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Mercy EMS is finding its current ambulance staging area at St. Jerome's on Bank Street a little cramped and not conducive to keeping ambulances ready to roll in all kinds of weather, so it's planning a new 11,500 square foot facility off Route 98, just north of the Thruway, in the Town of Batavia.

The new facility will cost about $2 million and the site plan was reviewed and recommended for approval last night by the County Planning Board.

"There’s no space," said Mercy EMS General Manager Bill Schutt of the current location. "We’re in essentially four old hospital rooms there. There’s very limited parking space, obviously, if you’ve been there. In winter times, it’s especially difficult. Ambulances have fluids in them, medications that need to be kept warm, so you’re trying to run heaters inside them to warm them while parked outside. We don’t have any space there to hold meetings, do training, any additional private spaces, very limited crew space."

The new facility will have eight interior parking bays and additional spaces with electrical hook-ups for ambulances to park outside in emergency overflow situations.

The location, 2.2 acres being split out from an 8.6 parcel, is part of the Gateway II project on Call Parkway, just off of Oak Orchard Road.

Schutt said the new location will have no effect on response times.

There will also be expanded crew space, a meeting and training room.

The new location will also include a purchasing department that will house regional purchasing for Mercy Flight.

Also on Thursday's agenda:

• The board recommended approval of two new commercial buildings on a parcel just north of Home Depot, abutting the Thruway, at 4181 Veterans Memorial Drive. The buildings will be a 12,600 square foot facility that will house medical offices and a 7,500 square foot building that will contain three spaces. Two will be restaurant spaces. The $1.2 million project is being undertaken by Holland Trotta out of Rochester.  A spokesman for the developer told planners that the large space was originally intended for a well-known local restaurant, but those plans changed. The signage on the architectural drawings in the planning board packet for the smaller building show an urgent care business and a Mexican chain restaurant, Qdoba Mexican Eats.
• The board recommended approval of a conditional use permit for 17.4-acre, 2-megawatt solar farm at 2901 Pearl Street Road, Batavia. 
• The board recommended approval of a nine-month moratorium on the planning and construction of solar farms in Stafford, giving officials time to review policies and zoning plans for such facilities.
• The board recommended approval of a site plan review for a new 29,456 square foot paddock at Batavia Downs to be constructed on the east side of the race track. The previous paddock was removed to make room for construction of the new hotel. Currently, stables, are being used for paddock space. Paddocks are where horses and drivers are prepared for each race and return to after the race for washing and testing (winning horses are tested for banned substances, as required by the gaming commission). 

Sgt. Terrence Irvin, from Batavia, second from left, is a Marine Security Guard currently deployed to Brussels, where he served recently as part of the security contingent for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, middle of the picture. Irvin is currently serving as a guard attached to the State Department. Following his discharge in 2019, he hopes to become a NYS State Trooper.

Two people suffered minor injuries in an accident just before 7 p.m. at Main Street and Jefferson Avenue, Batavia.

City fire, Batavia PD and Mercy EMS responded.

No further information available at this time.

After opening a year ago in Attica, Amanda Dixon decided her consignment shop, Second Hand Heaven, might get more business in the bigger city of Batavia, so she's opened her doors at 315 Ellicott St.

The shop offers a wide range of used items for sale, from furniture and household goods to clothing and toys, as well as art, books and DVDs.

Owning her own business, Dixon said, allows her to keep her 2-year-old child with her during the day, which she couldn't do working for an employer.

Plus retail is a people business.

"The people I've met are amazing," Dixon said. "It's really nice. I like it."

An accident involving a semi-truck and car is reported in the area of 5901 Route 20, Bethany.

No word on injuries.

There's heavy front-end damage is reported to a vehicle. The tractor-trailer went down a culvert and is in water. It's 80,000 pounds loaded. A heavy wrecker will be needed.

Bethany fire and Mercy EMS responding.

UPDATE(S) (By Billie) 12:34 p.m.: This accident involved a tractor-trailer and farm equipment. According to a deputy at the scene, two tractor-trailers were eastbound on Route 20 and nearing a hill. The tractor-trailer that was behind the foremost one decided to pass at the hill. After doing so, the trucker came upon a tractor that was towing a manure spreader. The farm tractor had just made a left-hand turn into the driveway of a farm but the manure spreader was still in the roadway when the passing tractor-trailer clipped the rear of the manure spreader, tearing off the spreader's rear axel. The tractor-trailer continued off the north shoulder of the roadway into a guard rail and down a deep culvert into a creek filled with water. The trucker suffered a big bump on his forehead. The deputy said citations will be issued. They have a lot of manure to clean up on Route 20 as a result of the accident.

UPDATE 12:52 p.m.: The Bethany assignment is back in service.

