City Attorney George Van Nest has requested the city of Batavia Board of Ethics to convene to consider a potential "conflict of interest" regarding an upcoming vote by the City Council to should purchase a new sign for the mall — an original mall sign was removed by the city when constructing the City Centre.

In his letter, Van Nest states that a "councilman's wife is the manager of the mall," and although he does not refer to the "councilman" by name, the very same issue was taken up at the last meeting of the council on July 14. At that meeting, Council President Charlie Mallow asked Councilman Bob Bialkowski to recuse himself from voting on the purchase of the mall sign because Bialkowski's wife was an employee of the mall. Mallow said that since the mall merchants stood to benefit financially from the sign that would be paid for by the city, Bialkowski, too, stood to benefit since his wife is an employee.

Van Nest also states that city has, for some time, been in "discussions" with the Mall Merchants Association regarding various maintenance and expense issues, and that the mall merchants have "threatened litigation" against the city.

In addition to the issue of sign replacement, to the extent that the City and Mall are able to successfully resolve open issues, the parties will be required to negotiate and enter an agreement relative to a variety of matters. The details of any potential agreement will need to be reviewed, discussed and approved by City Council prior to execution.

Van Nest asks that the Board of Ethics convene "at the earliest opportunity" and issue an "advisory opinion" prior to the next meeting of the council on August 11.

Reports have come in about some wires down on Junction Road between South Lake and Perry roads in the Pavilion district. Fire crews are on the scene. But if you've got to head that way, you may want to think detour.

Since more than a few folks have taken interest in the proposed roundabout for Walnut Street, we have put together some more information passed on by City Council President Charlie Mallow.

From a press release issued by the city:

The Walnut Street Project will involve the complete removal and reconstruction of the roadway, starting at the south City line and extending north to the Oak Street intersection. A modern roundabout will be installed at the Pearl/Franklin/South Main intersection. Additional infrastructure upgrades will include the replacement of curbing, the City of Batavia’s water main, sidewalks, driveway aprons, drainage structures, and street lighting. In addition, stabilization of the Tonawanda Creek stream bank, as well as a variety of landscaping improvements will be included in the project’s scope.

In preparing their construction schedule, CATCO has chosen to compress the roundabout and major street reconstruction work into the 2009 season.

Work that will be performed this year will include: utility relocation, drainage improvements, water main replacement, stream bank stabilization, railroad crossing replacement, building demolition.

City Manager Jason Molino says in the release that CATCO has split up the work over the two seasons to "minimize disruptions to the normal traffic flow ... and most importantly, lessen the project's impact on local residents."

The Batavian left a message for Molino to find out how postponing the major work until next year will "minimize disruptions" — wouldn't two years of work be more disruptive than finishing the project in a single season, for instance. We also plan to ask Molino how the project originated and was approved by City Council as there seems to have been some opposition to the roundabout, as noted in a survey conducted by the Batavia Area Jaycees in 2007. What was most shocking about the results of the survey was that many people did not even seem to know about the project.

The City plans to hold a public information meeting in February 2009 to review the construction schedule, work phasing, and proposed detours with local residents. The exact time and location of this meeting will be provided at a later date.  The City will also distribute project informational flyers to local residents on a quarterly basis.

If you have questions about the project, there are a few people you can contact:

• Sally Kuzon, assistant city manager: (585) 345-6325
• Larry Klotzbach, project engineer: (585) 259-0506
• Dave Curtis, project superintendent: (716) 481-0571

UPDATE: City Council President Charlie Mallow notified The Batavian that, in fact, several public meetings were held about the construction of the roundabout, several stories about it appeard in the Daily News, and nobody contacted him or the council to voice their opposition to the project.

I have never received a negative phone call or any interaction that I can conclude as being negative towards going forward with a roundabout. In fact, its the opposite, people on Walnut want to know when they are getting their promised repairs. There was no opposition that I am aware of at all. People in the area are rightly concerned about timetables and how they are going to live and run their businesses in a construction site. All of that is being worked out and will be worked out before the work has started.

