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By Darrell Upright and the PCS Introduction Journalism Class

Tuesday night, Pavilion Central School hosted its first-ever full-district community event, “Eclipse Learning Night,” in preparation for the  April 8 total solar eclipse. 

Hosted nearly two weeks before the celestial occurrence, 400 students and their families mobbed the Middle-High school’s gymnasium, auditorium, and library and visited participating classrooms that sponsored eclipse-related activities.  All told, more than 600 people attended the event, held from 5 to 7:30 p.m. 

Planned by the science department staff and an ad hoc committee that started preparations in October, the event was a success for the school. 

“This exceeded expectations for attendance and involvement,” said Mr. Brian Mullin, English 12 teacher. 

Among the activities visited by students on Tuesday night were two presentations by Dr. Aaron Steinhauer, professor of Astronomy at SUNY Geneseo; the Star Lab, a portable planetarium in the school’s auditorium; readings by PCS staff of Colleen Onuffer’s “Genny Sees the Eclipse” (illustrated by Andy Reddout); the Middle-High School Book Fair; Trivia Night; concessions from Papa Roni’s and Yummie’s Ice Cream from Warsaw – who sold a special flavor created for the event, Gopher Galaxy;  and teacher-and-student-created presentations and displays to inform the public about the eclipse featuring work from students in grades Kindergarten to 12.

Students and family members also received eclipse glasses at the event. 

“We’re doing this prior to the eclipse for the community,” said Dr. Amanda Cook, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction, who planned the event with the Science Department and committee members. “From a safety standpoint, there was a concern that the public may not be familiar with” some of the dangers associated with a full solar eclipse: severe injury to the retina if viewers don’t use filtered glasses. 

“We want to share the significance of a very rare event,” she added. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.” 

Many of the students’ projects capitalized on the eclipse's importance.

According to “GeneSEE the Eclipse,” the Genesee County web page (https://visitgeneseeny.com/2024-eclipse) informing residents about it, the last full solar eclipse visible in our area was in 1925, and the next will take place in 2144.

Attendees were enthused by the event.  “I like science personally, so I like it so far.  It’s great for us (in the PCS district) because we don’t have to go anywhere” to learn about the eclipse, said 10th grader Jackson True while doing the PCS English Department’s “blackout poetry” exercise, one of numerous activities planned by school staff. 

According to the “GeneSEE the Eclipse” web page, the Monday, April 8th event will darken the sky in Genesee County, which is directly in the “path of totality.” People will experience 3 minutes and 42 seconds of full eclipse beginning at 3:19 p.m. and a partial eclipse for nearly two and a half hours. 

Photos by Darrell Upright

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Introduction to Journalism class at Pavilion Central Schools is taught by Michael Iten and is, as far as we know, the only Intro to Journalism class in Genesee County.

Of the reasons given to take some time and watch the upcoming total solar eclipse next month, Paul Piff, associate professor of psychological science at the University of California, offers one that has nothing to do with atmospheric science, nostalgia, community, commerce or capture the once-in-a-lifetime moment that it’s likely to be for so many folks in Genesee County and beyond.

Piff’s focus was on one magical word: awe and how that emotional experience can actually begin to transform a person’s outlook and treatment of the world.

“In the West, we find it’s predominantly brought about due to encounters that one has with nature or powerful natural phenomena such as the Eclipse. We define, or very broadly define it an emotion, or emotional experience that really arises out of two different, or the configuration of two different factors, as brought about by experience,” Piff said during an online panel presentation about the upcoming total solar eclipse. “It could be something you perceive or something you recognize in other ways, but when you experience or perceive something that's so fast, so complicated, so powerful, that it makes you feel like you need to reconfigure, readjust or update your mental schema, your understanding of the world, to accommodate the experience.

“And so, as kind of described by people, often as a mind-blowing experience of the people, they're just trying to describe that feeling of, well, I can't really make sense of, at least right now, the thing that I've just experienced, we find, as have others and other psychological laboratories across the globe, that all has a lot of really interesting effects on people,” he said. “Our experiences are described by people with some of the most meaningful in their lives, those individuals that experience improved health outcomes, greater or better well-being, they report more humble or somewhat insignificant views of the self. And we find somewhat interestingly, it seems to trigger more kind, compassionate, empathic behavior among people.” 

One of his studies situated participants in a towering growth of eucalyptus trees among the tallest and oldest stands of eucalyptus trees in North America. They spent either 60 seconds looking up at those tall trees, or with their backs to the trees; they looked up at a comparably tall, but far less awe-inspiring, big building. They were then approached by an experimenter who gave them a questionnaire to complete.

