Stories from

Friends, family, and neighbors in Oakfield threw a 95th-birthday parade for Theresa Velletta on Thursday.

Jeremy McClellan submitted this photo of an eagle he spotted off of Route 20 in Pavilion.

WNY Heroes, a veterans service organization, organized a donation of hundreds of meals to staff of the Veterans Hospital in Batavia and the NYS State Veterans Home yesterday.

Red Osier Landmark Restaurant delivered more than 150 prime rib sandwich lunch bags to the VA hospital and Pizza 151 delivered pizza to the vets home.

The Red Osier meals were donated by the restaurant and co-owner Steve Foster said the restaurant has now donated more than 300 meals to local organizations since the pandemic hit our community.

“The generosity of Red Osier combined with our organization is exactly what Western New York Heroes stands for,” said Western New York Heroes President Chris Kreiger. “We are and always have been here to support our veterans in our Western New York community and we do this day in and day out. Providing meals to our frontline medical workers who selflessly give their time to care for our veterans is the least we can do.”

After stopping at the VA, Foster and partner Tim Adams and Red Osier staff stopped the Genesee County Animal Shelter to drop off a donation of pet food, treats and toys.

With 11 new cases in two days, Genesee County has now seen a total 92 positive tests since the start of the outbreak -- and that only covers the symptomatic people who have been tested because there are certainly others who haven't been tested -- we don't have a good handle on community spread of the novel coronavirus locally.

Public Health Director Paul Pettit said today that he takes some comfort that the number of active cases in Genesee County has remained relatively flat. It's at 45 today, lower than the 50 of a few days ago but he acknowledged it's still too early to tell if we've reached our apex.

Forty-five people have recovered, there are 105 people in mandatory quarantine but four of today's five new cases were not previously under quarantine. 

That means, Pettit noted today, that community spread is still prevalent and not isolated to a few known hotspots.

This week, there has been a lot of talk about "opening up the economy" again soon, so given what we know about the spread of the disease in Genesee County, we asked Pettit his thoughts on that thorny policy question. His answer is in the video clip above. For the full briefing today, click here.

Even with 11 new cases in two days, the graph of the active case count in Genesee County has remained relatively flat.

Daily Briefing:

New Cases

• As of 2 p.m. today:
  • Genesee County received five new positive cases of COVID-19 for a total of 92 positive cases.
    • Four positive cases reside in Batavia and one resides in Pembroke.
    • One individual is in their 20s, one individual is in their 30s, one individual is in their 50s, one individual is in their 60s, and one individual is in their 90s.
    • One of the positive individuals was on quarantine prior to becoming symptomatic.
    • Three of the total active positive cases are hospitalized.
• Orleans County: Eight new positive case  of COVID-19 for a total of 43.
  • Of the new positive cases today, seven live in Albion and one lives in Ridgeway.
  • We have one individual in their 50s, two individuals in their 60s, two individuals in their 70s and three individuals in their 80s.
  • One has recovered and has been released from mandatory isolation.
  • Four of the total active positive cases are hospitalized.
• Due to the current limited swabbing kits, there continue to be guidelines in place for primary care providers to order COVID-19 swabbing. This is based upon screening for high risk categories. Contact your primary care provider first to discuss symptoms and ability to be swabbed.
• Contact tracing has been initiated for all new cases. Known contacts have already been placed under mandatory quarantine and will be swabbed if indicated (if symptoms become present). 
• If a person is identified as a contact, they will be notified by the County Health Department, quarantined and if warranted, swabbed if indicated. Limited information is provided to the public in compliance with HIPAA regulations and out of the respect of those impacted by this virus. 
• When, and if, there is a situation where potential contact is made in a public location where contact tracing doesn’t have actual names of close contacts, we will send out a media announcement to help seek contacts.
• If you are experiencing ANY COVID-19 related symptoms STAY HOME! Do not go to work, do not go to the store, do not go anywhere, YOU are spreading the virus. STAY HOME!

Click here to view the Genesee and Orleans County online map of confirmed cases.

Interview with Bonnie Birkmeyer, Western Region executive director, Hillside Family of Agencies.

