Batavia has a new barber. Terry Smith has opened his own shop, Fresh Cutz, on the second floor at 218 W. Main St., above House of Kolor Tattoo and Piercing. Smith graduated from barber school in October and was eager to open his own shop. He said he saw a need for another barber shop in the city.  "Whoever needs a haircut, I'll cut it," he said. Getting a haircut yesterday was Kwame Richardson.

Le Roy PD is looking for the public's assistance in identifying suspects involved in daytime residential burglaries Wednesday.

The burglaries occurred in the area of 90s block of Lake Street and the 50s block of Myrtle Street, most likely between 3 a.m. and 9 p.m.

No information was released on what may have been stolen.

Le Roy PD is asking residents to keep their doors and windows locked in order to make their homes less attractive targets for thieves. 

Anyone having any information or who saw any suspicious persons in those areas during that time are asked to please call the Le Roy Police Department at 585-345-6350.

The Labor Department reports 100 more jobs in Genesee County for March 2014 over March 2013.

There are a reported non-farm 21,700 jobs in the county. That's also an increase over February, when 21,500 jobs were reported.

The highest number of jobs in Genesee County for March since 1990 was 22,700 in 2008.

According to the Labor Department, New York added 108,000 over the past year.

The state's unemployment rate is reported at 6.0. The county's updated unemployment rate is not yet available. The rate for February was 7.5 percent.

Press release:

Congressman Chris Collins (NY-27) today announced the availability of approximately $1.4 million in grant funding to support Specialty Crop programs in New York. The funding is a part of the Farm Bill passed by Congress earlier this year.

“Specialty Crop farming is a large part of the agricultural community in New York’s 27th Congressional District,” said Congressman Collins, a member of the House Agriculture Committee. “This grant program will help our fruit and vegetable farmers, along with their partners, develop new ways to bring products to the market, helping farms grow and increase profits.”

The federal block grant funding provided through the Farm Bill is allocated directed to each state. Congressman Collins encourages interested applicants to apply directly to the New York State Department of Agriculture. Grant applications are due in early May.

USAToday: Kepler's cool find: Another Earth-size planet

This tree stands along side Bliss Road in Oakfield.

An open burn is reported in the area of 139 Oak St., Batavia.

City fire and Batavia PD being dispatched.

UPDATE 7:28 p.m.: The fire is behind 131 Oak St. and firefighters will be putting it out with a canister.

Dozens of law enforcement officers were on the Tonawanda Indian Reservation for about four hours this afternoon to help keep the peace while two factions of the same family tried to resolve an ownership dispute over Arrowhawk Smoke Shop.

Tom Peters (top photo), who said he's been managing the business recently for his family, said members of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office showed up this morning with a court order giving his niece, Corrine Thomas, control of the property.

The order was signed by Judge Robert C. Noonan, Peters said, but Peters said Noonan had no jurisdiction of the land of his nation.

This is reservation land and any court order from any judge is not valid out here," Peters said. "He has no right to be here. He doesn't have jurisdiction here."

There's a bit of a contradiction over how the dispute was resolved for the time being today. Peters said a higher court issued a stay of Noonan's order, but Chief Deputy Gordon Dibble said he was unaware of any such order. He said the Tonawanda chiefs brokered a deal to take control of the property until the issue can be resolved.

There were about 10 members of the Sheriff's Office on scene and more than two dozen troopers, including at least two K-9 units, which arrived to provide back up.

Asked if this was a typical response, Dibble said, "Is this typical? This isn't a typical situation. I've never seen a situation like this in my 38 years, so I wouldn't call it typical. I don't know that there is such a thing as a typical police response. We respond and do what we have to do for the safety of the people, and I think we were successful. Nobody got hurt."

Dibble and about 10 members of the Sheriff's Office delivered the court order from Noonan this morning about 7:30. According to Dibble, the order gave Thomas the right to inventory the property and its contents.

Peters said he was evicted from his apartment above the restaurant on the property. 

The dispute is about three years old, Peters said, going back to the death of his brother. His brother left a will and Peters said there are provisions in the law that contradict tribal law. He said it gave away property that belongs to the Tonawanda nation.

It's unclear at what point Thomas became the estate's executor, but it was apparently because she has been named executor that she was there this morning.

Once the order was delivered, the Sheriff's personnel left the reservation, then early this afternoon there was a small fire at the location and Dibble said there were "threats made."

That brought deputies back to the scene and a host of troopers to provide back-up.

