Now that most of the physical portion—the $70 million structure and internal components—of the new Genesee County Jail on West Main Street Road in Batavia is in place, Deputy Jail Superintendent Jeffrey Searls says the organizational part is next, and it is the most crucial part as far as the facility's safety and operation are concerned.

As one of the leads on Genesee County’s new jail on Route 5, assistant engineer Laura Wadhams is understandably happy to see the $70 million facility finally round the corner to completion with a colorful array of inmate pods ready and waiting for beds and other furnishings to be installed next week.

After what he considered to be an extensive search for funding of unserved county Broadband customers, County Manager Matt Landers put forth a resolution Tuesday to move forward with a two-year, $6.6 million plan to fulfill more than 700 “address points” and close the gap of internet service across Genesee County.

Think what you will about the use of artificial intelligence for making up silly random songs and possibly helping to write that late-night term paper, but there are certainly more cutting edge, time-saving uses for the technology.

Just ask Genesee County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens. He recommended that the county purchase a $30,000 subscription to an AI service that will analyze state Department of Transportation bridge and culvert reports, identify problem areas and help county personnel potentially whittle a job from 12 months down to two or three weeks.

Amanda Lee received a bit of spotlight Monday as she sat in the hot seat for the first time as the newly hired GLOW regional solid waste management-recycling administrator.

Lee replaced Peggy Grayson, who retired from the full-time position June 30 after nearly two dozen years. As a search was conducted, Grayson had agreed to remain on in a part-time capacity to show her successor the ropes, training which the newcomer said she was grateful for.

If local officials were to play on that old game show where the announcer would whisper the special word of the moment, it would most undoubtedly be “housing.”

And the clues given would be low income, market rate, owner occupied, rental, and, according to County Planner Felipe Oltramari, unmatched.

It is that current necessity that has prompted a Genesee County housing needs assessment and market analysis.

With numbers tallied, it looks like a fair amount of overtime for Genesee County highway and airport employees due to the Wings Over Batavia Air Show: approximately $6,308.

Genesee County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens reviewed air show and other data as part of his annual department report during Monday's Public Service Committee meeting. 

Public Service Committee members passed along a grant of $7,000 for final approval Monday for the purchase of additional kayaks and accessories for the Youth Bureau’s kayaking program at DeWitt Recreation Area in Batavia.

Genesee County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens reviewed the program and grant during the committee’s meeting and said that although it’s an Interpretive Center/Youth Bureau grant award, it also “supports kayaking at the park.”

While a gathering of bees and woodpeckers have been welcomed visitors by Mother Nature at the Interpretive Center at Genesee County Park & Forest in East Bethany, they weren't so appreciated by county highway staff once they saw the damage.

The woodland creatures ate their way through the Center’s natural siding, and the price for the replacement of that and a new roof left County Highway Superintendent Tim Hens with a bit of shopper’s discomfort.  

“I was a little shocked at the price of the project, to be honest with you, but the low bid we received was $248,350. I think with the original, volunteers did it, and the original siding was cedar lap siding … and the bees and the woodpeckers have just literally destroyed that. I mean, there’s physical holes in the roof. It needs to be done,” Hens said during the county’s Public Service Committee meeting Monday. “The problem from a municipal standpoint is it’s too small of a project for your general construction people to get involved because they have to suck everything out, and they don’t make any money on it. And it’s the subs that would do the work and don’t want to be the (general contractor) because they don’t want to have to take up the bonds, and the insurance is required to be the person in charge. So it’s kind of in this purgatory gray zone area between a big project and a small project.”

The cedar siding would be replaced with a fiber cement siding, which is appropriate for the building, he said. Vinyl could be used, but it wouldn’t really look appropriate on that building, and “you’d lose a lot of the character,” Hens said. Using vinyl would have saved about $10,000, and everyone involved is comfortable spending the extra money “to do it right,” he said.

“It will make it so that it’s maintenance-free for the next hopefully 30 or 40 years,” Hens said.

And the bees and birds should leave it alone since it’s almost like concrete, similar to what’s used at the airport terminal. 

