News Blog

Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas will hold his coffee and conversation meeting from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 17.

The meeting is an opportunity to meet with the superintendent in a casual setting and ask questions and bring issues to his attention. The meeting will be held at the district’s central office, 131 West Broad Street.

Members of the Rochester school board will also hold a meet and greet on Thursday, November 19. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m., prior to the board’s 6:30 p.m. monthly business meeting at the district’s central office, 131 West Broad Street. BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO 


Rochester City Council will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, November 16, on the pending police body-camera program. Meetings will be held throughout November and one on December 3.

Tonight's meeting is at the Thomas P. Ryan center, 530 Webster Avenue. 

The purpose of the meetings is to get public input on the pending program. Participants will break off into tabletop work sessions where they will consider: When will the cameras be on and off? Can citizens opt-out of being recorded? Who can see the footage? And, how long will the footage be saved?

There will also be a display of different kinds of body cameras.

The city wants to phase-in the program by the end of June, 2016. BY CHRISTINE CARRIE FIEN


Members of the County Legislature will discuss the proposed 2016 county budget during committee meetings this week

The committees meet on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at the County Office Building, 39 West Main Street. One of the most intense discussions will occur during the Human Services Committee, which oversees the county’s social services programs. That committee is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday (though it’ll likely start later, since the committee meetings run long during budget time).

County Executive Maggie Brooks released her $1.2-billion budget proposal last week. The plan holds the property tax rate at $8.99 per $1,000 assessed value, and does not include any significant cuts or new chargebacks, Brooks says.


At 7:30 p.m. today, the Audubon Society will present “My Genesee: What we learned from One Cubic Foot in the Genesee River.” The program, which will take place at Brighton Town Hall, 2300 Elmwood Avenue, will focus on the One Cubic Foot team’s work over the summer.

One Cubic Foot is a photodocumentary project by David Liittschwager, who constructed a one cubic foot cube, immersed it in one spot on the Genesee River, and photographed everything that came through it in one day. He’s done similar projects in ecosystems across the world.

Seneca Park Zoo Society Executive Director Pamela Reed Sanchez and Tom Snyder, the Zoo Society’s director of programming and conservation action, will give the lecture.


At 7 p.m. Tuesday, the State Department of Environmental Conservation and the County Department of Health will hold a public meeting on improvements in the Rochester Embayment Area of Concern. The meeting will be held at the Roger Robach Community Center, 180 Beach Avenue.

The embayment starts at Bogus Point in Parma and extends to Nine Mile Point in Webster. In the 1990’s, it was listed as a federal area of concern because it had several serious environmental problems. Some of the conditions have improved, which has moved the embayment closer to de-listing by the federal government.

During Tuesday’s meeting, officials will present information on some research, observations, and studies, which indicate further progress in the embayment. For example, they’ll talk about research showing that brown bullhead in the embayment are no more susceptible to tumors than brown bullhead in healthy ecosystems across the Great Lakes region.

The agencies will also accept public input at the meeting. BY JEREMY MOULE