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Charles J. Montedoro, history teacher, football coach

March 3, 2013, 8:56 pm
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Sept. 18, 1930 – March 1, 2013

LOCKPORT – Charles J. “Chuck” Montedoro, longtime football coach and history teacher at Lockport High School, died Friday in his Lockport home under the care of Niagara Hospice. He was 82.

A Lockport native, Mr. Montedoro was a 1959 graduate of Edinboro (Pa.) State Teachers College. He also had played semiprofessional football.

After college, he taught in the Lockport school system for 30 years, retiring in 1989. He served as a junior varsity and head football coach from 1967 to 1980.

Mr. Montedoro also was an amateur and high school basketball referee for 25 years, retiring in 1989, and was a part-time Niagara County sheriff’s deputy during the summers, from 1958 to 1991.

A member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, he was active in the Holy Name Society and served on the Church Council.

Mr. Montedoro was an active hunter and fisherman. In 1973, he built a cabin in Allegany State Park, which was enjoyed over the years by family and friends.

Survivors include his wife of 50 years, the former Catherine Porretta; a son, Charles; three daughters, Carla Anderson, Cathy Jane Kowalski and Caryn Robins; and a sister, Maureen Hildreth.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 11 a.m. Tuesday in All Saints Parish Oratory, 391 Market St.

Prayers will precede the Mass at 10:30 in Prudden and Kandt Funeral Home, 242 Genesee St.
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Polar plungers take a wade-and-see approach

March 3, 2013, 9:00 pm
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OLCOTT – Nearly 600 hardy swimmers from across Western New York and even outside the region braved the chilly water and biting winds of Lake Ontario on Sunday for the Olcott Lions Club’s annual Polar Bear Swim for Sight to raise money for the visually impaired.

With hundreds more supporters, family and onlookers watching from the snow-covered beach and stone walls above, at least 573 men, women and children of all ages plunged through the slush on the shore and into the frigid, icy water of the lake at Olcott Beach. Some dipped only feet and legs in, while others soaked up the full treatment of water and snow up to their hair, laughing, cheering and screaming.

“It was cold,” said Jessie Van Wuyckhuyse, 24, of Hamlin. “My toes are numb right now.”

Dressed in everything from skimpy bathing suits or bikinis to sopping wet costumes of all sorts, they shrieked and hollered with excitement before they emerged, shivering in the 20-degree air temperature.

“You want to live life, and it feels great. It’s exhilarating, and it was amazing. I feel awesome,” said Brian Platter, 31, of Buffalo, a first-timer. “This is incredible. This is what Buffalo is.”

Jeff Salada of Pendleton said he came out because of “a lot of peer pressure.” The 21-year-old called the experience “shock and awe,” but said it was worth it and he would come out again.

The annual event, now in its 44th year, has attracted as many as 1,000 swimmers in some years and typically raises between $15,000 and $20,000 a year to benefit the Lions Club, said William J. Clark, chairman of the event, who has coordinated the swim for a decade.

Participants either pay $20 to enter the swim or raise additional money from family, friends, co-workers and others, earning prizes and rewards based on their fundraising.

“Cold. I knew it would be cold,” said 25-year-old Ashley Warren of Ransomville, who raised $561 as part of her plunge, her ninth. Was it worth it? “Oh, yeah!”

Indeed, while pure excitement and having fun drove some people into the water, the cause itself was important to many. Owen Cheverie, 33, of Lockport, has an 11-year-old daughter who is blind. He comes to swim every year and wore the same full-body clown costume he used five years ago.

He works outdoors, doing construction, so “I adapt to this weather.” Still, he wasn’t getting wet this year, because he leaves for Florida on Friday and said, “I don’t want to go there sick.”

Although the main dip itself was at 2 p.m., the crowd began gathering hours earlier for the festivities, as people huddled, bundled up in mostly cold-weather clothing and outlandish costumes for tailgating parties and mingling. Yellow school buses lined Ontario Street along the waterfront of the town.

“It’s fun. It’s so cold, but you feel so accomplished when you’re done,” said Kelly Shoemaker, 19, of Tonawanda, who was joined for her third annual polar bear swim by her 19-year-old cousin, Rebecca, of North Tonawanda. “You get so hyped up about it ... We’re just crazy.”

Green ruled the day in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, as leprechauns and other Irish characters milled around with Vikings, seals, bears, birds, clowns and a host of people in other get-ups. Lisa Kaczorowski, 43, a Town of Tonawanda resident, called her balloon-festooned outfit “ice wine.”

Dressed as a banana, 12-year-old Ethan Knott of Olcott conceded that “I’m just insane and I want to go in.”

Chris Smith, 34, of Niagara Falls, was decked out as a “yeti,” or the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas.

At about 1:30, as the crowd grew along the stone walls and fences, and the first swimmers gathered on the snow-covered beach, five heavily garbed rescue personnel waded into the water, protected from the cold by their gear. With a safety rope stretched across the small stretch of water, they stood guard both to keep anyone from venturing too far and to quickly respond if anyone needed help.