Dozens of residents of the nation mingled in the surrounding area, along with some customers of the nearby smoke shops and gas stations, and watched as a group of chiefs and others sat on chairs and talked outside the Arrowhawk.

At around 4 p.m., Thomas and her supporters -- Peters called them "warriors" and "mercenaries" hired by Thomas -- left.

Dibble and Peters may not agree how the settlement came about, but they both agree the matter is now in the hands of the chiefs. Peters said he believes federal courts will overturn Noonan's order.  In the meantime, it's unclear if the Arrowhawk will reopen before the dispute is resolved.

Dibble said the chiefs will post guards on the property.

A car careened into a beauty salon at 110 W. Main St., Le Roy. No injuries are reported. Le Roy Fire Department on scene. Code enforcement is responding.

UPDATE: Photos submitted by readers.

An alleged assault at an apartment on Jackson Street, Batavia, prompted responding Mercy medics to inquire about the availability of Mercy Flight. The intended destination would be Strong Memorial Hospital. City police and fire on scene.

UPDATE 5:46 p.m.: City Engine 16 back in service. Mercy medic #1 is taking the victim via ambulance to the Mercy Flight hangar for transport to Strong.

UPDATE 5:53 p.m. (by Howard): At this point, police can't even say for sure it was an assault. Officer Chad Richards said the patient showed up at the apartment and was unresponsive by the time police arrived, so he couldn't be interviewed. "We don't even know how he got here," Richards said. He suffered some sort of apparent head trauma. Police will be interviewing people to try and determine what happened. No further information available at this time.

UPDATE 10:15 p.m.: Sgt. Chris Camp says the victim was not injured as seriously as it initially appeared. He's at Strong Memorial Hospital and has been interviewed.  However, he's not yet able to provide much information. Camp said police are leaning toward a possible assault but haven't ruled out other explanations. The victim's name is being withheld pending further investigation.

On a cruel April morning in 2011, Craig Tiberio looked at himself in the mirror. The man he faced stood accused of dealing drugs and assaulting a police officer. Looking at that mirror affixed as it was to a jailhouse wall, Tiberio didn’t like what he saw.

“I was at the end emotionally,” Tiberio said. “I knew there wasn’t anyplace to go but up unless I wanted to keep living the life that I was living. I obviously knew that if I got back on track, I had the potential — if I was motivated enough — to play sports again.”

As a high school junior, Tiberio had been a standout receiver for the Le Roy Oatkan Knights. He was at least a legitimate Division III prospect entering his senior season. All he wanted to do, or so he thought, was play football at the collegiate level.

Craig describes his childhood as challenging, chaotic, as anything but stable. Sports, especially football, was an escape.

An injury changed everything. 

In the sixth game of his senior season, Craig Tiberio suffered a stress fracture in his spine.

That meant pain medication. It meant time away from the field, from his teammates, from everything that had kept him anchored.

It’s a familiar story in sports — injury, pain medication, followed by a need to self-medicate with whatever street drugs might be available. The pattern killed former Padres pitcher Eric Show. There are countless cases of high school and college athletes you never hear of whose lives were altered by drug use after an injury.

The story of Craig Tiberio is the story of a once-promising athlete who hit bottom and then turned his life around. He entered guilty pleas May 27, 2011 in Genesee County Court to assault, 3rd, criminal possession of a controlled substance, 4th, and to DWI. As he stood before Judge Robert C. Noonan that day, he faced a near certain four-year prison term. Back in court weeks later with positive progress reports, Noonan gave him a second chance. Step by step since, he’s made the most of it. He’s on the dean’s list at Buffalo State University. He volunteers with third- and fourth-graders in Buffalo. His assigned practice squad includes Buff State’s best players, and if he avoids injury, he has a shot of starting at tight end for the Bengals.

A passion for sports
It’s been long path paved by determination and family support since Tiberio gazed into the jailhouse mirror that April morning in 2011, with just the glimmer of a thought that maybe, maybe, he could rekindle his dream of playing college football and pursue a career in coaching.

He’s made it this far.

“You’ve got to ask yourself 'how bad do you want to be successful?' in any aspect of life,” said Tiberio after an early morning spring practice at Coyer Field.

He sat on a near-side bench under an optimistic blue sky while teammates who missed an earlier practice pushed 50-pound weights on their hands and knees up and down the sideline, from the 50 to the goal line and back, 10 times each.

