Development group works on image of Niagara Falls

December 22, 2012, 7:07 pm

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NIAGARA FALLS – As the owner of some of the most coveted – and potentially valuable – real estate in upstate New York, Niagara Falls Redevelopment has a vested interest in seeing to it that people believe the city is safe.

Now the group is trying to make that happen.

The Federal Law Enforcement Foundation, which has a direct connection with NFR, will soon begin funding programs for the Niagara Falls Police Department.

The foundation is led by Anthony Bergamo, who founded it and also is the chief executive officer of NFR. Roger Trevino, executive vice president of the NFR, said he is serving as an intermediary between the two groups.

“We don’t pretend to know what they need, but will work with the local police department in identifying those needs,” Trevino said. “It will happen on their needs basis, not ours. We are looking to become involved and see what is really needed. We are hoping to do a lot of good work.”

The foundation has put cash into the pockets of first responders in their time of need, handing out more than $15 million over the past 25 years.

No specific programs or funding for Niagara Falls has been announced, but the goal will be to change the city’s image.

“It is the perception, whether real or perceived, that thinks that tourists are targets,” Trevino said.

NFR owner Howard Milstein also is a supporter of the foundation. Trevino conceded that NFR would be a major beneficiary if perceptions of safety in the city change, but he said there are “no politics involved” in giving funds to the Niagara Falls Police Department.

“Mr. Bergamo has been involved in the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation longer than he has been with NFR. He was the foundation founder,” Trevino said. “These programs are in over 200 communities and over 10 foreign countries.”

The connection between the two groups became more public this month when Trevino provided Niagara Falls Officer William Gee two checks for $1,000, one from NFR and another one from the foundation.

Gee, a single father raising two sons, has stage 4 stomach cancer and has been unable to return to work.

Trevino said the foundation has provided funds to other local first responders, offering support for programs and grants for fallen and injured officers in the Buffalo Police Department, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office and funds for area police athletic leagues.

“They put their life on the line and it is a pleasure to pay them back,” he said of first responders.

Trevino said NFR will continue to work with law enforcement to help change public perceptions of Niagara Falls. He noted that quality of life issues are what people look at when they move to a community.

He said foundation funding includes scholarship programs, drug reduction programs, executive education, Big Brother programs, widows and children’s funds and financial assistance for police athletic leagues throughout the country.

email: nfischer@buffnews.com

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Niagara Cerebral Palsy is big loser at trial

December 22, 2012, 7:09 pm

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Only the jurors know for sure the turning point in the 17-day trial, when they turned against the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Niagara County.

Jurors deliberated only about two hours Tuesday before awarding $11.1 million to a 59-year-old blind and developmentally disabled man who has lived for 26 years in a Niagara Falls group home run by the association.

Robert Behringer is a kind, easygoing man who is prone to seizures and unable to care for himself.

His brother, Earl Behringer Jr., who brought the lawsuit as Robert’s guardian, said Robert endured dozens of incidents at the 10-person group home since 2006 that stripped him of his dignity and jeopardized his safety.

While the trial focused on the care provided to Robert Behringer, his attorneys raised questions at the trial about the association’s quality assurance program that is supposed to protect the hundreds of people served at the association’s other facilities across Niagara County.

Niagara Cerebral Palsy operates four intermediate care facilities: the Niagara House on Lockport Road, where Robert lives; and facilities in the City of Lockport and the towns of Niagara and Wheatfield, according to the association’s website. These facilities provide 24-hour care to residents. Residents participate in off-site program activities and day-treatment programs. The services include occupational, physical and speech therapies as well as recreational activities and nursing care, according to the association’s website.

About two dozen people live in six other homes operated by the association, according to the website. In all, Niagara Cerebral Palsy serves some 700 people through its residential, educational and vocational programs and other services, said Diane Bahre, the association’s quality assurance administrator, who testified at the trial.

Bahre said she looks into 700 to 800 reported incidents a year, everything from bruises to more serious health concerns that require trips to the hospital. She also looks into allegations of abuse and employee misconduct.

“I investigate everything that’s brought to my attention,” she testified.

“She is terribly overworked,” said attorney Terrence M. Connors, who, with co-counsel Joseph D. Morath Jr., represented Behringer.

“Niagara Cerebral Palsy is not taking the time and money to invest in a good quality-assurance program,” Connors said in his closing argument.

David C. Blaxill, a New York City lawyer who represented the association, declined to comment after the verdict.

Early in the trial, Michelle Adams said she quit working at the association’s Niagara Falls group home on Lockport Road after only a short time because of what she called “horrific conditions.”

She said her complaints went nowhere when she worked at the group home. So she detailed her concerns in her resignation letter.

“My verbal words were falling on deaf ears,” she said in her videotaped testimony. “I would constantly speak to management, speak to upper supervisors, about things that I saw that were happening in the house, and nobody was doing anything.”

With the resignation letter, “it was my hope at some point somebody would be able to see at least written, you know, that there are things going on here that need to be addressed, because it wasn’t happening with me telling them verbally,” she said.

She said she heard employees talking about sexual behaviors, using foul language, talking to residents inappropriately and leaving work before the end of their shifts, with co-workers falsifying their time sheets.

No one from the association followed up with her.

“It’s ludicrous,” Adams testified. “Not once has anybody contacted me by phone, by mail, by anything, to ask me question, to ask me to explain myself … to ask any questions about the things that happened. It’s as if it didn’t exist, as if what I saw and what happened there did not exist.”

Earl Behringer, a 71-year-old jeweler, formerly of Amherst, provided emotional testimony about growing up with Robert.

“He just loved life,” Behringer said. “He just loved everything.”

Robert would call Earl “Pudgy,” Earl recalled.

When Robert turned 16, his mother could not physically take care of him. So Robert was sent to the West Seneca Developmental Center.

Almost two decades later, Robert then moved to Niagara County, where the family thought his care would be better and he would be less restricted, Earl Behringer said.

After Earl moved to Florida in 1983, he said he tried to call Robert every week. When he moved to Amherst to care for his elderly parents, he said, he had a standing request for the association to transport Robert to his East Amherst home every Sunday in July and August for lunch.

After Earl returned to Florida, he began receiving reports about incidents and injuries to his brother: broken bones, teeth knocked out and an uptick in seizures, among other problems.

The brother said medication errors triggered and worsened Robert’s seizures.

Niagara Cerebral Palsy employees described how they took Robert to hospitals in Rochester and Buffalo to find treatments, medications and medical devices to reduce his seizures, and they reported the number of seizures has fallen dramatically in recent falls.

Earl Behringer said he received phone calls and letters from the nonprofit organization alerting him about what has happening.

“There were so many phone calls like this,” he testified. “I wanted to get him out of there for his safety.”

Connors told jurors that he believed the trial’s pivotal moments came during the cross-examinations of two of the experts hired by the defense team: Dr. Patrick J. Hughes, a Southtowns neurologist, and Richard Bradley, executive director of the Arc of Alachua County in Gainesville, Fla.

Hughes testified that Robert Behringer was among the small percentage of epilepsy patients whose seizures cannot be controlled.

During Connors’ cross-examination, however, Hughes confirmed his “cursory examination” of Robert Behringer lasted just seven minutes, for which he was paid $2,100.

