A pedestrian has reportedly been hit by a car on West Main Street, Batavia, in front of Batavia Marine, near Tops.

Rain forced the closing ceremonies for the Moving Wall at the VA Center inside today, but dozens of people showed up for the short service. Bill Davis thanked all of the volunteers and donors who made bringing the wall to Batavia possible.

Afterward, a couple of dozen people spent time at the Wall before its removal.

Batavia City Councilman Bill Cox is planning to bolt from the GOP and join the Conservative Party, WBTA reports this afternoon.

Cox reportedly sent a letter to GOP City Chairman Joe Gerace on Friday and said the local Republicans have no platform and do not stand for anything.

WBTA reports that Cox said he believes the direction of the United States needs to be changed, and that change begins at the local level.

The local GOP is "not doing anything significant to help turn things around," Cox reportedly wrote.

Cox has been a Republican for 47 years.

UPDATE 1:48 p.m.: The Batavian has obtained a copy of the letter.

In it, Cox writes:

Our country is in a mess. The majority party in control of Congress has violated our Constitution and individual rights repeatedly; they make up any rule they want to push through legislation; they make unethical and punitive back room deals; they are bankrupting the country with massive spending, and they refuse to listen to the people.

He says he has already submitted the paperwork to change parties, and adds, "The conservative Party has been at the fore front of trying to counter this along with the Tea Party movement. We need to change things now."

He vows to continue to support Republican causes and candidates who stand for conservative principles.

A Holley man who assaulted a Byron resident and then stole three long guns from him in April will serve four years in prison followed by five years of supervised release.

Darrell Bruce Reid, 45, who admitted to assault, 2nd, in May, said today that he was sorry for the attack and blamed alcohol for his behavior.

"I would like to say I'm sorry to (the victim)," said Reid. "I didn't mean for this to happen. Of course, the next day I was concerned that I hurt him bad. I did not intend to go there to rob that man or to beat him or to hurt him. There were some things said and alcohol provoked it."

While Reid has a lengthy criminal history, including prior felony convictions, both his attorney Billy Tedford and Judge Robert C. Noonan noted that this is Reid's first violent felony.

"I just encourage you to do whatever you can do in state system to get on the right track before you’re released," Noonan said.

Reid's mother and girlfriend both wrote letters of support and were in court during the sentencing.

Reid was also ordered to pay $1,900 in restitution to the victim for hospital bills.

Jeremy Dean Lyons, 25, of Judge Road, Oakfield, is charged with unlawful growing of cannabis and unlawful possession of marijuana. Lyons is accused of having four marijuana plants growing outside of his residence in plain view. He was arrested at 6:42 p.m., Sunday, by Deputy Patrick Reeves.

James C. Cooper, 47, of 7 1/2 North St., Le Roy, is charged with DWI and driving with a BAC of .08 or greater. Cooper was taken into custody after Le Roy Police responded to a report of a disturbance at 1:27 a.m., Saturday, on North Street.

UPDATE: Two additional items from the weekend that did not initially reach our inbox for some reason:

Robert Steven Zona, 53, of Lake Street Road, Le Roy, is charged with rape, 1st. Zona, reportedly a resident of Le Roy Manor, is accused of attempting to rape another resident. Zona was arraigned and released under supervision of Strong Memorial Hospital for mental health evaluation.

James Christain Oehler, 18, of Lake Road, Bergen, is charged with unlawful fleeing a police motor vehicle, and numerous other alleged traffic violations. Oehler is accused of failure to stop his motorcycle on Route 19 in the Village of Bergen. Oehler was reportedly first observed doing 49 mph in a 30 mph zone on Route 19 near Rochester Street in the village. Oehler reportedly turned onto Hunter Road and then Swamp Road, where his speed allegedly exceeded more than 25 mph over the posted speed limit. Oehler was subsequently located at his residence on Lake Road. Upon investigation, Oehler was allegedly operating an unregistered and uninsured motorbike with improper license plates.

Genesee County Dispatch received a report of a shot fired at 3727 W. Main St. Road, Batavia, near County Building #2.

