Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 11

DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE Crime-fighting plans Mayoral candidate Robert Duffy's anti-crime platform focuses on illegal guns and drugs. Page 3B ROCHESTER, NEW YORK DemocratandChronicle.com FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2005 OH a -W- jT A "m-wt section 13 JWk 2b i deaths II if I 3B LOCAL NEWS Ljj jL Av kw' 58 STATE NEWS ufo? steps nop waiir on ZD Cops raid houses, clear streets, patrol with assault rifles what's at stake A Po ice sav a new initia- Police say a new initia tive can restore law and order by aggressively targeting drug dealers who terrorize city streets. He said such use of research to drive an intensive enforcement strategy is un- SWAT-style equipment sends an appropriate message to street thugs. "The main thing I'm trying to encourage here is that we have zero tolerance for violence in this community," Alexander said. The operation is part of an effort to curb a recent ings are most frequent.

Once the corners are clear, members of the Emergency Task Force will continue to patrol the area wearing black battle-dress uniforms and carrying military-style assault rifles. Alexander said Thursday that the appearance of the violent neighborhoods. Operation Law and Order, which started Tuesday, combines the department's version of a SWAT team with undercover narcotics officers to raid drug houses and clear loiterers in parts of the city where drug sales, shootings and kill spate of violence in the city, including 27 homicides and more than 126 shootings this year. The Law and Order team targets areas based on an extensive analysis of when and where shootings and drug sales happen most frequently, Alexander said. PATRICK FLANIGAN STAFF WRITER Rochester acting Police Chief Cedric Alexander has launched an aggressive crime-fighting strategy that uses some of the department's best-trained officers to target drug dealers working in the city's most POLICE, PAGE 2B The following story contains an error.

Correction page follows Teen pleads guilty in vandalism of church i r.SLY II Seklar DeCarolis sponse the parish will make," said the Rev. Daniel Holland, priest at St. Pius, who has not spoken with 4 MAX SCHULTE staff photographer Caren Cleaveland, left, and Joni Pontius were among the participants in a re-enactment of the first Women's Rights Convention at the Women's Rights National Historical Park. More events are scheduled through Saturday. Women's rights park turns 25; visitors gather for celebration Struggle continues for higher degree of visibility Street ERNST LAMOTHE JR.

STAFF WRITER CHILI A Chili teen will be sentenced Aug. 29 in Monroe County Court after pleading guilty for his part in the vandalism of St. Pius Tenth Church. Dan Seklar, 18, of Chili pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal mischief in a deal made with prosecutors. Assistant District Attorney Sonal Rana said Seklar had been charged with third-degree burglary and second-degree mischief, both felonies.

"There are a range of sentencing options," said Rana, about whether Seklar would receive jail time or community service. "That is under negotiations, and I am not going to talk about it now." Three youths Richard DeCarolis, 17, Michael Street, 16, and a 15-year-old, all of Chili also were arrested. DeCarolis and Street are to appear in Chili Town Court on Monday. The 15-year-old's case has been transferred to Family Court. Police said the vandals raced bicycles inside the church June 29, urinated into holy water and broke into the sacristy, causing an estimated $17,000 in damage, which is covered by insurance.

"My understanding is perhaps we will be getting a letter of apology and we will see what kind of re- NEWS BEAT $8M set aside for RenSquare A Senate appropriations committee has agreed to designate $8 million for Rochester's Renaissance Square project, according to Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton. The Democratic senators announced Thursday that the funds are included in a spending bill expected to go to the full Senate this year. Renaissance Square would be the most ambitious project in downtown Rochester's history, including a satellite Monroe Community College campus, a performing arts center and a bus terminal. Senior citizens project gets OK HENRIETTA The Town Board has given a green light to townhouses and an apartment building for senior citizens on Erie Station Road near East Henrietta Road.