I must admit that I was a little surprised to hear that people disliked the idea of a roundabout. I am not a native of Batavia, and the first few times I drove down Oak Street to get through to Pearl Street, I was quite confused on how to maneuver the street connections there. What about you? Will you be glad to see a roundabout?

Look no further than the front page of today's Daily News for all you need to know about what it's like to be the first shopper at a new Target store — Janet Saile bought Tic Tacs — or why rabbits make good pets — they "take up less space" than a cow — or, on a more serious note, how to stay drug free — "just walk away," says 15-year-old Tessa Williams.

For more on that last item, check out the article by Joanne Beck about National Night Out, a "fun night to learn how to make your neighborhood safer" taht will be held from 5:30 to 8:30pm August 5 at St. Anthony's Parish Center, 114 Liberty St.

This year's night out will include a new focus on drugs with the Drug-Free Marshals program and a venue for residents of Highland Park and Pringle Avenue to share their concerns during a special community meeting

There will also be youth activities, interactive games, a DJ, Safe Child identification kits, caricatures and information booths about ways to get or remain drug-free.

Today's sports section of the paper is heavy with local sports coverage — congrats to the staff for filling the whole front page with it. We got up a link in our Local Headlines about the Muckdogs loss, which is covered. But there's also a preview of the upcoming Empire State Games with a focus on some Batavia representatives on the hockey and basketball teams.

LeRoy beat Batavia 12-5 in the District 3 youth baseball championship game Tuesday for 9-10 year olds. The team will advance to the Section 1 Tournament in Olean where they will face District 8 champs Fayetville Manlius at 12:30pm Saturday.

As always, we encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News wherever the paper is sold. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

The Muckdogs (18-15) added one to the loss column, falling 6-3 to the Oneonta Tigers (17-16).  Jameson Maj (2-2) got the start and the loss, pitching five innings with four hits, two runs, one walk and two strikeouts.  For the Tigers, Darwin De Leon (3-1) got the win in five and two-thirds innings with three hits, two runs, two walks and one strikeout.  Aaron Fuherman pitched the last three and a third innings with two hits, one run and two strikeouts to get his first save of the season.

Oneonta struck first in the 3^rd inning when Ben Guez reached on a fielding error, Joshua Workman doubled and Bryan Pounds flew out for the RBI.  Angel Flores singled to score the other run in the inning.  In the 6^th, they made it 3-0 when Mike Gosse reached on a fielder’s choice and scored on Brent Wyatt triple.

Batavia answered back in the bottom of the inning when Shane Peterson was hit by a pitch and Blake Murphy hit his third homerun of the season.  However, Oneonta scored three in the 7^th to seal their win.  Guez walked, stole second and scored when Pounds singled.  Then Billy Nowlin and Gosse both had RBI singles.

The Muckdogs’ last run came in the bottom of the 7^th on a Beau Riportella double and a Jose Garcia single.  Riportella ended the night 2-for-4.

Check out WBTA for these and other stories:

• Everybody's favorite steer on the lam has been brought into custoday — or so we thought. It was reported earlier today that "Woody" the 1,200-pound show steer that escaped from the Genesee County Fairgrounds early last week was picked up nearby the Batavia-Stafford Townline Road after being subdued with tranquilizers last night. In fact, the tranquilizers wore off and the steer escaped yet again. Dr. Cricket Johnson said they are "weary" of the chase and the solution now might just be to shoot to kill.
• A Walgreen's store that will go up in LeRoy was granted $62,000 in tax incentives by the Genesee County Economic Development Center. The store will go up at the corner of Main and Lake streets and employ 18 people full- and part-time.
• Investigators still have not determined the origin of the fire that caused more than $250,000 in damage and destroyed the kitchen and a dining area at Cristina's Restaurant. Batavia's Acting Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Day that they will have to wait until laboratory tests come back.
• Ange Bell of LeRoy passed away Friday. He was 97 years old and well known for his portrayals of Santa Claus in LeRoy for more than 50 years. Dan Fischer has assembled a few audio clips from interviews with Bell, including one in which he talks about how he was tricked into attending Santa school but soon fell in love with it.