The initial response had Sheriff's units and State Police responding, with Mercy EMS staging at Dave's Ice Cream.

The caller reportedly said he heard, "Don't shoot."  And then a shot.

On further questioning by a dispatcher, the caller said he was in the area at the time, and that the shot he heard occurred at least an hour earlier. He said he hadn't seen anybody come or go from the area since.

Police are on scene "trying to sort it out."

UPDATE 8:37 p.m.: Scene secure. Report appears unfounded.

Challenger baseball opened last weekend, but I wasn't able to make it, so I stopped by the games today to take some pictures.

More pictures after the jump:

The Batavia Muckdogs dropped its third straight game at Dwyer Stadium, losing to State College 4-2 in 10 innings.

Second-year pro Keith Butler, of Morgantown, Ky., surrendered two runs in the top of the 10th to get tagged with the loss.

Reliever Nick McCully was impressive in four innings, striking out three and giving up only two hits.

Meanwhile, the Cardinal's 5th-round draft pick, San Diegean Nick Longmire, continued his hot hitting. Today, Longmire had two hits, including a triple and a run scored that tied the game 2-2 in the 7th inning.

Longmire tops the league in several offensive categories, including hits (15), triples (3), home runs (3), RBI (16; next best is 9), total bases (33; next best, 23), slugging (.892). He's second in average at .405.

The Muckdogs, now 4-6 and in last place in the Pinckney Division, begins a three-game home series tomorrow against Mahoning Valley. Auburn leads the division at 5-4, only a 1.5 games ahead. Mahoning Valley comes to town with a 4-5 record.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the Muckdogs host Auburn. Friday and Saturday's games feature post-game fireworks. This no home game on Sunday, July 4, so the team is providing an extra fireworks show on Saturday.

Top photo: Longmire arrives at third base after his 7th inning triple.

More photos after the jump:

The National Weather Service in Buffalo has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Genesee County.

The watch is in effect until midnight.

A car has struck a pole at 5465 Ellicott St. Road, near Paul Road, in Bethany. Electrical wires are down. Bethany Fire Department is responding.

Southbound Route 63 is being shut down to one lane because of debris in the roadway. National Grid is responding to the scene in about 30 minutes.

UPDATE (2:03 p.m.): Pavilion Fire Department is asked to reroute all northbound tractor-trailers at routes 63 and 20. The Town of Batavia is sending fire police to reroute all southbound tractor-trailers.

UPDATE 5:06 p.m. (by Howard): Traffic is now being allowed unimpeded at the intersections of Route 63 and Batavia-Stafford Townline Road and at Texaco Town. However, work continues to replace the electric pole, so the southbound lane remains closed and fire police are directing traffic through the one open lane in the area of Paul Road.

A Sheriff's deputy was accosted early this morning by a man accused of wandering down Colby Road in Darien yelling threats toward residents.

Brett Franklin Dieter, 32, of Lewiston Road, Basom, reportedly tried to avoid Deputy Patrick Reeves when he arrived on scene at 1:37 a.m. When contacted by Reeves, Dieter allegedly shoved Reeves and hit him in the face.

Dieter was reportedly drunk at the time of the incident.

Neither Reeves nor Dieter were injured.

Dieter was charged with disorderly conduct and harassment, 2nd. He was issued an appearance ticket and order to appear in Town of Darien Court on July 20.

A driver was cited for allegedly illegally passing on the right, leading to a minor injury accident at 5:37 p.m., Friday.

The car passing on the right was struck by another vehicle, sending it into a parked vehicle in the area of 2761 W. Main Street Road, Batavia.

Mark A. Riegel, 18, of 3644 W. Main Street Road, Batavia, was driving a 1997 Honda when he allegedly attempted to pass a pickup truck hauling a trailer on the right.

The truck, driven by Joseph O. Martus, 55, of 2761 W. Main Street Road, Batavia, reportedly slowed to make a right-hand turn when Riegel allegedly made his passing attempt. Martus reportedly turned into Riegel's vehicle.

Riegel reported minor injuries, but was not transported to the hospital.

