Senior lawmaker weighs in on security issues

Transcription

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THE FALLS’ ONLY LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER
OCT 15 - OCT 21, 2015
VOL. 16, NO. 39
FREE
Senior lawmaker weighs in on security issues
Mike Hudson
emocratic Niagara County Legislator Dennis Virtuoso has introduced a
resolution that would bring the level
of security at the county Board of Elections
in line with that of other county offices.
“When I go into the Legislature office,
I can’t just walk in,” said the longtime Niagara Falls representative. “I have a swipe
card I have to use to unlock the door. The
department of Health and Human Services is
the same way.”
On September 18, the day of the primary
election recount, Virtuoso said he saw something that just didn’t sit right while waiting
for official results outside of the BOE offices. There he saw former county Republican Chairman Henry Wojtaszek and Niagara
Falls City Republican Chairman Vincent
Sandonato unlatch the door of the Board and
walk inside.
“They went right in like they owned
the place,” Virtuoso said. “I thought, ‘What
the heck?’ The workers were seated at their
LaSalle Officeholder Cheap-Shots Republicans, But Silent on Covanta Expansion
To Improve Security at the
Niagara County Board of Elections
desks. Nobody said a word.”
Virtuoso pointed out that considerable
personal information, including the Social
Security numbers of voters, is stored there.
Additionally, he said, many races in this
year’s primary were very close, with several minor party contests being decided by
a single vote.
“I’m not accusing anybody of anything,” he said. “But there shouldn’t even be
the appearance of any impropriety.”
In his resolution, Virtuoso has proposed
that non Board of Elections personnel entering the BOE offices must be accompanied
by a BOE employee, and also that visitors
must sign in so that a record of comings and
goings can be maintained.
“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “But the integrity of elections in Niagara County is too
important to allow the sort of laissez faire
practices we witnessed on September 18.”
Criticism of the Virtuoso resolution (see
related story) has been unusually sharp and,
given the overwhelming Republican majority in the Legislature, it is uncertain whether
enough votes will be found to pass the measure into law.
WHEREAS, the Niagara County Board of Elections has been charged to faithfully execute and uphold the NYS election law in Niagara County, and to ensure
that the electoral process is conducted fairly and efficiently in a bipartisan manner,
WHEREAS, the Niagara County Board of Elections is responsible for maintaining sensitive public records, as well as certifying all election results within their
jurisdiction, and
WHEREAS, proper security is necessary to maintain the integrity of the election process in Niagara County and to prevent covert political operatives from interfering in our electoral process, and
WHEREAS, on September 18, 2015, while preparing for an official count
of paper ballots as well as absentee ballots for the 2015 Niagara County Primary
Elections, it was witnessed by elected officials and the general public that political operatives Henry Wojtaszek and Vincent Sandonato were entering through the
gated front entrance to the Niagara County Board of Elections office without proper
supervision or escort, as well as entering in and out of Board of Election offices
prior to ballots being counted, and
WHEREAS, this kind of unsupervised entrance into an office area that houses
sensitive election material, including official election ballots may call into question
the integrity of the election process in Niagara County, now, therefore be it
RESOLVED, that in order to maintain the integrity of the election process in
Niagara County, the Niagara County Legislature hereby prohibits all non Niagara County Board of Elections personnel from entering into the office area, past the
gated entranceway without being escorted by an employee of the Niagara County
Board of Elections, and, be it further
RESOLVED, that all non Board of Elections personnel must sign in to enter
the office area, and that all doors leading into the office area have card reader access
to ensure security and integrity
Legislators Virtuoso, Grozio, Zona, Steed
A
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CHAIRMAN & EDITOR IN CHIEF
Frank Parlato
co-sponsorship of the Virtuoso legislation “a
deep disappointment.”
“Grozio’s attacking Vince Sandonato, the
guy who used to represent LaSalle in county
government, he’s doing this while the Niagara
Falls planning board is actively helping Covanta expand its incinerator to produce even
more toxic smoke by burning New York City’s
garbage,” Bilson griped.
Bilson has repeatedly criticized Grozio
for turning a blind eye to the Covanta expansion.
Covanta is working to convert an inactive
rail yard adjacent to their incinerator into a
very busy rail yard, bringing in trainload after
trainload of solid waste from New York City
to be burned by a massive, smoke-belching incinerator on the western end of LaSalle. Currently, Covanta is authorized to burn 821,000
tons of garbage per year under state Depart-
ment of Environmental Conservation regulations; the revised Covanta incinerator would
add half a million tons, primarily originating
in New York City, to that total every single
year.
Grozio never brought resolutions to fight
Covanta’s expansion or seek an extension of
a DEC comment period on the project—steps
the county has repeatedly taken in its longtime fight against expansion of the CWM
toxic waste dump in the Town of Porter. This,
despite the fact that former County Legislator Cheree Copelin’s defeat two years ago by
Grozio was prompted, in part, by her inaction
on Covanta—an issue Grozio then seized on
to attack her.
In January, 2015 Covanta was granted an
additional 11 months to increase the size of
the incinerator facility after it failed to meet
Calls for Restricting Public Access to Board of Elections
Hyde
“The Truth is Always Fair”
Mark Grozio and Dennis Virtuoso
resolution to lock the public out of the
county Board of Elections was submitted by legislative Minority Leader
Dennis F. Virtuoso and was sponsored by minority Democrats on the County Legislature.
The bill has left local Republicans fuming at
Virtuoso, and at least one Republican-backed
candidate in Niagara Falls is blasting the rest
of Virtuoso’s caucus as well.
Virtuoso’s legislation, which attacks
former Niagara County GOP chief Henry
Wojtaszek and current Falls Republican leader
Vince Sandonato for passing through a gated
area at the Board of Elections prior to ballots
being counted, is apparently co-sponsored by
the entire Democratic caucus—Legislators
Jason A. Zona, Owen Steed, and Mark Grozio—all of whom hail from Niagara Falls.
Rob Bilson, who is challenging 3rd District Legislator Mark Grozio, called Grozio’s
Lynn Fronczak, Republican Election’s Commissioner does not see
the need.
NIAGARA FALLS REPORTER
Managing Editor
Dr. Chitra Selvaraj
Rob Bilson
a timetable to do so. The planning board’s
move was defended by Niagara Falls Mayor
Paul Dyster’s economic development director,
Thomas J. DeSantis.
“How does this legislation—that locks
the public out of our Board of Elections and
smears the reputations of a couple guys who
did nothing more than go down to the County
Courthouse to make sure votes got counted
fairly—how does that help anyone living
in LaSalle?” Bilson asked. “Mark Grozio is
so busy playing politics in Lockport that he
seems to forget he’s there to help people who
live in LaSalle.”
Grozio has sponsored several resolutions
attacking the County Legislature’s Republican
majority, including calling for the admonishment of GOP Majority Leader Dick Updegrove of Lockport over his interpretation of
a state statute awarding the county a share of
casino revenues.
Most of Grozio’s resolutions, given their
highly partisan nature, have failed, although to
his credit, he did succeed in getting unanimous
support from his fellow lawmakers to ask the
state to give Niagara Falls a statue of famed
turn-of-the-century electrical wizard Nikola
Tesla.
“Mark Grozio just engaged in more partisan mudslinging, but didn’t do a thing to fight
Covanta bringing trainloads of New York
City’s garbage here to burn in our backyards,”
Bilson told the Reporter. “It’s almost like he
hates Republicans more than he likes his own
constituents.”
Virtuoso Jumps the Shark
Base Line Rd.
So u th
Par
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Dennis Virtuoso (D- Niagara Falls)
is the senior legislator in the Niagara County Legislature and is its
minority leader.
3
Bilson Excoriates Grozio for Trashy Tactics
Virtuoso Wants
Better Security
D
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Deborah Eddel
ennis Virtuoso jumped the shark this
week, submitting legislation to lock
the public out of the county Board
of Elections. Few politicians have ever had
the absolute knack for grabbing headlines
that Virtuoso, the Democratic minority leader
of the Niagara County Legislature, has demonstrated over the years. And in many cases,
Virtuoso has highlighted issues that deserved
highlighting.
But not this time.
In a blatantly partisan hit piece aimed at
discrediting the September primaries after a
particularly bad performance by the Niagara
County Democrats, Virtuoso—apparently
along with fellow Democratic Legislators Jason Zona, Mark Grozio, and Owen Steed—has
submitted a resolution attacking the former
chairman of the Niagara County Republican
Party, Henry Wojtaszek, and Vincent Sandonato, the head of the Niagara Falls GOP.
Virtuoso’s resolution, titled simply “To
Improve Security at the Niagara County
Board of Elections,” attacks Sandonato and
Wojtaszek for “entering through the gated
front entrance of the Niagara County Board
of Elections office without proper supervision
The interior of the Niagara County Board of Elections. What do you think,
is security needed?
or escort ... prior to ballots being counted” on
Sept. 18.
The resolution then veered into the absurd, calling for adding security card readers
to the doors to the Board’s office to control
access by the public—not just strengthening
procedures for proceeding past the “gated entrance” at the front counter.
GOP sources called the charges “absurd”
and added that a prominent Democratic operative was also inside the security barrier without an escort on the date in question.
The Niagara Falls Reporter reached out to
GOP Elections Commissioner Jennifer Fronczak and asked her about Virtuoso’s charges.
“That is absolutely false,” Fronczak told
us, after we read Virtuoso’s resolution to her.
Sandonato, meanwhile, offered up a oneword assessment of Virtuoso’s resolution:
“Bullshit.”
Both parties noted that Wojtaszek and
Sandonato were never alone with unsecured
ballots—a key insinuation in Virtuoso’s legislation. Fronczak was also troubled by Virtuoso’s call for adding security card readers to the
Board’s doors.
“We want to encourage people to take
Continued on page 4
4
Continued from page 3
Henry Wojtszek
part in the democratic process,” she said drily.
“Locking the doors and controlling who can
and can’t come in kind of undermines that.”
This is no doubt Virtuoso’s effort to muddy up his political opponents just days before
the November elections, and to cast doubt on
the outcome of September’s primary—which
Vince Sandonato
saw a host of Democrat-backed GOP candidates running in GOP primaries upended, and
often by wide margins.
The resolution goes on to bemoan that
this “call[s] into question the integrity of the
election process in Niagara County.”
A quick inspection of the Board of Elec-
tions offices, however, shows how specious
Virtuoso’s attack really is.
The “gated front entrance” virtuoso describes is a low swing gate built into a counter
that comes up, roughly, to belly height. There
is nothing high-security about it.
So, what was waiting for Virtuoso and
Wojtaszek on the other side of this impenetrable barrier? Roughly a dozen elections
clerks, with equal numbers from both parties.
Behind a few rows of desks and workstations
is the door to Fronczak’s office on the left and
her Democratic counterpart Lora Allen on the
right.
Fronczak and Deputy GOP Commissioner Mike Carney also confirmed to us that
Wojtaszek and Sandonato weren’t the only individuals to arrive early and enter the Board’s
large, open office unaccompanied.
“[Dyster Administration employee] Johnny Destino was here early and no one was ‘escorting’ him either,” said Fronczak. In fact,
Fronczak and Carney charged, Destino even
entered Allen’s office while she wasn’t present
and closed the door.
“Dennis Virtuoso loves cheap political
gimmicks and it’s an election year,” Carney
told us. “For him to try to bring into question
the integrity of our elections, though, is a new
low.”
Wojtaszek could not be reached for comment, but a source close to the former chairman
said he dismissed Virtuoso as a “knucklehead”
when told about the resolution. Virtuoso’s attack resolution, which when submitted listed
the entire Democratic caucus as co-sponsors,
also came in for criticism from several GOP
legislative candidates here in Niagara Falls.
Virtuoso’s opponent, David Zajac, meanwhile, was philosophical.
“Apparently Dennis Virtuoso thinks that
posting armed guards at the entrance to the
Board of Elections will encourage more people to exercise their right to vote,” Zajac said
after reading Virtuoso’s resolution. “I’m curious to see who else in the County Legislature
feels the same way.”
Open Mic at the Nifty Fifty Bar
Anderson Won’t Let Cancer Stop
November Bid for Reelection Weekly every Thursday evening
B
Mike Hudson
ob Anderson is one tough guy. Diagnosed at the age of 73 with Stage IV
stomach cancer following the tragic
loss of his wife and daughter, Anderson has
vowed to stay in The City Council race and
win.
“We believe in God and everything happens for a reason,” he said. “Sometimes it’s
hard to tell what that reason is, but you keep
moving forward.”
He laughed when talking about going to
an upcoming Democratic Committee fundraiser, since he was not endorsed by the Democratic Committee.”
I’ll be wearing my pink suit and my pink
hat and if anybody doesn’t like it they can kiss
my you know what,” he chuckled.
Anderson has always been a fighter. He
had to be, growing up during the 1950s on
the mean streets of Harlem and then later, as a
decorated Air Force sergeant during the Vietnam Era.
Following 16 years in the service, Anderson and his wife Marie moved to Niagara
Falls, where he went to work for the school
district. Hard work and determination led him
to become president of the CSEA and superintendent of maintenance.
He first ran for the Council 12 years ago
and has won by large majorities in every election since. In the 2011 general election Anderson outpolled Mayor Paul Dyster, his political
nemesis.
“When they told me I had terminal cancer, I swear my first though was that this city
has terminal cancer,” Anderson said. “And the
mayor is like some quack doctor saying everything is beautiful.”
Anderson’s pet peeve has been the squandering of the nearly $200 million the city has
received as the local share of revenue from the
Seneca Niagara Casino.
“There is so much wrong here, the crime
rate, the deteriorating infrastructure, the condition of our streets, and we’ve spent $200 million on ‘economic development’ that has failed
to create a single new private sector job.”
Anderson’s wife Marie died in 2013 and
his daughter Bernadette passed away in 2012.
His son, Robert Anderson III, works in Albany.
Every dime of his City Council stipend
for the past 12 years has been donated to charity, and he never took the city “opt-out” for uncollected health insurance benefits not taken
by current or former school district employees
because they prefer the health insurance provided by the district.
