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A police officer is being dispatched to Tops Market where a woman says she spotted a possibly rabid fox.

The caller said the fox came up to her car snarling and drooling at the mouth and looked very skinny.

The woman is staying on scene to point out the location of the fox.

UPDATE 11:28 p.m.: The police officer who responded reports that the animal is gone, but he's checking the area.

"I fought the law, and the law won."

Peter H. Scrooby is going to try and do what Bobby Fuller and The Clash said they couldn't do, fight the law and win.

Scrooby asked for a jury bench trial (the charge is not serious enough to warrant a jury trial) tonight in Darien Town Court on his disorderly conduct charge. Scrooby was arrested at the Kid Rock concert July 15. The Batavian featured him as one of three defendants arrested that night as part of a story about the Darien court on a concert night.

While the other two defendants featured in the story long ago accepted guilty pleas and have moved on, Scrooby isn't rolling over for the law.

The Rochester resident has retained Batavia attorney Thomas Burns, and Burns indicated his client doesn't think he did anything to warrant his arrest and the charge.

"It's very important to him," Burns said. "It's a matter of principle. Despite the fact that it's a minor charge, he's willing to invest the time and effort to let the truth be known as to what happened."

Scrooby's trial is set for Feb. 1 at 5:30 p.m. in Darien.

We are experimenting with an online survey for the County's 2009 Election. The survey will be up until Friday evening. We will publish the results over the weekend. Please read the instructions carefully.

NOTE:  Please follow the instructions. Do not vote in multiple jurisdictions.  I just deleted half of the first 12 survey responses because people voted in every race, or, more common, both contested Legislature races.  You can't vote in both District 7 and District 8.

var PDF_surveyID = '290AD911A70E920F'; var PDF_openText = 'View Survey';

Neighbors need to start talking with each other more, said City Manager Jason Molino during Monday night's City Council meeting.

Molino was giving the council an update on the work of the Neighborhood Improvement Committee, which previously brought forward programs for additional enforcement of yard clean up and property improvements.

There's a three-pronged approach to neighborhood improvement the city should pursue, Molino said:

• Compliance with property standards use and regulations
• Community Development Block Grants to help low-income property owners fix up and maintain their houses
• And community engagement.

Here's Molino's full comment from last night on the community aspect of neighborhood improvement:

We’ve had some preliminary talks about how we can also facilitate the possibility, facilitate neighbors getting out and communicating more with each other, whether through national night out types of events, where you’re getting neighborhoods, blocks, streets out so that they’re socializing and communicating with their neighbors.

A good question to ask is, "Do we know 50 percent of the neighbors around us?” If you don’t, why not?

Those types of things are really going to be the crux of improving what you want to improve in terms of neighborhoods. You want to get neighbors communicating with each other, creating a dependent neighborhood where people look out for each other, they communicate, they talk, because if you’ve got undesirables that want to relocate into the area, they’re not going to want to come to a neighborhood or a street where neighbors are looking out for each other, neighbors are talking, neighbors have good relationships with law enforcement in the city to be able to report problems. That’s going to deter them from coming to that neighborhood, if  they’re non-desirables, so to speak.

It’s going to help with a little bit more pride, a little more esprit de corps. People are going to want to talk with each other, to communicate, to bring a little more of that sense of community back.

We’ve seen a little bit of a down spiral, and I don’t think Batavia is uncommon. It’s like a lot of communities. People are not volunteering as much, people are not familiar with their neighborhoods anymore. I think we want to try and bring that back. The way we want to do that is working with some of the departments, getting into select neighborhoods -- each is going to be different -- getting the people on the streets communicating with each other and talking with each other. Those are the types of things that I think are really going to make a difference in the long term.

I told Jason after the meeting that his little speech sounded a lot like something I might say on The Batavian. So many community problems can be solved just through a higher ratio of social connectedness. Communities with higher connectedness have less crime, better graduation rates, higher average income, less disparity between high- and low-income wage earners, better physical health, lower infant-mortality rates and lower teen-pregnancy rates. 

I recommended to Jason a book you've seen me mention before: Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam. Putnam's work (Putnam is a sociologist) pretty much backs up everything Molino said.

More chatter about trash in council chambers last night.

The city continues to wrestle with garbage. Who should pay for its removal and how much?

City Manager Jason Molino, responding to a council request a few weeks ago, presented a report on what 11 other municipalities do, ranging from no garbage pick up to pay-per-bag formulas.

