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Two Buffalo Bills players were at City Slickers on Saturday night to mark the restaurant's first anniversary.

Pictured are Shaun Vaccaro, of Fullblast Productions, Patrick Kelly, of Fullblast, Bills defensive back Crezdon Butler, Bills defensive back T.J. Heath and Fullblast owner Tim Walton.

Strong winds have brought down utility poles, live wires and a large tree, which is across the roadway and completely blocking traffic at 44 N. Lyons St. in the city. The fire department is responding. National Grid has been advised.

Also, a transformer reportedly blew up or is on fire at Oak Street and Richmond Avenue, creating a power outage in the area.

The traffic signals at West Main Street and Lewiston Road are out as a result of the power outage.

The Artisan Market at Harvester opened today with more than a dozen artisans participating.

The goal is to create a space that attracts artists and customers for their creations from throughout the region.

"When people come in they're going to know this is not commercial, it's not buy-sell, it's not a craft show, it's not a flee market. It's an artisan market," said Lucie Griffis, the market's manager. "We want bring a little of the artistic life from other areas to right here."

The market is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will host two-day events on first Fridays and Saturdays later this year. 

There is an area with tables and chairs for people to sit and enjoy entertainment acts, from jugglers to musicians. Local charities are welcome to use the space for their food-sales fundraisers (chicken BBQs, pulled pork, hot dogs and hamburgers, etc.) for free.

Top photo: Sharon Jahnke Long works on a portrait of Julliette Yates.

Author and weaver Bridgette ni Brian.

Dave Watson with his guitars.

 

David Houseknecht, of Scottville, with his sister Sherry Bateman, of Elba, with his van, which is covered with red, white and blue political magnets of his own design with messages such as "Stand with Rand," "America Needs Another Ronald Reagan" and "Obama and Holder, Fast and Furious Bros." 

All the signs were made for him by Batavia Sign Company, he said.

The van was parked outside Settler's Restaurant this morning.

"America's at a crossroads," Houseknecht said. "We need freedom more than ever. We need to speak about it. We need to talk about it. We need to live it. I ain't socialist and I ain't politically correct, either."

A two-car accident with minor injuries is reported in the area of 260 State St., Batavia.

One person is requesting evaluation.

City fire and Mercy EMS responding.

Genesee Cancer Assistance hosted a 5K race this morning that started and ended at DeWitt Recreation Area on Cedar Street. The event is combined with a chicken BBQ, chance auction and balloon release.

We'll post race results after we receive them.

A thief threw a rock through a window door at the Sherwin-Williams store on Liberty Street, Batavia, some time overnight and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash from a safe in the office.

The store is open today.

Batavia PD is not releasing any further information at this time.

A new urgent care clinic opening Wednesday in City Centre will not only be state-the-art but be a true revolution in how health care is provided, according to its top executives, Mark Celmer and Melissa Marsocci.

"This is a health care delivery model that doesn't exist, to my knowledge, anywhere in the country," said Celmer, who is president of Buffalo-based Insource Healthcare Solutions. "We coordinate health care back to pediatricians, specialists, primary care physicians. We have advanced telemedicine which is state-of-the-art. We can get patients seen faster and with more related services than anybody short of the Cleveland Clinic."

For years, Insource has developed urgent care facilities for the owner of multiple urgent care centers, but Marsocci said Insource had its own vision about how to provide health care and decided to start opening its own urgent care units.

Batavia is the first of four locations being opened in New York and Pennsylvania over the next two months.

The clinic is between Genesee Dental and Steve Hawley's insurance office. It's a location used for a long time by DENT Neurological Institute, which will continue to rent office space there.

Insource is not coming to town to compete with any existing physicians or the hospital, said Marsocci, who grew up in Le Roy and lives in Batavia.

"We're not going to steal anybody's patients," she said.

Following a patient's visit to Insource, the patient will be referred back to his or her primary care physician or the appropriate specialist with all of the patient's records shared with that doctor.

For patients, the wait time to see a medical care professional will be less than 15 minutes and most patients will be in and out of the clinic within an hour.

Typically, when a patient visits an urgent care clinic, once they're taken into an exam room, they "own that exam room," Marsocci said. At Insource, the patient will be given an exam and then wait in a "results waiting room," which has comfortable chairs and a TV. That frees up the exam room for other patients.

Celmer and Marsocci are particularly excited about the telemedicine model they've developed.

Here's how Marsocci described it:

Let's say you came in and you had a fractured hand. We can certainly treat that, but upon a view of your X-ray, it looks pretty severe. We say, "this looks serious, so let's get a second opinion from an orthopedic." Maybe you need some screws in it. Maybe it needs immediate attention, maybe not. You come into the telemedicine room and the orthopedic comes in on that flat screen.