“His exam, to be kind, was a joke,” Connors told jurors during his closing argument.

Hughes, who said he has not conducted research or published any articles or given any lectures on cerebral palsy, said the number of examinations he has administered on behalf of defense lawyers might be as many as one thousand.

Bradley, whose Gainesville organization runs a group home, testified employees can make mistakes when “under a tremendous amount of pressure with a lot of things going on in that facility.”

As for slips and falls and other accidents involving residents, “these are things that happen in the real world,” Bradley said.

Bradley review records and talked to Niagara Cerebral Palsy employees to prepare for his testimony.

Bradley called many of the complaints against Niagara Cerebral Palsy “simply allegations not proven.”

“I don’t believe all those allegations are true,” he said.

He called the association’s care of Behringer, “in general, a very professional delivery of service over that time.”

Connors, however, sought to discredit Bradley by bringing up allegations that Arc of Alachua County failed to properly care for a 23-year-old resident who was hit by a car and killed after wandering away from the Gainesville group home last summer.

The Agency for Persons with Disabilities, a Florida state agency, has filed an administrative complaint with the state and is seeking to revoke the group home’s license, according to a Nov. 30 report by the Tampa Bay Times.

“They can’t prevail unless you buy Bradley and Hughes,” Connors said of Niagara Cerebral Palsy in his closing argument.

Within hours, the jury came back with its verdict. Niagara Cerebral Palsy did not prevail.

email: plakamp@buffnews.com

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Air Base’s new mission is a controversial one

December 22, 2012, 7:47 pm

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WASHINGTON – The lifeline that Congress threw to an Air National Guard unit in Niagara Falls last week may end up being a death sentence someday for terrorists holed up in the hills of Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia.

That’s because some of the men and the women of what’s now the 107th Airlift Wing will soon be piloting drones that, most likely, will spy on or kill American adversaries overseas.

It’s the Air Force’s fastest-growing, most cutting-edge mission – one that’s likely to preserve most, but not all, of the 107th’s 845 jobs, which include those of 580 Guardsmen and women. What’s more, supporters say the move is likely to keep the oft-endangered 107th in business for years or decades to come.

Yet it’s also perhaps the Air Force’s most controversial mission – one that forces airmen to push the “kill” button on suspects who will never get captured, never get interrogated, never get a chance to defend themselves in a court of law.

Not surprisingly, then, a raging debate is about to come to Western New York: one between those who think targeted drone strikes are the best way to eliminate the terrorist threat without putting U.S. troops in harm’s way, and those who decry targeted killings by robot aircraft as a new and immoral form of warfare – especially when it claims the life of innocent civilians and U.S. citizens.

It’s a debate between the likes of Rep. Kathleen C. Hochul, D-Hamburg, and Charles Bowman, interim director of the Western New York Peace Center.

Through the use of drones, “we can identify with incredible precision our actual enemies, the terrorists,” said Hochul, who led the fight to find a new mission for the 107th once the Air Force proposed shutting down the unit early this year. “This is not a perfect way to do it, but it is an effective way that we can accomplish our goal with, I believe, less loss of life.”

Bowman could not see things much differently.

“These are executions,” he said of the targeted killing of terror suspects, which has escalated dramatically under the Obama administration. “This is not a way of fostering world peace.”

The use of drones is, however, the way of the future.

The Air Force says it trained 350 drone pilots last year, and that by 2015, it will need 2,000 of them. Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, told the New York Times this summer that it’s “conceivable” that the Air Force one day will have more pilots flying drones than manned aircraft.

That being the case, Hochul identified a drone mission, along with others in reconnaissance and cyber security, as her top targets for a new role for the 107th.

“I wanted to make sure that we weren’t going to be getting something old-school – obsolete even,” said Hochul, who relentlessly lobbied Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and the Air Force for a new role for the 107th. “I knew that the generals were asking for this. It has a more likely chance of being here long term.”

Already, U.S. Predator drones and their faster, heavier cousins, the Reapers, patrol the skies over the world’s trouble spots, gathering intelligence and firing missiles at suspected terrorists.

As a result, drone strikes have claimed the lives of several prominent terrorist leaders, including Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti – al-Qaida’s second-in-command – and Anwar al-Aulaqi, an American Muslim cleric who was believed to have influenced Fort Hood shootings suspect Nidal Malik Hasan. And long before that, a missile fired from a Predator drone killed Kamal Derwish, an American citizen who greatly influenced the “Lackawanna Six” terror suspects.Government officials have had little to say about those targeted killings, but John Brennan, President Obama’s top anti-terrorism adviser, did offer some details in an April speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.

“Yes, in full accordance with the law – and in order to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States and to save American lives – the United States government conducts targeted strikes against specific al-Qaida terrorists, sometimes using remotely piloted aircraft, often referred to publicly as drones,” Brennan said.

There’s no doubt those drone strikes have been effective, but according to a report by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, they also have caused a lot of collateral damage – in the form of innocent lives lost.

In Pakistan, for example, the U.S. has launched 354 drone strikes in the past eight years, some 302 of them during the Obama administration. Those strikes have claimed between 2,597 and 3,398 lives – including 176 children.

Noting that the Times has reported that Obama selects many of those terror targets based on the intelligence information provided to him, Bowman, of the Peace Center, asked: “Do you think those children are any different than the children of Newtown?”

Defenders of drones say that the U.S. takes strong steps to try to protect civilians.

“We only authorize a strike if we have a high degree of confidence that innocent civilians will not be injured or killed, except in the rarest of circumstances,” Brennan said.

Yet there are other moral questions attendant to the use of drones, said Naureen Shah, associate director of the Counterterrorism and Human Rights Project at the Columbia University Law School.

“Drones don’t provide any opportunity for persons targeted to surrender,” she said. “There’s no way to interrogate them. At Guantanamo Bay and [prisons] in Afghanistan, at least we had the opportunity to find out who these people were. Here we’re killing people before finding out who they are.”U.S. government officials insist, though, that they have a high rate of success in terms of targeting people who could prove to be a danger to the U.S. And if that means violating Pakistani territory to do it, so be it, said Panetta.

“We have made clear to the Pakistanis that the United States of America is going to defend ourselves against those who attack us,” Panetta said while on a trip to India this summer. “This is not just about protecting the United States. It’s also about protecting Pakistan. And we have made it very clear that we are going to continue to defend ourselves.”

Civil libertarians are concerned, though, that U.S. citizens are among those being targeted. For that reason, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed two lawsuits against the government – one of which has already been dismissed – arguing that the government cannot legally kill U.S. citizens in drone strikes far from any battlefield.

In court papers, the government justifies the killing of civilians by saying it’s a matter of national defense.

“Under these criteria, though, this [a targeted killing] could happen to any American citizen,” which is why the government’s argument should be seen as “scary,” said Brett Max Kaufman, national security fellow at the ACLU.

Hochul, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, acknowledged that many serious questions surround the use of drones. But she said their use can be easily justified, on moral grounds, in more than one way.

For one thing, and most importantly, “this is the only we have to address those threats before they come to our shores,” she said.

Hochul also argued that the use of drones actually minimizes civilian casualties, because the targeting of their missile strikes has become so precise.

