Morning News Briefing

It seems as though Batavia city leaders and the Youth Board have settled their differences. The City Council President said during a meeting last night he didn’t want to see any cuts in services and did not want services relocated. With that, city management and the Youth Board, which serves at the direction of City Council in an advisory role, will explore ways to continue to effectively and efficiently provide afterschool and summer programming for Batavia’s young people. The future of City of Batavia youth services became a somewhat heated topic earlier this month when a resolution to dissolve, a year early, a longstanding joint agreement between the city and county to share a youth bureau executive director came before two Genesee County Legislature committees.

Genesee County is the worst performing county in the Finger Lakes Region as far as COVID-19 cases are concerned…that comment last night from County Manager Matt Landers during a county legislature meeting. He said – quote- “Our numbers for the county are abysmal.” Landers added that Genesee’s numbers are significantly higher than the other counties in the Finger Lakes Region, including Monroe County. The 7-day rolling average jumped up to just under 6 percent. The Manager he is very fearful that this will lead up to a Yellow zone designation or worse. Legislature Chair Rochelle Stein said this is going to have an impact on local businesses.

A diverse group of agricultural organizations in the state are calling on the 60-hour overtime threshold for farm laborers to remain in place as a New York State Department of Labor wage board determines its fate. The groups sent a joint letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo outlining why a further reduction in the overtime hourly threshold will be detrimental to the livelihoods of farmers and farmworkers across the state and will expedite automation upon the rural landscape. New York farms already face extreme competitive pressure in the marketplace from farms in other states and countries that can easily undercut New York prices needed to sustain a profitable business. Higher labor costs in New York will only exacerbate that problem.

Even a year as tumultuous as 2020, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Senate Democratic Leader, today completed his 22nd consecutive tour of all 62 New York State counties — an accomplishment that continues his track record as the first New York State public official to visit every single county in New York each year he has been in office. Over the course of the year, Schumer made visited the Rochester-Finger Lakes are 12 times.

The Rotary Club of Le Roy is sponsoring a Holiday House Decorating Contest for residents of the Town and Village of Le Roy. There is no cost to enter.  Entries must be submitted by Dec. 5. Judging will go live on Sunday, Dec. 6. A map of participating houses will be posted online and with a link to vote for your favorite decorated residence. Winners will be announced Sunday, Dec. 20 through the Rotary Club of Le Roy website and the club’s Facebook page. The Grand prize will be a $100 gift certificate followed by four additional gift certificates of $50 each. All gift certificates will be from local businesses.

An Oakfield man is fortunate that he was not seriously injured or worse after getting stuck inside a massive silo filled with corn silage on Lockport Road in Oakfield Monday. Here’s Oakfield Assistant Fire Chief (grain). Quick thinking and fast action by the property owner’s wife and farmworkers helped to stabilize the man until rescuers and their equipment arrived. Seven people went inside the bin and put their training for this kind of scenario to the test.

Today’s national average price for a gallon of gasoline is $2.11, down 2 cents from one week ago. One year ago, the price was $2.59. The New York State average is $2.22 – down 1 cent from last week. A year ago, the NYS average was $2.69. Prices in Batavia — $2.18 (down 1 cent since last week).