Morning News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on August 23, 2022
A 29 year old Basom man has been indicted for attempting to murder a witness to a crime before they could testify. Jarrett Coniglio was indicted for attempted murder in the second degree, a class B violent felony, for the April 11th stabbing that took place on Sandhill Road in Alabama. He allegedly stabbed the other person to stop them giving testimony to authorities about a July 2021 assault where he struck a neighbor over the head with a bottle. Coniglio was sentenced to 5 years in prison in June for that crime. He is also indicted on counts of assault in the first degree, a Class B violent felony, criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, intimidating a victim or witness in the third degree, criminal mischief in the fourth degree, and menacing in the third degree.
ARC GLOW announced Monday that it has sold its waste collection business to the company Casella Waste Systems. Casella will continue using the same property and staff at the West Main Street waste transfer station. Arc GLOW will use the money from the acquisition to invest in programs and services to meet the needs of those they support. Arc GLOW says that the reason for the sale was that they had been losing money on their trash collection services for years, the fleet of garbage trucks was old and would have been very expensive to replace, Casella promised to hire on anyone who wished to stay and the number of people being helped by employment with the trash collection and transfer station was shrinking. Moving out of the transfer station will take place over the next 6 months.
School starts in 2 weeks and the state has some new rules about how COVID will be handled. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday the state will ease up on COVID-19 quarantine guidance and ditch random testing for students in hopes of causing less disruption on students, parents, and staff this year. Hochul chalking up the state’s response to COVID a “failed experiment” – saying taking children out of the classroom and away from traditional learning has had devastating consequences. She also announced that students and teachers are now able to stay in class if exposed to someone who has COVID-19 if they’re asymptomatic, but they should mask for 10 days. For those teachers or students who test positive for COVID, the new advice is to stay home for five days and return to school when symptom-free, and to wear a mask for an additional five days.
The average gas prices have dropped for the 10th week in a row but are still well above what they were a year ago. The national price is 3.90 which is 6 cents down from last week. New York State is higher with 4.25 but that is 9 cents less than a week ago. In Batavia it is 4.34 which is 6 cents cheaper than last week. A year ago the New York State average was 3.22. The main driver for lower oil prices is a decrease in demand as the vacation season is ending.
The Buffalo Bills announced the release of punter Matt Haack and wide receiver Tavon Austin Monday. The Bills signed Haack to a three-year contract in March 2021. He appeared in 17 games with the team and had 52 punts. Haack’s release clears the way for rookie Matt Araiza to be the team’s punter. The Bills drafted Araiza in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