Beyond that, she said: “This is also about our men and women in uniform,” who more rarely have to go to war zones now but instead pilot drone strikes from thousands of miles away. “This saves their lives. That’s an important priority of mine, protecting our men and women in uniform.”Flying drones is a very different mission for the men and women of the 107th, who now fly cargo planes, but Hochul said the members of the unit will have no problem with the change. In fact, she said she’s received emails and calls from members of the unit, thanking her for helping save it.

“I have every confidence that the men and women at that base will adapt,” Hochul said. “This is a better long-term opportunity for us, because there’s going to be more investment in drones.”

And when that investment comes to Niagara Falls, the Peace Center will be ready, Bowman said.

The Peace Center has sent protesters to Hancock Field in Syracuse, site of a similar Air Force drone operation to the one expected to start in Niagara, “and when and if this happens in Niagara, we will be out there protesting, too,” he said.

email: jzremski@buffnews.com.

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Ex-student wrestler sues opponent over herpes

December 22, 2012, 7:48 pm

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A former Williamsville South student who claims to have contracted skin herpes at a high school wrestling tournament last year has sued his opponent, three high schools and the doctors who cleared the other student to wrestle him.

The top-seeded wrestler beat his Iroquois High School opponent in five minutes to win his weight class, earning him a spot in the state qualifier tournament. But his three winning matches at the Section VI Class A championship wrestling tournament at Lockport’s Starpoint High School in February 2011 turned out to be his last competition after the herpes gladiatorum virus put a hold on him.

The Iroquois student knew he was infected with the herpes virus and concealed an active outbreak, according to the lawsuit filed in State Supreme Court.

As a result, the Williamsville wrestler contracted the virus from him and became sick, the lawsuit said.

The young man, who has since graduated from Williamsville South, said he suffered pain and embarrassment and will continue to suffer from the virus for the rest of his life.

His lawsuit listed sores, headaches, scarring, dizziness and sleep disturbance, among other complaints.

The former Williamsville South wrestler and his parents are also suing the other student’s parents, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, as well as Williamsville South, Starpoint and Iroquois high schools.

The lawsuit alleges that the Iroquois student’s parents knew their son was infected and allowed him to compete in the tournament anyway.

The lawsuit alleges that coaches and officials at the high schools allowed the infected wrestler to participate in the tournament “even though he had obvious open wounds, rashes and/or blisters on his body.”

The high schools put the Williamsville wrestler “in imminent hazard” by failing to provide properly trained coaches, physicians and other individuals to see to the safety and well-being of students and take reasonable steps to avoid the incident, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit said a physician who treated the Iroquois student before the wrestling tournament filled out a medical release form allowing him to wrestle.

Another doctor, who served as the tournament physician, performed skin checks on both wrestlers but failed to properly examine the Iroquois wrestler and allowed him to participate, according to the lawsuit.

In court papers, the Iroquois student denied that he knew he had an active outbreak and his parents also denied knowing their son was infected on the date of the tournament.

The Iroquois student’s doctor, in court papers, said any injuries suffered by the former Williamsville South wrestler “were not brought about by any negligence or malpractice” by the doctor.

Lawyers Jacob A. Piorkowski, who represents the former Williamsville South athlete, and Leonard Berkowitz, who represents the Iroquois wrestler, both declined to comment on the lawsuit.

A pretrial conference before State Supreme Court Justice Patrick H. NeMoyer is scheduled for next month.

A week after the wrestling tournament in Lockport, the Erie County Health Department issued an advisory about several cases of skin infection among the high school wrestlers who participated in the tournament. The highly transmissible herpes skin infection is common among wrestlers, the advisory noted. The department advised health care providers to be vigilant in examining and treating wrestlers.

Wrestlers from a dozen high schools competed in the tournament at Starpoint.

The athletic association replied in court papers that the wrestler, who was 18 at the time, knew the hazards and dangers and assumed the risks in participating in the tournament. The association also cited a signed waiver. The association also claimed as a defense that any injuries also were caused in whole or in part by the Williamsville wrestler’s own negligence.

Courts in another part of the state have previously dealt with a similar lawsuit.

A high school wrestler from Long Island sued his opponent and the school district after allegedly contracting herpes during a wrestling match. In that case, a trial judge denied the school district’s request to dismiss the case without a trial, but an appeals court in Brooklyn reversed that ruling and dismissed the complaint. By engaging in a sport, a participant consents to “commonly appreciated risks,” the appeals court said.

“By its nature, wrestling involves close contact between participants, and it follows that diseases transmitted through skin-to-skin contact may result,” the appellate court said in its 2009 ruling.

The Long Island school district and wrestling coach informed students about the risk of contracting herpes and had distributed a packet of information about the virus and other infections.

The former Williamsville South wrestler and his parents said in their lawsuit that a prudent person would not have competed against the Iroquois wrestler if fully informed of the risks.

Because he was not properly informed of the risks of wrestling his opponent at the tournament, the Williamsville wrestler said, he did not give a valid informed consent, according to the lawsuit.

email: plakamp@buffnews.com

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Indoor firing range debuts at Air Reserve Station

December 23, 2012, 6:51 am

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NIAGARA FALLS – Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station officials last week opened a new $6.5 million indoor firing range.

The 28,000-square-foot small-arms range will provide year-round firearms training for airmen assigned to the base and for other area law enforcement agencies, base officials said.

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Former county executive urges quick search for next Bills owners

December 23, 2012, 8:19 pm

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The Buffalo Bills should act sooner, rather than later, to search for a new ownership group willing to tackle the heavy debt load of buying the team and possibly building a new stadium, the team’s former landlord, Joel A. Giambra, urged Sunday.

Giambra, the former two-term Erie County executive, said he plans to contact the Bills with his thoughts after news of a 10-year lease deal that keeps the team here for at least the next seven years. In those first seven years, the team would have to pay $400 million to move.

“The reality is that it’s going to be very difficult to keep this team here in the long run,” Giambra said in a telephone interview. “It appears to me that in order to keep this franchise in this community [long-term], it’s going to take an ownership group willing to lose tens of millions a year for a long period of time.

“We should find out now if there is an ownership group willing to buy this team,” he added. “Shouldn’t we find out sooner, rather than later?”

Bills CEO Russ Brandon said he’s grown weary of answering such questions, especially after owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. and the team made such an ironclad commitment to stay here for the next seven years.

“It’s tiresome,” Brandon said Sunday, about 20 minutes before the Bills-Miami Dolphins kickoff. “It’s a tiresome question, and we should be focused on the fact that Mr. Wilson once again has proven his loyalty, his commitment and his dedication to Western New York. This should be a time of celebrating him for his continued commitment.”

In 1998, if the Bills, Erie County and New York State had carved out a 25-year lease deal, people would have been thrilled, Brandon said. That, in effect, is what has happened – with the 15-year lease signed then and the new 10-year lease – plus the Bills have made a much stronger commitment to staying here for at least the next seven years, he said. Also, the parties involved have committed resources to study the feasibility of a new stadium and the team’s long-term future here.

“It’s a win-win, progressive agreement,” Brandon said.

Agreeing with Brandon was Erkie Kailbourne, a veteran banking executive and former head of the Business Backs the Bills committee.

“It was a great seven-year commitment to keep the team here that long, if not longer,” Kailbourne said Sunday. “I am very pleased. I think it was a real commitment by Mr. Wilson to keep the team here in a small market.”