“We’ve been doing it for eight years, and by now, it’s kind of a tradition,” said Stephanie Austin, 25, of Newfane, who stood shivering on the beach before the swim with her cousin, Stacey Austin of Burt, and two friends. But “I think we’re going to hang up our hat and throw in the towel after two more years.”

The Polar Bear Queen Contest took place on schedule at 1:45, followed five minutes later by swimmers under age 18 entering the water first. The masses followed at 2. “It was perfect, just too lumpy,” said Mike Seick, 41, of Niagara Falls, who’s been doing it for 20 years, and was decked out in purple, green and yellow as a Mardi Gras king.

“It was pretty cold, a little too chunky,” agreed Susie Geiger, 40, of Medina, who’s done it for 12 years. “The cold’s OK, but getting in through the chunks, it was a little slippery there. But once you’re numb, it’s OK.”

This year, the turnout was diminished by the cold weather and ice, but Clark said he still expects to raise $15,000. “It’s good for a day like this,” he said. “It’s very cold. The wind is biting. The ice on the lake is very thick. So for a day this cold, that’s a good number. ... But certainly, if the weather wasn’t quite so severe, we’d have more people.”

Clark said about half the participants are “repeat swimmers,” which helps ensure the numbers. “They are people that are committed to this process, to this cause. They come back year after year and have fun, which is strange to some of us,” he said. “But it’s a fun day. A lot of people see this as a tradition.”



email: jepstein@buffnews.com
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Woman indicted on check scam, two drugstore burglaries

March 6, 2013, 1:26 pm
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LOCKPORT – A Cambria woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Niagara County Court to a 10-count indictment accusing her of taking part in a recent forged check scam and two 2011 drugstore burglaries.

Katherine E. Billingsley, 22, of Lower Mountain Road, was indicted on charges of second-degree forgery and criminal possession of a forged instrument in connection with the September 2012 forgery of stolen checks from a Cambria man. Shane M. Phillips, 25, of Baer Road, Cambria, pleaded guilty in that case Feb. 21.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Scalzo said Billingsley was an alleged accomplice in the theft of painkillers from Wilson Community Pharmacy in Wilson Feb. 9, 2011, and at Peterson Drug Co. in Newfane May 18, 2011. She is charged with two counts each of third-degree burglary and third-degree grand larceny and single counts of second-degree and third-degree criminal mischief and third-degree and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Alexander J. Shelbayeh, 23, of Youngstown-Wilson Road, Wilson, was paroled from state prison in August after serving about nine months for the drugstore break-ins.
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Newfane woman removed from treatment program, faces prison

March 6, 2013, 1:28 pm
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LOCKPORT – A Newfane woman did not contest her ejection from the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment Wednesday by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas.

Brianna Jones, 30, of Main Street, is to be resentenced May 8 on her original 2011 guilty plea to third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. She sold Suboxone and oxycodone in Newfane Sept. 22, 2010.

Jones had failed some drug tests during her time in diversion, but she was ousted officially for having an unauthorized male friend in her room at a supportive living facility. She faces up to nine years in prison and in the meantime is in the County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.
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State Supreme Court rules in favor of N. Tonawanda dispatch

March 6, 2013, 7:11 pm
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NORTH TONAWANDA – A State Supreme Court justice has ruled that this city’s former six-member police dispatching staff was right to expect that full seniority and its privileges would be transferred along with their move to the sheriff’s county dispatch headquarters in Lockport.

As part of the city’s effort to cut costs, the former North Tonawanda police dispatchers moved, in the second half of last year, to the dispatching center, which is next to the County Jail.

In the deal negotiated between the city and county, the dispatchers who had between five and 12 years experience were not able to apply those years on the job to all aspects of their new positions: They could not use the seniority credit for pay and shift and vacation scheduling.

“We totally disagreed with that,” said Bill Davignon, union president of the North Tonawanda Unit of the Civil Service Employees Association.

The CSEA, which represented the workers when they were employed by the city, filed a lawsuit challenging the action. “The big thing we were upset about was the issue of seniority carrying over for shift bidding,” said Davignon.

Civil service law has rules about terms of employment when workers are transferred involuntarily, which includes the transfer of full seniority rights, he said. “Seniority goes with them,” he said.

The law states that seniority is transferred for “all purposes,” he added. “It doesn’t really elaborate.”

After examining the question for what those purposes are, acting State Supreme Court Justice Matthew J. Murphy sided with the CSEA’s interpretation, Davignon said.

The Niagara County Sheriff’s Office can appeal the court ruling, which was announced Monday.

Sheriff James Voutour could not be reached to comment.

If the ruling stands, a dispatcher with 10 years’ experience in North Tonawanda would go from earning about $20 an hour at the Sheriff’s Office to about $23, Davignon said.

As part of the move, the police dispatchers were trained to handle additional duties of first aid and fire dispatching. “They really were earning that pay raise,” Davignon said.

North Tonawanda decided to eliminate the department to avoid costly technology upgrades and employee salaries and benefits that have cost $448,000 a year.

