About 30 people showed up -- and hundreds more drove by and honked their horns -- at a "Osama Got Obama'd" celebration outside the Post Office on Main Street, Batavia, organized by Victor Thomas and his friend.

The four young men had placed a handmade red, white and blue "Osama Got Obama'd" sign in front of the Upton Monument, which county officials removed early this morning. The sign removal prompted the spur-of-the-moment decision to organize the celebration this afternoon.

The Richmond Memorial Library, at 19 Ross St. in Batavia, will hold its budget vote and Board of Trustees election tomorrow from noon until 9 p.m.

All residents of the Batavia City School District are eligible to vote. Voting will take place in the library's Gallery Room.

The results of the election will be posted tomorrow. Call the library at 343-9550 for more information.

As Victor Thomas, 26, and three of his buddies watched the news of Osama bin Laden's death last night and saw the celebrations in Washington, D.C., and New York, they wanted to be part of something in Batavia.

So they jumped in a car and drove downtown.

"The City of Batavia was dead," Thomas said. "Not one person was out. Nobody was honking horns or celebrating."

So, Thomas, along with his cousin Christopher Thomas, 26, Ordy Edwards, 26, and Jason Armison, 24, decided to drive to the only place open to buy sign materials -- Walmart -- and get a board and some paint and fix up a sign.

They made a red, white and blue sign and painted on it, "Osama Got Obama'd."

He said they then mused for about 20 minutes on where to place the sign. They thought about putting it in front of the courthouse to represent justice, but then they did a little research on Emery Upson and discovered one of his specialities as a general was tactics in invading enemy territory. That made the Upson Monument, they thought, the perfect place to commemorate Osama's sudden demise in a protected compound in Pakistan.

Now they're a little upset that county workers took the sign down -- Christopher Thomas happened to be driving by at the time and retrieved the sign -- and are planning a rally at 4 p.m. in front of the Post Office.

Victor said anybody wanting to show support for freedom of speech or the United States should attend.

Thomas has seen the comments on The Batavian and is surprised that some have taken the sign as a partisan political statement.

"There was no thought about politics," Thomas said. "They both have O's, Osama and Obama. We didn't take it in a political way. He's our president and every soldier fighting is marching to his orders. They (some readers) took it as political and we just were trying to be traditional or patriotic."

He said he was worried the sign would be taken down, but was hoping it would stay up today so people could drive by and honk their horns, "just to give some kind of recognition to what happened on 9/11 and what our troops are doing."

Photo courtesy WBTA.

A transformer is said to be arcing repeatedly at 3305 Pearl St. Road. No fire is reported. East Pembroke Fire Department is dispatched.

UPDATE 1:50 p.m.: A firefighter on scene reports nothing is showing. National Grid is notified. The caller told dispatch the transformer had arced three or four times today and it was "pretty loud and bright."

Timothy V. Meyers, 18, of Walker Road, Darien, along with a 16-year-old from Dodgeson Road, Alexander, a 16-year-old from Centerline Road, Verysburg, and a 16-year-old from Genesee Street, Attica, are charged with petit larceny and criminal trespass. The youths, along with a 14-year-old, were stopped shortly after midnight, Sunday, allegedly removing scrap metal from the Alexander Town Transfer Station. The suspects reportedly fled the scene and were located a short time later with the help of K-9 "Pharoah" and State Troopers.

Brittany Alexis Adams, 20, of Bloomingdale Road, Basom, is charged with petit larceny. Adams is accused of shoplifting $39.84 worth of merchandise from Walmart.

Lynda B. Siplin, 57, of 65 Lakeview Park, Rochester, and Gwendolyn L. Watson, 53, of 91 Reynolds St., Rochester, are each charged with two counts of petit larceny. Siplin and Watson are accused of shoplifting more than $400 worth of merchandise from Aldi's and Dollar General. Siplin and Watson were jailed on $1,000 bail.

A 17-year-old from South Lake Road, Pavilion, is charged with petit larceny. The youth is accused of shoplifting from Walmart.

A transformer is reportedly on fire along Creamery Road.

Bergen Fire Department is dispatched.

UPDATE 11:08 a.m.: Pole #8198 has three transformers on it. The transformers were on fire but now the fire is out. National Grid being notified.

National Drug Take-Back Day was a success in Batavia, according to Det. Pat Corona.

Corona said Batavia PD collected 320 lbs. of unwanted prescription drugs and hypodermic instruments.

Police detectives will soon travel to Buffalo to deliver the boxes of collected items for proper disposal.

