batavia

Roger Bohn, a 51-year member of the Batavia Lions Club, was honored Monday night at the civic club's weekly meeting held at the American Legion in Batavia with the Robert J Uplinger Award.  

The Robert J. Uplinger Distinguished Service Award was established in 1993. The award honors outstanding individuals (both Lions and non-Lions) or organizations who provide a significant service to their club, district or community.  

The Lions Clubs motto is "We serve," and Bohn has fulfilled that duty by being a past president, as well as holding a variety of other offices, and serving on countless committees to serve our community for 51 years, including many events to assist the NYS School for the Blind.  

Bohn is pictured with Diane Hawn, current Batavia Lions Club president.

Submitted information and photo.

A Red-bellied woodpecker stopped at a tree outside the district office of Batavia City Schools today.

Photo submitted by Jason Smith.

There was a birthday party at 400 Towers in Batavia on Sunday, with four of the residents celebrating their recent 90th birthdays and one, his 95th.

Pictured: Hazel Preedom, 90, Eleanor Day, 90, Julia Scalia, 90, Frank Aquino, 90, and Donald Hart, 95.

Photo by Howard Owens.

Just prior to a vote by City Council last month to approve Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Housing Compact, some council members asked to put on the brakes before giving the state carte blanche with such a mandate.

The original resolution gave the state control over local housing plans, which included requiring New York municipalities to increase their housing stock by 1 percent annually. A few paragraphs of the state’s resolution were redrafted, and council is expected to vote on the tweaked version during Monday’s business meeting. Those revisions now urge the state Legislature to reevaluate Hochul’s compact proposal and the potential impacts it would have on municipalities, especially in upstate communities, including Batavia.

The business meeting is set for 7 p.m. in the Council Board Room at City Hall.

Hochul has included the housing compact as part of her 2024 budget proposal, with a goal to build 800,000 housing units across New York State over the next decade. If approved, this measure would require cities, towns and villages in the state to achieve certain thresholds over three-year periods and require upstate municipalities to increase housing stock by 1 percent annually.

Batavia may be stripped of any local zoning, planning or land-use regulations powers if housing targets are not met and allow mixed-income multi-family projects to take advantage of a fast-track housing approval process, city leaders say.

“The objection I have heard from City Council, and that I also have, is that the governor’s Housing Compact Legislation has the potential for the state to take away, or usurp, local zoning control and undermine local governments’ home rule,” City Manager Rachael Tabelski said to The Batavian. “The Batavia Development Corporation (BDC) has a small business and housing group that meets semi-regularly.  A few weeks ago, the group reviewed the Genesee County Housing Needs Study, the (Downtown Revitalization Initiative) Plan, the BOA, the City Comp Plan and the CZB to glean the commonalities in the plans with respect to housing.  The notes are attached, but the commonalities are clear.  These are identified needs for the City and should be the focus as we move into the future.”

Some of the focus of these documents includes more market-rate housing downtown, single-family homes in neighborhoods, condos for workforce renters and owners, and market-rate apartments throughout the city. There isn't enough market-rate housing for seniors and millennials in Batavia. There's a shortage of rentals Downtown.

The report from CZB consultants in 2008 showed there was no demand for additional affordable housing, contrary to what the city now has coming with Ellicott Station. Instead, there was a need for 187 homes in the $50,000 a year income range, which is now estimated, due to inflation, to be closer to $75,000 or higher, Tabelski said.

During that Feb. 27 meeting, Councilman Bob Bialkowski asked to change a couple of the governor’s proposed paragraphs because “some of this could be taken out of context,” he said.

“And the other thing is, the city of Batavia will continue to make significant investments in housing development … how much of an investment are we going to make? Over what period of time? Do we even have land to build more housing?”

Council members Rich Richmond and President Eugene Jankowski Jr. agreed, which prompted the resolution going back for revisions before a final vote.

“New home building and construction should not take priority over the well-being of residents and a community, which is what could be at stake if the new State Housing Approval Board is given overriding authority to local regulations, is part of the resolution for Monday’s vote.”

To answer Bialkowski’s question about land for housing, several areas have been identified, Tabelski said. Those are located on:

• Burke Drive
• Creek Park
• Swan Street / Harvester Avenue
• Former Armory site
• North Street/ Naramore Neighborhood
• Days Inn / Super 8 site
• Former Batavia Iron and Metal site
• Bank Steet/Alva Avenue
• JC Penney site / City Centre
• Harvester Center
• Flood plain properties
• Various zombie, abandoned houses
• Upper-floor residential opportunities

The STAMP site on the county’s west side has a need for owner-occupied units for moderate to high-income occupants, she said -- 382 new owner-occupied and 735 new rentals, with high-end growth needs of 941 new owner-occupied and 2,035 new rental needs.