In the end, the council decided, more or less, to have Molino come back with more information. Molino said staff is working on presenting information on models like the one currently employed in Orleans County (per parcel) and a unit-by-unit fee model.

Council President Charlie Mallow asked what's wrong with the current system. Currently, the cost of garbage collection is wrapped into the city's property-tax rate and accounts for about 7 percent of the bill.

One concern, raised by Councilman Sam Barone and others, is that tax-exempt properties (possibly up to 24 percent of parcels in the city) aren't paying for garbage collection, though they benefit from the service.

"I’d like to expand it. I’d like to see leaves picked up," Mallow said. "It seems like a good service now, I don’t see why you would change it. If anything, I hear from elderly people who can’t get rid of their leaves and twigs now. They don’t have a car and have no way to get rid of it."

Mallow also pointed out that by including garbage collection as part of property taxes, the money can be deducted from the homeowner's Federal incomes taxes. Going to a fee-based system would end the tax deduction.

Councilwoman Marriane Clattenburg said she thought the payment method currently in use is fine, but asked Molino to look further into the new system in Auburn. It's like Batavia's, but that city recently added an opt-out/fee system for tax-exempt properties. In Auburn, nonprofits can opt-out of the service, but if they continue to use it, they must pay for it.

She said she was concerned about changes that might lead to higher garbage costs for lower-income families.

“It’s not just the $200,000 house, you also have to think about the million-dollar piece of property," Clattenburg said. "Now you cut their taxes 7 percent, where do you distribute that cost to? Back to the person that’s living in $50,000 house. So to me, that’s the problem with this kind of thing and that’s what I’d be looking at – how that adjusts and how it makes everyone’s cost go up.”

Molino will report back to the council with a narrowed list of alternatives at a future council meeting.

In the little town of Scituate, Rhode Island, everyone has primary health coverage -- even the people who can't afford health insurance.

No, Scituate hasn't become an experiment in some single-payer scheme. People in the town banded together and figured out how to make it happen.

The people of Scituate, Rhode Island did it themselves.

No, we don’t give away health insurance – that’s too darn expensive. Instead, we make sure everyone who lives here has primary care (which only costs $25 a month). By coupling together grants, and a little money from the town, and doing bake sales and walk-a-thons, something called the Scituate Health Alliance decided, 10 years ago that we could fix the health care system ourselves – or, more accurately, build one from scratch — by providing primary care medical for everyone in town who doesn’t have insurance. (We also do flu shots for anyone in town who wants one and organize prenatal classes for anyone who is pregnant.)

While the effort isn't without taxpayer support (read, grants and money from the town), it does show how a community can come together to provide a service.

Fire Chief Ralph Hyde will get his light-rescue vehicle, and it's the one he's requested during at least three City Council meetings now.

After a 20-minute discussion at last night's council meeting, the council sort of collectively shrugged and said, "go ahead."

At the end of the discussion, after saying Hyde has "our blessing," Council President Charlie Mallow motioned his hands like a priest, which drew a laugh.

Hyde has sought permission to convert one of the former ambulances -- the newest one, bought within the past year with a state grant -- into a vehicle that could carry additional rescue equipment that doesn't fit on either Ladder 15 or Engine 12.

Council members dithered, asking him to justify the need for the ambulance as a rescue vehicle. Then they asked him to research the option of selling the ambulance and purchasing a new truck, since the ambulance already has 50,000 miles on it.

Hyde's report Monday night put the cost at a new vehicle at between $65,000 and $189,000.

"It would take a $1,000 to convert it, so it’s far cheaper than going out and getting a new vehicle," Hyde said. "And It’s something that we’ve needed for many years."

Previously, Hyde's argument for the ambulance didn't include using some space inside the vehicle to give people displaced from their homes by fire a place to stay warm.

"In the past, we've had people have to wait outside for 30 minutes to an hour, and had to send firefighters in to retrieve shoes and jackets," Hyde said.

The table and benches inside could also serve as a convenient place to interview fire witnesses.

Councilman Bob Bialkowski complained that he thought the purpose of getting rid of the ambulance service was to save money and he expected all six of the city's ambulances to be sold. Mallow pointed out that previously, the council resolution only authorized the sale of the five older ambulances.

A vote was not required on the decision to convert the ambulance into a light-rescue vehicle since the city owns it and it's already assigned to the Fire Department.

