Boys Basketball
Girls Basketball
Hockey
On Senior Night, with a girls and boys basketball doubleheader, Pavilion officially unveiled its new Golden Gophers logo, with their gopher mascot carrying the flag.
In the girls' game, Pavilion prevailed over Mt. Morris 54-46. Mt. Morris won the nightcap over the boys 77-56.
The National Weather Service is predicting freezing rain starting at 11 p.m. with an advisory in effect through noon Sunday.
An accumulation of a 10th of an inch is possible.
Lows will be in the lower 30s overnight and upper 30s Sunday afternoon.
Driving and walking conditions could be hazardous.
Byron-Bergen's Brandon Burke scored his 1,000th point last night, becoming the first player at the school to hit that milestone in boys basketball. In a submitted photo, Burke is pictured with his family.
In Friday night basketball the Alexander Trojans defeated rival Attical Blue Devils 69-56. Alexander pulled ahead from the beginning and never slowed down. Top scorers for Alexander were Matt Geneway with 20 points and Dustin Schmieder with 19 points.
Photos by Destin Danser Photography. Click Here to view and purchase photos.
A car fire is reported in the Court Street Plaza parking lot behind the M&T Bank in Batavia.
City fire is responding.
UPDATE: Photo via City of Batavia Firefighters -- IAFF Local 896. Firefighters reported a quick knock down. No injuries. This was also the first fire for two new members of the department, Sean Huggins and David Pollock.
What more do you need? This home covers it all for those that are just starting out or thinking about downsizing! Cute and spacious, it has a first floor bath and laundry and nice area for entertaining downstairs and the privacy of the bedrooms up! A lot has been done to this home and you can easily move in and get your bearings before you have to do anything! Think ahead to SPRING and look forward to working outside in your cute yard that is actually a double lot in the City.
There is a lot to consider here for the money...easy to see anytime, definitely one to check out and think about! Click here to view the complete listing for 9 Colorado Ave. in Batavia. Call Lynn Bezon at Reliant Real Estate today at 585-344-4663!
The women organizing the third annual Eve Conference at Northgate Free Methodist Church are excited about the event next month that they believe will help bring more joy into the lives of all the women who attend.
The conference is March 25 and will feature keynote speaker Pam Washburn, whose talk is titled "Defending Our Joy."
The Eve Conference is open to teen girls and women of all faiths.
There are also 12 breakout sessions, including three specifically for teens, two worship services, and an optional lunch.
Sessions include "The Interruption of Joy," "Surviving Divorce," "Marriage," "Living the Full Life," "Daughters of Miriam: Hearing the whispered heroism of the women of the Old Testment," and "Jesus 1st."
Registration is $25, $15 for teens and the optional lunch is $7.
“We’ve had people’s lives transformed in here in one day," said Jennifer Berry. "It’s amazing. It’s a day where you walk away thinking anything is possible and you have the tools you need to improve your life.”
For more information and tickets, click here.
Photo: Jennifer Berry, Jessica Barone, Meg Hoistington, Gloria Roorda, and Julie Varland.
Two solar farm projects in the Town of Batavia were recommended for approval by the Genesee County Planning Board on Thursday night.
One project is at 3833 W. Main Street Road. It is an 11.6-acre project on a 83.5-acre parcel.
The other is at 8169 Bank Street Road, Batavia. It is 11 acres on 93.3 acres.
Both projects are being developed by Forefront Power, formerly SunEdison, with Forefront agreeing to leases of 25 years with the property owners.
The projects are expected to produce enough electricity each to power the equivalent of 300 residential homes.
Timothy P. Ahrens, in charge of project development for Forefront, said the projects will help create additional renewable energy sources for the region.
The projects will be eligible for state and federal incentives to help offset the costs.
Planning Board members asked questions about what happens to the farm if it's ever decommissioned and Ahrens said part of the agreement with the landowners is to remove all of the infrastructure and return the land to its prior use.
Both lots are less-than-prime farmland.
Pending final approval by the Town of Batavia, Ahrens said Forefront hopes to begin construction by the fall.
Thomas L. Gibson, 29, of Watson Street, Batavia, has been arrested on suspicion of drug dealing and jailed on $20,000 bail or $40,000 bond.
Gibson was arrested on a warrant. The arrest stemmed from an investigation by the Local Drug Task Force into the alleged sales of crack cocaine in the City of Batavia.
He is charged with two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance, 3rd, and two counts criminal possession of a controlled substance, 3rd.
Girl Scouts with Trop 42123 in Le Roy created a Bright Board for students at staff at Wolcott Street School. The board is filled with positive messages on bright sticky notes. Students and staff are invited to take a note to brighten their days or leave positive words for someone else to take. The scouts made a prototype and presented it to the principal, scheduled shifts and created the final project. The project took hours and hours to complete.
Literacy Genesee-Orleans held a ribbon cutting and grand opening yesterday at their new location at 27 City Centre.
Director Bob Curtis said the agency had been at a location on North Street, but they wanted to find a space that was more centrally located. The new location is larger and $200 a month cheaper.
"Not only did we save money, but we also enlarged our facility from one large classroom to two classrooms plus office space and in a location that is more convenient for everybody," Curtis said.
Clients of the center range in age from 18 to 74. While there are some volunteers, many on the teaching staff are older adults, 55 and over, who receive a wage paid for through a federally funded program.
The center offers help in reading, math, and computers as well as classes and tutors for people learning English as a second language.
Photo: Tom Turnbull, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Assemblyman Steve Hawley, Jim Owen, Sandra Gillard, Bob Curtis, Jay Grasso and Ben Bonigrigo. Photo by Kelly Bermingham.
The Le Roy Central School District’s Board of Education (BOE) has named Merritt Holly as the district’s next Superintendent. Pending final contract negotiations, Holly is expected to begin in his new post on April 1.
“I am excited and honored to have been chosen as the new superintendent of the Le Roy Central School District and look forward to working collaboratively with the school board, teachers, staff, parents and community. I’m committed to providing all students with exceptional educational experiences, which will assist them in having a varied skill set in order to be college and career ready," Holly noted.
School Board President Don Hobart said Holly possesses the key qualities that the Board is seeking in a Superintendent.
“As a visible and engaged leader, we are confident that Merritt Holly is the best choice for our district. We look forward to working with Merritt as we deliver the best education possible for our students,” Hobart said.
Merritt Holly has served as principal of Caledonia-Mumford High School (HS) since 2011. Previously, he was the principal of Oakfield-Alabama Middle School and was the Dean of Students at Oakfield-Alabama Middle and Senior High School from 2007-2008. Holly started his teaching career in 1999 as a ninth-grade Social Studies teacher at Oakfield-Alabama Central Schools, a position he held for eight years.
As principal, Holly is responsible for the supervision of faculty, staff, and students for grades 9-12. During his tenure as principal of Caledonia-Mumford HS, the school was designated a New York State Reward School three times. The New York State Department of Education presents this award to schools that are high achieving and high-progress schools. He is presently a Central Committee member of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association and represents Section V.
Holly holds a Bachelor of Arts from The College at Brockport, a Master of Science in Education Curriculum and Instruction from Medaille College and a master’s in Educational Administration from The College at Brockport. Holly holds a number of certifications including New York State Provisional and Permanent Certification in Secondary Social Studies grades 7-12 and an Advanced Certificate as School District and School Building Leader.
Kevin MacDonald, District superintendent of the Genesee Valley Educational Partnership, acted as the search consultant and noted that the search process was a true collaboration between the Board of Education, district staff and community.
Bergen's ladder truck has been dispatched on an emergency call, asked to expedite, to the Town of Riga, where a man is stuck in a lift 40-foot in the air.
The emergency response is requested because the lift is leaking hydraulic fluid and workers are afraid it's going to come down.
UPDATE 11:30 a.m.: Our news partner 13WHAM sent a reporter to the scene and they tell us that man trapped in the lift is on the ground, safe and uninjured. He was 60 feet in the air, he said. He said there was a hydraulic fluid leak and the lift wouldn't budge. His partner on the ground called for help. He was in the air for about 45 minutes. He said he wasn't afraid of the height, but it was cold up there. He is a tree trimmer from Monroe County.
The Lady Blue Devils' record fell to 4-15 on Thursday night with a 42-53 loss to Wellsville. Batavia closes the season at home Tuesday, game time 7:15 p.m., against Odyssey.
No stats available for the game.
Girls Basketball
A building permit for a duplex near Presidential Acres in Le Roy was legally issued, a judge has ruled in a multi-party lawsuit over the development in the subdivision.
The ruling is a victory of Pete McQuillen, a Le Roy businessman, who has been embroiled in legal battles with property owners in the area for years.
The latest round of legal action began in 2014 when 11 property owners in Presidential Acres filed an Article 78 proceeding against the Village of Le Roy, various officials in the village, and McQuillen and his business.
At the time, McQuillen had already completed two duplexes on 10 lots he owned on the west end of Presidential Acres, near Robbins Road. There had been no challenge to the building permits for those structures.
When a code enforcement officer issued a permit for Lot 18, that's when neighbors got together and tried to stop further development of duplexes in the neighborhood.
David Boyce, one of the plaintiffs, said in an affidavit that when he bought his lot on Filmore Drive, nothing in the record nor in the documents he researched, indicated that the neighborhood was zoned for anything other than single-family residences. He believes, he said, the presence of the duplexes lowers the value of his property.
The plaintiffs also alleged that the duplexes run contrary to the comprehensive plan for the village.
In his affidavit, McQuillen said he relied on village board meeting minutes from when the subdivision was created to conclude that the subdivision was planned from the beginning to include 10 duplexes.
Judge Emilio Colaiacovo, who inherited the case from Judge Robert C. Noonan upon his retirement, ruled that based on the fact that the first two duplexes went unchallenged, that the code enforcement officer was acting within his authority to issue the permit, and nothing in the record indicated that the zoning board of appeals, upon reviewing the permit, acted in an "arbitrary and capricious manner" so he was compelled to rule in favor of McQuillen.
Case law is clear, he said, that in the absence of evidence of an arbitrary or capricious decision, courts should respect the decisions of local bodies, such as the ZBA.
Before the duplex issue, McQuillen was involved in another legal battle over a planned senior community on property he owns next to Presidential Acres called Robbins Nest. He eventually lost that case, then subsequently built a storage shed on the back property line of Town Supervisor Steve Barbeau. A dispute over that structure resulted in a bit of shoving and the arrest of Barbeau. The storage shed was a subject of this lawsuit, alleged to be an illegal auxiliary structure, but Colaiacovo ruled that issue became moot once McQuillen built his single-family home on the lot once intended to be Robbins Nest.
We emailed Amy Kendell, an attorney for the plaintiffs, to ask if there was going to be an appeal of the ruling and we have not received a response.
UPDATE: We received an email response from Amy Kendell. She said there will be an appeal of the decision.
A 17-year-old resident of Le Roy has been accused of sexual intercourse with a person less than 11 years old and charged with rape in the first degree.
Leonard Edward Hahn, of South Street, was arrested by the Sheriff's Office and jailed on $25,000 cash bail or $25,000 bond.
The alleged crime reportedly occurred on April 15, 2016 at a location in Alabama.
In his State of the County address on Wednesday evening, County Legislature Chairman Ray Cianfrini said the City of Batavia has been "put on notice" about the county's desire to reduce how much sales tax revenue it shares with the city.
Reached later that evening, City Manager Jason Molino said, "I don't know where those comments are coming from because the City and the towns and villages have been very engaged in an open, constant and engaged discussion about these issues."
There is a working group of legislators, council members, along with two town supervisors and members of both county and city staff, who have been working diligently for months on a new sales tax agreement and water services agreement, Molino said. Cianfrini is a member of that oversight committee.
Molino shared with The Batavian a 42-page PowerPoint presentation titled "20 Identities ... One Genesee County Community" that goes into comprehensive detail about the process, timeline, history of the issues involved, and milestones that need to be reached to hammer out a new agreement covering how sales tax will be allocated and water issues handled.
Molino said he thought the whole process over the past several months has been cooperative and productive but repeated several times over the course of the conversation, "I just don't know where he's coming from."
The committee had seemed to be on the same page, he said, about reaching a mutually beneficial agreement, taking into account the shared needs -- which includes a possible new jail and infrastructure repairs for roads and bridges -- facing all of the municipal entities in the county.
"We made it very clear in the beginning that bridges and roads and a new county jail is more than just a county responsibility," Molino said. "It's all of our responsibility. There is an ownership responsibility that we all agree we must find a solution together. It's been a very cooperative process with the staff and oversight committee."
Currently, the county sales tax rate is 4 percent. That revenue is shared with the city and other municipalities in the county. The city gets 16 percent of that 50 percent and the other 34 percent is split among the other entities. The 10-year agreement expires in a year.
In his speech, Cianfrini said the county is facing some difficult financial issues in the future and suggested the county needs to keep more of the sales tax revenue for itself. He noted that Genesee County's share is more generous than Orleans, Livingston or Wyoming counties. He mentioned specifically the need to fund a potential new jail, a cost of $34 million to $42 million, and the backlog in repairs to roads and bridges, at a cost of $17 million.
"Negotiations for a new agreement began eight months ago, in July of last year, and the pace has been excruciatingly slow," Cianfrini said. "I can certainly understand the City’s desire not to have changes made to the agreement, but the needs of the county today and for the future are much different than they were when the last agreement was signed 10 years ago."
Cianfrini said changes need to be made that benefit the county.
"The county has put the city on notice that if a new agreement is not in place by February of next year, the county will consider the current sales tax sharing agreement to be terminated," Cianfrini said. "We await the results of the negotiations, but again, I want to be clear, time is of the essence and changes need to be made."
Among the milestones the oversight committee has agreed to, Molino said, is a review in May that will determine if any changes in the process need to be made. The May deadline was selected because if there is a new agreement, the state's comptroller needs six-months notice to implement changes.
The committee is also working on water supply issues for the county and the city, assessing the needs and challenges that may be faced in the future.
The document outlining the scope of work for the committee recognizes that are different goals and needs for the various entities involved, and each faces significant constraints, such as reduced staffing, the need not to increase property taxes and growing expenses. It also lays as a ground rule for the committee's work that everybody is going to have to give up something -- the people involved must focus on the big picture.
The oversight committee includes Cianfrini, legislators Bob Bausch and Marianne Clattenburg, council members Eugene Jankowski Jr. and Kathy Briggs, and representing the towns and villages are Darien Supervisor David Hagelberger and Bergen Supervisor Don Cunningham.
The working group, which meets regularly and reports back to the oversight committee, includes Molino, County Manager Jay Gsell, Assistant County Manager Matt Landers, Assistant City Manager Gretchen DiFante, County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens and City Director of Public Works Matt Worth.
If the process yields an agreement, the timeline for approval includes presentation to elected officials in each entity in June and approval by July.
"This was an approach that everyone bought into," Molino said. "Everyone is committed to a mutually beneficial agreement that benefits the towns and villages, the city and the county. Everyone bought into this and everyone was supportive of this process."
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