Giambra, though, cited some pretty sobering numbers tied to the Bills staying here long-term.

The Bills might fetch an $800 million sale price, most analysts agree. And a new stadium likely would cost in the neighborhood of $1 billion. With pressure on governments not to spend too much taxpayer money on such facilities, a new ownership group building a new stadium likely would face a debt load of over $1 billion, business leaders have said.

That’s an extremely heavy lift, no matter how many young hedge-fund multimillionaires can be lured to a new ownership group.

Giambra acknowledged that it’s difficult to talk about the Buffalo Bills after Ralph Wilson, who has been the only owner since the team began in 1960.

“Nobody wants to talk about this,” he said. “It’s uncertain how long Mr. Wilson will remain the owner of this team. That uncertainty is going to make it even more difficult for us to keep the team after seven years, if we don’t get a new ownership team soon.”

The problem, of course, is that Buffalo, as a smaller-market team in a region with a lack of Fortune 500 companies, faces a “price ceiling” in how much the team can charge for tickets, premium seats, suites and sponsorships.

As county executive for eight years, Giambra said he met with Wilson almost every year at summer training camp. At those times, Giambra claimed, Wilson made it clear to him that small markets would face a tough time competing in the new National Football League economics.

“My concern is very similar to the concerns that Mr. Wilson shared with me many times,” Giambra said. “Can this community, under the current NFL economics and the economic conditions of this community, compete to keep an NFL franchise here?

“Is pro football in this market over after seven years?” Giambra added. “Nobody has the answer to that question. But we as a community and the team’s ownership – either this ownership or a new ownership group – have to determine that sooner, rather than later.”

Others, though, say that the new seven-year guarantee buys a lot of time. By 2020, some other team, such as Jacksonville’s or San Diego’s, could have filled the obvious franchise void in Los Angeles.

And some people believe it’s not a foregone conclusion that Ralph Wilson Stadium must be replaced. Staying in that stadium long-term, though, probably would require a more major investment, costing hundreds of millions of dollars.

“The seven years allows the Bills a lot of options to remain in Western New York,” Kailbourne said. “At the end of the day, their current facility is still a great football venue.”

email: gwarner@buffnews.com

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Shooting suspect’s statement should be suppressed, lawyer says

December 23, 2012, 8:24 pm

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LOCKPORT – The attorney for Niagara Falls shooting suspect Paul E. Buck Jr. argued last week that his client’s statement should be ruled inadmissible for his upcoming trial.

Dominic Saraceno of the county conflict defender’s staff said police kept questioning him after Buck asked to leave Police Headquarters.

That’s not the way Detectives Patrick Stack and John Conti said they heard it. Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III will rule on the admissibility of the tape of the interview in early January.

Buck was brought in for questioning in the wake of the near-fatal April 25 shooting of Anthony McDougald, 18, at 12th and Niagara streets. McDougald was left with a bullet in his chest that surgeons could not safely remove.

Buck, 23, of Niagara Falls Boulevard, is charged with assault and gang assault, along with Marlyn M. Rubin, 20, of Niagara Street, and Jacob J. Taggart, 23, of Niagara Avenue.

Saraceno was named to represent Buck after Murphy openly criticized the performance of his previous attorney, Assistant Public Defender Matthew P. Pynn, and Buck asked for a new lawyer.

Murphy believed Pynn should have cross-examined Conti in an Oct. 2 hearing about Buck’s requests to leave. Conti denied that Buck ever made any such requests.

On the portions of the video played in court, Buck made such remarks as “Can I get the [expletive] out of here?” and “How long am I going to be held here? I want to go home.”

Conti said he read Buck his rights. “You have a right to stop answering my questions any time you desire,” Conti said he told Buck. “He never asked me to stop asking questions.”

“The issue is whether he exercised his third right under the Miranda warnings – the right to stop answering questions,” Saraceno said. “He shouldn’t have to make multiple requests.”

Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann argued, “Mr. Buck’s request throughout this interview is never a specific request to stop the questions.”

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com

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Snowstorm Wednesday into Thursday to follow White Christmas

December 24, 2012, 5:26 am

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Virtually all Western New Yorkers will enjoy the perfect kind of white Christmas on Tuesday – with a light coating of snow creating a picture-perfect Christmas postcard, but not enough snow or howling winds to cause mayhem on the road to grandma’s house.

But the real thing, with heavy snow and hazardous driving conditions, is expected to hit here Wednesday and Thursday.

The National Weather Service on Monday afternoon issued a winter storm watch for the whole area, from Wednesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon.

Snow totals are expected to reach up to a foot, and possibly more in select locations.

Before that, a less severe storm pushing into the area late Monday night and into the predawn hours Tuesday should dump an inch or two of snow on the whole region.

Just in time for Christmas.

“Everyone in Western New York has got at least a coating of snow,” National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Hibbert said Monday evening. “It may not be a lot, and there might be some blades of grass poking through here and there, but this additional inch will cover those up. And it should be enough to cover Santa’s tracks.”

After Christmas, the synoptic snowstorm barreling in from the southwest is expected to hit the Southern Tier late Wednesday afternoon and evening, before heading northward and lasting into the overnight and Thursday morning.

“The impact will be similar for all of Western New York,” Hibbert said.

email: gwarner@buffnews.com

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Donors brighten holidays for thousands

December 24, 2012, 6:41 pm

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A glistening white Christmas tree, with wrapped presents peeking out from beneath decorated branches, brought sparkle and holiday cheer to Bernice Montanez and her family.

But the Season of Giving really arrived early this month for them, thanks to the News Neediest Fund.

The family recently moved into their Massachusetts Avenue apartment on the West Side, which was virtually empty of furniture and food when The News reported on their situation Dec. 5.

Now, it’s furnished, and the kitchen cupboards and refrigerator are stocked, thanks to readers’ generosity.

“I feel a lot better. I’m very blessed to have people – total strangers – in my life that care about me, that want to help me. They put love in my heart,” Montanez said.

“I would like to thank everyone. Hopefully, by this time next year, I will be in a position to pay it forward.”

The Montanez family was one of 6,450 families helped this year in Erie and Niagara counties by the News Neediest Fund, in which The Buffalo News teams up with the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County and Greater Niagara, the Olmsted Center for Sight/211 CRS and others.

That total includes toys and other items for 11,907 children, according to the preliminary count. More than 2,000 individuals and corporations have given $182,847 in cash contributions, with that amount also expected to rise.

Angel Gordon, the subject of one of the News Neediest stories, was offered help of a different kind. Leslie Ayer, program coordinator for the Buffalo and Erie County Workforce Development Health Professions Collaborative, read that Gordon hoped to be a nurse someday. He called her to say she was eligible for a grant that would help her train as a certified nurse assistant while receiving transportation and day care assistance.

“[Gordon] said this was ‘the best Christmas present I have received in a long time,’” Ayer said.

Nor was it only adults who gave. Those who helped came in all sizes, including children.

Madison Scott, 11, helped get donations of 1,000 toys and 300 pounds of food, while 5-year-old Olivia Roneker’s efforts helped collect enough food to fill two SUVs.

A young boy who wanted to help after reading a News Neediest story had his father drive him to The News to donate $35.