His colleagues on the Council, Kristen
Grandinetti and Andrew Touma – both school
teachers – have shown no compunction about
taking the money, which, at $3,527 a year is
the highest paid by any governmental agency
in the state.
Anderson said he often feels isolated from
his Democratic colleagues.
“I’m like the Lone Ranger looking around
for Tonto,” he said.
One recent example of his odd man out
status was Anderson’s vehement opposition to
the Hamister hotel project back in 2013. The
proposal to give do-nothing Buffalo developer
Mark Hamister a piece of prime downtown
real estate valued at $1.5 million for a token
payment of $100,000.
A large number of deadlines on the project have come and gone without any indication
of the project moving forward, most recently
last week, when Hamister failed to close on
the property on the contract date.
Anderson says he takes no pleasure in being proven right about such matters.
“For a large part of the time, I feel like
I’m being the bad guy for looking after the interests of the Niagara Falls taxpayers,” he said.
“That’s certainly been true in the case of the
Hamister deal.”
7710 Buffalo Ave., Niagara Falls, N.Y.
8:00-11:00PM
Tim Weir
contributor to Artvoice
A
friend of mine (Bruce Schaffstall)
recently invited me to a new weekly
open mic that takes place every Thursday at the Nifty Fifty Bar. The Nifty Fifty is
a great place known for musical entertainment on Buffalo Street in Niagara Falls, New
York. The facility is beautiful and the patrons
friendly.
This open mic is very capably hosted by
Peg Silvestri, someone who has hosted other
open mics in Niagara County and has a decent
following of open mic music fans and musicians alike. Most performers sang around 4-6
songs, which is generous compared to some
other open mics.
This visit supported my belief that Niagara County has some of the most talented
performers in Western New York. In fact, in
my visits to open mics in and around Niagara
Falls, my first thought is to go home and practice more.
What makes the Nifty Fifty Bar so unique
is not just the incredible musicians who come
here. It is because so many of them are great
singers. Call this open mic “Harmony Central.”
It starts with Peggy and her daughter
Alex- 2 very gifted singers who can sing harmonies to anything or with anyone. But there
were a plethora of other singers on this evening supplying killer harmonies: folks like
John Dudley, Laurie Jiricitano, Burt Royce,
Sue Achill, Cathy Achill, and others.
Like other collaborative open mics, there
are musicians happy to sit in with the performers if they want an added guitar or piano or
a back up singer. Versatile players like drummer Dave Draper, vocalist Andrea Zaccarella,
Slide and bass player Ken Johnson and others
are usually there to help out. This collaborative atmosphere led to many incredible performances during the course of the evening.
The age range of this open mic is wide
an the skills go from beginner to seasoned
player. They very open to all kinds of music,
but classic rock is a frequent theme. If you
like harmonies (how could you not?), this is
an open mic for you. Spontaneous on-the-spot
harmonies were common, sometimes 3 and 4
part harmonies.
Although this open mic has been open for
a few weeks, there is already a simmering culture of respect and appreciation for performers
that can often be missing at other open mics.
Although many of the attendees seemed to
know each other, newcomers like me are made
to feel welcome.
This group that frequents this open
mic also have a sort of “pub crawl for Open
mic’ers”, headed by Frank Thompson. This is
where a group of open mic ‘ers actually tour
several other facilities in the same evening,
bringing this groups unique musical skill set
to several Erie and Niagara County drinking
establishments. However this “pub-crawl” is
for performing, not necessarily drinking. This
is something I have not ever seen or heard of
anywhere else, and it sounds like great fun for
performers and listeners alike.
Currently, the Nifty Fifty Bar is rated by
www.openmicreviews.com in 2nd place tied
with the Sportsmen’s Tavern Open Jam after
its second week. Needless to say, I recommend
this open mic. If you live in Erie County, it is
well worth the drive.
Tim Weir maintains the website: www.
openmicreviews.com , and has also written
articles for publications in Central New York
such as the Palladium Times in Oswego and
the Citizen in Auburn, NY.
5
Free Pizza and Football at Nifty Fifty on Sunday
As Buffalo Avenue Sports Bar Rolls Out Red Carpet
Tony Farina
S
ports fans, listen up. If you are looking
for a great sports bar to watch the Bills
take on the unbeaten Cincinnati Bengals
on Sunday, you might want to check out the
Nifty Fifty at 7710 Buffalo Ave., in Niagara
Falls, where besides football and your favorite
beverage, you will be able to enjoy a lost treasure, Pizza Junction-style pizza, for free.
That’s right, that culinary delight from
the days when Pizza Junction was riding
high will be offered free of charge on Sunday courtesy of the Nifty Fifty’s new management team. And it will be prepared under the care of Ryan Fleckenstein, who used
to be the general manager and chef at Pizza
Junction on Erie Ave. in North Tonawanda,
one of the four Junction establishments that
used to be among the most popular pizza
spots in the area, with Fleckenstein featured
on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-in and
Dives.
“Our pizzas were tagged as “Pizzalicious,” said Fleckenstein, referring to the
name the show apparently used to describe
the best pizzas around. Pizza Junction was
“Pizzalicious,” and according to Fleckenstein, it still is.
“I guarantee that Bills fans that come to
the Nifty Fifty looking for great pizza and
other food, they won’t be disappointed,”
said Fleckenstein Wednesday, already excited about Sunday’s big day and the food
he plans to be serving during and after the
game, including the free Junction-style pizza
and of course wings and other great footballwatching food.
“We want folks to check out the Nifty
Fifty and see what we have to offer,” said
Fleckenstein. “I know Sunday is a very big
game against the Bengals who are coming
to town undefeated. So I thought this would
be a good day to get us on the local sports
bar map and let folks know we have plenty
of televisions, lots of great food, and a great
atmosphere.
“I thought offering free pizza might be
a good way to attract folks to our place, give
them an opportunity to check us out, and I’m
sure they will come back after they see what
we have to offer. We know the regulars will
be here, but we are looking for folks from
beyond Niagara Falls to stop in. We are
definitely only a short drive from many locations in the area, right on Buffalo Ave. minutes from the Grand Island Bridge, and we
have numerous TVs, including big screens,
to give folks great game action.”
And there should be plenty of great
game action to watch on Sunday as the Bengals, led by fifth-year quarterback Andy Dalton and coming off a stunning comeback victory over the Seattle Seahawks 27 – 24, will
be visiting the Ralph to take on the 3 and 2
Buffalo Bills who may or may not have Tyrod Taylor at the helm.
The exciting Taylor has a strained MCI
suffered last week in leading the Bills, mostly with his legs, to a 14 – 13 win over the Titans, rushing for a franchise-record 76 yards
including a dazzling 22-yard TD scamper.
But he’s beat up and sore, has been bothered
by an ankle injury since training camp (little
did we know), and now has the strained MCI.
But he might still play. Ryan is not saying he
will or he won’t.
“I know it’s been widely reported that
Tyrod is not playing,” Ryan said Wednesday.
“That’s news to me. That may or may not
be the case, but that’s certainly not official.
We’ll see how it goes.”
Taylor wants to play on Sunday, and so
does wide receiver Sammy Watkins who has
been sidelined with a calf injury. Watkins
said this week that he hopes to play Sunday,
saying “it’s a big game, they’re 5 – 0.”
Dalton is firing on all cylinders this year
for the Bengals, and went 13 for 15 for 135
yards in the fourth quarter to help Cincinnati
stay undefeated with the overtime win over
the Seahawks. In fact, Dalton leads all quarterbacks in fourth quarter passing rating.
In my view, this is a statement game
for the Bills who likely will need Taylor to
have a chance, although risking a further injury to their quarterback must be a factor in
the decision to play him or not. If he can’t
go, the Bills will have to rely on GM Doug
Whaley’s favorite quarterback, EJ Manuel,
who thus far in his career has been a major
disappointment with his inconsistent play.
And for some reason—possibly cap space or
Whaley’s infatuation with Manuel-- the Bills
traded away Matt Cassel to the Cowboys for
a future draft choice and now are stuck with
Manuel in case Taylor can’t play.
We’ll have to wait a few more days,
maybe right up to game time, to see who is in
and who is out. There is one thing for sure,
however, and that is the hometown crowd
will be fired up and so will the many thousands more who will be watching on television as the Bills face perhaps their biggest
game in quite a while.
If you are not going to the game and are
planning to go to a sports bar to catch the action with fellow fans and maybe enjoy some
great football food, as I said at the beginning
you might want to check out the Nifty Fifty
at 7710 Buffalo Ave., and get some free pizza--Pizza Junction-style-- and you might just
find a new place to enjoy local sports on TV
and dine on some great food.
Game time is 1 p m. Food will be on for
game time.
Why Is Paul Dyster Wasting $1.8M to Duplicate County Services?
The John Accardo Q&A
“You realize that Paul Dyster is wasting
$1.8 million needlessly, right?”
John Accardo has summoned me to his
office on a Monday morning when everyone
else is celebrating Christopher Columbus’
discovery of the new world by sleeping in. I
blink at the question and hesitate for a moment
before saying, “It’s got to be a lot more than
that, doesn’t it?”
Accardo chuckles, and then lets loose
with a full-body laugh.
“That’s what they call gallows humor,
right?” his blue eyes bore in on mine. While
they seemed pleasant just moments ago, now
they are flinty. “I’m sick of politicians killing
our city, though.”
That’s just one exchange in a freewheeling interview that Accardo gave me after
weeks of pestering on my part. The candidate,
who seems to prefer press conferences to long
sit-down interviews, has given me a full hour
on his busy schedule, provided I arrive at 8
sharp on a Monday that many of my peers are
enjoying as a holiday.
Accardo, for his part, is more casual than
I’ve become used to watching him on the campaign trail; instead of the ever-present business
attire, he’s wearing blue jeans, a windowpane
sport coat, and a Yankees hat. I sense he wants
to open up and let me see the real candidate,
instead of the tightly-scripted candidate that
his disciplined campaign has presented to the
public so far. Sitting at his cluttered desk at the
Pine Avenue offices of the Accardo Agency,
he seems a man at ease this morning, as if he
knows that his message is resonating with voters.
Accardo and I agree to the format of the
morning’s interview; I will do a Q&A, and include his responses verbatim—something he
says he considers absolutely crucial in making
his case to Falls voters:
Q: How’s the race going?
A: If you mean “Who’s up, who’s down,”
I’m not really paying attention to that, although I am, as they say, “cautiously optimistic” about where things are headed. But, if you
mean how is the public responding when I go
out and meet them at the door, at dinners, at
a charity function I was at last week—look, I
don’t do clichés, but it really seems like people
are saying it’s time for a change.
Q: So, are you saying they want to fire
Paul Dyster?
A: Yes—but they also want to put a leader
in who can actually lead. I keep hearing the
words “private sector experience” from people who are telling me they’re supporting me.
One little Italian grandmother, the other day,
told me she’s praying for me because she was
tired of her children urging her to move out of
the Falls, and wanted to be able to give them
a reason she was staying. She said she wanted
to tell them that her city had turned the corner,
and that finally someone was running government more like a business. She told me her
late husband had built a family business, had
been successful, had created jobs and then had
watched their neighborhood crumble around
them, until, five years ago, he finally closed
up shop.
Q: Interesting. But back to running City
Hall like a business. That’s just rhetoric, John.
You know that. Government operates at a
loss.
A: True. But I’ve been in the insurance
business my whole life. I deal in risk. I deal
in mitigating losses. Here’s an example. You
realize that Paul Dyster is wasting $1.8 million
needlessly, right?”
Q: It’s got to be a lot more than that,
doesn’t it?
A: [Laughter.] That’s what they call gallows humor, right? I’m sick of politicians killing our city, though. No, back to my original
point. Paul Dyster is spending $1.8 million in
this year’s budget on police dispatching.
Q: OK, but don’t we need that?
A: Absolutely. But the issue is, who’s
going to pay for it? Three years ago, North
Tonawanda managed to enter into a deal to
shift their dispatch to the county. It was a five
year consolidation deal—they paid the full
shot the first year, and North Tonawanda’s
contribution drops each year, until the fifth
year, when they are supposed to pay zero. And
why wouldn’t they? What do cities get for
their county taxes, really?
Continued on page 6
6
Continued from page 5
Q: OK, so we are spending $1.8 million
on dispatch this year, and Mayor Dyster just
raided the casino funds to fill a $7.4 million
structural deficit. So, you are telling me our
deficit could have been closer to $5 million?
A: Correct.
Q: Why would the county do this for us?
A: Why wouldn’t they? The state gave
them a great big grant, $400,000, just to roll
in NT’s dispatch. And no one lost any jobs,
either. It just was a more efficient use of personnel and resources. Think about this: every
year, we send around $11.5 million in taxes to
Niagara County. By we, I mean the taxpayers
of the City of Niagara Falls. And what do we
get in return? County government certainly
provides services to the towns—sheriff’s pa-
trols and things like that, but what do we get?
The Weights & Measures people checking our
gas pumps? Why should NT get to offload a
cost center like that, and Niagara Falls gets
nothing?
Q: So why isn’t the county handling our
dispatch now?
A: I actually put that to county officials. I
called up Jeff Glatz, the county manager, who
told me that the county had actually offered
this option to the cities several years ago, but
only NT went for it. All the towns rely on the
county’s call center, but Lockport and Niagara
Falls refuse to turn dispatch services over to
the county. And, by the way, Sheriff [James R.]
Voutour runs a really tight ship at the county’s
9-1-1 center. I suspect that Dyster’s relation-
ship with the unions has a lot to do with it—
Q: Right. Didn’t the county get sued over
consolidated dispatch? Dyster said the county
lost the lawsuit and that’s why we can’t do
consolidated dispatch
A: Dyster’s flat-out lying. That lawsuit
was over who got to have seniority among
the dispatch people, the NT dispatchers or
the county’s existing employees—not over
whether it works or not. In fact, I talked to Art
Pappas, the mayor of North Tonawanda, at a
dinner a month or so ago, and he told me that
dispatch with the county hadn’t skipped a beat,
everything worked the same as before—but
that he had a shrinking line in his city budget
every year that is on its way to zero. I want
to zero out that unnecessary $1.8 million that
Paul Dyster is wasting. And by the way, Monroe County, with around 750,000 people, have
just one dispatch center for their whole county,
and it works great. And they manage to provide
excellent coverage for Rochester—a city more
than four times the size of Niagara Falls.