“Some people are just completely content with working a minimum-wage job and being able to do anything they want, but for me, I appreciate freedom more than I ever did. Some people take that for granted. It comes with how much pain are you willing to deal with before you want your life to get better.”

When Craig was but a few months old, his mother moved him from Fairfax, Va., where he was born, to Le Roy. She started living with Art Nicomento, an electrician, and the couple stayed together until Craig was 5.

Then things started to unravel. According to Nicomento, Craig’s mother got hooked on drugs. The couple separated, but Craig stayed with Nicomento. Eventually, Nicomento became Craig’s legal guardian.

“He was a good kid, a smart kid,” Nicomento said. “I wanted to take care of him.”

Talk to anybody in the community about Art and Craig and they will tell you, Nicomento was always there for his son.

By his sophomore year in high school, Craig Tiberio was turning heads on the gridiron, the hardwood and in track and field. Any sports story previewing Le Roy’s chances in the football or basketball seasons included Tiberio as integral to the team’s potential success.

As a junior, Tiberio stood 6’ 3” and weighted 175 lbs. He was athletic and fast. His junior year, he was the Section V champ in the long jump and the triple jump. He also ran on the team’s 400-meter relay team and won a few meets in the 3200 and the 100-meter dash. In basketball, there isn’t a game story that doesn’t list the strong forward as pouring in at least a dozen points and pulling down four or five rebounds.

In Le Roy, football is king and football was Tiberio’s passion. He combined speed, height and agility to haul in passes no defender could touch.

“I always had the attitude in high school, standing on the field across from another player, they can’t stop me,” Craig said.

Jim Bonacquisti, an assistant coach for the Knights, remembers Tiberio as a big play maker. A Tiberio TD reception helped stop a long Hornell home-winning streak. One of Tiberio’s big scores against archrival Cal-Mum came on a fourth-down reverse in a sectional semi-final. Then he intercepted a pass to help seal the deal.

Tiberio was named to the Livingston County Athletic Association’s all-star team on both offense and defense his junior year. (Le Roy is in the Livingston County footbal league). He was also named to the all-state team. He averaged 20 yards a reception and picked off seven passes playing free safety.

“I would rank him behind Mike Humphrey and Brandon Fulmer as far as the best we’ve had in my tenure,” Bonacquisti said. “Ironically, Craig getting hurt his senior season opened the door for Mike’s increased playing time in 10th grade. In Craig’s junior year, he caught anything near him, plus he was a pretty good safety. He wasn’t a big hitter, but he was usually around the ball.”

Unsportsman-like conduct
In his senior year, Tiberio said he was already hampered by a minor back injury, but continued to play. In five starts, he only had eight catches for 88 yards and one TD. On defense, he only had three tackles and two assists.

Friday night, Oct. 6, 2006 was homecoming for the Perry Yellowjackets. Unfortunately for the Perry student body, the Yellowjackets were scheduled to play their homecoming game against an undefeated Oatkan Knights team who would go on to win the Section V Class C title.

Tiberio was having one of his best games of the season with three receptions, including one for a TD, when late in the 4th quarter, with the Knights up 48-0, Tiberio snagged Heath Henrickson’s pass for an interception and returned it 33 yards before being tackled by a Perry player.

... More after the jump ... click the headline or the link below the picture ...

According to Tiberio, he was face down on the field after the tackle. The Perry player, he said, sat on his tailbone and then pulled up on his neck.

A flag was thrown for unsportsman-like conduct, but the damage was done. 

The next day, Tiberio went to a sports medicine clinic in Rochester where a doctor told him his season was over.

“I broke down in tears,” Tiberio said.

That spring, Tiberio graduated with his class. He enrolled at Genesee Community College, but also started hanging out with a party crowd in Le Roy.

Trouble didn’t start right away. 

When it did, Art Nicometo said he was slow to recognize Craig was using illicit drugs. He said his wife Renee picked up on it first, but Art was in denial.

“Once I became suspicious about what was going on, we started digging through his garbage,” Nicometo said. “We did this three or four times so he couldn’t deny it or say it belonged to somebody else. Renee confronted him and told him we knew he was taking pills. We had a talk and I told him he was heading down the wrong path. He was losing weight. It was impacting his grades in school. He agreed he had a problem and said he would work on it.”

It wasn’t until May, 2010 that Tiberio had a run-in with the law. Just before his 21st birthday, he was arrested for drunken driving. He was also accused of possessing a controlled substance and marijuana.

