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A traffic accident in Depew has closed the New York State Thruway in both directions and that is having an impact on traffic in Genesee County.

Besides the westbound closure from Pembroke toward Depew, Route 77 is also clogged with traffic. It sounds like there is congestion into Corfu.

The traffic camera above shows the eastbound lane blocked in Depew; however, the Pembroke exit 48 camera (below) just started showing eastbound traffic flowing through the area again while westbound traffic is still being diverted off the Thruway in Pembroke.

Press release:

The Batavia Police Department has closed out the Mo-Vember / Don’t Shave December campaigns for 2017. The department was able to raise $1,320 for Genesee Cancer Assistance during Mo-Vember.

Don’t Shave December raised more than $600 for Genesee County Sheriff’s Jail Deputy Nicholas Bender and his family. Members of the department would like to thank the community for their support and donations.

The Mo-Vember Worldwide Campaign started in 2003 in Australia and has since grown. Mo-vember was started to bring awareness to men’s health; specifically, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention.

Submitted photo: Sue Underwood, director of Genesee Cancer Assistance, receives a donation check from Officer Frank Klimjack. Also pictured, Sgt. Chris Camp, Officer Jason Davis, Chief Shawn Heubusch, and Officer James Prusak.

For the 29th year, the Batavia Rotary Club will host its annual girl's basketball tournament at Genesee Community College starting at 6 p.m. tomorrow.

The club hosted a tip-off luncheon today the Arc Community Center in Batavia.

First game tomorrow pits Notre Dame against Attica and the nightcap matches Batavia and Cal-Mum, the defending champions.

The consolation and championship game will be Friday at GCC.

UPDATE: Because of anticipated bad weather, the finals will be played on Thursday.

Photo: Margaret Sutherland, Notre Dame, Taylor Gadd, Attica, Mackenzie Wilson, Cal-Mum, and Bri Janes, Batavia.

Below, the Attica players who attended the luncheon pose for a group selfie after the event.

Here are closings we have been notified about:

• Mental Health Association is closing with no evening programs for tonight.

There is a weather advisory with 1 to 3 inches of snow predicted through 1 a.m. There is also wind and blowing snow in the county.

Send notifications of closing and postponements to howard@thebatavian.com. Watch this post for further updates. 

Send your weather pictures to howard@thebatavian.com.

A sex offender serving a 15-year prison term and facing a trial on charges that have been pending since 2016 asked County Court Judge Charles Zambito to postpone the trial because he's "in transit" between prisons.

Nobody was quite sure what Marlek Holmes meant by that claim, so as he stood in County Court -- shackled and in a green prison jumpsuit -- he explained to Zambito that in order to make court appearances, he's been transferred from Auburn to Wende. Prison officials limit what he can bring with him. He can't bring all of his case documents and while at Wende he's in isolation and doesn't have access to the law library.

Holmes is facing a trial Jan. 22 on charges that he failed to register a change of address as a sex offender in 2016. During the trial, the court will also hold a hearing on whether he should be declared a persistent violent felony offender.

Holmes was facing a possible life-in-prison sentence before he agreed to a plea agreement the day his trial was supposed to start May 4. He entered a guilty plea to attempted criminal sexual act in the first degree, a Class C violent felony. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on that conviction May 31.

While he was in jail on these charges, Holmes assaulted a fellow inmate, a crime he was convicted of following a jury trial Oct. 6. He has yet to be sentenced on that conviction.

Zambito told Holmes that he didn't find the prison transfer issue a sufficient reason to delay his trial. He told him he had an attorney, Fred Rarick, who is handling his actual legal defense. He isn't representing himself.

"If it requires an order to get the Department of Corrections to provide you with your paperwork, I'll sign an order," Zambito said.

Jury selection in the trial of Holmes on the failure-to-register charge begins Jan. 22.

