The Buffalo News - City and Region

Thursday evening at Daemen College, the Rev. Eric Johns took time out from his annual five-day stay on Buffalo’s streets to serve on a panel discussing homelessness and hunger.

“I told the audience, ‘I don’t feel qualified to be on this panel, but I guess I can tell some stories, because I’ve been homeless for 2½ months,’ ” Johns recalled Friday.

That’s 2½ months total – five nights a year for 15 straight years – always on Thanksgiving week or the week before.

Johns, pastor of the Buffalo Dream Center, spends five full days on the streets each year, seeking to shine a light on the homeless population, connect with them and raise awareness and funds for his church’s annual Christmas campaign, Boxes of Love.

But this may be Johns’ last year of street life and soup kitchens. He realizes it’s time to “pass the baton” on to others, so the next generation can begin to take over some of his leadership role as pastor of his downtown church.

That’s why he’s spending more time training and mentoring young people to keep running with his vision, the 42-year-old Johns said in a downtown coffee shop Friday.

“I love what I do, but I’ve seen so many ministries, when the founder is finished, the ministry or organization is finished, too,” he said.

Buffalo will always be his home, he added. And the Dream Center will always be his church. But it can’t last forever if he’s the only one running the church and its programs.

Johns acknowledged that his ministry has taken a toll on him, both physically and emotionally.

“This year has been the hardest on me physically,” Johns said of his annual stay that ends this morning. “As soon as we got out from under the bridge this morning, I took Ibuprofen for my back.

“And I’ve struggled the past year with feelings of being burned out,” he added. “I’ve gone through a whole period of time when the ministry has been tougher on me emotionally.”

He realizes it may sound like a cliche, but Johns uses his annual five-night stay to appreciate the life he has.

“It’s not just my warm bed and home,” he explained. “I really miss my family. A lot of the homeless have no family, and I’ve only been away from mine for four days.”

As he does every year, Johns has an assortment of people accompanying him for a few days or nights on the streets, including family members, Buffalo Dream Center parishioners and some homeless people, past and present.

John Jones, 27, part of the next generation of the church’s leaders, did the honors Thursday night, sleeping out with Johns under the Michigan Avenue overpass, as he has the last few years.

Jones is struck by the “heart” his pastor has for people on the streets.

“They need somebody to talk to,” he said. “They want to be listened to.”

Pastor Johns does just that, and he’s clearly proud of the reputation he’s carved out on the streets. “I still get a lot of hugs and high-fives when I go into a shelter or soup kitchen,” he said.

By his side, at least during the daytime, has been longtime friend Keith Cauley, 59, a Dream Center member and former street person.

Cauley hopes that Johns’ stay on the streets can help shatter some stereotypes about the homeless. Most of them aren’t pushing shopping carts full of their belongings or panhandling for money.

“I want people to be more compassionate to the homeless,” Cauley said. “People should remember that they’re individuals. They’re human beings.”

Johns gave an example of some of the intelligent and talented homeless people he has met. A few days ago, in a local soup kitchen, he sat next to a man who makes hand-carved, painted walking sticks that he adorns with images of superheroes, like Batman.

“You meet people like this who don’t fit the stereotype,” he said.

The pastor, though, knows that the clock is ticking on his annual pilgrimage to the streets.

“If I’m not on the streets next year, I’m OK with that,” he said. “I want to pass the baton.”

email: gwarner@buffnews.com

New York State is betting $225 million on a pair of Silicon Valley startup companies from the highly competitive solar and LED lighting industries.

Top state officials spent nine months secretly researching about 35 potential tenants for a new, high-tech manufacturing campus in Buffalo before coming away convinced that Soraa and Silevo were the right partners for the state.

Soraa, which makes premium LED lights, and Silevo, which manufactures highly efficient solar panels, are young, and the clean-energy marketplace is a crowded one where profits early in a company’s life can remain elusive.

But analysts and industry experts say the companies boast attractive, cutting-edge technologies and a solid business strategy of performing low-end manufacturing overseas and advanced manufacturing in the United States – including the planned Buffalo facilities.

“Any dollar they make, they’re investing back into the company for growth, for construction and expansion, so they achieve a critical market share,” Alain E. Kaloyeros, chief executive officer of SUNY Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s economic development rainmaker, said Friday.

The governor swept into town Thursday to announce the state’s largest commitment of money to a single local business venture – $225 million to build two research and development and manufacturing facilities for Soraa and Silevo in a reclaimed brownfield site.

With so much taxpayer money at stake, the announcement raises two key questions: Are LED lighting and solar the right sectors for the state to invest in now, and are Soraa and Silevo the right business partners for New York?

The project won guarded praise one day after its unveiling.

“You’ve seen this: ‘The green revolution is going to bring all these jobs.’ Well, here it is,” said Michael Siminovitch, director of the California Lighting Technology Center, a research and development facility based at the University of California, Davis. “It’s a growth opportunity for any state to support innovation.”

The clean-energy industry is heavily subsidized, and the Obama administration came under sharp criticism when Solyndra, a solar power company, went bankrupt after receiving $535 million in federal loan guarantees to build a manufacturing plant in California.

Kaloyeros and Cuomo maintain the state is protected from a similar catastrophe, even if Soraa or Silevo go belly up, because the state still will own the buildings and equipment.

Soraa and Silevo have agreed to spend $750 million each and hire a total of 850 employees at the facilities the state will construct on the former Republic Steel site along the Buffalo River.

Kaloyeros said state officials talked to investors in the companies and industry analysts and reviewed internal financial documents – because, as privately held companies, Soraa and Silevo are not required to file earnings reports.

The state is satisfied the companies are in good financial health and believes their strategy of looking for opportunities to perform low-cost, low-end manufacturing in China, “while high-end, high-tech will be manufactured in Buffalo,” is a sound one, Kaloyeros said. “The green-energy market, if you look at all the projections, it’s booming,” he said. Here’s more about the two companies: Soraa
Lighting makes up a significant portion of the electricity use in a building, so customers are looking for lights with better efficiency and a longer life than incandescent lights but with a better quality of light and color than compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs.

LEDs, or light emitting diodes, fit that bill. They still are relatively expensive, and still make up just a small share of the lighting market, but there is room for growth, experts said.

“So we’re seeing some really innovative companies come along that understand this nexus of lighting quality and energy efficiency, putting those two things together,” UC Davis’ Siminovitch said.

He said Soraa – founded in 2008 by three professors and now based in Fremont, Calif. – is one of those companies.

Soraa’s slice of the marketplace is at the higher end, making more efficient, longer-lasting lights that boast better color for customers willing to pay a little extra. “So that niche is very attractive for retail and grocery lighting,” said Christopher Hwang, a research associate on the Lux Research energy electronics team.

Soraa has raised more than $100 million in financing and as of last winter had about 250 employees, according to the industry website Edison Report.