No story this season got a bigger response than that of Montanez, a 35-year-old single mother who, after being struck by a car five years ago, was in a coma for six months and suffered a traumatic brain injury.

The accident caused her to lose partial use of her right arm, and she eventually had to learn to walk again, wobbly, on her toes.

Montanez, who does piecework at Goodwill, and her two sons – her two daughters live with their father – were forced to live with relatives for several months before moving into an affordable-rate apartment last month rehabilitated by PUSH Buffalo.

But there was no furniture, except for a love seat; no food, except peanut butter and jelly; and nowhere to sleep. Hours after the story appeared, the first of numerous donations – from furniture to gift cards to cash – began pouring in.

The Basil family, which owns automobile dealerships, had delivered a new queen-sized bed for Montanez and smaller beds for the boys.

A couple, who wish to be anonymous, provided a coffee table, end tables, pullout couch, two chairs – including a recliner – glass cabinet and dining table with chairs that belonged to a recently deceased family member.

Jason Hunter, 38, and sister Carly Hunter, 31, of Eden, were so moved they called The News with a truck full of groceries, looking for a delivery address.

“They can have steak and shrimp tonight,” Jason Hunter said.

But that wasn’t all.

They bought each of the boys laptops, a phone for Montanez with a year’s service and five sets of winter hats and gloves, which the article noted she and her teenage sons needed. They also gave Montanez $500 to buy Christmas gifts for her daughters, which the article said she had been unable to do the past two years.

They also bought the family a flat-screen TV.

The humble brother and sister, who work as a corrections officer and marketing director, respectively, said they spent about $2,000.

“She looked so stressed in that picture, and we felt for her so much. We wish we could do more,” Jason Hunter said. “We grew up with a family of seven kids and not having much, and we’ve been blessed. We just want to share our blessings.”

The brother and sister arrived at Montanez’s door with a bouquet of flowers.

“It was one of the most fulfilling moments of my life,” Jason Hunter said later. “It was a true, pure experience.”

Goodwill and PUSH, Montanez’s News Neediest Fund sponsor, also received offers of help. Maria Zwack, Montanez’s case manager at Goodwill, said one woman brought in a roll of quarters.

”She’ll need them for cleaning clothes at the laundromat,” Zwack quoted the woman as saying.

Zwack said she’s thrilled to see good things happening to Montanez.

“Bernice would give her last dime to anybody. She would give it away before she found comfort for herself,” Zwack said. “She has also pushed through a lot of pain and discomfort to get to where she is now.”

Alvin Gibbs, the maintenance supervisor for Montanez’s apartment building, said it’s been wonderful to see the changes because of the News Neediest Fund.

“Since the story, she doesn’t do nothing but cry and talk about how much she appreciates everything. She had nothing, she was sleeping on the floor with her kids. Now she has beds, she has all the necessities of life, and she’s definitely grateful,” Gibbs said.

Montanez said she now is getting a good night’s sleep for the first time in months. And Zaindre, her 15-year-old son who had earlier told her, “Mom, my pride is almost gone,” has a greatly improved outlook.

“Oh God, he’s excited. He doesn’t seem like that now. He’s really back to his old self, except he’s happier,” she said.

So was Montanez on a recent day, as she looked out on the Christmas tree that a daughter and niece decorated. Nearby in a vase were the flowers Jason and Carly Hunter gave her.

“I’m going to [dry them] and put them in my Bible,” she said.

email: msommer@buffnews.com

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White Christmas to be followed by whiter post-Christmas

December 24, 2012, 6:41 pm

≫ Next: Hoover’s Dairy – offering egg nog with no equal

≪ Previous: Donors brighten holidays for thousands

Virtually all Western New Yorkers should enjoy the perfect kind of white Christmas today – with a light coating of snow creating a picture-perfect Christmas postcard, but not enough snow or howling winds to cause mayhem on the road to grandma’s house.

But the real thing, with heavy snow and hazardous driving conditions, is expected to hit here Wednesday and Thursday.

The National Weather Service on Monday afternoon issued a winter storm watch for the whole area, from Wednesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon.

Snow totals are expected to reach up to a foot, and possibly more in select locations.

Before that, a less severe storm pushing into the area late Monday night and into the predawn hours today should dump an inch or two of snow on the whole region.

Just in time for Christmas.

“Everyone in Western New York has got at least a coating of snow,” National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Hibbert said Monday evening. “It may not be a lot, and there might be some blades of grass poking through here and there, but this additional inch will cover those up. And it should be enough to cover Santa’s tracks.”

After Christmas, the synoptic snowstorm barreling in from the southwest is expected to hit the Southern Tier late Wednesday afternoon and evening, before heading northward and lasting into the overnight and Thursday morning.

“The impact will be similar for all of Western New York,” Hibbert said.

email: gwarner@buffnews.com

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Hoover’s Dairy – offering egg nog with no equal

December 24, 2012, 6:45 pm

≫ Next: County Legislature endorses $25 million NCCC project

≪ Previous: White Christmas to be followed by whiter post-Christmas

SANBORN – Chris Phillips of Wilson walked into Hoover’s Dairy just before 9 a.m. Friday and, without anyone asking, made clear that he was a man on a mission: “I have to get more egg nog before it’s all gone again.”

Keep in mind that at this point, there was a chance the world was going to end in a few hours, so there wasn’t a lot of time for chitchat. But even without looming Armageddon, if you’ve ever had Hoover’s egg nog, you understand the urgency.

Happily for Phillips and for egg nog lovers near and far, the apocalypse was a no-show. Even better, Rob Hoover and his family were well-prepared for the steady stream of people making their annual Yule journey to the nondescript little white building on the big farm in rural Niagara County.

The Hoover name is literally synonymous with this part of the county, where the family has been farming since the late 1800s and operating the dairy since 1920.

Yet of the 12 Western New York institutions we’ve chronicled in this yearlong series, Hoover’s is arguably the least well-known of the group outside of the immediate area. If you know it at all, it’s likely by virtue of its standing as one of the few remaining independent dairies in the United States and part of an even smaller group that still delivers milk products, which it does to about 1,600 homes across Niagara County.

Although the family no longer sells the milk produced by their own cows, the Hoovers hold onto another throwback from an earlier time by bottling in glass. Once the industry standard before plastic became the preferred material for containers, glass bottles now are a rarity, but for Hoover’s customers, glass is one of the main selling points. For a brief period every year, Hoover’s breaks out the recipe perfected by Rob II – great-grandson of founder Edwin Hoover – fills up those glass bottles with a sweet, yellowish, creamy elixir, and, like sailors answering the siren’s call, people start showing up to experience Nog-vana.

“A lot of people have told us they didn’t like egg nog,” Rob Hoover said. “Then they’ll try it, and the next thing you know, they’re coming in to buy it.”

The homemade egg nog has not been a constant in Hoover history; for years, the family sold it, but didn’t make it. But Rob wanted to try to improve on what was out there.

“Trial and error,” he said. “My last batch isn’t like my first batch.”

The nog is made on site, mixed in huge metal holding tanks before it is bottled. Rob said he expects to sell about 4,000 quarts this year. When it is gone, it is gone until next year. There is nothing quite as sad as being in the dairy when one of the Hoovers has to break that news to a disappointed customer. Conversely, when worried customers hear that the egg nog IS available … well, imagine the look on a 4-year-old’s face on Christmas morning.

