When building the Upstate Medtech Center, the GCEDC should have ensured prevailing wage was paid to construction workers, according to a state Department of Labor (DOL) letter issued in November.

The letter came to light following an Authorities Budget Office report critical of GCEDC's staff compensation practices.

It was written by John D. Charles, associate attorney for the DOL, and issued in response to an unnamed person who asked that the department look into the matter. It concludes that the department's opinion was based solely on the material provided by that person and should not be relied on as a final answer.

Ask for a response to the DOL letter, GCEDC CEO Steve Hyde issued the following statement:

"While the LDC (Genesee Gateway Local Development Corp.) wholly disagrees with the Department of Labor's initial conclusions, we are actively working with them to ensure that they have all of the facts and circumstances of the Medtech project. A final determination has not been made by DOL with respect to the issues and questions raised."

Longtime local contractor Vito Gautieri is known to be concerned about how the bid for construction of the Medtech Center was awarded. It ultimately went to Batavia-based D.A. Tufts Co.

In an interview last week, when asked if the letter from Charles was addressed to him, Gautieri said, "No comment."

He then went on to complain about GCEDC forming a nonprofit corporation -- Genesee Gateway Local Development Corp. (GGLDC) -- as owner and agency developing the project. He said if that's how government agencies are going to operate on construction projects, then "we might as well pull up our shingles and move out of town."

At issue is compliance with New York's prevailing wage laws, which require employees on public works projects to be paid an hourly rate based on a prevailing wage schedule set by the state.

The DOL letter says that according to information given to the agency, the GGLDC's Medtech project does not meet the standards for waiving prevailing wage.

It says that because the project was at first initiated by a public agency (GCEDC wholly owns the GGLDC and is the project's actual owner), it is not just a temporary title holder.  In addition, it is not acting "merely as a mechanism to facilitate financing." If it were just a temporary titleholder and holding title merely to facilitate financing, according to the letter, perhaps paying prevailing wage would not be required.

There will be a public hearing at 4 p.m., Tuesday, in Batavia's Town Hall, 3833 W. Main St. Road, on a proposal to provide tax subsidies for the construction of a Holiday Inn Express on the north side of the Thruway.

The hearing is being conducted by the Genesee County Economic Development Center.

The public is invited to attend and provide feedback on the proposal.

GCEDC did not have information to release to the media today in advance of the meeting on exactly what is being proposed.

In response for a request for more information, Media and Marketing Manager Rachael Millspaugh wrote in an e-mail: "There is no additional preliminary information on the project except what was discussed at the December 2010 board meeting. We will have a project summary available at the public hearing. The GCEDC Board will be reviewing and acting on the request at this Thursday's regularly scheduled meeting."

The Daily Grind, 85 E. Main St., Batavia, NY: For Batavia's finest coffee, smoothies, as well as fast and convenient breakfasts and lunches, stop into The Daily Grind. We have a $10 gift card for $5.

Matty's Pizzeria, 4152 W. Main St., Batavia, NY: Matty's, a great place for pizza, wings, subs -- eat in, take out or delivery. We have a $20 gift certificate for $10.

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 $20 gift card for $10.

Kravings, Valu Plaza, 4152 W. Main St., Batavia, NY: Kraving's offers soups, salads and sandwiches, fresh and flavorful; Monday through Saturday. We have $10 gift certificates for $5.

Blue Pearl Yoga, 200 E. Main St., Batavia, NY: Exercise your soul as well as your body in a friendly and relaxing atmosphere. We have a gift certificate for three weeks of yoga, 3 classes, a $30 value, for $15.

Alli's Cones & Dogs, 7063 Lewiston Road, Oakfield, NY: Full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu; new all-you-can-eat salad bar; ice cream served year-round; eat-in or take-out. We have $20 gift certificates for $10.

Stafford Trading Post, 6173 Main Road, Stafford, NY: Lunch or dinner, Stafford Trading Post offers a variety of fresh, homemade meals, as well as snacks and drinks. Now in a new, expanded location. We have a $25 gift card for $12.50.

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Blue Pearl Yoga

A winter storm expected to hit Western New York on Tuesday night has been upgraded.

The National Weather Service has issued a "warning" (meaning a more severe storm than a "watch") for the expected weather pattern, which should hit the area after 10 p.m., Tuesday.

The warning is in effect until 10 p.m., Wednesday.