A hearing on whether Holmes is a persistent violent felony offender will take place before the actual failure-to-register trial begins, the morning of Jan. 23. The hearing will help determine the severity of his sentence stemming from the Oct. 6 conviction for assaulting a fellow inmate.

      Benito Gay

Benito A. "Red" Gay, 29, of Vine Street, Batavia, is charged with two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance, 3rd, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, 3rd.

Gay is accused of selling crack cocaine to an agent of the Local Drug Task Force on two occasions.

He was indicted by a Genesee County Grand Jury on a sealed indictment.

On Dec. 28, Deputy Ryan DeLong identified Gay as the operator of a vehicle in the Town of Batavia. Following a traffic stop, he was charged with DUI - Drugs, unlawful possession of marijuana, unlicensed operation, and registration plate display violation.

He was issued tickets and released.

Later that evening, deputies learned that Gay was wanted on a sealed grand jury indictment. They proceeded to Gay's residence on Vine Street and took him into custody on the warrant.

He was jailed pending further court proceedings.

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These were the most read stories on The Batavian of 2017

• This weekend, Jason Lang lost his battle with drug addiction
• Pembroke math teacher dies in ATV accident
• Obituary: Brayden Robert Salvaterra
• Obituary: Brian D. West Jr.
• Woman from Batavia dies in rollover accident on Route 77, Alabama
• Brian West Jr., will be missed by Alexander community
• Blind School employee charged with endangering the welfare of children, by Billie Owens
• Child sex abuser found living with woman and her three kids, DA says, by Billie Owens
• Photos: Three serious injury accidents in Genesee County in one evening
• UPDATED: Teenager dies following rollover accident on West Bethany Road

A rollover accident, believed to be with no injuries, is reported in the area of 7784 Alleghany Road, Alabama.

Alabama Fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.

Among the New Year's parties that Genesee County residents enjoyed tonight was one at Center Street Smoke House, complete with party favors, balloons, and live music.

Happy New Year!

A snowmobile accident has been reported on a trail in the area of Summit Street Road, Pavilion, near the Le Roy town line.

A subject reportedly had an arm stuck in the machinery of the snowmobile. He is now freed and in a Pavilion fire chief vehicle with a possible broken arm.

The patient may be a child.

Pavilion fire on scene and Mercy EMS responding.

In the time the world has gone from rotary phones to smartphones, and the nation has gone from Nixon to Trump, and Adam-12 and Kojak on network TV to viewers streaming Fargo and True Detective, Gordon Dibble has lived out a career in law enforcement.

Not much has changed in 43 years, though.

Dibble said the thrill for cops is still in catching the bad guys.

"Well, you know, the best part about it, and it sounds funny, but we all get in this job to catch the bad guys," Dibble said during his retirement party Friday at the Sheriff's Office. "That's really what we're here for. So, so many times you know who's done the crime. You can't prove it. You can't get them. And that's the most frustrating part.

"But when you're actually involved in catching one of them, physically catching them, like you chase them and you know it is somebody who you know did something wrong, and you know you know, and you get to chase them and maybe physically catch them, I think that was one of the more rewarding things that a guy (in law enforcement) will do."

Dibble feels fortunate to spent his entire career with the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

He was hired Jan. 6, 1973, by then-Sheriff Roy Wullich, who was six days into his new job, making Dibble his first hire. Dibble, who spent four years in Chicago going to college and getting a degree in corrections, was assigned -- like all new deputies then -- to the jail. After a year, he was transferred to road patrol. After five years on the road, he became the juvenile officer. Then, in 1996, he was put in charge of road patrol with the title of chief deputy.

For a lot of people who work in law enforcement, they call it a career after 21 years. That's how long Dibble headed up road patrol after already putting 22 years in the Sheriff's Office.

"I think that people in this line of work," Dibble said, "they're either the 20-and-out type of people and they're going to maybe go do something different or you're here, you know it, and maybe hopefully become the sheriff or the undersheriff or whatever. You know I think that those are pretty common tracks.

