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Genesee County Fair

News roundup: Runaway steer

By Philip Anselmo

Big breaking news on WBTA this morning! Dan Fischer is calling it a Bovine Bulletin. Yes, it's true. There's a 1,200-pound steer on the loose in Batavia, escaped from the Genesee County Fairgrounds yesterday. The "show steer" was last seen on Cedar Street around 9:00pm last night. If you see it — white with a tan face and a number 37 tattooed on its right hip — call the police.

News roundup: Changes at the Fair

By Philip Anselmo

What's going on in today's Daily News? Let's take a look...

A former Orleans County resident, who is considered a "person of interest" in the shooting death of Oakfield man William Fickel in 2005, was jailed in West Virginia a couple weeks ago. James M. Nichols, 55, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for possessing firearms that he should not have had since he's a convicted felon. While the charges do not relate to the murder, they were discovered as a result of its investigation. Read the article by Scott DeSmit for the full details of Fickel's unsolved homicide and the $100,000 reward for information leading to a conviction.

Reporter Tom Rivers takes a look at some changes in store for the poorly attended Genesee County Fair. Fair organizers hope the changes will bring in more bodies. Genesee has had the second poorest attendance out of eight upstate counties over the past several years, second only to Livingston. Changes this year will include:

  • Charging admission by the carload rather than per person: $5.
  • Offering an "Everything Pass" for $12 that gets you admission, rides and events.

In addition to the typical fair events, folks should expect live music daily and fireworks Friday and Saturday. The fair opens Tuesday and runs through Sunday.

A public hearing in Oakfield tonight will be the first to get input into a potential merger of the courts in Oakfield, Elba and Batavia.

A story in today's local section about a Genesee Community College $4 million capital project was featured in the WBTA news roundup on The Batavian this morning.

God's Helping Hands and Project Hope are looking for more volunteers for another neighborhood cleanup that runs from 10:00am to 1:00pm Saturday on South Spruce, Prune and Jerome Streets. Call (585) 344-2997 to join up.

Nothing local in sports news today.

News Round Up: Village walks and no-hitters

By Howard B. Owens

So what's the bigger local story: That Federer-Nadal make a good tennis match, that CC Sabathia was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers, or that Tyler Pratt threw a no hitter to lead Batavia over LeRoy in the 11-12 Division of the District 3 youth baseball tournament?

Federer-Nadal dominate the sports page of today's Daily News (it's a wire story that was all over the Internet hours before the DN presses ran), and Sabathia gets a good 8 inches of copy with picture (and I bet if you follow baseball, you already knew all about the trade last night), while Pratt's heroic efforts gets two paragraphs.

If Tyler or his family reads this, or any of you know him ... The Batavian would be happy to post anything you have on the game (or you can post it yourself) ... pictures, video, a first-person account. Let us know ...

Batavia's next game is Friday at 6 p.m. against Oakfield, which beat Wayland 10-7.  If you're going, take a video camera and post a few shots to YouTube. We'll repost it here.

Before we move off the sports page, we learn that tabloids love A-Rod (hold the presses for that one), and the Muckdogs lost in Vermont to the Lake Monsters 3-2 when Blake Stouffer hit a walk-off home run.

On the front page of today's Daily News, Joanne Beck covers Walk The Villages. The 45-minute walk begins downtown Saturday at 6 p.m. It's a chance to get some exercise, meet some neighbors and learn a little bit about local history, culture and architecture.  Oh, and there might be a couple of ghosts encountered along the way.

The other front-page story of note, Scott DeSmit follows up on the parachuting death of Joseph Schickler.  Officials are looking at the rigging of his chute.  An autopsy revealed that Schickler had some heart problems, but it cannot be determined if that was a contributing factor to the accident.

And in the final item to include in our round up today, on A-5 eleven area girls who are competing for Fair Queen are profiled.

The are Katie Fales, Batavia High; Anastashia Spikes, Batavia; Elysia Summers, Corfu; Desiree King, Elba; Lauren Mullen, Byron-Bergen; Taylor Patterson, Pembroke; Damainique Bruce, Batavia; April Meier, Pembroke; and, Alyssa Hilderbrandt of Pavillion Central School.

As always, you can pick up a copy of today's Daily News at a local news stand (such as Main Street Coffee), or, better yet, subscribe on the DN web site at BataviaNews.com.

 

Summer is Here

By Beverly Mancuso
                                     Summer is here!  Now what?
Summer is here!  What does that mean? Not surprising, it means different things to each and every one of us.  One thing we all have in common is how to stay cool this summer, particularly as we all deal with rising energy costs.  Here are a few helpful hints:
  • Use compact fluorescent light bulbs - they produce less heat
  • Unplug and turnoff appliances that aren't being used - electronics give off more waste heat than you think
  • Keep drapes and shades closed - sunny windows can account for 40% of the heat in your home
  • Have ceiling fans? Make sure they are blowing down (moving counter clockwise)
For more tips on staying cool and saving money this summer visit www.getenergysmart.org/resources/tips/aspx or call 1-877-NY-SMART.
 
Another thing summer means is the Genesee County Fair - July 15, 2008 through July 19, 2008.    The fair is sponsored by the Genesee County Agriculture Society, a non-profit organization, made up of farmers, businesses, and concerned citizens, dedicated to preserving and promoting agriculture in an effort to enhance the quality of life in our community.
 
Did you know that agriculture is the number one industry in Genesee County?  We all eat!  We all need healthy, safe food to survive!  An interesting national statistic � 10% of the population is responsible for feeding 90% of the population. 

4-H is just one component of the Genesee County Fair.   Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County is the home for  4-H Youth Development.
 
The fair offers 4-H members the opportunity to showcase their year long learning outcomes. In each competition, youth are guided by judges skilled in the area, who offer feedback, encouragement, tips and advice. These hands-on experiences help youth improve skills, learn the importance of following rules carefully, gain confidence in interacting with judges and speaking with confidence about their project, all while handling the excitement and nerves that come from public presentations.  
 
There are many more things about summer that we all enjoy and look forward to.  As we experience summer, let us all travel safely, aware of the travel conditions around us, slow down, take our time, enjoy nature, be considerate of others, and make it the best summer possible.



Cornell Cooperative Extension - improving lives by connecting university resources
to community needs

Beverly L. Mancuso, Executive Director
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County
http://genesee.cce.cornell.edu
420 East Main Street, Batavia, NY   14020
Phone:      585-343-3040, Ext. 110   

 

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