“I would say they’ve made very good progress, for a startup, in terms of the amount of funding they’ve raised and the number of employees they have and the amount of development projects they have,” Hwang added.

Referring to New York’s decision to pick Soraa as its LED lighting industry partner, James Benya, a lighting designer in Davis, Calif., said, “If you were going to marry a startup company, these guys would be at the top of my list.” Silevo
One of the founders of Silevo, Zheng Xu, said after Thursday’s announcement in Buffalo that the solar-panel maker is not yet profitable, but he hopes the company will break even by next summer.

Founded in 2007 by Xu and an Applied Materials colleague, the company had $16 million in revenue last year, according to Fatima Toor, a research analyst who leads Lux’s solar components team. As of this summer the company had raised $72 million in two rounds of financing, Bloomberg News reported.

Silevo produces solar cells at a 32-megawatt factory in China. Their new Riverbend facility will build a 200-megawatt solar cell and module.

What do experts and industry partners think of the state’s selection of Silevo and solar?

“It is impossible to deny that there is meaningful risk in investing anywhere in the solar space in general. The industry is still young, very volatile and extremely competitive. Continuing dependence on subsidies also creates risk,” Shyam Mehta, senior analyst for GTM Research, said in an email.

Mehta noted, however, that fossil fuels and nuclear power industries also received subsidies, while solar industry subsidies have declined even as the cost-effectiveness of solar power has improved in recent years.

Nathan Rizzo, vice president of Solar Liberty, an installer of solar panel systems based in Amherst, said he looks forward to installing Silevo solar panels manufactured locally.

“They’re making a premium panel,” Rizzo said, before adding of the state investment: “I think it’s exciting. It shows that solar is a stable technology, as far as renewable energies are concerned.”

Silevo is a relatively small company – with just 200 employees – that has largely focused its sales in Europe as high tariffs have prevented it from getting much of a toehold in the United States, Lux’s Toor said, so the manufacturing expansion in Buffalo makes sense. “The U.S. is a huge market,” she said. “The U.S. has so much potential. Silevo’s not the only company that’s putting manufacturing capacity in the United States.”

email: swatson@buffnews.com

As a veterinarian for nearly 24 years, Kevin Kuhn has performed CPR on animals plenty of times.

But he had never done the procedure on a human – until Friday.

It was around 8:30 a.m., and Kuhn was at his business, Afton Animal Hospital at 6543 Main St., Amherst, when his staff heard a crash.

A vehicle traveling east on Main struck a mailbox and tree, then crossed five lanes of traffic before crashing into a pole and guy wire at 6508 Main, between Transit and Youngs roads, police said.

Kuhn went out to make sure everyone was OK.

The vehicle was still running, but the doors were locked, and the driver was pale and unconscious behind the wheel.

Kuhn used his elbow to try to break the window, but it wouldn’t budge. A motorist who stopped to help retrieved a lug wrench from his vehicle.

Kuhn smashed the rear driver-side window with the tool – slicing his left hand on the glass – unlocked the driver’s door and turned off the engine.

Kuhn and the bystander lifted the driver out of the seat and onto the ground.

The veterinarian couldn’t feel a pulse, so he began chest compressions.

Kuhn continued the procedure for about two or three minutes, until Officer Adam Anstett showed up at the scene and delivered a shock with an automated external defibrillator.

Crews from Main-Transit Fire Department arrived next.

“Just as they were coming, he did give a breath, which was pretty reassuring to me,” Kuhn said later.

The driver was identified by Amherst police as Kenneth Leshney, 57, of Buffalo, who was transported to Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital.

His condition was not immediately available Friday evening, but Kuhn was told by police that Leshney was stable.

Kuhn, 50, has been a veterinarian since 1990 and has owned his practice since 1994. He also is administrator for the Veterinarian Emergency Clinic on Genesee Street in Cheektowaga.

Kuhn has trained people how to perform CPR on their pets, but when asked if he ever performed CPR on a person before, Kuhn said, “I don’t think so.”

Did he save a life Friday?

“I’d like to think it made a difference,” Kuhn said, “but either way, I’m just glad he’s stable now.”

email: jrey@buffnews.com

It would never have occurred to my mother that she was courageous. In moving from Alaska to Buffalo in 2011, I realized the extent to which she was.

When her dream of a life as a farmer’s wife in Pennsylvania was derailed by my father’s larger dream of becoming a pioneer in Alaska, she did not flinch. In 1958, Alaska was still a territory of far-off remoteness. Mom left behind her family and the secure life on the large sheep and cattle farm she and Dad owned in the rolling fields of Greene County. In a station wagon pulling a trailer, she followed Dad and his truck for 4,000 miles on the monthlong drive to Alaska. She and Dad had a young family – four kids, ages 6 to 1.

Mom left behind a two-story white farmhouse in a community in which her family had lived for generations. Nothing awaited them on their arrival – no job, property, friends or family. They arrived in the Matanuska Susitna valley in July and soon my father found work as a hired hand on a farm. In September just before the first snowfall, the farmer’s son returned and wanted his job and basement apartment back. My parents quickly found a 160-acre homestead for sale on a mountain nearby and moved in shortly before winter.

My father wrote: “Snow on the ground. No wood had been cut and dried for winter, and the wind was blowing. Some of it went under the house, but part of it went through the house.” Dad spent the first winter cutting firewood, repairing the house and hauling water. Mom was busy with children and doing her best to adjust to a very different lifestyle, one without indoor plumbing.

My older sister remembers Mom didn’t have much to spend on groceries that first lean winter. Our new home was bordered by tall mountains on three sides, and it must have made her feel isolated. The winter winds would come from the north and howl across the face of the mountain where I grew up. Alaska is a land of extremes – the winter months are dark, but the sun never seems to set in the summer. How alien it all must have seemed to her.

Shortly before she died in 2010 she told me she was “not an Alaskan wilderness woman.” She described herself as a homemaker, a behind-the-scenes-person whose role was laying the groundwork for her family’s stability. Her strength was in her family and her belief in God.

It was my turn to find a source of strength in April 2011 when my husband and I moved to Depew to help care for his mother, 92 years of age. The day we drove our little caravan away from my Alaskan valley, I wrote: I will miss my family and the mountains, but I am truly ready to test myself, to see how I can adapt to change and to flourish.”

Alone in my car except for the company of two of our dogs, I followed my husband as he drove our moving van across Canada to Nova Scotia and then down to his childhood home on the outskirts of Buffalo. I spent 7,000 miles reflecting on the journey and of my mother as she had driven many of the same highways back in 1958. In my mind and heart I continued to measure myself against her and our respective experiences. Even though she has been dead for three years, I found myself looking to her when things got tough. When I was faced with a section of highway mostly underwater from flooding, Mom came to mind and I told myself I could do it despite my fear. When I didn’t want to face another day on the road, I thought of her and how she not only drove on endless gravel roads back then but did it with four restless kids.

