If the March 26 Taste of New York is anything like the previous Brew Fest, it should be certainly be a fun time.

“Last year there were people who were having so much fun they didn’t want to leave,” Sue Bobo said.

As part of the planning committee, she expects the night to be as popular as the first wine, beer and local food sampling fundraiser in 2010.

After the Brew Fest provided about 250 guests with an enjoyable evening of mingling with friends and tastings from a few local hot spots, planners at Holy Family School are excited to bring the event back.

“We hope for more this year, a lot of people were really excited to get their tickets," Bobo said. "If they came last year, they’re happy to do it again but there’s a lot of people who heard how much fun it was and would like to give it a try this year."

Tickets cost $20 each or $15 for designated drivers. With the admission ticket, beverage tickets are given to sample wine and beer. Based on sobriety, more beverage tickets will be available for purchase.

The night will start with tasting from 7-10 p.m. and there will be entertainment from 8-11 p.m. by the Le Royan band called Exit 47. Raffles and door prizes will be given throughout the evening.

All funds raised will go to support Holy Family School.

Arna Tygart helped plan the event last year because she has two children enrolled at Holy Family. She spoke highly of the staff at the small school.

“Everyone goes above and beyond for the students,” she said. “The school is wonderful. The principal, secretaries and teachers are all so welcoming. You could go in and eat lunch with your child and celebrate birthday parties and you feel like you’re walking in to family.”

Most businesses which participated will be returning because they liked being able to meet and greet local customers.

"It was a huge success," Tygart said. "We had so many good responses and so much great feedback. Someone even said it could be the best kept secret in Genesee County!"

Baseball, believe it or not, is just around the corner, and right on schedule, the booster club for the Batavia Muckdogs hosted its annual hot stove dinner and auction at the Batavia Party House.

More than 200 people were on hand for dinner and both a silent auction and a live auction with auctioneer Todd Jantzi of Bontrager's (below).

The booster club presented a donation to the Michael Napoleone Foundation. Above, accepting the check from Shirley Fanara, right, are Laurie Napoleone, center, and Ann Marie Suttell, president of the foundation.

More pictures after the jump:

Travis Sick, Muckdogs general manager.

Brian Paris, president of the ownership group.

"Have a Heart, Save a Heart” benefit for Bridget (Vogt) Lynch will be held from 6 p.m. to midnight today at Batavia Downs, 8315 Park Road, Batavia.

There will be a chicken barbecue, Chinese auction, raffles and live music from Red Creek, Savage Cabbage and Damaged.

Tickets are $20 and include $5 of free play at the Downs.

BOCES' Health Dimensions will calculate your blood pressure for a $1 donation and $5 haircuts from cosmetology students are also available.

Bridget was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. She has had two open heart surgeries so far, one at 7 days old and the other at 5 months old.

She's now 4 and will be undergoing her third, and hopefully last, surgery around this month or next. All benefit proceeds will be be used to help cover the expenses of Bridget’s care.

To make donations, questions or to buy tickets, call Chelsey (Lynch) Mills at  297-4768 or email Chelsey_1026@yahoo.com or call  A. Morelli at 813-1476.

A flood watch remains in effect through tomorrow night, and now the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch starting late tonight through Sunday night.

Heavy wet snow is expected with accumulations of 6 to 8 inches.

The snow is predicted to start around daybreak and taper off later in the afternoon.

Winds are expected to be 10 to 20 mph.

The weather service said its forecast confidence is "medium."

Meanwhile, rain today and snowmelt still could produce minor flooding along creeks and in poorly drained low-lying areas.

Heavy rain and warmer temperatures are heading toward Genesee County and that could lead to flooding, according to the National Weather Service.

A flood watch is in effect from Saturday afternoon through Sunday evening.

Tonight temperatures are expected to hit 48 degrees with an 80-percent chance of rain.

The coming storm could dump as much as two inches of rain and, combined with snowmelt, could cause creeks to rise and low-lying areas to fill with water.

Overall, any flooding is expected to be minor.

Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian believes she has new evidence to feed her opposition to consolidation between the town and the city.

Christian and colleague Patti Pacino recently attended New York Conference of Mayors' Winter Legislative Meeting in Albany.

She says she heard horror stories about how consolidation is going in other municipal jurisdictions.

She said lawsuits and fees are skyrocketing.

From WBTA:

"One of the areas is with the fire department: volunteer versus paid. And now the volunteers want to get paid," Christian says. "The other one was the (village) police department, and where their jurisdiction is going to stop. Are they going into the town?"

Christian says Seneca Falls was one of the only approved consolidations in New York State. Municipalities almost everywhere else have voted it down. Christian says those votes have been very lopsided, and she believes it would be the same way here -- based on what she's heard about the town.

"So obviously they have to work everything out in our area," she says, "before they even consider putting this forth."

Christian says there’s a much better alternative.

"You can have shared services, without doing any of this," she says.

Mercy Flight will receive a USDA-backed loan to purchase a new state-of-the-art helicopter to be based in Batavia.