So the governor is not off base with a projection for housing needs. It’s just that city leaders would like to maintain more control over how and where it happens and that it meets the consultants’ recommendations, such as the unmet demand for market-rate versus low-income housing units.

“Past studies have shown that there are different types of housing needs in the City Of Batavia — from downtown apartments to single-family homes.  However, land within the city is limited, so I think it’s important that each project be carefully planned,” Jankowski said.  “My bigger concern is that the Governor’s Housing Compact legislation has the potential for the State to take away, or usurp, local zoning control and undermine local government's home rule.  This could prevent or restrict the city (city residents) from managing their own community and instead be subject to state officials who don’t live here.”  

“But (we) can’t stress enough that local municipalities and local zoning/planning boards should be working with developers and local economic development agencies to develop strategies to provide adequate housing,” he said on behalf of Legislature Chair Shelley Stein and himself. “Genesee County is opposed to losing home rule control by having the state be able to “fast track” projects that don’t conform to local zoning.  We understand the state’s overall intent with this compact, to help provide more housing opportunities for New Yorkers that are struggling to find suitable affordable housing.  But it appears New York City and other large urban centers of New York are largely driving the need for this compact.”

County and city officials agree that housing must remain with local municipal comprehensive plans. Landers said the county’s Smart Growth Plan is still relevant today and is updated to address potential housing growth to match infrastructure and lessen the impact to green agricultural lands. Whereas the state is not.

“The population migration trends in Genesee County don’t match the Governor’s proposal,” he said. 

There’s time for public comments at the beginning of the meeting, and council is also scheduled to vote on resolutions to adopt a law to override the tax cap limit, adopt the 2023-24 budget, and establish new water and meter rates and a capital improvement fee.

In the 60s, every girl in high school would have been encouraged by her guidance counselor to be a nurse, teacher, secretary, or homemaker.

Barbara, a girl born in 1948, did not like those choices in high school. She wanted to be a plumber like her dad.  Her father, Dwight, began his plumbing business at their home on South Main two years before Barb was born.

On her ninth birthday, she was given her first toolbox. Growing up, she loved nothing better than to watch her father work. In high school, she began working with her father and held onto her dream of following in his footsteps and becoming a plumber.

High school requirements presented problems for her. Girls were barred from taking shop. They were required to take home economics. For this future plumber, making a skirt was not high on Barb’s list of accomplishments. However, she was grateful that her mother was best friends with the home economics teacher. When Barb attached a piece of elastic to some material, her teacher gladly accepted her “skirt” and wished her well on becoming a plumber.

Her next assignment was to write a paper on a chosen topic.   She was an avid car racing fan and wrote about drag racing and driving. The book her report was based on was Dragging and Driving by Tom MacPherson.

Writing about something that interested her, she earned an A+ on her paper and the ticket to graduate and continue working with her dad as she had been doing during high school. 

After high school, rumor has it that Barb owned one of the faster cars around, and she could be seen in either her 1958 Chevy 348, one of the first big block motors, or in her 1969 SS Chevelle 396.

In August 1975, she became a licensed plumber. She is the first woman to be certified as a master plumber in New York State. To become a master plumber, Barb had to complete many stringent requirements. It takes ten years of experience to qualify for the master plumbers exam. An apprentice has to work under a master plumber for five years. Then, for the next five years, a journeyman plumber works full-time under the supervision of a master or licensed plumber. A plumber must understand and learn the nuts and bolts of the trade and be familiar with technical standards and all plumbing codes. Understanding the codes allows a plumber to keep buildings in the proper repair. Besides understanding all of the codes, a plumber must be able to draft diagrams to illustrate the work needed. 

The next step to becoming a master plumber is the exam. Barb and her brother Larry prepared for the plumbing exam by going back to school to learn the techniques needed to take the exam. As a result, she proudly owns the title of a master plumber, along with her brother Larry. 

Her mentor, teacher, and role model was her father, Dwight. Any training necessary to be a certified plumber had to be done under the supervision of a master plumber registered in the New York State Department of Labor. Barb and her brother trained under their father, a master plumber.

License numbers 16 and 24 have a special meaning to the Toal plumbers. Barb’s father, Dwight’s number was 16, and now Barb’s brother has their dad’s number. Barb’s license number is 24, a title she worked for and will proudly own for life.

In 1975, Dwight turned over complete management of his business to Barb.

