A motor-vehicle accident is reported at 9036 South Lake Road, Pembroke.
A car reportedly hit a house and the driver fled the scene.
One car involved.
Injuries are reported.
Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments responding.
Warsaw's Kevin Gray Jr. continued his red-hot bowling in the Thursday Owls League at Rose Garden Bowl in Bergen this week.
The left-hander popped a 279 game en route to a 770 series, his second big 700 set in the past four weeks. At the end of October, he rolled a 798 series.
Gray's latest effort raised his average to 233 after 30 games.
In other action around the Genesee Region USBC last week:
-- Gary MacDonald of Batavia fired a 751 series in the Wednesday Nite Misfits at Mancuso Bowling Center, raising his average to 229.
-- Laurie Morgante of Bergen rolled 658 in the Wednesday Handicap League at Rose Garden Bowl.
-- Darlene Balduf of South Byron spun a 261 game and 627 series in the Wednesday Nite Ladies League at Mancuso's.
For a list of high scores, click on the Pin Points tab at the top of this page.
Members of Batavia High School's senior class and their families held a pandemic-era Thanksgiving parade through the City of Batavia this morning.
For a week, local television stations have been advertising the antics of 97 Rock’s DJ, known as The Jixter, and his promotion to collect food for Rock Out Hunger.
Many people don’t realize The Jixter is none other than Alexander native Dave Gick, son of Bill and Audrey Gick, of Alexander.
Gick, who prefers to be called “The Jixter,” got his first broadcasting job at WCJW Radio in Warsaw after graduating from Alexander High School.
He went to work at 97 Rock (WGRF-FM) in 2005, and every year since he has spent a week at Thanksgiving living 24/7 in a tractor-trailer parked in the Buffalo area to accept donations of nonperishable food items and turkeys.
This year the donation truck is at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital on Maple Avenue in Buffalo. The Jixter will be there until 10 a.m. Tuesday to accept your gifts of food for our neighbors in the region who need it.
“When I first started at 97 Rock, they asked for a young and single guy to volunteer,” The Jixter said. “They asked me if I’d be willing to live in a truck for a week.”
He has done that every year since, he said. He sleeps in a recliner and only takes a break to change his clothes and brush his teeth in a motorhome supplied by the Upstate Auto Group of Attica.
“Upstate Auto has supported everything I’ve done since I started broadcasting,” The Jixter said.
He has a heated recliner, which someone donated for him to sleep in this year, although he said it is questionable how much sleep he gets. If people show up in the middle of the night with a donation, he accepts it. Sometimes he wakes up and there will be a box of food on the steps.
During the past 14 years The Jixter has done this, they have collected $260,000, 245,000 pounds of food and 31,000 turkeys. Last year they collected more than $37,000, and 32,557 pounds of food and 2,400 turkeys. As of Saturday afternoon, they 844 turkeys.
The donated food will be distributed by FeedMoreWNY, a group formed by the merger of the Food Bank of Western New York and Meals on Wheels of Western New York. In 2019, FeedMoreWNY provide 12 million meals through various programs, and as of September they had already surpassed that number.
The Jixter said there are people in need every year, and this year especially is expected to be greater.
Rock Out Hunger is sponsored by 97 Rock, Kaleida Health and WKBW 7 Eyewitness News.
The Jixter said a lot of his friends from the Genesee County area have come up to see him and he welcomes everyone.
Saturday, he and a dozen volunteers were busy nonstop accepting donations from people who could drive up in their car and open their trunk for a volunteer to take their donation. The Jixter said volunteers sign up with FeedMoreNY, and they come every year.
Top photo, The Jixter stands on the stairs leading into the tractor-trailer at Millard Fillmore Surburban Hospital, where he is spending the week to collect food for the needy.
Below, The Jixter unpacks donated food for Rock Out Hunger.
Below, Alexander native Dave Gick points to paper chains, each link representing a donated turkey to feed the hungry.
Below, 97 Rock’s The Jixter takes time out from unloading cases of donated food to broadcast a live thank you for a large donation of pizzas for FeedMore WNY.
Photos courtesy of Virginia Kropf.
The Holland Land Office Museum's 2020 Wonderland of Trees is open to the public during regular business hours until Dec. 31. The annual event this year doesn't include the usual gala opening but visitors are still welcome to enjoy the holiday cheer of more than 20 trees decorated by local organizations and businesses.
As many as 25 people at a time will be allowed into the building to view the trees. Masks are required inside the building.
This year's sponsors include Tompkins Bank of Castile, Batavia Downs, and The YNgodess Shop.
This is a major fundraiser each year for HLOM and to help in that effort, there is a basket raffle. The winners will be drawn on Dec. 18.
The Genesee Symphony Orchestra will provide musical performances on the evenings of Dec. 4, Dec. 11, and Dec. 18.
Sgt. Greg Kellogg, Le Roy PD, and troopers Ben Hersee, Stephanie Grimaldi and Bill Franz, show off some of the toys collected at Target today for the annual Stuff the Cruiser event.
