The Buffalo News

School champions from throughout Western New York will take a written test Wednesday in hopes of qualifying for the 86th annual Buffalo News Spelling Bee.

Twenty students with the highest scores will compete in the oral finals March 10 at the Buffalo History Museum. The winner of that competition will go on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, courtesy of The Buffalo News, to be held the week of May 26 in Washington, D.C.

Here are the spellers, their schools and their alternates:Belfast Central – Michael Hamer and Megan Rose; Cuba-Rushford Middle – Maddyson Nugent and Jacob Moshier; Fillmore Central – Michael McDonald and Julia Hotchkiss; Genesee Valley Central –- Chase Robbins; Wellsville Middle – Quinn Burke and Justice Bremiller.Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts – Gabriella Hall and Crystal Rodriguez; Nardin Elementary – Jacqueline Richardson and Josh Lane; Nichols Middle – Saloni Kumar and Sumayyah Haq; School 19 Native American – Noah Casillas and LeAnne Seneca; School 27 Hillery Park Elementary – Naia Mitchell and Lamari Blue; School 89 Lydia T. Wright – William David and Leecia Clinkscales; South Buffalo Charter –Hawraa Ahmed and Andrew Calabrese; Universal – Yasmeen Collins.Ellicottville – Alana Curtis and Jacob Perkins; Franklinville Elementary – George Osborne Jr. and Seth Pfeiffer; Hinsdale Central – Gabriel Kellogg and Tobias Nelson; Olean Intermediate Middle – Sachita Barua and Natalie Sova; West Valley Central – Josh Howe and Emma Lea.Brocton Central -–Jennifer Palmer and Dylan Murphy; Cassadaga Valley Middle -–Madeleine Goodworth and Ben Anderson; Fredonia Middle – Seth Schrader and Matt Burr; Sherman Central – Katie Pacy and Rebekah Lee; Southwestern Middle – Stuart Rinehart and Lucas Peterson.Alden Middle – Victoria Waters and Emily Bush; Casey Middle – Tyler Paplham and Harry Wang; Children of Mary Home – Clare Pivarunas and Tyler Schonbachler; Christian Central – April Markowski and Grace Lattimer; Depew Middle – Kristiyan Iliev and Eliana Addesa; East Aurora Middle – Rachel Norman and Tara Porter; East Elementary – Abigail Szarowicz and Rachel Wilson; Frontier Middle – Hannah Kennedy and Carly Warner; GRACE Leah – Madeline McCoy and Benjamin McCoy; Heim Middle – Averey Scoccia and Aditi Joshi; Herbert Hoover Middle – Jacob Brill and Brianna Clark; Immaculate Conception – Robyn Seibert and Timothy Martucci; Kadimah – Gilad Symons and Manny Weinstein; Kenmore Middle – Domenic Sorrentino and Philip Davis.

Also, Lake Shore Middle – Zachary Wilson and Derek Crowden; Lancaster Middle – Connor Carrow and Chelsea Bass; Maryvale Middle – Austin Stoddard and Roquia Shawkat; Mill Middle – Christina Leska Kent and Andrew Zawistowski; Park – James Ellegate Jr. and Sydney Pfeifer; SS. Peter and Paul, Hamburg – Abigail Anderson and Rebecca Sullivan; SS. Peter and Paul, Williamsville – Peter Bertola.

Also, St. Amelia – Joseph Turri and Timothy Beltrami; St. Bernadette – Ashley Stablewski and Patrick Basil; St. Christopher – McKenna O’Rourke and Jack Westner; St. Gregory the Great – Emily Trotman and Michael Steffan; St. John the Baptist – Declan Rapp and Anna Stang; Stanley G. Falk – Adam Becker and Jeffrey Bars; Sweet Home Middle – Robert Carroll and Jackson Steinbroner; Transit Middle – Ananya Chakravarti and Nidhish Gokhale; Veronica E Connor Middle – Eliza Dudziak and Andrew Thompson.Alexander Middle – Haley Fletcher and Kolbee Koch; Byron-Bergen Middle – Russell Cunningham and Celia Mercovich.Livonia Intermediate – Rachael Hoh and Gregory Mayo.Barker Middle – Kyle Moeller and Isabella Young; DeSales Catholic – Riley Adams and Kevin Kovach; Royalton Hartland Middle – Beatrice Bacon and Anna Fritton; St. Matthew Lutheran – David Pareja and Collin Coogan.

NIAGARA FALLS – Some classes at two local schools have been flipped.

Work that used to be done in the classroom is being done at home, and what used to be done as homework is being done in class.

It’s an experimental approach being tried in several cities to move educational techniques into the digital age of the 21st century, improve learning and give teachers more time to bring struggling students up to speed.

“Early reports are quite encouraging, but we won’t really know the outcome until final exams are finished in June,” according to instructional coach Ed Maynard at Niagara Falls High School.

Maynard, a strong supporter of “The Flipped Classroom,” is a teacher on special assignment whose job is to help other teachers become more effective through professional development. So far, a handful of teachers at the high school and at least one at Gaskill Preparatory School are using the new technique.

The teachers and most of their students appear enthusiastic about the new way of teaching and learning, and many students’ grades have improved in their “flipped classrooms.” Several of them spoke in support of the experimental system at a recent meeting of the School Board.

Allison Hubert, an eighth-grader at Gaskill, said the experiment helps her to budget her time better.

“I can take my homework on the road; I can get the lessons for about 20 minutes at home after school, and then I can take them with me on my way to swim practice and can study some more during breaks in practice,” she said. “If there is anything I don’t understand, I can discuss it with my teacher the next day in school.”

Teachers in the “flipped classrooms” typically record their lessons on video equipment that can be accessed by students at any time of day or night on their smartphones, home computers, tablets, iPads, e-readers or almost any electronic device that has access to the Internet. Students who don’t fully understand the lesson can “rewind” the program and replay it many times at home or wherever they may be. Parents are encouraged to help the students with their “at-home” classes.

Students who need more help with the lesson can discuss it one-on-one with their teacher the next day in school. Teachers have more time for those individual discussions because they are not giving lectures, blackboard demonstrations or other lessons for the whole class during school hours.

“We have been able to quadruple the amount of time our students spend with their own teachers,” according to Greg Green, principal of a Detroit school that is using “flipped classrooms.”

Jessica Evans, an “accelerated sophomore” who is considered to be a gifted student at Niagara Falls, said the new system is more efficient and less time-consuming because “I can watch the video once, grasp the lesson right away and move on to something else” without waiting for the teacher to explain the lesson to the whole class, some of whom may not be able to understand it the first time around.

Maynard said preliminary results show that 47 percent of Niagara Falls students in one class were failing and only 8 percent had average test scores of 85 or above under the traditional teaching system, while just 34 percent of those in a “flipped classroom” were failing, and 23 percent had averages of 85 or above.

Paul Harris, a senior who failed algebra 2 and trigonometry last year and scored only a 58 on his final exam, said he is repeating the course this year in a “flipped classroom” and is “doing very well.” Maynard said Paul now has passing grades in the 80s in the same math curriculum taught by Ed Ventry.

Although impressed by the early success of the program, School Superintendent Cynthia A. Bianco stressed that it still is an experiment in a few classes and that it will be extended to additional classes only if it proves to be a continued success after final marks are in at the end of the school year.

Melanie Kitchen, a coordinator at the Regional Information Center of the Western New York/Erie 1 Board of Cooperative Educational Services, said individual teachers in some other school districts are using “flipped classrooms,” including some at Lewiston-Porter, Randolph, Allegany-Limestone and others.

Maynard said a teacher at Fredonia is using the program, and teachers from North Tonawanda and Royalton-Hartland are among those in a graduate-level course that he is teaching at Niagara University, including the “flipped classroom” concept.

Teachers do not necessarily have to record their own lessons in order to make the plan work. Maynard said they can adapt programs that are available from several sources, including a Khan Academy website that is used here.

Maynard said reasons for “flipping” include:

• Speaking the language of students in a culture that they are comfortable with.

• Helping busy students or teachers who are absent from the classroom because of illness, excuses or suspensions, because the lessons are available to them at home.

• Helping all students to excel because they can pause and rewind their instructions.

• Giving parents an opportunity to work with their children on current lessons.

• Allowing teachers to spend more time with their students because they no longer have to stand in front of the classroom, and can work one-on-one with their students.