Besides being a master plumber, Barb could run heavy machinery, lay pipes and work with a jackhammer. Some of her bigger jobs were the plumbing for Ebling Laundry on Ellicott Street and the installation of all bathrooms when the Holiday Inn added 58 new units to their existing inn. Then, on January 6, 1989, she became a plumbing inspector for Batavia, a job she would hold for 20 years. She also inspected the Town of Batavia, the Village of Oakfield, and the Town of Elba.

Barb retired in April 2010. She was also the Batavia Town Historian and created a video from 1802-1998 on our local history. She also wrote a book called Images of Batavia.

After her retirement, Barb was co-founder of the Friends of the Batavia Peace Garden, where she has been past president, project manager, and marketing.

She spends her winters in Charleston, SC, with her sister. Barb drives around Batavia in the summer months on her Honda Gold Wing motorcycle and serves hot dogs on Friday for the Peace Garden in the Holland Land Office Museum parking lot. Batavia is so fortunate and proud to have the first female master plumber in New York State from our city.

Photos courtesy Barb Toal.

A bicyclist has reportedly fallen and may have suffered a head injury on South Main Street, near the roundabout, in Batavia.

City Fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.

UPDATE 1:15 a.m.: I drove over to the roundabout for an update, and the scene was cleared when I arrived.  

Resurrection and Ascension parishes hosted their annual confirmation retreat on Sunday morning at St. Mary's in Batavia.

The class was led by Jason Smith and Ron Chrzanowski.

Smith said that Father Ivan offered a blessing after the 9:15 mass, and then candidates engaged in several activities, including making a coat of arms, and church collages symbolizing elements of the faith. They also studied the Corporal Works of Mercy, and presented their Saints in an interview style.

Candidates will be confirmed on May 28 at St Joseph’s Cathedral in Buffalo by Bishop Fisher. 

Submitted photos and information.

South Main Road, over the Tonawanda, Batavia. Photo by Chris Suozzi.

Oakfield. By Kristin Smith.

A truck has reportedly hit a pole on Ellicott Street Road at Shepard Road, Batavia.

Unknown injuries.

Town of Batavia Fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.

UPDATE 11:52 a.m.: There's also a truck off the road with a fuel leak on Route 63 and Little Canada Road. Bethany Fire responding.  A minor injury reported at the Shepard Road incident. 

UPDATE 11:53 a.m.: Shepard Road, no injuries. The driver is in an emergency vehicle, warming.  Low-hanging wires, none detached.

UPDATE 12:03 p.m.: Trucks can't get through because of the low-hanging wires at Shepard Road.  A single lane is open for cars.

UPDATE 12:08 p.m.: Traffic control is needed at Little Canada Road. "We're on a bend in the road here. People are flying around the curve before they see us."

Resiliency is a great attribute for anyone or any place, however, there’s a difference between concept and reality.

New York State and Genesee County officials announced this week a plan to boost the county and its multiple municipalities, including the city’s Centennial Park, with a 454-page resiliency plan. The three-phase strategy for Centennial Park is estimated to cost more than $300,00 once fully completed, plus ongoing maintenance.

“Like with all planning documents, funding is key,” City Manager Rachael Tabelski said. “Otherwise, they sit on a shelf and collect dust.”

The Batavian asked Tabelski about details for the plan, which was unveiled by the state and nonprofit NY Green, and paid for with a $250,000 grant, this week at the base of Centennial Park.

City officials were present but not part of the news conference, though “we did provide information to the consultants about the flood plain and gave permission to Genesee County Planning for the Centennial Park proposed concept, with input from the parkside neighborhood,” Tabelski said.

The proposed concept is a lofty one, aiming to tear out 60 trees, mostly silver maples, and plant 400 new trees and shrubs of more compatible species for a warming environment. Depending on the species, it can take new trees from 15 to 30 years to fully mature.

State Deputy Secretary Kisha Santiago-Martinez said the plan presents a “comprehensive, holistic approach to addressing and preparing for the many challenges we confront in the face of more frequent and severe storm events.”

“By developing and implementing this plan, you are proactively helping to ensure that the county, its municipalities, residents and businesses are better prepared to confront and recover from natural disasters,” she said.

The plan for Centennial, situated in the heart of the city between Ellicott Avenue and State Street, also calls for regrooved pathways and raking autumn leaves up around trees instead of mulching them with a mower. The idea was to reinforce the historic patterns of the park through the use of vegetation, pathways and tree species more akin to this area able to withstand future warming, said David Beatty, an integrally involved Batavia resident who was on the committee to flesh out a park plan.

While Tabelski had no critiques of the plan itself, it comes down to the question, as with most everything: how is it going to be paid for?

Back up to about six years ago, when former City Manager Jason Molino led the formation of a City of Batavia Tree Master Plan in 2017. Consultant Urban Forest Analytics LLC performed the study after several meetings with Public Works, the Bureau of Maintenance, and parks staff. Extensive fieldwork was completed to identify and locate trees as part of the master plan, then-DPW Director Matt Worth said in a memo to Molino.