Six supervisors from the Genesee County Emergency Dispatch Center were on hand at the opening of the County Legislature meeting yesterday evening to accept a proclamation from Chairman Ray Cianfrini declaring April 9-15 as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week.

Cianfrini said the proclamation recognizes the hard work and dedication of Genesee County's emergency dispatchers.

Batavia Bootery, located inside Charles Men's Shop in Downtown Batavia, held its official grand opening last night. Cutting the ribbon, with Dave Howe and Don Brown, is Pete Zeliff, owner of local shoe manufacturing company P.W. Minor. 

For more on the store opening, click here.

When you step into the new Batavia Bootery, the experience will be top rate and you will find only quality shoes in stock, say proprietors David Howe and Don Brown.

The new shoe store at 210 E. Main St. is a joint venture between Charles Men's Shop (the establishment of Howe and Brown) and local shoe factory P.W. Minor.

The store's grand opening is this evening from 6:30 to 8.

"Quite frankly, P.W. Minor was looking to have a strong presence in their own community," Howe said. "I think Mr. Zeliff (Pete Zeliff, owner of P.W. Minor) has really made a strong commitment to the community and he wanted to make a commitment to Downtown. As proprietors of Charles Men's Shop, Don and I like anything that is going to help Downtown businesses."

Howe expects the new shoe store to draw on and expand the customer base of the 70-year-old clothing store, which Howe said has a strong local following, but also draws customers from Buffalo and Rochester.

But with limited space, Charles Men's Shop wasn't able to sell shoes to its customers.

"I think a good shoe store has been sorely lacking in Downtown," Howe said. "When Pete approaches us, I said I can't tell you the number of times people have come in to buy a new suit, whether they have a new job, are going to a job interview, a funeral or a wedding, and when we've finished packing the new jacket, shirt and tie, they say, 'I need a pair of shoes.' " 

Now those customers will be taken to Batavia Bootery, Howe said. There, both men and women will find a complete line of high quality, long-lasting, comfortable shoes sold by a knowledgeable, friendly staff. While featuring shoes from P.W. Minor, other companies shoes will also be available, to offer a price range from moderate to higher end, but all shoes from other lines are selected for their quality, comfort and foot health benefits.

"Our customer service is second to none," Brown said. "We're professionals. We got to all the big shows. You're not getting that kind of service in a mall or a big box store. The knowledge, you can't get that from a bunch of stars left by Millennials online."

Batavia Bootery will be the flagship store for p.w. minor, carrying every shoe the 150-year-old local manufacturer carries, including the new Abrams Boots line and the Batavia Boot and Shoe collection, both high-quality brands for the stylish dresser.

The store will also carry the same quality, orthopedic shoes that has made P.W. Minor famous, but in styles that have been upgraded to more attractive and fashionable designs since Zeliff took over the company and saved it from near closure.

Since Zeliff has taken over, he's moved production back to the United States from China and continues to hire more workers and ramp up production as the sales staff finds new customers across the country.

The craftsmanship of P.W. Minor shoes is really impressive, Howe said. They are made to last a lifetime.

"This is a wonderful example going forward of what can be done in America by American workers," Howe said. "I think that’s really cool. Although we’re just a tiny part of what P.W. Minor is doing. We’re really proud to be associated with them and what they’re doing to bring back American workers and American products."

With the passage of the new state budget, there is some relief for local charities looking to conduct raffles, according to Assemblyman Steve Hawley, but not all the reforms in the state gaming law that he would like to see.

Last year, many local charities, most particularly, volunteer fire departments, discovered their traditional fund-raising raffles were potentially in violation of state gaming laws, so most of the raffles were shut down.

Hawley introduced legislation aimed at making these charity raffles legal, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed the bill after it was passed by the Assembly and Senate.

This year, Cuomo included some reforms in his budget request and with passage of the budget, those reforms also passed.

The changes will allow charities to accept raffle payments by cash or check and to advertise the raffles on the Internet.

Charities will still be prohibited, however, from selling raffle tickets online.

"Those are the big changes and they will be somewhat helpful, but not (in) the place where I’d like to see it," Hawley said.

He is introducing legislation this session to try and get online ticket sales and credit card sales legal for charity raffles.

Interview with Assemblyman Steve Hawley conducted by our news partner, WBTA.

A large crew from National Grid is on Center Street today replacing a utility pole that has been leaning significantly since the windstorm last month. During the storm, power was out in the area and authorities closed Center Street and School Street.

The Town of Oakfield is 175 years old, and to celebrate yesterday evening, town officials dressed up in 1840s-era clothes for a special town board meeting.