“This is not the silver bullet to reform education; not all teachers can use it,” he said. “But it certainly is worth a try.”

Derek Frommert, a math teacher at Gaskill, said his students watch a video and answer questions using smart-response “clickers” at home in a program called Edmodo.com.

Last year, with traditional teaching, he said that the average academic mean score among his students was 83 and that the median score was 85. This year, with a “flipped classroom,” he said the mean score has risen to 90 and the median to 95.

Amy Kilmer, a high school geometry teacher, said her students now are “introduced to the lesson on their own time, at their own pace and without classroom distraction.” She explained:

“In the classroom, the lesson is no longer a one-sided conversation with me doing all the talking. Students develop and ask questions while we are still on the lesson. By the end of class, I know if my students understood the lesson, instead of sending them home to struggle with homework.”

Maynard said the traditional method of teaching provides for about 10 to 25 minutes of each class period for “guided and independent practice and/or lab activity,” but the “flipped” method provides about 25 to 45 minutes because the teacher no longer has to use perhaps a half-hour of each period to lecture on new content.

Among teachers using the program, besides Frommert, Kilmer and Ventry, are Kim Maynard, who teaches Advanced Placement environmental science and living environment, and Katie Canterbury, a teacher of living environment. Maynard said Debbie Betton, a math teacher, was a pioneer in using the program last year.

Students who addressed the School Board about the program included Sierra Watson, Mathew Gilmer, Michael Meyer and Jay Scott, in addition to Allison, Jessica and Paul. Most of their comments were supportive of the program.

email: rbaldwin@buffnews.com

NORTH TONAWANDA – Back home after a five-month stint working as a contract paramedic with the Army in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jeff Abbott had a new appreciation for the sacrifices of the military life and a new plan: found a 5-kilometer running race on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project.

The nonprofit aid organization for injured servicemen and women is a fitting tribute for the people he got to know from May to September of last year as he went out on medical calls that privacy concerns keep him from discussing in detail.

“We convoyed security personnel back and forth from the embassy to our base. When we were on the embassy, we provided care to any emergencies or sick calls on the embassy. It was enlightening. I have a better appreciation, obviously, for what the military does,” said Abbott, 37. “You didn’t go anywhere unless you were in an armored vehicle. It’s a dangerous place. I can’t really elaborate on much of what we did over there. It was humbling for a civilian medic to be integrated into a military, austere, environment.”

Abbott, a father of four, married for the second time when he returned home. His wife doesn’t want him to go on any more dangerous foreign assignments. He appreciates veterans more than he did before. He is more aware of the credit they deserve for the comforts of home, technology and freedom to travel without fear.

In that spirit he has named the race “Gratitude Run.” The Common Council approved the May 25 date and the route – from Mayor’s Park on Sweeney Street to Fisherman’s Park across from the Recreational Warehouse on River Road.

While he is still working out the rest of the details, such as cost and start time, people who are interested should write to him at gratituderun@gmail.com

What is your profession?

I am a man of many hats. I’ve been a paramedic for 13 years. I am also an ironworker at Local 9. Steel structures of buildings: We put those up. A lot of indoor plant work. Structural steel welding. Anything that involves metal really. I am assistant director of emergency management for North Tonawanda.

What was it like in Afghanistan?

Here you take a 911 call and, until events recently, you don’t worry about being shot at. Not to say I was worried about getting shot at. You didn’t go anywhere where you weren’t armed. We always had a weapon. There’s 20 foot jersey barriers everywhere.

A jersey barrier?

You know those concrete dividers on the Thruway? Those, but they’re 20 feet tall. There’s Afghan army everywhere.

You hear about these “green-on-blue” killings …

Green-on-blue killings?

When the Afghan army would turn around and arbitrarily shoot a soldier … The Afghan army was everywhere. There were checkpoints everywhere. They wear green uniforms …

And “blue”? Meaning Americans?

I think it was the red, white and blue.

I was safe for the most part. They don’t shoot over there. They blow things up. It’s not so much shootings, it’s the explosions.

Was there anything beautiful?

The mountains are beautiful. The sunsets are real nice. It’s a dirty city. They burn fires for heat in the winter. It’s definitely a third world nation. We worked with “Ghurkas,” Nepalese nationals. I picked up some of their language. “Namaste.” It means, “hi” and “goodbye.” They’re happy guys, diligent in their duties. They were guards.

We interacted with a lot of local nationals. They did the cleaning and cooking on our base. Because of the language barrier it was very cordial, but you didn’t get too in-depth with them. They were just people happy to have jobs, I’m assuming.

What else did you see?

They set up a lot of bazaars. I bought a khukuri. It’s a Nepalese knife. You see it in all the depictions of the characters. It’s like that curved blade. They made suits, tailored suits right there. Gems. Lots of gems over there. Rubies. Diamonds. They made their own jewelry. Then they sell high-end watches at discount prices. Antique weapons. Beautiful, beautiful vintage antique rifles. From when the British occupied Afghanistan. They claim there’s still caches of weapons in the mountains. An “enthusiastic” Army colonel told me that, a gun “enthusiast.”

So you don’t think you’ll go back to Afghanistan for work?

The wife has forbidden it. If I wasn’t married and I didn’t have little kids, I’d be over there or somewhere around the world contracting. The money’s great in contracting. The skill set of being a paramedic is a sought-after trade in the contracting world. It’s a team effort, it’s militaristic. You’re part of a team. Everyone has a role.

Is there anything else about your experience that you can talk about?

When you’re deployed and you’re not working, they say all there is to do is work out and eat. So I worked out a lot. I got back in shape. I put on some weight from my knee surgery in 2010. When I came home I thought, “I want to try a 5K.”

I looked around for a 5K in North Tonawanda, I didn’t see one so I thought, “I’ll start my own.” I’m not a runner. I didn’t know the ins and outs of finding them. You see the Turkey Trot and the Shamrock Run. The Shamrock Run seemed a little cold and the Turkey Trot seemed far away. So I thought, “Ah, we’ll do one on Memorial Day.”

I hope we get a good outcome, raise a good amount of money. I would like to get some of our local vets involved.

Working in Afghanistan gave you a new appreciation for the military?

Contracting is mostly ex-military guys. I was humbled to be one of the few civilian medics. I was honored to be working with such experienced and dedicated guys – a lot of young kids that have been to war, that have seen far more and experienced a lot more than a lot of what we consider experienced adults in the civilian world.

The life we live and the life we have in this country is based solely on what the military has done, the sacrifices that they have made.

I met a lot of great guys. I’m confident in my skills and my experience as a paramedic, but I was absolutely mesmerized at the training and knowledge of the Army’s 18 Delta medics. You ever hear of “The Delta Force”? The old Chuck Norris movie? That’s the same thing.

We had nothing on our base. You go over there, you get up and you go to work, you get tight with the guys you’re with. To me it was a culture shock. There were a lot of guys who helped me along and helped me out.

Know a Niagara County resident who would make an interesting column? Write to: Q&A, The Buffalo News, P.O. Box 100, Buffalo, NY 14240, or email niagaranews@buffnews.com.

William A. Robinson, 51, of Phelps Street, Lockport, admitted in Niagara County Court that he stole copper pipes from a house on Grand Street in Lockport and sold the metal to get money to buy drugs.

Robinson admitted to third-degree burglary and was assigned by Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III to the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment.

If Robinson succeeds in the program, he will receive a misdemeanor and a probation sentence, but if not, he could spent as long as seven years in state prison.

The burglary occurred Nov. 26. Thirty pounds of copper was sold at Lock City Metals on West Avenue, Assistant District Attorney Claudette S. Caldwell said. Robinson was ordered to pay $1,100 in restitution to the homeowner.

• An out-of-town contractor told Niagara Falls police that a co-worker skipped town taking all her tools.

A woman working for an independent cellphone contractor, told police that her partner suddenly quit last week and has not returned phone calls from her or their company. The woman said the suspect was supposed to come and pick her up in his 2001 Alero on Jan. 17, but never returned. She said he had all her tools in his vehicle, which included different types of cable cutter, various wrenches, socket sets, screw guns, cable testers and a bar code scanner that belonged to the company.

Total loss was estimated $4,500.Jeffrey M. Tretter, 20, of Eddy Drive, North Tonawanda, pleaded guilty in Niagara County Court to fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He had about one-quarter ounce of cocaine May 15 as he sat in a car outside an apartment on Pine Street in Lockport, which police were raiding.

