The Genesee County and Batavia youth bureaus hosted their annual Safe Summer Children’s Carnival at David M. McCarthy Ice Arena on Thursday.
The event featured entertainment and games that helped introduce the children to safety concepts. Officers from Batavia PD along with City firefighters were on hand. Multiple other local agencies also participated.
Photos by Howard Owens
Local artist Michelle Cryer is painting new murals on the fence at the south end of Oliver's Candies' parking lot.
Each mural is a reinterpretation of a classic work of art.
"The idea is to take famous works of art and change the focus of the piece to be products from Oliver's," Cryer said. "So 'Jelly Belly Night' -- that's Vincent Van Gogh's "The Starry Night." This is Picasso's "Child with a Dog" and I'm painting "Child with a Sundae."
Among the other artists to be featured are Banksy, Frida Kahlo, and Keith Haring.
"This next one is going to be Palmer Hayden's "Dreamer," Cryer said. "He's an African American artist. Instead of 'Dreamer' it's gonna be 'Sweet Dreamer,' and it's going to have candy in the stream bubble."
The murals will also be educational, Cryer said. She's going to add QR codes so people can pull up links to the original works of art and learn more about the painting and the artist.
More than 75 volunteers from City Church were on Watson Street in Batavia on Tuesday morning cleaning up the street and the yards of residents -- doing whatever they could to improve the upkeep of the yards, the street, and the sidewalk.
The visit was part of a ministry called Eight Days of Hope.
A lot of times, noted Ryan Macdonald, a pastor at City Church, people who don't make a lot of money find it a lot harder to do the simple things to maintain their property, and Eight Days of Hope offers assistance without any judgment.
"As an example of what we're speaking about -- trash bags," Macdonald said. "Trash bags aren't cheap any more. And so if you can't afford to buy a pack of trash bags that puts you in a tough spot with trash, and so what we've been working on today is some cleanup, some pickup, and not pointing a finger. Just helping."
Eight Days of Hope just finished a project in Buffalo, where the organization, which works nationally, helped more than 1,000 people.
"Their mission is to help people, to love on people, to bless people," Macdonald said. "They care for people. They care for the nation. They care for neighborhoods that need a little extra help, and they just want to bless people."
Top photo: Ryan Macdonald. Photos by Howard Owens.
In an email to The Batavian, Sheron confirmed Sharpe's resignation but did not address a question about why he resigned.
"Search for his replacement will begin shortly," Sheron said. "There will be no interruption to dispatch services."
The Batavian did not attempt to contact Sharpe until after hours. This post will be updated with any response we receive.
Sharpe was instrumental in migrating the Emergency Dispatch Center to the Phase II P-25 TDMA system radio system installed by Harris RF in 2013.
In 2016, Sharpe, an Air Force veteran, was named PSAP (Public Safety Access Point) Finest Director of the Year award. The award was sponsored by emergency communications company NICE.
Every part of Upstate New York, including Genesee County, will benefit from his bill to spur development in computer chip and technology manufacturing, Sen. Charles Schumer said today during an online press conference with reporters from throughout New York.
Upstate has more shovel-ready business park sites than any other region in the nation, and WNY-STAMP is among those sites drawing interest from semiconductor manufacturers with the likely passage of this bill, Schumer said.
"There are a whole number of companies that were thinking of going overseas to Europe or to Asia, that with this bill have now said they're going to locate in the United States," Schumer said in response to a question from The Batavian. "We have some of the great sites including the STAMP site in Batavia and we're going to do everything we can to lure them. And remember, they depend on the Commerce Department to get some grants for this. These are large grants, and I am going to, as Majority Leader, I think, I'll have some say with the Commerce Department."
The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 creates $50 billion in funding designed to provide financial assistance to chip manufacturers and other technology companies to build factories in the United States.
The bill passed the Senate today and Schumer, who authored the bill and has doggedly pursued it for a long time, said it will easily pass in the House of Representatives.
Schumer pushed for passage, he said, because the U.S. must beat China in chip manufacturing and because he believes spurring innovative growth in high-tech will benefit all of New York, especially Upstate New York.
"I wrote this bill with the future of Upstate New York in mind," Schumer said. "The bill creates $50 billion in federal incentives to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the US. And guess what place in America is most suited to get these plants? Upstate New York. There are places in Albany and Syracuse and Western New York that have shovel-ready sites that the big tech companies are already looking at for new chip fabs."
So far, China has been winning the chip manufacturing war, Schumer said. He wants to shift the momentum back to the United States.
"It's time to build our future in Syracuse, not Shanghai; in Buffalo, not Beijing," he said.
He said the odds are high that semiconductor manufacturers are going to look to Upstate New York for their new plants, which will employ thousands of people in high-paying jobs.
"We're gonna go all out and we're going to beat China," Schumer said.