I drove out to Le Roy this afternoon to take some pictures of the first Jell-0 Olympics. Unfortunately, it ended earlier than scheduled. Since I was out that way, I figured I'd swing by Oatka Creek in the village and see what I could photograph.

More pictures after the jump:

The Town of Batavia is working to get all its files on computer for easy access. Going "paperless" is touted as being more efficient, but the electronic transformation is certainly not cheap.

Fortunately, the town got the two grants it applied for to update its record-management system. One for $24,000 and another for $28,000.

The first grant paid for a document scanner, software programs and a work station for Record Management Clerk Mary Cordes.

Permanent records and building permits were the first kinds of documents made available electronically. It took a little less than a year for all of the data to be scanned and entered into the computer system.

The other $28,000 grant will pay for scanning town board meeting minutes and assessment records during the 2010-11 fiscal year.

The town will pay for record-management upgrade costs not covered by the grants.

Of course Town Clerk Teressa Morasco, an employee there for 17 years, is also keenly involved with this process.

“It will be so much easier, things are at your finger tips and other departments will be able to use the system as well,” Morasco said.

For example, part of the staff is in the Highway Garage and the system helps them out tremendously.

"They don’t have to walk over every time they need a document,” Morasco said.

Storage space is a big issue at the town office and the new system will free up a lot of room.

Many of the building permits and the assessment records go back to the 1940s and '50s.

Digging through all that paperwork to find a document was no small task. Having the computer software to locate something in the system makes searching fast and simple.

"You don’t have to go through all those hoops,” Cordes said.

Even so, all the material has to be prepared before it can go through the scanner.

There are  several steps involved. All paper clips and staples have to be pulled off and every document has to face the same direction. Photographs cannot go through the document scanner so they have to be saved using a special scanner.

The employees work together to make the prep work easier.

“It takes a little while to get used to the procedure,” Morasco said.

But the rewards of the new information management system are easy to enjoy.

“There isn’t just one certain place it will help the most, it will help all around,” Morasco said.

A fire alarm has sounded in Area 1 of the Corfu Meadows Apartments, located at 53 West Main. St., in Corfu. Corfu fire department is responding with an engine and a rescue unit. Darien fire is on standby.

UPDATE (3:12 p.m.): Darien Fire Department is standing down.

UPDATE (3:15 p.m.): Corfu Fire Department is back in service.

The Sheriff's Office is investigating a series of car break-ins on Gabby Road, Town of Pembroke that occurred Thursday night between 10:30 and midnight.

Four cars were entered at two residences and one credit card was taken.

The card was used or attempted to be used at several stores in Erie County. 

Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster said not all of the charges were available as of yesterday, but the total is likely only a few hundred dollars.

The value of other items stolen likely exceeds $1,400 (GPS units, purses, sunglasses, etc.).

Brewster said these break-ins do not appear related to the credit card thefts from cars reported earlier in the week.

There's no new information available on that case.

Overnight, somebody pushed over the cow in front of the Cornell Cooperative Extension.

An officer on scene said the anchors appear out of the ground, but it doesn't look damaged.

Dispatch is attempting to contact an extension representative.

UPDATE: Officer Ed Mileham was still on scene when I stopped by for a quick picture and he said last week, pranksters hit the extension, too. Somebody rearranged the lettering of the message board to read "Eat Meat July 2." The cover of that board is now held in place by a padlock. The cow was anchored only with tent spikes.

After finishing covering a minor RV fire on Clinton Street Road, I made a right turn down Warner Road and spotted this disabled Galaxie 500 sitting in a field.

City Fire has responded to a working structure fire at 9 Prune St., Batavia.

UPDATE 7:36 p.m.: When I left the scene around 6:50 p.m., firefighters were still on scene trying to get the last of the fire smoldering in the roof. A neighbor told me the fire started on a couch sitting outside that had been left out for trash, but not picked up, because it wasn't tagged. The fire got into the structure of the house by climbing up the wall behind the siding. Chief Craig Williams didn't think the fire had moved into the front of the house. It seem contained to the back attic.

We'll provide an update when more information is released.

More pictures after the jump: