Category: PostNews

Under the leadership of Dr. Shahla Ahmad and  Dr. Ann-Marie John, the Community Health Center of Buffalo, Inc., has formed a team of experienced care givers who have specialized training in treating older adults. Working together, the CHCB, Inc. team can provide personalized, coordinated care; addressing the medical, physical and mental/behavioral health needs that are particular to older adults.

 QUALITY OF LIFE… WITH A PREVENTION AND WELLNESS FOCUS

Older Adult Patients, and their caregivers, who enroll in CHCB, Inc.’s “Age Friendly Geriatric Services” program will be treated with caring hands and open hearts, with a specialized focus on enhancing “Quality of Life” and maximizing “Prevention” and “Wellness”. 

Participants in the CHCB, Inc. Older Adults program  , will receive close examination and diagnoses regarding:

• Mobility – How to best maintain movement and flexibility to prevent falls and other possible accidents.

• Mind – Understand changes that can occur in the brain with regards to cognitive, emotional and behavioral health; and how to best maintain “brain health.”

• Medication – Personalized medication consultation and evaluation

• Multi-complexity – For Patients with complex or chronic illnesses; how to ensure the best care/treatment plans.

• What Matters Most –provide guidance with the Health Care Proxy process.

ADDITIONAL AGE FRIENDLY SERVICES

As CHCB, Inc. Geriatric Services program participants, older adults and their care givers will have access to a host of additional care services, all located “under one roof”, and all accessible in coordination with an “Age Friendly” care visit. These additional services include:  Dental Services, Telehealth,  Nutritional support including recommendations for “Food as Medicine”,  Ophthalmology Services,  Outreach Services including home visits by CHCB, Inc. Outreach Nurses,  Care Giver mental health support , On-Site Physical Therapy Center, and On-Site Pharmacy. In addition, there is assistance for housing instability, food insecurity, transportation problems, utility help needs and home safety. Patient Navigators will be available to assist with coordination  for those who require treatment at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

The team of experienced caregivers include  Dr. Ahmad; Dr. John;  Dr. Kenyani Davis, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer; Mary Kosowski MSN; Dr. Esra Mustafa; Megan Quinn, LCSW; Dr. Darlene Volmy, y; and Mary Walker, MSW, Care Coordinator. 

To enroll in the CHCB, Inc. Age Friendly Geriatrics Services Program contact: Dr. Ann-Marie John, Wellness and Prevention Director,716-986-9199 ext. 5909 | amjohn@chcb.net

For more information, visit us at www.chcb.net

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WIVB) — There was an overflow crowd in Cheektowaga Thursday night for a special session Town Board meeting about the recent property reassessments issued to residents for the second time in two years.

“It’s ridiculous we get taxed, and taxed and taxed,” one resident said while addressing the Town Board.

Concerned neighbors flooded the room as well as the nearby hallway to try to get answers about these property assessments, especially after a similar process happened last year. That only added to tensions in the crowd.

Homeowners light up Cheektowaga Town Board over property assessments

“Who accomplished this reassessment? When did it happen?” one resident said.

Property owners are frustrated, angry and concerned about the recent assessments. Some residents say their property value increased by as much as 50 or 70 percent. The assessments are completed through the assessor’s office, which is led by Town Assessor Jill Murphy.

“f your assessment process is so accurate, how come the last time you did this my comparable didn’t even match my property?” another man added.

Many residents fear that because property values increased dramatically, so will their taxes. Meeting goers said they received their assessment paperwork after the May 1 deadline, meaning they could not challenge how much their property was worth as it was after the challenge date. Now, they have to file a grievance with the assessor’s office by May 25, which is less than two weeks away.

“I didn’t get my letter until [May] the tenth. So where does that leave me in terms of time and preparation?” another resident questioned.

Town Assessor Murphy as well as other board members joined the meeting via Zoom, but that did not stop residents from placing the blame on her shoulders. They also say Town Supervisor Diane Benczkowski needs to budget effectively so that taxes do not increase.