County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III assigned Tretter to the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment. Tretter faces a maximum of 5½ years in prison if he fails at the program, but if he succeeds, he will be placed on probation after his charge is reduced to a misdemeanor.

• Lockport police said they had to force a distraught man to hand over his infant son at his Niagara Street home. Brandon K. Hoffman, 19, of Niagara Street, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration at 9:15 p.m. Thursday.

Hoffman was found in his home crying and yelling, according to police, and refused to hand over his infant son to the baby’s mother or his father. Police said when they tried to talk to him he kicked at police. He reportedly became enraged when someone took the child, shaking and bouncing the baby around.

Additional officers were called to the scene and were able to return the child to the mother.

Hoffman was forcibly taken into custody and was physically subdued, police said.Erratic driving led to the arrest of a North Tonawanda man, who was later found to have been hiding a crack pipe inside his sock, sheriff’s deputies said.

Sharif Y. Hamdy, 40, of Nash Road, told Niagara County sheriff’s deputies that he had no driver’s license, and a check showed that he possessed only a nondriver’s I.D. card, which had been suspended for failure to appear in court in Grand Island, as well as failure to pay a fine in Amherst. Hamdy was charged with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation, as well as passing a red light and driving on the shoulder. Possible drug charges are pending the outcome of testing on the seized pipe.

• Upset over being denied a paper cup, a customer shoved a cash register off the counter and onto the floor of the City Market McDonald’s restaurant, Niagara Falls police said. The incident occurred just after 4 p.m. when the female customer asked for a cup but was refused. Enraged, she began yelling profanities before shoving the register to the floor and fleeing the restaurant, heading west on Pine Avenue, police said. The register was not damaged, and the woman could not be located, police said.A thief targeted a vacant house on C Street, stealing more than $2,000 worth copper pipe and wiring.

Police said the theft probably occurred during the previous week. Copper pipe and electrical wiring was stripped from the walls. Damage to drywall was estimated at $1,000.

• A false alarm on a possible medical emergency brought police and emergency crews to a Nicki’s Lane apartment house in Wheatfield, where they took a .380-caliber pistol from a 91-year-old man.

An EMS crew had convinced the man to put the gun down after arriving at the home shortly before 10 p.m. and seeing him through a window, holding the weapon. He told police he had owned the gun for three decades and did not realize he needed a permit to possess the weapon, which was then confiscated. A relative was contacted and was making plans to take possession of the gun. No charges were filed.

• A North Tonawanda man was charged with drunken driving after he went off the road and crashed into a tree at 7:30 p.m. in the 6800 block of Ward Road in Wheatfield.

Ronald J. Golimowski, 53, of Meadowbrook Drive, was charged with driving while intoxicated and failure to keep right by Niagara County sheriff’s deputies.

Golimowski went off the road, collided with a tree and needed to be extricated from his vehicle by rescuers from the St. Johnsburg Fire Company, according to deputies. He was taken by Mercy Flight to Erie County Medical Center with leg and ankle injuries that rescuers called minor. When questioned, Golimowski told deputies he felt drowsy and went off the road. Deputies said they received a positive sensor reading for DWI.

He was charged at ECMC but refused to submit to a blood test until he was able to consult with an attorney, deputies said.A neighbor alerted Niagara County sheriff’s deputies when the lights were on, but no one was supposed to be living in a closed home on the seasonal Sunset Island.

The woman said she investigated and called deputies when it appeared that a window was broken at 6 p.m. Sunday.

Deputies said they found a rear door unsecured with Solo plastic cups littered throughout the house, a table set up for beer pong, a fireplace that had recently been burning wood, and a pull out futon couch with pillow and blankets. Deputies said the screen was pulled back, but no window was broken.

The house was secured by deputies, and the owner was contacted and asked to check the house and determine if anything was stolen or damaged.

• A 23-year-old man told Niagara Falls police he was beaten up by three men and had his car stolen when he went to a 24th Street address to attempt to purchase illegal prescription narcotics.

The victim told police he pulled up to an address in the 400 block of 24th Street at 7:30 p.m. to meet a woman and purchase several Opana pills, a narcotic painkiller, from her.

He said while he was waiting, a man walked up and asked for his identity and told him to follow him into the house. Once inside he told police he was confronted by two more men and the three men punched him, pulled him into a basement and shook him down, taking his wallet, which contained his driver’s license and $510 and then fled. The victim said when he went back outside his car, a 2004 Saturn, registered to his mother, was gone.

Police were allowed entry to the house and were able to search the basement, but said they were unable to locate the suspects or recover the vehicle.

• Niagara County sheriff’s deputies said they had to rapidly slow down to avoid a vehicle that left a parking lot without yielding to oncoming traffic just before 5 p.m. in the 5800 block of South Transit Road in Lockport.

Lisa Ann Sebo, 47, of Lockwood Lane was charged with driving while intoxicated, failure to stop from an alleyway or private drive, and moving from a lane unsafely.

She was additionally charged with drinking alcohol in a motor vehicle when she was found with an open, cold bottle of a flavored vodka drink within her reach.The property manager of a house in the 4000 block of Elmwood Avenue in Niagara Falls found the inside of the house destroyed, copper plumbing cut and stolen and electrical lines ripped out of the walls.

The manager said the previous tenants were evicted. He said someone had stripped the walls of pipes and electrical lines, stolen the water meter and water tank, damaged the walls, tore apart and destroyed the kitchen and two bathrooms. Loss was estimated at $16,750.

WILSON – Tourism along Lake Ontario, which features fishing as well as recreational boating, is big business in Niagara County, where people from all over the world are drawn to the natural amenities and are estimated to spend around $30 million annually.

But local officials are afraid that the word is out among boaters to stay clear of Wilson’s harbor for fear of getting stuck in the muck.

That’s why town officials are looking to the federal government to provide funds for much-needed dredging.

“We’re at a critical stage in Wilson Harbor,” said Town Supervisor Joseph Jastrzemski.

The muck is actually silt – a combination of sand, stone and mud – and local officials and boating enthusiasts believe the growing levels of silt are long overdue for removal and that it should be financed by the federal government.

Town officials estimate that Wilson Harbor accommodates more than 700 boats and 500 Canadian visitors each year. It’s also home to four yacht clubs, 50 charter boat ventures and a number of small businesses from tackle shops to restaurants that support the industry.

But as the level of silt rises in the harbor, the number of boaters drops because they’re afraid of getting marooned, local residents said.

Town officials say the answer is “dredging” – the process of sucking the growing layers of sand, stone and mud created by the constant waves of Lake Ontario out of the channel connecting the lake to the quiet harbor waters where boats dock. Town officials said estimates from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers indicate cost of the total project, including disposal of the silt, could be between $755,000 and $2 million depending on the toxicity of the materials.

The question is: Who is going to pay for it?

Jastrzemski maintains that the federal Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund holds approximately $6.2 billion originally intended for dredging and general maintenance of its harbors. The organization finances the dredging work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He pointed out that the Army Corps’ policy is to dredge every “three to five years and this hasn’t been dredged since the early 1990s to the proper levels.”

The Wilson Town Board signed a resolution last fall urging “immediate assistance” for harbor maintenance dredging. The board is appealing to county and state officials – and now the federal government – to help its cause.

Last month, the board sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, urging it to include local dredging funds in President Obama’s request for $60.4 billion in response, recovery and mitigation costs related to Hurricane Sandy, noting that Wilson’s problem is also “a natural disaster in the Great Lakes region.”

The board pointed to the backlog of more than 18 million cubic yards of sediment throughout the Great Lakes navigation system, requiring some $200 million to address. It also quoted an estimate of $30 million in dredging funding to restore basic functionality to the Great Lakes system in response to the low water levels – a figure supplied by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The letter further states that the continued lack of rain and snowfall in the Great Lakes Basin has resulted in “water levels at historic lows, which affects municipal and domestic water use, ecosystems, hydropower operations, shoreline erosion and protection, and shipping and boating activities.”

Jastrzemski said he has been reaching out for the past seven years to local politicians for help. He took his plea to the state level this past fall when he invited State Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, to tour the harbor. He also has appealed to Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, to no avail, he said.

Jastrzemski recalled that the Corps “did a little bit of work” on the harbor in 2000 but hasn’t revisited it since.