In the department transfer deal, the county chose not to accept full seniority, said North Tonawanda Common Council President Richard Andres.

“We didn’t have any say over that,” he said.

The city agreed, however, to cover full salary costs last year and this year. In the three years ahead, the city will pay decreasing percentages of the salaries: 75 percent in 2014, 50 percent in 2015 and 25 percent in 2016. The Sheriff’s Office will cover the balance and, eventually, the full amount.

If the court ruling stands, dispatchers will win retroactive pay increases, and North Tonawanda will be responsible for its portion of the costs, Andres said.

“The view from the city is even if the cost is up slightly, the long-term benefits are such that it is still a huge benefit,” he said.



email: mkearns@buffnews.com
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Residents again batter Lockport Town Board over Lafarge

March 6, 2013, 7:54 pm
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LOCKPORT – For the second consecutive month, residents administered an oral beating Wednesday to the Lockport Town Board over its Dec. 26 approval of an expansion of the Lafarge North America stone quarry.

Lafarge has bought substantial property on the south side of Hinman Road for a planned expansion, while a group of residents of Hinman and Murphy Road, now calling itself “Enough Is Enough,” is demanding the shutdown of the quarry and threatening a lawsuit to overturn the board’s decision.

Several speakers during Wednesday’s public comment period again blasted the board for approving the company’s request for a 162-foot-wide strip, 4,000 feet long, along the edge of its current quarry on Hinman, even though town officials at the time complained that Lafarge hadn’t given them much notice of their request.

“When did our elected officials start to work for the Town of Lafarge?” asked Claudette Lemieux of Murphy Road.

“There was no ill intent on this board’s part to circumvent the residents’ concerns,” Councilman Mark C. Crocker said. While residents complained about homes shaken and damaged by Lafarge’s blasting, Crocker said the position of Kistner Concrete, a Hinman Road company that casts concrete bridge forms, was crucial to his vote for the expansion.

Crocker said Kistner told him that even though it stands to lose thousands of dollars anytime a bridge casting cracks, moving Lafarge’s activities nearer would have little or no impact on its business.

Residents attacked Town Supervisor Marc R. Smith over his statement to The Buffalo News last week that the town was waiting to see what Lafarge’s expansion plans are for the south side of Hinman before proceeding with an update of the town master plan. Such an expansion would require a zoning change.

Smith said the town will send Lafarge a letter embodying the questions residents have voiced in the public meetings since the issue flared up last fall. He said that once Town Attorney Daniel E. Seaman approves the text, the letter will be publicly released.

Daniel Krakosky, of Bear Ridge Road, who lives five-eighths of a mile from the quarry, said a blast there recently cracked a window in his house.

“Since I’ve been there, the road has deteriorated. My car, which is white, some days is totally black. And at the VA, they check my lung capacity,” he said.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Former Somerset justice placed on probation in car incident

March 6, 2013, 9:52 pm
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LOCKPORT – Former Somerset Town Justice Jeffery P. Wick was placed on three years’ probation and assigned to Niagara Falls Mental Health Court on Wednesday for an incident in which his teenage son prevented a potential car crash.

Wick, 39, of Shenk Road, Sanborn, had pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and second-degree criminal contempt.

Wick, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was charged with pressing his foot down on the accelerator while his son was driving June 12 on Route 31 in Cambria. The 16-year-old slammed the transmission into park to prevent a possible high-speed crash, state police said. Wick also admitted violating a restraining order obtained against him by his ex-wife.

Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas could have sent Wick to jail for two years, but she opted for court-supervised treatment.

Wick said that on June 12, “I didn’t know what was going on. I wasn’t medicated properly.” He blamed advice from a doctor.

He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder the day of the incident, but Assistant District Attorney Lisa M. Baehre said, “He has to start accepting responsibility for his actions and not hide behind his mental health issues.”

Wick served 116 days in County Jail awaiting a plea deal in the case. Baehre said she promised Wick’s son to ask for probation and mental health court as a sentence for his father.

Wick was elected town justice in Somerset in 2003 but stepped down in 2006 after pleading guilty to harassing his wife.

Farkas told Wick that failing to take his medication would be a violation of probation. She also barred contact with Wick’s ex-wife, but not with his son.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Will new high-tech smart watches catch on?

March 7, 2013, 6:59 am
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You can check the time on your cellphone, your camera and other high-tech devices. Why, then, watch a watch?

This spring, around the country and in Buffalo, people will find themselves pondering that question as they decide whether to buy the newest incarnation of the wristwatch – the smart watch.

The question may arise this weekend in particular. After all, this is the weekend when millions of people adjust their gadgets and timepieces – both manually and digitally – to “spring forward” with the change to daylight saving time, which arrives Sunday.

Now, makers including Pebble, which is putting out a new smart-watch product, are trying to get average consumers to fork out money once again for, yes, wristwatches.

We’ll pause a moment while you clear images of Cary Grant and Fred Astaire from your minds.

In recent years, watches have taken a hit, the ripple effect of many people realizing they could check the time by simply grabbing their phones.