Scenarios were posed to them, such as “If I were on the Titanic, I would deserve to be on the first lifeboat,” and “we imagined how much participants wanted to be paid for their participation in the experiment,” he said. 

“And we measured their levels of ethical decision-making by giving them different moral decision-making scenarios … they would indicate what they would do in these ambiguous situations,” he said. “What we found… They reported less entitlements, so they felt less deserving of the things in life relative to others. They wanted to be paid about half as much for their participation in the study as the participants who looked up at the big building, so maybe all seems to bring about less materialism, and they made more ethical decisions.”

Does this relate to the total solar eclipse? They did a study on one of those too. In a paper published a couple of years ago from the 2000 solar eclipse, his team conducted a study on the social and psychological impacts of those who participated in some way. 

That eclipse had a path of totality that reached across North America, “and we had about 3 million participants in this across the studies in this paper, when we compared residents within the path of totality to residents outside the path of totality, looking at spontaneous shifts in how people talked about themselves and talked about their motivations towards one another surrounding their experience of the eclipse,” he said. “What we found is that individuals who resided within the path of totality, who experienced the Eclipse and its fullness and its, you might say, its full awesomeness, or its full power, exhibited more often. And as a result of that increased experience, they became less self-focused, less likely to talk about themselves, individuated or eccentric ways.”

Those participants used language that reflected a collective focus — we and us — and expressed more desire for affiliation to connect with others, he said. They became more pro-social, exhibiting tendencies to be kind and care for others.

“In broad strokes, what we're finding is that experiences that bring about all and most predominantly really powerful feeling experiences, like the solar eclipse, seem to attune people and connect us to one another, to connect us to entities that are ourselves,” Piff said. “And that's how the experience of all might have evolved. It's the conduit to things bigger than ourselves and motivates us to care for others.”

Will stopping to watch the eclipse change your life? Maybe not. But participating in an event that Shannon Schmoll said will not happen again until 2045 might just help rally friends, family, and co-workers together for a special moment.  

Schmoll is an expert on basic astronomy, naked-eye astronomy, eclipses, constellations and the night sky. She is director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University and has a doctorate in astronomy and science education. 

She spoke about the 2017 partial eclipse and how it offered all sorts of experiences, from good to bad. 

“It gets a little eerie and strange, and temperatures will change. And it is a really breathtaking sight,” she said. “On the not so good part do be prepared for traffic, there is going to be a lot of people who want to see this. And so I ended up stuck in traffic for about 13 and a half hours during the 2017 Eclipse. So just be prepared for that. But really, this is a wonderful, beautiful sight in order to see that corona. And so, if you can go to totality and are able to, we highly encourage it. And it is. The next time this will happen across a large portion of the United States like this is 2045. So it is definitely worth it if you can go see this.”

And the last bit, she said, there is a lot of science that can be done around the solar eclipse. One is studying the sun itself. And the Corona—that outermost atmosphere — is a really hot region of the sun. 

But we don't fully know why it's super hot. And we can't see the most lowest part of that corona very well most of the time, even with some of our spacecraft that we have. And so this is a great time to study this region of the sun at the base of the corona,” she said. “And also, right now, the sun is nearing its peak of solar maximum. It's this 11-year cycle with a lot more activity and sunspots happening, solar flares and prominences and solar storms, there's a lot going on, and it was near minimum during the last Eclipse. So we're heading towards maximum, which will hopefully give us a lot more to look at. And this is also a great time to study the earth and the effects of the sun on the earth in particular, the uppermost level of the atmosphere called the ionosphere.”

The total solar eclipse is set to arrive on April 8 in the afternoon, beginning at about 2 p.m. and ending around 4:30 p.m., depending on one's viewing location. For more information about the eclipse and a countdown and viewing time clock, go HERE. 

Press Release:

Join us at the Holland Land Office Museum for the next edition of our Trivia Night @ the Museum on Thursday, April 11 at 7 p.m. In honor of the birthday of J. Robert Oppenheimer, our topic will be the Manhattan Project. Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you would like to attend.

The Holland Land Office Museum is proud to announce the next edition of our Guest Speaker Series. On Thursday, April 18 at 7 p.m. we welcome avid bike rider and cycling historian Karen Lankeshofer, as she presents on Elsa Von Blumen, who first became a professional “race walker” in 1879 and was soon enticed to try high-wheel bicycle riding by bicycle manufacturer Albert Pope. She was a prominent figure on the bicycle-racing scene in the 1880s and competed throughout the Eastern United States ( including in Batavia). Admission is $5 or $3 for museum members. Please contact the museum at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com if you would like to attend. 

"This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by GO ART!"