Press release:

• Part of State's Efforts to Ramp Up Testing, A Key Component of the Governor's Blueprint to Un-Pause New York
• Reiterates Call for Federal Government to Provide Unrestricted Funding to States
• Launches Awareness Campaign Encouraging Low-Income New Yorkers to Claim Their Economic Impact Payments Under the CARES Act
• Confirms 7,358 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 229,642; New Cases in 50 Counties

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced he will issue an Executive Order directing all public and private labs in New York to coordinate with the State Department of Health to prioritize coronavirus diagnostic testing. This action is part of the State's efforts to ramp up testing, a key component of the Governor's blueprint to un-Pause New York. The Executive Order will help ensure the 301 laboratories and hospitals in the state that are licensed to perform virology operate in a coordinated fashion to overcome the testing challenges that every state in the nation is now facing.

The Governor also reiterated his call for the federal government to provide unrestricted funding to the states to help stabilize the economy and allow the states to perform reopening functions. The federal government has passed three bills to address this crisis, including the federal CARES Act, all of which contained zero funding to offset drastic state revenue shortfalls.

The Governor also launched an awareness campaign encouraging low-income New Yorkers to claim their Economic Impact Payments under the CARES Act. The Act provides $1,200 payments to individuals making below $75,000 and $2,400 payments to married couples making below $150,000. However, taxpayers will only receive their payments automatically if they filed 2018 or 2019 federal tax returns. Because the federal filing threshold is roughly $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for married couples, hundreds of thousands of the lowest income New Yorkers who are not required to file returns will not receive their payments unless they provide their information to the IRS. 

To support the Governor's awareness campaign, the Department of Taxation and Finance launched an Economic Impact Payment information: what you need to know web page and will do direct outreach to taxpayers who may not automatically receive the payments they're owed. The Tax Department will also partner with the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, NYS Division of Veterans' Services, the Department of Labor and local community organizations to raise awareness and ensure action is taken by those who need this benefit most.   

"As we work over the next several months to un-pause New York, the testing and tracing is going to be our guidepost," Governor Cuomo said. "No state is currently capable of doing the large-scale COVID testing that is needed. We have 300 laboratories and hospitals across the state that do virology testing and we must coordinate them to become one system -- like we did with the hospitals -- to get our testing capacity where it needs to be. I am going to issue an Executive Order that says the Department of Health will coordinate all of these labs so we can ramp up testing and get more people back to work."

Interview with Todd Rapp, local coordinator of Emergency Disaster Services for The Salvation Army.

Wendy Williams reads "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas. Williams is a member of Batavia Players.

Below, a video analysis of the poem.

Press release:

Yesterday, President Trump named political strategist and Republican campaign veteran Michael Caputo as the spokesperson of Health and Human Services. Caputo is a Western New York native, where he has engaged in years of misinformation, lies and political deceit in public relations positions locally and in Russia.

Up until very recently, Caputo was a registered agent of a foreign power. He will now represent the agency protecting the health of Americans during a national crisis -- despite no personal public health or executive experience.

Nate McMurray, the Democratic candidate for the NY-27 congressional district, said: “We know Caputo here. He’s the guy lying on local talk radio making up stories and attending Steve Bannon rallies. He’s the guy putting up billboards honoring disgraced Congressman Chris Collins, and begging people to vote for Collins.

"He is a prankster not a statesman and it’s important to make that clear, because appointing him to a position like this during a crisis is beyond reckless; it represents malice toward America.”

McMurray calls upon all candidates for the Special Election for NY-27 to denounce the appointment of Caputo at this critical time. He especially denotes the budding relationship between Jacobs and Caputo.

McMurray added, “Jacobs joined in with Trump’s local posse because he wants power. He will go along with anything for that power. That is why he voted against COVID-19 sick pay. That is why he followed Caputo’s lead and shared false stories about the Governor stealing ventilators from our hospitals.

"Jacobs should change course now because he may find out real quick what I am afraid the American people will find out soon enough; Caputo will betray you in a heartbeat if it helps him.”

It's been exactly one month since we last posted a Deal of the Day. After consulting with many of the businesses that have been participating in Deal of the Day, we are able to once again offer this program to our readers.

We hope to add more businesses in the next week or so but today's Deal of the Day post represents all the businesses currently offering their gift certificates through The Batavian.

All the same rules as before apply. They are listed below. Obviously, the gift certificates can be used for delivery (where available) or pick up.