She was with me in spirit and still is today as I continue to adjust to a lifestyle not at all like the one I grew up with.

Family firms account for about 90 percent of all businesses, but the failure rate is enormous.

To help with that, the University at Buffalo’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership is launching a program designed to help with the specific challenges that can befall a family business.

In addition to traditional services, like succession planning and creating advisory boards, the program starting in February will apply principles of positive psychology to help local family businesses thrive.

There will be a focus on creating healthy interpersonal relationships, peer-to-peer support groups, improving communication skills, dispute resolution, and identifying and aligning individuals’ strong suits with their jobs.

“It’s a unique set of support and services,” said Thomas Ulbrich, assistant dean and executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. “Family businesses are complex systems, and we’ll provide an environment where family members can flourish individually while collaborating to run a business successfully.”

Scott E. Friedman, local attorney and family business consultant, is the co-founder of the program and will serve as its executive-in-residence, along with Ulbrich and Amy Habib-Rittling, a family business adviser. Friedman’s fifth and latest book, “Family Business and Positive Psychology: New Planning Strategies for the 21st Century,” is the foundation for the new program’s curriculum.

“This program is ground-breaking, there’s nothing like it anywhere,” said Friedman, who is a managing partner at Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman LLP. “It’s like counseling for the family business, getting to the causes of family business dysfunction.”

While family businesses account for 90 percent of all businesses, “nine out of ten of them don’t make it to the grandchildren,” Friedman said.

Family businesses become stagnant due to issues like “convenience over fit,” where promotions are doled out to individuals because they were next in line, not based on ability or qualifications. Feelings of unfair compensation or lack of recognition for contributions are also eating away at the foundation of family-owned firms, Friedman said. Those issues, along with others, will be addressed in the program.

Its offerings will include workshops, round-table conversations, coaching and a 10-week course, “Growing a Healthy Family Business.”

The program’s cost ranges from $500 to $1,700 and includes special pricing for multiple family members and enrollment in the new Family Business Association.

Members of the association can attend four major networking and two major speaker events a year. Sylvia Lafair, author of “Don’t Bring It to Work,” and an expert on pattern awareness in families and generational differences, will be the program’s first speaker in March.

Ulbrich said because of the abundance of family businesses and their high failure rate, a new approach was necessary to help these ventures survive.

“We didn’t want to create another business center; we wanted it to be special,” he said. “We wanted it to fill a gap.”

To learn more or become a member, call 885-5715 or email mgt-cel@buffalo.edu.

email:esapong@buffnews.com

One of the benefits of practicing in a large group is that you have a lot of “brains to pick” when a patient presents with an unusual case or confusing illness. This happened when one of my partners saw a child with an unusual rash. The little girl had the rash on her hands for a couple of weeks, and it was getting worse.

When the mother first brought in the child, one doctor examined the girl and said, “I think this is a rash that’s usually seen with an illness called dermatomyositis, but let me grab a few of the other doctors to look, too.”

We all agreed that this diagnosis was most likely correct, then we each threw out a little bit of our information from our own “memory bank” about the disease.

Dermatomyositis is a muscle disease characterized by inflammation and a skin rash. (Polymyositis is a similar condition, but the symptoms occur without a rash.) The cause of dermatomyositis is unknown, but it is an automimmune disease. In other words, the immune system, for some unknown reason, causes the inflammation of the muscles.

Some experts think the problem may be brought on by a viral infection, and there are studies under way to try to determine the etiology of the disease.

Like many diseases, dermatomyositis seems to occur in certain age groups. It’s most commonly seen in children between the ages of 5 and 15, but may also present in adults from ages 40 to 60. It’s more common in females.

The most common symptom is a skin rash overlying the knuckles. There may also be a purplish rash on the upper eyelids. There’s also muscle stiffness and soreness. The muscle weakness may appear suddenly or develop slowly over weeks to months. Children may complain of difficulty raising their arms over heads, or getting up from a sitting position.

In this case, the patient was referred to a pediatric rheumatologist for further evaluation and treatment.

Dr. Sue Hubbard is a pediatrician, medical editor and media host. Submit questions to kidsdr.com.

Buffalo playwright Neil Wechsler announced this week that he is teaming up with the Burchfield Penney Art Center to launch an outdoor theater festival that will open next July with a production of Goethe’s tragic play “Faust.”

The inaugural Against the Grain Festival, according to a release, will feature a roving, multimedia production of both parts of the play among Silo City’s century-old grain elevators from July 22 through Aug. 3, 2014.

Wechsler, whose play “Grenadine” won the prestigious 2008 Yale Drama Award juried by three-time Pulitzer winner Edward Albee, will serve as the festival’s director and has recruited David Oliver to direct the production.

Wechsler has whittled down Goethe’s sprawling, 23-hour play to a manageable two-hour piece that “likens Buffalo Niagara’s industrial past to Goethe’s fable of the rise and fall of western civilization.” He intends to recruit actors from Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Toronto through universities and theater companies he has not yet named. Auditions for the festival are slated for late January.

The goals for Wechsler’s long-planned festival, now in its very formative stages, sound nearly as grand as the scope of Goethe’s early 19th century masterpiece.

“It is a glorious impossible play, which is the only reason I bothered to adapt it. There are only so many glorious impossible plays,” Wechsler wrote about the project in an email. He also adapted Ibsen’s “Emperor and Galilean” for a successful Torn Space Theater production in 2012. “The silos reflect that grand human scale: the rise, the fall, the potential rebirth of human greatness.”

Wechsler said he believes that the festival has the potential to draw audiences from surrounding cities.

“I think Buffalo is the ideal centerpiece for such a project and such a movement,” he said, citing its proximity to Hamilton, Toronto and its other Rust Belt neighbors. “Buffalo is the ultimate underdog, and it has all the artistic and civic potential to make it work. It can open up the scope of artistic possibility. It can provide the freedom to literally work outside borders.”

As part of the collaboration, the Burchfield Penney will provide housing to out-of-town actors participating in the production as well as help some organization and promotional aspects of the project. Wechsler said that more information about the project, including a list of the organizations and theaters collaborating on the project, will be released in the coming months.

email: cdabkowski@buffnews.com

Two writers whose lives have led them to publish vastly different works will be featured in the lively Larkin Square Author Series in the next eight days.

Peter Georgescu, who spent part of his childhood in a Romanian labor camp and rose to become CEO of the international ad agency Young & Rubicam, will speak Monday. His book, “The Constant Choice – An Everyday Journey from Evil Toward Good,” was published this year by Greenleaf Book Group Press (310 pages, $24.95).