Kyle Christopher Monroe, 20, of 4036 W. Main St. Road, Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of stolen property in the 4th degree and criminal possession of stolen property in the 5th degree. Deputy Sanfratello stopped Monroe for allegedly operating his car without headlights on Route 63 in front of Tops Market at 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 24. The vehicle was a 1997 Dodge Caravan, which had been reported stolen in the City of Batavia on Oct. 21. The license plates were reportedly stolen from another vehicle parked at GCC on Oct. 22. Monroe was jailed on $5,000 bail. He was also charged with unlicensed operation, switched plates, unregistered motor vehicle, uninspected motor vehicle and operating without insurance.

Matthew Ryan Smith, 18, of 1705 Lewiston Road, Alabama, is charged with unlawful dealing with a child. Smith is accused of hosting an underage drinking party on Oct. 12 at his residence. He was arrested at 12:04 a.m. today.

A 16-year-old from Byron has been charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. She was arrested after a K-9 alert on her car while it was on Byron-Bergen High School property during a narcotic sniff sweep of the western parking lot. The arrest was made by K-9 Deputy Brian Thompson.

The Batavian was essentially off line from about 8:30  to 9:15 a.m.

Our hosting provider was the target of a "denial of service" attack. A DOS is the result of some malevolent person(s) sending a large amount of random data to a server, preventing legitimate traffic from accessing that server. 

The Batavian is part of a shared hosting environment, so any site in that environment could have been the target of that attack.

Our provider worked quickly to block the attack and return service back to normal. We haven't received official confirmation from the provider that everything is OK, but the site seems to be operating fine at the moment. Hopefully, this attack will cause no further problems.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Delavan's Restaurant and Tavern, 107 Evans St., Batavia, NY: To me, Delavan's is one of those restaurants where you want to eat frequently until you try everything on the menu. We have a $20 gift certificate for $10.

Adam Miller Toy & Bicycles, 8 Center St., Batavia, NY: Feel like a kid in a toy store again, or treat your kids to the greatest toy store they will ever see. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

Great Kutz, in the Valu Plaza, 4152 W. Main St. Road, Batavia, NY: Great Kutz is Batavia's newest full-service hair salon. Women, try Great Kutz for a haircut at the incredibly low price of $7, exclusive offer from to The Batavian. (gift card can be applied toward other services, but not products).

T.F. Brown's, at 214 E. Main St., Batavia, NY: T.F. Brown's is a great place for a good meal, good friends and to catch up on what's going on in the sports world. "If it happens in sports, it happens at Brown's." We have a $20 gift card for $10.

Main St. Pizza Company, 206 E. Main St., Batavia, NY: Pizza, wings, subs and even hamburgers and hot dogs, Main St. Pizza makes everything deliciously. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

Kravings, Valu Plaza, W. Main Street, Batavia, NY: Recently opened, it offers soups, salads and sandwiches, fresh and flavorful; Monday through Saturday. We have $10 gift certificates for $5.

Center Street Smoke House, 20 Center St., Batavia, NY: Authentic Southern BBQ, from ribs to brisket with all the fixin's. We have a $25 gift card for $12.50.

NOTE: If you've never bought Deal of the Day before, or are otherwise unfamiliar with the rules and process, click here.

SOLD OUT

Paul Ryan Tenney, 39, who admitted to embezzling more than $106,000 from his employer, Elcon, Inc., will avoid jail time for a bit longer.

Judge Robert Noonan postponed Tenney's sentencing, scheduled for this morning, at the request of Tenney's attorney Gary Horton because of inaccuracies in Tenney's pre-sentencing report.

Tenney is currently out of jail on released supervision, but he allegedly has violated the terms of his release and Noonan was inclined to put Tenney back in jail today. The owner of Elcon, however, asked that Tenney not be locked up just yet.

Edmend Leising says Tenney is currently the only person who knows how the computerized accounting system works. Right now, Leising said, he can't even bill customers without Tenney's help.

"I've taken a lot of grief for keeping Ryan around since we found out about the theft, but only Ryan knows how to run it," Leising told court.

Noonan is allowing Tenney to stay out of jail to help Leising learn the computer system, but there won't be any leeway for Tenney to do much else.

"We'll briefly adjourn sentencing for that purpose, but if the defendant isn’t making a good effort in that regard, or he violates any other terms of his ROS, a warrant will be issued for his arrest," Noonan said.

Tenney promised to follow through and help Leising immediately.

Leising had asked to address the court prior to Tenney's sentencing. He said the theft did a lot of damage to his business and Elcon is barely hanging on.

