Morning News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on March 8, 2022
The wind storm on Sunday claimed at least one life in the area. 61 year old Steven Reber was walking in the woods off Sackett Road in Bergen when a tree blown by the wind fell on him, striking him in the head and killing him. EMTs were dispatched for a call of a man pinned and unresponsive at 5:58pm and life saving measures were attempted. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Governor Hochul is leary of dropping the Gas Tax. Gas prices are on everyone’s mind as this week saw a jump of over 43 cents in just a couple of days after months of 2 or 3 cent rises a week. Prices on average are up 1.43 since 2021 with New York and California seeing record high prices. Democrat and Republican lawmakers are proposing dropping or suspending the NY state Gas tax but the governor isn’t so sure. She says that while there are options, she stated that there are no guarantees that suspending the gas tax would result in lower prices at the pump. She says she wants to make sure it would actually help before she cuts into state revenues. The gas tax accounts for at least 45 cents a gallon at the pump.
The empty K-Mart building at the corner of Lewiston and Park road has only been used for overflow parking and a halloween store and not much else. Its owner now has a proposal for what to do with some of the property. Build two restaurants with drive throughs. Benderson Development Company has sent a proposal letter to the Town Planning Board to replace some of the KMart parking lot with a 4000 square foot restaurant and a 6752 square foot restaurant and retail building. They also plan drainage upgrades to bring the area up to code. Parking would be significantly reduced and no details were given about what to do with the KMart building itself.
Batavia has been named 5th most active Micropolitan in the US by Site Selection Magazine. The ranking has to do with how the town and county invest in new businesses and shovel ready sites. Cited in the article were significant financial investments at shovel ready sites across the county in 2021, including the Gateway II Corporate Park, Apple Tree Acres Business Park, Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park, Buffalo East Tech Park, and Western New York STAMP. The article also talked about the Plug Power green hydrogen project going into the STAMP facility. This is the seventeenth consecutive year that Batavia and Genesee County have been recognized as the top micropolitan for business growth in the northeast U.S., and as a top 5 micropolitan in the U.S for the 11th time since 2005.
The Sabres lost 6 to1 to the Florida Panthers for their second loss in just 2 days. Their lone goal came from John Hayden and it was his second goal of the season. Sam Reinhart was back playing and received an assist. He now has 53 points in 53 games. The Sabres play the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday at the Keybank Center at 7pm.