The Holland Land Office is proud to announce the next edition of our Java with Joe E. On Thursday, April 25 at 9 a.m., Don Burkel will be presenting, “Who Was Philemon (Phil) Tracy & What Is He Doing Here?” With the use of personal letters and photographs, a PowerPoint program will provide an in-depth look into Philemon Tracy and his family. Philemon Tracy was a Major in the Confederate Army from Georgia who is buried in the Historic Batavia Cemetery. Admission is free with coffee and pastries.
Java with Joe E. is sponsored by Pub Hub Coffee for 2024.

During a recent City Council meeting, President Eugene Jankowski Jr. mused that perhaps city leaders didn’t do right by giving a pass to updated property assessments this past year. 

Well, no more of that. City Assessor Rhonda Saulsbury will be sending out updated property assessments beginning April 1, city management said in a press release on Tuesday. Instructions will be included on how to request an informal review and obtain forms, as well as where to obtain related information.

The release reminds property owners to review the full market value estimate found on the Change of Assessment Notification. If you do not agree with this estimate and can offer proof for a change, you can follow the process of filing a challenge, Saulsbury said. Informal reviews will be held during the month of April and appointments are required.

Since City Council just passed its $37 million budget with a two-cent property tax increase, The Batavian contacted city management to find out how and if this assessment will affect this year’s tax bill.

Assistant Manager Erik Fix said no because everything was done the year prior. So this assessment will be for the 2025-26 budget year, he said.

“This current year, we did not raise assessments; we didn't even do assessments unless it was a house that was sold or something like that, which is common practice,” Fix said. “But going forward, for next year, we are going to reassess the properties in the city. And then that will, in turn, provide us with the levy that we would have to use for the 2025-26 budget.  So what we based this year's budget on was last year's assessments for 2023, which we did not reassess properties last year.”

He reviewed one of the “lessons” taught during council’s budget sessions in  February, that typically, when one’s assessment — and the overall property assessments are higher — that the tax rate reflects that by being lower. 

“So typically, when there's an assessment that goes up, your rate will most likely to remain the same or go down, as history has shown,” he said. “I don't know what's going to happen this time. I have no idea what this affects or anything like that. I haven't looked at any of that. But there's a common denominator there of people who feel like every time their assessments go up, that they pay more in taxes, and that's not always the case.”

Often, property owners complain that when their assessments go up, even when the tax rate goes down slightly, the overall yearly expense goes up.

For example, if John’s home goes from $100,000 to being newly assessed at $130,0000, and the tax rate reflects an overall higher assessment by being decreased from $10 per $1,000 to $9.70, the yearly cost goes from $1,000 for his $100,000 home to $1,261 for the $130,000 home, even though the tax rate is now $9.70 per $1,000.

The city’s tax rate “hasn’t really changed that much,” Fix said, which is what management wants in order to keep things from changing dramatically for taxpayers, he said. 

“We try to stay at 100 percent equalization, that keeps our rate relatively stable as we go forward,” he said. “So you hopefully won’t see that situation where the more we’ve had the tax cut, and we’ve got to make it a 30 percent raise to get where we want to get to. That’s why we’re trying to be fiscally frugal and prudent and do right by the taxpayers to make sure that doesn’t happen with their city taxes.”

Housing rates increased the most right after COVID, he said, and he hasn’t seen “a massive increase in the market in the past 18 months.” As far as his own home, using a Zillow tool, “my home value hasn't changed in about a year,” he said. 

“I’m not the assessor; that would be a question for her, but from what I see, I haven't seen those massive fluctuations in the market that we saw the first couple of years out of COVID,” he said. “Partly because of the interest rates, I would guess. Because interest rates are so high that we're not having problems finding people who buy houses when they go to market. It's that nobody wants to put their house on the market because they don't want to pay that interest rate for whatever else they're buying. There’s not a large amount of stock out there right now.”

Information regarding property assessments, inventory data, and sale information will be available online beginning April 1 at https://cityofbatavia.prosgar.com. The City of Batavia strives to maintain a 100 percent equalization rate (sale price to assessment ratio), which means that we aim to keep our assessments at 100 percent full market value across all property types, the press release stated.

To accomplish this, we do regular re-evaluations and make adjustments accordingly during the assessment update project. Values can adjust due to both physical changes and/or market changes.

As part of this process, we run each property through our appraisal software system, comparing the building style, square footage, year built, bedrooms, baths, lot size, etc., against the recent sale data. We then do a field review to determine the fair full market value based on the aforementioned data.

Although we review each neighborhood within the City during each cycle, we only update values in those that have experienced an increase in market values. 