WNY STAMP, located in Alabama near the intersection of Route 77 and Judge Road, is more than 1,100 acres set aside for advanced manufacturing. GCEDC has been pursuing tenants for the park for more than a decade, and after coming close with 1366 Technologies in 2015 (a project that failed, according to sources, because of then Rep. Chris Collins' unwillingness to support it), the IDA succeeded last year when Plug Power agreed to make a $232.7 million investment to build a new hydrogen fuel plant at the site.
Steve Hyde, president and CEO of GCEDC, said the agency is pleased with the passage of the bill.
"Senate Majority Leader Schumer has long-championed upstate New York as the ideal region for critical growth of the domestic semiconductor manufacturing and R&D investments due to our university research and talent, our established and ever-growing semiconductor supply chain, along with our considerable capacity of renewable, reliable, and competitively priced electricity," Hyde said in a statement. "We applaud Senator Schumer for his leadership, and stewardship in getting Congress to pass the Chips and Science Bill, which will be the catalyst to growing the high-tech economy at the Western New York Science & Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) and all across upstate New York."
For all prior coverage of WNY Stamp, click here.
For a press release from Sen. Charles Schumer with more details about the bill, click here.
UPDATE: The Hill is reporting that because of a deal between Sen. Joe Manchin and Sen. Charles Schumer on a reconciliation bill, Republican members of the House of Representatives will now, as of Wednesday evening, oppose the CHIPS bill.
Top photo: Sen. Charles Schumer in a screenshot of today's press conference.
Aerial photo courtesy GCEDC showing Plug Power under construction and the WNY STAMP acreage.
Potatoes in the foreground off Route 5 in Pembroke being irrigated while the sunsets yesterday.
Photos by Joanne Meiser.
Raymond Stanley, Jr., 46, of Trigon Park, Le Roy, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .18 or greater, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, and leaving the scene of a property damage accident. Stanley was allegedly involved in a hit-and-run accident reported at 10:04 p.m. July 23, at 71 Wolcott St., Le Roy. Stanley was arrested by Emmalee Stawicki. He was released on traffic tickets.
Benjamin Rachow, 39, of Gilbert Street, Le Roy, is charged with harassment 2nd. Rachow was arrested by Le Roy PD Officer Emmalee Stawicki at Strong Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for an injury sustained in an alleged incident reported at 1:40 p.m. July 22, on Gilbert Street, Le Roy. He was arraigned in Town of Le Roy Court and released on his own recognizance. A stay-away order of protection was issued.
Jeffrey Ellinwood, 63, of Genesee Street, Le Roy, is charged with harassment 2nd. Ellinwood is accused of continuing to contact a person on July 24 after being told to cease all communications with the individual. He was arrested by Officer Curtis Miller. He was arraigned in Town of Le Roy Court and released on his own recognizance. An order of protection was issued.
Name redacted upon request, 29, of Dewey Avenue, Batavia, is charged with petit larceny. xxxx is accused of shoplifting $76.84 in merchandise from a store on Veterans Memorial Drive, Batavia. xxxx was processed at the Genesee County Jail and released.
James Robert Cooper, 39, of Buell Street, Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument 1st. Cooper is accused of passing a fraudulent $20 bill at a location at Harrington's Produce on Clinton Street Road, Batavia, at 12:29 p.m. Dec. 27. He was arrested on July 22. He was arraigned in Town of Batavia Court and released on his own recognizance.
Shannon Lee Guiste, 51, of West Main Street, Batavia, is charged with burglary 3rd and petit larceny. Guiste is accused of skip-scanning items at Walmart at 4:21 p.m. July 21. In 2015, Guiste was reportedly banned from entering Walmart. Guiste was arraigned in Town of Batavia Court and released.
Eric Charles Dockstader, 37, no address provided, is charged with strangulation 2nd. Dockstader was allegedly involved in a disturbance at 4:55 a.m. July 24 at a location on Council House Road, Alabama. He was arraigned in Town of Alabama Court and released under supervision.
Antionette A. Pierre, 24, of Nassau Bahamas, is charged with petit larceny. Piere is accused of stealing in the Town of Batavia at 2:27 p.m., July 23. She was arrested by State Police and released on an appearance ticket. No further information was released.
Joshua D. Quaintance, 33, of Byron, is charged with criminal trespass. Quaintance was arrested by State Police in connection with an incident reported at noon July 17 in the Town of Bergen. No further details released.
At 2.8 percent, Genesee County's unemployment rate has remained at historically low levels.
June was the third straight month this year when the county's unemployment rate was below 3.0 percent and the fourth time since November 2021.
A year ago, the June rate was 4.4 percent, and in 2020, it was 8.3 percent.
The state's Labor Department reports that there are 29,800 people employed in the county, 900 registered as unemployed and a total labor force of 30,700 individuals.
A year ago, the total labor force was 29,400, and it was 29,500 in 2020.
The state's unemployment rate is 4.4 percent, down from 7.5 percent a year ago, according to the DOL. The nation's is 3.8 percent, down from 6.1 percent.
Storm clouds over Pembroke about an hour before sunset.
Photo by Patricia Morgan.
