Buffalo

Press Release:

On Wednesday January 19, 2022, Batavia resident Chief Warrant Officer-4 Bob Bialkowski US Army (Ret) had the honor and privilege to attend and participate at a funeral in Arlington National Cemetery. I and five other members of a Pilot’s Fraternity from Buffalo attended the funeral of Edward A. Kozlowski, Jr. originally from Buffalo, NY. Ed was a fellow member of our fraternity.

Ed was a highly decorated Army helicopter pilot that had been shot down in Vietnam three times during 1969, once behind enemy lines which required an assault helicopter to provide aerial cover to drive back the enemy so that Ed and his crew could be rescued. In 1971 Ed became a member of the N.Y. Army Guard in Niagara Falls that I was a member of. After about a year Ed was chosen to transfer to the Air Force where he attended fixed wing flight school and went on to serve his country flying Aerial Refueling Tankers at SAC in Rome N.Y. Ed’s next tour he was assigned to flying the Top Secret AWAC aircraft at Tinker A.F. base for ten years where he was an Instructor and Aircraft Commander. Ed retired as a Major and went on to fly commercial aircraft for several years.

His funeral at Arlington was with full Military Honors. We were honored to walk to the ceremony site behind a Caisson with Ed’s remains, pulled by six horses with a full contingent of an Air Force Marching Band, Color Guard, Armed Unit and Squad of Armed Rifle men for the salute. Ed’s service was held near the burial site where the band played several times; an Air Force Chaplain read psalms and the presentation of the flag to the family was made.

Representatives of the Secretary of Defense were also in attendance to offer their condolences. There were approximately thirty members of the Air Force that participated. We then walked to Ed’s grave site with his family to say our final farewells. Walking on the grounds of Arlington where over fifty thousand veterans, many of whom paid
the ultimate price are buried was one of the most humbling experiences in my life. Participating in the funeral service was a great honor that I will always remember. We will be forever grateful to the Kozlowski family.

      

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More than 7,000 police officers, including ones from the Genesee County Sheriff's Office, Batavia PD, and Le Roy PD, lined the streets off Buffalo on Wednesday, saluting fallen comrade Craig E. Lehner, a Buffalo K-9 handler and member of underwater recovery team in Erie County who died two weeks ago during a training exercise.

“The most striking thing was to see his mother step out of the car, look left and right and up and down, all she could see were police officers on the streets, lined up, saluting her son,” said Chris Erion, Genesee County Sheriff's Deputy. “She just stopped, and her mouth opened.”

Lehner, 34, went missing on Oct. 13 in the Niagara River during a training exercise, after he failed to resurface. More than a dozen agencies joined forces, including the Coast Guard and Canadian Port Authorities, to find Lehner. His body was recovered five days later near Strawberry Island, about two miles from where he disappeared.

Erion said the experience was something he could not articulate.

“You can’t replicate it and you can’t put words to it,” Erion said. “You really can’t adequately describe it, when you’re a part of it.”

Erion met Lehner through a K-9 training group with the Niagara Regional Police Service in Ontario, Canada. They met a year ago and got to know each other during regular training sessions, twice a month. A couple weeks before the accident, Erion trained with Lehner and a couple other handlers for a week straight with the dogs.

“You have a group of people you train with regularly and get to know each other’s dogs and each other’s personalities,” Erion said. “He was a good guy. He was a good human being."

Lehner had the nickname of “the surfer” because of his laid-back attitude. Until it was time to work, then he hustled, Erion said.

“He was a very laid-back guy who treated everybody right,” Erion said. “But when it was time to get serious, he got serious.”

Erion said the funeral had a different tone because everyone was worn out and worried for so long.

“It was a little bit different because it wasn’t a single, quick incident that took him,” Erion said. “It was a long process, over five days they were looking for him.”

More than 8,000 people, officers, and members of the community attended the funeral at the KeyBank Center, sending Lehner on his way and supporting his family.

“I’d like to say I was surprised, but knowing Craig’s personality, I’m not,” Erion said. “He attracted people from all different walks of life. He let everybody in. He didn’t care what you were made of, he was a friend to a lot of people.”

Photo: Le Roy police officers after returning from the funeral detail. Photo submitted by Greg Kellogg.

A homicide in Buffalo early Friday may have a Genesee County connection.

The Buffalo News reports that Joseph Hale, 35, was shot in the back while in the area of  St. Paul Mall and Ellicott Street. He later died at ECMC.

A reader informs us that Hale was a former Batavia High School student. A public record check shows that a Joseph Hale, 35, has lived in Buffalo, Batavia and Corfu.

From the Buffalo News:

"Homicide detectives are attempting to trace the victim's whereabouts before the shooting incident occurred," said Dennis J. Richards, chief of detectives. "Mr. Hale was seen in the Allentown area earlier in the morning and prior to the shooting."