As sale values have continued to climb 12-14% +/- above current assessments, we must adjust assessed values in accordance with NYS Real Property Tax Law guidelines in regular cycles.

Grievance Day 2024 will be held on May 30 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Grievance Day is held in Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall, located at 1 Batavia City Centre.

The Grievance form, Informal Review form, sale & inventory data, and the Citywide new assessments to assist you in comparing property values can be found as of April 1 in the City Clerk’s Office, at the library, and on the City of Batavia’s website: https://www.batavianewyork.com/ (Departments/Assessment) as well as https://cityofbatavia.prosgar.com.

Eli Fish Brewing Company celebrated its sixth anniversary with a fun relay race, plenty of craft drinks and frozen fish this past weekend in downtown Batavia. The relay took runners around a block from Jackson Square onto School, Center and Jackson streets and back again to the Square, where a DJ was entertaining participants and spectators alike.

Billy Buckenmeyer's team won their heat in the event, and befitting of the Main Street establishment's name, real fish were used in place of the more traditional baton that passed from runner to runner for the relay. Each team received eight drink tokens and the winning team won a grand prize of four Mug Club memberships for the 2024 season.

Press Release:

Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), radon is responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year and approximately 2,900 of these deaths occur among people who have never smoked. 

“Radon is a colorless, odorless gas that seeps into your home through cracks in the foundation, walls, and joints. It can be found in well water and in dirt floors. Whether your home has a basement, sits on a slab, is brand-new or old, radon can build up and go undetected. Testing your home can prevent serious health risks” stated Darren Brodie, Environmental Health Director for Genesee and Orleans County Health Departments (GO Health).

According to the Lung Association’s State of Lung Cancer Report, an estimated 13.9% of New York radon test results equal or exceed the EPA Action level of 4 picocuries per liter of air (pCi/L). 

Nationally, 21.8% of homes are at or above the action level. Through New York State testing, Genesee County has been identified as having a high average indoor radon screening level greater than 4 pCi/L.

New York State does not require homes to undergo radon testing prior to being sold and awareness about the importance of radon testing among potential homeowners may be limited. 

As a result, it falls on the buyer to ask about the property’s radon test results as part of the sales contract or to request that a radon test be conducted if it has not been completed within the past two years.

Here are some things to consider when negotiating a home sales contract: 

• Who will conduct the radon test? 
• What type of test should be done?
• How will the results be shared?
• If mitigation is necessary, due to an elevated result, who will pay?

If the home has been tested for radon, find out from the seller, who conducted the test, where in the home the test was taken, and when the test was completed. 

If the home has a radon reduction system already installed, make sure you get all the information about the system from the seller before the final sale.

If you are building a home, be sure to discuss radon-resistant features and costs with your contractor. Your contractor has the opportunity to construct a radon-resistant home easily and economically. 

It is more cost-effective to install radon-resistant features while building a home than to install a radon-reduction system in an existing home.

For more information about radon, contact the Genesee County Health Department at 585-344-2580 x5555 or Health@co.genesee.ny.us.

Resources:

• Home Buyer’s and Seller’s Guide to Radon https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-05/documents/hmbuygud.pdf
• Radon and Real Estate Resources https://www.epa.gov/radon/radon-and-real-estate-resources
• Radon-Resistant New Construction for Home Buyers https://www.epa.gov/radon/radon-resistant-new-construction-home-buyers
• Central New York Coalition for Healthy Indoor Air http://www.cnyhealthyair.org/ 

Monday’s latest round of city school board budget discussions ended with a theoretical question for the group: If the state provides $300,000 more in Foundation Aid for the district, how do you want to spend it?

Choices included putting the money toward reserves to lower the amount being put toward the 2024-25 expenses, lowering the tax levy and related 2.26 percent property tax increase, or shuttling it toward personnel to hire more teachers.

As it is, a mental health grant and five additional full-time positions have been added to the budget to be effective July 1, and three bus routes that had previously been cut to save money were put back in, Business Administrator Andrew Lang said, because of feedback about how those changes would lengthen the time for students to be on a bus and that could result in behavioral and disciplinary issues.

Still, it seems as though the most vocal board members have eyes for more staff.

As has been the case during each budget talk so far, Vice President John Reigle made no bones about his stance. He previously shared his disappointment and concern about losing seven full-time equivalent grant-funded positions that were added with COVID-19 funds given to the district to assist with post-pandemic measures, five full-time positions that were reduced due to decreased enrollment, and four positions that were not replaced for retired or resigned teachers.

“I’m trying to save some of these positions or to refill some of the retirements or grant positions. It’s a hard pill to swallow to see all the losses,” Reigle said.

Board member Jenn Lendvay agreed with Reigle about where any extra state aid should go.