On Dec. 3, writer Ann Hood will talk about her novel, “The Obituary Writer,” (W.W. Norton and Company, paperback, $15.95) and the book she has edited, which was released Nov. 11, “Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting,” (W.W. Norton and Company, 294 pages, $24.95)

Each talk runs from 5 to 6:30 p.m. inside the Filling Station restaurant at Larkin Square, 745 Seneca St. Leslie Zemsky, director of fun at Larkin Square, said the informal author talks have drawn diverse crowds since the series started in January.

Zemsky met Georgescu at Chautauqua, which she said is “one of the best conduits for getting the out-of-town authors.” After getting to know him, she said, “I’ve always been so intrigued by his life story. I know lots of people come from austerity or difficult situations, but it’s amazing to know that he did that and then rose to the top of his profession in corporate America. He’s such a warm, nice, genuine person that I was really excited to learn he was doing the book, and when I read it, I felt like I had gotten to know him so much better.”

Zemsky is as excited to meet Hood, a Rhode Island author whose book “The Obituary Writer,” considers the lives of two very different women, one a professional obituary writer in 1919, the other a suburban housewife in the opening days of the Kennedy administration. Hood will talk about her fiction and her latest book, “Knitting Yarns,” in which various authors discuss their own interest in knitting. Contributors include Barbara Kingsolver, Andre Dubus II, Sue Grafton and Anita Shreve. The book also includes five new knitting patterns by Helen Bingham.

In her piece in “Knitting Yarns,” Hood, who started to knit after the devastation of losing her 5-year-old daughter, Grace, to a sudden illness, wrote, “After 10 years I am a very good beginning knitter. And that suits me just fine.”

Each writer will speak informally, perhaps read an excerpt from a book, and then take questions from the audience in what is traditionally a lively exchange.

“This whole series is taking on a life of its own,” said Zemsky. “There are a wide variety of people who come, men and women of every age. Each author definitely attracts a different crowd than the ones before, so I feel like there is a trust, that people know the event will be interesting and worth their time.”

The Filling Station will be open to sell drinks and light fare. The series is presented by First Niagara in partnership with Talking Leaves Books, which offers copies of the books for sale.

email: aneville@buffnews.com

The Cleveland Hill School District knows it has a higher than recommended fund balance, but Superintendent Jon MacSwan said Wednesday that it has been a prudent decision to keep the district in sound financial shape.

District administrators began their budget season this week with a public forum about the fund balance and political realities prior to a Board of Education meeting Wednesday night.

The district currently has a fund balance of about $4.5 million, which is 15 percent of its operating budget.

The state recommends schools maintain a fund balance no higher than 4 percent.

“We have never tried to hide that we have a fund balance that is significantly higher than the state recommends,” MacSwan said. “We have had to budget on a worst-case scenario.”

Administrators defended the high fund balance, which is frequently used to help pay for unanticipated expenses and stabilize the tax rate.

Business Manager Dennis Corsaro explained that the state has eliminated funding through its gap elimination adjustments and foundation aid changes, costing Cleveland Hill millions.

State aid “has improved, but it definitely has not come even close to what it was,” Corsaro said. “We would have to raise our taxes 12.7 percent to make up the gap in elimination adjustment” reductions.

MacSwan acknowledged that the district has overestimated budgetary expenses in the past but is hopeful Cleveland Hill can pass some of its savings back to taxpayers once the School Board can get a clear picture of the state’s financial aid.

He credited the board for making tough decisions to cut staff and programming in the past, along with the district’s proactive approach to refinancing debt, energy efficiency, shared services and restructuring the special-education program, to secure Cleveland Hill’s financial future.

“We hope the uncertainty is behind us,” MacSwan said. “We know we need to develop a plan for the fund balance. The district should be stable moving forward.”

The superintendent said he is working with other district administrators to develop a system to maximize student growth over the next 10 to 15 years, “and that is not going to be an increase in staffing.”

NIAGARA FALLS – The Niagara Falls Water Board is considering a smaller increase in water and sewer rates for next year than was first proposed.

Changes to the proposed 2014 budget have reduced the rate hike from 3.5 percent to 2.6 percent.

Mary Jean Buddenhagen, financial services director, said about $103,000 has been cut since the board received the initial budget proposal Oct. 17.

The spending cuts came mostly from utility costs, based on updated figures on year-to-date spending, Buddenhagen said.

Some money was trimmed from an overtime line, and some funding was allocated to make sure the board meets bonding requirements, she said.

A public hearing on the proposed 2014 budget will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the board’s water treatment plant, 5815 Buffalo Ave.

Thursday night, Thomas P. Malecki of the accounting firm Drescher & Malecki of Buffalo reviewed the board’s financial status heading into the next budget year.

Malecki said the board has done well controlling costs in recent years, noting current spending levels are at or below what they were in 2009.

Personnel expenses are lower now than they were four years ago, but health care and retirement costs are increasing at about $1.2 million per year, he said.

One of the positive notes from this year, in terms of the board’s finances, was the Greenpac plant going online, which brought additional revenue, Malecki said.

Malecki recommended the board enact a 4 percent rate increase for next year in order to meet required spending levels to keep borrowing agreements in good standing.

Buddenhagen said the figures Malecki’s report was based on have been updated, and the board believes it will be able to meet the requirements without a 4 percent rate increase.

A Perrysburg man is behind bars Saturday after leading five police agencies in two counties on a wild chase that ended in his own driveway.

It all began shortly after midnight Saturday morning when Chautauqua County deputies stopped Michael D. Buthy, 32, on Route 39 in the Town of Sheridan. Deputies reported that while speaking with him, Buthy suddenly put his car in gear and sped away.

The chase led to Route 20, where state troopers joined in and set up spike strips to deflate the vehicle’s tires and bring it to a stop. But even with several punctured tires, Buthy kept on, until pulling into a driveway with deputies right behind.

But Buthy was not yet ready to be apprehended. Deputies said he rammed his car in reverse into the front of a sheriff’s patrol car, and then drove toward Route 39 and Cattaraugus County. It ended several miles away at Buthy’s Townline Road residence, where he was finally taken into custody.

Buthy was charged with second degree criminal mischief, second degree reckless endangerment, leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, speeding, and numerous vehicle and traffic violations. He was arraigned in Town of Sheridan Court and sent to the Chautauqua County Jail.

Chautauqua County sheriff’s deputies were assisted by the State Police, Cattaraugus County sheriff’s deputies, and officers from the Fredonia and Gowanda police departments.

It had to arrive sometime – the season’s first snow advisory.

The National Weather Service says lake effect snow could descend upon Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, Genesee, Livingston and Ontario counties beginning Saturday afternoon and extending until 7 p.m. Sunday.

Three to 6 inches of snow can be expected in the most persistent squall areas, forecasters say, with winds from 20 to 30 mph and gusts up to 45 mph.

“Travel will be difficult at times with snow covered roads and greatly reduced visibility due to snow and blowing snow,” the Weather Service said.

WASHINGTON – Four years after moving to Buffalo without knowing any English, Jose Lagares found himself striding across a stage in the White House East Room Friday to meet the first lady.