The Hoovers have plenty of stories of people for whom it wouldn’t be Christmas without some of their egg nog. There’s the person who came in on a Tuesday, bought 40 quarts and then came back the next day asking for 12 more. There is the lady who lives just down the road who buys dozens of bottles and then carefully packs them for next-day delivery to her loved ones. There was the guy traveling from Michigan to Vermont – a journey that doesn’t normally include the hamlet of Sanborn – who had to stop for some before continuing his trip.

But you don’t have to trust them; spend a mid-December morning inside the dairy, and every customer you meet has an egg nog story they can’t wait to share.

June Jordan of North Tonawanda has been coming here for about nine years to pick up a case of bottles, which she then festoons with a red ribbon to give out as gifts.

“It is the best in the world,” she said.

Doris and Jim Peron of Wheatfield have been receiving Hoover’s egg nog as a gift for years but had never bought any to keep for themselves. They weren’t going to chance it this year.

“We decided we were going to come and get our own to make sure we get it again,” she said.

John Whiteman is an orthodontist from Youngstown who has been working on Hoover family teeth for years but had never tasted the egg nog that helped them pay for all those appointments.

“I heard so much about it, I decided to make a little safari up here,” he said.

The operative word there is “heard,” which is pretty much the only way anyone ever finds out about Hoover’s. The family doesn’t really go in for advertising, either old school or newfangled. (I asked Rob and his mother, Judy, about a Facebook page devoted to the business, and both said they had heard of it but didn’t give it much thought. I didn’t bother asking whether either of them were on Twitter.) Judy, who married into the Hoover family, said all of her ancestors almost certainly would have resisted talking to a newspaper about the business, let alone allowing a photographer and videographer to get them on camera.

You can’t argue with their success.

You also needn’t worry about the future. The Hoovers run a truly family business, with multiple generations involved, including the next one coming. Rob’s son Robbie is 13 years old and already is helping out after school, even more so at this time of the year. “As soon as he’s off the bus he’s in here,” Rob said. “Making egg nog.”

email: bandriatch@buffnews.com

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County Legislature endorses $25 million NCCC project

December 25, 2012, 5:19 pm

≫ Next: Man in Newfane Highway warehouse said he lived there

≪ Previous: Hoover’s Dairy – offering egg nog with no equal

LOCKPORT – The Niagara County Legislature last week endorsed a $25 million enlargement of the library and some classrooms at Niagara County Community College.

The resolution committed the county to providing $12.5 million in support for the project – sort of.

NCCC President James P. Klyczek said the money doesn’t have to come from the county treasury. The college is free to try to raise the funds wherever it can, as it successfully did for NCCC’s culinary arts institute in downtown Niagara Falls.

He said the college already is in touch with the Oishei and Statler foundations and may seek funding through the state’s Regional Economic Development Council.

The resolution does not actually commit the county to constructing the Learning Commons project, as it’s known.

But it did enable Klyczek to meet a deadline to get the project before the State University of New York system for inclusion in SUNY’s 2013 funding request to the State Legislature.

“It’s like a place-holder,” said County Manager Jeffrey M. Glatz, who did not include anything for the NCCC project in the 2013 county budget.

SUNY would provide half of the cost if the project is built, but its $12.5 million would sit in Albany until the county provides its share.

Klyczek said the commercial and economic development aspects of the culinary institute made it easier to find outside money.

“It’s been made very clear to [Klyczek], we expect him to do what he did with the culinary institute, not Empire State Development [money] but foundations,” said Legislature Chairman William L. Ross, C-Wheatfield, a member of the NCCC board of trustees.

Klyczek said that with low interest rates for borrowing, “I don’t think building it will ever be more affordable.” The Learning Commons plan has been on NCCC’s radar screen for several years. It entails connecting the library to Building E by building over the courtyard that currently separates the two buildings.

“The phrase implies the library’s walls have opened up, instead of just being a place to study where people say ‘shush,’ ” Klyczek said.

“There have been presentations, feasibility studies, and then it was put on the back burner because the culinary institute was front and center,” Ross said. Only half of the price tag covers new construction.

The library needs work anyway, Klyczek said. Stone is falling off the walls of the 40-year-old building, and 20 feet of decking closest to the library have been cordoned off for safety reasons.

The project also includes the enlargement of 12 classrooms in Building E to permit larger class sizes, which would be “more efficient,” Klyczek said.

The average class size at NCCC is 23 students, Klyczek said. An arbitrator ruled this year, in the face of a protest from the NCCC Faculty Association, that there is no upper limit to class sizes at the college.

Klyczek said it will take 24 to 30 months to construct the Learning Commons once the money is in hand.

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com

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Man in Newfane Highway warehouse said he lived there

December 26, 2012, 4:59 am

≫ Next: Man on probation arrested after gunfire incident in Lockport

≪ Previous: County Legislature endorses $25 million NCCC project

NEWFANE – A man found inside the warehouse of the town Highway Department on Monday afternoon claimed to live inside the facility, Niagara County sheriff’s deputies reported.

Shortly before 4:30 p.m., an employee spotted a garage door open at the McKee Street facility and saw a man inside. Upon confronting the individual, he asked that the deputies not be called, saying he lived inside the building. He then disappeared through another door, prior to the arrival of police.

Deputies said the man may have used a “hidden key” to gain entry to the structure and that he had smoked some cigarettes and left a dessert roll on the seat of a town truck. The cigarette butts and food item were taken to be tested for DNA and fingerprints, deputies said. Nothing else appeared to have been disturbed inside the building.

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Man on probation arrested after gunfire incident in Lockport

December 26, 2012, 10:33 am

≫ Next: Niagara County denied trust fund share, still seeks land

≪ Previous: Man in Newfane Highway warehouse said he lived there

A man identified by police as a convicted sex criminal was arrested late Tuesday after a gunshot was fired at a suspected Lockport drug house.

Kenneth W. Houghton Jr., 31, of Walnut Street, was arrested on numerous charges after officers responded to a call of shots fired at a building at 107 Genesee St., Lockport police reported.

At about 10 p.m., a large-caliber bullet penetrated an outside wall and a door at a house at 119 Genesee before lodging in another wall in the house, Detective Lt. Scott D. Seekins said. No one was hit by the gunshot.

An unattended 12-gauge shotgun was found on a rear porch a few doors away at 119 Genesee, police said.

“Investigators determined that [Houghton] was believed to be the shooter, and we believe the incident was connected to drug activity,” Seekins said.

According to police, Houghton has been arrested five times this year, and has a past record of 11 misdemeanor convictions and one felony conviction. Police said Houghton was convicted of misdemeanor sexual misconduct in connection with a 2005 incident, and because of that conviction is on probation until January 2014.

Police charged Houghton late Tuesday with felonies of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, assault, conspiracy, and criminal possession of a firearm. He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of menacing.

The block of Genesee Street where the incident took place is known to police for illegal drug activity, Seekins said.

Detective Kenneth Schrader suffered a broken thumb when Houghton allegedly struggled with him after being advised of the charges against him, police said.