Yet, the drug use continued.

In October of that year, Craig was at somebody’s house on St. Mary’s Street in Pavilion and a fight broke out. Tiberio was charged with assault. The other person was charged as well, Craig said, and when both he and the other defendant said they wanted to drop the charges against each other, the case was dismissed.

As Craig Tiberio drifted through this period of his life, there was a family gathering one evening at the Nicometo home.

“They wanted to watch my highlight tape from high school,” Tiberio said. “I literally started getting really upset. I walked out of the room knowing that I was nowhere I wanted to be in my life.”

Drug-dealing suspect
Yet, Tiberio kept hanging out with the same crowd, doing drugs and not pursuing his dreams.

“I found it was easier to keep numbing up all of my emotions instead of taking the hard road at the time and getting clean and busting my hump to really get on track,” Tiberio said.

At some point in every addict's life, if they’re ever going to get into recovery, they hit rock bottom.

For Craig that point was April 19, 2011.

Somehow, Tiberio came to the attention of the Local Drug Task Force as a suspected dealer.

Using an informant, a buy was set up on Jackson Street in the City.

According to Sgt. Pete Welker, once the buy was completed and the informant walked away, plain clothes and uniformed members of the Task Force closed in.

Tiberio immediately realized he had been set up, Welker said, and he tried to assault the informant. Welker and his partner intervened. In the process, Welker’s finger was bent back and sprained and when his partner tried to mace Tiberio, Tiberio put his hand up, causing the mace to spray back into the detective’s face.

That evening, Welker and Sgt. Steve Mullen, then head of the task force, went to Art Nicometo’s house to execute a search warrant.

Nicometo said the investigators couldn’t have been nicer. They had all known each other for years, and Mullen and Welker were apologetic and explained the case was entirely about Tiberio and he was the only reason they were there to search the house.

The investigators told Nicometo what happened when the arrest went down and Nicometo said he was surprised that the scuffle was going to lead to a felony assault charge. He expressed some hope that the charge would be dropped, but the investigators were noncommittal.

Tiberio was found to possess cocaine, suboxone, drug paraphernalia, drug packaging, digital scales and $310 in currency.

“My first reaction was to call a bail bondsman, but when I called, he didn’t answer and later I was thankful he didn’t,” Nicometo said. “The next morning, Renee and I both said, the problem has got to stop. We’re not getting him out of jail. The only way he’s going to change his life is if he goes from bed to bed, from jail to rehab.”

At first, Nicometo said he couldn’t get any help from GCASA. He called several rehab facilities and couldn’t find a bed for his son.

“I was near giving up,” Nicometo said.

Then he finally reached the right person at GCASA and they were able to secure a bed for Craig.

His attorney, Tom Burns, had to be the one to escort Tiberio from the jail to GCASA, but Nicometo rode along and walked in the door with his son.

They were greeted almost immediately, Nicometo said, by four kids from Le Roy.

“One of them said, ‘hey, great, the old gang is all together again,' ” Nicometo said. “I didn’t have a good feeling.”

From GCASA, Tiberio transferred to Hope Haven. After he successfully completed that program, he transferred to a halfway house in Niagara Falls.

It was Craig’s choice, but Nicometo was against it from the start.

“As it turned out, it was a good decision, but it was tough dropping him off there,” Nicometo said. “It’s just around the corner from that casino and, well, you know what that neighborhood is like.”

During his six-months at the halfway house, Nicometo racked up quite a phone bill, since he allowed and encouraged Craig to call home every day.  

As he progressed in treatment, Tiberio started thinking about football again. Nicometo got his tapes together and sent them to the recruiter at Buffalo State.

Being coachable
One day a week, Tiberio was allowed to leave the halfway house for personal time with family. Typically, he spent the time with family in Le Roy, but one day, they set up a visit with Jerry Boyes, head coach of the Bengals.

Boyes is a Hollywood casting director’s idea of a college football coach. Tall, thin and as tough and straight as a 16-penny nail. On the field during practice, he talks with his players about dedication, hard work, commitment and discipline. 

To play for Boyes means you get to practice on time and learn your assignments. There is only one type of player on the field: the one who is coachable. Being coachable, Boyes told his players, means you don’t wilt when a coach yells at you. You learn your lesson, get better and never get yelled at a second time for the same mistake. Any other kind of player won’t be practicing with the team very long.

In the 1960s, he was an All-American QB for Ithaca. He was 1995’s NCAA Division III Coach of the Year. In two stints running the program, his record is 111-90.