The $3 million loan was announced by Sen. Charles Schumer.

Mercy Flight will purchase a Bell 429 helicopter that will replace two older 1970s-era helicopters in the current fleet.

Genesee County and Mercy Flight recently signed a long-term lease for its facilities at the Genesee County Airport to help Mercy Flight secure the loan.

The new helicopter is expected to be in service in June.

Raymond Gandolfo, 38, of Massachusetts Street, Buffalo, is charged with three counts of identity theft, three counts of forgery, criminal possession of stolen property, 4th, and grand larceny, 4th. Gandolfo is accused of using a stolen credit card between 10:13 a.m. and 10:35 a.m., Sept. 25, to purchase merchandise at three separate stores on Veterans Memorial Drive, Batavia. The total value exceeded $1,000.Gandolfo was arraigned in Town of Batavia Court and returned to the Erie County Holding Center without bail.

Francis N. Shiltz, 69, of Alleghany Road, Strykerville, is charged with DWI, driving with a BAC of .08 or greater and unsafe backing. Shiltz was allegedly involved in a two-car property damage accident at 6:49 p.m., Thursday, at the Rez Smokeshop.

Arturo Vasquez-Armas, 41, of 2336 Judge Road, Oakfield, is charged with offering a false instrument for filing,1st, and criminal possession of a forged instrument, 3rd. Vasquez-Armas allegedly possessed a forged Social Security card while attempting to obtain a NYS non-driver ID at the Genesee County DMV office. Vasquez-Armas was jailed without bail.

Timothy Alan Duboy, 19, of Wethersfield Road, Warsaw, is charged with forcible touching. Duboy is accused of forcibly touching the intimate parts of another person. The alleged incident occurred at College Village on Jan. 25.

New York Times: Calls Mount to Tap U.S. Oil Reserves

A two-car accident with injuries has been reported at the intersection of Dublin and Jericho roads, Bergen.

Bergen fire and ambulance dispatched.

UPDATE 5:41 p.m.: Sounds like very minor injuries.

The local sports world and many members of the Genesee County community mourn today after hearing of the unexpected passing of popular sportswriter, Brian Hillabush.

Hillabush, who spent nearly a decade at Batavia Daily News and some time at The Batavian, was found dead in his home Wednesday evening. No cause of death has been determined.

"I'm very shocked to hear about Brian and we will all certainly miss him," says Batavia Daily News managing editor Mark Graczyk. "He did great job as sports writer here. He always cared about people that he covered and will be missed by the people in the community.

"Brian loved and lived for sports, with his favorite teams being Duke, Yankees, and the Colts," said his girlfriend Aline Alibe Santos. "He loved his nephews and his family and had future plans to get married."

Hillabush had been attending Genesee Community College and was majoring in travel and tourism. 

"He was an energetic, well-liked student. You could tell from his days at the paper that he was interested in learning about the facts and finding out as much as he could about topics he liked." says GCC instructor Amy Slusser. "He took interest in local geography and hometown destinations and wanted to promote Batavia as a tourism destination."

Hillabush was well known for spending hours each week at sporting events and had a strong following in high school sports.

"He was very good at his job," says Batavia hockey coach Paul Pedersen. "He went the extra mile to cover the high school sports and was very passionate about the ones in the area, being that he was a local kid himself.

"He would go every day, game to game, and that was his life. It was awesome and the articles showed the time he put into each one of them. (Our) team went to states in 2002-2003 and he followed us to all the games that were way out of town. Him and (Mark) Gutman were stapled to us. Not every reporter does that. It was nice and made the kids feel special."

"Brian was passionate about how he represented, reported and worked with the local sports," stated Notre Dame Football coach and longtime friend Rick Mancuso. "He loved the kids he interacted with and he loved what he did.

"His passion was what set him apart from other people. He really was an advocate for high school sports.He worked very hard in everything he did and had a vision for how high school reporting should be."

Brian's work was appreciated by many and he was one of the few reporters that went out of his way to cover cheerleading as well.

"The first person to always cover our acomplishments was Brian," says former Batavia cheerleading captain Jamie Turman. "As a cheerleader it wasn't often that you would be in the limelight, but Brian always made our winnings known to our community.

"He understood that even though we were cheerleaders, we were proud of what we had done and what we had acomplished. He was amazing in the sense that he made all althelets feel great about what they had done no matter how big or small. He even took the time to talk to us and to learn about cheerleading to try and put himself in our shoes."

Hillabush's vision for high school sports started with a focus on the Genesee Region but quickly expanded to all of Section V. He played a major role in the lauch of SectionVTalksback.com, which is an online high school sports forum that allows athletes from all over the section to interact and chat about their sports.

"He had a great vision in kicking off probably one of the most succesful high school sports sites that exists in SectionVTalksback. He really did a great job at what he did. He will be missed by many," added Mancuso.

Friends may call on Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. at H.E. Turner & Co. Funeral Home, 403 E. Main St., Batavia, where services will follow at 6 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the family. Burial will be in Grand View Cemetery, Batavia.