The board voted unanimously Wednesday to rezone the 45.1-acre site so that Mark IV Construction Inc. can proceed with the project. Board members also unanimously approved zoning classifications and regulations for land south of the Thruway. They are aimed at allowing development but also preserving open space. And, in the aftermath of a recent U.S.

Supreme Court ruling that expands governmental authority to take private property, the Henrietta officials unanimously adopted a resolution. The measure calls for Gov. George Pataki and the Legislature to review state law to ensure that the rights of private property owners are protected against "arbitrary taking." Firefighters get better beams BRIGHTON The Brighton Fire Department has something new to celebrate 115 state-of-the-art flashlights. The Brighton Chamber of Commerce, Brighton Kiwanis and the Fire Department gathered at McQuaid Jesuit High School Thursday to display the new devices. "They will allow us to operate safer and be in a better position to do our jobs," said Fire Chief Ted Aroesty.

The Chamber and the Kiwanis donated $3,750 each to purchase the flashlights, which are valuable to firefighters because they are heat-resistant and their beams are strong enough to cut through smoke. Story to shed light on power In light of the recent spate of hot, stormy weather and accompanying electrical outages, the Democrat and Chronicle is preparing a story on the Rochester-area power supply, system. Readers may share their experiences, concerns or praise by calling (585) 258-2386 or e-mailing metroDemocratand Chronicle.com. Things to do Brockport Cool Kids in the Park: Music duo Bart and Kevin from 7 to 8 p.m. today.

Sagawa Park. Call (585) 637-3984. For more events, see Page 6C. Coming up Park rekindles a fond memory A park in northwest Rochester is being reborn and rekindling memories of a beloved priest. In Saturday's Democrat and Chronicle Inside New park superintendent loves her work 4B the teens.

He said he talked with one of the teen's parents, whom he wouldn't identify, and they offered their apol-ogies. "I am saddened, and the whole community is saddened," added Holland, who said none of the teens or their families attends St. Pius. "It is difficult to understand their motivation. I am hoping they will get a just punishment, but I hope they will also get some help to change their lives." For now, Holland is working on getting his church in order.

"We had two companies come and try to clean the carpet. Both have failed," Holland said of the cigarette and bike marks. "Now we are talking with the insurance company about new carpeting." ELAMOTHEa DemocratandChronicle.com If you go The 25th anniversary celebration of the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls includes these events open to the public: Today, 1:30 p.m. Authors on women's rights will participate in a roundtable discussion in the park visitor center, 136 Fall St. Saturday, 10 a.m.

The Seneca Falls Dialogue, "Women and the Vote," takes place in the auditorium of Mynderse Academy, 105 Troy St. Ruth Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, moderates a panel of feminists in their 20s who have already earned national recognition. Saturday, 3 p.m. A reception and program celebrating the anniversary and the park's founders will be held in the visitor center. DIANA LOUISE CARTER STAFF WRITER SENECA FALLS When Marilyn Bero moved to this Seneca County village 34 years ago, she noticed a historical marker on Fall Street.

The plaque noted that the women's rights movement began more than a century earlier on that spot, in a chapel that eventually became the Laundromat she saw before her. Bero remembers saying to herself, "Oh my God, I'll be 80 years old with a cane before they do anything with this significant piece of history." She didn't have to wait serving women's history in Seneca Falls, which included serving on the park's commission from 1980 to 1990. Visitors to today's park can learn about the long history of the women's rights movement, beginning with the first Women's Rights Convention in 1848 and the galvanizing Declaration of Sentiments ratified there. The convention of 300 women and men featured that long. This month, the Women's Rights National Historical Park marks its 25th anniversary.

Last week, Bero, a civic activist who is now 67, was recognized for her role in pre- PARK, PAGE 4B Crowd considers plans to regulate Lake Ontario levels weighed in with the same idea. Thursday afternoon, Monroe County executive Maggie Brooks announced her displeasure with all three candidate plans, saying they have the potential for raising water levels even higher. was the last in a series of meetings in New York intended to explain the candidate plans and draw public comment. The new plan could go into effect as early as next year, executed by the International Joint Commission, a binational body that regulates water flows and Greece Town Hall to listen to experts outline three alternate plans to regulate water levels in Ontario. The three plans, based on 100-year mathematical simulations of high and low water cycles, are designed to update a plan in place since 1963.