“I was really nervous and really scared that with my situation he wouldn’t even give me an opportunity,” Tiberio-Shephard said. “As he said, he’s all about trust. I was completely open with him. He set some guidelines. He didn’t want me to be an issue or a bad influence. Once I had that in front of me, where he said I had an opportunity, that was just — well, I’ve always had a dream of playing college football and when I hurt my back, I just kind of gave up on it. Obviously, I had a lot of regrets.”

With those assurances, Boyes said of course he was open to giving Craig a second chance.

“I told him my expectation was that he stay true to what he promised me, that he stay clean,” Boyes said. “He made that commitment to me.”

As Tiberio continued his rehab, he volunteered at a soup kitchen in Niagara Falls.  Nicometo said that really helped the young man see a little clearer what the bottom of life was like and understand he didn’t want to go there.

As soon as he was able to, he enrolled at GCC again so he could work on raising his grades (having left previously with a GPA hovering around 1.0).  

Then, another setback.

Three weeks before the fall semester, an admissions councelor at Buffalo State said the college wasn’t going to admit a student with Tiberio’s criminal record.

That made Art Nicometo a little bonkers.

“I told them he’s already accepted at another SUNY school, at GCC,” Nicometo said. “He’s on the dean’s list. I told them, what you’re doing is wrong.”

He asked if there was an appeals process. They said there wasn’t. “Well, there is now,” Nicometo said.

Nicometo and the university wrangled back and fourth for two weeks before it reversed its decision.

That gave Nicometo and Craig a week and a half to find an apartment near the campus. They found one, but it wouldn’t be ready for another month, so for the first couple of weeks of college Nicometo shuttled the license-less Tiberio between his classes at Buff State and Le Roy.

Climbing a high hurdle
During the months of going through rehab, going back to school, planning for his future, Tiberio still wasn’t done with the Genesee County Court of Judge Robert C. Noonan.

He came to court in July 2011 knowing Noonan could sentence him then and there, but based on reports of his good progress, Noonan delayed his sentencing and ordered him back in court in November. At the November appearance, Noonan was again pleased with what he heard about Tiberio’s progress and set a new sentencing date of March 27, 2012.

Noonan isn’t the kind of judge to take lightly an assault on a police officer. While defendants with a history of drug abuse often get second, maybe even third, chances, Noonan takes respect for the law and those who enforce it seriously.

Tiberio knew, even with all of his progress and all of his family support, Noonan could still send him to prison. His attorney, Tom Burns, braced him for the worst and hoped for the best.

Burns stood up for his client in court.

"I've noticed he hasn't gotten all cocky about his treatment progress and he seems to accept the fact that this is something he is going to have to work hard doing for a long period of time, which is not only sobriety, but criminal-free living, which he intends to do," Burns said.

Rather than prison, Noonan put Tiberio on five years probation.

"The significance in not sending you to state prison tells me that you've climbed a very, very high hurdle to be here today and be in a position to get probation," Noonan told him from the bench.

The judge received dozens of letters of support for the defendant, but none were more important than the letter delivered to his office by Sgt. Pete Welker, one of the investigators Tiberio had assaulted.

“The gist of the letter is that I asked Noonan to give him a second chance, knowing that if he screwed up, Noonan would have a ability to send him to prison,” Welker said in an interview last week.

It’s routine for arresting officers to provide the Probation Department with letters about their interactions with defendants as part of the pre-sentence investigation. Welker’s first letter was a standard recommendation for a prison term. This was the first time in his 14-year drug enforcement career that Welker’s reversed course and retracted his first letter.

That simple twist of fate came about only because Welker happened to run into Tiberio at a Buffalo Bills game.

“I was walking through one of the tunnels and I saw him standing there,” Welker said. “I didn’t know how it was going to go, but I approached him and we stood there and talked for five or six minutes. He apologized and told me he was in some kind of assisted living, maybe a halfway house, in the area. He said he had been clean and wanted to go to college.”

After the chance meeting, Welker decided he wanted to know more about Tiberio’s progress and try to determine his sincerity, so he contacted Burns and asked for a meeting with the attorney and his client.

“The impression that I got that this was a kid who wanted to do the right thing,” Welker said.

In court, when Noonan spoke, Tiberio listened.

“Noonan put down some thick guidelines, pretty much a no-tolerance policy,” Tiberio said. “If I messed up at all, he was bringing the hammer down on me. I took that seriously.”