No community is an island.  The larger world finds its ways to intrude, from Middle East instability driving up gas prices, to presidential elections that will impact the economy and schools, there is more to the world than our home town.

And we all have an opinion about the world around us.

When we say "The Batavian -- Online News. Community Views."  The community views part isn't just about what you think about events in Genesee County; it's about what you, as people concerned with and involved in your local community think about all of those issues beyond parochial borders.

In such a spirit, we've expanded the range of headline links in the right column.

We've also added a "Nation & World" tab to the top navigation.  This is where you can post blog items about national, international and political issues you want to talk about.  I've started the conversation with a blog post about my dislike for political parties.

When you want to start a conversation with a new blog post, go to "Create Content" in the left column, then select "Blog Entry" and then select "Nation" or "World."  If you make that selection, when you save your post, it will appear under the Nation & World tab for all readers of The Batavian to find.

Also, if you're really into nation and world news. there's another way you can contribute to The Batavian -- and that's by adding headlines to the blocks on the right side of the page. 

It would be easy for us to set up some automated system to add headlines from major news sources around the globe, but that's so impersonal.  We're not a fan of automation when it comes to human communication.  We think that Batavians suggesting to other Batavians what might be interesting to read is far more useful than what some computer program might suggest.

If you would like to contribute "suggested reading" to the headline buckets, send me an e-mail (howard at the batavian dot com) and I'll provide instructions and the necessary permissions to make such a contribution to the site.

One of our readers got curious after reading a post on The Batavian from earlier today about the postponement of the Walnut Street reconstruction and addition of a roundabout. Many thanks for Russ Stresing for getting us the following images. The first is an artist's rendering of the roundabout, once it is completed. Below that is a satellite view of what the area looks like now — that image is borrowed from the Genesee County Web site.

In case you don't know about it (we just found it), there is a still-image web cam on  the Thruway that shows the Batavia exit and the free way. It might come in handy for morning commutes.

All of the following calls were reported by the City of Batavia Police Department. Listed offenses do not imply that charges were filed. Calls may result in no official action.

Monday:

• 10:31am, 25 Brooklyn Ave., larceny
• 11:07am, Jefferson Avenue, burglary
• 11:42am, 106 Evans St., harassment
• 11:44am, 638 E. Main St., criminal mischief
• 1:56pm, 34 Hutchins St., larceny
• 2:46pm, 22 Tracy Ave., larceny
• 3:16pm, 390 W. Main St., accident (car + bike)
• 3:19pm, 9 Walden Creek, harassment
• 3:38pm, 15 W. Main St., criminal mischief
• 5:54pm, 15 W. Main St., larceny
• 7:03pm, 132 Ross St., endangering the welfare of a child
• 9:17pm, 6 Maple St., criminal mischief
• 9:42pm, 209 Bank St., harassment
• 10:35pm, Jackson Street, criminal mischief

Note: We don't include noise complaints, domestic disputes and routine police business.

Batavia Middle School will get a rock climbing wall. The city School Board approved the purchase of the $55,000 wall at its meeting last night, according to the Daily News. Reporter Joanne Beck writes: "The district can afford the purchase with surplus year-end funds from 2007-08, Business Administrator Scott Rozanski said."

At the same meeting, following the purchase of the rock wall, the board then approved an increase in breakfast and lunch prices at city schools, reported Beck. Breakfast will now be $1.10 at the elementary school and $1.25 at the middle and high schools; lunch will be $1.55 and $1.85, respectively.