He can talk to you and you can talk to him. He might ask the provider to move your hand around and at the same time we can push that X-ray through to him.

We just lowered your cost of care because typically you would have gone to that orthopedic and he would have redone your X-ray, also exposing you to radiation. Now it's just one X-ray.

A consulting physician can dial into the telemedicine center through a secure line using a desktop, laptop or even an iPad or smartphone.

Even if a doctor is away from his office -- maybe on the golf course -- he can use an app to consult with a patient in the telemedicine room.

The quality of the pictures sent to the doctor is amazingly accurate and detailed, Marsocci said.

Insource has hired six full-time employees and all of them live in Genesee County.

With a range of specialists sharing the Insource space -- including neurologists, orthopedics, pediatricians, cardiologist and urologists -- Calmer and Marsocci say the concept will do a lot to reduce the cost of medical care.

One insurance company is so excited by the idea, Marsocci said, thet they want to see more Insource clinics built in Pennsylvania.

For patients who must pay for services with cash or credit card, they will find a visit to Insource a lot less expensive than going to the emegency room. An ER visit can run into the thousands of dollars, but a typical visit to Insource will cost about $180.

Using technology, there will even be cases where patients can save on super expensive ambulance rides to a hospital in Rochester and Buffalo, if that's needed. If the patient doesn't need to be on an ambulance, but still needs to be monitored while by driven to the hospital by a family or friend, Insource can provide the patient with an iPad to monitor his or her condition during the ride.

Insource also plans to set up a telemedicine center at the county nursing home, which will save the county money on providing medical care to patients there.

"These are common sense approaches to reforming health care instead of doing things that don't make sense," Marsocci said.

The Batavia High School Softball Team won the Section V Class B-1 championship today, beating Livonia, 3-2 at Monroe Community College.

Photo by Dan Kemp.

It's one of the most frequently asked questions from readers of The Batavian: Why is there no Wegmans in Batavia?

Danny Wegman, the company's CEO was at Genesee Community College today and he answered that question for us:

"If we get the STAMP project in, we would probably be very happy to move here," Wegman said.

STAMP is the propposed high-tech manufacturing facility Genesee County Economic Development Center is trying to bring to the Town of Alabama. It could eventually mean as many as 10,000 new jobs.

Though Wegman was too diplomatic to say it, clearly, his view is the current economy in Genesee County couldn't sustain a grocery operation the size and scope of Wegmans.

STAMP is a project of personal interest to Wegman because he's chairman of the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council, one of 14 regional councils statewide assisting local IDAs in economic development.

Wegman is admittedly excited by the possibility of STAMP and believes it is something that could actually come together as an economic growth engine for the entire region.

"The high-tech arena is always exciting," Wegman said. "You always hear about it in California. Wouldn't it be nice if it was right here in our own backyard?"

We also asked Wegman about the GCEDC's $1.8 million in tax subsidies for COR Development and Wegman said he was unfamiliar with the project.

As a general rule, however, he said he opposes tax breaks for retail projects.

"I have to say I'm not real keen on that, since we’re a local business and we wouldn’t want somebody coming in and getting a real tax break..." Wegman said. "I think that’s divvying up a pot that’s already there. If the retailer helps grow jobs in some way that actually makes something, maybe, but most retailers don’t make things. That’s my view on it."

Asked if Wegmans would accept tax breaks to open a store in Genesee County, Wegman said, "I can’t say someone else shouldn’t and that we would. I don’t think that’s right, although we do make a lot of the food we sell, that's why I was giving you that exception."

YNN's Rose Eiklor pointed out to Wegman that there is a Facebook group called "Bring Wegmans to Genesee County." Wegman had never heard of it, but said he would take a look.

Kyle Justin James Jackson, 20, of Slusser Road, Batavia, is charged with burglary, 2nd. Jackson is accused of entering a residence on Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road, Batavia, and stealing property. Jackson was jailed on $5,000 bail.

Jonathan Edward Fox, 25, of Rumson Road, Rochester, is charged with DWI, refusal to take breath test and failure to dim headlights. Fox was stopped at midnight, Monday, on Route 19 in Le Roy by Deputy Matthew Butler.

The driver of a car that was trying to pass another vehicle on Creek Road yesterday says the other driver sped up, preventing her from safely passing.

The driver being passed denies she sped up.

Both were issued citations following the two-car accident that cause one car -- the one being passed -- to fly off the roadway and overturn, pinning the driver's arm under the hood of the car.

Cindy Schwartz, 43, of Alexander, the driver of the car reportedly being passed, was taken by Mercy Flight to Strong Memorial Hospital where she's listed in satisfactory condition.

The other driver, 17-year-old Elizabeth Weber of Exchange Street in Attica, was uninjured.

Weber was northbound in a 2010 Kia SUV on Creek Road, according to Deputy Chad Minuto's report, when she attempted to pass a 2000 Chevy sedan driven by Schwartz.