Board member Alice Benedict suggested a dual purpose, putting the money toward hiring staff and also some into the reserve fund.

Smith said that he didn’t want to “give you false hope … but there have been intense lobbying efforts” at the state level to loosen the purse strings in Albany and free up more funding for school districts.

“There's more negotiations to happen just as we're doing here in this session, same thing, same kind of stuff there,” he said.

He introduced David Lowery, Area 1 director of the New York State School Boards Association representing school boards in Genesee, Erie, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming counties. Lowery urged board members to appeal to their legislators before the budget is finalized.

NYSSBA’s talking points include to:

• Reject executive proposal to eliminate the state’s save harmless provision by cutting Foundation Aid for 337 school districts. Save Harmless stipulates that districts could not lose money if their estimated need declined.
• Reject executive proposal to amend the inflationary factor in the Foundation Aid formula.
• Support Legislative proposals to provide a minimum 3% Foundation Aid increase for all districts.
• Support legislative proposals to provide funding to the State Education Department to conduct a study on the Foundation Aid formula.
• Reject executive proposal to freeze the school aid database and cap aid payments.
• Reject executive proposal to permanently shift certain CSE special education costs from the state to school districts.
• Support executive and Legislative proposals to exclude certain external funds from the calculation of transportation aid for zero-emission bus purchases.
• Support legislative proposals to fund a full universal school meals program.
• Support legislative proposals to increase career and technical education funding through increases in the BOCES aidable salary cap and special services aid.
• Support executive proposal to remove “supplement, not supplant” language from pre-k funding.
• Support legislative proposals to increase funding for pre-k full-day and half-day programs.
• Support Senate proposal to increase investments in preschool special education programs and special act school districts.

Lang said that if the district were to receive a conservative estimate of $200,000 more in Foundation aid, putting that toward the fund balance would reduce the amount being used for the budget from $3.7 million to $3.5 million.

“That still, in my opinion, as a school business official, that's still an exceedingly high number of appropriated fund balance,” he said. “I would be cautious as to continually appropriate that amount of funding and relying on it to balance the district's budget with a 1 to 2%. You'd have to go back to that allowance of considerably less than one out of that fund balance of about $1.2 million.”

The board needs to focus on the expenses side of the budget, he said, and move towards a vote to adopt that on April 22. Reigle asked for a list of what types of positions had been cut and where they were located within the district, such as a social sciences teacher in the middle school, “just so we can kind of have an idea of where we're looking at what we're talking about,” he said.

The question was asked how reducing staff affects class size. Molly Corey, executive director of curriculum and instruction, said that tools are used to assess such dynamics, and although the state says there can be 28 kids in a class, “we’re really not making super large class sizes anywhere,” she said.

Jackson Primary between 18 to 24 kids, John Kennedy Intermediate has 20 to 24, and Batavia Middle School has 24 to 28. Smith added, “We’re really trying to concentrate on classes at the lower grade levels for obvious reasons.”

“I think this school district has done really well at keeping class size under 20,” Benedict said.

Lang had previously reviewed overall enrollment projections, which are expected to gradually decline. Numbers had dipped to 2,006 in 2021-22, and then rose back up to 2,031 in 2022-23, 2,072 in 2023-24, and then slipped back down to 2,047 in 2024-25, and are projected to fall to 2,034 in 2025-26 hover around there in 2026-27, fall again to 2,022 in 2027-28 and bounce back to 2,046 in 2028-29.

Reducing the staff was still “a big concern of mine,” Reigle said.

A $1.4 million mental health grant that Corey said her staff didn’t know it was receiving in August 2022 and still has access to will allow the district to add five more full-time positions. The same number of positions were reduced due to declining enrollment. They will be added on in July this year.

“We are pleased to say we can look at a couple new positions for next year,” Smith said. “A purpose of the grant is to expand our services,” he said.

About $286,000 has been spent so far, with $1.1 million remaining for the staff expense, Lang said.

As of Monday evening, the board is expected to vote on a proposed $60,373,861 budget during its meeting on April 22. That’s a 2.38 percent increase, or about $1.4 million more than this year’s budget. This plan would include a tax levy of $20,339,336 for a tax rate increase of 2.26 percent or 39 cents per $1,000 assessed value. That would be an extra $48.75 a year on a home assessed at $125,000.

A public presentation is set for 6 p.m. on May 14, to be followed by a budget vote on May 21.

Press Release:

The Genesee County Health Department is seeking information about the location of a dog and its owner(s) following a dog bite incident on Saturday, March 23, at 4:30 p.m.