“This year, we lost two months of our boating season, and one of our marina [owners] told me he lost over $100,000 in business,” Jastrzemski said. “Boaters weren’t even booking, and he didn’t open gas pumps because of the silt and lower lake levels.

The supervisor calls the harbor “a lifeline for Wilson,” but the effects of low water levels do not stop there. A study by Niagara University on the local boating and fishing industry found that it generated more than $30 million a year for Niagara County.

Lisa Stephens, past commodore of the Wilson Yacht Club., said a block and tackle had to be used to pull the sailboats out that were stuck in the mud last summer. The harbor, which normally has water that is 8 to 10 feet deep, had only 32 inches.

“This has ended a lot of people’s boating seasons early,” she said. “We pulled our boat out in August and most people usually don’t pull their boats out until Halloween.”

Stephens coordinated an effort to help the town file an application for Niagara River Greenway Commission funding for a major engineering plan which would include testing, analysis, developing a cleanup plan, securing permit applications and overseeing the project. The plan is estimated to cost, at most, $175,000 and is under consideration.

While Olcott harbor also needs to be dredged, Newfane Supervisor Timothy Horanburg said his hamlet finds itself in a different situation due to federal labeling.

“Wilson is designated a federal harbor of refuge through its piers and up into its channel, but Olcott is a federal harbor only between its piers,” Horanburg said. “Why it’s designated this way, we don’t have a clue. It wouldn’t do us any good to have them dredge just there because the silt would wash right back in.”

Without federal funding, who would foot the bill for Olcott’s dredging?

“You’re looking at him,” Horanburg said. “We’ve been looking for grant money, but there’s none out there for this. Olcott was dredged back in probably 1995 or 1996 and we definitely need it again.”

Horanburg said his board supports Wilson’s efforts to procure federal funding for dredging.

“If they can get the equipment in to dredge Wilson, it would save us $70,000 to $100,000 just in equipment mobilization costs,” Horanburg said. “So it would definitely benefit us to do this at the same time, because we’d probably hire the same contractor.

Bernard “Bernie” Leiker, deputy mayor of the Village of Wilson, said his board is also “pressuring” the government to provide funds to dredge the harbor.

“This has a huge economic impact on us because we have a lot of boats coming in from Canada, and now they go to other harbors,” he added.

“This is a community that depends on the boaters, and we’re all losing a lot of money.”

email: niagaranews@buffnews.com

LOCKPORT – William J. Barnes Jr., the Lockport man who killed his girlfriend and her lover in 1986, will be granted a hearing on his latest effort to overturn the verdict – even though the judge thinks he doesn’t have much of a case.

Barnes, 50, is serving a sentence of 50 years to life in Wende Correctional Facility, Alden.

Counting failed appeals of his rejected motions, this will be his ninth attempt to reverse his conviction on two counts of second-degree murder, voted by a Niagara County Court jury in January 1987.

This time, Barnes is using a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision to try to convince Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas to overturn his conviction.

The high court ruled last year in a Missouri case that a conviction must be overturned if a defendant’s lawyer doesn’t tell him of a pretrial plea offer that the defendant and the judge would have accepted.

Barnes insists that his attorneys from the county public defender’s office, Joseph L. Leone Jr. and the late Robert A. Rotundo, never told him of a plea offer for a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Barnes went to trial, was convicted of two counts of murder, and was sentenced by then-County Judge Aldo L. DiFlorio to two consecutive terms of 25 years to life.

In an order earlier this month, Farkas directed that an attorney be appointed to represent Barnes and that a hearing should be held on the issue of what Leone did or didn’t tell Barnes 26½ years ago.

Farkas wrote that Barnes’ claims are “unsupported by the evidence” and normally, she wouldn’t grant a hearing.

“However, out of an abundance of caution, due to the holding in Missouri v. Frye, and because there has been no further decision illuminating this court’s responsibilities with regard to the defendant’s allegation, this court will grant a hearing exclusively on this issue,” Farkas wrote.

The hearing is to be held Feb. 11, with Dominic Saraceno of the county conflict defender’s office representing Barnes.

Court minutes confirm a plea deal, including a sentence of 25 years to life, was offered by then-First Assistant District Attorney Stephen A. Shierling in an Aug. 11, 1986, pretrial conference. No stenographer was present, and apparently Barnes wasn’t, either.

Barnes wrote in a letter to Leone on Sept. 4, 1986, “Can you tell the judge and DA that I’m willing to cop out to manslaughter – and if they won’t go for that, tell them I’ll take anything as long as it is not more than 25 to life, OK?”

Leone has previously testified that he told Barnes of the offer and advised him to take it, but Barnes turned it down. Leone made the same statement in an interview with The Buffalo News last fall.

But Barnes asserts that at a Sept. 11, 1986, court appearance, Leone told him there was no plea offer.

Barnes admits he killed his live-in girlfriend, Irene L. Bucher, 21, formerly of Pendleton, and William R. Moffitt, 35, of Somerset.

Both were shot twice with a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun, about 9 p.m. Jan. 7, 1986, when Barnes caught them having sex on the floor in front of the couch in Barnes’ apartment at 503 Park Ave., Lockport.

Barnes, who said he had been drinking heavily that day, claimed that he and Moffitt struggled over the shotgun, which accidentally discharged, striking Bucher. He said he then shot Moffitt twice in a fit of rage before shooting Bucher again.

But the girlfriend of Barnes’ brother testified that Barnes told her that he shot Moffitt, then shot Bucher twice, then shot Moffitt again. However, the sequence of events will not be at issue in the Feb. 11 hearing.

If Barnes had taken the plea offer he says Leone concealed from him, he would have been eligible for a parole hearing in 2010. As things now stand, he isn’t eligible for a hearing until 2035, when he will be 73.

“I have a death sentence. I’m going to die in prison,” Barnes told The News on Nov. 12.

Barnes appealed his conviction, which was upheld by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in 1991. The Court of Appeals refused to take the case.

In 1997, Barnes handed in a motion to overturn the verdict, which was turned down twice, in 2000 and 2001, by Acting County Judge Robert C. Noonan. His motion for a “writ of error” was rejected by the Appellate Division in 2002, and in 2003, the Court of Appeals again refused to hear the matter.

In 2007, Barnes filed another motion with Farkas, seeking a new trial, and was turned down in 2008. He then tried a motion for resentencing, which Farkas rejected in 2009.

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com

NIAGARA FALLS – Two downtown development projects announced last year have been stalled for months but will move ahead later this year, their developers said last week.

Both projects would bring much-needed food options to the downtown tourism corridor, especially for families traveling through the city or staying in its hotels.

City and state leaders last week extended funding assistance to Faisal Merani, who plans a local or chain restaurant in the Holiday Inn near the falls, and Steve Masik, who plans a Subway on Niagara Street near the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel.

Merani has planned a restaurant in the Holiday Inn since his family purchased the Buffalo Avenue hotel in 2005. He has put $5 million into a hotel renovation that began in 2008, and he says an 8,000-square-foot restaurant is the next step.

“We’ve seen a steady increase of tourists every year, and we’re happy to be part of the growth,” he said last week.

Merani is one of a few recent Canadian developers who have built successful high-rise hotels in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Like the others, he is turning his focus to the American side, which experts say is smattered with budget hotels in need of upgrades.

The city’s economic development arm and the state’s USA Niagara Development Corp. each gave Merani $550,000 toward the Holiday Inn restaurant project, and he also received a 10-year PILOT agreement from the county’s economic development plan.

But a slow economy stalled his plans to add the restaurant last year, he said.

Merani added an upscale Italian restaurant to his Four Points by Sheraton hotel, which he refurbished on Buffalo Avenue in LaSalle.

He said he’s still committed to doing the same at the Holiday Inn – as soon as he finds a willing local or chain restaurant partner.

It would be a welcome addition to downtown, city officials said, before granting Merani an extension on the grant that would run through June 2014.

“Some very positive things are going on in that neighborhood, and we would very much look forward to building on that,” Mayor Paul A. Dyster said, referring to the recently opened culinary institute and anticipated hotel development across the street.

“We look forward to [you] putting a shovel in the ground when the weather breaks,” Dyster told Merani.

City development board members were unanimous in granting Merani the extension, but they debated the merits of a grant extension for the Subway project.

Masic, of Lewiston, said last year he planned to build the restaurant on a Niagara Street strip of closed storefronts. His Players sports bar and the Niagara Gazette are the only remaining tenants of the once-vibrant stretch.