He said he had to raise $70,000 to keep the business afloat, from taking money from his retirement account, to taking out a second mortgage on his house and borrowing $14,000 from his mother-in-law.

"Elcon is in horrible shape right now -- the only reason we’re still in business is because I’m not bright enough to pull the plug," Leising said. "It's the only thing I know how to do."

Tenney reportedly has failed to keep appointments for interviews with Genesee Justice and has allegedly not secured a substance-abuse evaluation.

Leising told Noonan that he was surprised to learn that Tenney wasn't keeping his appointments, and hopes Tenney gets the drug treatment he needs.

"I know he has a drug problem, so it's important he's tested on regular basis," Leising said. "If that problem isn’t solved with this guy, nothing will ever be solved. He’ll be a burden on humanity forever."

Tenney was arrested in early June for reportedly forging checks and falsifying business records.

An exhaust-system alarm is sounding on the sixth floor of the Jerome Center, 16 Bank St. and City Fire is responding.

Engine 12 and Ladder 15 are on scene.

An eight-point buck dropped dead in the parking lot of Jackson Street this morning.

I was in court and didn't hear the scanner (or see it), but Dan Fischer of WBTA said he was sitting in his studio when he saw a deer trot past Main & Center. 

The buck headed west, turned left on Jackson and then collapsed.

Apparently, it had been struck by a car previously.

It was one of two deer spotted in the city this morning.

Fisher said a hunter came by, tagged it and hauled the buck away.

A bull is loose in Byron. Reportedly, two people have been injured. Ambulances have been dispatched and Mercy Flight is on stand by. We don't have an exact location yet.

UPDATE (10:19 a.m.): A landing zone is being set up for Mercy Flight at 6369 Cole Road. That's between Byron Holley and Mud City roads.

A man is reported to be injured with a head laceration and broken ribs. He is conscious and alert.

UPDATE (10:29 a.m.)(Billie Owens): Mercy Flight out of Batavia has landed at the southwest corner of the property.

UPDATE (10:37 a.m.)(Billie Owens): One man is being taken via Mercy Flight to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. Another is being taken there in an ambulance.

The landowner is reported to have given the men permission to enter the property to cut wood prior to the accident. There were 15 to 20 cows grazing at the time, but the landowner did not know a bull was in there, too.

UPDATE (10:50 a.m.)(Howard Owens): Contrary to the initial reports, the bull did not escape. He stayed within his fenced field throughout the incident.

Kravings, Valu Plaza, W. Main Street, Batavia, NY: Recently opened, it offers soups, salads and sandwiches, fresh and flavorful; Monday through Saturday. We have $10 gift certificates for $5.

Center Street Smoke House, 20 Center St., Batavia, NY: Authentic Southern BBQ, from ribs to brisket with all the fixin's. We have a $25 gift card for $12.50.

Alex's Place, 8322 Park Road, Batavia, NY: People come from all over the region for a fine dining experience at Alex's. It's best known for its ribs, of course, but Alex's seafood is also a favorite of the restaurant's diners. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

Adam Miller Toy & Bicycles, 8 Center St., Batavia, NY: Feel like a kid in a toy store again, or treat your kids to the greatest toy store they will ever see. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

Matty's Pizzeria, 4152 W. Main St., Batavia, NY: Matty's is another Batavia favorite for pizza and wings. We have a $20 gift certificate for $10.

Delavan's Restaurant and Tavern, 107 Evans St., Batavia, NY: To me, Delavan's is one of those restaurants where you want to eat frequently until you try everything on the menu. We have a $20 gift certificate for $10.

Great Kutz, in the Valu Plaza, 4152 W. Main St. Road, Batavia, NY: Men, enjoy a $5 haircut again with this offer exclusive to The Batavian. (gift card can be applied toward other services, but not products).

Clor's Meat Market, 4169 W. Main St. Road, Batavia, NY: For the best, most flavorful, juiciest chicken or hamburger in town, hands down, stop by Clor's. Oh, and the steaks are great, too. And the sausage. Clor's also serves lunch and dinners from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. We have a $15 gift card for $7.50.

O'Lacy's Irish Pub, 5 School St. Batavia, NY: In Irish pubs, it doesn't get more authentic than O'Lacy's. Be sure to try the homemade chips. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50.

Carlson's Studio, 39 Jackson St., Batavia, NY: Family photos are more than just photographs. When you need photos for that special occasion, Carlson's is a great choice in Genesee County. We have a $100 gift card for $50 ($2 PayPal service fee).