"We were very pleased with the turnout for the detail," Corona said. "We are happy to have been able to offer this service."

Another collection day is anticipated in October.

Some time over night somebody placed a red, white and blue handmade sign in front of the Upton Monument that read "Osama Got Obama'd."

By 9 a.m., the sign was gone.

County Manager Jay Gsell told Dan Fischer at WBTA that county workers removed the sign because the Upton Monument was not the appropriate location to place it.

Photo courtesy WBTA.

Osama bin Laden, responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, is dead.

In an operation inside of Pakistan, U.S. forces killed bin Laden during a firefight at a mansion. U.S forces are in possession of the body, The New York Times reports.

City firefighters are being dispatched to South Jackson Street in the area of Garfield Avenue for a report of wires arcing.

All of the photos from this weekend are now available for purchase of prints.  Click here.

The photos include the clean up at Genesee County Park, the tree planting in Austin Park, the track meet at Van Detta Stadium and Saturday at the Carnival.

Again, prints can be purchased by clicking here.

Also, the first weekend in April was also a busy weekend and I never let anybody know the pictures were available for purchase.

That weekend included Eco-Fest, GCC women's softball and men's baseball, the Chamber of Commerce Awards Dinner, the fundraiser for Brooklyn Sputore, the Le Roy Fire Department dinner, the Easter Bunny at Oliver's, and I also included the Easter egg hunt at Centennial Park.

To purchase prints of those pictures, click here.

Remember, we offer prices on prints well below the suggested retail price.

The annual Downtown Carnival is taking place on Jackson Street this weekend. It continues this afternoon.

More pictures after the jump:

Student athletes from high schools throughout Western New York converged on Van Detta Stadium late Saturday afternoon for a regional track meet.

Here are a few pictures from the competition.

More pictures after the jump:

The annual St. Joe's Mammoth Sale was apparently another huge success. One person told me people were lining up before 8 a.m. (doors opened at 9 a.m.) and it was wall-to-wall bargain hunters for the first hour or so (crowds had thinned out quite a bit by the time I got there after 2 p.m., but there were still bargains available and plenty of people looking for both the useful and the merely interesting used items.

Former Batavia resident Terry Anderson -- known internationally as the former Middle East Bureau Chief for Associated Press who was taken hostage in Lebanon for six years -- will serve as a visiting professor at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Anderson, most recently a journalism professor the University of Kentucky, will hold a temporary appointment in the Department of Newspaper and Online Journalism and give guest lectures and teach classes on several subjects, including international reporting.

While Anderson was in Batavia in February to support the planned International Peace Garden, he told reporters he would like to return to Upstate New York.

Anderson, who holds a bachelor's degree from Iowa State University, has also taught at Columbia University and Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism. Anderson is a former Marine who worked as a combat correspondent during the Vietnam War.

Anderson's appointment is for the 2011-12 academic year.  

Photo from Anderson's recent visit to Batavia, as he signs a copy of one of his many books for Jim Owen.

Winners of the 5th Annual National Poetry Contest -- sponsored by Present Tense Books and Gifts and GoArt! -- were announced Friday. Some of the winners were at Present Tense on Washington Avenue, Batavia, Saturday afternoon to receive their prizes.

Pictured above are Joe Gagne, Abby Sapecky, Faith Finnin (back row), Lindsay Augello, and Chloe Shuskey.

A complete list of winners and their poems are posted on the Present Tense Web site.

Each winner received a gift certificate from Present Tense.

A steady stream of people stopped by Clor's Meat Market this afternoon to buy chicken BBQ dinners from the Batavia Area Jaycees. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the family of Jonathan Colby, who died in an auto accident on West Main Street Road, Batavia, April 20. Colby's wife, Cathy, is a member of the Jaycees.

Earth Day/Arbor Day was celebrated by the city today with a volunteer park clean-up effort and then the planting of a pair of trees in Austin Park.

The Austin Park event included a chance for children to engage in environmentally themed crafts.

A car has reportedly hit a deer on the east I-490 somewhere in the Le Roy or Bergen area and the car is reportedly leaking gas.

Both Bergen and Le Roy fire departments dispatched since the exact location has not been determined.

It is approximately in the area of mile marker 2.7 or could be east of the Bergen exit.

There are no injuries reported.

UPDATE 9:23 p.m.: The vehicle has been located in the eastbound lane just west of the Bergen exit.

UPDATE 9:25 p.m.: Fluid leak is antifreeze. Le Roy back in service.