The victim indicated that the dog came from the area of the railroad tracks to the corner of Route 19 and Rochester Street in Bergen, NY. The dog was described as small, gray, without a collar. It may have been a pit bull or a similar breed.

The health department is trying to avoid unnecessary medical treatment for the victim, so it is important to locate the dog to determine whether or not it is current on its rabies vaccination. If the vaccination status of the dog cannot be identified, post-exposure rabies shots will be recommended to the victim.

If you have information about the location of the dog and its owner(s), please contact the Genesee County Health Department at 585-344-2580, Ext. 5555.

Jasper Thomas found the Kiwanis Golden Easter Egg in Centennial Park on Monday, with a prize certificate in it for a chocolate Easter bunny from Oliver's Candies.

The Batavia Kiwanis Club is hiding a golden egg daily through Thursday. The ticket can be redeemed at the club's annual Easter Egg Hunt in Centennial Park at 9 a.m. sharp on Saturday.

Press Release:

In preparation for the upcoming 2024 Solar Eclipse, Genesee County Government will implement a temporary closure for all County Offices and non-emergency services, effective from noon on Monday, April 8 until 8:30 a.m. on April 9.

This decision reflects the county's proactive approach to eclipse readiness. By suspending county operations during the eclipse, the county aims to reduce traffic congestion, enhance public safety, and enable residents and visitors to partake in this extraordinary event. County offices will remain open in the morning on April 8th to accommodate residents who need to conduct business that day. 

"Ensuring the safety of our community is our top priority, and the closure of County Offices during the eclipse will contribute to ensuring a safe environment for all to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime event," stated County Manager Matt Landers.

To learn about the eclipse in Genesee County, visit: www.geneseetheeclipse.com For important safety information on the eclipse, visit: www.iloveny.com/events/eclipse-2024/safety/

Members of the Pavilion Volunteer Fire Department honored their own on Saturday at the fire hall with an awards and installation dinner.

Ken Weaver was named Firefighter of the Year. Dave Clor received the EMS Person of the Year award. Paul Daugherty received the President's Award.

Tom Garlock, Jason Everett, Chris Holley, and Don Roblee Jr. received a special EMS award for their effort to deliver a baby during a snowstorm in January. The baby was named Cinderella.

Matt Jacobs received the Lifetime Member Award.

Jerry Fitzsimmons was honored as a 50-year member for 2022, and Don Roblee and Ken Weaver were honored for 50 years in 2023.

The 2024 officers:

• Jason Everett, chief
• Bryen Murrock, 1st asst. chief
• Codey O'Neill, 2nd asst. chief
• Chris Holley, captain
• Kelly Murrock, captain
• Jason True, lieutenant
• Dewey Murrock, lieutenant
• Ken Weaver, fire police captain
• Dave Clor, safety officer

The Genesee Symphony Orchestra held its annual young artists' competition on Saturday at Batavia First Presbyterian Church.

On hand as judges were board members and Musical Director S. Shade Zajac. 

The winners will be announced prior to the 2024-25 season and be featured soloists in the winter concert.  There were a half-dozen entrants this year, including 14-year-old Tristan Zhang, pictured, from Pittsford, whom Howard Sounder accompanied.

The Easter Bunny visited Batavia First Presbyterian Church on Saturday.

Snow and cold moved the Easter egg hunt indoors. There were also games, face painting, refreshments, and a basket raffle. The event was also a fundraiser for the North Bergen Community Food Pantry.

Photos by Howard Owens.

A brush fire was called into dispatch in Le Roy, with the caller stating the fire was about 15 feet from a residence.

What the first responders from Le Roy Fire actually found: A metal fire ring with some wood smoldering it, surrounded by snow, about 75 feet from a structure.

Last week, in the wake of the death of Sgt. Thomas A. Sanfratello, the Oakfield Betterment Committee distributed blue lights to local businesses and Oakfield residents.

Betterment Committee President Jamie Lindsley stated:

The Oakfield community likes to support one of their own, as was evident ever since the line-of-duty loss of Sgt. Sanfratello, a member of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Department. Last week, caring citizen Kristen Porter decided to show support for Sgt. Sanfratello's daughter Alexis, who is a student at Oakfield-Alabama Central School, by lighting a blue light in honor of the fallen deputy. Another community member, Kate Engle, took this tribute to the entire community by engaging the assistance of Oakfield Betterment Committee members. Together, they contacted local Home Depots, Lowes, and other stores and arranged pickups and distributions to the entire Oakfield area and some surrounding communities. Joshua Schultz took it upon himself to drive all the way from Syracuse with a delivery of 50 blue light bulbs. A dozen bulbs were donated to illuminate all front windows of School House Manor in the middle of the village. In total, over 300 blue light bulbs were donated and handed out to the community, and each night, the night is brightly lit blue to honor our fallen deputy and show our support as a community for Alexis.