And he found the perfect words for the situation.

“I told her I was nervous,” Lagares, 18, said afterwards.

And who wouldn’t be? Only two years after Lagares went to Buffalo’s CEPA Gallery to partake of its after-school photography program, here he was at the White House with CEPA’s education director, Lauren Tent, as first lady Michelle Obama presented the Buffalo photo gallery and learning center with one of 12 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards.

It was a thrill – and a lesson in the power of persistence – for both CEPA and Lagares.

And the thrill didn’t just involve meeting the first lady. It came from hearing CEPA mentioned in the same breath as other after-school programs that the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities honored as the nation’s very best.

From CEPA to the Boston Children’s Chorus to the Storycatchers Theatre’s Programs for Detained and Incarcerated Youth in Chicago, the programs that were honored all have one thing in common, Obama said.

“All of you are using the power of the arts to change young people’s lives,” she said.

What’s more, they’re doing it in unique ways.

“CEPA’s arts program uses photography and creative writing as tools for examining such complex themes as urban blight and the struggle for social equality,” said Carole Watson, acting director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, as Lagares and Tent received the award from the first lady.

Obama ladled special praise on the teachers in the room, saying: “You’ve seen first-hand that giving a child the chance to fill a canvas or to perfect a harmony or to shine on stage – that can stoke the flames of a lifelong passion, and it can teach valuable skills like hard work and persistence.”

Those are skills that the leaders of CEPA have been practicing for a long time. They’ve applied for the award they finally won for at least five years, mostly at the insistence of the gallery’s grant writer, Kathleen Kearnan.

“She was like a bulldog,” said Sean Donaher, CEPA’s director. “She was not going to let go until CEPA got this. Every year she’d come back to us and say: should we apply for it again?”

And every year, Donaher said yes – until finally, this year, CEPA was named, from out of the hundreds of groups that applied, one of 50 finalists.

“We were so happy just with that,” Donaher said.

Everyone got a lot happier, though, when CEPA received word this summer that the gallery had won the $10,000 award.

“The goal is now to leverage this and increase the number of children we serve,” Donaher said. “It’s meant to bolster the program and increase the scope of it.”

First, though, CEPA’s leaders knew they’d get to revel in a trip to the White House. And knowing that they’d have to bring a student along, they quickly decided on Lagares.

“Jose’s been with us for two years now,” Tent said. “He’s a great photographer. It’s definitely his passion.”

But it wasn’t just his talent that brought him to Washington.

“His story made him our first choice,” Donaher said.

Lagares’ story began in public housing in Yauco, a city of 42,000 in southwestern Puerto Rico, where he was one of 10 children.

Moving to Buffalo to join his father, a construction worker, he enrolled in Buffalo city schools not knowing any English.

“I felt like a stranger,” Lagares said, recalling that his only go-to English phrase at the time was: “I don’t know.”

Lagares might not have known the language at the time, but he knew his passion. Growing up in Puerto Rico, he was always grabbing his mom’s cellphone to take pictures.

So when he heard about CEPA through Hispanics United, he went down to the gallery after school one day and started learning.

He’s been there every week for two years now, mastering both film and digital photography skills that are as far away from cellphone point-and-shoots as Buffalo is from Yauco.

And now, while still a junior at Lafayette High School, he’s a photographer with a portfolio, as well as a business card with a stunning sunset shot of the Peace Bridge on one side and an equally stunning sunset shot of Erie Basin Marina on the other.

“All my dreams are coming true,” Lagares said.

Lagares knows that this is just the start, though; he’s planning to go to college, majoring in photography, in two years.

In other words, Lagares seems to be living proof of just what the first lady said before departing from the podium at Friday’s event.

Looking out over the crowd of young artists, Obama said: “You can do whatever you want in life, you got that?”

Understanding every word, Jose Lagares smiled and nodded.

email: jzremski@buffnews.com

The Buffalo School District is taking disciplinary action against a veteran elementary teacher from BUILD Academy who sent a note home with all her students last week complaining that several of her prekindergarteners were coming to school wearing dirty clothes and smelling bad.

In a handwritten letter titled “URGENT NOTICE!!!”, pre-K teacher Sharon D. Perry Dunnigan asked all parents to address the cleanliness issue, saying, “It is a health and safety concern. It also makes it difficult for me to be close to them or even want to touch them. Enough said.”

School Board members and parents said they are upset and troubled that a teacher would choose to deal with a matter involving a few students in such a broad and shaming manner. The letter was not only sent out to all parents, but also required that it be returned to her with the signatures of parents and their 3- and 4-year-old children.

Board members discussed the matter in a closed session during Wednesday’s committee meetings and were unanimous in their agreement that the teacher handled the matter poorly and said she should face more than a minor verbal reprimand.

“I was stunned to see a note that was to all parents when it was not all children in the class that are involved in the situation,” said board member Mary Ruth Kapsiak, who once supervised elementary teachers at BUILD.

“Everybody on the board was appalled by that, everybody,” said board member James Sampson. “We’re very concerned about what this communicates to little kids and to families.”

The district had discussed placing a counseling letter in the teacher’s personnel file, indicating that an administrator spoke with the teacher about the inappropriateness of her actions, but some board members and parents said they encouraged the district to take further action, such as requiring the teacher to receive further training and issue parents an apology.

“Sending that letter home to all parents is offensive and almost shows a contempt for the children,” said Samuel Radford III, president of the District Parent Coordinating Council. “As opposed to judging them, condemning them, make an effort to address the underlying problem. That would be most helpful to the parent, most helpful to the student, and most helpful to the district.”

Parent offers to diffuse the situation by soliciting donations for uniforms worn at BUILD, offering to wash dirty clothes and suggesting hygiene lesson plans were rebuffed by the teacher, said Denise Glenn, the school’s parent facilitator, who met with the teacher last Friday, the day after the letter was sent home.

“She said, ‘What do you want me to do, apologize? I’m not going to apologize because I got my point across,’ ” Glenn recalled.

Dunnigan has taught elementary students in the Buffalo system for nearly 30 years, The Buffalo News determined. She did not return a message seeking comment Thursday afternoon and did not teach at school Thursday or Friday.

While hygiene and child welfare issues like this are regularly confronted and addressed by teachers in the district, they often involve assistance from a school nurse or social worker and/or a personal call home to the parents of the affected children.

“Our schools have the support of social workers, school counselors, nurses and external support services ready to help families and lend aid to teachers,” said Will Keresztes, the district’s chief of student support. “Buffalo teachers regularly and faithfully make use of these resources to assist children and families in our district.”

Superintendent Pamela Brown also stated that the district should show respect for all children and families.

In this case, however, parents said they are not only upset and angry at Dunnigan’s unsanctioned approach to the matter but questioned whether the teacher’s letter is indicative of a larger culture of insensitivity and dismissiveness toward parents within some of the district’s more troubled schools.