“You better start thinking about how you’re spending this town’s money differently. I’m recommending you put an oversight committee into place to manage the budget for the town for this year,” Aimee Pikuzinski said.

One resident says this kind of committee used to exist but was disbanded during the pandemic.

“I used to be on the citizens budget advisory committee and I was on there for all four years of it and they disbanded it. They don’t like to listen to our suggestions when I was on it,” Daniel Kollander added.

Town Supervisor Benczkowski said she will try to work with other town leaders on the budget so that taxes will stay the same.

“I will make sure there is no tax levy increase, meaning what goes to the taxpayers to pick up the cost,” Supervisor Benczkowski continued.

The Supervisor blamed the assessment mess on a miscommunication between council members and the assessor’s office. She says she shares residents’ concerns, but there is nothing she can do about the assessments.

“I’m not happy about this at all,” Supervisor Benczkowski said while holding back tears. “They [residents] deserve better and the way I was blindsided, I’m very, very upset about it.”

She continued to say she wants the Assessor Murphy to come up with a regular assessment plan so that town leaders and residents know what to expect. She’s also considering ways to get more public input, such as reviving the budget oversight committee.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A raid in Black Rock took a large amount of fentanyl off the streets Thursday.

Several agencies were on the streets of Buffalo Thursday morning stopping violent crime in its tracks.

This all started last summer with an operation involving the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, Buffalo Police, the FBI and others who work as a unit to stop illegal gun crime, human trafficking and drug trade in Buffalo.

The FBI arrested seven people involved in various violent crimes and the sheriff’s office took D’Angelo Allen into custody after finding many illegal firearms and drugs in his home.

Racial profiling in Buffalo traffic enforcement hard to gauge with imperfect data

The sheriff grew up across the street from where this raid happened and he says the neighborhood has changed.

“It breaks my heart to see that, but I just want to let the neighbors know, in the neighborhood know that, we’re working together with our partners with the Buffalo Police Department, and with the FBI Safe Streets, and all our partners here, to better the community,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said.

Buffalo police commissioner Joe Gramaglia said this is a two-part approach: enforcement and community policing. We’re told Buffalo Police were in the Black Rock community this afternoon speaking with residents about the heavy police presence and answering their questions.

This is a part of a new neighborhood police program aiming to build trust between residents and officers.

No one was injured in the early morning raids but law enforcement officials said officers were put at great risk.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Erie County Clerk Michael Kearns is warning millions of dollars of delinquent property taxes could lead to abandoned properties across the county.

Kearns says Erie County could be on the verge of a zombie epidemic, with more than 13,000 properties delinquent on their property taxes, more than half of those are residential.

The county clerk is calling on county officials to take action.

Mickey Kearns has long slammed banks for creating dilapidated ‘zombie’ homes, foreclosing on the mortgages, and the owners abandoned them. Now with more than 13,000 properties behind on their taxes.

“We discovered a new type of zombie, a ‘tax zombie,’ and that is a property where the person falls behind on their taxes,” Kearns said.

Kearns and the Western New York Law Center have found those tax zombies are all across Erie County, amounting to more than $112 million in uncollected property taxes.

“And most of the time when you have a situation where a homeowner does not have mortgage, it is a home that has been owned by a family for generations. It is a senior that is living in that home,” said Kate Lockhart, WNY Law Center.

Charles Hark, a Korean War veteran, and his family used to live in that dilapidated house many years ago. They moved next door, and have watched it go deteriorate to the point it is uninhabitable.

“Yes, it is dangerous and these people here have kids that play out here. It should be torn down,” added Denise Perry, veteran’s daughter.

Kearns and Lockhart said county officials can take action to head off a potential disaster, first cutting the penalty on back taxes that stands at 18.5%.

“This is not an interest rate, it is a penalty tax,” said Kearns.

“And what we are asking of the county is to be more proactive when people are delinquent to prevent severe delinquencies where people could be in danger of losing their home,” Lockhart said.