The meeting in Greece CORYDON IRELAND STAFF WRITER Along Lake Ontario, east and west of Rochester, any meeting on water levels draws a bigger crowd than a rock concert. Thursday evening was no exception, when more than 200 people crowded into a meeting room at quality. Or the commission could simply keep the old plan, called 1958DD. The meeting was a war of different worlds. Environmental interests prefer what is called Plan which would regulate water levels in a way that parallels natural hydrological cycles established 10,000 years ago.

Shoreline property owners, who prefer water levels on the low side, prefer one of the other plans or doing nothing new. Sentiment was strong at the Greece meeting for keeping things the way they are. Local governments LAKE, PAGE 2 Mentor, teen face test as they try to build a bond DENISE- MARIE SANTIAGO 4 I I Lontact ner at: I Democrat and Chronicle I 55 Exchange Blvd. .1 Drvhoctor MV (585) 258-2417 "They may need to sit and have that chat, 'Well, what's working for you and what's Brinson says. "That can be hard." For her part, the teen says she wants to stay in the program.

"I'm not getting tired of it. I just don't know what to do." Stephanie has said as much to Andrea Brown, the casework manager at Big Brothers who made the match and is helping the pair. She has offered ideas on conversation icebreakers and is taking the problem to her Big Brothers team. "Tliis is a tough case." Frustration aside, Cohn says she'll stick with the program but laments the friendship she'd hoped to have with a little sister. "It doesn't seem," she says, "like it's going to be something like that." Katie Cohn had dialed up the matchmaker before, seeking answers and direction on how to relate better to the teenager she had agreed to mentor this year.

But the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Rochester worker who took the most recent call sensed more distress than usual, and for good reason. More than midway through the year, Cohn wondered if the relationship with her little sister could survive. It certainly wasn't growing into the warm bond she'd envisioned. Such are the ups and downs that characterize volunteer mentoring relationships. Jane Rhodes, an author and national expert on mentoring youth, says about half dissolve within a few months.

"Some relationships may simply lack a basic chemistry and When Cohn would drive from her East Rochester apartment to pick up the teenager at her 19th Ward home, it seemed that the little sister did not want to go. She'd stall, ignore, not move. In the car the teen pulled out a book or put on headphones. Cohn took it all to mean that the girl didn't want to talk. It rarely improved when they reached a movie theater or coffee shop.

It has been hard to watch even for the teenager's mother, who has encouraged, cajoled and sometimes pushed her girl to participate in the program. Sonya Brinson, a single mother of three, knows that mentoring can help children blossom. She is a youth advocate with the Hillside Work Scholarship Connection and helps run a mentoring group for girls called Sisters Together Achieving Results. eventually give way to other demands," says Rhodes, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts. "Despite careful screening and interviewing, sustained contacts and case management, and even intuition," Rhodes says, "there is a fair amount of luck involved in determining whethera relationship ends up among the half that flourish or the half that fail." Which way the relationship between Cohn and her protge Stephanie Slater, will go we don't yet know.

But their challenges, Rhodes says, are common ones. The 26-year-old graduate at Nazareth College and the 15-year-old incoming sophomore at Nazareth Academy have allowed me to follow their relationship for insight into a mentoring movement that has caught fire in recent years. dsantiag DemocratandChronlcle.com When I last wrote about the duo a few months ago, the relationship between the strangers seemed less strained than when they first started meeting in the winter and had problems keeping a conversation going. The painfully shy teenager liked that her mentor asked questions, and the mentor felt a sense of accomplishment in getting the teen to respond, if only in short sentences and occasional grins. Their weekly outings of late, though, have been more difficult..