The committee shared these photos with The Batavian.

For prior coverage of Sgt. Sanfratello, click here.

Of the 235 representatives from various areas in the healthcare field at a four-county event, student Rylee Serusa-Herndon connected with someone in particular during her visit with BOCES Health Dimensions classmates to Genesee Community College Friday.

“I came to the GLOW With Your Hands field trip to be a neurosurgeon, I’m interested in that, and I came to kind of understand, to know what I have to do to be able to be that,” she said. “I did go to a booth, and one of the girls was actually a neurosurgeon, and she told me it is very difficult; you have to do a lot of schooling. But she said ‘you know, there’s not many girl neurosurgeons,’ and that kind helped me out. I definitely want to do it.”

Rylee was one of more than 500 students in grades eight through 12 from 31 schools in Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, and Wyoming counties. The event was to help connect interested students to a couple hundred representatives from 57 companies, municipal agencies, nonprofits, and educational institutions and further excite, educate, and empower them to seek success in the healthcare field of study after high school.

Educational providers and employers were on hand to demonstrate in the fields of emergency medical services, healthy living, healthcare, nursing, occupational and physical therapy, pharmacy, and the various sciences.

There were mannequins stationed so that students could get some CPR lessons, a physical therapy demonstration, and a virtual reality program to offer more high-tech ways to explore careers, “which is cool,” said Chris Suozzi, Vice President of Workforce Development for Genesee County Economic Development Center. 

“The whole reason that we do these events and career exploration in high school is so kids can really expand their horizons. It's so difficult for someone to really know what they want to do for a career. It's taken me 30-some years to figure out what I wanted to do … but for kids, the more they see the, the better. So they're seeing careers that they would never see in a classroom and in a textbook,” Suozzi said. “And then there's careers that they may look at and say, ‘Oh, I definitely don't want to do that.' And I know it's a good thing. But when you look at the opportunities for what are possibilities, it's almost endless here. 

“So, you know, when you hear about healthcare, you think a doctor or nurse, but then when you look here, there's a lot more than doctors and nurses,” he said. “There's all these technicians and EMTs, physical therapy, and the list goes on and on. So that's the whole idea. Explore their mind, explore opportunities for a great career.”

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The city of Batavia has temporarily halted a $120 million expansion project with HP Hood in the town of Batavia due to “violations of the town’s contracted wastewater capacity limit,” and both municipalities are working to rectify the situation, City Manager Rachael Tabelski says.

Tabelski sent the town Planning Board a letter on March 13 notifying the group that the city had not been informed in a timely manner that the town had been established as lead agency for the proposed expansion of process lines at HP Hood on Feb. 13, 2024, and the city did not receive word of that until March 4. The city, therefore, objects to the town acting as the lead agency, Tabelski said.

In addition, ”due to violations of the town’s contracted wastewater capacity limit, the project cannot proceed,” Tabelski said in the letter.

When asked for further comments in an interview, Tabelski said, “As we are in active negotiations with the town regarding a new purchase capacity agreement, I’m going to respectfully decline an interview at this point.”

She did provide the two-page letter sent to the planning board, which includes background about the apparent increased wastewater discharge that was “identified as part of the state environmental quality review (SEQR) for the project application and 2021 SEQR amendment for the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park.” 

“The city was never furnished a copy of the 2021 GEIS (generic environmental impact statement) amendment and is an involved agency,” Tabelski said. 

In 1983, the city and town entered into a wastewater facility agreement that outlined ownership and operation of the new treatment plant. In February 2015, they entered into a wastewater facility agreement and a wastewater metering agreement. The city currently owns 84.55% of the total plant capacity, and the town owns 15.45%. 

Due to ongoing development in the town, including the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park, the town’s sanitary sewer flows are exceeding the contractual limit of .85 million gallons per day (MGD) or 15.45% of the total capacity, Tableksi said. 

Each city and town resolution in May 2023 identified the parties’ mutual concerns about potential increased flow resulting from the Kings Plaza pump station project, and the average sewer flow was 1.2 MGD. In fall 2023, the town advised the city that HP Hood was expanding but that it was only the warehouse and would not create additional demand for water or sewer capacity. Hood already discharges 1.1 to 1.2 MGD. By the end of 2023, the town’s average sewer flow had increased to 1.33 MGD, Tabelski said. 

“This is well in excess of the town’s contractual limit of .85 MGD,” she said. “Consequently, the town has no capacity to allocate to expansion of HP Hood or any other facility at this time.” 