In the Buffalo area, jewelry and wristwatch buyers and sellers noticed the effect of that change in their own merchandise cases and cash registers.

“It’s cellphones,” said Richard Shiner, who with his wife, Barbara, owns a shop selling jewelry, watches and antiques on Ridge Road in Lackawanna.

“People don’t even buy navigation systems anymore. You don’t even need a laptop anymore,” Shiner said.

Wristwatches have been no different, he said, though women have been slower to surrender their timepieces than men, in his opinion.

The new smart watch is intended to lure people back to the habit of having a useful device on their wrists.

That’s why the new watches are more like minicomputers than the standard wristwatch of old, which told the time and little else.

The Pebble watch lets you check your email and text messages, look at Facebook and Twitter accounts, and more. It connects without wires to a smartphone.

The Pebble devices cost about $150, according to published reports.

Other versions of the smart watch currently on the market include the Cookoo, the MetaWatch and the Sony SmartWatch.

Casio has released a G-Shock watch that has some smart functions as well.

However, not everybody who is shopping for watches these days is considering the high-tech factor first and foremost.

Maybe it’s the “Mad Men” effect – or maybe Western New Yorkers are just more classic in their tastes.

But at Shiner’s Lackawanna shop, the watches selling well are the higher-end, famous-maker versions that can cost hundreds, even thousands, of dollars.

“If you bought it new, it would cost you $4,500,” Shiner said, holding up one of the subtly glittering Rolexes and Tag Heuers he keeps in a plastic bin in his shop. “I’d want about $3,000 for this one.”

And who would buy something like that, in Buffalo and its suburbs?

“Most businessmen wear watches,” said Shiner, who has been in the Lackawanna location for about 13 years. “A good watch you can always sell. A Rolex, they’re in high demand, no matter what.”

At the other end of the spectrum, a purveyor who sells watches and other jewelry in Blasdell said he thinks younger buyers, in their teens and 20s, want the top-of-the-line watches they see in advertisements featuring professional athletes and Hollywood celebrities.

To a teen or 20-something, said Ryan J. Spears at the Western New York Jewelry Exchange on Lake Shore Road, fashion and trendiness top high-tech capabilities – even today, in a smart-everything world.

“They’re interested in flashy watches, the G-Shock, it’s like a stainless watch with a rubber band to it,” said Spears, 19, a graduate of Lake Shore High School who now is co-owner of the Blasdell jewelry business. “It’s more so just to have the look of the watch on.”

Spears said, in his experience, that people in his age group are interested in luxury watches, like Rolexes and Patek Philippes, more than smart models – at least for now.

“I’ve noticed a lot of people are asking for those watches,” said Spears, who is a registered gemologist. “A lot of the commercials – they have commercials with professional athletes, they’re always wearing the watches.”

Overall, more younger people seem to be into wristwatches these days, Spears said. That could be a positive sign for those who sell the items.

And such customers may be interested in the high-tech smart watches, when they start to more fully pervade the Western New York landscape, Spears said.

But Spears said that with this group, it’s more about the look they are trying to achieve.

“The idea [of a smart watch] sounds pretty cool,” said Spears. “But how would it look? It just depends on the appearance of the watch.”

“Appearance takes a big part of it,” he said.

At the Lackawanna jewelry and collectible shop, Shiner said that one thing is certain about the market in things like watches and fine jewelry:

Everything is cyclical.

“Women want big ones now,” Shiner said of wristwatches. “Nobody wears the small ones anymore. Trends change all the time. Nobody wants a marquis diamond anymore. Five years ago, everybody wanted a marquis cut. Now it’s only princess cut.”

Shiner said he’s adamant in his own tastes, even where watches are concerned.

“I’d be lost without my watch,” he said, gesturing at the black-strapped Dakota on his wrist.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. email: cvogel@buffnews.com
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United Way of Greater Niagara to review all funded agencies

March 7, 2013, 9:50 am
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WHEATFIELD – The United Way of Greater Niagara announced Wednesday it is launching a thorough review of each of its partner agencies’ claims to funding.

“It could mean increases in funding for some. It could mean decreases in funding for some. It could mean some new partners. It’s kind of exciting,” President Carol G. Houwaart-Diez said.

An 18-member task force composed mostly of people with no connection to the United Way has been appointed and will report to the United Way board this summer, she said.

The review involves the distribution of about $800,000 of “undesignated funds” the United Way collects in its annual fund drive.

Houwaart-Diez said if a donor specifies a particular not-for-profit agency or program on his form, United Way must obey those instructions and send the money there, even if it’s not an agency United Way normally funds. But most donors don’t do that, and the United Way divides up those undesignated contributions among 75 programs operated by 20 agencies in Niagara County. The shares “are really based on past history,” Houwaart-Diez said.

But now, largely at the behest of the national United Way organization, the task force has been set up to analyze the county’s needs for funding in the agency’s three main target areas – education, health and income. It will then determine how well the 75 programs meet those needs.