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Niagara County denied trust fund share, still seeks land

December 26, 2012, 5:11 pm

≫ Next: NCCC gets $2.5 million in grants

≪ Previous: Man on probation arrested after gunfire incident in Lockport

LOCKPORT – Niagara County has been denied a share of the Oppenheim Zoological Society’s trust fund, but a judge has yet to rule on whether the county may grab the 15.3-acre site of the former Oppenheim Zoo.

County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III ruled Dec. 14 that the trust fund must be divided among the organizations Max M. Oppenheim said in his will he wanted to his money to support if the zoo ever folded.

The county was not one of them, although Assistant County Attorney R. Thomas Burgasser says that Oppenheim’s will gives the county a right of first refusal for the land.

In 1944, Oppenheim, a Niagara Falls real estate man, deeded land to the newly created zoological society to construct a zoo on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Wheatfield. That document contains the right of first refusal for the county, according to Burgasser.

He died in 1958, and the zoological society deeded 80 acres to the county to create Oppenheim Park. The zoo closed in 1988, and the society is all but defunct. Its attorney, Robert J. O’Toole, says it intends to dissolve for good once the current litigation is settled.

The lawsuit was filed by the Kiwanis Activities Corp. of Niagara Falls. Oppenheim was a Kiwanis member, and the club’s attorney, Mary E. Maloney, insists that Oppenheim’s will calls for the zoo site to go to Kiwanis if there were no zoo.

She said, “Max Oppenheim gave it to us free and clear. We would sell it and use the money to continue the community service work that we do.”

Burgasser said, “Max Oppenheim wanted [the county] to have it because he thought we would do the best job with it after the zoo.”

Maloney and Burgasser are slated to argue in front of Murphy on Jan. 4.

Kiwanis has listed the land for sale, which Burgasser said shouldn’t have been done. O’Toole said, “I think the land should ultimately go to the county, but [for now] the land should stay with the Oppenheim Zoological Society, free and clear.”

He said the society probably would give the land to the county for free, having no need for money since it’s shutting itself down.

Murphy granted the society $5,000 from the trust fund for closing costs; O’Toole said that may be sufficient.

“We wouldn’t ask for anything from the county in that case,” he said.

Besides that $5,000 for the society, the $229,789 trust fund will pay $7,105 to William D. Broderick, attorney for the trustee, Alliance Bank. The bank itself collected $5,309.

Of the remaining amount, Temple Beth El of Niagara Falls, of which Oppenheim was a member, receives 50 percent, or $106,187.

The Kiwanis Club receives 20 percent, or $42,475. Ten percent each, or $21,237, goes to the Salvation Army, Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and the United Way of Greater Niagara, the successor of the defunct Beeman Foundation.

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com

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NCCC gets $2.5 million in grants

December 27, 2012, 5:09 am

≫ Next: Buffalo weathers first snowstorm in a couple years

≪ Previous: Niagara County denied trust fund share, still seeks land

SANBORN – Niagara County Community College has received four grants totaling nearly $2.5 million, President James P. Klyczek announced.

The largest grant is $350,000 each year for five years from the state Education Department for the Niagara Liberty Partnerships Program, a collaboration between Niagara County Community College and the school districts in the county’s three cities.

The program will target 280 students at risk of dropping out of school, providing them with academic, social and personal support.

A $418,803 federal grant will enhance programs for Career and Technical Education students, including upgrades to NCCC’s medical laboratories, a science tutoring center, child care subsidies and case management services for students.

The Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention Grant Program awarded NCCC $147,854 over three years. The funds, which will be matched by NCCC each year, will be used to create a suicide prevention program.

The National Endowment for the Humanities supplied $175,122 to fund two one-week workshops on the construction of the Erie Canal.

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Buffalo weathers first snowstorm in a couple years

December 27, 2012, 9:04 am

≫ Next: Falls YMCA offers open house New Year’s Day

≪ Previous: NCCC gets $2.5 million in grants

Western New Yorkers were shoveling out their driveways – and their neighbors, too – Thursday following a winter storm that dumped about a foot of heavy snow across the region overnight.

The snowstorm, which has wreaked havoc over much of the Northeast, left roads slick and piled with snow in the Buffalo area.

Emergency responders were dealing dozens of vehicles were slipping off the roads and getting stuck in snowbanks, but no major weather-related accidents were reported.

Light snow and bit of freezing drizzle fell during the morning, but National Weather Service meteorologist Jon Hitchcock said Thursday’s precipitation won’t amount to much.

“The snow is pretty much over,” Hitchcock said.

Most of the region logged about 10 to 12 inches during the storm, which hit, almost exactly at 4 p.m. Wednesday, as had been expected.

The highest storm total in the region was in South Wales, which was blanketed in 15 inches of snow.

Winds didn’t end up being much of a problem in urban areas, but Hitchcock said there were reports of “some pretty bad drifting out in the country.”

The heaviest snow fell through the first half of the night, falling at a rate of one to two inches per hour, but tapered off “during the wee hours of the morning,” Hitchcock said.

That gave highway crews across the region a chance to begin clearing the snow before the morning commute.

As of 2 p.m. in Buffalo, 75 percent of residential streets and all main and secondary streets had been plowed in the city, and about 40 pieces of snow-clearing equipment are out on the road, Public Works Commissioner Steven J. Stepniak said.

The city hoped to be done with residential streets by the time alternate parking rules take effect at 6 p.m. today, and crews are slated to go back in the evening to get the other side of the street.

The city uses GPS technology in each of its vehicles to track where the plows are, how much salt they are spreading, how long drivers are idling and which routes they are taking.

“We’re shortening that time between completion of mains and secondaries and residential streets,” Stepniak said.

The vehicles are monitored on an electronic map from the city’s streets garage, from the Department of Public Works’ “War Room” on the fifth floor of City Hall or by laptop.

As complaints about street conditions come into the city’s 311 line, the GPS systems automatically close the complaints as the plow passes the street, Stepniak said.

If a lot of 311 complaints come in on a street that was already plowed, a supervisor in the field can check to make sure a plow is adjusted properly.

Mostly, the city follows a snow-removal plan that is filed with the Common Council every year, and does not respond as complaints come in.

“We aren’t firefighters,” Stepniak said. “We don’t put out fires.”

As for clearing sidewalks, each property owner is responsible, and a city ordinance states they must be cleared by 8 a.m.

As for the rest of the day, the Buffalo area can expect up to an inch more of snow, Hitchcock said.

Friday was expected to be dry but cold with highs not expected to get above 30.

“Over the weekend we’ll see a little bit of light snow but nothing like last night,” Hitchcock said.

The weekend snow could cause icy conditions on the roads again, he cautioned.

Temperatures were expected to plummet by the middle of next week, with highs in lower 20s and lows in the teens – right about when youngsters head back to school after the New Year.

“Normal, winter cold,” Hitchcock described the approaching deep freeze.

email: mbecker@buffnews.com; jterreri@buffnews.com

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Falls YMCA offers open house New Year’s Day

December 27, 2012, 6:49 pm

≫ Next: Heritage plan wins U.S. approval

≪ Previous: Buffalo weathers first snowstorm in a couple years

NIAGARA FALLS – An introduction to a variety of fitness classes will be offered during a free open house program from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on New Years’s Day in the Niagara Falls Branch of the YMCA of Buffalo-Niagara, 1317 Portage Road.