It was a project of years in the making that included training for proper tree care techniques, risk assessments, maintaining a database, detailed forecasts and strategies, Worth had said.

That plan is followed as funding allows each year for tree removal, planting and pruning throughout the city, including in parks, Tabelski said.

“Trees are an integral part of our city landscape, and fabric of our neighborhoods, not to mention the positive emotional and recreation enhancement trees offer,” she said. “Over the past several years, I have fielded more requests for increased tree planting than any other single request from citizens of the city.”

Highlights of the Tree Master Plan include:

• The number of street trees could increase by 50 percent
• 7 percent of street trees are ash and need to come down (250 trees)
• 15 percent of park trees are in poor condition 
• 8 percent of park trees are ash and need to come down (54 trees)
• 38 percent of Batavia has canopy cover

Even though this week’s debuted plan may have seemed to be a given, it is not a mandate, Tabelski said.

“The Genesee County Resiliency Plan includes towns, villages and the city and is purely a road map that communities can choose to follow to make improvements and access grant funds if they so choose,” she said.

As for who will pay for that road map, “the plan that included Centennial Park could be used to apply to grant funds for tree removal and planting, along with the city’s Tree Management Plan.”

“It is a tool to help make informed decisions,” she said. “It is my understanding that the DEC does, periodically, have these types of grants available.  The other options are fundraising in the community, corporate sponsors, or through the city’s operating funds. 

“This is a planning tool that can help City Council and City Management make future decisions, just like the Tree Management Plan,” she said.  “We consult these plans during grant review and budgeting.”

This year’s pending 2023-24 budget for the City of Batavia includes annual tree removal (20 trees) for $26,000, stump removal for $5,500 and tree purchase and replanting (one for one) for $11,600.

 Projected costs of future maintenance, if the park plan is completed per the resiliency plan, have not yet been reviewed or evaluated, Tabelski said.

Go here for prior Resiliency Plan coverage.

File Photos of spring, top, and summer, at Centennial Park in Batavia, by Howard Owens.

Squirrels, a dead-end street across from an elementary school, and the four seasons.

Those have been some of the challenges being situated in a fairly remote — and animal-friendly — section of the city in Western New York for Phil and Steve Pies over the years, Steve says.

Yet despite that and the typical ups and downs of retail business, Max Pies Furniture has endured 118 years since its settling into that comfy spot at the end of Jackson Street in 1905. Founder Max Pies and family built not only a small business but also their home, and the place was handed down to now Steve, the fourth generation of the Pies family.

No wonder they have earned the Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year Award. And there’s no other place they would have continued the tradition that began for furniture and flooring sales.

“As far as this structure and this business from this location, it’s the same location. Obviously, they added on to the store since 1905. But the original location and their house were in the parking lot you pulled into,” Steve Pies said. “They went all over the board from Rochester to Buffalo, and I think even close to Syracuse at one point in the 80s. Rochester Linoleum bought out all of the flooring aspects. But the furniture, even though we do flooring here as well, the original furniture store Max Pies name started right here.”

And they both must have just naturally fallen right in line with the business, yes?

"Well, not really,” Phil said. “I went to college, then I was in the Air Force. And then my uncle was here at the time, and my dad.”

Phil was married with two children, Steve and Natalie, and living in Sacramento, Calif. at the time. After his Uncle Jake died, he ended up returning to Batavia and worked alongside his dad, Sam. Business must have been good for longevity: his grandfather worked until he died at 93, and the same for his father until he was 83. Phil has been the friendly face of Max Pies for the last 53 years.

It was a similar crooked path for Steve, who didn’t immediately return from college to join the family business. He went off to pursue a business degree at Plattsburgh State College, and something drew his attention to working on a cruise ship — he had visions of “Love Boat” — and went aboard to work as a Blackjack dealer and then worked around Nevada in casinos building a career as a card dealer.

He eventually returned and decided to help his dad, who turns 80 in May. They thought back to what has changed over the years, and certainly, costs have been a big one.

“Freight rates have changed, insurance, overhead,” Phil said. “And styles, we sold a lot of colonial, and now we sell a lot more modern styles.”

Steve added that retro comes and goes, but a shift that has added time, labor and unexpected expenses has been how furniture arrives now versus years ago.

“It used to be all assembled,” Steve said. “Now it’s called KD, for knockdown. It's, take them off the truck, unpack them out of the box, set them up with screws and a drill and dispose of the garbage. It's a lot more tedious.”