Reminders of how the Deal of the Day program works:

• To make purchases, you must be registered. Deal of the Day uses a registration system that is not connected to the registration for commenting on The Batavian (the main user login in the upper left of the homepage).
• Once re gistered you must sign in using the "sign in" link in this box.
• You click on the orange button, which appears if the item is not sold out, and it takes you to a PayPal button. This allows you to pay either with your PayPal account or with a credit card/debit card. The login for PayPal is completely separate from our accounts.
• The first person to successfully complete the PayPal transaction wins the gift certificate.
• You are eligible to buy the same item only once in a four-month period. We use the registration system to track this for you so you don't have to.
• Only one gift certificate from the same business PER HOUSEHOLD is allowed in each four-month period. We do not have a way to automatically track duplicate purchases within a household; however, if we notice such a purchase, we reserve the right to cancel the purchase and refund the purchase money. Each individual buyer must use his or her own PayPal account for purchases. It's important that participating businesses not be asked to redeem multiple gift certificates from the same person/family at the same time.
• Gift certificates should be used within 30 days of receipt.

Health Department Daily Briefing:

New Cases

• As of 2 p.m. today:
  • Genesee County received seven new positive cases of COVID-19 for a total of 87 positive cases.
    • Five positive cases reside in Batavia, one resides in Bergen, and one resides in Darien.
    • One individual is in their 20s, three individuals are in their 30s, one individual is in their 60s, and two individuals are in their 90s.
    • Three of the positive individuals were on quarantine prior to becoming symptomatic.
    • Three of the total active positive cases are hospitalized.
• Orleans County: One new positive case of COVID-19 for a total of 35.
  • Of the new positive cases today, one lives in Albion.
  • One individual is in their 80s.
  • Two have recovered and have been released from mandatory isolation.
  • Three of the total active positive cases are hospitalized.
  • Orleans County received notification of the first COVID-19 related death.
• Due to the current limited swabbing kits, there continue to be guidelines in place for primary care providers to order COVID-19 swabbing. This is based upon screening for high risk categories. Contact your primary care provider first to discuss symptoms and ability to be swabbed.
• Contact tracing has been initiated for all new cases. Known contacts have already been placed under mandatory quarantine and will be swabbed if indicated (if symptoms become present). 
• If a person is identified as a contact, they will be notified by the County Health Department, quarantined and if warranted, swabbed if indicated. Limited information is provided to the public in compliance with HIPAA regulations and out of the respect of those impacted by this virus. 
• When, and if, there is a situation where potential contact is made in a public location where contact tracing doesn’t have actual names of close contacts, we will send out a media announcement to help seek contacts.
• If you are experiencing ANY COVID-19 related symptoms STAY HOME! Do not go to work, do not go to the store, do not go anywhere, YOU are spreading the virus. STAY HOME!

Click here to view the Genesee and Orleans County online map of confirmed cases.

A few days ago, we shared a photo from Sarah Wessel, in Alexander, of three eggs in a nest. Today, she shared this photo of two hatchlings.

Josh Hawkins shared these photos he took earlier this week of eagles in Elba.

He wrote:

For three days in a row, multiple bald eagles fed on a roadkill deer in a field on Route 262 in Elba. These were some of the better images I was able to capture with my 300mm zoom lens. The pair in the photos are mature birds because of their bright white head and tail, but I did also observe a juvenile eagle (some white present on the head and tail, but not much) at one point and was unable to capture a photo. They likely came from Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, although I've heard that there is a nest on or near Norton Road in Elba.

Jason Smith shared this photo from his backyard in Batavia, where a cardinal yesterday munched on a suet cake despite the snowy and frigid conditions.

Press release:

At this time Michael Caputo is not able to discuss his appointment by President Trump just yet. He has asked his friend and NY-27 Congressional candidate Stefan I. Mychajliw to speak for his family. The following statement from Mychajliw concerns Caputo’s White House appointment as Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services for Public Affairs.

“The Caputo family remains in East Aurora, as Michael and Maryna have decided it’s safer for them to stay here. Unfortunately, that also means Michael won’t see them for a long time, since he cannot move back and forth safely from Washington.

"Michael told me it wasn’t a hard decision. When the President called him, he saluted and packed up his things. Those of us who are close to his family know this is a huge sacrifice for them. They’re very close, having lived through the abuse of Russia investigations, surviving all the hardships, getting stronger together. His little girls are the most affected.

"Before he left, Michael and I talked often. He’s as worried as all of us are about the pandemic, but he’s been deeply affected by what he saw in East Aurora: local businesses closed, shopkeepers concerned for their survival, so many neighbors out of work. He called it a ghost town; it really spooked him.

"I’ve worked side by side with Michael on many campaigns, including President Trump’s victorious election in 2016. He is one of the best communications specialists in the country. Those of us who know him best know he’ll do well.