At BUILD Academy, 20 percent of parents have submitted applications to have their children transferred out of the school, the most requests of any elementary school in the district.

Dunnigan’s actions only exacerbate the matter and will lead to more transfer requests, parents said.

When The News broke this story on its School Zone blog Wednesday, some posted comments defending the teacher and blaming parents who are sending their children to school unclean. Many others said the way the teacher handled the matter was wrong.

“When you read this, how do you feel?” said Bryon McIntyre, vice president of the parents council, who alerted the district to Dunnigan’s letter. “You can’t tell me that if a teacher had written that to a parent in Williamsville, that teacher wouldn’t have been rode out of the district on a rail.”

He added that one child came home with the letter last Thursday and asked her grandmother if she smelled bad.

“A couple of parents wanted to lay hands on her,” McIntyre said. “We’ve been working hard to keep this thing contained and let them know this is not how things are done.”

Aside from a letter in her personnel file and possibly other disciplinary actions, board members and parents said Dunnigan will not be allowed to send home letters to parents that are not first approved by the principal.

email: stan@buffnews.com

The East Aurora School Board blamed failed communication efforts on the part of the district as well as voter apathy for the near defeat of a $7.8 million capital project last month.

“We didn’t do a job of getting out there and presenting this,” board member Judy Malys said at a special meeting Wednesday.

She suggested the board submit a regular informative column to the town’s weekly newspaper, the same publication where a letter to the editor strongly criticizing both the capital project and the board appeared prior to the vote. Some believed it was a factor in the 216-214 vote.

Board President Daniel Brunson said he “pored over the exit polls” and felt it was important to let the public know that, if the referendum had gone down, the cost of the planned upgrades and repair work needed in all three buildings would have been entirely borne by the taxpayers. However, because the capital project referendum was approved, 70 percent of the costs will be covered by state aid.

Steven Zagrobelny said the board was overly emphasizing the no votes.

“We should be asking: Where were our 600 yes voters that always come out for the budget vote?” he said.

The district’s Policy Committee plans to create a subcommittee to spearhead better ways that the district can communicate with the public and learn how various community members get their information.

Separately, the board mulled over various features of the upcoming project, particularly the security measures that the safety committee, comprised of architects, engineers, first responders and school administrators, offered. However, Brunson found some recommendations controversial.

“We’re treading a path of what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate,” Brunson said, noting he was adamantly opposed to having cameras in the buildings but was convinced by committee members of the importance of viewing hallway intersections, cafeterias and gymnasiums.

More taxi cabs are traveling the streets of Cheektowaga and occasionally are being used in the commission of crimes.

That’s the reason town police say they want to know who’s behind the wheel and who owns the cabs.

The town put on the books in 1985 a local law requiring owners and drivers be licensed. Apparently, it is largely ignored. Only one license currently is on file, according to the town clerk’s office. Maybe that’s because there are no penalties for violating the law,

Now a proposal before town lawmakers would change all of that, and it would cover taxi and livery service to, from and within the entire town, including the airport and the portions of Depew and Sloan within town limits. The airport and village portions aren’t part of the existing law.

The proposal would require drivers of livery vehicles, such as limousines, to keep records of the name, address and phone number of each passenger, as well as where each fare is picked up. That’s in addition to standard information required for all taxi fares: identifying the points of origin and destination and the charge.

Some of those provisions raised red flags for John A. Curr III, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s regional office, who reviewed the proposal at the request of The Buffalo News.

“There are a few parts on there that are consistent with what they do in New York City,” Curr said, citing a new provision that requires police background checks on drivers.

“What really, really troubles us is this form requirement ... where they want passengers’ information. That’s way over the line,” Curr said. “We don’t need to tell the police where we are going ... in our own cars. They don’t have the authority to collect that information from us; they should not require taxi drivers to do so.”

Curr also questioned a new requirement regarding the cleanliness of vehicles.

“There’s no standard under the law for this stuff,” said Curr, who questioned whether a dirty car means someone’s permit will be revoked. “Is this a way to screen out business?”

Cheektowaga police say more accountability is needed.

“We want to make sure that people being driven ... are being represented by legitimate cab companies,” police Lt. Steven Berecz said.

And though the new law has been in the works for months, its provisions are virtually unknown by those it would affect.

“I heard there was something pending,” Gerald Chiarmonte, vice president of Airport Taxi Service, said last week. “We’re licensed by the City of Buffalo. I don’t know whether it would apply to us or not.”

At a public hearing last week, Berecz said many taxi drivers are operating with suspended licenses and there have been numerous hit-and-run accidents. He also mentioned that cabs have been used in the commission of crimes.

“Over the years, we have noticed that sometimes we do have a shoplifter that does hop into a cab,” Berecz explained in a later interview. “We are unable to identify it.”

There’s also a problem with unlicensed cabs.

“There’s no monitoring. There’s no meters,” the lieutenant said. “We just don’t know who’s been operating those vehicles.”

The existing law requires that information for owner and driver licenses.

The proposed legislation substitutes “permit” for license.

Owners and drivers still would need to obtain and pay for them annually. The fee would increase from $20 to $25 per vehicle for owners, while drivers would have to pay $25, an increase of $20.

Council Member Jim Rogowski proposed that owners who also are drivers pay a single fee. “Other than that, I think this is fair,” Rogowski said during the public hearing. “If you’re not licensed in the town, then you’re not welcome in the town.”

The single fee for an owner/driver will be in place when the Town Board votes on the proposal early next month, according to Deputy Town Attorney Jeffrey Whiting, who worked with Town Clerk Alice Magierski in drafting the legislation, which he said incorporates suggestions by police.

The existing rate structure has been eliminated entirely. “It just didn’t make any sense for us to be telling cab companies what their rates are,” Whiting said.

And a new section sets penalties: a fine up to $500 for each violation, per day, with three convictions within 18 months possibly resulting in a permit’s suspension or revocation. Owners or drivers found operating under that status faces escalating fines, per offense, that top off at a maximum of $1,000 for the third.

Letters will be sent to all cab companies after the law is adopted, according to an employee of the town clerk’s office.

At last week’s hearing, Julie Kaska of Depew wanted to know how the town is going to find out if cabbies at Buffalo Niagara International Airport are licensed.

The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority has a long-standing agreement with the Independent Taxicab Association – better known as Airport Taxi Service – to provide service from the airport.

“We have a contract for exclusive rights that only allows cabbies within this association to pick up people at the airport,” explained C. Douglas Hartmayer, spokesman for the NFTA. While other cab services may drop off passengers, only those from Airport Taxi are allowed transport from it.

Christopher McGrath, whose car service is offered through an online classified advertising website, learned that the hard way. He was fined $90 this past summer after responding to repeated calls from a man who said he needed a ride from the airport.