While costs have shot up on their end, the waste management business is booming. The Pies have a 40-yard roll-off Dumpster that costs $800, and sometimes it gets filled three times a month with styrofoam and boxes, Steve said. For the most part, they depend on sales reps for advice and guidance on what’s trending, what’s hot, and what to buy throughout the year, Steve said.

“My dad has a good relationship with a lot of our reps. The reps know what’s out there,” he said. “But we try to have a variety as well because, you know, you’ve got 20-year-old couples, and you’ve got 70-year-old people and you’ve got in between, and there's such a different dynamic.”

A walk through the downstairs showroom features a painter’s pallet of gray hues — from charcoal and slate to lighter silvers. Grays are definitely in right now, the father-son team agreed, and other hot items include power recliners, sleeper sofas and sectionals. They will cater to people’s tastes, but with a focus on this locale, Steve said.

For example, unlike more eclectic geographical areas such as New York City, this region has a mixed appetite that includes a lot of rural country.

“We have hunters, they want the classic. They want a camouflage recliner, they want a rocking chair, and a certain bedroom set that looks like a plank cabin look,” Steve said, adding that there was a camouflage recliner in stock that day just waiting for an avid hunter.

For the approximately $2.5 million of sales volume they accomplish, the staff is small, Steve said: seven people, including Jimmy, Peggy, Eddie, Reggie and Hunter, plus subcontractors. Hours have been reduced over the years, especially when COVID hit, from a crazy 9 to 9 schedule to 9 to 7 and then 9 to 5 work day, Steve said.

“The biggest challenge for a store like ours in a town like this in a state like this is we deliver furniture winter, spring, summer and fall. We've gone through roofs, we've gone through windows, we take off doors, we go up and down. We unload trucks in blizzards. And we have a building that has, you know, leaky roofs. We have squirrels … so I would say, having an old building and four seasons,” he said. “And I would also say that if you look at our location, you could arguably say this is the worst location on planet Earth for a retail furniture store, dead-end residential neighborhood across from an elementary school. That's my long-winded answer to the challenges.

“ (Turning to his dad) But you’ve been here 53 years. So yeah, there was a time where my dad said, the accountants used to say, ‘you made too much money this year, you got to do something with it.’ And there's been other times where we can't pay our bills,” Steve said. “So it's a very cyclical business in the notion of, you just gotta keep grinding and keep going. It is what it is. So there still are heydays, and there still are lows, and there still are in between.”

Given it is a “cyclical business” that definitely still experiences those good times of Batavia’s yesteryear, what’s the secret? Max Pies motto, Steve said, giving a nod to his dad.

“Where customers send their friends,” he said.

The nomination committee selected Max Pies, partly due to Steve’s “tremendous” contributions for bringing the business “into the 2000s” via online ordering and a website, excellent customer service and marketing the business in many unique ways.

Photo of Steve and Phil Pies at Max Pies Furniture store at 400 S. Jackson St., Batavia. Photo by Howard Owens.

Press release:'

Musicians of Note, a wall of fame to honor past Batavia High School graduates in music, will host its 4th annual ceremony on March 17 in the Batavia High School auditorium at 7 p.m.  Nominations were accepted until November when our committee followed through with selecting four talented and deserving recipients.  

Nominées will be recognized with a video presentation.  We will also have High School ensembles perform to celebrate those specific honorees.  A plaque featuring their accomplishments will be displayed on the new Musicians Of Note wall at the High School. 

The 2023 honorees include Diana Dipson, 1929; Gloria McLaughlin, Retired BCSD music teacher 1970-1989; Brian Isaac, 2001; Deanna Spiotta, 2005; and Melzie Case, 2012.  All five nominees have outstanding resumes.  Since Mark Hoerbelt was ill during the last Musician of Note 2022, we will be having a performance celebrating Mark’s acceptance into Musician of Note last year.

The Musician of Note committee looks forward to receiving nominations for the prestigious honor in the next six months.  You have until the end of October to nominate for the 2024 Musician of Note Ceremony. You may find the application for the Musician of Note on BCSD Website or email JHaggett@bataviacsd.org to have one emailed to you personally for future nominations.

Press release:

Have you ever wondered how Genesee County came to be? What was the Holland Land Purchase? What is a Gibbet? How did Batavia get its name? If any of these questions pique your curiosity among many others, then volunteering at the Holland Land Office might be perfect for you. The museum is reaching out to anyone with an interest in local history who would like to volunteer.

Any amount of time that can be given is welcome; even an hour a week can make a great difference. Volunteers can work in many different areas, and interests and strengths will be used to the most optimum effect. Areas of need include: cleaning, gift shop, docent/tour guide, documenting of artifacts, exhibits and displays, landscaping, etc. Volunteer hours would be during the normal hours of operation of the museum are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm.