Handling adversity like a winner
By the time Tiberio was a Buffalo State Bengal, he had been away from football for six years.

A Le Roy football player is expected to be tough, disciplined, hard working and team-oriented, but Knights' Coach Brian Moran’s offense is built around the running game. 

Boyes prefers the faster-paced, pass-oriented spread offense.

The lack of playing time and the more complicated schemes had Tiberio feeling like a rusty fifth wheel his sophomore season.

“I didn’t know a thing,” Tiberio said. “It took me a whole season to understand my responsibility on a play-by-play basis.”

Even so, Tiberio impressed his coaches.

By his junior season, Tiberio was in line for regular playing time, but in the second game of the year, he broke his ribs and was out for the rest of the season.

This injury, this time, wasn’t a setback. He kept his nose in the books and his mind and body fit, focused on his goals. He made the dean’s list at Buffalo State and continued to do volunteer work in the community and on campus.

The way Coach Boyes sees it, what Craig has been through and how he conducts himself now shows a lot of character.

“Anybody can handle the wins,” Boyes said. “Faced with adversity, how do you handle that? And that’s one of the great results of athletics. You’re going to face adversity every game. I guarantee it. Dropped balls, fumbles, missed blocks. Guys are going to make mistakes. How do you handle that?

“I’m very proud of what’s going on here with Craig in overcoming this adversity that he’s had,” Boyes added. “I’m anxious to see him break out on the football field because he has all the physical tools to be a great football player for us. He just needs to stay healthy.”

At 24, Tiberio is the second-oldest player on the squad and Bonacquisti said it’s quite an accomplishment for any player at his age, especially after missing so many years of playing time, to come back and compete so well against 18- and 19-year-olds in Division III.

“I have tried to encourage him,” Bonacquisti said. “I know he got frustrated last fall (when he broke his ribs), but he is really fighting long odds to get on the field with his age. The fact he practices every day with kids much younger and he can hang with them is impressive. He is getting his degree; he’s on the dean’s list; and he’s hanging on the field with one of the better D3 schools in the area. I am real proud of how he has turned his life around.”

Academically, Tiberio is excelling. By the time he left GCC, he’d raised his GPA to 1.9 and now, in his third year at Buffalo State, his cumulative GPA is 3.6.

Education and football — that intertwined focus, Tiberio said, is a big part of why he stays out of trouble. At a Division III college, there are no football scholarships. Players need good grades to stay on the field. As Coach Boyes says, “Our players are here for the right reason.” On the flip side, football helps keep Tiberio’s non-classroom hours productive.

“I feel like if I were just going to school, I’d have more time to just get in a negative mindset or put myself in a bad situation,” Tiberio said.

Only a handful of Tiberio’s teammates know about his past. There are nearly 100 young men on the squad right now, many of them fresh out of high school. Tiberio said he’s found it easier to make friends with the older players, seniors mostly, and the ones who are easygoing and nonjudgmental.  

“They’re actually kind of amazed,” Tiberio said. “They see me today and the kind of person I am. They see I care about people so much and want to help them, so a lot of them don’t even believe what I came from. They just think I’m this nice suburban kid raised in a nice white family who had it easy. It was kind of shocking to most of them when I told them what I’d been through.”

And what he’s been through is a time and a place he swears he never wants to revisit. He’s got one more year of football eligibility and then he knows his playing days are over. He dreams of coaching, but makes no long-range plans. He’s focused on his senior year at Buffalo State, as a student and as an athlete.

“For me personally,” he said, “it’s just nice to be able to wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and be proud of myself.”

Among the headstones knocked over in the Elmwood Cemetery this weekend, according to Superintendent Steve Davis, was one marking the grave of a toddler.

In all, some 25 headstones were knocked over sometime over the weekend.

"I've been here almost 20 years and every year we get some form of vandalism," Davis said.

It's not always headstones getting knocked over, Davis said. Makers have been spray-painted; glass bottles have been broken on graves; and flower pots have been stolen. One time, somebody even vandalized the veterans memorial at Elmwood.

"I don't know, maybe it's just a bad neighborhood," Davis said.

In 2009, five 12-year-olds were identified as the youths who knocked over 75 headstones, but usually, the vandals are never caught.

Davis has already put the smaller headstones, including the 2-year-old's, back in place, but other will need the base leveled and the headstones epoxyed back in place.

That will cost some $500 to $600, Davis said.

