A vehicle, possibly a tractor-trailer, has reportedly rolled over on the Thruway near the Kelsey Road bridge. There are no injuries reported.

The mile marker is reported as 393.4.

East Pembroke fire was originally dispatched, but the accident has been determined to be in the Town of Batavia's district, so that department is being dispatched.

UPDATE 10:32 a.m.: Mercy medics confirm no injuries. State troopers on scene indicate a fire department response is not required. East Pembroke chief already well in route is continuing to confirm.

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It's important, we think, that our regional economy grow. We work constantly to promote local businesses, but an important part of that picture is seeing people find good jobs and employers finding the right people to hire. As long as I've been running The Batavian, I've wanted to launch a regional employment Web site.

There's been a missing link, I think, in between Rochester and Buffalo, for finding and posting jobs in our rural counties.

I searched a long time for the right technology platform for such a site and I think I found it with a company called Real Match.

Today, with their help, we're launching GLOWJobs.Net.

Job Seekers: If you're both actively looking for a job or just want to keep your name out there waiting for the next great opportunity in your career, you'll love GLOWJobs. You can post your resume and have the site's technology match your qualifications with the right available jobs and then apply online. If you don't find the right match right away, the search engine will be working away in the background 24/7 watching for good job matches for you as they become available in the network.

Employers: Now you have a one stop, local shop to post your openings and have them distributed across thousands of job boards, including ones specializing in your industry, along with promotion on social media sites. You will also have access to our resume database and receive notifications of potential candidates with the right qualifications for your jobs. The job-matching engine will also notify you of potential candidates on LinkedIn.

Press release:

Several of the initial water samples collected this week from private drinking water wells located near Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road -- east of Route 63, and Lewiston Road south of Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road -- have confirmed bacteriological contamination of coliform bacteria and E. coli. Residents who had their water tested and confirmed positive have been notified at this time. These organisms can cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms. They may pose a special health risk for infants and people with compromised immune systems. Residents in this area who are experiencing these symptoms should contact their medical provider.

Although the contamination has been confirmed, the exact origin and extent cannot be determined without further analysis, the Genesee County Health Department will assist the Department of Environmental Conservation in this process in the near future.

Impacted residents are urged to continue to follow the instructions below until their water can be confirmed safe to drink. With the extent of the contamination unknown at this time, re-occurrence of contamination is possible.

If you are living in the identified area and would like your well water tested, please contact the Genesee County Health Department at (585) 344-2580, ext. 5525. There is no charge for this testing.

The ball is rolling on a new fire station in the Stringham Drive area for the Town of Batavia Fire Department.

The first steps were taken toward plan approval last night at the Town of Batavia Planning Board meeting when the board agreed to seek lead agency status for the environmental review process.

David Morrill, building committee chairman for the department, presented initial site plans to the board during the meeting.

The department has acquired 12 acres between Clinton Street Road and Stringham. The acreage runs west roughly to the area of North Street, but the back of the lot won't be used by the department. The seller didn't want to keep the potentially landlocked parcel. The department may someday sell that portion of the property.

The plan calls for a firehouse with drive-thru bays large enough to accommodate a new engine and a new ladder truck, as well as space for administrative offices, a kitchenette, a turn-out gear room, a washroom and storage.

The primary entrance and exit will be on Stringham with a secondary driveway on Clinton Street Road.

The new station will replace a small firehouse at the corner of Stringham and Clinton.

"We've long since outgrown that station as our trucks have gotten bigger and our equipment has gotten more specialized," Morrill said.

Besides conducting fire calls out of the station, the department will use the facility twice a month for Monday night training, which usually runs from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

"Other than that, you'll hardly know we're here," Morrill said.

There will be no big fundraisers held at the new station, no carnivals, and the annual Harley Raffle will continue to be held at Station 1 on Lewiston Road.

"There will be no Ferris wheels in your back yard," Morrill said.

With growth at the ag park, fire officials see the need for a ladder truck on the east side of the Town of Batavia. The location, however, needed to be on the college side of the train tracks running through the town to aid in responses to GCC and College Village.