Q: So, you want to eliminate that $1.8
million cost center.
A: Absolutely. I also want to look at how
much overtime we’re running at the Police
Department, and find out what we need to do
to return police to the beat. Personnel running
dispatch serve an important purpose, but they
don’t directly make our streets safer. I’m not
opposed to using some of the savings from
consolidating our dispatch to put shoe leather
back on the streets.
Q: Do you think our streets are safe?
A: Do you? I don’t. It’s not reflection on
our police, but I don’t believe that our current
city administration has used them properly,
no.
Q: Is this an isolated example of waste by
the Dyster Administration?
A: You talked to Stefan Mychajliw last
week, right? [Mychajliw criticized the Dyster
Administration for raiding casino funds to pay
down this year’s structural deficit and worried
that it will damage the city’s bond rating.] I
read your article. He was right.
Q: You mean the part where he endorsed
you?
A: That too. But in all seriousness, as a
businessman, I would never run my business
the way Paul Dyster has run this city. I could
never, actually. If I did the business world
equivalent of what he did, at best I’d be out of
business, and possibly going to jail. You can’t
fund your budget using short-term, one-time
windfalls.
Q: What’s the answer, then?
A: Again, we need to look at all of our
cost centers for reductions. We need to eliminate redundancies. And we need to make sure
that we state up-front what we intend to do
with our casino revenues. We should have a
plan for spending that money on long-term,
one-time investments—not repeatedly using
that money to cover our basic expenses. What
Paul Dyster is doing is like paying for your
groceries with a credit card. Long-term, it’s a
very bad idea.
Q: What about the budget, though? Every year, it ends up being controversial.
A: That’s because it’s worked on in the
dark of night. It’s kept out of sight. We need an
open and transparent process. We need a yearlong budget review process. We need to be
working with department heads all year long
to cut costs, to eliminate waste. As mayor, I
intend to produce a balanced budget—and I
intend to do it before Sept. 15. The surprises in
this budget were hidden from public scrutiny
until October.
Q: Are you implying Paul Dyster didn’t
want the budget out there before the primary?
A: Would letting voters knowing he raided the casino money have helped him?
Q: So, where do we go from here?
A: We need to rebuild Niagara Falls one
brick at a time, one job at a time, one balanced
budget line at a time. We need to bring in private sector jobs paying good, living wages. We
need to stop treating the county as an enemy
and try to work with them—and we certainly
need to demand that they treat us fairly for the
$11.5 million in taxes we give them every year.
But that takes leadership, and that’s something
we’ve been missing for a while, isn’t it?
7
Choolokian Marches on With
Write in Mayoral Campaign
I
Mike Hudson
n what must be considered good news for
the mayoral campaign of Republican John
Accardo, Democratic mayoral candidate
and city Councilman Glenn Choolokian has
announced he will continue his campaign,
running a write in race in what must be most
believe will be one of the closest mayoral contests in recent Niagara Falls history.
Choolokian lost a squeaker to incumbent
Mayor Paul Dyster in the September Democratic primary, coming up just 73 votes shy of
pulling off a major upset.
Clearly, the Democratic voters’ displeasure with Dyster – who had won all of his previous races by at least 7 percentage points, was
evident. The two term mayor has presided over
eight years of economic stagnation, declining
population, rising crime and an explosion in
the number of registered sex offenders living
in the city.
At the same time, Dyster’s relentless promotion of expensive events with dubious economic benefit – the disastrous Holiday Market
and the lackluster Hard Rock Café concert series spring immediately to mind – have caused
the city to run through nearly $200 million in
revenue from the local share of the Seneca Niagara Casino with virtually no tangible result.
Incredibly expensive public works projects such as the $46.5 million North Main
Street courthouse and the way behind schedule
The Niagara Falls city mayoral ballot
will look like this. The Choolokian
campaign has proposed handing
out stickers bearing the candidate’s
name that could alleviate the voters’
need to actually write his name on
the ballot.
$45 million train station have soaked up monies that could have been spent improving the
quality of the city streets putting more police
officers on the streets.
The fact that Dyster has worn out his
welcome with nearly half the city Democrats
should mean that in the open race against Accardo in November, where Republicans will
get to weigh in on the mayor’s eight year re-
This flyer is being circulated by the Glenn Choolokian campaign and is designed to show people how to write in the candidate’s name.
cord, should spell doom for Dyster.
A minority believe, however, that Choolokian staying in the race might serve only to
split the anti Dyster vote, making the mayor’s
reelection easier rather than more difficult.
In any event, a write in campaign only
rarely results in victory for the write in candidate. One challenge Choolokian faces is name,
which newspaper writers have been challenged
to spell correctly for as long as he’s served in
public office.
A misspelling can invalidate the vote.
To make it easier for voters to vote for
him, the Choolokian campaign is printing up
several thousand stickers bearing his name and
sized to fit the write in space on the ballot.
72nd Street Frozen in Bureaucracy as
Repair Work Gets Late Start
A
Anna Howard
city hall code of silence has existed
over the 72nd Street water line issue.
There is a plan to replace 3,000 linear
feet of 8-inch diameter water main on 72nd
Street, which went without main replacements in a 2010 repaving project. That omission resulted in serious pipe freezing leaving
residents without water, The silence from City
Hall extended from Mayor Dyster’s mid August public promise to quickly fix the problem
until the October 11 Gazette story, “Contract
for 72nd Street repair on tap.” That story ended
the Dyster administration’s silence regarding
the icy issue that’s vexed the street’s residents
for two winters.
The Gazette story reported Niagara Falls
Senior Planner Thomas DeSantis expected the
contract to repair the failing water system to
be awarded sometime this week. The story
also reported the close of October as the tentative groundbreaking date for the repair work.
However, City Hall has provided no information concerning an estimated completion date,
the project’s budget or the Water Board’s participation, if any. In August, Dyster quoted a
project estimate of “several hundred thousand
dollars, not millions, not tens of thousands”
and there’s been no clarification of that vague
budget.
Until the Gazette story appeared city hall’s
collective lips were zipped with zero information on the water line fix available. City hall
sources tell us that 72nd Street has been “the
project that dare not speak its name” and no
questions have been allowed inside Dyster’s
city hall. Inexplicably, the city’s Public Works
Department has been left in the dark on the
project.
The Reporter hasn’t forgotten that certain elected officials had promised to have the
72nd Street water problems well on the road to
repair by October.
On July 28 council chairman Andrew
Touma appeared on the Vince Anello show.
The chairman said he and Charles Walker approached the mayor in 2014 and told the mayor, “Do what you have to do to make it right”
with regard to 72nd Street. Mr. Touma went
on to say, “I say this publicly, we’ll fix 72nd
Street, Royal Avenue and Independence.” The
councilman emphasized he would have 72nd
Street repaired by October. When a caller
laughed at the notion that the problem could
be repaired that soon, the councilman bristled
and took the caller’s bet of a dime against the
work being completed by October. Andrew
Touma owes the caller a dime.
A couple of weeks after the chairman’s
on-air promise Mayor Dyster went public with
his own promise of pipe repair. He said he was
stepping forward with a solution because the
Water Board had failed to do so.
So, chairman Touma pledged to have it
completed “before the snow flies” by October
and Dyster promised in a press conference to
have the work begun in early October. It’s October 15 and bids are just now possibly being
opened. Two elected officials and two unmet
promises. In short, just another day in a city
where 80% of 20% of the world’s fresh water
supply flows over the world’s most famous
waterfall, and yet some residents can’t draw a
glass of water or flush their toilet in winter.
“Complex issues without apparent solutions are the responsibility of the mayor,
regardless of jurisdictions,” the mayor was
quoted in a Gazette story from two months
ago where he made a press conference pledge
to fix the 72nd Street water lines.
Dyster made his announcement for the
water line fix several weeks before the mayoral primary. Tom DeSantis’ remarks in the
Gazette’s October 11 story appear just several weeks before Election Day, November
3. That’s very convenient political timing...
twice.
Non-transparency, duplicity and a total
lack of cooperation between city hall and outside entities define the Dyster administration.
Nowhere are these three bureaucratic hobgoblins more on parade than in the 72nd Street
scandal.
Non-transparency: City hall stonewalled
those who sought access to the engineer’s report detailing how the waterlines weren’t buried deep enough for the frost line.
Duplicity: Once the engineer’s report became public the mayor then adopted the report
as his own.
Lack of cooperation: Overarching the
affair is the glaring absence of a working relationship between city hall and the Water
Board.
History demonstrates, from the caveman
to the present, that the one sure way to defeat
an enemy or force a person from their dwelling is to deny them fresh water. And, history
proves that the group that controls the water
controls everything.
In spite of this historical fact the Dyster
administration has chosen to disagree with the
agency that has their hand on the city’s water
spigot. And for that the 72nd Street neighborhood has suffered greatly.
Finally, one bit of advice for city hall.
With a mayoral election just days away we
advise the bureaucrats in city hall to stop referring to the 72nd Street construction start
date as a “groundbreaking.” Groundbreakings
are traditionally good things, positive things,
things that show growth and promise, and
better times ahead. The saga of 72nd Street is
none of that.
8
Mayor, Council and Tourism Board
Prepare Trip Down Patronage Job Path
A Response to the Uninformed About Islam
10
J
Anna Howard
ust as a river naturally flows to the sea
so do Mayor Dyster and the council majority inevitably make their way toward
an ever-growing city government with an increased taxpayer burden.
The latest example of this municipal mismanagement is the Mayor/council expressed
interest in creating another city hall job: Tourism Director. The city’s Tourism Advisory
Board (created nine years ago by then councilman Sam Fruscione) pleaded their alleged
need for the position in a presentation at the
October 4, council meeting.
An October 6,Gazette story by Philip
Gambini, “City council discussing Falls
tourism post,” reads, “The position is of importance to Touma, who said he is willing to
make budgetary sacrifices to institute it.” The
story quoted councilman Charles Walker, saying, “We talk about becoming more of a tourism city, we need to have somebody in-house
looking at those issues...Looking at how we
connect to the rest of the city, the rest of things
going on in the city, to what is happening
downtown.”
The story quoted tourism board member
Lisa Vitello (sister in law to Dyster campaign
manager Craig Touma, who is cousin to council chairman Andrew Touma), “Residents,
tourism, businesses, often bring concerns to
this board and those concerns need somewhere to go.” The implication seems to be that
the city’s tourism needs are unmet by John
Percy’s NTCC. Dyster remarked in the story,
“Nobody, I think, is arguing about the need for
that position.”
While the city has a deficit of $7.6 million and while millions of dollars in casino
funds were abused by Dyster to balance the
2016 budget, the mayor and council are now
taking direction from the tourism board as
the city hall “friends and family employment
machine” gears up to create another job. All
the while Dyster blames personnel costs as the
root of city fiscal woes. Hypocrisy? It’s truly
stunning all the way around...mayor to council
to citizen advisory board.
The fact of the matter is that there currently is no “tourism director” in city hall because
in 2003 a tourism promotion reorganization
plan supported, at the time, by Senator Maziarz, Assemblywomen Del Monte, the city
council and the county legislature closed the
Niagara Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau
(NFCVB) and the Niagara County Tourism
Department. The closing of those two organizations put more than 20 people out of work
and left in its wake, the Niagara Tourism and
Convention Corporation (NTCC).
Two individuals, John Percy from the
NFCVB and the county’s sport fishing coordinator, were absorbed by the NTCC with the
county government continuing, to this day,
to pay the expenses of the sport fishing program.
The creation of the NTCC was historic in
that it remains as the only known example of
Maziarz and DelMonte having ever worked
cooperatively on anything. It also ushered in
the era of the NTCC with that agency being
funded annually with approximately $900,000
of bed tax and $1,000,000 from the city’s casino revenue. The NTCC agency, flush with
taxpayer funds, has, over the years, set off on
any number of junkets across North America
to Europe to Asia.
So, while the new, well-funded NTCC
has taken the lead role in local tourism promotion, the mayor and council now want to
hire their own tourism director. Not content to
leave (one would assume) well enough alone
the high-flying (with taxpayer cash) city administration is once again dipping into the
taxpayer pocket to dish out another serving of
political patronage employment.
Dyster, Walker and Touma, to a man, have
remarked on the need to fund such a city po-
sition. Which raises two questions: 1) why, if
the NTCC is performing the miraculous deeds
that the mayor has ascribed to them does the
city need this job, and 2) why doesn’t the mayor/council simply advise John Percy as to the
city’s exact tourism needs rather than turn the
situation into a limp excuse to create a job?
I will never write another prejudice, bigoted Radical and Non radical Islam, nor good and
nor prejudice article for the rest of my life, bad Muslims!
I swear!
If to be a “non radical”, good Muslim
means
not believing in beheading infidels,
If I am wrong about Islam I will change
then
to
be a “non radical” good Muslim, is
to Islam, from Catholic to Muslim, and alto
be
an
infidel, like you and me. That’s a
low those who prove me wrong to stampede
death
sentence!
That’s why Muslims won’t
a herd of camels over my manly hood!
raise their hands and say,” I don’t believe in
There is only one “religion” in the en- beheading infidels, I’m a good Muslim”.
tire world that practices AND preaches VIOIf you still don’t believe what I say, then
LENCE and that is ISLAM!
google Brigitte Gabriel and hear what she
Another interesting point, according to says! She lived through the “conversion” of
Mohamed, who wrote the Koran; there is Lebanon from Christianity to Islam.
wrote an article explaining why an Is- only ONE Islamic Muslim and that, is the
lamic Muslim cannot take an oath to one who believes in ALL the teachings of
“protect, preserve, and defend the Con- the Koran! There is no distinction between
stitution of the United States”! The statement
is based upon a FACT, not opinion, that our
Constitution is based upon a separation of
church and state AND Islam is NOT!!!