With every internment in New York, there's a $5 fee paid to the State of New York for a vandalism fund. The cemetery board will have the option of applying for reimbursement from that fund, but payment could take up to a year, Davis said.

In 2009, Elmwood received about $1,000 for the damage caused by the 12-year-olds.

Davis did file a police report. Anybody with information about the vandalism can contact BPD at (585) 345-6350.

A one-car accident is reported at Byron Holley and Cochran roads. Unknown injuries. Byron and South Byron firefighters are responding along with Mercy medics. A telephone pole snapped and wires are down.

UPDATE 11:40 a.m.: Command cancels Mercy medics. Other units to continue non-emergency. National Grid to be notified about the snapped pole.

UPDATE 11:55 a.m.: National Grid has a 20-minute ETA.

UPDATE 12:35 p.m.: All fire units are leaving the scene.

Marianne B. Molaro, 53, of 2224 Ham Road, Oakfield, is charged with grand larceny, 4th. Molaro allegedly removed business records from her place of employment containing data of a scientific or technical process.

Meaghan L. Schiavi, 21, of 43 N. Main St., Perry, is charged with identity theft. Schiavi allegedly used credit card information from a friend and made a purchase in the Village of Le Roy.

Bernard Lee Evans, 43, of Cato Street, Pavilion, is charged with criminal contempt, 1st, and aggravated harassment, 2nd. Evans allegedly contacted his ex-girlfriend 16 times by mobile phone in an alleged violation of a court order of protection.

Bryon Gilbert Keller, 19, of Sumner Road, Darien, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. Keller allegedly violated an order of protection.

Justin L. Pyatt, 26, of Pearl Street, Batavia, is charged with two counts of harassment, 2nd, criminal mischief, 3rd, and petit larceny. During an incident reported at 4:40 p.m. Wednesday, Pyatt allegedly made threats to harm another person, took property that belonged to that person, shoved that person and hit a refrigerator causing damage to the person's property.

Paul Dennis Barth Jr., 23, of Cohocton Road, Corfu, is charged with criminal contempt, 2nd. Barth allegedly approached a person while in Tops Market whom he has been ordered by a judge to not contact at all. Barth then allegedly followed the person to the Sheriff's Office on Park Road. The alleged incident was reported at 3:15 p.m.. Barth was arrested by Officer James DeFreze and jailed on $2,500 bail or $5,000 bond.

Christopher R. Hoover, 27, of North Drive, Rochester, is charged with possession of a forged instrument, 2nd. Hoover was turned over to Batavia on a warrant after he was taken into custody by Greece PD. He was jailed without bail.

A busy MBA student at St. John Fisher, Katie Joslyn, needs to make sure never has an excuse for missing a workout.

The 22-year-old Oakfield resident said Oakfield Fitness and Cross Training Center, at 116 N. Main St., is perfect for her. It's right in the village, is open 24/7, and has all the cardio and weight machines she wants to use.

"I've seen it grow," said Joslyn, who has been a member since the gym first opened at a smaller, store-front location. "It's really become something. It's a lot better than it used to be. I love coming here."

Oakfield Fitness moved just a few weeks ago, going from 1,800 square feet and multiple small rooms, to three logically organized rooms in 3,600 square feet. There's a room for weight machines, a cardio room and a cross-training room.

All of the equipment is quality Life Fitness machines.

A basic gym membership is $30 a month with no other fees and no annual contract. Cross-training members pay $80 per month and have access to the cross-training room and a cross-training coach during scheduled times.

For more information, visit OakfieldFitness.com.

Bill Kegler, left, spent 22 years in the military and has been fighting fires since he was 18. Now he is fighting a different enemy, and hoping his winning hand gets dealt next week.

Kegler is a Pavilion resident and six-year member of the Community Fire Company; he is pictured above with Vice President Nick Wright. He is battling myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a disease that causes poorly formed or dysfunctional blood cells.

"I found out that there was something going on with my blood through the (Batavia) VA back in 2011," Kegler said. "They told me to see a hematologist (blood doctor), who diagnosed what I had through a bone marrow biopsy."

He has since been receiving treatment -- first from the Batavia hematologist who diagnosed him, and now at the Wilmot Cancer Center at Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital. In addition to chemotherapy, his treatment includes experimental drugs that are part of a national clinical test.

"I get chemo treatments every month," Kegler said. "It lasts for seven days straight, and then I'm off for 21 days. Then it starts all over, and that will go on forever until they find a bone marrow match."