How would the county compensate for cutting into that $112 million tax deficit?

Kearns insists the county can draw from American Rescue Plan funds which, he says, does allow for covering tax delinquencies.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Most law enforcement agencies in New York, including the Buffalo Police Department, do not consistently collect the race of drivers ticketed by officers, if they collect it at all.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told News 4 Investigates that the state would have to mandate the collection of race for traffic tickets or Central Police Services would have to contact the state to begin tracking race.

“It’s nowhere to be found on the traffic summons,” Gramaglia said. “There is not a box for that. It’s a state traffic ticket, it’s not a City of Buffalo ticket.”

However, New York State Police use the same database system as Buffalo, and the agency for years has collected race of the drivers ticketed for traffic violations.  

Turns out, Buffalo police can, too. And apparently, the police commissioner was unaware that it can be done.

News 4 Investigates has learned that the Buffalo Police Department, and 26 other law enforcement agencies that use the same TraCS database, have the capability to record race on their internal records for traffic tickets.  

In fact, some Buffalo police officers are actively doing it, but not consistently.

“Without doubt the Buffalo Police Department right now with current technology that they already have could record the race of the people to whom they are giving traffic tickets,” said Claudia Wilner, director of litigation and advocacy at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.

EXCLUSIVE: Critics say Buffalo Police’s traffic enforcement targets minorities – and there’s data that supports their claims

Wilner is part of a team of attorneys and researchers suing the City of Buffalo in federal court on behalf of at least nine minority residents who accused city police of targeting their neighborhoods with traffic enforcement checkpoints, among other things.

She said Buffalo cops recorded the race of the drivers in about 20% to 25% of the tickets they write, on average, according to data through 2019 that Wilner’s team obtained for the lawsuit.

And News 4 Investigates discovered that so far this year, Buffalo officers have recorded the race of drivers even more often that in past years.

Erie County Central Police Services data from January through April of this year shows that Buffalo police officers recorded the race of drivers on 51% of the tickets in TraCS. That’s 2,680 of the 5,215 tickets officers have written so far through April.

Yet, when we questioned Gramaglia again three weeks ago after a Police Oversight Committee meeting in City Hall, he seemed to be unaware that officers have been recording the race on some tickets in their internal database.

“It is not on our traffic summons,” Gramaglia said. “If there’s a way to do that, I’ll have to look into it and find out.”

Gramaglia did not respond to inquiries from News 4 Investigates on whether he followed through.

Buffalo Council president says racial disparity in police traffic stops does exist

Recording race of ticketed drivers is not mandated by any policy and unlike other states, the New York legislature has failed to pass any legislation to require race tracking – but not for a lack of trying.

At least 23 states have passed rules or legislation that require law enforcement agencies to collect demographic information, such as race, of motorists to determine the pervasiveness of racial profiling, allegations that are common to many law enforcement agencies across the country.

New York legislators have attempted to pass similar legislation, said Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, but it has stalled each time in the senate.

Regardless, Peoples-Stokes told News 4 Investigates that she does not believe law enforcement agencies, including Buffalo, need state permission to record race.

“To suggest that you can’t collect data is the part that’s untrue in my opinion,” Peoples-Stokes said.

Racial profiling in traffic tickets?

In March, News 4 Investigates and the Cornell ILR Buffalo Co-Lab analyzed stop receipt data and found disparities in the number of Black people stopped versus the number of white people. Stop receipts are similar to traffic tickets, but carry no fine and do not require any court appearances. In other words, it’s basically a paper warning.

In Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown’s police reform package in 2020, he included a stop receipt program that requires officers to give people receipts to explain the reason for the stops and to document the interactions. He mandated that race also be recorded on the receipt.

But our analysis found that in about a quarter of the stop receipt data, officers failed to include the race of the person.

To determine if there were disparities in who got stopped and given receipts, the analysis included three different simulations of the data.