Joanne Meiser took this sunset picture from Indian Falls Cemetery looking across to the WNY National Cemetery.
With construction season in full swing, progress on the Ellicott Station development is more visible.
Crews have begun framing apartments in the four-story complex that is part of the $25 million project.
Besides the apartments, other buildings on the property -- a combination of the former Della Penna building and the Santy Tire location -- will include office space and a restaurant/brewery.
The four-story apartment building will contain 55 units, including 52 with balconies, and nine units meeting Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. There will be 37 garage parking spaces and 44 surface parking spaces, a laundry room, an elevator, a community room, bicycle storage, and an enclosed ADA playground.
The developer is Savarino Companies, a firm in Buffalo that specializes in rehabilitating brownfield properties and old industrial buildings.
The apartments are expected to house workforce residents with $30,000 to $40,000 in annual earnings.
Photo by Mike Pettinella.
One person was killed and another seriously injured when a motorcycle struck a deer at 8:16 p.m. Sunday on Cockram Road, Byron.
Daylin Fagundo-Rodriguez, 28, of Byron, was pronounced dead at the scene, and Leland L. Fuller IV, 30, of Byron, was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital with life-threatening injuries.
According to State Police, Fuller was driving a 1998 Harley Davidson eastbound on Cockram Road, with Fagundo-Rodriguez as a passenger, when a deer entered the roadway and was struck by the motorcycle.
Both occupants were ejected.
The deer was also killed by the collision.
The New York State Police Collision Reconstruction Unit is investigating, and this is an ongoing investigation.
Photos by Alecia Kaus/Video News Service.
Photos by Philip Casper
Local business owner Brandon Lewis was at a campaign rally today live streaming governor candidate Lee Zeldin's speech, when a man grabbed Zeldin and apparently attacked him during the event in Fairport.
In another post on social media, Lewis characterized the attack as an "assassination," but in an interview with The Batavian he said that post was kind of "heat of the moment." He doesn't know for sure that the person intended to kill Zeldin.
Lewis, who owns The Firing Pin in Bergen, said that at one point, after the man was wrestled to the ground, somebody yelled "He has a knife. He has a knife." But Lewis said he never saw a knife.
The man yelled at Zeldin before grabbing him, claiming "You're done, Lee. You're done, Lee." Lewis said the man sounded drunk.
"It seemed when he grabbed him he wasn't letting go," Lewis said. "He wasn't going in for a hug, let's put it that way. He didn't have good intentions."
Shortly after the attack, somebody asked for a first-aid kit, and Lewis went to his truck to retrieve his kit. He shot the picture above when he returned a minute or so later, he said. He said the first-aid kit was apparently to assist Alison Esposito, Zeldin's running mate, for her scraped knuckles from the incident.
Top Photo: By Brandon Lewis of a man on the ground after a man apparently grabbed Lee Zeldin during a campaign rally in Fairport.
A lithium battery is the likely cause of a small fire in a hotel room at the Red Roof Inn on Park Road in Batavia, according to a release from the Town of Batavia Fire Department.
The town was dispatched on an alarm of fire at 9:30 p.m., Wednesday, and hotel staff confirmed a short time later that there was a fire in a guest room.
The hotel was evacuated.
The fire, contained to a small corner of the room, was put out with an extinguisher and the structure was ventilated. Guests were allowed to return to their rooms a short time later.
A hotel guest sustained a minor burn on a foot and was transported by Mercy EMS to an area hospital for treatment.
According to the Department, the cause of the fire was a lithium-ion battery from a remote control car that overheated while being charged.
The Sheriff's Office assisted at the scene.
Yesterday's sunset in Stafford.
Photo by Chris Crocker
Don Hoover, who grew up in North Tonawanda, took an interest in harness racing while attending Schenectady Union College near Saratoga Springs.
Before long, he was a horse owner and saw some success after college, so he quit his job at a bank so that he could train and drive his own horses. After a few years, he moved into management at harness tracks, then spent some time with his own horses again before being offered the job as live racing director and racing secretary in February at Batavia Downs.
Hoover said he's very pleased he received the job offer, and happy that he accepted it. Batavia Downs is a special place, he said.
"Since I left Saratoga, and before I came to Batavia, I had the opportunity to race at every single racetrack in New York State," Hoover said. "Quite honestly, Batavia has the best overall facility of any of the tracks in New York State. They've redone the clubhouse. The clubhouse is great. Some of the tracks don't even open their clubhouses any more. Actually, the majority of them don't, or their clubhouses are open on a very limited basis.
"The track surface here was always a place that I liked to come race. It's always in great shape. Just the overall ambiance of Batavia Downs from when you walk into the lobby downstairs, whether you're coming to play slots, or coming to get something to eat, or coming in to watch the races. I know it's cliche, 'the friendly track,' but it's actually true. You feel it right when you walk in."
A load that was so large, that when it came through the Village of Le Roy today Department of Transportation crews had to lift the traffic lights from the intersection of Lake Street and Main Street.
Photos by Mary Margaret Ripley.
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