Work on the Walnut Street roundabout and street reconstruction will be postponed until next year. City Manager Jason Molino told the Daily News that "the decision was made by contractor CATCO." It was decided to hold off on the project "to minimize disruptions to the normal traffic flow," and meetings will be held in February to "help people understand how best to navigate and use the roundabout."

Mercy Flight and the Batavia Muckdogs will join together for a fundraiser that will grant two lucky raffle winners the chance to ride a helicopter from the airport to Dwyer Stadium and throw out the first pitch of that night's game. A $10 ticket will include admission to the Muckdogs game on August 4, as well as entry into the drawing. "Mercy Flight will get $6 out of every $10 ticket sold." Tickets can be purchased at Dwyer Stadium and at Mercy Flight's base at Genesee County Airport. Winners will be announced at the August 1 Muckdogs game.

Congratulations to Batavia's 11-year-old Little League Baseball all-stars whop took home the District 3 championship last night in the second straight defeat of Oakfield. In its past three games, Batavia has outscored its opponents 34-4. Talk about an offensive powerhouse!

As always, we encourage you to get out and pick up a copy of the Daily News at local newsstands. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

The Deomcratic Party this year is making an effort at promoting "grassroots" involvement in the presidential campaign by soliciting the input of anyone willing to give it in a series of platform meetings that will be held across the country. They are calling it "Listening to America." Questions and concerns brought up at the meetings are supposed to then be integrated in the Democratic platform in the upcoming presidential election.

From Saturday, July 19th to Sunday, July 27th, everyday people all across America will hold Platform Meetings in their homes, or in their local churches and even coffee shops, to help build the Democratic Party's platform for change from the bottom up.

Attend a Platform Meeting and tell us what matters to you, so we can incorporate your ideas into the party's platform. A few participants may even be invited to appear and testify at the National Hearing.

Batavia will get its chance to participate this week. Blogger Robert Harding (with the Albany Project) and President of the Genesee County Young Democrats Dan Jones will host a local "Listening to America" meeting at Batavia's City Centre Wedenesday at 7:00pm.

Jones says that he and Harding will write up "a recommendation in the form of a position paper to send to the (Democratic National Committee) and Senator Obama's campaign based on the discussion."

Batavia city police responded to a confrontation between neighbors on Highland Avenue Monday afternoon. Lydell Nauden, 44, of 14 Highland Ave. Apt: 6, was subsequently charged with disorderly conduct. Nauden was accused of throwing a hammer from his home into his neighbors yard and nearly hitting some people who were standing nearby.

For the second Sunday in a row the Muckdogs were rained out, this time after not quite a full inning of play.  The game is re-scheduled for August 6th when Auburn comes back into town.

The Muckdogs were on the road this past Wednesday through Sunday for a three-game series against Staten Island and a game in Auburn.  They finished the trip 2-2.  Here is a quick recap of those games:

• Wednesday, July 16: Staten Island 6, Batavia 5:  Ramon Delgado (1-1) got the start and the loss, going three and a third innings with eight hits and six runs (five earned). Jameson Maj had a strong performance, throwing the last four innings allowing only one hit with six strikeouts and no walks.  Offensively, Batavia had twelve hits to Staten Islands ten.  Colt Sedbrook went 2-for-5 with his first homerun of the season.  Jermaine Curtis and Domnit Bolivar went 4-for-5 and 2-for-4, respectively, each with a double.
• Thursday, July 17: Batavia 4, Staten Island 2: Scott Gorgen started the game, going four innings with three hits, two runs, one walk and two strikeouts, but Miguel Tapia (3-2) scored the win.  Tapia pitched three and a third innings with three hits, two walks and three strikeouts.  Adam Reifer pitched a scoreless 9th with one strikeout for the save.  Sedbrook was big at the plate again, going 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base.
• Friday, July 18: Staten Island 3, Batavia 2:  The Yankees broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the 9th to win the rubber-match.  George Brown (0-1) suffered the loss in three innings, letting up five hits, three runs and one walk with three strikeouts.  Thomas Eager started the game, throwing five innings with two hits and three strikeouts.  Frederick Parejo went 2-for-4 with a homerun and Christian Rosa went 2-for-3 with a stolen base.
• Saturday, July 19: Batavia 7, Auburn 5:  Josh Hester had a great start, pitching four and a third innings, allowing only one hit and five strikeouts.  Hector Cardenas (2-0) pitched three innings with a walk and two strikeouts for the win.  Reifer pitched another scoreless 9th with one strikeout for his eighth save.  At the plate, Sedbrook went 2-for-4 with a triple.  Shane Peterson went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI, and Rosa went 2-for-5, also with a double and a RBI.