In one analysis, we removed all stop receipts that did not record the race of the motorists and analyzed the rest to estimate the racial disparities.

The second analysis used racial demographic percentages of the neighborhoods where people got stopped to assign the race to those receipts missing that data.

The third analysis assumed an improbable outcome that all receipts that did not include the race had actually gone to white people.  

Disparities existed under each simulation.

In the first two simulations, Blacks were between 2 to 2.5 times more likely than white people to be stopped by police and given a stop receipt. In addition, similar disparities were discovered in some police districts that are predominately white.

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When News 4 Investigates set out to determine if racial disparities existed in the police department’s traffic ticket program, we found far more tickets missing the race data than with the stop receipts.

The analysis of Buffalo traffic ticket data from 2019 through April of this year found that officers failed to record the race for 43% of the tickets. That is more than 31,000 tickets.  

For the roughly 40,000 tickets that included race of the drivers, our analysis found that Black residents got more than four-times more traffic tickets than their white counterparts.  

During an interview in February, Gramaglia, the commissioner of the Buffalo Police Department, said the only reason that race is recorded in any of the traffic ticket data is because the person had some form of prior contact with the police department where the name got recorded into police records. That could be in the form of an arrest, a complaint, or a witness of a crime, but that information comes from a different database called CHARMS, Gramaglia said.

Gramaglia said race is not recorded on state licenses or at the Department of Motor Vehicles applications, and there is no field on the uniform state traffic ticket to add the race of the drivers.

“When the migration occurred many years ago to the computerized system, again, there is no box on the traffic ticket to put that data,” Gramaglia said. “So, there’s nowhere to collect it.”

But others disagreed with the police commissioner.

Anecdotal data shows ‘disparities are huge’

The computerized system, called TraCS, does allow police agencies to add race to internal traffic tickets, but it will not appear on the paper ticket given to drivers.

Through a Freedom of Information law request, Erie County Central Police Services provided ticket data for the Buffalo Police Department and several other agencies. The database includes a drop-down box labeled as “Select the defendant’s race” with six choices.

An empty, unlabeled box appears on the internal ticket, where the race of the motorist gets recorded.

But in February, Gramaglia seemed to not believe it was possible.

“I think ultimately, the state would have to start collecting that data when you get your driver’s license or your permit and make that one of the questions,” Gramaglia said. “You have your height on there. You have your eye color. Is the state going to start collecting racial data?”

The Buffalo Police Department, and a few dozen more agencies, use the TraCS database for traffic tickets. The program does allow officers to record the race of the drivers they ticket, but it is not used consistently in Buffalo.

Wilner, who is part of a team of attorneys and experts suing the City of Buffalo and the police department in a federal civil rights lawsuit, said the police department will not collect the race data for tickets “because if the city knew the extent of the disparities, then they would have to fix them.”

The lawsuit was filed about four years ago, after a group of minority residents accused city police of targeting their neighborhoods with traffic enforcement checkpoints.

“We know from the anecdotal data that we already have that the disparities are huge,” Wilner said about traffic ticket data in Buffalo. “And the city has been avoiding for years trying to really shed a light on what has been going on with policing in Black communities in Buffalo.”

Anjana Malhotra, senior attorney for the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, is also part of the team suing the city. She said there is an unchecked problem of discrimination within the police force that has festered without any meaningful intervention by city leaders or police brass.

“This is precisely why we brought this litigation because the city has not been upholding its duty to ensure that in policing, that people are treated equally and fairly and with dignity,” Malhotra said.

As for the state moving forward with legislation to mandate law enforcement agencies collect race data, Peoples-Stokes said Buffalo, and other agencies, don’t need legislative action.

“If you want to collect the information, you can find a way to do that without the state giving you authority to do so,” Peoples-Stokes said.

WILLIAMSVILLE N.Y. (WIVB) — The Jewish community in Western New York is speaking out after multiple comments were made during a Williamsville board meeting, in which they say the board compared the state’s health regulations to the Holocaust.