This is the city's 21st homicide of 2011.

An Erie County man has been accused of selling narcotics to a Genesee County undercover agent.

John L. Tillman, 34, of 87 Phyllis Ave., Buffalo, was picked up by the Erie County Warrants Office and turned over to the Genesee County Sheriff's Office today.

Tillman is charged with two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance 3rd and criminal possession of a controlled substance 3rd.

The Genesee County Local Drug Enforcement Task Force received a sealed indictment against Tillman after he allegedly sold crack cocaine in the City of Batavia to an undercover agent.

Tillman was arraigned in Genesee County Court and jailed without bail.

Flags at fire departments throughout Genesee County are flying at half staff today to honor two fallen comrades in Buffalo early Monday.

Buffalo's Lt. Charles W. "Chip" McCarthy Jr. and Firefighter Jonathan S. Croom died in a fire at a deli on Genesee Street, by apparently falling through the floor of the burning building while looking for a possible victim trapped inside.

McCarthy, a 22-year veteran of the department who comes from a family of Buffalo firefighters, is survived by his wife, Terry, three children and a 6-month-old grandchild. Croom, a 10-year veteran, leaves a 9-month-old child and his fiancee; fire officials said he lost a young child a few years ago.

The men and women who worked with McCarthy and Croom remember them as dedicated, professional firefighters.

Remember the well-dress man wandering around downtown two weeks ago -- the police sent out a bank-camera photo of the man and said he was wanted it connection with an alleged larceny?

Police tell me the post on The Batavian led to numerous tips.

Yesterday, Yusuf A. Hassem  a.k.a. Louis L. Reed, 69, of Buffalo was taken into custody and charged with one count of grand larceny.

It turns out Hassam allegedly ran a scam, convincing a local woman that he was recently arrived from Africa and didn't know what to do with $7,000 in cash he had on him. The woman suggested he open a checking account at Tonawanda Valley Credit Union.

Hassem reportedly told the woman he couldn't find an available teller and asked her to hold the $7,000 and handed her a folded handkerchief. It was later found that the handkerchief contained only cut-up newspaper.

And an envelope the woman had containing $2,000 was missing.

We're asking Det. Chuck Dudek for clarification on where the $2,000 came from and how Hassem was able to get his hands on it.

Hassem has two prior convictions for running con jobs.

After arraignment in City Court by Robert Balbick, Hassam was jailed without bail.

UPDATE, March 18, 10:30 a.m.:  We received this note from the State Police:

Reference the attached press release sent on 03/17/09, NYSP Clarence BCI received an anon. tip that WEBSTER WIGGINS was staying at a location in the City of Buffalo.  WIGGINS was located and arrested without incident.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- State Police are looking for a sex offender from Buffalo who could be anywhere in the state, according to Investigator Daniel Strozyk.

Webster E. Wiggins, Jr. 33, has refused to register as a sex offender since March 2004, according the Strozyk.

"He knows he's wanted," Strozyk said. "He could be anywhere. We know he was in Buffalo last week, but we received information that he moved and we don't know where."

Wiggins last resided at 2763 Main St., Buffalo. He's been known to travel elsewhere in the state.

Wiggins is 5-8, 155 lbs and has tattoos on both arms.

State Police are requesting anyone with information on Webster E. Wiggins Jr.  contact State Police at 716-759-6831.

Buffalo News reporters have been updating the site all day with updates on the crash of Continental Flight 3407 that plummeted onto a home in Clarence. Names of passengers have been leaking out throughout the day, and reporters have got up a video of eyewitness accounts.

Names of the dead began trickling out at midday, giving a window onto the group of passengers aboard the flight from Newark to Buffalo that crashed at about 10:15 p.m.

The names of victims emerging from families and friends included Alison DeForges, a noted historian and human rights activist who documented the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Also killed in the crash was Susan Wehle, cantor at Temple Beth Am in Amherst, and Zhaofang Guo, the husband of Dr. Ping Wang at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

In addition, the black boxes from the flight have been recovered, and the investigation into the cause of the crash has begun in earnest.

The Buffalo News is reporting that 49 people were killed Thursday night when a Continental Airlines flight crashed into a home in Clarence Center.

Continental Flight 3407, flying from Newark, N.J. to Buffalo, crashed into a house located at 6050 Long St. in Clarence Center, starting a large fire.

Unconfirmed reports from the Buffalo Niagara International Airport told the News that 44 passengers, four crew members and a person on the ground were killed in the accident, which is being blamed on mechanical problems that happened as the plane approached the airport.

There are also several injured people that have been taken to Erie County Medial Center.

If the old adage is true that misery loves company, Buffalo may be looking for a few new friends. Our neighbor to the west was recently dubbed the 8th most miserable city in America by Forbes magazine.