The department plans on acquiring a 75-foot "straight stick" (no platform) ladder truck within 12 to 18 months. It will also purchase a new, larger rescue truck.

The department will retain the old fire station at Stringham and Clinton for the time being. It will be needed for storage once the department's current rec hall on Lewiston Road is torn down to make room for a new station there. Long-term, the department hasn't decided what to do with the property.

Watertown-based Johnson Newspapers has selected the former publisher of Portsmouth (Ohio) Daily Times to head its Batavia-based news operation, which includes the Batavia Daily News and the Livingston County News.

Michael D. Messerly led the 12,000 circulation paper for three years. His prior experience includes time in the digital divisions in two other newspaper companies, Morris Communications and Gannett.

Messerly claims to be a digital publishing expert who has grown revenue and audience in his previous jobs.

According to Quantcast, the Portsmouth paper, with a slightly larger print circulation than the Daily News, has 70,000 unique visitors monthly compared to 98,000 for the Daily News. Quantcast measures 129,000 monthly unique visitors for The Batavian.

It's hard to say when Bed, Bath & Beyond will reopen in Batavia, but it will be awhile, the town's building inspector told the Town of Batavia Planning Board on Tuesday night.

It's not as simple as it might seem after a fire in a commercial structure to get the store ready for customers again, said Dan Lang.

"It's a full revamp of the store," Lang said. "It's not a quick process. It will be roughly the same layout, but there's a lot of components that go into a structure to make it safe and sound again that they have to look at when there's been a fire."

All of the electrical has to be inspected and possibly replaced. The fire walls need to be replaced. The duct work must be examined and possibly replaced. The fire suppression system may need to be replaced. And, of course, all new fixtures and shelving must be installed.

The store was heavily damaged by smoke, fire and water in January. It's been closed since.

Lang said contractors are on the job trying to get the store ready to reopen, it's just a long process. He said Batavia Town Center's owners, COR Development, have been cooperative and easy to work with throughout the process.

It's also a learning experience, Lang said, because a commercial structure fire isn't something the town has had to deal with in more than 20 years.

"Things are moving, but they're going to move slow," Lang said.

Corey Snyder

Corey S. Snyder, of Route 33, Stafford, is charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument, 2nd, grand larceny, 4th, criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th, criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument, unlawful possession of marijuana and operating with no front bumper. Snyder's vehicle was stopped by Village of Attica PD on Route 99, Attica, at 10 p.m. Monday for an alleged traffic violation. He was allegedly found in possession of a controlled substance, hypodermic instruments and marijuana paraphernalia. He was also charged in connection to an allegation that he cashed a check that had been reported stolen. Snyder was arraigned and jailed in Wyoming County Jail on $10,000 bail or $20,000 bond.

Gregory Allan Merritt, 27, of Rose Road, Batavia, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, leaving the scene of a property damage accident and unsafe starting. Merritt is accused of striking another vehicle in the T.F. Brown's parking lot at 1:49 a.m. Tuesday and leaving the scene of the accident. The incident was investigated by Deputy Joseph Corona.

The only election in Genesee County tonight that was supposed to be contested was in Le Roy, but a last-minute write-in campaign in Corfu made that vote suddenly interesting.

Nick Skeet -- son of former mayor Todd Skeet -- decided just a week ago or so that he wanted to try and win a seat on the village board.

He got 17 write-in votes tonight, which wasn't enough to close the gap on incumbents Art Ianni (31 votes) and Ken Laurer (53 votes).

"I don't like some of the things going on at meetings," Skeet said after the votes were tallied. "I still don't like the way the village is being run. I think we can do a better job. I just think everything can done for the better interest of Corfu. There are details I don't like that I'd rather not get into."

Asked if he was targeting a specific incumbent with his write-in campaign, he said he wasn't. Asked to explain what was bothering him at meetings, he wouldn't go into details.

The village government has been a bit of a soap opera for about two years, ever since an investigation was opened into missing court funds. A year ago, Ralph Peterson was elected mayor and immediately became a controversial figure in local politics. Facing pressure to resign, Peterson took medical leave and has been on leave for about six months.