“When I got there he was on his cellphone and walking around in front of [my] car. Then a cop in a uniform showed up and put a gun in my face,” said McGrath, who insists he was set up.

“I told him I didn’t know this was illegal,” he said. “I was just trying to help.”

As for the proposed taxi cab law, McGrath said: “These types of laws make criminal(s) out of good, upright, hardworking people like me.”

email: jhabuda@buffnews.com

An Orchard Park man was charged Friday with driving drunk with his 2-year-old daughter as a passenger in his vehicle.

Frank Piskorowski, 28, was stopped by Orchard Park police on Abbott Road for driving with a suspended registration, police said. Piskorowski’s DWI charge was elevated to a felony after police determined he had three previous alcohol-related convictions.

Piskorowski also was charged with aggravated DWI, endangering the welfare of child, felony aggravated unlicensed operation, driving an uninspected and uninsured vehicle, refusal to submit to a sobriety test and driving with an open container – a can of beer in the console, police said.

Arraigned in Orchard Park Town Court and released on $500 bail, Piskorowski is scheduled to return to court at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

To some Erie County Democrats, the ideal way to heal lingering wounds from the most recent election was to name a new county chairman who was a well known and experienced office holder, from the suburbs, and who would be accepted by just about every faction in the party.

That would be Dennis T. Gorski, the former Erie County executive. But when they made him the offer, his reply was a firm “no,” even though he mulled over the offer for several days, according to several sources.

“It’s not going to happen,” Gorski told The Buffalo News. “I suspect some people think I would be the resolver of differences as the county chairman. I’m not interested in doing that.”

While Democratic committee members will not even consider the question of the chairmanship until next September and current Chairman Jeremy J. Zellner insists he’s not going anywhere, the attempt to find new leader underscores the divided nature of the party and the desperate search by some to find a chairman to double as “healer.”

Gorski, 69, surfaced as a respected Democrat who would most likely prove acceptable to all party factions despite a reputation during his days as county executive of battling former Chairman Vincent J. Sorrentino and even former Chairman G. Steven Pigeon, whom he anointed to take over the party helm in 1995.

Now, the new efforts to woo Gorski were ascribed to Pigeon, who lately is thought to have the ear of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s political strategists and who was not available for comment on Saturday. Political sources who are familiar with the situation and who asked not to be identified because they hold no official standing said Gorski considered the offer but eventually declined.

Zellner said Saturday nobody has approached him about leaving Democratic Headquarters or about assuming any other job for a “soft landing.”

“The only soft landing I want is to continue to lead this party,” he said.

Nevertheless, Zellner faces an uncertain future as the chief of staff to the County Legislature, which pays $79,000 annually, following Republican victories earlier this month that will result in a GOP-led majority come January.

He has encountered even more opposition in recent weeks because of a string of losses on Election Day and his lack of a strong relationship with Cuomo’s political operation, where sources say he is viewed as not up to the job and incapable of uniting the party just as the governor’s re-election effort gets under way.

Several town chairmen have announced plans to call for a vote of “no confidence” in Zellner during a meeting scheduled for Tuesday in Lackawanna, though not even its sponsors expect the effort to succeed.

“There may be some disaffected town chairs ... but I have a strong suspicion that will be deeply, deeply challenged,” Zellner said, adding that those behind the efforts to bypass the normal process of electing a chairman should be “ashamed of themselves.”

The chairman also noted that Cuomo’s political operatives proved unsuccessful in previous attempts to control the Erie County leadership, and that locals are determined to chart their own course.

“It doesn’t belong to any one or two elected officials, it belongs to the committee members,” he said, pointing to Pigeon as the impetus behind efforts to replace him.

Other town leaders privately say the search will continue for a consensus candidate, though it may take months for the process to play out. And at least for now, the county’s chief Democrat – County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz – has not sought any alternative candidate (including Gorski) and continues to back Zellner, according to his political advisors.

“Mark has worked with Jeremy, even if he is not happy with the outcome of the elections – that may not all be Jeremy’s fault,” said a Poloncarz ally who is not authorized to speak for the county executive and who also asked not be identified.

“In September, when it comes time to talk about the chairman’s race, there will be a discussion,” the ally added. “But it’s not his priority at the moment.”

Cheektowaga Chairman Frank C. Max Jr., who unsuccessfully challenged Zellner for the chairmanship in 2012 and says he will run again in 2014, said he remains confident that he will prevail next year.

“This was all a trial balloon because they see the writing on the wall,” he said.

email: rmccarthy@buffnews.com

Authorities say that after stabbing Patti Rodriguez 108 times, Michael Rodriguez fled from Lackawanna’s Holy Cross Cemetery in the early morning hours of Good Friday, April 13, 1979, his clothes covered in the blood of his estranged wife.

They say he disposed of his shirt, pants and most of his clothing from that night.

But not his leather jacket. That was the most prized possession in his wardrobe, they say, and he could not bring himself to get rid of it.

So instead of throwing it out, he had a friend clean it, authorities maintain, but not good enough.

When Lackawanna detectives later interviewed him, they asked if they could hold onto his jacket. He handed it over and it sat for decades in the evidence locker at the Lackawanna Police Station on Ridge Road.

Now that jacket is cited as key evidence that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life.

“There was an article of clothing he had that has Patti Rodriguez’s blood on it,” a law enforcement official familiar with the cold case investigation said after State Police arrested the now 59-year-old Michael Rodriguez on Wednesday.

Two other police sources confirmed that traces of his slain wife’s blood were detected on the leather jacket through sophisticated DNA testing that did not exist 34 years ago.

Defense attorney Robert P. Johnson has a different opinion.

Johnson said that he is aware of the leather jacket, but has not yet seen the DNA test results on the blood.

“This jacket has been around for 34 years,” he said, adding that he looks forward to Wednesday, when he and his client will return to court to begin challenging the evidence.

The case against his client is based mostly on fiction and the fact that State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman is seeking publicity, he said.

“This is a travesty,” Johnson said. “My client gave his DNA to put this behind him. I was there when he gave it. We did not object when the court order was issued for the DNA. My client is a family man, he has two beautiful young children and a great wife.”

Johnson added that the attorney general is ignoring the wise decision of Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III, who declined to prosecute the case because of questions regarding the evidence.

Johnson added that he has served as a lawyer for 40 years trying cases and has never seen the likes of this one.

“The nature of this whole, fictionalized production is being orchestrated by Mr. Schneiderman on the back of my client’s family and the back of that elderly woman, the mother of the victim,” Johnson said, referring to Patti Rodriguez’s 80-year-old mother, Patricia A. Scinta, who said her long-held prayers had been answered with the arrest.

“This is all for Schneiderman,” Johnson said. “He wants to make a big splash. How many other cold cases has he investigated from this area? Zero.”

The jacket garment is not the only evidence that Assistant State Attorney General Paul F. McCarthy will present in his efforts to convict Rodriguez of second-degree murder.