The Town split off from Elba and became its own town on April 11, 1842 and by coincidence, the town board had a regularly scheduled meeting for April 11, 2017.

Resident Jay Wolcott, a sixth-generation Wolcott, an original founding family (bottom photo), shared some local history and Supervisor Carol Glor called the meeting to order with a recitation of the history of the formation of the first local governing body.

Highway Superintendent Alan Dennis talked a bit about why officials decided to hold this celebration.

"As a town board, we feel history and local history are important," he said.

Assemblyman Steve Hawley, below, presented the town with an official Assembly proclamation commemorating the anniversary.

Photo: Code Enforcement Officer Mark Mikolajczyk, left, Highway Superintendent Alan Dennis, Councilman Tim Kabel, Town Clerk Melissa Haacke, Supervisor Carol Glor, Councilman Jim Veazey, Councilman Kim Wolcott and Councilman Matt Martin.

An injury is reported in an accident involving a car hitting a tree in the area of 9662 Bethany Center Road, Bethany.

Bethany fire and Mercy EMS responding.

Press release:

The north end of River Street in the City of Batavia, Genesee County, will be temporarily closed between the West Main Street intersection and the Five Star Bank northerly driveway for one day to repair pavement from the winter utility work.

Work is planned to begin in the morning and complete by the end of the day. The work will be done either Tuesday 4/18 or Wednesday 4/19 or Thursday 4/20 depending on weather conditions.

A traffic detour will be posted on West Main Street, South Main Street, and Route 98. Access to Five Star Bank and the immediate residents within the work zone will be provided over the Tonawanda Creek bridge and other Five Star driveways.

Please call the contractor at (315) 521-1212 or 9-1-1 for an immediate emergency. For all other information, you may call (585)451-6538 during normal business hours.

Because she's an older woman in frail health, 61-year-old Dawn Piasta isn't going to jail, Judge Charles Zambito told the admitted drug dealer before sentencing her today to five years probation.

One tiny slip-up while on probation, Zambito told Piasta, and she's going to state prison.

"I want to impress on you that there is going to be no leeway for you," Zambito said.

Piasta said she understood, but she's already violated the terms, by her own admission, of her pre-sentencing release from jail once.  She told a probation officer preparing her pre-sentence report that she smoked marijuana in mid-March.

Normally, Zambito said, that alone, as a violation of her plea bargain, would at a minimum have meant a jail term. But since the Genesee County Jail isn't set up to house female inmates and it would be hard to place her in a neighboring county jail given her health conditions and age, his options were limited.

Piasta has admitted to criminal possession of a controlled substance, in the fifth degree, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, in the seventh degree.

She was arrested in November, accused of selling crack cocaine to an agent of the Local Drug Task Force.

Her defense attorney, Michael Locicero, lobbied for a probation-only sentence because of Piasta's age, health and the circumstances of the charges, which he attributed, at least in part, to intimidation by other people.

"She realizes the gravity and nature of what she got herself into and she's not asking to be absolved of her responsibility," Locicero said. "I ask the court to take these factors into consideration and give her a probation-only sentence."

That wasn't Zambito's plan, he said, before conferring with jail officials on the limitations of housing her for a few months. Given the issues in the community with drug abuse, he said, he thought some jail time would be more appropriate.

"I agree with the D.A.," Zambito said. "You violated the terms of your plea offer and the sentence for your felony conviction could be two-and-a-half years in state prison. I'm not going to do that. My inclination was shock probation (a term in jail followed by probation) even before the violation. I understand the possibility of intimidation, but you are the one who chose to open your home to drug users and drug dealers and start using drugs yourself."

Whether Sean Vickers, the convicted child molester, will get a new trial on charges related to several allegations he already faced in Genesee County, is still up in the air while the District Attorney's Office seeks to appeal a court ruling that threw out Vickers' conviction on some of the counts he faced locally.

Vickers is serving 20 years in state prison on his sex crime convictions in Niagara County, but some of the felony counts he was convicted on in Genesee County were dismissed after an appeals court ruled that his rights were violated because the prosecution amended the original grand jury indictments and tried him on counts other than those listed in the original indictments.

An attorney for Vickers, Benjamin Nelson, appeared in County Court this morning arguing that access to papers in the possession of the DA or local law enforcement should be preserved and discoverable by his client, should the case proceed. Nelson is also supportive of the prospect of all records related to Vickers' trial and conviction being sealed because the conviction was overturned.

Assistant District Attorney Shirley Gorman argued that because one local conviction was upheld, and the appeals court ruled that the DA's Office can seek a new indictment, and since the DA's office is seeking a chance to reargue its case before the Court of Appeals, therefore Vickers' case records should not be sealed.

She also argued that Vickers, because of the case he's already been through, already knows of, and has access to, all of the prosecution and law enforcement documents he could possibly get.