Accumulation of snow is expected to be 10 to 14 inches, with winds of 15 to 25 mph and gusts of 30 mph.

Hazardous travel conditions are expected.

A two-car accident with minor injuries is reported at Vine and Bank Street in the City of Batavia.

Batavia Fire Department and a Mercy ambulance are responding.

A passerby has called in a trailer fire in the area of Route 262 and Transit Road.

It's unknown if the trailer is occupied.

Byron and South Byron being dispatched along with a tanker from Elba and Town of Batavia's Fast Team.

UPDATE 1:41 p.m.: First responder reports heavy smoke upon approach.

UPDATE 1:45 p.m.: There are people outside the structure, still unknown if anybody is inside.

UPDATE 1:47 p.m.: Law enforcement was on scene first and vented windows. Still unknown if residents inside. All Elba equipment dispatched.

UPDATE 2:05 p.m.: A tanker from Bergen is now on scene. Mercy EMS also responded. A fire chief asks dispatch to contact Elba School to see if they have anyone registered at that address.

UPDATE 3:25 p.m.: Byron and South Byron back in service.

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Walter Lyle Knickerbocker, 53, of South Street Road, Le Roy, is charged with petit larceny. Knickerbocker is accused of stealing road salt from the DOT salt barn on routes 19 and 20, Pavilion. The alleged theft(s) occurred on and before Jan. 19.

Aaron D. Swimline, 24, of Main Road, Corfu, is charged with a felony count of DWI, a felony count of aggravated DWI (driving with a BAC of .18 or greater), unlawful possession of marijuana, speed not reasonable nor prudent, moving from lane unsafely. Swimline was reportedly involved in a one-car accident at 12:59 a.m., Saturday in the area of 2553 Main Road, Corfu. The accident was investigated by Deputy Howard Carlson.

LaToya Tamika Vialva, 19, of Liberty Street, Batavia, is charged with trespass. Vialva is accused of being on College Village property after being banned from the property.

One person suffered a minor injury Saturday after a car pulling out of a business on Ellicott Street Road reportedly struck her car as she tried to avoid it.

William B. Heany, 74, of East Main Street, Batavia, told a Sheriff's Deputy that he didn't see the headlights of a car driven by Victoria Lee Wood, 40, of Pavilion Center Road, Pavilion, as he pulled from the parking lot of 4818 Ellicott Street Road, Batavia.

The accident occurred at 8:27 p.m.

Lee, who said her headlights were on, was transported by ambulance to UMMC.

No citations are listed on the accident report.

The accident was investigated by Deputy Patrick Reeves.

More than a foot of snow and heavy winds are headed toward Genesee County, according to the National Weather Service.

A winter weather watch is in effect from Tuesday evening through Wednesday evening.

The storm, which will primarily hit the northern part of the county, is expected to produce 8 to 16 inches of snow with winds up to 30 mph.

Visibility will be down to a quarter of a mile.

Drifting snow and low visibility are expected to make driving conditions particularly hazardous.

Either a tire or brakes on a propane truck on the Thruway near mile marker 401 has caught fire.

The explosion occurred shortly after the first call to Pembroke Fire Department went out.

UPDATE 7:54 a.m.: Fire is knocked down. Another Pembroke and Indian Falls unit requested to the scene for traffic control.

UPDATE 8:09 a.m.: The fire is under control and crews are cooling down the truck. Now there is a report of a motor-vehicle accident just west of the fire scene in the eastbound lane. There are no apparent injuries.

UPDATE 8:15 a.m.: Mercy EMS requested to the scene to evaluate a driver. There was heavy interior damage to the car and air-bag deployment. The car rear-ended a tractor-trailer.

A chimney fire is reported at a structure located at 6719 North Bergen Road.

Byron, South Byron and Bergen fire departments are called to the scene. Elba Fire Department is told to stand in at Bergen's headquarters.

A firefighter on scene says no flames are showing. Units told to respond nonemergency.

UPDATE 6:10 p.m.: Using a thermal imaging camera and evaluating the situation, the fire chief says he's found "nothing over 100 degrees from the chimney up through the roofline."

UPDATE 6:19 p.m.: Fire units are being returned to service.

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From Detective Richard Schauf:

The Batavia Police Department thanks the public for assistance in finding a 15-year-old runaway.

Nathaniel Davis was located on Thursday afternoon in the City of Batavia.

On Friday night we started the migration to a new host server for The Batavian. We thought it would be a one-night job.