The dispatch center was just informed that because of unspecified technical problems, National Grid is planning to cut power to the entire Village of Corfu at 4:30 p.m.

The outage will effect businesses, residence and street lights.

The person informing dispatch said, "unless the problem gets worse and they need to cut power sooner."

He requested traffic control for Main and Route 77 during the outage.

UPDATE 4:28 p.m.: No power outage will be necessary to fix the electrical problem this afternoon, according to National Grid.

The transformers can be switched out, replacing the broken one, without power loss.

There were no injuries in a two-car accident at Main and Swan streets at approximately 1:50 p.m.

Batavia police and fire departments responded.

Traffic going eastbound was slowed for about 15 minutes.

Press release:

Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,I,C-Batavia) today called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to rescind inequitable cuts to education funding that unfairly burden Western New York’s children. In a letter to the governor, Assemblyman Hawley detailed the ways that the budget proposal favors downstate students at the expense of those Upstate.

“There should be no barrier when it comes to the education of our children,” said Hawley. “Upstate pupils are slated to receive substantially deeper cuts per pupil than those Downstate; an average of $800 more. I am sure you would agree that each and every child in New York State should receive an equal education.”

Full text of Hawley's letter after the jump:

Dear Governor Cuomo:

I would like to take this opportunity to share my constituents’ concerns over cuts to education in this year’s Executive Budget.

The proposed cuts to education show an inequity to rural and non-wealthy school districts which I represent. I believe each child should have the same opportunities regardless of their family’s geographic location. As you know, education is critical to the success for all children.

Please reconsider these unparalleled and inequitable education cuts per pupil. There should be no barrier when it comes to the education of our children. Upstate students are slated to receive substantially deeper cuts per pupil than those downstate, on average of $800 more. I am sure you would agree that each and every child in New York State should receive an equal education.

On behalf of all students who reside in Upstate New York, I urge you to reconsider the inequitable cuts to education and then, hopefully, rural students will not be penalized for the area in which they live.

Law enforcement units are in the area of the Tonawanda Indian Reservation searching for a black Sonoma pickup that may be driven by an alleged cigarette thief.

The driver is suspected of grabbing several cartons of cigarettes from a shop on the reservation and fleeing.

UPDATE 12:12 p.m.: A possible suspect stopped on Galloway Road.

A pair of brothers from Pavilion are being accused of dealing cocaine and were arraigned in Pavilion Town Court on Tuesday following their arrest by Deputy Brian Thompson.

Cocaine, marijuana and fireworks were allegedly found in their Ellicott Road home.

The brothers are David James (name redacted upon request) (top, right), 21, and (name redacted upon request) (bottom, left), 20.

Both were charged with criminal possession of a narcotic with intent to sell and criminal possession of marijuana, 4th, as well as unlawful dealing with fireworks.

Following their arraignment, they were released under supervision of Genesee Justice.

In separate investigations, the Local Drug Enforcement Task Force announced the arrest of three Batavia residents allegedly involved in drugs.

Accused of dealing cocaine is Juan A. Roman, 33, of Walnut Street.

Roman allegedly sold a quantity of cocaine to an undercover agent.

An arrest was made Tuesday by task force members and Batavia police officers after Roman was seen walking on Main Street.

He is charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance, 3rd, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, 3rd.

Following his arraignment before Judge Robert C. Noonan, Roman was jailed without bail.

Arrested on Monday were Nicholas A. Pleace, 24, of Pratt Road and Suzan M. Fincher, 51, of Pratt Road.

Pleace and Fincher are accused of growing 19 marijuana plants at their residence on Pratt Road. They were also allegedly found in possession of cocaine and oxycodone.

The were both charged with criminal possession of marijuana, 2nd, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th.

The pair were released under the supervision of Genesee Justice following an arraignment in front of Justice Mike Cleveland, Town of Batavia Court.

Yesterday a reader said she was hoping I would take some more pictures of the countryside of Genesee County again soon, and with a nice sky and a little time late yesterday afternoon, what more encouragement did I need?

I started out along Caswell Road near South Byron (the two pictures below) and then headed out to this cemetery (above) along Batavia-Byron Road, which I spied some time ago as a potentially good place for a sunset picture.

Brian Hillabush, who spent nearly a decade at  Batavia Daily News building a reputation as a solid sportswriter who cared about the players he covered, was found dead at his home in Batavia this evening.

He was 33.

No cause of death has been determined, according to Sgt. John Peck of the Batavia Police Department.

The coroner referred the case to the Monroe County Medical Examiner for an autopsy.

There was no evidence of foul play nor anything suspecious about his death, Peck said.

Hillabush joined the staff of The Batavian in September 2008 and was sports editor until February 2009 when the original owner of The Batavian, GateHouse Media, ended its association with the site and laid off Hillabush.

Brian had been attending Genesee Community College.

In the past hour or so dozens of messages of condolence have appeared on the wall of Hilly's Facebook page.