If you have an interest in volunteering with the Holland Land Office Museum, don't hesitate to get in touch with Director Ryan Duffy at 585-343-4727 or hollandlandoffice@gmail.com. Information can also be found at the museum’s website at www.hollandlandoffice.com.

Photo: May 2015 file photo by Howard Owens.

Press release:

The Batavia Society of Artists is hosting artist Karen Crittenden on Tuesday, March 14, at Go-Art/Seymour Place, 201 E. Main St., in Batavia at 7 p.m.  Karen will be demonstrating hands-on collage multimedia.  all materials will be provided at no charge.  Tavern 2.0.1. will be open for cash purchases.  Non-members are welcome with a $5 fee.  We are always accepting new members, Single $30, Couples $50, and Students/Veterans $10.

Karen is a lifelong artist who has had a love of all things colorful and accessible.  Her current work has been based in collage/mixed media and photography.  She has traveled to a lot of wonderful places, and this often has an effect on her work.

In recent times she has been collecting and working on making books, journals and junk journals with all the fun vintage and handmade ephemera to go inside those books.  She also enjoys designing and stitching her own embroidery designs.

Karen owns and operates a niche yarn and media business where she offers group and private lessons in a variety of media.  

Sinus steamers, muscle mousse and scrubby bars may not seem to be your typical hemp and cannabis company products, but they’re exactly a reason why Empire Hemp Co. has become so popular in its field.

“We create a lot of unique products you wouldn’t find in other stores,” Chief Operating Officer Shelly Wolanske said. “In order to keep current, we’re constantly coming up with new ideas for products.”

The company, based on the first floor of 34 Swan St. and expanding into 23,000 square feet that includes the second floor for production and storage, with a retail store at 204 East Main St. in downtown Batavia, has been selected for the Chamber of Commerce Innovative Enterprise of the Year Award. While Chief Executive Officer Chris Van Dusen and Wolanske were surprised, they agree the type of business is all about being innovative.

“We’re the first cannabis business in Genesee County,” he said. “As far as what we’ve come from and where we’ve gone to, we ordered a lot of equipment and brought on a lot of investors to fund that expansion. We are so we have our whole line of adult-use cannabis products or THC products, and those include pre-rolled ‘cones,’ gummies and vape cartridges and flour. We needed the new equipment to do those products and locked down the gummy recipe. We just took our first orders for gummies to dispensaries in New York.

“As we’ve grown the business, we’ve had to learn each aspect of the business, start off with CBD, and we have to learn not only the regulations and the state compliances, but we also have to learn how does the machinery work? What's the most efficient way for them to work, train employees, and, there's all these different nuances around it, that's part of growing a business,” Van Dusen said.

There has been no blueprint to follow, Shelly added, no trailblazer ahead of them to follow. They’ve been the trailblazers, forging their way through the state regulations, certifications, inspections and protocols to ensure they’re doing things the right way.

“It’s been trial and error; we’ve figured this out; regulations and testing’s been a challenge,” Van Dusen said.

They’ve had to find out through trial and error how to do things as efficiently as possible, when it was time to recruit and hire more staff, and what products were hot or not. Making gummies, for example, might seem like an easy task, and yet it took one and a half years to perfect the recipe, Wolanske said. They worked with different preservatives and flavorings, and it came out either too mushy or too stiff and took a lot of adjustments to get it to the chewy, gummy consistency they wanted.

There have been other challenges, including a lawsuit right now in New York State that’s holding up deliveries from dispensaries.

“That’s a whole other challenge we’re working on,” Van Dusen said. “We’re constantly solving problems. It’s exciting but challenging at the same time.”

They raised “a substantial” amount of money to buy equipment for their production needs and hired five people in the last three months to work at the store. One goal is to educate people about their products while the field has dwindled in certain arenas, Wolanske said.

“It takes a certain attitude. There’s an ebb and flow,” she said. “There’s very few of us left from the CBD days.”

Despite all of the hurdles, Van Dusen sees that “the opportunity in front of us is really incredible.”

“We’re really excited about where we are going with the expansion. We're quadrupling our footprint. That's our next phase of focus, how we're going to build that out. And then we have to get it okayed by the state, and then we have to get it Good Manufacturing Practices certified before we can start production out there,” Van Dusen said. “So we have to clean it, we have to paint it. And we have to then have a consultant come in and make sure we have everything ready for our audits for both the state and from the third party auditor to make sure that we're in compliance.”

The plan is to fill up that upstairs space with an indoor growth facility and keep rolling together as a cohesive group.

“Any little step is a huge step for us,” Wolanske said. “Everybody we’ve hired so far is part of the team. They’re in.”