NOTE: If you've never bought Deal of the Day before, or are otherwise unfamiliar with the rules and process, click here.

SOLD OUT

You see Pauly Berardini everyplace. His face is on the side of his ubiquitous delivery cars, on the outfield wall at Dwyer Stadium and various youth sports facilities around town.

It’s been that way in Batavia for five years now.

It’s an audacious bit of promotion, but when Berardini and his partner Dave Stupp decided to open up a pizza joint, they knew they would need strong marketing to stand out in a very competitive town for pizzerias.

“I thought about that (the competitive environment),” Berardini said while slathering tomato sauce on a pepperoni pie destined for a youth sporting event. “I thought about the demographic. I just decided to use my face, my talent and go from there.”

He's done other things with his life – from baking to selling cars – but to hear him talk, it’s clear: 40-year-old Pauly Berardini was destined to be a pizza man.

“I went to food service at BOCES and I learned how to frost cakes and make pancakes,” Berardini said. “That wasn’t exciting to me. Ever since I was a little boy, just watching that guy throw a pizza in the air – you know, like a kid wants to be a fireman, he sees the fire trucks, I saw a couple of gentlemen who ended up being good friends of mine kind of teaching me the business, and I just decided it was something I wanted to do.”

Pauly was inspired by the pizza men he saw at the legendary Gino’s Pizza. Gino’s was a mainstay at 102 Liberty St. through the 1960s and 1970s. Then the location became Ficarella’s, where Pauly worked for seven years. And that was the location Pauly chose for his own pizzeria when he and Stupp opened for business Oct. 24, 2004.

By all accounts, the original Pauly’s was a successful, growing company, and then tragedy struck – the kind of turn of events that has put many people out of business – fire.

An early morning blaze on March 21, 2007 destroyed Pauly’s on Liberty. The cause of the fire was never determined, but it meant that three businesses lost their locations. The old place -- behind the former Mother’s Chicken ‘n’ Fish building  -- is now a parking lot. 

Apparently, the two other businesses in that building – Room for Dessert Cafe and Batavia Framing and Design – never reopened.

Berardini and Stupp weren’t going to be kept down, though. Eighty-eight days later, the doors opened at 314 Ellicott St., and this time Pauly's featured seating and a waitress, a level of service the partners had wanted to add all along.

“I had a lot of phone calls and messages that were left on my answering machine from customers and friends encouraging me to get going again,” Pauly said. “Yeah, it was traumatic at first, but when one door closes, another one opens.

"Now we have a great sit-down place here and the parking on the weekends is great. (People can) bring the family, have a party – we have a party of 20 today – sit down is the key.”

Pauly was excited Saturday morning -- not just to be celebrating five years in business – he and Stupp had just received word that they’ve been approved for a beer and wine license and will start serving them within a week.

“Now you can come and enjoy pizza or pasta with beer or wine, and that’s always a plus,” Berardini said.

Interesting post from David G. Markham on the GCASA Cares blog.

We've seen comments before from readers on The Batavian that suggest that the criminal justice system is in cahoots with GCASA just to funnel substance abusers into the program to subsidize GCASA's payroll, at taxpayer expense, of course.

Markham's post suggests that there is a different attitude at GCASA.

It has been impressed on me once again that self destructive behavior should not be equated with criminal behavior. Most of the clients I evaluated were sent by the criminal justice system or other governmental bodies such as the Department of Social Services, the Department of Motor Vehicles, Probation, the courts, etc. The health care system for substance abuse disorders has been captured by government to coerce behaviors which government has determined is in its own best interest and not necessarily in the individual's. What Michel Foucault calls "governmentality" increasingly deprives individuals from their freedom. There is a fine line between whether agencies like GCASA are health care agencies whose mission is to help individuals improve their health or coercive agents of social control. It looks to me like 75% of GCASA's services are designed to exert social control and the client's right to self determination is marginalized if respected at all.

Markham has recently had to put more time into the Albion office because of the recent departure of three counselors. He's been buried in government-mandated paperwork that he says has nothing to do with ensuring good outcomes for patients.

Regulatory agencies have no viable means of measuring beneficial treatment and good outcomes, so they rely on compliance with paperwork completion as a proxy. This is a false assumption, and a dangerous way of evaluating quality care.

It sounds like something is broken in the system.

For further reading, and it's not light reading, here's the Wikipedia entry on governmentality.