The Muckdogs (17-14) are now tied for second place in the Pinckney Division with Auburn, whom they play tonight.  They then come home for a three-game series against the Oneonta Tigers.  Tuesday and Wednesday's games start at 7:05 and Thursday has an early start of 11:05.

Students in the Genesee Community College summer youth theatre workshop will present Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, adapted by Maryanne Arena on Friday, July 25 at 7:00pm and Saturday, July 26 at 2:00pm at the Stuart Steiner Theatre.

This year's Performing Arts Experience at Genesee has attracted 36 youth ages 7-15 from all across Western New York. They have spent several weeks with the musical director and choreographer and have now begun full rehearsals.

Admission is free, though advanced reservations are encouraged as seats may fill up quickly. Call (585) 343-0055 ext.6814 or send an e-mail to boxoffice (at) genesee (dot) edu to reserve yours.

Thanks to Steve Ognibene for sending us these photos from the final day at the Genesee County Fair Saturday. (The little lady on the "Scrambler" ride is his five-year-old daughter, Alyssa.) If you have any pictures or video or poetry or whatever about your time at the fair this past week, send it along, and we will put it right up on the site. Mail your submissions to: philip (at) thebatavian (dot) com.

There's little in the way of hard, breaking news in today's Daily News. The front page includes a profile of County Legislator Annie Lawrence, the next installment of Tom Rivers' farm labor series — Tom shows a heifer at the fair — and an article about scrap metal dealers picking at the carcasses of beat-up demolition derby cars.

By no way do we fault the paper for this dearth of big news. If you've already read the police blotter for the weekend, you'll see that it was mostly accidents, and the only way the sheriff's deputies were able to record numerous arrests was to go out and set up road blocks.

It seems a slow, newsless weekend was upon us. Maybe the heat — that putrid bog of stifling ozone and gnats — played a part. For sure it kept me locked in the bedroom with the air on full blast. How about you? Or maybe you disagree with me altogether, and you experienced a weekend overflowing with newsworthy happenings. If so, write about them. Or send them along and we'll write about them.

As always, we encourage you to get out and pick up a copy of the Daily News at local newststands. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

All of the following calls were reported by the City of Batavia Police Department. Listed offenses do not imply that charges were filed. Calls may result in no official action.

Friday:

• 8:50am, 413 W. Main St., accident (car + bike)
• 10:38am, 220 Richmond Ave., accident
• 11:05am, 4 Lewis Ave., larceny
• 12:00pm, Clinton Street, accident
• 1:51pm, W. Main Street, accident
• 2:25pm, W. Main Street, accident
• 3:11pm, Court Street Plaza, accident
• 4:05pm, 10 W. Main St., harassment

Saturday:

• 12:01am, 332 W. Main St. (Apt: 2), larceny
• 12:48am, 329 W. Main St., accident
• 1:11am, 5 Thomas Ave. (Apt: Lower), aggravated harassment
• 11:07am, 12 S. Main St., accident

Sunday:

• 11:57am, Ellicott Street, accident
• 8:42pm, 114 Liberty St., menacing

Note: We don't include noise complaints, domestic disputes and routine police business.