I
“Such was the will of the Father
that his Son, blessed and glorious, whom he gave to us, and who
was born for us, should by his own
blood, sacrifice, and oblation, offer
himself on the altar of the cross, not
for himself, by whom “all things were
made,” but for our sins, leaving us
an example that we should follow
his steps.”
St Francis of Assisi
Apparently some folks who are misinformed feel that the truth stated in written
word by the Niagara Reporter is blasphemous, prejudice and bigotry. This I am told,
as I do not participate in the nonsense “social
media” of face book, twitter, nor horsesass.
squat!
Islam does NOT believe in the separation of church and state, and is quite, diametrically opposed to our Constitution. Fact
is that unbelievers (you and me) are to be
killed, “smite them at the neck and hands”
says Mohamed’s Koran! According to the
Koran, and ALL teachings of Islam, Islam is
founded, on church and state as one, requiring Muslims (which means submit), to submit to a Supreme leader called the Ayatollah.
He directs all aspects of a Muslims life, not
limited to church, including when to pray,
how many times to pray, what to eat and not
eat, how to treat your wife (as a possession)
how to divorce your wife( tell her “I divorce
you 4 times, wait 24 hours and throw her out
with NOTHING”). The Ayatollah, following
the Koran, also sets forth penalties for violating the rule of Islam. For example, if a wife
is adulterous and the husband has 2 good
witnesses, she is to be killed, by a choice of
methods, with stoning being a favorite, depending on the Islamic Nation. There are 57
to choose from that practice this punishment!
If a man is adulterous, it’s ok! Homosexuality is not tolerated and is also an executable
offence! More serious for men than women,
oddly enough!
You see under our Rule of Law to enforce the Islamic rule of law, not just Sharia
Law, would be considered murder, assault,
kidnapping and many other crimes! Now
what I’m telling you is not my bigoted, prejudice opinion, it is the FACTS. Read the Koran! I could quote the Surah for those uninformed readers but the only way for them to
become informed is to read the book of faith,
the Koran, and find the Shuras I mention on
their own, so read the damn thing before you
run off at the mouth!
Why do you think Barack Obama
“switched” from Muslim to Christian? You
see I also have an issue with his “switch”.
He MUST have denounced Islam and
Allah before a Muslim gathering. That’s also
in the Koran! If you could find me that video
11
If the whole world stands against
you sword in hand, would you still
dare to do what you think is right?
12
Will the Voters Write Choolokian
in or Simply Write Him Off?
Anna Howard
G
lenn Choolokian came within 63 votes
of sending two-term mayor Paul Dyster
packing in the recent Democratic primary.
Although the sitting councilman lost the race by
a razor thin margin he has no intention of going
away. In fact he’s a declared write-in candidate for
mayor.
This turn of political events prompts one question: can he possibly win a write-in campaign?
The short answer is yes, it’s possible. But the
real answer is a more nuanced: It’s a long shot for
a candidate to win a write-in campaign. People
have won write-in campaigns from school boards
to town halls to presidential primaries. It’s rare, but
it’s been done.
Political trivia: John F. Kennedy won the 1960
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Democratic presidential primaries with 183,073 and 91,607 respective write-ins. Franklin Roosevelt won the 1940
New Jersey presidential primary with 37,278 writeins. Richard Nixon won the 1960 Massachusetts
Republican primary with 53,164 write-ins.
If the Glenn Choolokian write-in effort succeeds it will truly be a case of local political history
being made. And when one considers how unpredictable and out of whack with the rest of the political world Niagara Falls appears to be, what better
race for this to occur in than the mayor race?
People are trying to predict which campaign Accardo or Dyster - will be damaged by Choolokian’s plan. We believe no one yet knows who may
be “damaged.” History demonstrates that write-ins
don’t generate many votes. And Choolokian staying in the race isn’t like Francine DelMonte staying the assembly race several years ago because
even though she lost the Democratic primary to
John Accardo she still held a minor line in the general election. Political observers, to this day, blame
DelMonte’s staying in the race for Accardo’s loss
to Ceretto.
Choolokian lost the recent Democratic pri-
mary to Dyster by 63 votes, but – BUT – he is a
write-in candidate and the voters will not find his
name on the ballot on any party line. His name will
have to be written in by each voter.
The Niagara County Republican Committee
conducts many voter surveys. And if they haven’t
already done so they have to immediately locate
250 primary voters that selected Choolkian. They
must ask those voters: “You voted for Choolkian in
the primary, whom will you vote for in the general
election?”
The surveyed voter can answer one of three
ways: 1) I’m writing Choolokian in 2) I like Glenn
but as a Democrat I have to blindly stick with primary winner Paul Dyster 3) I think the world of
Glenn Choolkian but I have to go with Accardo in
order to save the city and move Dyster out of city
hall. The survey results will reveal where Choolokian’s 2000+ primary votes can be expected to go.
The second survey the Republicans want
to conduct is a general survey of Democratic and
Republican voters with one question asked: “Who
do you prefer in the race for mayor: Accardo, Choolokian or Dyster?”
Let’s review: A) find out where Glenn Choolokian’s primary votes are going B) find out which
mayor candidate is preferred by Democratic and
Republican voters.
The Reporter understands that Mayor Dyster
is quite distressed to see Choolokian remain in the
race. The mayor has no one to blame but himself...
himself and his friends and supporters on the city
and county Democratic Party committees. For no
less than eight years these committees have run a
closed shop that works on the principal of “our way
or the highway.” Historically the Democratic Party
has been the party of equality, new ideas, and fresh,
hard working candidates welcomed to the political
process with open arms.
That’s no longer the case. Paul Dyster and his
cronies operate as if they own the party. Dyster is
actually, truly, insulted to find someone – anyone
– with nerve to challenge him, or his fellow Democratic travelers, for any elected office.
13
Only in NT: Change is Needed
With NT’s 8 Men in a Room
Sweeney Payne
British philosopher and economist John
Stuart Mill once said, “If all mankind minus
one, were of one opinion, and only one person
were of the contrary opinion, mankind would
be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be
justified in silencing mankind.”
The First Amendment gives Americans
(including North Tonawandans) five rights:
free speech, freedom of religion, free press,
freedom to assemble and the right to petition
government for the redress of grievances.
The last one is essential to maintaining a
democracy. If you have ever phoned, emailed,
or written a letter to an NT, Niagara County,
New York State or Federal official, gone to a
City Council, School Board or County Legislature meeting, you were exercising your right
to petition government for the redress of grievances.
Freedom of the press is needed for the
search and attainment of truth, scientific
progress, cultural development, the increase
of virtue among the people, the holding of
governmental officials to republican values,
the strengthening of community, and a check
upon self-aggrandizing politicians.
Republican values does not refer to the
GOP. A “republic” is a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their
elected representatives, and which there is an
elected or nominated president rather than a
monarch.
The free speech and freedom of the press
guarantees we have as Americans apply equally to federal and state governments, which include local governments as well as all branches
of each government. The free speech guarantee extends to all viewpoints, good or evil.
Being disenfranchised is no fun. The
rules work against you, your rights are constantly violated, and you have little power to
change your life for the better. The Old French
word enfranchir means “to make free,” and
when you add the negative prefix dis-, disenfranchised means “made unfree.” A disenfranchised population doesn’t rest easy, and often
they organize and fight back against their condition to demand their basic rights and freedom.
Because of the current political machine
in Niagara County, many NT residents are disenfranchised without even realizing it. Those
who realize it have stopped voting entirely,
realizing it is a waste of time until the system
is fixed.
We need ward aldermen, aldermen-atlarge and a Mayor who KNOW the City and
its residents and appreciate it for what it has al-
ways been. We need people filling those offices to take care of the things the residents have
been begging to be done for the last decade
BEFORE they waste more money on things
we don’t need or want and more costly studies
by people who don’t live here.
News coverage of three men in a room
at the State level has been frequent over
the years. In NT, we have eight people in a
room—a Mayor, a City Clerk-Treasurer, a
City Attorney, and five Aldermen.
Re-electing the same politicians will only
produce the same discouraging results.
We don’t want politicians earning their
living at the taxpayers’ trough and moving
back and forth from City of NT, NT School
District, Niagara County, and New York State
positions. Nor do we want to continue seeing
the same last names with different first names
occupying half or more of all the paying jobs
and political appointments and elected positions anymore.
When we have someone retire, say, like
long-time former Treasurer Leslie Stolzenfels,
with questions about her performance, why
would we, or other taxpayers in the County, want her to have been fed into a Deputy
County Treasurer role? And then when that
stint was over, there she was back at the public
trough working part-time in City Hall!
Politicians earn their political payoffs by
convincing citizens of their importance—or
by downright intimidation. More and more
residents are sharing with each other about
the intimidating tactics of those in office in
NT, especially Council president Rizzo and
appointed alderman at large Pecoraro. They
are fast becoming known as the twin bullies
of City Hall.
Pecoraro isn’t a colonel in the Air Force
anymore. The residents of North Tonawanda
aren’t supposed to be reporting to him. He has
it backwards and doesn’t appear about to report to us!
NT is the butt of jokes beyond the city.
In a Buffalo News “OFF Main Street” article
about the “offbeat side of the news” on January 12, 2013, our Common Council meetings
were the lead story in the column: “North
Tonawanda’s mostly Republican Common
Council is efficient. At Tuesday evening meetings, the congenial aldermen agree with each
other, swiftly vote on matters like adjusting
sewer improvement budgets, and sometimes
finish in half the time it takes meeting regular
Ann Finkle to drive to City Hall.”
Do you want to continue these arrogant
egocentric politicians in office supposedly
representing you?
LEGAL NOTICE
STATE OF NEW YORK
SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NIAGARA
vs.
JULIAN ABRAMS
450 6th Street
Niagara Falls, New York 14301
SUMMONS
Index No. 156130
Filed: June 12, 2015
HENRY LASCELLE
450 6th Street
FORD MOTOR CREDIT COMPANY, LLC
1 American Road
Dearborn, Michigan 48126
“JOHN DOE” and “MARY ROE” being
fictitious and unknown to Plaintiffs, being
the persons or parties intended being the
tenants, occupants, persons or
corporations if any, having or claiming an
interest in or lien upon the premises
described in the complaint
Defendants
TO THE ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANTS:
YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the Complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your Answer, or, if the Complaint is not served with
this Summons, to serve a notice of appearance, on the Plaintiff’s attorney within
twenty (20) days after the service of this Summons, exclusive of the day of this
service (or within thirty days after the service is complete if this Summons is not
personally delivered to you within the State of New York); or within sixty (60)
days of service as to the United States of America; and in case of your failure
to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief
demanded in the Complaint.
DATED: Niagara Falls, New York
June 11, 2015
ANTHONY D. PARONE, ESQ.
Attorney for Plaintiffs
730 Main Street
Telephone: (716) 282-1242
TO: Julian Abrams and Henry Lascelle:
The foregoing Summons is served upon you by publication pursuant to
an Order of the Hon. Frank Caruso, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State
of New York, granted September 9, 2015 and filed in the Office of the Clerk of
the County of Niagara at Lockport, New York.
This action is a Land Contract foreclosure action and the sum of money
for which judgment may be taken against you in case of default is as follows:
$46,185.41, together with interest thereon from July 2, 2014, plus accumulated
late charges and any sums advanced by the Plaintiffs on behalf of the Defendants Julian Abrams and Henry Lascelle.
Dated: July 28, 2015
ANTHONY D. PARONE, ESQ.
Attorney for Plaintiffs
730 Main Street
Telephone: (716) 282-1242
15
Lewiston’s Hide-n-Seek Budget Games
L
DANIEL J. LUM and
PATRICIA V. LUM (f/k/a Patricia V. Pike),
his wife
6927 Sunnydale Road
Plaintiffs
This foreclosure action affects title to and the possession, use or enjoyment of real property located at 5822 Stephenson Avenue, Niagara Falls, New
York.
British philosopher and economist
John Stuart Mill had it right.
spent the town will have to find a huge sum of
money to balance its books for this year. The
taxpayers won’t get the bill for that budgetary
failure until next year. But by then Supervisor
Brochey will be safely out of office and someone else will have to clean up the mess that
was left behind.
This is the text book definition of kicking the can down the road. The town’s budget
problems won’t be fixed but you do get to pass
the buck to the next guy in office. Brochey will
make himself look like the good guy on the
way out the door by “balancing the budget”.
And while he’s sitting in sunny Las Vegas the
next town supervisor will look like the bad
guy for having to install a town tax.
Daria Jurek
ast week, Town of Lewiston finance
director Martha Blazik finally unveiled
the tentative 2016 budget. The big
news was that there will not be a town tax for
2016, but there was also an unhealthy dose of
bad news included in her presentation of the
$15.608 million budget.
Blazik told the town board she was simply buying time, and went on to guarantee that
next year there will definitely have to be a
town tax. She and Supervisor Denis Brochey
both went to great lengths to point out that
their tentative budget would not utilize money
out of the town’s fund balance. The fact that
Lewiston could have a balanced budget without having to dip into any of the funds that had
been set aside for a rainy day seemed almost
too good to be true.
As it turns out it is too good to be true.
There are several accounts within the town
budget that have fund balances. One of them
is called account number H-97. This account
receives its funding from the NYS Power Authority and is to be dedicated to cover repairs
and improvements to the town’s roads, water,
and sewer lines. It has a current fund balance
of $2.8 million dollars but in a classic move
that robs Peter to pay Paul almost half of that
money will not be used for its primary purpose. Instead H-97 funds are being drawn out
to balance the town budget. It’s nothing more
than fiscal hocus pocus to siphon money form
one reserve account so that you don’t drain
another.
What will the town do if they have to
replace a large failure in a water line or have
another need for expensive infrastructure repairs? My understanding is that over three
hundred thousand dollars are already tagged
to be used to fund a new pump in Sanborn and
that money will have to come out of that H-97
account too. So if any emergency does arise
will funds have to be borrowed and town’s
bond rating will sink even lower? Some
people say the foundation of the quality of life
in a community is in the infrastructure. You
can ask residents of LaSalle who went weeks
without running water if they think that is the
case. Hopefully no Lewiston resident will ever
have to experience that same thing.