Nelson said he was merely seeking the court's acknowledgment that counsel representing Vickers in the future has a right to request documents that he may not presently have seen or know about. He has no current request for specific documents, he told Judge Charles Zambito.

Nelson also raised the possibility that Vickers could seek to bar the people from further prosecution on charges related to the prior indictment because of his rights to a speedy trial and his Constitutional protection against double jeopardy. 

But Gorman said the speedy trial issue wouldn't apply because any delay is the result of Vickers' appeal and not anything the prosecution did, and that by granting the people's right to re-prosecute and dismissing the prior counts without prejudice, there is no issue of double jeopardy.

Zambito said he will review the case and arguments and provide a ruling at a later date.

Press release:

The Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) today announced a new round of bids for site work at STAMP -- Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park -- have been released. A legal notice announcing the bids was published April 11.

The work will include: asbestos abatement and demolition of a former two-story residence at 6758 Alleghany Road; a former two-story residence at 6725 Crosby Road; a former one-story residence at 840 Crosby Road; and, two barns and removal of debris from a structure that was a former residence.

The bids will be unsealed and read at 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 20, at the Genesee County Economic Development Center, located at 99 Medtech Drive in Batavia. Bids also can be accessed by contacting Debbie Button-Vanderwall (585-402-7511) from Clark Patterson Lee, which is the engineering firm overseeing the bidding process.

“While we will not be conducting a pre-bid meeting; those interested in submitting a bid can arrange for a site visit to see the structures,” said Mark Masse, senior vice president of operations at the GCEDC. “It also should be noted that for this specific work the Project Labor Agreement will not be applicable.”

Thomas J. Coleman, 55, of Alfred Drive, Rochester, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .18 or greater, and speeding. Coleman was stopped by Le Roy PD after allegedly passing a patrol car at 47 mph in a 30-mph zone on West Main Street in the village at 9:44 p.m., Friday. Coleman allegedly failed to yield to the patrol vehicle's emergency lights and struck a curb prior to pulling over. Coleman was found to allegedly have a BAC of .18 or greater.

Nicholas T. Bowden, 21, of Le Roy, is charged with four counts of criminal possession of stolen property, 4th, and grand larceny, 4th. Bowden was arrested Monday by Le Roy PD. He allegedly possessed credit cards belonging to a relative and used the cards to make unauthorized withdrawals from an ATM machine of more than $1,000.

Every Tuesday, Troop A, State Police, put out a press release on an unsolved crime, a cold case. Today's release is about a Cheektowaga woman whose body was found in Darien:

Cold Case Tuesday: The New York State Police in Batavia continue to investigate the 39-year-old murder of Jessica Rose Lane.
  
On Nov. 25, 1977, the partially decomposed body of Jessica Rose Lane, age 66, was found by two deer hunters in a wooded area off of Alley Road in the Town of Darien, Genesee County. The victim was found fully clothed with three fractured ribs, a fractured left elbow and a fractured skull, likely caused by stabbing.
 
Lane was last seen on Nov. 11, 1977, at Williamstown Apartments in Cheektowaga.
 
The exact location of the crime has yet to be determined. However, residents below the victim’s apartment claimed to have heard two “thumps” between the hours of 4 and 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 12, 1977.
 
Lane, who resided alone, was known to keep to herself and rarely had visitors. Suspects have been developed but no arrests have been made.
 
Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to contact Investigator Ron Wilson of the New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Batavia by calling 716-361-1585. Please refer to SJS # 3029541.

A Batavia woman is accused of threatening employees of a business on State Street Road with a knife after they found her in the building allegedly burglarizing the establishment.

Arrested was Ann Marie Capuano, 32, of Montclair Avenue, Batavia. 

She is charged with burglary, 3rd, menacing, 3rd, criminal trespass, 3rd, possession of burglary tools and criminal mischief, 4th.

The break-in was reported at 8 a.m., Saturday.  

When deputies responded, Capuano was located leaving the area on a bicycle on State Street Road. She was stopped for questioning.

Capuano was identified as the suspect.

According to the Sheriff's Office, she threatened staff of the business with a knife when they located her in the business and requested she remain at the business until the arrival of law enforcement.

She was jailed on $5,000 bail.

The incident was investigated by Investigator James Diehl, Deputy Chris Erion, Deputy Chad Cummings, Deputy Jenna Ferrando, with assistance from Batavia PD.

K-9 Destro helped locate evidence at the scene.

Press release:

The City has completed its curbside collection of limbs and branches from the March 8 windstorm. Any resident with limbs and branches are encouraged to bring them to the Yard Waste Station on Law Street, Monday thru Saturday, noon to 6 p.m.