Sources of information on community needs will involve a variety of reports, including government and private studies, such as the John R. Oishei Foundation’s Mobile Safety Net Team; a report by New York State Touchstones “Kids Count” data books from the State Council on Children and Families; and the Niagara County Health Department’s community health assessment.

The results will be publicized before the annual United Way fund drive kicks off in earnest this fall, and the decisions will apply to the money collected this year. “We have to have this report before we go out to campaign,” Houwaart-Diez said.

It has been three years since the United Way of Greater Niagara was formed through the merger of the United Way of Niagara and the Eastern Niagara United Way. “At that time, we told our partners there wouldn’t be any major changes for two years,” Houwaart-Diez said.

The task force members are Joe Caridi and Joe White of United Steel Workers Local 277 at Goodyear Tire & Rubber; Julie Coy, State Farm Insurance; Dr. Brendan Dowd; Delphi retiree Robert J. Hagen; Brian Hellner, a local financial investor; Robert Kazeangin of The Buffalo News; Rich Laskowski and Joe Proietti, retirees from the state Division of Youth; Beverly Maziarz, State Supreme Court secretary; and Carrie H. Mitchell, a retiree from the Niagara Falls School District.

Also, Dick McIntyre, a retired Niagara County employee; Linda Mocny of D’Youville College; Therese Quarantillo, a Niagara Falls accountant; Joanne M. Shippey of Merrill Lynch/Bank of America; Michael Williamson of Williamson Funeral Home, Niagara Falls; Jerald Wolfgang of the Western New York Regional Center for Economic Development; and Tyler Zikuski of Wegmans.

Dowd, Hagen, Kazeangin, Maziarz, Mitchell, Shippey and Wolfgang are current United Way board members.

The currently funded agencies are the Niagara County chapter of the American Red Cross; Big Brothers/Big Sisters; the Iroquois Trail and Greater Niagara Frontier councils of the Boy Scouts; the Buffalo-Niagara and Lockport Family YMCAs; the Dale Association; Everywoman Opportunity Center; Family and Children’s Service of Niagara; and Girl Scouts of Western New York.

Also, the Health Association of Niagara County; the Mary C. Dyster Center for Young Parents; the Mental Health Association of Niagara County; the Niagara Cerebral Palsy Association; Niagara County Legal Aid; the Niagara Falls Boys & Girls Club; Northpointe Council; Opportunities Unlimited of Niagara; the Salvation Army in Lockport; and the YWCA of Niagara.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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City plans new water line to serve school

March 6, 2013, 9:08 pm
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LOCKPORT – The Common Council voted Wednesday in favor of an arrangement with the Lockport City School District for a water line improvement project near Roy B. Kelley Elementary School.

The Reed Street water main behind the school is to be extended with a loop back to the High Street main, with new fire hydrants added on the looped line, Alderman Patrick W. Schrader said.

The school district will pay for the stone to be used as “bedding” for the new pipe in the trench. The city will pay $20,000 for other materials and use its crews to install the line.

The school, on High Street, is being enlarged to accommodate students from Washington Hunt Elementary School, which is being closed in June.

Schrader, D-4th Ward, said residents on Reed Street will see improved water quality as a result of the work. Because Reed is a dead-end street, the chlorine in the water dissipates, and the turbidity, or suspended solids, increase in their water. With a flow through the new lines back to High Street, that problem should be solved, Schrader said.

Mayor Michael W. Tucker told the audience at the Council meeting that the school district’s request for the city to turn over Kibler Park to the district for a northern driveway to the Kelley school has not progressed. The city has been reluctant to make the move, and the school district has learned that state financial aid will not be available for a new driveway.

In another matter, Tucker announced that Trek Inc. signed its lease Wednesday to use the bottom two floors of Building 4 at Harrison Place, paying more than $300,000 a year to relocate its electronic instrument manufacturing business from Medina.

The Council also approved an amended contract for assessment services with Girasole-Penale Appraisal of Niagara Falls.

The price was increased to $53,100 for 15 months. Tucker had said Tuesday that the price was $42,500 for 14 months. The company will serve as assessor in the 2014 citywide property revaluation. Assessor Joseph Macaluso is retiring March 28.

Also approved were $75,000-a-year employment contracts for two veteran city workers who are being promoted in their departments.

Peter S. Degnan will be in charge of the water filtration plant, and Douglas E. Sibolski will run the wastewater treatment plant. The contracts represent raises of about $12,000 a year for each man.

The Council also set public hearings for 6 p.m. March 20 for special-use permits for Imagine Community Gardens’ planned vegetable and flower garden on three vacant lots on Washburn Street, and for Grand Street Properties’ request to open spa and alternative health services offices in the corner of a machine shop at 193 Grand St.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Check Out Hunger drive draws record donations

March 6, 2013, 9:38 pm
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Donations set a record in the 21st annual Check Out Hunger drive, the Food Bank of Western New York reported. Customers at nine local food retailers gave $752,931, nearly 2 percent more than last year.