Masic also planned to refurbish the upper two floors of the building adjacent to Players, at 326 Niagara St., with the Subway restaurant on the ground floor. The city and state each gave him $50,000 for the project. But an inability to get the desired bank financing for the project has caused Masic to scale back his plans and focus exclusively on the restaurant.

Three board members opposed giving Masic the full grant for the scaled-back project, but he said he would not be able to proceed with the project without the funds. The board approved the grant extension for the $334,000 project by a 7-3 vote.

Masic said he expects to begin construction on the restaurant soon and plans to open this summer.

email: cspecht@buffnews.com

YOUNGSTOWN – Richard Phoenix always thought the lot he and his wife owned in the village could be used to build apartments that would bring them some investment income.

On second thought, he decided it would be a better decision to donate the land to an agency that serves adults with developmental and other disabilities.

“This is a very significant donation,” said Jeff Sanderson, executive director of Rivershore Inc.

The 100- by 112-foot lot is on Hinman Road, between Main and Second streets. Sanderson said his agency’s goal is to build a small four-unit apartment building, which would provide a supportive living environment for up to eight senior citizens or adults with disabilities. Older apartment buildings and businesses already surround the vacant lot.

He said Rivershore is in the process of finding funding, but noted that the agency is moving away from the traditional group-home approach. The goal in this location is to build apartments that would fit with the character of the village and best serve residents.

“People associate us with working with adults with developmental disabilities, and that we do to a great degree, but we also support people with other disabilities, and we would like to do more to support seniors,” he said.

“We have an opportunity to build something which will be pleasing to the people who reside there as well as the people who live in the village-at-large,” Sanderson said, noting that all plans would go through the village leadership and they would talk to the community planners about what they have in mind.

Richard Phoenix is a former member of the Youngstown Planning Board, a retired vice president of engineering at Carborundum and president of his own start-up company, Ohm Tek, which made precision electronic parts. He said he originally bought the land with the intention of building rental units. After he retired, he and his wife felt the land would be better used by Rivershore.

“It seemed, at this time of my life, the right thing to do. I’m getting a little old and the economy isn’t really great for building and my real hang up is the Robert Moses [Parkway] is such an uncertain thing that people just don’t want to invest money to move out here,” Phoenix said, referring to an ongoing debate about whether the parkway between Youngstown and Niagara Falls should be removed.

He said Rivershore was their first choice to receive the donation after an employee of his church, St. John’s Episcopal, and a daughter of a friend in the Youngstown Lions Club each were helped by Rivershore.

“Their name came to me because of the people I know,” he said.

Neither Sanderson nor Phoenix knew the specific value of the donation, but Phoenix laughed and said, “It’s nicer to donate than to pay taxes on it.”

The Rivershore board of directors recently honored the couple for their donation, presenting them with a plaque that proclaimed that “their names will be forever linked to all the good deeds that shall come to pass on this land.”

Rivershore Inc, with 140 employees, is one of the largest employers in the Lewiston area and serves people living with disabilities such as Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and traumatic brain injury. Its main office is on Cayuga Street in the Village of Lewiston, but the agency operates 12 residential properties, nine group homes and three supportive apartments in Niagara County, which provide help with day-to-day living. The organization also provides employment services, life planning services, clinical services, and self-advocacy services.

“The communities in Niagara County have been a great place for people to live and to work and be part of the things happening in their community,” Sanderson said.

Sanderson said the agency’s goal remains helping adults with disabilities as they pursue and achieve a meaningful life.

“These are challenging times for all not-for-profits, so any help can be a difference maker,” he said.

email: nfischer@buffnews.com

NIAGARA FALLS – Is it the air? The water? Or is it possibly just a symptom of the depressed economy that many of the new restaurants opening in the city over the past few months have been decidedly small in size?

Venus, the Greek/Mediterranean restaurant examined in this space a month ago, opened in the cramped confines of a former sandwich shop on Pine Avenue. Hopefully, its authentic, tasty and generous offerings will enable it to outgrow that space soon and spread its wings in larger, more luxurious quarters.

Ditto for this month’s spotlight spot, which occupies an even smaller – and more inconspicuous – space at the corner of 30th and Niagara streets. Tummies restaurant, which also took over a former sandwich shop, serves up fresh, authentic Latin/Puerto Rican cuisine in ample portions.

It’s a struggle for any restaurant to get off the ground in these parts, as evidenced by an alarmingly high failure rate for non-franchise joints, so perhaps starting out small while trying to establish a clientele is good strategy.

Let’s hope so, because places like Venus and Tummies fill a void that shouldn’t exist in a city so culturally diverse.

Tummies – the full name is Tummies, A Little Latin Taste – opened last fall in a space that allows for little more than a stove, griddle and home-style deep fryer. That’s probably sufficient, though, for what appears to be a two-person operation.

Four small tables and a ceiling fan constitute the “dining room” portion of the business. That’s why it appears, from our experience, that takeout is the preferred manner of consumption here. It’s not required, mind you, just recommended.

The folks who run Tummies may be limited by space, but their ambition is unlimited. While we waited for our food, the nice-but-somewhat-frazzled lady behind the counter told us that she tries to accommodate customers in any way possible, even offering “whole-hog” catering.

Her philosophy likewise comes across on the paper menus, which state that “the preparation of our meals [reflects] our own family traditions.”

She explained how her Latin goodies are made unique by the choice and amount of spices employed in their preparation, a testament to the African, European and Caribbean tastes that influence Latin dishes.

I was expecting something spicy but was quickly corrected by daughter No. 1, who has traveled to Puerto Rico.

“Puerto Rican food isn’t all that spicy,” she assured me.

On the day of our visit, the proprietors were trying to overcome an illness in the family, so certain dishes were not available. The owner explained what we could order, and we tried to sample a little bit of everything but missed out on the steak dishes, which I heard from another customer were great.

So we tried an order or two of Pastelillos ($2 apiece), a roasted pork hoagie ($5.99), a barbecued rib special ($8.49), a healthy sampling of the plantain chips ($2 per order) and a small sampling of the Latin staple rice and beans ($3.59).

Since some of the things we had wanted were unavailable, the nice lady offered us a free all-you-can-eat supply of the chips. Since we ultimately decided to take our order home to eat, she included a good amount of the wickedly hot chips, which triple as appetizer/side dish/snacks.

They were served with a pinkish, garlicy smelling sauce that Steffany insisted was horseradish-based. I’m not quite sure, but it did impart a nice taste, not overpowering at all, given the potential ingredients.

The chips themselves – deep-fried slices of plantains – were fresh, thick and piping hot, but not nearly as sweet as I had expected. Again, Stef corrected me, saying that plantains are not sweet and banana-like unless ripened to the extreme. These were still on the green side, starchy, and she deemed them “excellent” due to the unusual freshness.

The Pastelillos – fried meat pockets – were thick and doughy and filled with a moist, cheesy-tasting meat, along the lines of what you might expect to find in a Philly cheese steak sandwich. Similar to a tamale, they were quite tasty. That sauce worked well for them as well.

My biggest complaint was with the rice and beans, which I thought could have benefited from an infusion of snappy spice. As served, they were kind of bland; we doctored them with some cayenne pepper sauce, which provided some added spirit.

The barbecue ribs were the highlight: subtly saucy, on the sweet side, tender and meaty. The combo came with three big beef ribs and rice and beans. They were good enough to eat the bones.

The pork hoagie, an eight-inch sandwich filled with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and ketchup or mayo, had us on the fence: Some liked it, some didn’t. The meat was a little on the fatty side, which made portions quite chewy, and by the time we ate, the lettuce and tomatoes had wilted into a soggy soup, but that was our fault.

The taste was pretty good. Again, not particularly spicy, but OK.

Tummies also offers whole chicken dinners, chicken fingers, pork chops, breaded cube steaks, chicken soup and the usual assortment of sides, so there’s a pretty good chance they can please any palate.

Here’s hoping they can help in that neighborhood’s turnaround, which has already been bolstered by some new taverns, shops and restaurants, not to mention a nice little pocket park up at Gill Creek.

Ole!

email: niagaranews@buffnews.com

LOCKPORT – The City of Lockport, which hardly recycled any garbage before the fall of 2011, now recycles a larger percentage of its trash than almost any community in the Buffalo Niagara region.