And so, too — obviously — have Van Dusen and Wolanske been in since the beginning, which began long before they founded Empire Hemp and planted their first site on Swan Street in 2019 and then opened the store in April 2020 downtown.

Their award nominations included articles about the early days of Wolanske, whose path to the hemp industry brought her by way of being a policy-maker in the alcohol and substance abuse and prevention field, and Van Dusen as an entrepreneur, furniture maker, contractor, bicycle mechanic, tour guide, and father of three, whose history with cannabis dated back to the nineties during his battle with cancer. It was the intense effects of chemotherapy, in particular, that pushed him to explore alternative methods of recovery from the side effects of Hodgkin's Lymphoma treatment. 

"During that time, California had just legalized medical marijuana for cancer and AIDS patients, and I was having a tough time with chemotherapy," he said. "It relieved nausea and the terrible feeling I had from the chemicals being pushed through my veins and allowed me to have a level of normalcy in my life. It was like night and day, and I could go back to work. I knew at that point there was something about this plant that had some serious healing. It was life-changing." 

Fast forward to 2020, when COVID hit, and the couple learned another form of survival during pandemic shutdowns. Nomination forms included yet other articles about the tenacity of Van Dusen and Wolanske to operate a walk-up window, followed by the opening of their store, which was a success. While some places have merely posted a sign, it’s not as easy — or legal — as that, Van Dusen has said, wanting to clarify and educate the truth for consumers to know in further articles, all used as part of the nomination process.

Top Photo: Chris Van Dusen, founder and Co-founder Shelly Wolanske at their Empire Hemp shop on East Main Street, Batavia, and several of their self-created products. Photos by Howard Owens.

Centennial Park isn't what it once was, and a new plan unveiled at a press conference Monday aims to restore some of its previous features and make it more environmentally compatible with a changing climate.

Some 60 trees, out of about 200 trees, will be removed -- mostly silver maples -- and another 400 trees and shrubs of various species (all native to the region but also compatible with a warming environment) will be planted over the next five years, with one of the main features of the original park being restored: grass footpaths.

The plan is part of a state-driven initiative for communities to create resiliency plans.  The changes at Centennial Park are just one aspect of the countywide initiative. 

Kisha Santiago-Martinez

"This plan presents a comprehensive, holistic approach to addressing and preparing for the many challenges we confront in the face of more frequent and severe storm events," said Deputy Secretary of State Kisha Santiago-Martinez. "By developing and implementing this plan, you are proactively helping to ensure that the county, its municipalities, residents and businesses are better prepared to confront and recover from natural disasters."

The draft plan for the park states that it "addresses the role of the park in the ecological network and calls for action in these areas of concern: urban heat island effects, public health, mitigation of storm-water runoff, biodiversity and climate change."

The Centennial Park plan calls for the creation in the park of resilient habitats through the introduction of climate-adaptive native plant communities.

Plants will be selected to provide a tree canopy along with under-canopy tree species, as well as shrub species that support pollinators and wildlife. 

The history of Centennial Park -- at one time known as State Park because of its affiliation with the New York State School for the Blind -- goes back to the 1880s, when Asa Lord, the first superintendent of the school, spearheaded the effort to create a green space with walking paths, ponds, trees, flowerbeds, a bandstand and a gazebo.

The park was deeded to the City of Batavia in 1969.

Over time, many of the features of the park disappeared -- the ponds, the flowerbeds, the bandstand, and the gazebo, and unless you knew where to look, there's little trace of the former walking paths.

David Beatty, a Batavia resident who served on the committee that helped develop the plan for Centennial Park, said there has been a real effort in the plan to both preserve the history of the park and enhance its enjoyment for community members who visit it as the city's primary open green space.

"We'll be removing a lot of trees, but the trees that remain, though, they'll blend in with our new plan," Beatty said. "It's really species driven, ecologically driven. The idea was to reinforce the old historic patterns with the pathway patterns by the vegetation, the trees."

The paths will be grass but maintained so that they're clearly visible.

"It is a key design element to remain with grass," Beatty said. "The idea is to use the maintenance crew, in the summers, to keep the path mowed, so the grass in the paths will be shorter and let the park be visible, let the park grow. Don't mow it. Manage it."

As part of the plan, one of the things that will change is the removal of the golden, red, and orange leaves that fall into the ground in October and November.

The report states:

Rake (or blow) fallen leaves around tree groups to create a mulch bed. Do not mulch fallen leaves with the mower, as this will destroy Lepidoptera eggs laid on the underside of tree leaves (primarily oak leaves). Leaf litter also provides shelter for overwintering adult Lepidoptera and caterpillars in diapause Additionally, leaf litter helps to retain soil moisture and recycles nutrients to the soil. 

