Public housing safety chief will resign
The Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority's public safety chiefRonald J. Christopher will resign effective June 17, HousingAuthority officials said Tuesday.
They said the authority plans to reorganize its public safetydepartment, with its employees reporting to Assistant ExecutiveDirector Tom Williams. Plans that would cut 21 of the 42 officers onthe force effective July 1 were recently announced, according toleaders of Local 815/Unit 6705, Civil Service Employees Association.
Christopher was an employee of the Housing Authority for 11 yearsand the Buffalo Police Department for 25 years.
'It was my decision to leave,' he said last week. 'By steppingdown, I'm hoping there will be no layoffs. I'm stepping aside to letthe younger officers stay on board.'
Volunteers sought in shoreline cleanup
The 15-year effort to clean up the shoreline and waters of theBuffalo River is starting to show results, and hundreds ofvolunteers are expected to turn out Saturday when it continues.
The Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers joined withrepresentatives of Steelfields, which has undertaken a $16.5 millionbrownfields remediation project on the former Republic Steel site,Tuesday to urge public participation.
The efforts will take place from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Volunteerscan register in advance at www.fbnr.org or call 523-3980.
They can also show up at any of the sites: the Ohio Street CanoeLaunch Park/Conway Park; the foot of Hamburg Street; Smith StreetPark behind the Valley Community Center; Old Bailey Woods behind theTops Market off 100 Bailey Ave.; Confluence Point Park, whereCazenovia Creek and the Buffalo River meet; North and South Legiondrives from Southside School; and Seneca Bluffs off Seneca Street atAvon Street.
In addition to Steelfields, industrial cleanups are scheduled atGeneral Mills, Buffalo Color, BOC Gases, PVS Chemicals, BuffaloIndustrial Diving and Exxon Mobil.
Series on minority health issues starts
The first in a series of public events examining minority healthissues will take place at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the Apollo MediaCenter, 1346 Jefferson Ave.
'Wellness for All' is a community dialogue with five experts anda studio audience. The discussion, which will be moderated bybroadcast journalist Sandy White, will air live from 11 a.m. to noonon WNED-AM 970 and WBFO-FM 88.7.
The participants include Broderick Cason of Buffalo CommunityHealth and Univera Healthcare; former Common Council Member BonnieKane Lockwood; Phil Haberstro, executive director of the WellnessInstitute of Greater Buffalo; Dr. Hank Hill of the Buffalo chapterof the National Medical Association; and Buffalo City Judge JamesMcLeod of the Black Leadership Forum's Near East Side CommunityHealth Task Force.
The panelists will examine such issues as wellness, fitness, theenvironment and neighborhoods, access to medical care and healthinsurance for low-income people.
Call 843-7482 for more information or to make reservations.
Boy Scouts, Giambra mark Earth Day
Area Boy Scouts joined Erie County Executive Joel A. Giambra inraising an official Earth Day flag outside the Rath County OfficeBuilding on Tuesday. It will be flown for the rest of the week.
During the ceremony, Giambra highlighted the county'senvironmental accomplishments, including energy conservation,pesticide reduction, land-use management and recycling education.
Giambra also announced that the county will offer backyardcompost bins to county residents at a reduced price from 8 a.m. to 4p.m. Saturday in the front parking lot of Boulevard Mall, NiagaraFalls Boulevard and Maple Road, Amherst. The 80-gallon recycledplastic Earth Machine composters, which retail for $80, will be soldfor $35 while supplies last.
Spring cleaning on Elmwood Avenue
Forever Elmwood, in partnership with Keep Western New YorkBeautiful, is holding a spring cleanup along Elmwood Avenue betweenForest Avenue and Virginia Street on Saturday. Volunteers are neededto pick up litter and spruce up the street from 10 a.m. to noon.
Volunteers should meet at the Forever Elmwood office, 410 ElmwoodAve. Please bring work gloves, push brooms and flat shovels.Manhattan Bagel, Spot Coffee and Wilson Farms will provide bagels,coffee and juice for volunteers.
For information, call Forever Elmwood at 881-0707.
UB given 5 defibrillators for research
Medtronic, a leading producer of medical technology to assistpeople with chronic illnesses, has made an in-kind gift of fivedefibrillators to assist University at Buffalo research into heartdisease.
The five ICB dual-chamber implantable defibrillator systems havea total value of $150,000.
They will be used by John M. Canty Jr., who heads the new Centerfor Research in Cardiovascular Medicine at UB's School of Medicineand Biomedical Sciences.