The 2015 budget had been criticized by
some as having contained inflated revenue
figures that would never materialize. That
now appears to be the case. The revenue that
was being relied on because of the town’s
agreement with Modern Disposal will only
be a fraction of what the budget was relying
on. CMW tax tipping fees are likewise down
Sales tax revenues are flat and Seneca Niagara
Casino monies Blazik called “iffy”. New York
Power Authority hydropower reimbursement
monies to the town, which are based on trends
in the electrical commodities market, are way
down.
So with the money having already been
Are great things ever done smoothly? Time, patience, and indomitable
will must show...
Brave, bold people, these are what
we want. What we want is vigor in
the blood, strength in the nerves,
iron muscles and nerves of steel.
Swami Vivekananda
16
News of the Weird
Chuck Shepherd
PROTECTING
OUR FREEDOMS
■ The bold, shameless leering of David Zaitzeff
is legendary around Seattle’s parks, and more
so since he filed a civil complaint against
the city in September challenging its antivoyeurism law for placing a “chilling effect”
on his photography of immodestly dressed
women in public. Though he has never been
charged with a crime, he roams freely (and
apparently joyously) around short- skirted
and swimsuit-clad “gals” while himself often
wearing only a thong and bearing a “Free
Hugs and Kisses” sign. Zaitzeff’s websites
“extol” public nudity, wrote the Seattle PostIntelligencer, and explain, for example, that a
woman who angles her “bod” to offer a view
of “side boob” is fair game for his camera.
Zaitzeff’s complaint—that the law criminalizes
photography of a person’s “intimate areas”
(clothed or not) without explicit permission—is
distressing him.
DEMOCRACY BLUES
■ Randy Richardson, 42, vying unopposed
for the Riceville, Iowa, school board (having
agreed to run just because he has two kids in
school) failed to get any votes at all—as even he
job openings (almost all menial)—eventually
resulting in about 2.3 million applications,
200,000 from people with advanced degrees
(even though the $240/month positions required
only a fifth-grade education, according to an
was too busy on election day (Sept. 8) to make
Associated Press dispatch). About 13 million
it to the polls (nor were there any write-ins). To
young people enter India’s job market each
resolve the 0-0 result, the other board members
year.
simply appointed Richardson to the office.
Riceville, near the Minnesota border, is a big- NEW WORLD ORDER
time farming community, and registered voters
queried by The Des Moines Register said they ■ At a September convention on ethical issues
involving computers, a researcher at Britain’s De
just had too much fieldwork to do that day.
Montfort University decried the development of
devices that might permit human-robot sex.
Though no human would be “victimized,” the
MEDICAL MARVELS
researcher warned that such machines (some
■ Researchers recently came upon a small already in service) will exacerbate existing
community (not named) in the Dominican “power imbalances” between men and women
Republic with an unusual incidence of and pave the way for more human exploitation.
adolescent boys having spent the first decade One critic challenged, offering that such robots
or so of their lives as girls because their would be no more demeaning to women
penises and testes did not appear until puberty. than, say, vibrators. However, the researcher
A September BBC News dispatch referred ominously warned that there may someday be
to the boys as “Guevedoces” and credited robots resembling children, marketed for sex.
the community for alerting researchers, who (A September USA Today dispatch from Tokyo
ultimately developed a drug to replace the reported that the company SoftBank had banned
culprit enzyme whose absence was causing sex, via its user agreement, with its new 4-footthe problem. (The full shot of testosterone that tall human-like robot—even though “Pepper”
should have been delivered in the mother’s features nothing resembling genitalia.)
womb was not arriving until puberty.)
■ Thailand’s “Last Resort Rehab” at the Wat
Thamkrabok Temple about 100 miles north of
Bangkok resembles a traditional drug-detox
LEADING ECONOMIC
facility (work, relaxation, meditation)—except
INDICATORS
for the vomiting. At the “Vomit Temple,”
■ The serpentine queue extended for blocks in Buddhist priests mix a concoction of 120 herbal
September in Lucknow, India, after the state ingredients that are nasty, according to the
government of Uttar Pradesh announced 368 temple’s methamphetamine addicts interviewed
for a recent Australian TV documentary. Said
one, of the rehab agenda: “Vomiting is at 3pm
every day. Foreigners must vomit for the first
five days. The vomiting is intense.”
FINER POINTS OF THE LAW
■ People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
filed a federal lawsuit in California in September
on behalf of an endangered crested black
macaque that wandered up to an unattended
camera on a tripod and clicked a selfie. The
camera belonged to photographer David Slater,
who claimed copyright to the photo even though
“Naturo” actually snapped it. The shot might
be valuable to Naturo since it has become viral
on the Internet. (Though the photo was taken
in Indonesia, Slater’s publisher is based in
California.)
READERS’ CHOICE
■ (1) In August, Che Hearn, 25, who police said
had just shoplifted electronics items from the
Wal-Mart in Round Lake Beach, Illinois, was
picked up while on foot near the store. Police
found that Hearn had actually driven his car
to the Wal-Mart but that while he was inside
shoplifting, a repo agent (who had followed him
to the store) had confiscated it. (2) Astronaut
Edgar Mitchell (the sixth man to walk on the
moon) told a reporter in August that “my own
experience talking to people” has made it clear
that extraterrestrials are trying “to keep us from
going to war” with Russia and that U.S. military
officers have told him that their test missiles are
“frequently” shot down “by alien spacecraft.”
VOTE THE FUTURE.
VOTE ROB BILSON.
PROTECT OUR TAX DOLLARS
IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE
INVEST IN OUR FUTURE
VOTE ON TUESDAY,
NOVEMBER 3rd
EVENTS | CALENDAR
THURS
OCT 15
MUSIC
ROCK
DHU Strand Theatre - 8pm North
Carolina’s Red Dirt Revelators.
Duke’s Bohemian Grove Bar - 9pm
Throwback Thursday playing
sounds from the 80’s, 90’s, & 2000
feat. DJ Sike.
Mohawk Place - 8pm Sonny Baker,
Newish Star, Softlines, Andy Pothier,
$5.
Seneca Niagara Casino - 8pm Micky
Dolenz, the voice of the Monkees in
the Bear’s Den Showroom, $55.
Wagon Wheel Restaurant - 8:30pm
Thursday Night James w/ Chuck
DeRose.
Waiting Room - 7pm Tragedy $15/$13.
ACOUSTIC/FOLK
189 Public House - 8:30pm, 8:30pm
Ray Bonneville, free.
Hot Mama’s Canteen - 7-10pm Davey
O
Nietzsche’s - 5pm The Afternoon Trio
w/ John, Paul, & Bill, free.; 9pm The
Observers w/ Nathan Kalish & the
Last Callers.
Talty’s Tavern - 8pm Jay McDonnell
ZYDECO/CAJUN
Solo.
Shango Bistro - 7pm Ron Davis aka
CHORAL
LeeRon Zydeco.
Baker Memorial United Methodist
Church - 7:30pm Russian a cappella
vocal ensemble LYRA returns to
East Aurora for a program of traditional Russian liturgical and folk
music. LYRA is a premier vocal
community in St. Petersburg, Russia
whose members are affiliated with
the prestigious St. Petersburg
Conservatory.
Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
(2004). Ring of Knowledge, main
floor.
Canisius College - 7pm IberoAmerican Film Festival feat. El
Libertador.
Riviera Theatre - 7:30pm Carrie, $5.
ACOUSTIC/FOLK
5:30-7:30pm My House is Giving Me
a Vibe: Researching Your House’s
History. Computer training Lab, second floor registration at Borrowers
Services.
Acoustic Lunch w/ Drew Azzinaro.
Dwyer’s Irish Pub - 6-10pm Darrell
Porter.
Nietzsche’s - 6pm Jony James
Shannon Pub - 8:30pm Penny
Whiskey
Talty’s Tavern - 9pm Randy Milligan &
Mike Skowronski.
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library -
LITERARY
Jewish Community Center’s Holland
Family Building - 7:30pm A poetry
COMEDY
Coulier, $20.
RECREATION/GAMES
CELTIC/IRISH
w/ Quiz Night in Buffalo.
CLASSICAL
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Helium Comedy Club - 8pm Dave
Kleinhans Music Hall - 8pm Brian
Regan.
Shenannigan’s Bar & Grill - 7pm Trivia
Coloring, a great way to relax and
meet new friends. This is not a class
and is very casual. Come to one
or both sessions. Call 332-4375 for
information.
Caputi Jazz Guitar.
Cheektowaga Historical Association
in conjunction with the Lancaster
Historical Association will be holding a joint meeting feat. guest
speaker is Jim Pace who is a local
historian, author and musician. The
topic will be about The Senecas of
West Seneca. Free, refreshments
served.
Lake Erie Italian Club - 7pm Citizens
United for a Clean Lackawanna
Waterfront. Rally to bring together
citizens from Lackawanna and
across W.N.Y. who would like to get
involved in activities that will initiate the removal of all contaminants
from Lackawanna’s waterfront. This
is hopefully the first of a series of
meetings for concerned citizens
who wish to assemble an action plan
to remove all toxins. Refreshments
served.
KARAOKE
EXHIBITS
Paul Strand: Genius of Form, &
the Discovery of Context. Bruce
Jackson explores the work of photographer and cinematographer
Paul Strand and Mexico’s influence
on his artistic development. Attend
prior to seeing Strand’s film Redes
at Know The Score.
Pausa Art House - 8pm Tonal Nuage,
$7.
INDIE
The Tralf Music Hall - 7pm The Moth
& the Flame, $10.
JAZZ
Buffalo State College Rockwell
Hall - 7:30pm Buffalo State Jazz
Ensemble, free.
Daily Planet Coffee Co. - 5pm Fred
Maple Entertainment Complex (The
Library) - 8pm Karaoke w/ Michelle.
The Backstage Pub - 8pm Open Jam
& Karaoke w/ Jimmy Zigzag & Wally
B.
OPEN MIC
Hilltop Inn and Grove - 7pm Open
Mic Hosted by Danny Lynn Wilson.
Hydeout - 9pm Randy California’s
Open Mic.
PIANO
The Gypsy Parlor - 9pm Karaoke
Daily Planet Coffee Co. - noon
reading feat. Ansie Baird & Susan
Nusbaum.
Larkin Square - 5:30-6:45pm Larkin
Square Author Series presented
by First Niagara, sponsored by
Independent Health & Talking
Leaves Books feat. Sandra Block,
Barbara Early, & Alice Loweecey.
www.larkinsquare.com
Medaille College - 7pm The Write
Thing Reading Series presents Jack
Wang.
SPECIAL EVENT
Albright-Knox Art Gallery - 5:30pm
MUSIC
LECTURES/PRESENTATIONS
COMMUNITY INTEREST
CLASSICAL
FRI
OCT 16
Cheektowaga Senior Center - The
Karpeles Manuscript Museum (Porter
Hall) - 11-4pm Ottoman Cartography
& the Age of Discovery, an exhibit
feat. hand-drawn maps, originally
included in various educational
atlases,produced between the 14th
and 17th centuries. www.karpeles.
com
The Steel Plant Museum, Heritage
DiscoveryCenter-10-5pmFascinating
Forms: A Patricia Layman Bazelon
Retrospective.
Brighton Place Library - 5-6pm Adult
SPECIALTY/COMMUNITY
THEATER
Canisius Montante Cultural Center -
7pm Alliance Francaise de Buffalo
presentation of the play: La Lecon,
appreciation of French culture &
language.
TOURS
Graycliff Estate - 10:30am Frank
Lloyd Wright’s Graycliff Estate Tours
2015, In-Depth Tour.; 11-2pm Frank
2015, Basic Tour.
Shea’s Buffalo Performing Arts Center
- 10am, 1pm Historic Theatre Tour.
$8/$4 Seniors, Students, & Groups
of 20 or more. Reserve at 847-1410
ext. 184. sheas.org
Tifft Nature Preserve - 10-noon
Wellness Walks. Drop by Tifft Nature
Preserve and enjoy the fresh air and
the sights and sounds of the season with a healthy outdoor walk on
our beautiful and accessible trails!
Please call 825-6397 to confirm walk
will be taking place. $2 donation per
person appreciated. All ages.
FILMS/SCREENINGS
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library -
5-7:30pm Thursday Matinee: Harry
Unity Church of Practical Christianity -
9pm Peopleart Coffeehouse series
feat. Mike Sheffield & Don Stoll, $5.
Wine on Third - 8pm Stevie Fleck
BLUES
Hot Mama’s Canteen - 8-11pm The
Rod Horning Project.
Mohawk Place - 5pm River Dogs
Blues Band, free.
Vizzi’s - 10pm Speedy Parker
Buffalo Irish Center - 8pm Crikwater
Kleinhans Music Hall - 7pm Copland
in Mexico. Through a grant from the
NEH’s Music Unwound Consortium,
Stefan Sanders will explore how
Mexican music influenced Aaron
Copland, and how he in turn influenced a generation of Mexican
composers.
CONTEMPORARY
189 Public House - 8:30pm Caitlin
Koch, free.
COUNTRY
Seneca Niagara Casino - 8pm
Southside Johnny & the Asbury
Jukes in the Bear’s Den Showroom,
$50.
DANCE/DJS/ELECTRONIC
31 Club - 9:30pm DJ Pauly Paul spinning hits from the 70’s to today.
the31club.com
The Gypsy Parlor - 10pm Happy Hour
Friday Night Party on the West Side
w/ DJ Crespo.
HIP-HOP
Duke’s Bohemian Grove Bar - 9pm DJs
Milke, Cochise, & Scott Down.
Town Ballroom - 8pm Keys N Krates,
$24/$20. All ages.
INDIE
Nietzsche’s - 10pm Superhuman
Happiness w/ Jack Topht & Little
Cake, $5.
JAZZ
Pausa Art House - 8pm Lina Allemano
Quartet, $7.
SEE YOU THERE!