Modern Disposal says that of the communities its serves, only Amherst surpasses Lockport in the percentage of waste recycled.

The change came in October 2011, when Lockport switched from city pickup of trash to a privatized system with every-other-week collection of recyclables in wheeled 64- or 96-gallon carts, also called totes.

Regular garbage is also collected in such totes, but those pickups are weekly. Property owners are charged a user fee depending on the size of the totes they choose.

“Overall, 30 percent less waste is being disposed of by Lockport residents,” said Dawn M. Timm, Niagara County environmental coordinator and the main architect of Lockport’s system.

Lockport residents are now recycling 22 percent of their trash, while the figure in Amherst is 27 percent, according to Katy Duggan-Haas, Modern’s sustainability coordinator.

Amherst improved from 20 percent to 27 percent recycling after the introduction of a cart-based system during 2012. The figure does not include yard waste collected in either community.

Besides the environmental aspect, Lockport Mayor Michael W. Tucker has another reason to like the program. “It’s a money-saving machine,” he said.

The total cost of Lockport’s refuse and recycling program in 2012, operated by Modern, was $1.23 million, which was $474,430, or 28 percent, less than the cost of the final 12 months of the city-run program from October 2010 to October 2011.

Timm said that meant Lockport did better than the $430,000 in savings she had projected for the year.

The towns of Wheatfield and Wilson moved to the every-other-week recycling format last year, and early returns show increased recycling participation and savings for the towns, Timm said.

Duggan-Haas said other Modern-serviced communities that now have cart-based recycling programs are the towns of Alden, Newstead, Pendleton, Porter, Royalton, Somerset and the villages of Akron, Sloan and Wilson. She said Depew may switch to a cart-based recycling program as soon as July.

“Because of carts, more people are participating in recycling, and many of those who have always participated are recycling more material,” Duggan-Haas said. “The broader list of acceptable items in carts means more people than ever are recycling their yogurt and butter tubs, pizza boxes, kitty litter buckets, food and beverage cartons and even worn out pots and pans.”

“Twelve of the 14 [other] municipalities in Niagara County have reached out to Dawn Timm,” Tucker said. “It has been a vindication for us. We took this on at a time when nobody wanted to touch it. It was an election year.”

Despite public complaints about the user fee and the totes, Tucker was re-elected in 2011 and participation in recycling has remained strong.

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com

LOCKPORT – There were relatively few arrests during the first two weeks of the city’s “impact zone” crackdown in the area of Washburn and Genesee streets, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, Police Chief Lawrence M. Eggert said.

Totals from the reports for the first two weeks of the program showed 19 arrests, mostly on minor charges, and six drug arrests. In the week that ended Thursday, there were only two drug arrests, both for marijuana possession.

“Not really surprised on the low drug arrests. The publicity has them running for cover,” Eggert said in a recent email to The Buffalo News. “We spoke to a few prisoners last week arrested for other charges and they tell us that the word is out on our operation.”

“It’s really kind of quiet down there,” Mayor Michael W. Tucker said during Wednesday’s Common Council work session. “Everybody is being quiet and going underground.”

Tucker announced the impact zone program Jan. 18, in the wake of a still-unsolved Jan. 3 shooting of a man outside a Washburn Street gas station.

It called for heavy police and building inspection operations in a run-down area of the city centered on the corner of Washburn and Genesee – where drug dealing and other trouble has been so common for at least 20 years that a Lockport public affairs website used to refer to it as the Crime District, with capital letters, as if it were a proper name.

Things were flaring up again in late 2012, with the number of police calls in the neighborhood rising 27 percent above the totals for November and December 2011.

The crackdown involves all types of police work. On Wednesday, a roadblock on Washburn resulted in 30 vehicle and traffic citations. In all, there have been 156 traffic stops during the first two weeks of the impact zone. And 129 parking tickets were issued in the impact zone during the first two weeks.

Warrants for previous crimes also have been executed steadily – 27 of them in the two-week period, with 10 people apprehended.

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com

ALBANY – The Cuomo administration, frustrated with its long-standing financial dispute with the Seneca Nation and seeking more lucrative gambling revenues, will propose a new, non-Indian casino for downtown Niagara Falls.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s move sets in motion either an effort to jump-start stalled talks over the more than $500 million in lapsed casino revenue-sharing payments or an attempt to bring direct, non-Indian competition to the tribe’s exclusive gambling empire in Western New York.

The governor has said he wanted to add three non-Indian casinos to upstate, but he now is preparing to increase the casino expansion to four facilities and, for the first time, he is specifically identifying one of those sites: Niagara Falls, according to an administration official speaking to The Buffalo News on condition of anonymity.

For the casino plan to get the green light, Cuomo needs the newly created state Gaming Commission – which he controls – to determine that the 2002 casino compact between the Senecas and New York has been breached.

Significantly, the Cuomo administration believes “ending the Indian monopoly would be an economic benefit” to the state and localities.

The administration official noted that the Senecas – “when they pay” – will share 25 percent of their slot machine revenues with the state and localities.

But non-Indian casino operators, if the current revenue-sharing model at nine racetrack-based casinos is followed, could end up paying triple what the Senecas are supposed to pay.

The Senecas haven’t paid anything in recent years, saying that the state violated the compact by allowing casino-style gambling at Hamburg and Batavia.

That the administration has worked out numbers to show that the state and localities can make more in revenue sharing with a non-Indian casino indicates the seriousness of the proposal.

Where in Niagara Falls a non-Indian casino might go is uncertain, since the Cuomo plan is at an early stage and there are many possible legal, financial and political twists that could take place.

Certainly, one possible player is Howard Milstein. He is the Manhattan billionaire banker who owns 80 acres of land in downtown Niagara Falls that have been sitting mostly idle.

Milstein also is chairman of the state Thruway Authority, and he was appointed by Cuomo.

It is uncertain when the governor will formally unveil his proposal, but it likely would have to be in budget amendments he will make in two weeks to the 2013 state budget he shared in January.

The governor has said his plan to locate three – and now four – casinos upstate is a major part of his administration’s goal to improve parts of the upstate region’s economy. He believes New York City residents, and some of the 50 million tourists each year to that city, can be lured upstate by “destination” casino resorts, complete with full-scale Las Vegas casino projects and rounded out with hotels, restaurants, entertainment and shopping components.

The idea comes as state and local officials have been trying to figure out ways to improve the economy of Niagara Falls, which for years has looked across the border to the real estate boom on the Canadian side of the falls.

It is worth noting, though, that the Canadians have considered curtailing casino operations in Niagara Falls, Ont. A report last year called for plans for a new casino in the greater Toronto region and a possible reduction or relocation of casinos from shrinking markets such as Niagara Falls, Ont.

Over the past decade, profits from Canadian gambling facilities close to the U.S. border have dropped from $800 million to $100 million, and resort-casinos alone have declined by more than $600 million.

On the U.S. side of the border, the Seneca Nation has stopped making its annual revenue-sharing payments, which have now run up to a tab of more than $500 million. A quarter of that was supposed to be shared with the three local host cities where the tribe operates casinos: Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Salamanca.

The funding dispute between Albany and the tribe has severely affected those cities’ budgets, especially in Niagara Falls and Salamanca, where jobs and services have been cut in the past couple years.

The amount of money the tribe owes to the state would, if paid today, wipe out more than one-third of New York State’s budget deficit for the 2013 fiscal year.

The tribe and then-Gov. George E. Pataki in 2002 signed a nearly 600-page agreement, under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, for the Senecas to operate three casinos in Western New York. In return for a share of casinos’ slot machine proceeds, the state gave the Senecas a large casino exclusivity zone – from Route 14, which runs east of Rochester from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania line, all the way to the western reaches of the state.

The 2002 compact’s life span was 14 years, with an automatic renewal for an additional seven years if neither side objected.

For the compact to end early, one of three conditions must met. One of those conditions is either side committing a “material breach” to the terms of the deal.

The tribe stopped paying the state a few years ago when, it declared, the state violated the compact’s terms. It cited as compact breaches the expanded gambling offerings at three racetrack-based casinos in Western New York – in Batavia, Hamburg and Farmington. The matter went to arbitration late last year.

Cuomo’s new plan comes a few weeks after the governor suggested no casino would be in the mix for Western New York. But he left some wiggle room in early January, saying that the state would honor legal agreements “in good standing.”

