Jill Kelly had to laugh at the irony. There was a time, as a young man, when her husband resisted the idea of coming to Buffalo. Now, 30 years later, Jim Kelly has become the epitome of what we like to call the Buffalo guy.

I know, Jill said in an interview this week. Isnt that interesting? Well, clearly God had other plans, because it goes way beyond the football field.

Kelly has called Buffalo home since his retirement from the Bills in 1996. But his wife says it has never been more evident than during his battle with sinus cancer.

Two weeks ago, Kelly had the first of his chemotherapy treatments at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. When he returned to Buffalo for Easter weekend, the original plan was for him to return to New York City. Instead, he decided to stay and resume his treatment here in Buffalo.

The initial treatment rocked Kelly, whose body has been ravaged over the years by a variety of injuries. Jill said theyre kind of slam dunking him with the most potent chemo. But when he and his family discussed the possibility of continuing treatment here, Kellys spirits brightened considerably.

I think the most clear and obvious change was when Jim was told he could go home, Jill said. I think that although the care in NYC was impeccable, we started looking into our options to make sure we could do the exact same thing back in Buffalo.

As soon as Jim knew there was a green light, and that everything would go smoothly and there wouldnt be any hiccups in his care, he just ... changed.

As a football player, leading the Bills to four straight Super Bowls, Kelly became a symbol of Buffalos resilient, fighting spirit. Now he is in the fight of his life, and he and his family realized that he wanted to go toe-to-toe with cancer in the place where he feels strongest, in Buffalo.

Hes been being ambushed in his mind, Jill said, and this was a turning point for him, absolutely. Hes a different person now, being home and surrounded by family that love him and are with him. His brothers each taking a turn. And they were doing this in New York as well.

But youre home, she said. You can look out the windows of your home and see your dog. You can see the wild

Originally posted here:
Jill Kelly says there's no place like home

BATAVIA Voters in the Batavia School District may solve a longstanding problem for the School Board in the May 20 election: getting rid of a large piece of property that has been vacant for years.

A 13-acre landscaped stretch of land in the citys northeast residential area was once pegged as the site for an elementary school to serve a fast-growing part of the city. That plan was abandoned and years later it was decided to convert the acreage into an athletic field. That idea didnt sell to a dozen neighbors who front the property.

Now the board has a $150,000 offer from a Batavia resident who wants to develop housing on the site. The voters must approve a sale for land assessed at $100,000.

The money would go into the 2014-2015 budget, a $42.9 million spending plan that would raise the real property taxes about 2 percent. That is also subject to voter approval.

The ballot will list candidates for three School Board seats with the terms of Wayne Gunther, Amy Barone and Leslie Johnson ending.

Prospective candidates have until next week to get their names on the ballot. Board members serve three-year terms.

A vote that wont count but may help determine future action is an Alternative Veterans Tax exemption. A sliding scale for combat veterans and disabled veterans would still be subject to board approval prior to March 1 of any year. If the straw vote is approved, the exemption would be on any residence assessed at $80,000 or more and would increase the property levies of non-veterans by a small amount.

Residents also will vote on continuing a non-voting student to attend board meetings.

District voters who reside north of Main Street (Route 5) in the city, and towns of Batavia and Stafford that comprise the district, will be voting now in the former Robert Morris Elementary School instead of John Kennedy.

The two are at opposite ends of the city but Robert Morris offers more available space.

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Batavia school voters to consider land sale, budget, board elections

By Off Main Street | The Buffalo News

on April 25, 2014 - 10:25 PM

Buffalo fan on the ball

The guy who dropped Albert Pujols 500th home run this week at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.?

Hes from Buffalo.

And hes also an admirably good sport.

Chris Gordon, 45, won some instant celebrity when he ran toward the ball, which bounced off his stomach and into the hands of longtime Los Angeles Angels fan Tom Sherrill.

Video of the event shows Gordon diving to get the ball and then getting up to hug Sherrill after the catch. The two even exchanged phone numbers afterward.

Sherrill returned the ball to Pujols, which Gordon said shows that there are good people in the world, according to the Washington Post.

Acknowledging Sherrill is an Angels fan, Gordon said, The right person ended up with the ball.

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The offbeat side of the news

A Buffalo man who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for a 2003 assault conviction is going back to prison.

Larry Brooks, 50, of Moselle Street, was sentenced today to 10 years for shooting a man last summer during an argument on an East Side street.