BUFFALO COMICON
Sat 10/17: 10am-7pm / Sun 10/18: 10am-6pm The Buffalo Niagara Convention Center
153 Franklin St (833-6220 / buffalocomicon.com) $15-$25
C
an you feel it? There’s an electricity in the air, a seismic shift as the forces of pop culture harness their singular gaze on the city of Buffalo for The 16th Annual Buffalo Comicon which will be happening at the
Buffalo Niagara Convention Center this Saturday and Sunday. Over the course of two days, hundreds
of people will be attending with a single-minded purpose: to nerd out as hard as they possibly can. And it’s going
to be awesome. Much like your average comic book superhero, Comic Conventions had a humble start in the
early 70’s before becoming the massive event it’s known as today. But it wasn’t always so well received. When the
first comicon began on March 21, 1970 in San Diego, it was a tiny, one day
affair known as San Diego’s Golden State Comic-Minicon ¬– a beta test for
a gathering of like-minded nerds, geeks, and pop culture obsessives. The
event attracted a staggering 100 people and two celebrity guests: Forrest
J. Ackerman, who is essentially the father of modern sci-fi fandom, and
comic book artist Mike Royer. Fast Forward 45 years, comicon has taken on a life of it’s own. Sprouting up in cities
all over the world, the events attract thousands upon thousands of cosplay characters, authors, artists, actors and
more for a truly unique experience like no other. This weekends event is hosted by Queen City Bookstore, one
of America’s first comic book shops that opened up in Buffalo in 1969. You definitely don’t want to miss out on the
action. Whether you want to see folks dressed up as your favorite superhero or simply want to hear from some
of the very special guests they have attending this year, Buffalo Comicon will have something for everyone. For
more info and tickets, you can visit buffalocomicon.com.
EDITOR’S
PICK
> BY AV STAFF
Saigon Cafe - 8pm Jim Calabrese
& Mary Stahl, free. thesaigoncafe.
com
The Gypsy Parlor - 7-9pm Peggy
Farrell and the Bobby Jones Trio.
LOUNGE/STANDARD
Shadow Lounge & Restaurant - 10pm
Queen City Lights
OPEN MIC
Woodside Community Chapel - 7-11pm
Woodside Coffee House Open Mic
OPERA
Riviera Theatre - 8pm Opera on
Broadway: Opera-Lytes perform
excerpts from famous operas, Adult:
$20, Senior: $18, Under 18: $12.
FILMS/SCREENINGS
The Screening Room Inc. - 5pm The
BIFF feat. Poetry of Witness.; 7:15pm
The BIFF feat. Rooted in Peace.
The Screening Room Inc. - 9:30pm
The BIFF feat. Guy w/ a Knife.
KIDS STUFF
Roswell Park Cancer Institute - 5-
7:30pm Olympic Gold Medalist Billy
Mills will speak at Roswell about
ways that American Indian people
can fulfill their basic needs while
helping their communities to gain
self-sufficiency and self-esteem.
www.roswellpark.org
Burchfield Penney Art Center - 3pm
SUNY Buffalo State’s Conversations
The Buffalo History Museum’s In and Out of the Disciplines series
Resource Center - 5:30pm, 7pm presents a lecture by Katherine
Nickel City Opera presents excerpts Conway-Turner, President of Buffalo
from Shot, an original NCO opera State College, titled Aging within
dramatizing of the assassination of a Family Context: The MotherPresident McKinley at the 1901 Pan Daughter Dynamic. Her talk will be
held in the Burchfield Penney Art
American Expo, free.
Center’s Peter and Elizabeth C.
Tower Auditorium, free.
ROCK
Alternative Brews - 7pm High Horse
Church of Scientology of Buffalo Angry Buffalo at the Rose Garden - 8- 7pm Clear Body, Clear Mind
11pm Bryan Berhalter
Hallwalls - 4pm UB Humanities
Buffalo Iron Works - 9pm Institute & Hallwalls present Philip
Workingman’s Dead, $7 advance, Kiernan Scholars @ Hallwalls w/
Idol Hill & the Lives of Roman Idols.
$10 door.
Buffalo State College Rockwell Hall - Museum of Disability History - 7-9pm
8pm Dave Mason’s Traffic Jam, $15- Book Presentation & Signing, They
Did No Harm: Alternative Medicine
$40.
Evening Star Concert Hall - 7pm Sonic feat. Museum of disAbility History
Garden the music of the Grateful founder & author James M. Boles.
629-3626
Dead, $5. Ages 18 & up.
Mohawk Place - 8pm Aircraft, Difficult Scotch ‘N Sirloin - noon LWVBN
presents Raise the Age: Should the
Night, Slowshine, Tomoreaux, $5.
League of Women Voters of NYS
Mr. Goodbar - 11pm MoChester
support raising the age at which a
Wagon Wheel Restaurant - 5:30pm young person can be prosecuted as
Micky Kal; 9:30pm 90 West
a juvenile? Buffalo City Court Judge
Susan M. Eagan will discuss what is
SWING/BIG BAND
happening to juveniles in Buffalo
Shadow Lounge & Restaurant - 10pm courts, $20. http://www.lwvbn.org
JJ Swing
MAGIC
N’ Shore Restaurant - 7-9pm
COMMUNITY EVENTS Ship
Magic & Balloon Art by Joe & Gary,
free.
COMEDY
Helium Comedy Club - 7:30pm, 10pm SPECIAL EVENT
Dave Coulier, $22.
Paranormal Walks - 7pm Paranormal
The Tralf Music Hall - 8pm, 10:30pm Lockport, Meet at Lake Effect Cafe,
Friday Night Laughs, Rob Stapleton’s 79 Canal St. $10.
Birthday Edition w/ Tony Roberts &
SPECIALTY/COMMUNITY
Turae Gordon, $35/$30.
THEATER
DANCE
Brighton Place Library - 10-noon The
Shea’s Buffalo Performing Arts Center Anne Frank Project. This interac- 8pm Shea’s Buffalo Theatre, Dance tive theater event includes a play
Theatre of Harlem, $58/$28.
followed by a letter-writing exercise
meant to increase awareness and
EXHIBITS
understanding of different people.
Karpeles Manuscript Museum (Porter Call 332-4375 for more information
Hall) - 11-4pm Ottoman Cartography and to register.
feat. hand-drawn maps, originally TOURS
included in various educational Graycliff Estate - 10:30am Frank
atlases,produced between the 14th Lloyd Wright’s Graycliff Estate Tours
and 17th centuries. www.karpeles. 2015, In-Depth Tour.; 11-2pm Frank
com
METALACHI
7pm The Studio @ Waiting Room, 334 Delaware
Ave (853-5483 / waitingroombuffalo.com) $12-$15
A
s far as fusion tribute acts go, Metalachi just might be
the one that stands out the most. As their name implies,
the band takes heavy metal classics and performs them
in a mariachi style. It’s a truly bizarre concept that has interesting
results: Randy Rhoads probably never intended his guitar solos
to be performed on a violin, but that’s one of the best moments
on the group’s cover of Ozzy’s “Crazy Train.” Aside from the unusual shtick, the band doesn’t take itself seriously, and almost everything written about Metalachi is a joke. As a result, finding out
anything about the band isn’t an easy Feat. It doesn’t help that
its members wear elaborate costumes and don’t disclose their
real names. The group’s bio implies that they were consummated
from a sports-team gang bang, describing their mother as such:
“What began as an innocent night of snorting horse tranquilizers
in a hotel room with seven members of the village jai alai team
went on to produce the greatest metal band to ever live.” It’s going to get pretty wild this Thursday (10/15 @7pm) at the Studio @
Waiting Room when Metalachi takes the stage.
> BY JEFFREY CZUM
THU.
15
can ask questions of the college’s art
conservation professors and talk to
the graduate students about their
projects. 878-5025
Ray’s Lounge & Catering - 7-10pm
CRAFTS
SPECIAL EVENT
St. John’s Lutheran Church - 10-3pm
Craft Show, $1. 683-8972
DANCE
Amherst Community Church - 8-
11pm Amherst Community Church,
Queen City Contra Dancers, $10:
Contra Dance taught & called
by Margaret Mathews. Music by
Howard Blumenthal & Allegheny
Crossing. Basics at 7:30. No Partner
or Experience Needed. www.qccd.
org
The Gypsy Parlor - 8pm Dinner &
Dance w/ MoDDance Company.
EXHIBITS
com
Retrospective.
FILMS/SCREENINGS
North Park Theatre - 3pm The
Seventh Fire USA; 5:15pm Game
Face USA.
Squeaky Wheel - 1:30-6pm BIFF
Women & Film Panel & Screening,
Panel: 1:30 pm, Screening: 2:30 pm,
free. BIFF Experimental Shorts,
Screening: 4 pm, Online advanced
tickets: $10, Door: students/seniors:
$8, general admission: $12, Free for
Squeaky Wheel members.; 4pm
BIFF feat. The End of the Internet, a
satire about discovering the meaning of life in a most unlikely place.
The Screening Room Inc. - noon The
BIFF feat. Strange Four: a Love
Story.; 1:15pm The BIFF Shorts:
Encounters.
The BIFF Shorts: Sports.; 9:15pm
BIFF feat. Sex & Broadcasting.
FUNDRAISERS
Castellani Art Museum - 7:30pm
2015, Basic Tour.
SAT
OCT 17
Mama’s Canteen - 10pm
Fredtown Stompers
Pausa Art House - 8pm Juini Booth,
$7.
Hot
MUSIC
KARAOKE
Kate’s - 10pm Karaoke w/ Eclectic
Sound.
Tudor Lounge - 4-7pm Jony James
Karaoke.
ACOUSTIC/FOLK
ROCK
9:30-11am Rob Falgiano; 11-12:30am
Birdie Cree
Shannon Pub - 7:30pm Penny
Whiskey
Wine on Third - 8pm Chris Borgatti
Band; 9pm JC Thompson Band
Buffalo Iron Works - 9pm Late Night
Radio & Marvel Years, $10 advance,
$12 door.
Evening Star Concert Hall - 8pm
Uncut Stones w/ the Lady or the
Tiger, Ages 18 & up, $5.
Hideaway’s Bar & Resturant - 10pm .22
Calibre. www.22calibrerocks.com
Mohawk Place - 6pm Orenthal
(release show), On the Cinder,
BastardBastardBastard,
The
Wagon, $5.
Mr. Bills Restaurant & Bar - 9pm Off
the Grid
Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market -
BLUES
Marvin’s Bar & Grill - 8pm Mercury
Blues Band
Pierce Arrow Bar & Grill - 2-7pm
Buffalo Blues Crew with Jack
Civiletto, Chas DelPlato, Bob Price,
Andy Romanek & Speedy Parker.
Talty’s Tavern - 9pm Doug Yeomans
Band
The Niagara Hotel - 9pm the JT Blues
Band
CELTIC/IRISH
Buffalo Irish Center - 8pm The
Reardon & Garvey Band
Nietzsche’s - 4:30pm Celtic Seisians
CHORAL
Hamburg United Methodist Church
- 7:30pm Vocalis Chamber Choir,
$15/$10 students.
Orchard Park Presbyterian Church -
Broadway Hotel - 4pm Eric Spahr
Pizza Plant Italian Pub (Transit Rd)
- 8pm Slim Chance & the Can’t
Hardly Playboys, free.
Strikers Lanes - 9:30pm Stangers.
Wagon Wheel Restaurant - 9:30pm
Blackstar
VARIETY
Nietzsche’s - 10pm Dr. Pain’s Traveling
Madicine Show: the Heavenly
Chillbillies w/ Second Trip, Mr.
Boneless, Pine Fever, & Zuut, $5.
7:30pm Lyra In-Concert, five worldclass singers from St. Petersburg,
Russia as part of the U.S. Concert
Tour, $10. www.oppchurch.org
COMMUNITY EVENTS
JAZZ
Stripteaser Burlesque.
Burchfield Penney Art Center - 7:30-
9pm Barbara Levy Daniels Jazz
Vocalist w/ Barry Boyd/bass, Abdul
Qadir/drums, Lisa Hasselback/
piano, & Dave Schiavone/sax, $20.
www.eventjoy.com
Gigi’s Cucina Povera - 8-11pm Greg
Sansone
Hot Mama’s Canteen - 1-4pm Brunch
& Beats w/ Susan Peters & Alfie
Alessandra.; 7-9pm Andrew Nixon
BURLESQUE
Hot Mama’s Canteen - 11:59pm The
COMEDY
The Castellani Art Museum: A
Continuing Legacy. The 25th
Anniversary of the Castellani Art
Museum of Niagara University The
publication of Armand & Eleanor
Castellani: Art for the Public Eye.
The opening of an exhibition of
highlights from the CAM’s permanent collection, $175 Patron/$150.
Proceeds benefit the CAM’s art
education programs and scholarships to kids ‘n arts summer camp.
For more information, please contact Susan Clements at 716-2868201
St. John’s Grace Episcopal Church - 115:30pm St. John’s Grace Episcopal
Church International Food Festival,
$1. Food pricing based upon items
being purchased. We will have
food from Italy, Burma, Poland,
Mexico, India, United KIngdom, The
Philippines, China as well as the
United States. [email protected]
or 885-1112.
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church - 9pm St.
Luke Lutheran Church 3rd Annual
craft & vendor sale feat. space for
over 40 crafters, a fundraiser for
Music Ministry, $2.
KIDS STUFF
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library - 2-
3pm Lego Club, Ring of Knowledge,
main floor.
Theodore
Roosevelt
Inaugural
National Historic Site - 2-3pm Teddy
Bear Story Hou. This month, to celebrate what would have been TR’s
157th birthday, there will be reading of Theodore. Open to children
of all ages (recommended for ages
3-8) and everyone is encouraged
to bring their favorite teddy bear
along. $3 per person.
LITERARY
The Bookworm - 1-3pm Sandra A
Block author of Little Black Lies &
the Girl Without a Name.
Kaisertown’s Half-Way to Dyngus
Day Oktoberfest Polka Party. 8243227.
American Legion Brounshidle Post
205 - 6-10pm Vinyl Mania 2, Record
Convention, 36 Vendors, $4 admission, (5 pm early bird specal $10).