To that end, at the instigation of Secretary Kathy Wright, the Community Fire Company is hosting a bone marrow drive for Kegler from 5 until 9 p.m. on Tuesday. It will be at the Pavilion Fire Department Hall at 11302 Lake St. in Pavilion.

Anyone age 18 to 44 and in good health is encouraged to participate. There is no cost, and it only requires a few moments of people's time and a mouth swab.

"I would be very grateful to anyone who comes out," Kegler said.

Until then, he stays in high spirits.

"I think the biggest thing is all the support and prayers I'm getting from everybody I know," he said.  "And people I haven't even met are coming up to me and saying they have me on their prayer lists. My own spirituality is also going a long way in keeping me on an even keel."

Originally from Alden, Kegler has resided in Genesee County for more than 40 years. He and his wife raised their six children in Batavia, sending their two oldest to Notre Dame High School and the younger children to the Batavia City School District. Kegler has also lived in Oakfield and served as a member of the Oakfield Fire Department.

For more information, call Nick Wright at 813-1288.

June 1980, Northern Manitoba -- We had a great fishing adventure and a bit of an education as well. I learned that lake trout and brook trout are actually members of the char family. Note the white piping on the pectoral and ventral fins of the laker pictured above, distinctive markings on all char.                   

We also I discovered that it was wasn't necessary to fish deep for lake trout thanks to the frigid temps of subarctic waters. But those cold waters also make for a slow growth rate, as little as a half pound per year. That means the laker I'm holding in the above pic had been around for 48 years.                    

Winter, 1991 -- Slow but steady wins the race...Nick Calarco's hounds had this coyote on the run for a considerable time before it finally stopped for a breather.       

It may be winded but it's still full of fight -- note the hair standing up on its back. 

A young Massasauga rattlesnake. These are known to exist in two locales in all of New York State -- in Genesee County's Bergen Swamp and in the Cicero Swamp north of Syracuse.               

This is what it will look like when it's all grown up.

Playtime for Bandit..........Bandit and his siblings were discovered living between a wall and a partition in a small barn that served as chicken coop. Concerned for his chickens, the owner urged the mother raccoon to relocate, which she did -- one baby at a time. She took the first three and never returned for Bandit. After several days passed Bandit was adopted and nurtured by loving hands.

   Nap time!

USAToday: Celebrate National Poetry Month with 10 notable lines of poetry

Early this afternoon workers with Turnbull Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration hoisted a new air-conditioning unit onto the rooftop of a building on Liberty Street, Batavia.

Centennial Blog -- eighth in a series

Batavia officially became a city on Jan. 1, 1915 after having been an incorporated village since 1823. The transition involved a progression through several steps during 1914. During 2014, I will be acknowledging each of these events 100 years after their occurrence.

On April 15, 100 years ago, the governor of New York, Martin H. Glynn, had before him a bill proposed by the Village of Batavia Aldermen and passed by the State legislature. It was a bill that would make Batavia the 54^th city in the state. However, there was a question as to whether the governor would sign the bill. His predecessor, William Sulzer had vetoed a highly similar bill a year earlier because of opposition from Batavia’s Charter Revision Commission.

On the surface, the situation hadn’t changed much. Members of the Commission still favored a city government run by a city manager and five nonpartisan councilmen elected at large. The Aldermen’s bill, approved by the State legislature and now on the governor’s desk, provided for a mayor, six councilmen each elected from a city ward, and all seven affiliated with a political party.

However, there were two differences this year. One was that the Aldermen’s bill had been amended to require a referendum vote by the residents of Batavia. If a majority voted against the Aldermen’s bill, its provisions would not go into effect. A second difference was the existence of another bill moving through the legislature, the so-called Murtaugh Bill. Under this bill, residents of a city could petition for a change in the form of their city government; and if a majority of voters favored that change, it would go into effect.

Among the options under the Murtaugh Bill was one that matched the form of government favored by Batavia’s Charter Revision Commission. So, even if the Aldermen’s bill was approved in the referendum, Batavians could later vote to change the form of Batavia’s government to the one proposed by the Commission.

Under this new set of circumstances, the members of the Charter Revision Commission chose not to seek the governor’s veto of the Aldermen’s bill. And so, on April 15^th, Governor Glynn signed it into law as Chapter 354 of the Laws of 1914. The next step would be the required referendum vote to be held on June 8^th.

How did Batavians vote in the referendum? In seven weeks, I will let you know.