power outage

Attica and Wyoming central schools are closed this morning as a result of the fierce weather, according to WBTA's Dan Fischer.

We've also got power outages in the area: some 73 folks are without electricity in and around Alexander, and another 65 are in the dark in Darien. Wires have come down on Dewey Road in the town of Batavia. No outages yet reported in that region.

Some 2,000 residences in the city and town of Batavia and the town of Pembroke were without power this morning, according to WBTA's Dan Fischer. Electric was expected to be back up and flowing again by about 8:00am this morning. A transformer fire near Williams Park early this morning is believed to be responsible.

Last night, the Genesee County Legislature made its first tweaks to the proposed 2009 budget and cut in half the originally suggested 4.2 percent tax rate increase—which would have meant an added $10.26 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. County Manager Jay Gsell hopes that the legislature can eliminate the tax increase altogether by December 10, when the budget will be adopted.

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• About 7,000 National Grid customers in Genesee County lost their power around 9:00pm last night. A failure in the Batavia substation on Franklin Street was blamed for the outage that darkened city streets and left about 5,800 residents in Batavia and some 1,000 others in Alexander, Pembroke and Elba without their electricity until some time after midnight. (Some information for this brief was obtained from the Democrat & Chronicle.)

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• Parts of Alexander and Dodgeson roads in the town were without power during the morning hours Saturday. Genesee County sheriff's deputies told WBTA that National Grid was working on Route 98 at the city line at the time. There is no mention in the brief about whether National Grid expected delays or if the company had notified anyone of potential outages. Nor do we know how long residents were without power.