Erie County Judge Sheila A. DiTullio imposed the prison term on Brooks who had pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault in the Aug. 7 shooting in front of Brooks house.

Brooks and the victim, who had an ongoing dispute, were arguing in the street when Brooks went into his home, got a gun and shot the victim, Erie County Assistant District Attorney John Patrick Feroleto said. The victim was hospitalized for a few days.

Because of his previous conviction for second-degree assault, Brooks had faced at least 10 years in prison and at most 25 years.

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Moselle Street man going back to prison

By Susan Martin | News Home & Style Editor

on April 24, 2014 - 4:32 PM

Looking for home restoration ideas? A new color palette, perhaps? Table-setting tips for a summer brunch? Several local home tours are coming up fast.

Think of these weekend outings as something fun to do while waiting for all those regional garden walks and tours to kick off in June. And theyll give you yet another good excuse for postponing cleaning out your garage.

Here are the details:

Historic Linwood Tour of Homes

This years tour along Linwood Avenue takes place from noon to 5 p.m. May 4 with the theme Streetscape of Buffalo History.

The architecture from one end of the street to the other exemplifies the gradual change in styles and design during the heyday of Buffalos grand era. The southern part of the street has grander homes; as you travel north the homes become smaller to reflect the change in social structure in Buffalo at the time, said chairman James Mack, whose 121-year-old Queen Anne is on the tour.

Other architectural styles include a Second Empire, Richardson Romanesque and Federal, as well as a home designed by noted architects Silsbee and Marling.

Visitors will come across all the architectural features one admires in old homes: handcrafted woodwork, elaborate staircases, leaded and stained-glass windows. These homes were built generally between 1860 and 1920.

Excerpt from:
Open houses: Springtime means home tours, and youre invited

Gangstagrass, 8 p.m. April 25 in The Tralf

You remember that night when you watched talented hip-hop artists exhale street-corner poetry, then turned to your friend and said, These rhymes would be much better with a backing fiddle track? OK, maybe this never happened. But with its unique blend of beats and banjo licks, the Brooklyn-based outfit has spun their compatible love of Willie Nelson and RUN-DMC into intense urban twangand an Emmy nomination for Long Hard Times To Come, the theme song for F/X drama, Justifiedfor those curious. http://www.tralfmusichall.com

Back Beat 64, 7 p.m. April 26 at the Buffalo Irish Center

Still celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Beatles Ed Sullivan Show appearance? So is Fab Four tribute band BackBeat 64, which will be turning Buffalos Irish Center into its own Cavern Club as part of Dog Ears Bookstores sixth annual fundraising gala. Alongside offerings from more than 20 local restaurants, the faux Liverpudlians will tour through the classics, with all proceeds going to Dog Ears community-based reading and writing operations. http://www.dogearsbookstore.org

The Whigs, 7 p.m. April 27 in The Waiting Room

If youre looking for one more Fender-aided kick to the teeth before the working week, find this Athens, Ga.-based power trios show for its brand of Southern-tinged audio upheaval. The band has toured with the likes of Drive-By Truckers, The Killers and Franz Ferdinand, with tracks like Right Hand On My Heart and Waiting setting the table. On Sunday night, the Whigs bring these accessible chords to Delaware Avenue. http://www.waitingroombuffalo.com

Michael Farrell

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Three club shows worth checking out

An Alden woman who collected more than $36,000 in welfare benefits for more than five years, at the same time she was receiving unemployment benefits even though she had a job and was stealing from her employer, pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree welfare fraud.

Crystal Adkinson, 43, of Bush Gardens, admitted in Erie County Court that she falsely claimed she had no income and that she collected $36,465 from the Erie County Department of Social Services from May 1, 2007 to Nov. 30, 2012, according to District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III.

In fact, Sedita said, she had two sources of income: state jobless benefits and her job at Ryerson Steel, where she was stealing from her employer.

Adkinson had pleaded guilty in 2012 in Erie County Court to attempted offering a false instrument for filing for receiving state jobless benefits while working at Ryerson and attempted fourth-degree grand larceny for stealing from Ryerson. She was placed on three years probation in those two cases.

Besides those two convictions, she has a criminal record dating back to 1991 that includes five other theft offenses, prosecutors said.

In the welfare fraud case, Adkinson faces a maximum prison term of 28 months to seven years when she is sentenced July 8 by Judge Michael F. Pietruszka.

Continued here:
Alden woman pleads guilty to welfare fraud

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