Would he oppose any new casinos in Western New York as part of his gambling expansion package?

“We’re not going to violate any contracts that are in good standing, so you’d have to look at the contract,” Cuomo responded during a session with reporters at the Capitol last month. “If it says there’s an exclusivity geographically, then we’re not going to violate any contract that’s in good standing.”

While state lawmakers are eyeing second passage this session of a resolution to amend the state constitution permitting up to seven casinos on non-Indian lands, a separate “enabling” bill remains to be negotiated that would spell out some of the details of the expansion.

In his 2013 budget, Cuomo proposed a “first phase” of the casino development that would limit the new gambling halls to upstate. He has defined upstate as the areas north of metropolitan New York, but he has not detailed precisely where they may be. Cuomo has, however, hinted at new casinos possibly in the Albany area, the Finger Lakes, the Catskills and the Adirondacks.

The administration is walking a fine line with Cuomo’s proposal for a non-Indian casino in Niagara Falls.

While it believes that a non-Indian casino could bring more money to both the state and the localities, it also does not want to jeopardize the jobs associated with the current Seneca casino operation in Niagara Falls.

But with casinos across the border in Canada, the administration apparently believes there could be enough business – especially with additional development opportunities in Niagara Falls – for both the Senecas and a non-Indian developer to succeed.

Under the new Cuomo plan, the Gaming Commission would decide whether the compact between the Senecas and the state has been breached. The commission, created last year by merging the operations of the state Lottery Division and the Racing and Wagering Board, was legally activated Friday.

A board of directors has not yet been appointed, but five of the seven members will be named by Cuomo – and therefore would likely be loyal to the governor’s administration.

The casino expansion will come to a head this legislative session. Lawmakers last year approved a resolution permitting up to seven full-blown casinos, complete with table games and slot machines instead of the video slot machine devices now at the nine racetracks controlled by the lottery division of the new Gaming Com- mission.

Lawmakers this session are being asked to approve the same resolution, as well as a bill outlining various specifics, such as possible host counties for the casino developers and the process for how sites will be selected.

If all that happens, voters this November will be asked to approve or reject the expansion in a statewide referendum.

email: tprecious@buffnews.com

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo may have plans for a new, non-Indian casino in Niagara Falls, but the city isn’t preparing to double down just yet.

Community leaders said Sunday that they would certainly welcome another gambling hall to their tourist community, but they view Cuomo’s plan as more of a bargaining chip than a reality at this point.

The thinking is that if Cuomo threatens to allow a competitor to the Seneca Niagara Casino, the Senecas will be more likely to pay the more than $500 million in casino proceeds owed to the state.

“Of course, he’s using it as a bargaining chip,” said Niagara Falls Block Club President Roger L. Spurback. “I would do the same thing.”

But it also provides Niagara Falls with a Plan B if the Senecas either win the arbitration or simply refuse to pay.

“The discussion of the possibility of a non-Seneca casino in Niagara Falls serves two objectives,” said Mayor Paul A. Dyster. “It creates additional leverage to resolve the dispute with the Senecas, and at the same time, it provides an option if the dispute isn’t resolved.”

Other observers said privately that the strategy is essentially a win-win situation for Cuomo and the state.

Either the plan for a non-Indian casino forces the Senecas’ hand or it gives the city a new revenue generator as it struggles to survive without $60 million in slot machine proceeds withheld by the Senecas.

It could also push a billionaire landowner with close ties to Cuomo to finally develop his blighted properties in downtown Niagara Falls.

Those options are all possibilities, officials said, but at the moment, the focus is on resolving the current casino dispute with the Senecas.

No city or state leaders contacted by The Buffalo News suggested that plans for a new casino would render the current dispute meaningless.

“Discussion about what happens in the future, to our way of thinking, doesn’t change what is owed or what has taken place already,” Dyster cautioned.

“The key for us is to resolve the dispute so we can get paid, but at the same time, if the Senecas continue to refuse to pay and the dispute isn’t resolved, it’s important that we move forward with other options.

“I don’t see how the Governor’s Office could not look at this.”

And a second casino is certainly an alternative, said State Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane.

“I think the governor is as exhausted as everyone else is with the nonpayment by the Senecas, and I think he’s exploring all the options,” said Maziarz, who counts the Senecas among his major campaign contributors. “I think he’s doing the right thing.”

Spurback, who has criticized Cuomo in the past, also believes that the governor’s plan will ultimately help the city. But he believes that Cuomo’s motivations center on the state allowing “racinos” and other gambling devices, which drove the Senecas to withhold the money.

Spurback believes that it would benefit Cuomo to get the Senecas to agree to a settlement before the current arbitration ends because the state is the party that violated the deal.

“When arbitration ends … New York State will lose that,” Spurback said. What the governor is doing, he added, “is putting his cards on the table before arbitration to get the Senecas to the table.”

Another theory is that, despite the recent plans for a new casino and the apparent frustration at the pace of negotiations by the state, both sides are relatively close to an agreement.

Cuomo’s aggressive stance on the issue could actually compel hard-liners in the Seneca government to move closer to the moderates, who have been pushing for a deal.

A spokeswoman for Seneca President Barry E. Snyder Sr. declined to comment on the casino plan.

Spurback’s organization and other groups in the community proposed a similar non-Indian casino plan late last year. They sent copies of the proposal to Cuomo and a representative of Howard P. Milstein, the Manhattan billionaire who owns more than 140 acres of prime, undeveloped downtown land.

Building a new casino in the Falls could push Milstein to develop the blighted expanse that sits at the entrance to the city, which many say is the prime area for a new casino.

But it also would raise questions about Cuomo’s relationship with Milstein, a major campaign donor to Cuomo who he appointed in 2011 to lead the state Thruway Authority.

email: cspecht@buffnews.com

Noco Energy Corp., hit with a lawsuit in October from a Wilson family whose house was destroyed in a propane explosion, is hitting back.

The company has filed a countersuit in State Supreme Court in Niagara County accusing Jody Johnson, whose daughter died in the July 24 blast, of causing the explosion.

The suit says that Johnson disconnected his Noco propane tank after smelling gas in his home July 23 and filled a 100-pound tank he had on his property with propane he bought at a store on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation.

Johnson then connected that tank to his home’s heating system, and at about 6 a.m. the next day, his house was obliterated in a fiery explosion.

Sarah Johnson, 14, was killed. Her sister Katie, 19, suffered severe burns and was hospitalized for seven weeks. Both parents, Jody, 45, and Judith, 46, and their son Nathan, 16, suffered less serious injuries.

“The allegations against Jody Johnson are denied,” the family’s attorney, Matthew J. Beck, wrote in an email to The Buffalo News last week.

“These allegations ignore that Mr. Johnson never would have hooked up a temporary tank if Noco had issued a warning or properly treated the situation as an emergency upon the Johnsons’ report of a smell of gas in the house, rather than treating the circumstances as a mere empty tank situation. Noco is simply attempting to deflect blame for this horrific incident,” said Beck, of the Buffalo law firm Duke Holzman Photiadis & Gresens.

The Johnsons sued Noco on Oct. 26, demanding damages to be determined at trial for the explosion. But their lawsuit acknowledged that the Noco propane tank had been disconnected before the explosion by Jody Johnson, a professional pipe fitter for Parise Mechanical in the Town of Tonawanda.

Noco’s countersuit seeks to place the blame for the explosion on Jody Johnson and perhaps on Jay’s Place II, a store on Walmore Road on the Tuscarora Reservation where Johnson filled the 100-pound propane tank on the evening of July 23.

Its owner, Jay Clause, did not return calls seeking comment last week, but Noco’s attorney, Terrance P. Flynn of the Harris Beach law firm, said he has been told by Clause’s insurer, Kinsale Insurance of Richmond, Va., that it intends to retain a lawyer.

Flynn, a former U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York, said Noco is not trying to recover any damages itself from the Johnsons or Jay’s Place.

“It is our position that liability lies with Mr. Johnson and Jay’s Place,” Flynn said.

The Johnsons’ insurer, USAA, hired attorney William J. Kita of Buffalo to represent the Johnsons against Noco’s countersuit.

Flynn said there could be an issue with a non-Indian company suing a business on an Indian reservation. However, he declined to discuss the issue, saying that question crossed the line into his legal strategy.

Besides the dispute over the Johnsons’ actions, the litigation will focus on the telephone exchanges between Judith Johnson and a Noco customer service representative on the afternoon of July 23.