The open house will offer a variety of free fitness classes to the visiting public, including Zumba, boot camp, family fitness circuit training and group cycling. Membership Director Michele Altman said visitors also will be able to take advantage of state-of-the-art Nautilus and cardio equipment, play a game of racquetball or swim in the heated lap pool.

Children will be invited to play in a bounce house, do arts and crafts and play games.

Visitors will be given a tour of the facilities and a free YMCA water bottle while supplies last. They also will be entered in a drawing to win an Apple iPad. New members joining the YMCA during the open house will be given a discount on their membership fees, and additional discounts may be available through health insurance policies or financial assistance for those who qualify.

The branch can be reached at 285-8491 or www.ymcabuffaloniagara.org.

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Heritage plan wins U.S. approval

December 27, 2012, 11:20 pm

≫ Next: Powerful storm brings back the snow

≪ Previous: Falls YMCA offers open house New Year’s Day

LEWISTON – Congress has approved a 327-page management plan and environmental assessment that will permit a local commission to “begin to build the capacity of local historical societies and civic groups to help interpret the rich, diverse history” along the Niagara River, according to chairman of the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area Commission.

“The approval of our management plan marks a significant milestone for the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area and the communities included within its scope,” said Chairman Thomas A. Chambers, a Niagara University professor. “Citizens and visitors can expect to see improved heritage tourism opportunities that will help build our area’s economy and vitality.

“This is a great moment for Western New York, and I think that the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area will become the most vibrant and thriving of the 49 national heritage areas across the United States.”

Chambers said the local commission will see an increase in funding of its federal grant with approval of the plan. Congress can appropriate up to $1 million a year for the Heritage Area Commission, up to a total of $15 million.

The commission’s mission “is to enhance public appreciation for the communities, significant historic and natural resources, and landscapes of the Niagara region.”

It seeks “to make interpretive, environmental, economic and social improvements that benefit residents and visitors alike.”

The commission’s headquarters is in Lewiston, and its 17 members meet about once a month.

The commission also announced this month that the National Park Foundation has awarded it an “America’s Best Idea” grant. The grant was was used to take about 600 fourth-graders from the Niagara Falls City School District on a field trip to Old Fort Niagara near Youngstown “in honor of the bicentennial of the War of 1812.”

An informal survey later indicated that nearly 81 percent of the students never visited Old Fort Niagara, which was a major military installation during the War of 1812.

The commission is developing a website but meanwhile is referring visitors to the official National Park Service site for the National Heritage Area: www.nps.gov/nifa.

The Heritage Area Commission operates in partnership with the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

email: rbaldwin@buffnews.com

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Powerful storm brings back the snow

December 27, 2012, 5:42 am

≫ Next: New Year’s holiday hours posted for Western New York

≪ Previous: Heritage plan wins U.S. approval

Look around. Seem familiar?

It’s been a while since Buffalo took the brunt of a full-fledged winter storm. The last real blast, in December 2010, caught an array of plow crews flatfooted and stranded motorists in a Thruway no-man’s land.

Since then, major winter Nor’easters have skirted Buffalo and dumped their havoc on cities to the east.

The storm that tore up from the southern Plains Wednesday started throwing snow in the city at about 4 p.m., with the City of Buffalo receiving from 12 to 15 inches overnight, city officials reported this morning.

Department of Public Work officials reported most main and secondary roads were open in Buffalo and said crews have begun removing snow from residential streets. Motorists were advised to leave extra time for the morning commute, when traffic will be lighter than normal because schools are closed for the holiday recess.

A winter storm warning that was set to expire at 10 a.m. today was lifted a few hours earlier because the heaviest part of the storm had blown through the region overnight, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Kelly at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport.

Only an inch or two of more snow was expected Thursday with the possibility of some freezing drizzle, but the commute home later this afternoon could present challenges with strong winds picking up, Kelly added.

“We are expecting winds of 10 to 20 mph with gusts of up to 30 mph and that could cause blowing and drifting snow,” Kelly said.

An inch of snow “at best” could fall during the rush hour tonight, he added.

Winds tapered off Wednesday evening, from 25 to 30 mph to about 10 to 15 mph, still high enough to swirl the powder and strain visibility. The strong winds of Wednesday also created a seiche, when water is pushed from one end of shallow Lake Erie to the other.

Wind-driven seiches on the lake usually push water toward Buffalo, but Wednesday’s gales lowered the water level here by some 2 feet and lifted it by roughly the same measure in Toledo, Ohio, Weather Service meteorologist Bill Hibbert said.

With snow falling at nearly one inch an hour, motorists crept home after the work day Wednesday. People were injured in wrecks in Buffalo at Main Street and Winspear Avenue and in Cheektowaga near the Walden Galleria.

On the Thruway, a car slid into a ditch near the Williamsville toll barrier, state police said. The Thruway Authority reported several cars off the road along the highway.

With snow falling even faster in the Southern Tier, the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office said there had been many storm-related accidents, and Sheriff Timothy S. Whitcomb advised against unnecessary travel.

At 7 p.m., when the Buffalo airport had 3 inches of snow on the ground, the Cattaraugus County town of Allegany had 10 inches, according to Weather Service data.

Flights into Buffalo airport, meanwhile, were canceled or delayed because of delays at other airports.

“Our main runway is open,’’ said C. Douglas Hartmayer, speaking for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority.

Across the border, Niagara Regional Police reported a 24-year-old man was killed when his snowmobile collided with a van shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday on Regional Road Twenty Four at Tice Road, in the Township of West Lincoln, Ont. The man, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The storm threatened to roll through most of New York State before continuing north toward Maine.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo activated the “State Emergency Operations Center” to monitor the weather and any emergency needs. It was staffed by leaders from an array of agencies, such as the state police, Department of Transportation, Thruway Authority, Office of Fire Prevention and Control, and the Division of Military and Naval Affairs, among others.

The Thruway Authority said it would devote its 600 maintenance employees, 96 seven-ton snowplows, 52 front-end loaders and three truck-mounted snow blowers to ensure the system remains open throughout the storm. The DOT committed its 1,346 plows, 300 loaders and 35 snowblowers statewide.

The Governor’s Office also urged power companies that operate in New York to brace for the power failures that the storm could trigger. Cuomo had become frustrated by the length of time that power remained out around the New York City metropolitan area after Superstorm Sandy.

One of his top aides, Secretary to the Governor Larry Schwartz, sent a letter to the chief executives of utility companies saying, “The State of New York will hold your company accountable for its performance.”

The return of a real winter storm could have been worse. The snow hit on the opening day for Kissing Bridge. And with the National Hockey League season gone dark, thousands of fans didn’t venture out to the First Niagara Center for the Sabres game once scheduled for Wednesday evening.

Across the region, plows were expected to rumble along until dawn.

“We will plow continuously until [this morning] at 7 o’clock,” Bob Anderson, the Amherst Highway superintendent, said at about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday.

The 35 plows his department devoted to keeping the streets open spent the first hours laying down salt to prevent ice on the roadways, then plowed the snow aside along the approximately 370 center-line miles of road that are the town’s responsibility.

“Everything is open, but it’s just a constant pounding of snow,” Anderson said. “This is a typical winter storm. It is just snowing, snowing, snowing.”

email: mspina@buffnews.com

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