After more than three decades, State Police Senior Investigator Christopher Weber was brought in to reopen the case, and he was able to get some people to talk who may help McCarthy in his prosecution.

Their statements not only place Rodriguez with his then 20-year-old wife at a Lackawanna bar in the hours before the slaying, but also have the couple leaving the bar together and entering the nearby cemetery, where Rodriguez had previously worked as a groundskeeper.

“Rodriguez was one of the main people we were interested in from Day One ... people were very reluctant to speak up 34 years ago but have now been willing to talk,” said Lackawanna Police Chief James L. Michel Jr., who asked state police to reopen the cold case in 2009.

At Rodriguez’s arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty and was held without bail, McCarthy told State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia that DNA from Rodriguez was also found on the victim.

In addition, Darlene M. Plewa, a friend of Patti Rodriguez, told The Buffalo News she has told authorities that she once saw Rodriguez stab his wife in the leg with a pocket knife.

“Patti and I were both pregnant, and it was the summer of 1974. We were wearing shorts. Michael and Patti were sitting on the steps of a store on South Park Avenue, and I walked up to them. I saw him pick up his hand and punch down on her thigh. He did it so fast, I thought it was just his fist. It was with his right hand onto her left thigh.

“Her eyes bulged right open and her mouth opened up. I thought she was going to scream and instead she jumped up. He pulled his hand up, and that’s when I saw it was a knife and it was all bloody. I was afraid of him to begin with, and I went home,” Plewa said. “When Mike was in a good mood, we hung around, but when he was in a bad mood, I would be afraid of him. He behaved violently.”

News of Rodriguez’s arrest, she said, has brought a sense of relief and a willingness to speak publicly.

Another of Patti Rodriguez’s friends recalled standing up to Michael Rodriguez and his companions.

“I called him and his friends all murderers and one of his friends spit in my face,” Colleen Steele said, after receiving the news that Rodriguez had been arrested. “Patti was my best friend, and when my daughter was born, I named her Patricia Christine in honor of Patti. I had her name tattooed on my left shoulder and it says ‘Patricia Christine II’ in honor of them.”

Her emotions since the arrest last week, she said, are a mix of happiness and sadness.

“I am so happy they finally got him. I almost ran him over once, but I decided I better not. You know I can still see Patti in her casket. She was wearing a beautiful yellow outfit.”

For Dana J. Britton, the director of public safety in Lackawanna and the lead detective in the homicide case at the time, the arrest of Rodriguez brought a long overdue sense of satisfaction, he said.

“We had a good case at the time. We were waiting for more evidence. With our manpower, you couldn’t dedicate two detectives full time for 30 years. That’s why we ended up seeking help from the State Police,” Britton said. “I was ecstatic that an investigator like Chris Weber was put on the case. He was relentless in his pursuit of justice. He’d call me on Sunday mornings, anytime he had a question, and I loved it.”

Nine years ago on the 25th anniversary of the slaying, Michael Rodriguez had spoken with The Buffalo News, saying he hoped for the sake of the two children he and Patti had together that the killer would one day be caught.

“It’s a loss. It’s something always in your heart,” he said. “They took my children’s mother away.”

A police official in case said the hope expressed by Rodriguez so long ago has now been fulfilled:

“He got his wish.”

email: lmichel@buffnews.com

NEW YORK – After months of debate about the risks of storing student data in the cloud, New York is pressing ahead with a plan to create a statewide database for every public school student’s grades, tests scores and attendance records – a tech startup proposal that drew interest from several other states that have now reconsidered.

Concerns from parents about who will have access to the information, how long it will be held and whether it will be used for marketing purposes have stalled the momentum of a startup that promised to bring efficiency and cost savings to record-keeping that is still largely handled district by district across the country.

“The fear that everyone has is that five years later, you’re going for a job, and Big Brother is going to find out that when you were in junior high school, you did something stupid,” said New York State Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Catherine Nolan, a Queens Democrat who has a son in public high school.

Founded in February with $100 million in grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corp., Atlanta-based data-storage company inBloom drew early interest from several states.

But within months, Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia and Delaware pulled back. Massachusetts is using inBloom services in one pilot district but has made no commitment to further involvement. The school board in the Jefferson County, Colo., district in suburban Denver canceled inBloom this month amid parent opposition.

Illinois is participating, but that state’s Board of Education said individual districts don’t have to send their data if they don’t want to.

The New York State Education Department, however, is going forward with plans requiring districts to send student information with names to inBloom sometime after Jan. 1.

The data will be accessible by educators and parents through a portal. For New York students, the data will include grades, standardized test scores and any medical diagnosis that requires special-education services. Suspensions will be logged as part of a student’s attendance record, but the reason for a suspension won’t be.

A group of New York City parents sued this month to block the release of student information to inBloom, and critics still hope to persuade state officials to step back from the data plan.

Lawmakers attending a hearing in Albany this past week demanded to know why New York was the only state that’s still all-in with inBloom, with no “opt-out” provision for families or for districts. State Education Commissioner John King said that he shared their concerns about security but that collecting student data “is necessary for the good functioning of districts, schools and states.”

Karen Sprowal, of New York City, held up a photo of her fifth-grade son, who has special needs, and said she fears that the release of his records could haunt him in the future.

“His school records essentially are his medical records,” Sprowal said. “I decide what gets released to whom.”

In addition to security concerns, debate has focused on fears that companies will use the data to sell products.

“It’s not an educational plan. It’s a marketing plan,” said Lisa Rudley, a mother of three from Ossining who testified at the assembly hearing.

InBloom spokesman Adam Gaber said student data privacy and security has been a top priority for the nonprofit since its inception.

And as for fears that inBloom would sell the information to marketers, Gaber said: “By law, inBloom cannot sell nor even share any state/district customer data.”

Advocate for Buffalo’s homeless senses it’s time to pass the baton

State makes $225 million bet on green energy

Veterinarian saves crash victim with quick thinking, CPR

Eva Pollock: Mom’s spirit a source of strength

UB center will reach out to family businesses

The Kids’ Doctor: Child’s unusual rash linked to muscle inflammation

Buffalo playwright and Burchfield Penney plan outdoor theater festival

Larkin Square series to feature writers of tales of love, perseverance – and knitting

Cleveland Hill defends high fund balance

Niagara Falls Water Board considering smaller rate increase

Perrysburg man arrested after wild chase in Chautauqua County

Snow advisory for much of Western New York

First lady presents Buffalo’s CEPA Gallery with national arts award

Teacher faces discipline for letter about smelly children

East Aurora School Board seeks to improve communication with public

Cheektowaga wants to keep tabs on cabs

Orchard Park man accused of driving drunk with 2-year-old daughter in vehicle

Democrats seeking new leadership make offer to Gorski

Blood on jacket is key evidence in '79 murder case

NY only state still on board with school data plan