Officials from the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo, say local leaders need to be mindful of their words and that what happened during the holocaust should never be compared to what’s happening today.

“We have over 40 survivors still living in the area and many decedents and it’s really disrespectful to them,” said Wendy Weisbrot, who’s the chair of the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo.

Weisbrot’s father was a Holocaust survivor and she says she’s upset that the Williamsville village board compared COVID-19 rules to the holocaust during a board meeting early this week.

“It certainly isn’t just the board and we’ve all heard rumblings of this and I feel in this political climate perhaps it’s escalating so we weren’t necessarily surprised just extremely disappointed,” she said.

Homeowners light up Cheektowaga Town Board over property assessments

The comparison was sparked by a heated debate between members of the village board over the state’s isolation and quarantine procedures.

Those procedures state, that whenever appropriate to control the spread of a highly contagious communicable disease, the state commissioner of health may issue and/or may direct the local health authority to issue isolation and/or quarantine orders.

Lawmakers against the guidelines call it government overreach, while others say it keeps people safe.

“I think the pushback is misplaced quite frankly the fact that people are still getting sick and dying is just a sad story that continues to be told and the simple science is, if you have covid, you shouldn’t be around people,” said Senator Tim Kennedy.

“The whole idea of being able to quarantine someone and even isolate them in a place that’s not their home on the, just suspicion, that they may have some kind of communicable disease, it’s outrageous and every New Yorker should be outraged by it,” said Senator George Borrello.

HAMBURG, N.Y. (WIVB) — You always hear of the importance of stretching before a workout, but a new business in Hamburg is helping people gain flexibility for the long-term, in every part of their lives.

When you walk into StretchLab for your first appointment, you’ll start at a machine that grades your flexibility. And News 4’s Kelsey Anderson learned her overall mobility wasn’t great: 30/100.

But that’s ok. Carrie Klauk, a co-owner of the business, said she tests her clients every month and said she’s only ever seen numbers improve.

“It’s a really good way to chill people out (and) put them in a parasympathetic central nervous system phase,” Klauk said. “And we do all the work.”

Klauk was a personal trainer who started stretching out her clients years ago. She learned about StretchLab, an LA company, and wanted to open a franchise. One of her clients at the time, Melanie Allesi, was also interested. So the two teamed up and opened the first WNY location, back in October.

Since then, they’ve helped more than 300 clients achieve goals in flexibility and mobility.

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“We have a lot of people right now who are getting ready to run the Buffalo Marathon; we have people who sit at a desk all day; I stretch my 92-year-old grandpa in here; so it’s really all over the spectrum,” Klauk said. “We have gymgoers, but we also have people who garden and need some movement.”

They also have student-athletes as clients, and people overcoming injuries.

If you don’t have a specific goal in mind, there’s a basic routine that will be done with you, which includes dozens of different stretches.

And each session is one-on-one with a staff member called a ‘flexologist.’ The 13 ‘flexologists’ there all have bodywork backgrounds; personal trainers, massage therapists, etc. They all have at least two years of experience in their field and went through 60 hours of StretchLab training.

And StretchLab is still hiring because in the next two years, Carrie and Melanie plan on opening two more locations. One will open at Transit and Maple Roads, the other is still in the works.

“To see the progression that they have made, whether it be touching their toes, or crossing their knees after having surgery, to improving a golf game, it just becomes so satisfying to see how stretching can improve everybody’s everyday life,” Allesi said.

The first time you visit, sessions are 50% off. A 50-minute stretch at StretchLab will cost you $49. If you want a 25-minute session, it’s $29 for first-timers.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Students at the Charter School for Applied Technologies are learning the true meaning of farm to table.

Students watched as rhinos at the Buffalo Zoo ate lettuce that they’ve been growing for months as part of a school project

120 students took a field trip to the zoo Thursday, the culmination of the months-long hydroponic lettuce project.