The city also cannot permit increased sewer flows from the town of Batavia until the wastewater treatment plan expansion study is complete, she said. 

“The city and town still need to enter into a proposed wastewater agreement that was circulated in January 2024. However, this agreement will still not allow for increased discharge beyond 1.2 MGD. This pending agreement will be the town’s limit for wastewater discharge.”

As for its objection to the town being lead agency for the Hood project, Tabelski said that “the town has failed to accurately and timely inform the city about the expansion of wastewater capacity demand at the Ag Park.”

“In addition, the town is in breach of the wastewater agreement with the city by discharging in excess of .85 MGD,” she said. “A lead agent under SEQR is responsible for thoroughly and accurately evaluating the potential environmental impacts prior to making a determination of significance on the action.

“The town’s excess wastewater discharge beyond contract limits threatens the city’s discharge limits and has the potential to exceed the city’s (State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit,” she said. “As a result, the city objects to the town’s lead agency designation for this action under SEQR.”

The Batavian sent questions on Wednesday to Planning Board Chairwoman Kathy Jasinski about why the town exceeded its wastewater capacity and what the town would do to rectify the matter so that it could proceed with the Hood project, which has received the blessings of Genesee County Economic Development for the $120 million expansion. 

Jasinski replied on Friday, referring The Batavian to the town engineer. The Batavian has sent questions to Steven Mountain and received an auto-response that he will be out of the office until March 27.

The Hood expansion is to be 32,500 square feet and pledges to create 48 new jobs while retaining 455 full-time equivalent jobs at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park. This project accommodates its automatic storage and retrieval system refrigerated warehouse. It will also include new batching and processing systems and other upgrades, which will allow the company to increase capacity and begin a new production line.

HP Hood’s investment is projected to result in a local economic impact of $49.87 million in wages and tax revenue. The GCEDC approved sales tax exemptions estimated at $4.52 million, a property tax abatement estimated at $549,705 based on an incremental increase in assessed value, and a mortgage tax exemption estimated at $536,000, bringing the value of the proposed financial agreements to approximately $5.6 million. 

GCEDC’s board recently approved the Hood financial package, prompting The Batavian to ask if the agency was aware of the wastewater situation and request comment about the city’s action to put a hold on the project.

“We are aware that the city and town of Batavia are continuing discussions regarding the current capacity at the wastewater treatment plant as our communities plan for the future,” Director of Marketing and Communications Jim Krencik said. “The GCEDC Board of Directors approved incentives that directly support HP Hood’s warehouse expansion. All IDA incentives cannot be approved until the completion of a project’s SEQR.  The non-warehouse project is currently under the SEQR review by the town. Soliciting comments and feedback from interested and involved agencies, such as the city’s letter, is the first step in that process.”

In her conclusion, Tabelski said the city is willing to consider “other mitigation options to decrease wastewater discharge by the town” so that it can remain within the contractual limit.

“Unfortunately, until such wastewater reduction options are implemented by the town, there is no wastewater capacity,” she said. 

Press Release:

Richmond Memorial Library Trustee Position

Any qualified voter of the City School District of Batavia and a resident of the City School District for at least 1 year immediately preceding the date of the election (May 2, 2024) can run for one of two Richmond Memorial Library Board of Trustees seats. They are for 3-year terms which start July 1, 2024.  

Petitions for the positions can be picked up at the circulation desk. At least twenty-five (25) signatures are required from qualified voters of the School District. The petition must be turned in at the circulation desk between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on or before April 2.

Public Hearing April 8

A Public Information Meeting on the 2024-25 Richmond Memorial Library Budget will be held in the Richmond Memorial Library Gallery Room on Monday, April 8 at 6:30 p.m. Future plans for the Library will be presented along with the 2024-25 budget. The regular monthly meeting of the Library Board of Trustees for April will take place immediately following the public meeting.

RML Voter Registration Day April 9

Any person qualified to vote who is not currently registered under permanent personal registration in the election district in which he or she resides, or who has moved to another residence within that district following the date of such registration, or who has not voted at a general election at least once in the last four successive calendar years, should, in order to be entitled to vote, present himself or herself personally for the registration or otherwise register at the Genesee County Board of Elections. 

Voter Registration for this year’s Library Vote will be held at Richmond Memorial Library on April 9 from 1 - 5 p.m. and from 7 - 9 p.m.

Richmond Memorial Library Budget Vote/Trustee Election May 2

Richmond Memorial Library’s Annual Budget Vote/Trustee Election will be held in the Library’s Gallery Room on Thursday, May 2 from 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. Any registered voter residing in the Batavia City School District is eligible to vote.