Meanwhile, in Le Roy, one incumbent won reelection and another lost.

The winners were Robert Taylor, a longtime village trustee, and Bill Kettle, a local businessman. Trustee Jennifer Keys lost as did challenger John Mangefrida.

Taylor had 279 votes, Kettle, 267, Mangefrida, 228 and Keys, 191.

It almost felt like a spring day today, with a high 40, but the cold and snow isn't necessarily over for March.

Still, the weather was good enough to entice Ray Williams and Joe Watts to Williams Park.

"We wanted to the first to hoop at Williams," Watts said. "We've been playing here since we were little."

It's NCAA Tournament time, March Madness, and neither Williams nor Watts are wedded to any teams as potential champions, but Williams went with Syracuse and Watts picked Louisville to take the national title.

The 2014 Men's League champions are the Blues. The Blues doused the Flames 2-1, the winning goal coming 38 seconds left in regulation on a goal by Brandon Pisano. The Blues championship last year put the tournament cup in the hands of Charlie O'Geen (center), one of the league founders, for the first time in 36 years.

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Batavia celebrated St. Patrick's Day, of course. I made it by Center Street for the McMahon Irish Dancers and came back later for music by Steve Balesteri with Michael DiSanto on guitar. I also stopped by O'Lacy's, but got to City Slickers (where there was live Irish music) after the party had wrapped up for the evening.

More pictures after the jump (click on the headline):

 

 

Godzilla's got a new home. At least for a few months. Right here in Batavia, New York.

He'll be hangin' with Rashaad Santiago and Tim Schiefer and their associate from Watertown, Greg Graves, while making a moving staring himself, the King of Monsters.

It's a small budget production -- less than $20,000 -- but much of the filming will be done in Batavia and involve some very talented people, such as Santiago, a costume and monster designer, and Christopher Bloomer, a visual effects expert.

It's mostly a labor of love made for the filmmakers' own enjoyment with an eye toward showing it in Chicago at the 21st annual G-Fest.

That's right, there's a whole festival devoted to the creature who terrorized Japan in the 1954 classic "Godzilla," and went on to star in more than 28 other feature films.

It's that G-loving community that brought Santiago, Shiefer, Graves and Bloomer together.

Right now, Santiago is kind of the star of the show. After signing on to the Godzilla movie project -- the title of the film is "Godzilla: Heritage" (here's the Facebook page) -- Santiago won a sport on the Sci-Fi Channel's reality series, Faceoff.

Originally from the Bronx, Santiago moved to Batavia a couple of months ago, first to work on the Godzilla project, but also because he thought Batavia would be a better place for his two children.

Santiago has had a passion for monsters ever since he saw the original Godzilla for the first time when he was was 5.

"Just seeing something different than a dinosaur, because I was a big dinosaur guy, so seeing something that was like a dinosaur, but different, and the size he was, really got my mind going on monsters," Santiago said.

Already of an artistic bent, Santiago started drawing his own monsters.

And his fascination with monsters grew as movies such as Alien, Predators, Tremors and Jurassic Park, came along.

He went from drawing monsters to building monsters.

People who saw his work encouraged him.

"I didn't know this was a career when I was younger," Santiago said. "As I got older, people would say 'why don't you sell this or why don't you get paid for doing this', and me, being naive and young, I didn't know, and now I'm doing it."

He said he dreams of owning his own monster studio someday.

Faceoff might be a jumping off point to that next career level.

He was selected for the show after an audition in Burbank (where all the filming took place).

The show airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m., and on those nights, Santiago is appearing at City Slickers to watch the show and answer questions from the fans who watch it with him.

Ken Mistler, owner of City Slickers, is giving a good deal of support to the local moviemakers. City Slickers will be a location in the film, as well as other Mistler properties, and his former gym location on East Main Street will be where the filmmakers build their sets and do all of their interior shooting (some filming will also take place in Watertown).