Our new IT support guy -- Nick, of Batavia -- put the site in "read only mode" and began transferring the database to the new server.

But we've published so much content over the past two and a half years years that the transfer ended up stretching well into Saturday.

Around 7 a.m., today, everything seemed set to flip the switch on the domain name and start pointing traffic to the new location.

Then we had some technical bug.

Things have seemed to settle down, but it will take a couple of days to get everything back to normal. Primarily, search isn't working yet and in posts pictures may not be appearing yet.

If you're seeing this post, you are seeing the new server. Everything should be fine.

There's no effective way to communicate this to people not seeing this post, but I'll put it out there anyway. If you're not seeing the new site, try restarting your computer. If that doesn't work, your Internet Service Provider just hasn't caught up with the change yet.  That can take some service providers as much as 48 hours to catch up.

Why the move: We anticipate a performance improvement. I feel like I'm already seeing it, though the server is still working pretty hard indexing the database and such. 

The simplest way to explain why we anticipate an improvement: When you have a site on a server that shares the server with other Web sites (a common type of commercial hosting environment), there is software that acts like a traffic cop and says, "OK, it's your turn to get this site, now it's your turn to go here, and now it's your turn to get this one."

This should happen very fast but, after we hired Nick to take over IT duties, he discovered that the type of software our previous host used had been shown to perform about four times slower than other options, so we decided in order to improve performance, we should change hosts.

Like I said, I feel like I'm already seeing better initial load times, so here's to hoping all of the frustration of the past 24 hours or so have been worth the change for all of us.

Welcome to The Batavian on the new server!

A Level 3 sex offender accused of committing similar offenses within months of his release from custody entered not guilty pleas in Genesee County Court today to the four counts against him.

Ronald A. Smith, 18, of 679 E. Main St., is charged with failure to register a change of address and three counts of sexual abuses, 1st.

Smith was allegedly living on Thorpe Street when he allegedly sexually abused at least one child. When he moved from Thorpe, he allegedly did not notify police of his correct address.

Smith is being held on $25,000 bail.

Public Defender Jerry Ader will have 45 days to prepare and make motions in the case.

Paul Douglas Marquardt, 38, of Chick Road, Darien, charged with 39 counts of criminal contempt, 2nd. Marquardt is accused of having contact with a person he was barred by court order from contacting. He was jailed on $10,000 bail.

Michael Jason Sullivan, 39, of Hosmer Road, Churchville, is charged with petit larceny. Sullivan was stopped by Gates Police, who discovered there was an active warrant for Sullivan's arrest in Genesee County. Sullivan is accused of stealing scrap metal from Demo's, Clinton Street Road, Bergen.

Matthew Roy Ace, 24, of Vine Street, Batavia, is charged with aggravated unlicensed operation, 3rd. Ace was taken into custody by Batavia Police on a bench warrant and turned over to the Sheriff's Office. Ace was jailed on $100 bail.

Settler's Restaurant, 353 W. Main St., Batavia, NY: Settler's has a 25-year history of serving great, affordable breakfasts, lunches and dinners to Batavians. 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.

Margarita's Mexican Restaurant, 15 Jackson St., Batavia, NY: When you're looking for an authentic Mexican meal, Margarita's is the place to go. The food and atmosphere are perfect and the service is always outstanding. We have a $20 gift certificate for $10.

Center Street Smoke House, 20 Center St., Batavia, NY: Authentic Southern BBQ, from ribs to brisket with all the fixin's. We have a $20 gift card for $10.

Red Osier, Route 5, Stafford, NY: Truly, one of the landmark restaurants of the area. Red Osier features prime rib carved table side. We have $25 gift certificates 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.

South Beach, 59 Main St., Batavia, NY: Try the new lunch buffet. We have a $25 gift certificate for $12.50 (must be used by Feb. 28, 2011).

Batavia Downs Grandstand Bar & Grille, 8315 Park Road, Batavia, NY: A full menu, salad bar and drinks in one of the region's most popular entertainment venues. We have $25 gift certificates for $12.50. (Must be new or current Players Club member to redeem.)

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SOLD OUT

A one-car rollover accident is blocking the eastbound lane of Route 20 in the area of 4471 Broadway Road, Bethany.

There are no reported injuries.

Bethany Fire and Alexander Fire Police are responding.

UPDATE 6:40 a.m.: Traffic is being directed around the accident.

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