“It’s not prone to bugs and insects and woodpeckers,” he said.  “It’ll be architectural shingles on the roof. They’re going to be rewrapping some of the soffits and aluminum, and then the main part of the building will be shake fiber cement siding, and then the higher part in the center will be a false stone application. It’d be really sharp when it’s done. It’s just the pricing sometimes, in a municipal sense, blows my mind. I saw $240,000. We had $205,000 originally for the budget. I thought we were gonna be great, but this is what it is.”

“We’ve used metal on some of the pavilions and whatnot, but we didn't consider it in this place, just again from the cost standpoint, it's a bigger building, bigger roof, and then Paul wants to keep it kind of a cabin in the woods type of a setting,” he said. “It was put together almost 100 percent by volunteers and by county staff, so it's 25 years old.”

He has recommended Kircher Construction Inc. of Mount Morris for the job and expects it to be completed by this fall. 

There’s no concealing their opposition to the newly enacted Concealed Carry Improvement Act as Genesee County legislators unanimously agreed Wednesday to sign a resolution stating the Act is unconstitutional.

Public Services Committee Chairman Gary Maha believes the act was put together quickly in the aftermath of mass shootings, and it penalizes the wrong people.

“I think it really hurts law-abiding citizens,” he said. “If (criminals) want a gun, they’re going to get a gun.”

Fellow legislators Marianne Clattenburg and John Deleo agreed.

“I think it hurts the honest guy,” Deleo said.

The revisions seem to be “putting up barriers,” Clattenburg said, pointing to the new requirements of training, an interview and having to provide many personal details of one's household. 

“It’s a barrier to your rights,” she said.

They underscored the prominence of the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms, and how the Concealed Carry is no improvement act. The Second Amendment states that “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

The legislators’ resolution states that the act “presents procedural roadblocks in the form of privacy violation, subjective standards, financial burdens, and overt restrictions on individuals seeking to exercise a fundamental right.”

A subdivision of the law was added to state that no license shall be issued or renewed pursuant to this section except by the licensing officer, and then only after investigation and finding that all statements in a proper application for a license are true. No license shall be issued or renewed except for an applicant 21 years or older (military veterans honorably discharged are exempt from the age requirement), and be of good moral character, which means having the essential character, temperament and judgment necessary to be entrusted with a weapon and to use it only in a manner that does not endanger oneself or others.

Those with a license shall be required to complete training prior to recertification and must submit to an interview with the licensing officer and provide the following:

• Names and contact information for the applicant’s current spouse, or domestic partner and any other adults residing in the home, including any adult children of the applicant and status of them residing there full- or part-time;
• Names and contact information of no less than four character references who can attest to the applicant’s good moral character and that such applicant has not engaged in any acts, or made any statements, that suggest they are likely to engage in conduct to result in harm to themselves or others;
• Proof of certification of training;
• A list of former and current social media accounts of the applicant from the past three years to confirm the information regarding the applicant’s character and conduct.

Not only will the Legislature “vehemently, adamantly and with full resolve” oppose what members believe are “ill-advised provisions,” of the act, but they will also work with other counties to demand its full repeal based on being “unjust, ineffective, vague and unconstitutional.”

As a longstanding defender of citizen rights and the Constitution, the Legislature calls on all other municipalities in the state — and any advocates for freedom and liberty — to challenge this law “by any means possible as unconstitutional,” legislators agreed.

Copies of the county’s resolution will be sent to several state representatives, including Governor Kathy Hochul, New York State Assemblyman Stephen Hawley and state Senators George Borrello and Edward Rath III.

Hochul signed this law on July 1 after what the county Legislature believes was “surreptitiously rushed bills and through to passage under a message of necessity and during an extraordinary session bypassing the traditional rules and procedures of the state legislature. The law then went into effect on Sept. 1, placing “unprecedented and overtly restrictive conditions on applying for, obtaining, utilizing, maintaining and recertifying a conceal carry permit for personal protection and other legal uses as clearly provided for in the Constitution of the United States,” the county’s resolution states.

To read the full law, go to Concealed Carry.

Photo: Members of the county's Public Service Committee, led by Chairman Gary Maha, head of the table, discuss and vote on a resolution opposing the newly adopted Concealed Carry Improvement Act. Photo by Joanne Beck.