Asha Sanctuary - 11-4pm Fall Fest
for Farmed Animals held by Asha
Sanctuary feat. animal friendly food,
live music, kids stuff, & more. $10/$5
ages 6-12/free for kids 5 & under.
Buffalo & Erie County Botanical
Gardens - 11am Hispanic Heritage
Day. Celebrate Hispanic Heritage
Month by creating a painted garden
pot with designs inspired by pottery styles from various Hispanic
cultures, create traditional Mexican
Amate bark painting and taste fun
flavors of refreshing agua fresca.
Buffalo Niagara Convention Center -
10am Buffalo Comicon 2015.
Essex Arts Center - 7pm Essex Street
Party feat. art, projections, dancing,
music by Johns, the Poor Boys, DJ
Marcos, Slyboots, & more, $10.
Paranormal Walks - 7pm Haunted
Hamburg, Main St. Ice Cream, 35
Main St. Hamburg, $10.; 9:30pm
Creepy Cobblestone, Buffalo Iron
Works, 49 Illinois St., Buffalo, 9:30
p.m., all Saturdays from Sept. 12
through Oct. 31, $10.
Riviera Theatre - 6pm Ghost Hunters
Live, feat. Jason Hawes & Steve
Gonsalves from the SyFy show, $50.
Roycroft Campus Corporation - 9am
The Roycroft Conference 2015 feat.
preservation, inspiration, education,
& restoration. 655-0261
UB Harriman Hall - 10-4pm The 3rd
Official Day of the Girl Celebration
and Expo, free. girlsedcollaborative.
org
SPIRITUAL
St. John’s Grace Episcopal Church
- 4pm The Spiritual Cafe: A cel-
ebration of the arts in the universal spirituality of compassion social
and economic justice, reconciliation,
peace and joy. This month features
photographer Jeannine Swallow,
the poetry of Elaine Chamberlain,
and music by Thomas Katsinis, free.
www.stjohnsgrace.com
TOURS
MUSIC
com
FILMS/SCREENINGS
CHORAL
Blessed Trinity Catholic Church - 4pm
Blessed Trinity Concert Series
opener; To music feat. the Vocalis
Chamber Choir with texts in tribute
to music, its beauty, power, meaning, and emotion. Music of Vaughan
Williams, Britten, Brahms, Lassus,
McGlynn, Brubeck. $15 Adult, $10
Student. Church is wheelchair
accessible, www.blessedtrinitybuffalo.org. 716-833-0301.; 4pm Vocalis
Chamber Choir, $15/$10 students.
COUNTRY
189 Public House - 8pm Fred
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library
- 1pm PFLAG Buffalo Niagara
Program documentary- Bullied &
Discussion. Ring of Knowledge,
main floor.
North Park Theatre - 1:15pm A
Courtship USA.
Riviera Theatre - 2pm Inside Out, $3.
The Screening Room Inc. - 12:30am
BIFF Shorts feat. Global.; 4:30pm
BIFF feat. Aspie Seeks Love.
BIFF Shorts feat. In the Dark w/
Night of the Slasher.
Eaglesmith, $18-$28.
KIDS STUFF
Town Ballroom - 8pm Emancipator
Ensemble w/ Wax Tailor (Solo Set)
& Yppah, $24/$19.
Symphonic Spooktacular. Scary
characters, Superheroes, Harry
Potter and Disney royalty come
together in this perfectly spooktacular Halloween kick-off! Sing along,
try a tongue twister, and march
across the stage.
JAZZ
Colored Musicians’ Club - 6-9pm
Anthony Re & the Flat 5.
Left Bank - 11:30-1:30pm Live Jazz
Brunch w/ Wayne Moose & Walk
Sopicki.
Nietzsche’s - 8pm Dr. Jazz & the Jazz
Bugs
Kleinhans Music Hall - 2:30pm
SEASONAL EVENT
Gateway Harbor Park - 6-8pm
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Tonawanda & North Tonawanda
Recreation Haunted Harbor. Join
us for a night of tricks and treats.
Gateway Harbor will be decorated with trick or treat stations
throughout. Costumes are a must.
Activities for the kids and a haunted
house, free.
The Rapids Theatre - 2-10pm Zombie
vs. Vampires Zombie Fest, the
Resurrection, a fundraiser for the
SPCA feat. cash barm baked good,
zombie face painting, kids activities, mediums, paranormal tours, &
more, $10/$15 ghost tour.
DANCE
SPECIAL EVENT
OPEN MIC
Mr. Goodbar - 8:30pm Open Mic
hosted by Mikey Mike feat. talented
musicians of all genres welcome.
PA, microphone available.
ROCK
Nietzsche’s - 6pm Ann Phillipone
Ship N’ Shore Restaurant - 4-8pm
Ballroom Dancing & Fun Music w/
Frank & the Shipmates, free.
The Gypsy Parlor - 7pm Dinner &
Tango.
Buffalo Niagara Convention Center -
10am Buffalo Comicon 2015.
Roycroft Campus Corporation - 9am
The Roycroft Conference 2015 feat.
preservation, inspiration, education,
& restoration. 655-0261
EXHIBITS
Artpark - 1-3pm Pet Friendly Fall
Foliage Walk. Join a park naturalist
with your furry friend & explore the
history & beauty of this park.
Center Street, Lewiston - 7pm Marble
Orchard Ghost Walks, $15/$12 LCA
Members/$8 kids under 12. 476
Center St. Lewiston, NY.
2015, In-Depth Tour.; 11:30am Frank
2015, Basic Tour.
Graycliff Estate - noon, 1pm Frank
2015, Basic Tour.
Graycliff Estate - 2pm Frank Lloyd
Wright’s Graycliff Estate Tours
2015, Basic Tour.; 2pm Frank Lloyd
Wright’s Graycliff Estate Tours 2015,
In-Depth Tour.
Graycliff Estate - 3pm, 4pm Frank
2015, Basic Tour.
Haunted History Ghost Walks, Inc. -
7pm Haunted History Ghost Walk:
Buffalo’s Theater District 2015. Meet
at Spot Coffee (227 Delaware Ave).
$15/$10 ages 7-11, free for kids under
7. www.hauntedhistoryghostwalks.
com
Knox Farm State Park - 1:30-3pm
Grassland Ecology Hike. Join a park
naturalist for a relaxing hike through
the award winning grassland habitat
of Knox Farm. 549-1050.
Niagara Arts and Cultural Center (The
NACC) - 7pm Niagara Arts & Cultural
Center Paranormal Investigation
Greater WNY Paranormal Society
Halloween Tours, $20.
Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve &
Environmental Education Center -
10:30am Autumn’s Peak Hike. Enjoy
the beauty of autumn’s trees on this
guided walk. 716-683-5959.
SEASONAL EVENT
Old Fort Niagara - 7pm Old Fort of 20 or more. Reserve at 847-1410
Dave Coulier, $25.
Niagara’s Haunted Fortress, The ext. 184. sheas.org
UB Center for the Arts - 8pm David 1727 French Castle and historic miliSedaris, $45.50/$25.50.
tary grounds at Old Fort Niagara
will creep with ghosts, ghouls and
COMMUNITY INTEREST
haunts for the annual Haunted
Buffalo State College Rockwell Hall Fortress. Tickets are $20 per person
- 11-2pm The Art Conservation and available by presale only by callDepartment’s Open House. Visitors ing (716) 745-7611.
Helium Comedy Club - 7:30pm, 10pm
SUN
OCT 18
FRI.
16
KEYS N KRATES
8pm Town Ballroom, 681 S. Main St.
(852-3900 / townballroom.com) $20-$24
K
eys N Krates formed in 2008 as the brainchild of drummer Adam Tune, synth/keyboardist David Matisee and
internationally award-winning turntablist Jr. Flo. The To-
ronto trio is often referred to as the worlds only “trap band,” and
that’s perfectly okay with them. Tune says it best: “At the end of
the day, people are going to call us whatever they want. We are
referencing everything from classic house music to Timbaland in
our beats, but I think the trap references tap into what the current
sound is, and we’re fine with that.” Perhaps what truly separates
the trio from the mass of Electronic and Hip-Hop producers out
there is the unique show they create by performing their bassy
beats as band, completely live. When you to go a KNK show, you’ll
see their music and the music of others morphed and turned on
its head using only drums, keys, turntables and live sampling. The
style creates not only a crazy dance party, but also an experience
and vibe like no other. Be sure to check these guys out when they
head to Town Ballroom this Friday (10/16 @8pm).
> BY JEFFREY CZUM
TOURS
The Alley Cat - 8pm Open Mic w/
2015, Basic Tour.
Graycliff Estate - 1:30pm Frank Lloyd
In Depth Tour.; 2pm Frank Lloyd
Basic Tour.
Graycliff Estate - 2:15pm Frank Lloyd
In Depth Tour.; 3pm Frank Lloyd
Basic Tour.
The Backstage Pub - 8pm Open Mic
Graycliff Estate - 11am, 1pm Frank
Niagara Falls State Park & Goat Island
- 2-4pm Fall Foliage Walk. Leave
your worries and stress behind &
join a park naturalist as you venture through a kaleidoscope of colo
walking along the Niagara River. 2825154
Tifft Nature Preserve - 2-3:30pm
Trek Tifft. Drop in on Sunday afternoon and join us for a guided tour
of the preserve on our beautiful
and accessible trails. Please call
825-6397 to confirm walk will be taking place.$2 donation per person is
appreciated
MON
OCT 19
COMMUNITY EVENTS
BLUES
COMEDY
Ladies Night-Blues Jam/Dance
Party, The Amazing Street Kings
with Dave Rinow, Todd Mazurek,
Joe Dimino, Bruce Maple & Speedy
Parker.
Healthy, Wealthy, and Sustainable
Community: The Art of Investing
Locally. Speakers, Gary A, Olson,
Ph.D., President, and/or Richanne
C. Mankey, VP Institutional
Advancement, Daemen College.
Burning Books - 7pm Nia King on
Queer & Trans Artists of Color. Nia
King is a multimedia journalist whose
work focuses on political art by
women, queer people and people
of color. She is the author of Queer
and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of
Some of Our Lives and the host and
producer of We Want the Airwaves
podcast. Join her for a night of readings by local queer and trans writers
of color featuring Tomas Boatwright,
CHRYSALISAMIDST (aka K. Scott
Jackson), and Jayden McClam. Nia
will also be reading from her book
and newest zine.
FUNK/SOUL
RECREATION/GAMES
Bobby Angel.
w/ Michael Hund of Widowmaker.
ROCK
Buffalo Iron Works - 8pm Melvin
Seals & JGB w/ Cosmic Kat, $20
advance, $25 DOS.
TUES
OCT 20
MUSIC
ACOUSTIC/FOLK
Town Ballroom - 7pm The Devil
SWING/BIG BAND
Makes Three, $20. All ages.
Colored Musicians’ Club - 7pm Wine on Third - 5:30pm Carol
George Scott Big Band, free.
Cieslinkski
Tudor Lounge - 10pm Open Mic
Comedy hosted by Mama Rag.
DANCE
UB Center for the Arts - 7:30pm
Compania Flamenco Jose Porcel,
$31.50/$23.50/$13.50 students.
Rafferty’s Bar & Grill - 7-7pm Tuesday
Neo Soul feat. Verse Band w/ DJ
Lopro.
Maple Entertainment Complex (The
Library) - 8pm Trivia Tuesday’s
7pm Dianetics Lecture
INDIE
Theodore
Roosevelt
Inaugural
National Historic Site - 6:30pm Trivia
LITERARY
Valley Below w/ special guests,
$15/$13.
Church of Scientology of Buffalo -
Dog Ears Bookstore - 6pm Greg
Parkes, author of a Most Civil War
will visit Dog Ears Bookstore & Cafe
for a book-signing event. http://
dogearsbookstore.org
RECREATION/GAMES
MUSIC
Shannon Pub - 8pm Pub Quiz
Shenannigan’s Bar & Grill - 9pm Trivia
ACOUSTIC/FOLK
w/ Quiz Night in Buffalo.
Nietzsche’s - 8pm Songwriter
The Century Grill - 8pm Geeks Who
Showcase, free.
Drink Trivia, $5.
Talty’s Tavern - 9pm Alfie Allesandra,
The Gypsy Parlor - 8pm Trivia w/
solo.
Geeks who Drink.
BLUES
TOURS
Abbey Square - 8pm Blues Night
feat. Harvey & the Hurricanes.
DBGB Does Monday Night Football 2015, Basic Tour.
feat. a free halftime buffet w/ team
inspired foods. 100” TV, followed by
resident DJs playing best in Rock N
Roll.
OPEN MIC
Nietzsche’s - 9pm Open mic w/ Josh
Gage.
The Tralf Music Hall - 8pm In the
JAZZ
Shannon Pub - 7pm, 7pm River Dogs
Dixieland Jazz Band
KARAOKE
Essex St. Pub - 10pm Buffalo’s Best
Karaoke, Essex St. Pub’s own unique
style of Karaoke Buffalo has loved
for 10 years.
METAL
Mohawk Place - 5pm Jesse Lawson
w/ (ex-sleeping with Sirens) &
Curses (ex-Abandon All Ships) w/
Kelsey Law, Wacko Fest, Mallorie,
Avidd the Band, & Sleepyhouse,
$13/$10.
OPEN MIC
Clarence Center Coffee Co. - 7:30pm
Clarence Center Open Mic.
The Alley Cat - 8pm Open Mic w/
Amanda Markovich & Leigh Stoner.
The Gypsy Parlor - 8-11pm Open Mic
& Tu-Tu Tuesdays.
ROCK
Buffalo Iron Works - 9pm Marco
Benevento w/ And the Kids, $12
advance, $15 DOS.
VARIETY
Riviera Theatre - 2pm, 7pm The
United Kingdom Ukelele Orchestra,
$29.
TUE.
20
THE DEVIL
MAKES THREE
7pm Town Ballroom, 681 S. Main St.
(852-3900 / townballroom.com) $20
T
he Devil Makes Three plays a blistering hybrid that combines early country, scratchy ragtime, primal blues and
big band swing. It’s delivered with a punk-fueled, jug-band
COMMUNITY EVENTS
COMEDY
Helium Comedy Club - 8pm Open
Mic Comedy.