The Johnsons’ original lawsuit contends that Judith Johnson called to say she smelled gas and that the Noco representative allegedly told her that it was just the odorant added to natural gas, which has no smell of its own.

The Noco person allegedly said that the propane level in the tank was low and that this was why Johnson was smelling the odorant.

The countersuit by Noco doesn’t talk about that. Instead, it asserts that the Johnsons refused to allow someone to come out and inspect their propane tank that night.

“If the plaintiffs sustained any of the injuries and damages as alleged in their complaint, through any negligence or fault other than [their] own, it is because Jody Johnson’s negligence was the direct, actual and proximate cause of the plaintiffs’ alleged accident and resulting injuries,” the countersuit says.

It may be quite a while before all this is hashed out in court. State Supreme Court Justice Ralph A. Boniello III set a pretrial schedule last week, calling for all depositions to be completed by Aug. 13.

Physical examinations of the plaintiffs must be done by Oct. 13, and all sharing of documents and other evidence must be completed by the end of the year, perhaps leading to a trial in 2014.

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com

Sixty Pomeranian dogs remained kenneled inside the home of a Town of Lockport dog breeder on Sunday after the human occupants had been forced to leave the condemned structure a day earlier.

“They’re still in the home,” said Barry Kobrin, the town’s dog control officer, who was visiting the home on South Royal Parkway periodically to care for the dogs. As for their condition, he said: “They’re not bad. They’re healthy, as far as I can see.”

“Certainly, every one of them needs to be looked at,” Kobrin said.

Preparations were under way at the Niagara County SPCA to accept the dogs today.

Meanwhile, Elly Magrum, 50, who runs Royal Canine Express Royal Poms out of the home, is scheduled to appear Tuesday evening in Lockport Town Court. She was charged with four violations of the town code: harboring dogs, unlicensed dogs, failure to license dogs and excessive barking.

Magrum and her family reportedly are staying with relatives.

The dogs were discovered Saturday afternoon by a Niagara County sheriff’s deputy and a state trooper investigating an unrelated complaint involving a juvenile.

“When they were investigating ... they were overcome with the smell of urine and feces in the house,” said Sgt. Gary May of the Sheriff’s Office. No criminal charges were filed, he said, though additional charges are pending action by the Town of Lockport and the SPCA.

The address has a history of citations for excessive barking, Kobrin said.

Neighbors said they often heard dogs barking but had no idea there were so many in the house.

“We knew they had dogs there. We didn’t know they had 60,” said Nick Cavalieri.

He said the odors from the dogs and dog feces were more noticeable in the summer. The odor and the barking made it uncomfortable for adjacent neighbors to enjoy their yards, despite the wooden fence surrounding the Magrum’s backyard.

Cavalieri said he went to the Magrums’ house one time and took several steps back when the door was opened.

“Their house reeks,” he said.

Neighbors made complaints to the town, they said, but the situation never seemed to improve.

“I couldn’t believe there were 60 dogs in there,” said one neighbor, who said only three or four dogs were seen at a time.

The split-level house, built in 1980, now has a bright pink notice of condemnation on the front door.

Brian Belson, the town’s senior housing inspector, did not return a call seeking comment Sunday.

“It’s uninhabitable by the residents,” Kobrin said.

“It’s condemned because of the smell. It’s overcrowded,” he said. “There may be disease there.”

The dogs range in age from newborns – the breeder’s website advertises some puppies born Dec. 27 – to 7 years old, Kobrin said.

They’re confined in kennels throughout the house, with the exception of the bathroom and bedrooms.

In a “nursery” room, seven female dogs with their litters are housed in separate kennels.

According to the breeder’s website, dogs are offered for sale at prices ranging from $200 to $900, plus shipping charges of up to several hundred dollars.

The site advertises “quality AKC (American Kennel Club) Pomerians” and notes an additional charge of $200 to $400 for “full AKC” dogs. An affiliation between the breeder and the American Kennel Club could not immediately be confirmed, however.

Kobrin said it’s an unfortunate situation.

“To her, it’s a business. To me, it’s a mill,” he said.

email: jhabuda@buffnews.com and bobrien@buffnews.com

The Buffalo Chapter of the Ahmadiy- ya Muslim Community will hold its 18th interfaith conference from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday in Millennium Hotel, 2040 Walden Ave., Cheektowaga. The topic is “Religion Founders’ Day.”

The free conference provides an opportunity to learn about the founders of major world religions. The invited speakers are: Vijay Chakravarthy, representing Hinduism; Rabbi Alex Lazarus-Klein, representing Judaism; Ray Ball, representing Buddhism; the Rev. Gloria E. Payne-Carter, representing Christianity; Mohan S. Devgun, representing Sikhism; and Imam Naseem Mahdi, representing Islam.

Each speaker will address the audience for 15 minutes, followed by a question-and-answer session. Refreshments will be served. Those interested should RSVP by Friday at 371-9872 or by email at buffalo@ahmadiyya.us.

TOWN OF LOCKPORT – Niagara County sheriff’s deputies, tracking footprints in the snow up and down driveways to almost every vehicle parked on Amanda Lane, eventually arrested a 19-year-old man early Sunday and charged him with stealing watches and loose change from the vehicles.

Deputies were called about a suspicious vehicle on Kimberly Lane at 2:20 a.m. After an hour of checking the area and looking for the driver, they got another call of a man running down Kimberly Lane toward Tonawanda Creek Road.

They found a knit hat, a Ziploc bag with watches, and eventually a suspect who was found in a backyard in the 6500 block of Tonawanda Creek Road.

Lucas J. Smith, 19, of Lockwood Lane, the registered owner of the suspicious vehicle, was charged with petit larceny and trespassing at six homes in the 6800 block of Amanda Lane. He was charged after agreeing to show deputies which vehicles he had targeted. Deputies recovered $41.28 in change and three watches valued at $100.

NIAGARA FALLS – A central air-conditioning unit valued at $5,000 was stolen from a building in the 500 block of Main Street, city police said.

The owner told police Sunday that the commercial unit was taken from the west side of the building sometime last week. The owner also reported the theft of another air-conditioning unit at an undisclosed location.

WHEATFIELD – A business owner who noticed a few things missing in a display case Sunday learned that $4,000 to $6,000 worth of jewelry had been taken, according to Niagara County sheriff’s deputies.

Karen Warner, who operates as part of a collective of sellers in the Shawnee County Barn on Shawnee Road, said rings, bracelets, earrings and pendants were missing.

Employees told deputies that a suspicious man had been in the store on Saturday and brought numerous items to the counter several times, but then left after he said he forgot his wallet.

LOCKPORT – A man under indictment in connection with a July 5 stabbing in Lockport was jailed Monday by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas after she was told he had been arrested three times since that incident.

Justin J. Snead, 21, of Lincoln Avenue, had his bail hiked from $10,000 to $25,000 after Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann told the judge of Snead’s third arrest since the stabbing: a drug arrest after his vehicle was pulled over by Lockport police about three weeks ago.

Snead also was arrested Oct. 9 when police said they found crack cocaine in his car after a Lockport fender-bender. Defense attorney James J. Faso Jr. said Snead also faces a criminal mischief charge in the Town of Lockport.

Snead was indicted on charges that he stabbed a man twice in a fight in the parking lot of Lincoln Place Apartments.

Champions from WNY schools to compete in News Spelling Bee

Say hello to ‘The Flipped Classroom’ in Niagara Falls

Paramedic back home organizes fundraiser

From the blotter/Police calls and court cases, Jan. 23 to 29

Conditions in Wilson Harbor a sticking point for officials, boaters

Lockport killer to get another day in court

Two Falls restaurant projects to move ahead this year

Youngstown couple’s donation will aid Rivershore

Latin-Puerto Rican dishes add to Falls’ cultural diversity

Lockport recycling program a resounding success

Lockport “impact zone” may have driven criminals underground

Cuomo plans non-Indian casino in Falls

Bargaining chip seen in non-Indian casino plan

NOCO files countersuit in propane explosion

Niagara County SPCA preparing to accept 60 dogs from Lockport breeder’s home

Muslim group holds interfaith forum

Footprints in snow lead to suspect in car break-ins

$5,000 air conditioner stolen in Falls

Jewelry worth thousands stolen from Wheatfield store

Stabbing suspect jailed after another arrest