So, what does it take to be miserable?

We compiled our rankings by looking at the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S., which meant those with a population of at least 378,000. We ranked those metros on nine factors: commute times, corruption, pro sports teams, Superfund sites, taxes (both income and sales), unemployment, violent crime and weather.

Maybe a few of our readers can speak to the commute time and corruption. I've heard nothing especially damning about either. As for pro sports teams, there's really only one way to describe the past few seasons of the Bills and the Sabres: implosive. Taxes? Let's not even go there. Unemployment and violent crime... Can't say.

As for weather, the Buffalo News recently ran a piece by columnist Bruce Andriatch who wrote about one city resident who was so furious over having to shovel out his driveway yet again only to get re-buried under dirty snow plowed back onto the apron as soon as he had finished that he quite literally threw the shovel at the snowplow! We saw the grass and mud of the real solid ground the other day for the first time in over a month. And we just averaged the coldest January on record in my lifetime. So weather... yeah, not the greatest. Of course, many of us consider it a character builder. Until we start throwing shovels, that is.

Forbes has this to say of Buffalo:

If you like snow, Buffalo is your place—to the tune of 90 inches a year, more than any other metro area that has a million people. Buffalo's population has been steadily shrinking since the mid-1990s.

We want to know what this means for Batavia... Are we an island unto ourselves? Or will we get caught up in the whirlwind of misery that is Buffalo? Or would you side with columnist Donn Esmonde and look at this as a glass half full and even take umbrage with the ranking?

Honestly, I never found Buffalo all that miserable. I kind of like the city, in fact. They've got a great art museum, for starters. Plus, there's something appropriate to the times in the grey grunge atmosphere of the downtown. But that could be the gritty Upstater in me. Born and raised in blizzards and recessions. Child of potholes and missed field goals.

Folks in the region will have several opportunities to meet and speak with our governor in February. An article in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reports this morning that Gov. David Paterson will hold a series of at least four town-hall style meetings upstate to "allow residents to ask questions and interact with the governor on the ideas he lays out in the State of the State address." Gov. Paterson will give his State of the State this Wednesday at 1:00pm.

Of those meetings that have so far been scheduled, three will be held within a short distance of Batavia: one in Buffalo on February 18, one in Rochester on February 11 and another in Geneseo on February 12. Others will likely be held in Watertown and Binghamton.

From the article:

Paterson has moved away from Spitzer's plan to split up some state duties, particularly economic development, into upstate and downstate branches. Paterson has argued that New York is one state with a united purpose.

Andrew Rudnick, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, said an upstate address isn't necessary so long as the governor gives the region the attention it needs.

If the symbolism of an upstate speech, "isn't followed up by definitive policy and asset allocation, what much difference does it make?" he said.

Most people would likely agree that the most pressing issue now facing the state is the budget crisis. A few weeks ago, Paterson released his budget proposal that caused quite a stir. We've put together a poll with a few topics that might come up when the governor visits upstate. Pick whichever you most want to hear about. I figure that the budget proposal will likely be a major part of the State of the State this Wednesday, so try to think what's most important to upstate other than that.

A few weeks ago, we introduced our readers to Gina Pero, a hometown girl living out her dream on the stage, under the lights, kicking her legs, wowing the crowds. Yesterday, we met Emily Tworek Helenbrook, another hometown girl with lofty artistic aspirations and the talent to achieve them.

Emily is an ambitious 14 years old, the granddaughter of a former Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra concertmaster. So yeah, she says, music is in the family. Emily sings, plays the piano and the violin. Oh, and she plans to study law or linguistics... you know, so she has something to fall back on in case anything should happen to her voice.

She first took the stage when she was seven. She played Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz in her grade school Follies. Her twin brother and older brother performed with her, as well. Singing "Over the Rainbow" in the school's auditorium was enough to seal the deal, and it wasn't long after that first performance that Emily's aunt and mother started booking her shows in the area.

Soon enough, Emily got a reputation—and once you hear her sing, you'll understand why—and by the time she was 13, she had been invited to join the Buffalo group, Ars Nova, for the Viva Vivaldi Festival. Her solo debut was a Vivaldi motet!

Lessons, too, have been on her schedule. Emily has been studying at the Eastman School, and she plans to head to the Metropolitan Opera House for auditions when she turns 18.

"If I don't get right in, I'll keep trying until I do," she says.

Opera is her favorite, although she is especially fond of Baroque.

"Vivaldi, especially," she says. "It's really technical and very interesting."

This past Sunday, Emily debuted with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra as a soloist at the Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church in Clarence. She and the BPO will repeat that performance at the M&T Gold Dome Bank in downtown Buffalo on December 13. That concert will be free to the public. It begins at 1:00pm.