Shiefer said watching Santiago build the Godzilla suit for the movie is truly seeing a master at work.

"After three our four hours he had only the body outline and we're like, 'that's really impressive,' " Schiefer said. " 'This is only the outline. There's not any detail,' he said, and we were like blown away. Then he started detailing the head, making the little grains of the scales with tweezers. It's just the most impressive thing you can possibly see."

Shiefer said that anybody who tunes into Faceoff will be impressed with Santiago's work.

Santiago -- the monster expert -- is also working, appropriately, at Foxprowl, the collectables store on Ellicott Street. So if you want to meet him and miss him at City Slickers, there's Foxprowl on week days.

Photo by the producers of Godzilla being made for the film "Godzilla: Heritage." Used with permission.

For two consecutive winters, Genesee County used very little salt on roadways to help keep motorists safe, but what was saved disappeared quickly this winter, County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens told the Public Service Committee on Monday.

Because of the mild winters, Hens started the year with salt in salt barns that was two years old and an unspent salt budget from last year. By Jan. 1, it was all gone and spent.

"We burned through both the pile and the money in November and December," Hens said. "So coming into January 1, I was already anxious to buy more. We had our new budget and filled the barns up with salt again. We burned through all the money we had budgeted for salt this year in about a month and a half."

So far, Hens said, the highway department is about $25,000 in the red for road salt in 2014.

"I've still got, theoretically, a few more storms this spring, storms or ice or whatever we end up getting, and I've got to figure on next November, December, too, and anything outside of it," Hens said.

To ensure an adequate salt supply, Hens is shifting money from the summer and fall road maintenance budget.

That probably means there are some potholes that won't get fixed.

"As everybody knows from driving around, pothole season is just starting," Hens said. "As bad as the winter's been, the temperature fluctuations, the extreme temperature fluctuations, where it's 20 below to 50 in two days, that freeze, thaw cycle just tears the pavement apart.

"We've had three or four of those huge swings this winter," Hens added, "and the pavement's starting to show it. As that frost comes out the ground, it's only going to get worse."

Hens also shared the observation that during our heavy snowstorm a week ago, there were few drivers on the road.

That made road maintenance a lot easier.

People stayed home, Hens figures, because the memory of January's blizzard was still on their minds.

"That was a bad storm," Hens said. "That was probably the worst that I'd seen since the Blizzard of '77. That storm caught a lot of people off guard just because we hadn't had a bad storm like that in a long, long time. That was very fresh in people's minds, and when they said the word blizzard this time -- the National Weather Service was pretty good about putting a blizzard warning out -- everybody was like, 'OK, last time we had a blizzard, it was nasty. I'm staying home.' "

A single positive well test Friday set off an alert for residents in the area of Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road and Lewiston Road to boil their drinking and cooking water, officials confirmed this afternoon.

The test found bacteria in the well water of a single residence on Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road, said George Squires, manager of the Genesee County Soil and Water Conservation District.

"It may be attributed to some manure spreading that may have gone on in the area," Squires said. "I was out of town all last week and just found out Friday myself. I don't have a lot of details because I've not been out there myself yet. I spoke briefly with a farmer and his consultant this morning and the health department this afternoon. I don't have a lot of details and I don't feel comfortable about making any conclusions yet."

County Health Director Paul Pettit said the affected area is no more than 25 parcels.

"We haven't pinpointed the exact source," Pettit said. "We wanted to alert the residents of those houses right around that area that there may be an issue with wells in the area."

There was a communication miscue on Friday, Pettit said. The health department alerted the Emergency Dispatch Center and the Emergency Services Office with the expectation that the alert they drafted would be sent only to the affected 25 or so residents. There was no intention to send out a media release, since it was such a small section of the county. Instead, the alert was sent out countywide and regional TV stations mistakenly reported that there was a boil water advisory for all of Genesee County.

The confusion led today to the City of Batavia putting out its own announcement informing residents that there is no boil water advisory for the city.

The communication Friday is "something we need to review and look at," Pettit said.