Nietzsche’s - 8pm Rust Belt Comedy
presents: Setlists Against Humanity,
an improvised adventure in stand
up hosted by Rick Matthews. Ages
21 & up. $5
Retrospective.
same time. The Santa Cruz trio capture the sound of American
12-12:30am Imagine
the Pursuit of Happiness:
ImagineLifelongLearning.com.
Tocqueville and the American
Experiment: The Desire for Wealth
in America. The Great Courses
Video #21 by Professor William R.
Cook, State University of New York
at Geneseo.
Dipson Amherst Theatre - 7pm Buffalo
Film Seminars 31, Conversations
about Great Films w/ Bruce
Jackson & Diane Christian feat.
Costa-Gavras, Missing 1982. http://
buffalofilmseminars.com
The Beatles in a Hard Days Night,
$6.
bears, they do it using acoustic instruments. Mostly. “Saying we’re
an acoustic band is a lie,” says Pete Bernhard, the band’s singer
and main songwriter. “We have always played acoustic instruments though loud amps. We learned early on that it’s necessary
to be loud when you want your crowd to dance.” Their live shows
have always been lauded for their high energy, and on Tuesday
night (10/20 @7pm), you can catch them in action as they perform
at Town Ballroom with Deslondes.
> BY JEFFREY CZUM
SPECIAL EVENT
Brighton Place Library - 12-1pm Adult
Coloring, a great way to relax and
meet new friends. This is not a class
and is very casual. Come to one
or both sessions. Call 332-4375 for
information.
Pettibones Grille - 5:30pm Branding
the Bulls: Marketing Collegiate
Athletics with Danny White, presentation & happy hour cash bar.
Buffalo
Library
&
-
Erie
County
Public
7pm The Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St.
(852-2860 / tralfmusichall.com) $13-$15
I
n The Valley Below’s first full-length LP, The Belt, starts off
catchy – like really, really catchy. When you first hear the lead
single, “Peaches,” it’ll sear into your brain for a solid month. The
song’s use of sultry guy-girl harmonies and brooding beats brings
to mind the sensual vibe of The Kills mixed with the electro-pop
prowess of Cold Cave. Fronted by guitarist Jeffrey Jacob, who
hails from Memphis, Tenn., and keyboardist Angela Gail, who was
raised in Muskego, Mich., In The Valley Below started to generate some buzz after Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke remixed
the L.A. –based duo’s earworm “Peaches.” The remix, along with
three other tracks that appear on The Belt, was released via the
pair’s Man Girl EP back in May 2014. Press materials for The Belt,
tout that the album could “very well be the soundtrack to a David
Lynch movie,” which is a pretty lofty expectation for any record to
live up to, but Jacob and Gail make it work. Check them out this
Tuesday (10/20 @7pm) at The Tralf.
10/31/15
> BY EDWARD JOHN SMITH
TOURS
2015, Basic Tour.
Haunted History Ghost Walks, Inc.
- 7pm Larkinville 2015, the Mystery
of Gaslight-Era Buffalo, a walking
tour of the revived district called
Larkinville is dense with hidden,
homegrown, and long-forgotten
mysteries. Starts at Flying Bison
Brewing Company and ends outside Hydraulic Hearth. $15/$10 kids
7-11/free for kids under 7. hauntedhistoryghostwalks.com
of 20 or more. Reserve at 847-1410
ext. 184. sheas.org
WED OCT 21
MUSIC
CELTIC/IRISH
Shannon Pub - 6:30pm Joe Head
JAZZ
Gigi’s Cucina Povera - 7-9pm Colleen
FILMS/SCREENINGS
erings, before the invention of the phonograph. Like their fore-
Nite @ the Site, ages 21 & up, $10/$5
TR Site members & students. trsite.
org/events
ACOUSTIC/FOLK
Nietzsche’s - 6pm Tyler Westcott’s
Pizza Trio, free.
Shannon Pub - 6:30pm Joe Head
The 9th Ward@ Babeville - 8pm Peter
DANCE
Mulvey, $15.
Nietzsche’s - 10pm Joe Donohue folThe Alley Cat - 8-10:30pm Mike
lowed by the Stripteasers.
Criscione
EXHIBITS
BLUES
Hall) - 11-4pm Ottoman Cartography Alternative Brews - 8pm Blues Pro& the Age of Discovery, an exhibit Jam, w/ the Big Sauce Trio & Jim
feat. hand-drawn maps, originally Runfola.
included in various educational Macaroon’s Nite Club - 7-7pm Blues
atlases,produced between the 14th Jam/Dance Party, Jack Civiletto,
and 17th centuries. www.karpeles. Speedy Parker, with Bob Price, Jim
Ehinger & Harvey Murello.
com
funkiness that makes the music sound archaic and futuristic at the
folk music had when musicians played for dances and social gath-
Hosted by Buzztime Trivia.
IN THE VALLEY
BELOW
Williams w/ Bobby Jones & Jerry
Livingston.
Marinaro’s Larkin Tavern - 5:30-8pm
Alfie Alessandra & Phil Sims, free.
10/31/15
TUE.
20
Mohawk Place - 8pm Pinky Doodle
Poodle, Super Killer Robots, Boy
Scouts, $5.
Nietzsche’s - 9pm Grand Mammoth
w/ Mararchuk, & the Meat Whistles.
Town Ballroom - 5:30pm Mayday
Parade w/ Real Friends, the Wild
Life, & As It Is, $25/$23. All ages.
ZYDECO/CAJUN
189 Public House - noon Ron Davis.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
COMEDY
Milkie’s on Elmwood (formerly
Elmwood Lounge) - 7pm Milkies
Comedy Open Mic, ages 21 & up,
free.
6:45pm You can be more able than
you are. A recorded lecture by L.
Ron Hubbard, founder of Dianetics
and Scientology. $15. 856-3910; 7pm
Clear Body, Clear Mind
7pm Dianetics Lecture
Dig Buffalo - 6-9pm Buffalo Startup
Grind powered by Google presents Patrick Finan. Patrick Finan is
the CEO and co-founder of City
Dining Cards, an international customer loyalty tech company. Patrick
has built his companies from the
ground-up, now employing more
than 30 talented people throughout the United States and Canada.
Unitarian Universalist Church of
Buffalo - 9:30-11:30am Sympathy for
United Way of Buffalo & Erie County -
5:30pm Citizens for Regional Transit
Quarterly Meeting, free.
the Symphony, 13 Approaches to
Classical Music’s Most Important
Genre feat. Enter the Program!
Beethoven, Berlioz, Richard Strauss
w/ Michael Harris, $10.
DANCE
LITERARY
COMMUNITY INTEREST
UB Center for the Arts - 7:30pm
Zodiaque Dance Company, $20/$10
students & seniors.
EXHIBITS
com
FILMS/SCREENINGS
Burning Books - 7pm The Black
KARAOKE
Panthers: Vanguard of the
Macaroon’s Nite Club - 9pm Super Revolution,
Buffalo premiere
Sound karaoke w/ Bud Night
film screening presented by the
Triple Play Sports Bar - 9pm Karaoke Buffalo Committee Against State
Repression and Burning Books.
http://burningbooksbuffalo.com/
OPEN MIC
Maple Entertainment Complex (The Canisius College - 8pm Cultivate
Library) - 8pm Open Mic w/ Jeremy. Cinema Circle Fall 2015 Season
feat. Vagabond, Agnes Varda Series,
Peace of Mind Coffee Shop - 7-10pm Canisius College Science Hall, free.
Peace of Mind Coffee Shop Open The Screening Room Inc. - 5:30pm
Mic hosted by Keith Shuskie, free.
The Beatles in a Hard Days Night,
Tudor Lounge - 10pm Open Mic $6.
hosted by Todd Allan.
KIDS STUFF
Brighton Place Library - 10:30am
ROCK
Buffalo & Erie County Public Hydeout - 8pm Randy California’s Toddler Time feat. stories, songs,
movement, & activities for kids 2-5.
Library - 12:30-1pm Imagine
a Open Jam.
10/31/15
Daemen College - 7:30pm Reading
at the RIC feat. Geoffrey Gatza
and Edric Mesmer reading from
their work in the third floor pad
of the Research and Information
Commons, free. Refreshments will
be served.
Poetry Reading feat. Anne Huiner
& Marge Merrill, $2.; 7:30pm Poetry
Night, $2.
10/31/15
RECREATION/GAMES
Canalside Buffalo - 7pm Trivia w/
Quiz Night in Buffalo.
SEASONAL EVENT
Ilio Di Paolo Restaurant - 9-2pm The
Blasdell Farmers Market. 649-7917
SPECIAL EVENT
Flying Bisons Brewing Company -
5:30pm Adtoberfest Event: Q&A:
Quiz & Ale Trivia Night, 21+.
TOURS
Graycliff Estate - 10:30am Frank Lloyd
In-Depth Tour.; 11-2pm Frank Lloyd
Basic Tour.
10/31/15
22
City Hall Jokes
Your Weekly Horoscope
City survey
Mayor Dyster deserves to be voted from
office because:
A) he wasted $90 million in casino funds
B) he left the 72nd Street water lines frozen for two winters
C) he built a $50 million courthouse and
$45 million train station
D) he never explained his anonymous
fund cash
E) all the above and more
“I wonder if anyone but the Reporter noticed how I announced improvements to
the city trash plan three weeks before the
election after I totally ignored the problems for the past 18 months?”
Paul Dyster, lost in thought, late at night
“Hello? Is this microphone on? Can someone please spend a few dollars and replace
my missing name plate in the park I donated to the city? Thank you.”
Luther Jayne, again
Gemini: (May 21 - June
20)
Mars entering Jupiter
suggest heart is ruled
by Venus. Capricorn in
5th suggests: get your head out of Uranus.
You should shower more often, like other
people do. This week try something different:
Use guns, instead of words, to describe
philosophical concepts. Dirty socks hidden in
bedroom should be discarded. Mon pm: Do
not drink poison.
There is truth to the rumor that the mayor
and council majority have formed a city
hall rock band. They’re calling it, “Paul
Dyster and the three drips.”
Weds. Pm: Brush your tongue.
Jean Topascani
Aries: (March 21 April 19)
There is no truth to the rumor that the
city’s 72nd Street “drip plan” was named
after Mayor Dyster.
Looks like city planner Tom DeSantis
drew the short straw. The mayor’s pyramid
builder was the designated spokesman in
a recent news story reporting on the 72nd
Street repair work. We suspect Tom has a
“72nd Street repair project stipend” in his
future.
The mayor and council have pledged to
have the 72nd Street frozen water pipe
problem resolved by the start of winter.
It’s just not clear if they’re talking about
this winter or winter 2016.
Everywhere you go,
laughter and comedy
ensue. This would be a
lot better if you were
trying to be funny. You really don’t think you
will ever be able to love another the way you
loved your last lover, but you are really eager
to try.
Taurus: (April 20 May 20)
Don’t talk to strangers
because you have bad
breath. You grow like a
little acorn and become
a real nut. Your ample derriere is relatively
safe, but - and it is a big ’but’ - you understood
there is always an inherent risk involving any
surgery.
Virgo: (August 23 September 22)
23
Capricorn: (December
22 - January 19)
Dirty socks should be
discarded for hygienic
reasons. Set aside
special time this week to
humiliate yourself in public. Have co-workers
address you by your stage name: Kardashian.
Starvation becomes health hazard for you.
AM: Buy scorpion. Remember it needs lots
of affection.
Halitosis strikes deep.
Becoming
invisible
could prove useful. Try
to imagine yourself
with a personality. PM:
Dinner. Avoid Heimlich maneuver if possible.
Do not paint body parts with high gloss
paint. If necessary, use matte finish. Courtordered anger management classes piss you
Libra: (September 23 off, royally. Don’t forget to tell judge of your
disdain in stern language.
- October 22)
Aquarius: (January 20
A pudgy man with a
- February 18)
winsome smile will
annoy you. People
Cancer: (June 21 - July
visualize duct tape over
22)
your mouth. You have luscious, silver, hairy
Rub medicine on feet to back, but no opposable thumbs. Human
combat fungus growth. resources refers your marijuana smoking to
You insist you’re single joint committee to deter mine what to do. PM:
only because you’re “too picky.” Co-work-ers Avoid temptation to believe in astrology
insist it’s because you’re 75 pounds overweight,
Scorpio: (October 23 have nauseating body odor and subnormal
November 21)
intelligence. Issue remains unresolved. You
Water sign in retrograde
discover dead body in funeral home. Paranoia
suggests not bathing
strikes deep.Thurs: Encouraging news is
may be preventing you
inaccurate.
from getting a job. You
are shocked to learn sex offenders lie about
Leo: (July 23 - August where they live. Lying is horrible. AM: Show
off personality: Bet new lover you can fit a
22)
quarter in your nose.
Boil on backside that
Sagittarius: (November
erupts this week seems
22 - December 21)
more important to you
than news you learn about 20 earthquakes
You will live in several
in China. A promotion is around the corner
cities in apartments
for one of your co-workers. Amuse concert
where you will learn
audience when you sing along at the opera.
about the different
eviction laws in various cities. No pie, cake
or donut ever crossed your path and survived.
Put decaf in coffeemaker at work for three
weeks but tell no one. Saturday PM: Show
date new wound and ask if it looks infected.
Using words may help
communicate
your
thoughts. You grow on
people, like a colony
of E.coli on room-temperature beef. Lover
responds to your pathetic pleas with: “If you
can’t live without me, why aren’t you dead?”
Muddlement is your word of the week.
Pisces: (February 19 March 20)
Be careful. This month
Pluto will move behind
Uranus.
For your
birthday, friends plan to
do something you’d really enjoy, but not with
you. Meeting with attractive Aries provides
warm coincidence: you both have the same
fat pants. Meddling leads to loss of limbs,
suicide and a windfall. Use the $50 bucks for
a new tattoo.
Is government
supposed to entertain the
governed?

Senior lawmaker weighs in on security issues

Transcription

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