Local law enforcement gathers for the event each year to collect donations for children who might not otherwise fund many presents under their Christmas trees. Besides Le Roy PD and State Police, participating this year were the Sheriff's Office, Batavia PD, Corfu PD, GC Probation Department, and the Department of Environmental Conservation.
Brooke Fisher, 5, drops off a toy with Le Roy PD Officer CJ Miller and Sgt. Thomas Sanfratello, Sheriff's Office.
Photo submitted by Greg Kellogg of the final haul of presents.
Patrick Hager, with American Legion Post 637 in Strykersville, helps deliver meals from the Original Red Osier Landmark Restaurant to residents and staff at the VA Hospital in Batavia on Thursday. Veterans in Wyoming County raised $2,100 to pay for 175 meals.
Genesee County governmental leaders have trimmed the fat from the county’s self-funded employee health benefits plan that has been hit with consecutive years of double-digit premium increases, County Manager Matt Landers said this week.
“I will say that the plan is run lean, believe it or not,” Landers said following a vote of the Genesee County Legislature’s Ways & Means Committee to approve monthly rates for 2021, effective Jan. 1. “There is no healthy reserve fund balance in that fund. We are just covering our costs.”
And the costs to the county are considerable as participants pay an average of 15 percent of the total premium, with the county picking up the other 85 percent.
Genesee County has budgeted $13,994,483 for 2021 for actual claims plus administrative and ancillary costs. Approximately 680 employees of the county and Genesee Community College are enrolled in the plan, with total participation including additional family members at approximately 1,660.
Landers said that medical and prescription drug premium rates are increasing 17.6 percent in 2021, and this is on the heels of a 10-percent increase for 2020.
“While it is painful, we are increasing the premiums as little as possible,” he said. “We’re trying to be mindful of the impact it has departments, on taxpayers and on individuals that are paying these increased premiums through cost sharing.”
He said the goal is to have everyone on the plan pay 15 percent of the total premium – which will be achieved through negotiations with the county’s four unions – and that each county department has a budget for the health care costs for its employees.
“Right now, the average county employee is pretty close to paying 15 percent,” he said.
For an illustration of the cost, an employee signed up under “Family (3 or more)” in the Health and Wellness Plan will pay around $339 per month for that coverage in 2021.
With the total monthly premium set at $2,261, the county is responsible for $1,922 per month.
Landers explained that being self-insured means that all medical and prescription drug bills come directly to the county.
“We’re self-insured, so when a person goes in for a surgery or somebody has a premature baby delivered and stays in the hospital two months, we’re not sending (bills) to Blue Cross & Blue Shield, we are our own self-insured company,” he said. “So, basically the doctor or the hospital … sends a bill to Genesee County for $175,000 and we’re the ones paying that.”
Other monthly rates under the Health and Wellness Plan include Single, $696; 2 Members, $1,391; Retired, single, $696; and Retired, family 3 or more, $2,261. The county also offers dental and vision benefits for both Single and Family.
Legislature Chair Rochelle Stein said management and health plan consultants did their best to keep costs as low as possible.
“We understand that this increase in premiums is necessary, but if you go on to the market, you will see that it is right in line. So, I’m just pleased with this, considering where we are today,” she said.
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A milk truck is on its side in a ditch at Dry Bridge Road and Sandpit Road, Alexander.
The driver is out of the vehicle and reportedly uninjured.
Alexander fire is on scene.
At a press conference in Medina yesterday, Sen. Charles Schumer announced that the Rochester Red Wings will become an affiliate of the Washington Nationals. The Nationals will move their AAA affiliate from Fresno, Calif., to Rochester.
He said he continues to fight to save the Muckdogs, the Doubledays, as well as the entire New York Penn League. We asked about Congress using its power to exempt Major League Baseball from its anti-trust exemption and he didn't answer the question directly.
While it's too early to say that a series of brush fires next to buildings at 29 Liberty St. in the City of Batavia were deliberately set, said Chief Stefano Napolitano, the fires do deserve closer scrutiny.
City fire and Batavia PD are working together on an investigation.
The property is a long narrow band with a trailer on it -- like a long trailer used at construction sites -- and the fires were several yards apart on the property.
"With fires at multiple locations, it warrants an extremely closer look," Napolitano said.
The investigation will also try to determine if the Liberty Street fires are linked to a dumpster fire at School and Cedar streets earlier today.
Out at the scene this evening, Napolitano was overheard talking with a police officer about the unusual number of brush fires in the area for November. We asked him about it later.
There were fires today in Alabama, Oakfield, Pavilion and Darien.
"I can't speak for other chiefs but in my 35 years (in the fire service), I don't remember a November 20th with this kind of temperature and dry conditions," Napolitano said. "Maybe when I was younger, I didn't notice it, but now I can feel it in my bones."
He said its really not a good time for one last bonfire or to burn things.
He praised the response of his team. The firefighters protected nearby buildings from the fire and got it out quickly.