Shoppers could add $2, $3 or $5 to their grocery bills at Dash’s Markets, the Lexington Co-operative Market, Market in the Square, Noco Express, the Premier Group, Premier Gourmet, Price Rite, Tops Markets and Wegmans. ► Officials said the donations will provide 3.8 million meals. ◄
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Falls man faces drug charges after a vehicle search

March 7, 2013, 11:46 am
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NIAGARA FALLS – The Niagara County Drug Task Force seized more than $2,000 in cash, approximately two ounces of marijuana, a digital scale and a grinder after a traffic stop Tuesday on 20th Street.

Bryant D. Searles Jr., 27, of Cleveland Avenue, was charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of marijuana, third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation and a vehicle violation.

Niagara County sheriff’s deputies stopped Searles just before noon on 20th Street near Centre Avenue after they spotted an illegal tint on a side window of his vehicle. Deputies said they noticed a strong odor of marijuana and also found Searles’ license had been suspended.

The Niagara County Drug Task Force and K-9 unit searched the vehicle and investigators found some rolled marijuana in the center console, as well as approximately two ounces of marijuana in the trunk. In addition to other drug paraphernalia, deputies confiscated $2,380 that Searles was carrying.

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Two gas stations hit by robbers, including one with assailant wearing hockey mask

March 7, 2013, 11:57 am
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Two Valero gas stations, one in Niagara Falls and another in Sanborn, were robbed by a masked man within hours of each other late Wednesday and early Thursday.

Just before 9 p.m. Wednesday a man dressed in black with a black mask covering his face came into the Valero station at 4708 Hyde Park Blvd., Niagara Falls, threw a bag on the floor and demanded cash. The clerk said the man displayed a revolver and struck him in the face multiple times. The suspect was described as approximately 6 foot, 2 inches, 240 pounds. Police found a black glove just outside the store. Approximately $200 was stolen, police said.

At about 1:20 a.m. Thursday, a man entered the Sanborn Family Mart and Valero gas station at 2939 Saunders Settlement Road wearing a white hockey mask and a gray hooded sweatshirt, maroon pants and a brown jacket.

The suspect, who did not display a weapon, demanded the clerk hand over all the money and two packs of Newport cigarettes. The suspect fled with about $100 in cash and two packs of cigarettes.

A witness who saw the man flee told Niagara County sheriff’s deputies that he saw the man fall in a ditch as he fled. Deputies found a black baseball bat near Cambria-Wilson Townline Road and a black sneaker and a black hat believed to have belonged to the suspect near Niagara County Community College property.
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Furnace, water heater, pipes stolen from Falls home

March 7, 2013, 12:37 pm
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NIAGARA FALLS – A furnace, water heater and thousands of dollars worth of copper pipe were stolen from a vacant bank-owned building at 819 Armory Place sometime in the past two weeks, police said.

The property manager told police Wednesday that someone removed plywood from a steel basement access, then smashed the entry door’s glass window. The $3,000 furnace and $1,000 water heater were stolen from the basement and $2,000 worth of copper was cut out from several locations throughout the building, according to police.
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Two Lockport teens stopped for reckless driving and underage drinking

March 7, 2013, 3:11 pm
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LOCKPORT – Police said they stopped a car after they saw the driver taking off at a high rate of speed and driving recklessly just after 5:30 a.m. Thursday on Cave and Walnut streets. Officers charged the two teenagers in the car after they tested positive for alcohol.

The driver, Dana L. Rightmyer, 18, of Cave Street was charged with unreasonable speed, failure to yield for a sign, unlawful possession of alcohol, and driving with an expired license.

Her passenger, Cera M. Tiffany, 19, of Locust Street was charged with unlawful possession of alcohol.

The teens told police that they had been involved in a large fight in Niagara Falls and someone had damaged the driver’s side door and mirror.
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Florida woman accused of ripping off parents in Falls

March 7, 2013, 3:51 pm
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LOCKPORT – A Fort Myers, Fla., woman was arraigned in Niagara County Court Thursday on charges of stealing $131,708 from her parents in Niagara Falls between April 2007 and December 2011.

Jennifer L. Lofstrand, 39, pleaded not guilty to second-degree grand larceny and five counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. She was arrested last week in Florida.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Scalzo accused Lofstrand of absconding to Florida after she received “target letters” from the District Attorney’s Office last spring.

Defense attorney George V.C. Muscato said Lofstrand has lived in Fort Myers since May 2011, has two jobs and a Florida driver’s license, and talked to Falls police on the phone three times early last year. “Obviously, everybody knew where she was,” Muscato said.

He said Lofstrand had sent $20,000 to be deposited into her mother’s account. “We intend to get this matter resolved,” he said.

County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III ordered Lofstrand held in lieu of $50,000 bail, but Muscato will try to talk him down from that at a hearing Friday.
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Extended benefits for jobless are being cut

March 7, 2013, 8:17 pm
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WASHINGTON – About 8,000 people who have been jobless for more than six months in the Buffalo area will see their unemployment benefits cut by 10.7 percent next month as sequestration, the automatic budget reductions forced on the country by the president and the Congress, goes into effect.

