us become who we are because of life experiences and the way we react to those experiences,” Don said in a statement read by a friend at the event. “We can pick up the ball and run with it, or we can fumble our way through life. I chose to run.”
Don and his former sixth-grade teacher, Jerry Foster, who nominated him, have each won $1,000. Jerry plans to donate his prize money to the cancer support fund established to help Don with his medical and other financial obligations.
“I nominated Don because I’ve had the opportunity to see him grow from a quiet, shy sixth-grader to a humble, compassionate man,” said Jerry, who taught Don at Oakfield-Alabama Central School in Oakfield, NY. “I know of no one who believes more in ‘paying it forward’ than Don. I have always believed in Santa. His nickname is Don.”
“All of the game changer finalists are examples of the kinds of everyday heroes MVP wanted to celebrate,” said Denise Gonick, MVP’s president of Operations. “Don’s story, especially, is wonderfully inspiring. Despite all the hardship in his life and, now, his illness, Don has never stopped giving back and paying it forward. It’s a reminder that wherever you are, whoever you are, you can make a difference.”
The Ultimate Game Changer Contest invited kids age 13 and older and adults in New York and Vermont to nominate someone they felt is making a significant contribution to their local community.
Timothy E. R. Backes, 31, of Summit Street, Batavia, is charged with assault, 3rd. Backes is accused of hitting another man in the face, fracturing facial bones. The incident was originally reported at 2:30 a.m., Oct. 21, to Batavia PD. Investigation revealed the alleged incident occurred at an address on West Main Street Road, Town of Batavia.
Emily R. Diamond, 34, of Lyndonville, is charged with petit larceny. Diamond is accused of stealing from Kmart. The alleged incident was reported to State Police at 4:05 p.m., Wednesday. Diamond was held in jail, no bail amount, if any, released. No further details released.
For 35 years Bob Zehler has enjoyed his work and his coworkers, but the time has come to hang up his badge, he said.
"I'm not quite ready, but now is the time to get out while I still like the place," Zahler said.
Today, in the basement of the jail, coworkers, colleagues and friends gathered for lunch and cake to celebrate Zahler's career.
Many years ago, the Sheriff's Office switched from hiring deputies to work in the jail to hiring corrections officers. Zahler, a supervisor, is the last deputy sheriff to work in the jail.
As for retirement, the Bethany native said he'll spend more time with his 87-year-old mother, complete remodeling his home -- a project he started 20 years ago -- and take care of some neglected work around the family farm.
With Zahler, left in the photo, is the current director of the jail, Ed Minardo.
Safety is every hunter's responsibility, Capt. Christopher Cummings, commander of Troop A, Batavia, told the press today, asking that the media help spread the message of hunter safety at the start of a new hunting season.
Since the 1960s, the number of hunting-related accidents in New York has decreased steadily, but that's no reason not to be as careful this year as any other year. That was the message of today's press conference.
"The important thing is that every individual hunter must realize that they have to make safety priority one when they go out into the field," Cummings said. "Every individual hunter is responsible for the integrity and reputation of hunting. They need to take the responsibility on themselves that they do carry that weight when they enter the woods with a firearm.
"It should be simple for the safety of hunters," Cummings added. "It should be simple. Every hunting incident that we investigate is preventable."
Capt. Frank Lauricella, Department of Environmental Conservation, offered several safety tips for hunters:
It's been proven, he said, that hunters wearing orange are seven times safer than those who do not.
He said it's also important to see your target clearly and what's beyond your target.
"It's very important to remember that once you discharge you cannot call back that projectile," Lauricella said.
We tend to think of playgrounds as just places for children, right?
Well, there's something starting in New York City and Buffalo to change that -- the cities are building playgrounds designed to attract adults in a social environment focused on physical fitness.
As a writer for Buffalo Rising put it, "The concept is so simple that I can't believe that it hasn't surfaced all across America."
There are no known plans to build an adult playground in Batavia, but one local woman has discovered an existing playground that goes a long way in filling the void, and she thinks other adults should join her in putting it to good use.
Batavia resident Nancy Gilmartin-Marchitte said she's been using the playground at the former Robert Morris School for several months for her own exercise routine and having a blast.
She and her husband like to run on the track at Woodward Field, and one day she spotted the rings at the playground and, with her love of gymnastics, she thought it would be fun to try them out.
From that initial experiment, she discovered the playground offered her several different fun and useful exercises.
"After coming here and doing my routines, I came to realize there are adult playgrounds all over now," said the 36-year-old Gilmartin-Marchitte.