Both Squires and Pettit discussed the difficulty farmers face this time of year. They're eager to prepare crop lands for tillage and planting, which requires properly timed manure spreading, but there are also regulations for larger farmers that govern when they can do it.

"Larger farms are supposed to monitor weather and predict significant melting events," Squires said. "They're not supposed to spread in advance of an event like that. This time of a year, predicting warm temperatures in advance gets to be a little bit of a challenge."

It's a violation of a farm's permit, Squires said, to contaminate ground or surface water.

There may have been one or two other spills in county recently, Squires said, but there's been complaints about wells elsewhere in the county (Squires said he didn't have details yet; the spills could have been in areas that are already on public water, therefore well water wouldn't be contaminated).

"I need to get ahold of the DEC and find out what's going on," Squires said.

A week ago, a reader in Oakfield contacted The Batavian to complain about a possible manure spill. We requested info from the DEC but have not received any further information. Neither Squires nor Pettit were aware of any reported spills in the area prior to the well complaint received on Friday.The single well on Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road is the only confirmed instance of well contamination at this time.

For more on what to do when a boil water advisory is issued for your area, click here.

UPDATE: Here's a map of the affected area, provided by the County Health Department.

The past couple of weeks we've seen an incredible amount of avian activity taking place, species ranging from songbirds to raptors. Among the wide variety were a number of woodpeckers, like the red-bellied woodpecker pictured above. He had been hard at work before sensing my presence and then abruptly snapped to attention.  

After several minutes he decided it was safe to get back to the business at hand.

Pileated wood peckers have been frequent visitors throughout the winter. This is the first frontal pic I've taken - quite by accident as it turned in my direction just as I took his picture.  

Moments later he provided the angle I wanted. Here he's perched on a dead limb of a towering cottonwood.    

Downy woodpeckers have been showing up daily to feast on suet.

It almost seems as if he stopped to check out the falling snow.

Another red-bellied woodpecker investigates the spillage below the bird feeder.

Below are the results of the auction Saturday at Bontrager's of properties seized by Genesee County for non-payment of property taxes. Treasurer Scott German said the amount of taxes owed has been calculated not to include accrued interest, but the figure is still preliminary. The list of city properties sold is not yet available.

Address Type Acres Assessed Taxes Sale Price 6550 Alleghany Road, Alabama Single Fam. .48 $73,300 $14,773 $30,000 2725 Attica Road, Alexander Single Fam. .48 $72,800 $10,721 $23,000 3366 Dodgeson Road, Alexander Single Fam. 1.3 $69,000 $17,611 $44,000 3457 West Main Street Road, Batavia Single Fam. 3.8 $90,600 $11,643 $70,000 East Main Street Road, Batavia Vacant .4545 $100 0 $300 7573 South Lake Road, Bergen Single Fam. .4386 $70,000 $11,799 $51,000 5785 E. Bethany-Le Roy Rd, Bethany Single Fam. .5 $111,600 $15,136 $47,000 10474 Bethany Center Road, Bethany Single Fam. .28 $75,700 $12,661 $64,000 County Line Road Vacant Lot 4.5 $20,300 $3,320 $12,500 6920 Transit Road, Elba Vacant Lot 2.08 $4,400 $1,400 $8,000 6616 Snyder Road, Elba Single Fam. 1.11 $15,000 $5,799 $9,000 4973 Barrville Road, Elba Single Fam. .4 $29,000 $3,390 $18,000 East Main Road, Le Roy Vacant Lot .54 $800 $1,036 $300 Meiser Road, Pembroke Vacant Lot .45 $20,000 $3,284 $4,000 Sliker Road, Pembroke Vacant Lot 1 $34,000 $4,977 $10,000 866 Gabbey Road, Pembroke Single Fam. .41 $55,200 $5,867 $15,000 Angling Road, Pembroke Vacant Lot 1 $15,000 $2,517 $3,100 5762 Route 5, Stafford Restaurant 4.36 $284,000 $42,263 $70,000 3321 Church St., Alexander 3 Fam. .99 $124,800 $20,769 $48,000 West Main Street, Le Roy Vacant Lot 44.4 $50,000 $938 $42,500 106 Lake St., Le Roy 2 Fam. .53 $87,200 $25,604 $35,000 86 Wolcott St., Le Roy Single Fam. .24 $39,000 $6,576 $18,000 21 Lathrop, Le Roy Single Fam. .1894 $68,200 $11,109 $41,000 12 Maple Ave., Oakfield Vacant Lot .2055 $15,300 $21,552 $1,800