Previously: Brush fire reported on Liberty Street in the city
Video by Rick Hale.
The need for COVID-19 testing sites in rural counties was the focus of a press conference by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer Thursday morning at Medina Memorial Hospital.
Schumer said Congress has approved $9 billion in funding for states and rural counties, such as Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming, but the Federal government won’t release it.
Both Schumer and hospital CEO Mark Shurtz are concerned about the amount of testing that will need to be done with the coronavirus cases exploding across the region. Schumer said Orleans seven-day average has quadrupled since Nov. 1, and yet the county has zero free COVID-19 testing sites.
Genesee and Orleans County Health Department Director Paul Pettit said there are currently no free testing sites in the three-county area, forcing residents to drive to Monroe Community College in Rochester, Niagara County Community College in Sanborn or Downtown Buffalo for a free test.
Testing is being done at Oak Orchard Health in Albion, and drive-thru testing at Orleans Community Health’s Urgent Care in Albion, but it isn’t free.
County officials estimate thousands more tests are desperately needed immediately and with cases on the rise, there will be increased need for testing of nursing home residents, health care workers and school children, Pettit said.
County officials project they will need at least seven to eight rapid test machines and thousands of test kits at minimum, compared to the two machines and 700 rapid test kits they have now.
Schumer demanded the Department of Health and Human Services release the testing dollars he helped to originally secure to conduct sufficient rapid testing and tracing programs to keep residents safe from the virus. Schumer also announced his intention to fight for more of those funds for communities across Upstate New York, as the possibility of a second wave emerges and as a Covid relief deal continues to be negotiated.
Marc Shurtz, CEO/CFO of Orleans Community Health, said every tool and resource available is needed to best protect the community and health professionals, and that certainly includes more robust testing.
“Especially now as Covid infection and transmission rates are spiking again in Western New York, we need to increase our testing capacity – including rapid testing – to stop the spread and avoid other protective measures, like lockdowns,” Shurtz said. "If we can head off community spread with more testing, we can curb new hospitalizations, which are already up 550 percent in the Finger Lakes Region.”
Tomorrow's “Stuff the Cruiser" event (Nov. 21st) will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the parking lot outside Target in Towne Center at Batavia on Veterans Memorial Drive.
Multiple local law enforcement agencies* as well as the Rotary Club of Batavia will be attending to collect unwrapped toys, new clothing and nonperishable food to distribute back into Genesee County families in need this holiday season.
All donations stay in Genesee County.
*Participating local law enforcement agencies are: Village of Le Roy Police Department, Genesee County Probation Department, Genesee County Sheriff's Office, and City of Batavia Police Department.
A brush fire is reported next to a "primary care" building at 29 Liberty St. The location is between School and Ellicott streets. City fire is responding.
UPDATE 4:42 p.m.: The fire was next to an abandoned trailer. Fire is out; doing overhaul.
UPDATE 5:37 p.m.: City Fire is back in service.
Photo by Rick Hale.
Video by Rick Hale.
Press release:
Please be advised there will be a City Council Conference Meeting scheduled for Monday, Nov. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Council Board Room on the second floor of the Batavia City Centre. This meeting is open to the public. Face masks and social distancing will be required.
Options for viewing the meeting:
The agenda is posted on the City website.
Press release:
As of 2 p.m.:
Three of the current positive individuals are hospitalized.
Masses this weekend at Resurrection Parish in Batavia are cancelled due to some individuals that came to a funeral at St. Joseph's last week.
Here's a note from Rev. Ivan R. Trujillo, pastor at Resurrection RC Parish, Batavia:
I regret having to advise our parishioners that I am taking a pre-emptive measure and cancelling our weekend Masses for Nov. 21st and 22nd, as well as on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26th. Weekend and Thanksgiving Masses will be online through Facebook and our website as usual.
We have been notified by the Health Department that five members of a family attending a funeral last week have tested positive for COVID-19.
As we have been strictly following all of the recommended guidelines by the State and our Diocese -- such as wearing masks, social distancing, limiting the number of people attending, movement around the church, and disinfecting the entire interior of the church after EVERY Mass -- I believe we are doing the best we can to stay safe.
In addition, we have notified the Diocese regarding our situation. However, we cannot know for certain that everyone entering our church is healthy.
We will be temporarily closed to have some extra cleaning done and continue to disinfect every day (even though no one will be in the church).
I hope everyone will feel comfortable returning to Mass on the (Nov.) 28th.
Sincerely,
Fr. Ivan
Health Alert
From the Genesee County Health Department:
The Genesee County Health Department has received seven positive COVID-19 tests from individuals who attended funeral service arrangements on the following dates and locations:
Contact tracing is in progress; however unidentified individuals may have unknowingly been in contact with the positive cases.
We advise all individuals who were at the locations listed to monitor their symptoms for 14 days.
If symptoms of COVID-19 develop, contact your primary care provider to seek testing immediately and self-isolate until you receive your test results.
Symptoms of COVID-19 include but are not limited to: fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea.
For more information please visit: https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/home
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