According to Weber, Schwartz sped up.

Yesterday, at the scene, Minuto said there was an oncoming southbound vehicle that may have contributed to Weber's decision to try and get back into the northbound lane quickly.

When she did, her right rear fender clipped the left front fender of the Chevy sedan, sending it off the east shoulder and tumbling into a farm field.

A black Labrador was Schwartz's only passenger. The dog ran from the accident scene heading toward the woods far in the distance to the east. It was nowhere to be seen during accident operations and this morning dispatchers say they have no report of it being found.

The accident was reported at 6:48 p.m. and Town of Batavia fire responded to the accident along with Mercy EMS.

It took about 30 minutes for firefighters to extricate Schwartz. She was buckled in her seat, upside down in the vehicle with her arm outside the driver-side window and pinned under the roof the car. Firefighters used airbags to lift the vehicle so her arm could be freed.

Weber was cited under the vehicle code section 1122-a for allegedly returning to her lane of travel without reaching a safe distance from the overtaken vehicle and Schwartz was issued a citation for allegedly speeding up while being passed under section 1122-b.

Batavia PD is looking for the public's assistance in resolving an alleged bike theft at 400 Towers on the night of May 19.

The subject in these photos is wanted for questioning and police are asking the public's help in identifying him.

Anybody with potentially helpful information should contact Officer Jamie Givens at (585) 345-6450.

A two vehicle rollover accident is reported in the area of 9084 Creek Road. Town of Batavia Fire Department and Mercy medics are responding. One vehicle is in a field on its roof and its driver is a female who has an arm injury and is trapped inside. Mercy Flight is called to the scene. The location is between Dorman Road and Lehigh Avenue.

UPDATE 7:05 p.m.: Mercy Flight has landed. A black Labrador retriever was inside the vehicle that rolled over and subsequently ran away, says a responder, so if calls come in about a black lab running loose in the area it could very well be that dog.

UPDATE 7:30 p.m.: The woman has been extricated.

UPDATE 7:41 p.m.: Mercy Flight is airborne; destination unspecified.

UPDATE 8:07 p.m.: The Town of Batavia assignment is back in service. It appeared to those on scene that Mercy Flight headed to Strong Memorial Hospital. The driver of the other vehicle was apparently not injured.

A caller reports there's a man lying on or near the roadway on Batavia-Oakfield Townline Road. Meanwhile another caller reports coming home on that same street and finding the front and back door had been opened and a pair of sneakers on the porch. The man lying down is believed to be sans shoes. Law enforcement is responding, and will no doubt be checking to see if the sneakers fit the man.

UPDATE 4:10 p.m.: "Where was the subject supposed to be laying?" asks an officer. The address given is 2847 (Batavia-Oakfield TL Road).

The city's youth detective, Todd Crossett, has been asked to take a closer look at a complaint raised at Tuesday's City Council meeting about potentially race-related problems in the Pringle Avenue area.

City resident Shirley Nigro spoke to the council Tuesday and said that neighborhood kids have threatened her and her grandchildren, citing race as a motivation for their actions.

She said she and her grandchildren have been attacked while at the Pringle Avenue park and once had to be escorted from the park by police.

"Our neighborhood is getting ridiculous," Nigro said. "I've had people across the street (from the park) tell me, 'you're in the hood now. You better get used to it or get out.' ... there's a lot of hate out there."

After she complained the parents of some of the children involved, she said, the harassment of her grandson on the school bus got so bad that she now gives him a ride to and from school.

Chief of Police Shawn Heubusch said he's asked Crossett to look into the complaint, which he said is the only one of that nature that the city has received, not just from the Pringle Avenue area, but from throughout the city.

"It's very important for us to get feedback from the community," Heubusch said. "They're living there day in and day out. We're not. We're in the area as much as we possibly can be. We take any complaint seriously that we receive no matter where it comes from and we're looking into it as best we can."

He said with the weather warming up and more people out and about, there's bound to be conflicts and disputes.

"I can't think of any (complaints received) that have been race-related," Heubusch said. "There's always going to be neighbor disputes that you're going to get in any community. The more people you have, the more neighbors you have, the more there will be disputes."

City firefighters, members of the International Association of Firefighters Local 896, will once again ask motorists at in the Court, Ellicott and Main street areas to "fill the boot" with donations to help fight Muscular Dystrophy.

The donations benefit MDA charities in WNY.

The "Fill the Boot" campaign is June 7.

Last year, the campaign collected $7,500 for MDA, which was a record for the annual campaign.

"We had a very successful boot drive in 2012," said Local 896 President Greg Ireland. "The guys are looking forward to hitting the streets again in an attempt to top last year’s total. We really appreciate the generosity of those that can give, whether it be their spare change, a dollar or even more."