"We need measured leadership in Washington to help clearly communicate the hard work President Trump is putting in flattening the coronavirus curve and getting our economy back on track. Michael will be a strong asset for the President in delivering that message.”

Press release:

• Directs All New Yorkers to Wear Masks or Face Coverings on Public Transportation Systems, While Taking Private Transportation or Riding in For-Hire Vehicles as Part of Executive Order
• Announces State Will Send 100 Ventilators to New Jersey
• Confirms 8,505 Additional Coronavirus Cases in New York State - Bringing Statewide Total to 222,284; New Cases in 48 Counties
• Governor Cuomo: "Private transportation carriers, for-hire vehicles, any operator of a public system, an operator of a public carrier and for-hire vehicles must wear a mask at all times. ... So, is this inconvenient? Yes, but you're in a closed environment, by definition. You're not socially distancing, by definition. ... This is a precaution for everyone that I think balances individual liberties with a social conscience."
• Cuomo: "New Yorkers are the most generous and most gracious and we'll be there when people need help. New Jersey is still looking at their curve rising. The wave hasn't crested in New Jersey. They're our neighbors, anything we can do to help, I've told Governor Murphy all he has to do is ask. We're here and we're going to send 100 ventilators to New Jersey."
• Cuomo: "You stopped everything. How do you now restart that machine in a coordinated way that doesn't drive up the infection rate? That's the balance that we're trying to strike on un-pausing and having businesses open. ... This is not just government deciding. It's government deciding with private businesses who now have to take a look at this new normal, this new reality, and tell us how they think they can adjust to it."
• Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo earlier today announced all NYS on Pause restrictions and closures will be extended until May 15th. This action is taken in consultation with other regional states. The states will re-evaluate after this additional closure period.

Join GO ART! for the organization's first Virtual Birthday Party at 7 p.m.

The party includes gallery tours, live performances by Jackie Siegel McLean, Theresa & Mark Kehl, Madison Hoerbelt, and the Canning Family, the Genean (Genesee-Orleans) Arts and Culture Awards, and winner announcements for its Quarantine Contest and Juried Show, “Art of the Rural.”

Press release:

• State will begin conducting antibody tests prioritizing frontline workers beginning this week -- 2,000 tests per day using a finger prick test.
• Announces state will give 100 ventilators to Michigan and 50 ventilators to Maryland.
• Issues Executive Order requiring nursing homes to inform family members of residents of COVID-19 cases.
• Issues Executive Order allowing individuals sssisting with COVID-19 response to stay in a hotel in New York City for more than 28 days without becoming a tenant.
• SUNY and CUNY colleges using 3D printers to produce personal protective equipment for frontline medical workers.
• Confirms 11,571 additional coronavirus cases in New York State -- bringing statewide total to 213,779; new cases in 43 counties.
• Governor Cuomo: "It's going to be a phased reopening, right. And during the phased reopening, the priority is to make sure you do no harm and keep your eye on the public health issue. That is what is key in all of this. So it's going to be a calibration of reopening based on public health safety and that infection rate because what we have done, and the reducing of the infection rate, is a pure function of what New Yorkers have done and what people across the country have done. When you relax that social distancing, you could very well see an increase in the infection rate. So it's all a calibration to the public health. But it's going to be a gradual increase of economic activity in calibration with the public health, public health standards. The single best tool to doing this gauging, right, is large-scale testing. Test, trace and isolate."
• "Don't tell me that we can't do it because I know that we can do it. We can we build a bridge that takes us from today to 18 months? Yes. Yes, because we are bridge builders, that's what we do. We build bridges. Sometimes literally, sometimes symbolically, sometimes metaphorically, but we build bridges. That's what we do in New York and we're going to do this."

Previously:

• It may be a good idea to wear face masks (just don't buy masks needed by medical professionals)
• Local residents making masks for people in our community

These are the people who have contacted us to say they are available to make masks for their fellow Genesee County residents. We haven't asked what, if anything, they're charging.  

• Roxanne: alterationssewing@aol.com
• Shandra: shandamabon@gmail.com
• Bethany: betsanee@yahoo.com
• Nancy: tuniquel@rochester.rr.com
• Crystal: chavens92@gmail.com
• Shirley: snigrohill@hotmail.com
• Karen: karensyarnpaperscissors@gmail.com

If you are available to sew cloth masks for other people and would like to be listed, email howard@thebatavian.com. Here is a link to the CDC guidelines (pdf).