“It’s important for them to understand what is the role of the seed all the way through to fruition and what we do with the harvest afterwards,” said the school’s greenhouse operations director, Cinde Cozad. “I’ve had children who never saw a tomato plant, have no idea where our food sources come from.”

Cozard started the hydroponic lettuce system last June.

It’s grown using a nutrient bath and no pesticides and produces 360 heads of lettuce every 60 days.

“First we have the base of course, then we have two seeds, then you put it into the base and then it takes a couple months for it to grow, then we got to see the lettuce again and we’re here,” said third grader Kiandra Taylor.

The school partnered with the zoo and paired the program with the curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade.

“One of the things that was very important is they understood the conservation, why we go to the zoo,” Cozad said.

It all led up to the field trip where rhinos, giraffes, and gorillas ate the lettuce.

“It’s so great that the curriculum kind of built them up with some knowledge before coming, then they get to ask in-person questions, those little details they might not get from a book about this particular animal,” said Lisa Smith, the chief zoological officer.

The students loved watching their hard work come to fruition.

“It took awhile for them to come out but when they finally came out everybody was really excited,” Taylor said.

The school plans to continue the program for years to come and also has other similar programs for the older students.

Kayla Green is a reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Paving season is here in the Queen City and more than $70 million will go towards residential street paving, sidewalk construction and other projects.

The city will spend $10.8 million on residential paving, $7.5 million on sidewalk work and more than $52 million on infrastructure projects.

If road crews are milling and paving your street, parking restrictions will take effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown wants drivers to keep their eyes peeled for crews and slow down when driving near them.

“Buffalo residents deserve well-paved streets and a smooth drive,” said Mayor Brown. “Infrastructure plays an important role in the health of our City and the strength of our economy. In partnership with the Buffalo Common Council, our significant investments in repaving streets and fixing sidewalks has touched every corner of Buffalo since 2006, and we’re ready to do more in a continued effort to restore essential roads, bolster our sense of community and keep our economy growing.”

The City of Buffalo has spent more than $320 million on infrastructure since 2006.

Here’s a look at the 2022 tentative street resurfacing list:

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Despite some serious damage to its headquarters, organizers of Buffalo’s Juneteenth Festival say their festival and parade this year, will go on as planned.

Planning for this year’s festival will continue, organizers however, will need to find another location to do that, after a portion of the facade to the Juneteenth building collapsed to the ground Wednesday afternoon.

No one was injured in the incident.

“We just are thankful, we thank God that no one or no property outside of our building was damaged there were no injuries as a result,” said Jomo Akono, executive vice president of the Juneteenth Festival.

Leaders of the Juneteenth Festival say one person was inside the building when bricks from the facade came crashing down. That person immediately evacuated afterward.

Portion of Buffalo Juneteenth HQ building facade crumbles to ground

According to Juneteenth organizers, no one is allowed inside their headquarters on Genesee Street as engineers try to figure out how portions of the facade collapsed in the first place.

“I’ve certainly reached out to the board to let them know that the city is concerned and if there are ways that we can assist them, work with them, the city will certainly do that,” said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.

There are barricades around the area where the facade came down. Organizers of Juneteenth say they still have some fine-tuning to do for this year’s festival. The parade will still start outside Juneteenth’s headquarters and end near MLK Park.

“We are still planning our festival to move forward as expected, we just have to work with the realities that have been given to us,” Akono said.

Leaders of Juneteenth say they’ll be busy confirming final details ahead of the festival.

“We have vendors throughout the country that contact us through telephone and email us whatever, and that’s one of the things that we have to try and implement in another building now,” said Marcus Brown, president emeritus of Juneteenth.

Due to the pandemic, the Juneteenth Festival, the past two years has been virtual.

Organizers are very excited to finally return in person. The Juneteenth Festival gets underway five weeks from now.

There will be three performance stages and events in MLK Park, health information will be shared, there will also be Underground Railroad tours on Saturday and Sunday, plus there will be more than 150 vendors selling merchandise and food and basketball showcases.