"I was lucky," Dibble added. "I mean, I got different things to do and not everybody gets to do that. There are a lot of great people here that don't get those opportunities because it's just a small department."

Dibble said he was also lucky to work in the kind of job where you never know what your workday is going to be like when you show up at the office. Every day is different and unpredictable. That made 43 years go by fast.

"I know when I worked in factories that clock never moved on a wall," Dibble said. "But this job, you know, days went by, weeks, and months went by, years went by like nothing," repeating with emphasis, "like nothing."

During his farewell speech, Dibble said he felt lucky to work with a lot of good people, not just in the Sheriff's Office, but with Batavia PD, Le Roy PD, State Police, the County Legislature, and other agencies that interact with local law enforcement, and even the local media.

"That's why small towns are great," Dibble said. "Everybody knows everybody and we all want to get the job done."

At the end of our interview, asked if there was anything else he wanted to add, Dibble came back to the theme that he shared during the interview and his farewell speech, how lucky he has been.

"I'm very lucky that I've worked for a great department," he said before taking a long pause, " ... with some really good people. Like I said, I'm a lucky guy. That's all."

Jail Superintendent William Zipfel, Undersheriff Gregory Walker, retired Chief Deputy Gordon Dibble, Sheriff William Sheron, Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster.

The incoming chief deputy of road patrol, Joseph Graff, and Gordan Dibble have fun changing name plates on Dibble's old office.

In what may be the last regular season meeting between Batavia and Notre Dame in boys basketball, the Blue Devils came out on top 68-45 to win The Peter Arras Memorial Basketball Tournament.

The tournament has commonly been known as the Lions Tournament, but the Lions Club of Batavia renamed it this year in memory of Pete Arras, a longtime Lions Club member and founder of the tournament.

The tournament is usually the one meeting each year between Batavia and Notre Dame, but next year, the tournament format will change to include eight teams, four each in Class A and B, and four teams in Class C and D, which is why Batavia and Notre Dame aren't likely to play each other again.

Last night, Mason McFollins scored 17 points, hitting five three-point shots. He was named tournament MVP. Steve Gilebarto and Antwan Odom scored 14 apiece.

For Notre Dame, Ryan Moffet scored 11 points and Keith Szczepanski scored eight.

Besides McFollins, the all-tournament team was Liam Ward, Albion, Colin O'Hallohan, Elba, Antwan Odem and Steve Gilebarto, Batavia, and Ryan Moffet, Notre Dame.

A new feature of the tournament is a banner acknowledging all of the teams. The winning team signs the banner and will be able to display it in the school. Above, Nancy Arras, wife of Pete, signs the banner.

To purchase prints, click here.

Pembroke pulled out a narrow win Friday night in overtime over Charter School for Applied Technologies in boys basketball.

The final, 66-64.

Jamil Marable scored 22 points for the Dragons. Ethan Stone, 16, Lucas Kohurst, 11, and Reid Miano, 9.

Top scorer for CSAT was Devin Ashley with 21 points.

Photos by Destin Danser.

For more photos and to purchase prints, click here.

On Friday nights, the lights are on for outdoor skating at DeWitt Recreation Area, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Batavia.

This coming Friday, Kiwanis members will be serving hot cocoa from Tim Hortons to skaters who show up between 4:30 and 7:30 p.m.

Above, Kiwanis member Peter Guppenberger.

An odor of fuel is reported in the building of the Flying J travel plaza in Pembroke.

The building was supposed to be evacuated, but a chief on scene reports the building is not evacuated.

Pembroke and Indian Falls fire departments responding.

UPDATE 7:41 a.m.: Newstead fire requested to the scene to help with roof access.

UPDATE 7:41 a.m.: Code enforcement also requested to the scene. Building is evacuated.

UPDATE 7:50 a.m.: Units on the road can continue response, all others can remain in quarters.

UPDATE 7:53 a.m.: A chief reports no issues found. No sign of fire. He suspects diesel fuel getting sucked in by vents was the cause.