In June 2011, Robert Morris opened the new playground paid for by a grant won from Pepsi.
Now, Robert Morris is no longer a school, and though the playground is still owned by the school district, it is open to the community, Business Administrator Scott Rozanski confirmed today.
"We made the decision to leave the playground for community use," Rozanski said.
While adult use hasn't yet been contemplated by district officials, he sees no reason adults couldn't exercise there so long as they didn't prevent children from playing and helped keep the equipment in good working order.
"I would expect an adult to use wisdom and not do anything that would damage the equipment," Rozanski said.
Gilmartin-Marchitte said she's worked up a whole routine for herself that, by making it a rigorous workout, not only exercises her arms, legs and torso, it also provides cardiovascular benefits.
Her routine includes, among other things, chin-ups, exercises on the rings (her favorite), balance walks, using the swing for her abs and the parallel bars.
"Going to the playground a few times a week and exercising on the rings and chin-up bar is not only a good exercise, but brings out the little girl in me," Gilmartin-Marchitte said.
A pet sitter has been arrested by the Sheriff's Office and accused of stealing antiques from a residence in Batavia and selling them to a collectibles store in Cheektowaga.
Jodi Coe, 36, of Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road, Oakfield, is charged with burglary, 2nd, and grand larceny, 3rd.
Investigator William Ferrando arrested Coe for allegedly stealing antique items from a home where she was taking care of pets in September.
Some of the items allegedly stolen have been recovered.
Coe was arraigned in Town of Batavia Court and released on her own recognizance.
A motor-vehicle accident has been reported in front of the East Pembroke Fire Hall, 2623 E. Main Road, East Pembroke.
At the same time, the fire station's fire alarm has gone off.
The car has apparently gone through the door of the fire hall and struck a fire truck.
There is a report of one injury.
East Pembroke fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.
UPDATE 3:53 p.m.: The vehicle struck a center post on the building causing structural damage. Code enforcement requested to the scene.
UPDATE 3:56 p.m.: Both engines and the tanker are blocked in the building. The chief orders that as soon as the patient is extricated -- and the patient has been extricated -- that some pictures be taken and the trucks moved to another location as soon as possible.
UPDATE 4:02 p.m.: The fire chiefs will be notified in Oakfield, Indian Falls, Pembroke and Town of Batavia and crews will be assembled as they deem necessary to stand by in their quarters. One engine from the East Pembroke hall is out and available in case of fire, but that's it. Any other equipment needed to fight a fire would need to come from elsewhere.
UPDATE 4:15 p.m.: All the trucks from the East Pembroke Fire Station have been safely removed from the damaged building. But crews in other halls will remain on standby duty for the time being.
UPDATE 5:24 p.m.: The driver was eastbound on Route 5 and either fell asleep or blacked out due to a medical condition, according to Trooper Mark Catanzaro. Her car entered the west driveway, went airborne after cutting between a utility pole and the fire department sign and over an embankment, striking the post between two doors. No fire engines were damaged. The trucks are being relocated, according to Chief Don Newton, to Ron and Newt's. East Pembroke fire will be able to respond to calls from that location, but neighboring districts will also be called on mutual aid for most emergency calls. The trucks will be returned to the hall after repairs are completed, which will take one or two weeks.
Kenneth W. Cook III, 19, of 108 Oak St., Batavia, is charged with sexual misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child. Cook is accused of having sexual relations with a girl under the age of 17.
Timothy J. Petrie, 41, of Pavilion, is charged with harassment, 2nd. Petrie was arrested by State Police in relation to an incident reported Aug. 19. No further details released.
Press release:
Batavia and Le Roy Rotary Clubs are collecting relief items for the areas of New York and New Jersey devastated by Superstorm Sandy.
The Batavia club is subsidizing transportation of items to the hard-hit areas on Saturday. A team of Le Roy Rotarians led by President Samantha Vagg will take the items to an area established by Rotary clubs in the devastated area.
Donations are being coordinated through the Rotary districts in that region.
In addition, the Batavia club is donating $1,500 for relief efforts. If others wish to donate, they can -- either needed items or money. The check will be given to Samantha to take with her when the relief items are delivered on Saturday, Nov. 17.
Checks may be made out to the following:
The Walter D. Head Foundation of Rotary District 7490
c/o Calisto Bertin
Bertin Engineering
66 Glen Ave., Glen Rock, NJ 07452
This is a 501(c)3 foundation and is coordinating the cash donations to the devastated districts. Our donation will be divided among the six Rotary districts that were hardest hit in New York and New Jersey.
Copyright © 2008-2022 The Batavian. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