 

Press release:

Mother Nature's record-breaking winter has impacted the construction plan and schedule of the two new buildings currently under way at College Village, the student residence community located adjacent to Genesee Community College in Batavia. At last week's monthly meeting, GCC's Board of Trustees learned that while cold weather and excessive snow has put the construction schedule approximately five weeks behind the original plan, it has also given way to an innovative building solution which will result in a small expansion of the space at the basement level.

Richard Ensman, director of GCC's Foundation which manages the property, reported that although the two new buildings were planned to be "carbon copies" of Hickory and Willow, the two buildings built in 2007, the recent excavation work revealed a different soil variation under one building necessitating an unplanned gravel base. Securing many tons of gravel in Upstate New York at this time of year is nearly impossible and trucking it in from a warmer climate would be costly, Ensman explained. Whitney East, the general contractor on the project recommended a different and innovative solution -- adding a concrete basement to the one building.

"The unsuitable soil conditions have put us behind schedule, but we are pleased that we have a plan to keep the project moving. We carefully calculated the cost variables and for less than the cost of acquiring the necessary gravel, one of the new residence halls will have a basement," Ensman said. "The auxiliary space offers potential for storage and possibly other student study space if properly built-out in the future."

The overall cost of College Village expansion project is $2.84 million and will provide the community with 64 additional beds for a total population of 451 student residents. Each of the two new facilities feature eight suites with four single bedrooms, and a shared common space will allow for more educational, social and instructional opportunities. The project is being financed by a private bond issue.

In other business at the meeting on March 10, the Board of Trustees:

More after the jump (click on the headline)

• Heard that two Genesee Community College Phi Theta Kappa students, Emmeline Vacanti (of Alexander) and Joseph Lubanski (of Macedon) were recognized in the USA TODAY's All-USA Community College Academic Team for exceptional efforts in academic rigor, growth and how well they use their education to benefit their schools and communities. The program is administered by Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society. In addition, the following four students will be receiving the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence: Michelle Nagle (of Randolph), Yuki Sasao (of Batavia), Emmeline Vacanti (of Alexander), and Kelly Wetherby (of Olean). A full press release will be available soon.

• Heard Kathleen Schiefen, Ed.D, GCC provost and executive vice president of Academic Affairs, report that Genesee Community College is continuing to review all college curricula to ensure compliance with required accreditation standards and also with the new State University of New York (SUNY) seamless transfer initiatives intended to encourage timely graduation. Since September, more than 106 curricula changes have been submitted to the GCC's Academic Senate for review. Twenty-two of GCC's academic progams have been registered as 50 percent or more complete-able online. Six courses have been submitted to SUNY for consideration as meeting general education criteria. In addition, 22 GCC faculty members have volunteered to participate in the statewide SUNY discussion group reviewing the seamless transfer program within the SUNY system.

• Heard introductions from following new faculty and staff members: Doreen Bortle, James Brooks, Terry George, Rosemary Jonientz, Juanita Lewis, Heidi Lockwood, Kristen Mruk, Derek Payne and Gail Whalen.

Genesee Community College's next Open House is scheduled Wednesday, March 26, from 5 to 7 p.m. at all of the following seven campus locations:

• Albion, 456 West Ave. / 585-589-4936

• Arcade, 25 Edward St. / 585-492-5265

• Batavia, One College Road / 585-345-6800

• Dansville, 31Clara Barton St. / 585-335-7820

• Lima, 7285 Gale Road / 585-582-1226

• Medina, 11470 Maple Ridge Road / 585-798-1688

• Warsaw, 115 Linwood Ave. / 585-786-3010