In addition, a key cleanup project in the Buffalo River has been delayed, and Customs and Border Protection is saying that wait times at border crossings could approach five hours this summer if planned employee furloughs take effect.

Those are the key developments locally a week after Congress allowed the sequestration cuts to take effect.

While Republicans such as Rep. Chris Collins of Clarence on Thursday continued to question whether the Obama administration is executing the cuts in the most draconian way possible, there’s broad agreement that the first who will suffer from them will be those who can afford it the least: the long-term unemployed.

“To cut the benefits of people who have nowhere else to turn is really devastating,” said Jennifer L. Diagostino, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Justice in Buffalo. “You’re talking about people who need these benefits for the basic necessities to get by.”

The cuts won’t affect state-funded unemployment benefits, which cover the jobless through their first 26 weeks of unemployment. Instead, the cuts affect federally funded extended unemployment benefits, which people can receive if they have been unemployed for between 26 and 54 weeks.

Some 6,340 Erie County residents were on extended unemployment benefits as of the end of last week, as were 1,660 people in Niagara County, said Chris White, assistant director of communications at the New York State Department of Labor, which announced the 10.7 percent cut in benefits on its website.

“If you are receiving federal extended unemployment benefits that start after 26 weeks, the federal government has directed us to reduce your payments by 10.7 percent beginning that first week in April,” the Department of Labor said. “New York State has no control over these cuts in benefits and no ability to waive or reduce the level of cuts.”

Unemployment benefits in New York max out at $405 a week, and any cut to that would “have a huge impact” on people looking for work, Diagostino said.

What’s more, it’s likely to have a huge impact on the economy, given that the long-term unemployed will have less to spend, said Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo. “You’re taking demand out of the economy by doing this,” he said.

And that’s just the start of sequestration’s impact.

Higgins said the Environmental Protection Agency has informed his office that it is delaying work on a $50 million project to transform the Buffalo River from an industrial dumping ground to a working waterway where people can swim and fish. Bids on the most substantial part of the project were set to go out this year, but now those plans have been put on indefinite hold.

Work on the project began two years ago, but much remains, and Higgins said he is concerned that any delay will only make things more difficult to complete.

“The consensus plan is based on a vast body of sediment and water samples and other technical data gathered from the field,” Higgins said in a letter to Susan Hedman, Great Lakes National Program manager for the EPA. “We fear that if too much time is allowed to slip, and this technical data is allowed to age, this data will less and less reflect the actual conditions in the river and its bed. In that case, years of planning and the government’s tremendous investment in gathering this data will have been wasted.”

Similarly, Customs and Border Protection is warning that plenty of time will be wasted by drivers this summer thanks to sequestration and its resulting furloughs for workers who staff the customs booths at the Peace Bridge, Rainbow Bridge and Lewiston-Queenston Bridge.

“There will also be greater wait times for personal vehicles and pedestrians at our land border ports, with the doubling of peak waits up to five hours or more at our largest land border crossings,” Customs and Border Protection said in a memo on its website. “Travelers should adjust their trip itineraries to account for unexpected delays.”

That’s the most specific the agency has been so far regarding the border delays, which are expected to develop primarily during the busy travel months of the summer.

“Clearly, we’re concerned about it,” said Ron Rienas, general manager of the Peace Bridge Authority. “Anything that impedes the free flow of traffic is cause for concern.”

Given the possible delays, Rienas urged travelers to apply for NEXUS trusted-traveler cards, or at least passport cards or enhanced driver’s licenses, to make border crossings easier this summer.

Higgins said the possible border delays are one more example of the Congress’ irresponsible approach to budgeting, but Collins cast a doubtful eye on the warnings about backups at the border.

Collins questioned why Customs and Border Protection – which is planning to furlough workers for a total of 14 days between early April and Sept. 30 – would give workers those unpaid days off in the summer, rather than on the slower travel days of the spring and early fall.

“I believe these are more of President Obama’s scare tactics,” Collins said. “This president is trying to continue to scare the public, to inflict pain where he can to try to get more taxes.”

Obama has demanded more taxes on the wealthy as a part of any plan to replace the sequestration cuts, but so far, at least, it doesn’t look like he’s going to get his way.

The House on Wednesday passed a six-month spending bill locking in the sequestration cuts for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, while keeping taxes steady.

And while Higgins opposed that bill, saying Congress should be focused on promoting economic growth rather than sharply cutting spending, Obama has indicated he’s unlikely to force a confrontation with Republicans on such a temporary spending measure, which must be finalized by March 27 to avoid a government shutdown.

“No one,” Collins said, “wants to shut down the government.”



email: jzremski@buffnews.com
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Charges readied in Newfane “milk smashing” case

March 7, 2013, 10:44 pm
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Got caught?

Niagara County sheriff’s deputies are poised to make the region’s first arrest in a “milk smashing” case after a teenager suspected of pulling off the prank at a Tops Markets in Newfane was recognized by store employees and bragged about his actions on Facebook.

The 18-year-old Burt resident hasn’t been arrested yet but a warrant for a charge of criminal mischief has been ordered in the incident, which took place Monday at the Tops on Lockport-Olcott Road.

This incident, which was caught on a store surveillance camera, is one of at least 10 “milk smashings” that have taken place in the last week in this area, as the online prank of the moment made its way to Western New York.

In “milk smashing” or “gallon smashing,” young people at supermarkets grab plastic gallon jugs of milk or juice and then throw them in the air or smash them to the floor while pretending to fall or slide to the floor as the liquid pools around them.

The scene, of course, is recorded by an accomplice with a smartphone and later posted to YouTube or social media sites.

Counting the Niagara County incident, “milk smashing” copycats have pulled off the decidedly unfunny prank at least 10 times at stores in Western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania – seven at Tops stores and three at Wegmans stores.

Store security reported the Newfane “milk smashing” to sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday and showed investigators footage from the in-store video system that clearly showed a young man smashing the milk containers on the floor at about 6:40 p.m. Monday.

Employees were able to identify the suspect and some of the people who accompanied him to the store. He also posted something to his Facebook page, and this information was turned over to investigators.

The News isn’t naming the teen, who is accused of causing about $8 in damages, until he is charged.

Representatives of Tops and Wegmans told The News earlier this week that store employees are warned to be on the lookout for would-be “milk smashing” pranksters and they said they would prosecute anyone they catch in the act.

“It’s a prank. However, we don’t find it to be amusing,” said Shaun Frank, asset protection manager for Wegmans in Buffalo. “We consider it a crime.”

This latest bizarre food-related prank has been imitated across the nation on YouTube. A number of supermarkets have seen the trend locally and store security, managers and cashiers have been alerted.



email: nfischer@buffnews.com
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Alleged shooter of 2-year-old loses his lawyer

March 7, 2013, 9:19 pm
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LOCKPORT – Willie R. Scott Jr., accused of shooting a 2-year-old Niagara Falls girl in the face while he was trying to shoot a man who was with her, needs a new attorney.

Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III ruled Thursday that Angelo Musitano cannot represent Scott because Musitano once represented the girl’s mother, Sharonda Platt, in her own criminal case in Niagara Falls City Court.

Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann moved for Musitano to be replaced because of a perceived conflict of interest. Musitano resisted, but Murphy sided with the prosecution.

“It’s with great reluctance that I do that, because you bring great professionalism to every case,” Murphy told Musitano. “You did formerly and extensively represent Ms. Platt, and your duty to your former client continues.”

Platt is expected to testify if Scott goes to trial, because although she didn’t see the shooting, she rushed the girl to the hospital. The conflict Hoffmann saw pertained to how effectively Musitano could cross-examine Platt.

The child, now 3, still has a bullet fragment in her left cheek. She was shot Nov. 27 as she sat in a car outside the Hometown Market on Pierce Avenue in the Falls. Hoffmann has said three rounds were fired from a .357-caliber handgun.

Musitano said he has lined up another attorney for Scott, who will meet him Sunday at the County Jail. If all goes well, the new attorney is to make his first court appearance with Scott on March 21.

Hoffmann said the County Public Defender’s and Conflict Defender’s offices cannot participate in the case because they once represented another prosecution witness.

Scott, 32, of LaSalle Avenue in the Falls, is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and first-degree criminal use of a firearm.

In another case before Murphy on Thursday, the attorney for Tyler S. Best, the Buffalo man accused of helping a Niagara Falls man stuff a 5-year-old girl’s body into a garbage tote, said he has filed a motion to have Best tried separately from the alleged killer.

Best, 18, of Barnard Street, went to Falls police Aug. 27, the day after Isabella S. Tennant allegedly was strangled while being watched in her great-grandparents’ home by John R. Freeman Jr., 17, of Sixth Street in the Falls. Best told police where the corpse was – in a wheeled garbage tote in an alley.

Freeman is charged with murder, and Best with a felony count of tampering with physical evidence.

Murphy said he won’t rule on the severance motion from James J. Faso Jr., Best’s lawyer, until he rules on whether Freeman’s statements to police, including a confession, are admissible.

Murphy is expected to rule on that question April 4, so Best’s next court date was set for April 5.



email: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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Postal Service attempting to fill 50 carrier positions

March 7, 2013, 10:52 pm
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The U.S. Postal Service wants to fill 50 city carrier assistant positions in Buffalo and Rochester, and the deadline for applications is Monday, the Postal Service announced Thursday.

The Postal Service announced in January it would hire about 300 city carrier assistants throughout Western New York. Although it received about 1,100 online applications, many of those were found to be duplicates or were filed by candidates who failed to follow through by attending testing or an applicant screening process, according to spokeswoman Karen Mazurkiewicz.

The positions carry a $15-per-hour salary with paid vacations and eligibility for health benefits where required by law. Those hired are appointed for a term of 360 calendar days and may be reappointed for another 360-day term after a five-day break in service, the Postal Service said.

Interested candidates can find new postings for the positions at usps.com/employment.
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