County Legislator Marianne Clattenburg noted during her remarks at the press conference that Centennial Park has served in recent years as a hub of community events. At one time, it hosted Picnic in the Park. It continues to host the GLOW Corporate Cup, performances by Batavia Concert Band, a recent Lemonade Stand fundraiser as well as the first pine box derby in the community in decades.  There is also the annual Kiwanis Easter Egg hunt in the park.

"As you can see, Centennial Park is a beautiful resource, but it is also the hub of community gatherings," Clattenburg said. "Resiliency plans such as this are tremendously important, as we recognize the need to plan for the future in order to preserve the treasures of the past."

Beatty said preserving space for community events was a specific point of discussion by the committee.

The problem might be parking.

When there are large events at Centennial Park, attendees tend to park their cars on the grass along Park Avenue even though the entire area is posted "no parking."  

And it's important, Beatty said, that people don't park on the grass because the cars compact the soil, damaging the root systems of the trees and shrubs.

"There will be an effort to change the parking patterns," Beatty said. "The city is going to need to figure that out."

There will also be a cinder path along Park Avenue, as there is now along Richmond Avenue, part of the re-imagined park. That will discourage parking along Park Avenue, Beatty suggested.

To fund the multi-year study and plan development, Genesee County partnered with the non-profit New York Green. The plan was also funded with a $250,000 grant from the NYS Department of State Smart Growth Program.

Click here for a 44-page PDF of the Centennial Park plan. It contains details on the three phases of tree planting and what plants are being considered for the park as well as historical, current, and projected maps of the park.  You can view in more detail the map reproduced as an illustration at the top of this story, which shows what planners anticipate the park will look like when completed.

NY Green has also created a website dedicated to Genesee County's resiliency plan, which goes well beyond Centennial Park.  There you will find a link to the full 454-page report. The 454-page report cites a number of "news" interviews with local elected officials as source material.  The un-bylined "articles" appear on images of paper for a seemingly non-existent news publication, "Changing Times."

A press release from the Department of State about the county's resiliency plan lists these objectives:

1. Flood Management/Emergency Preparedness Strategies:

• Increased communication to residents in flood-prone areas of hazards/risks from weather;
•  Increased inter-municipal cooperation and coordination for warnings;
• Repurposing of acquired flood-prone properties for conservation or recreation; and
• Implementation of flood protection measures.

2. Land Conservation/Water Quality Protection Strategies:

• Implementation of Green Genesee Road Map; protection of riparian land buffers;
• Obtaining development rights to high-quality farmland;
• Increased agricultural Best Management Practices; and
• Proper management of large-scale solar and related battery storage projects.

Resilient Infrastructure Strategies:

• Usage of green stormwater infrastructure and renewable energy sources;
• Accommodation of sizing for culverts for volume and waterway functionality;
• Expansion of tree planting and maintenance;
• Enhanced water supply infrastructure; and
• Protection of power during severe weather.

4. Community Capacity/Public Education Strategies:

• Preparation of a Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan for the Tonawanda Creek area;
• Education on the incorporation of green infrastructure for municipalities and communities;
• Public information on invasive species reduction;
• Native plant use; and
• Promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency. 

Marianne Clattenburg speaking.

Mark Masse, senior vice president of operations for GCEDC, said among the things businesses looking to locate operations in Genesee County ask about are quality of life issues for employees and what is local government doing to promote environmentally sustainable development.

"Those two questions have taken on a greater significance and importance in today's site selection processes as companies emphasize the well-being of their employees as well as the environment," Masse said. "That is why the GCEDC works so closely with the Genesee County Planning Department and other county and local government agencies on green infrastructure plans, site plan layouts and smart growth principles. The countywide resiliency plan unveiled today looks at preserving public spaces for people to enjoy while also preserving and protecting our water supply and identifying projects to help with the overall environmental quality of our community."

Shelley Stein, chair of the Genesee County Legislature, said, "The resiliency of our valuable land in our natural resources is a hallmark of Genesee County and our dedication to land use planning, and especially as an agricultural community. For instance, one of the goals of Genesee County's smart growth plan is to protect farmland and the rural character of our countryside and maintain the viability of our agriculture. By engaging all sectors of land use planning, desired outcomes and local government partners, including the City of Batavia. It has brought forward a well-thought-out, environmentally sensitive and achievable resiliency plan."

As grateful as GO ART! staff was to have gotten additional funding this year to resume the annual Picnic in the Park, it will only be possible with the assistance of other community organizations to help out, Executive Director Gregory Hallock says.

City Council agreed this year to boost the regular amount of $2,500 to $6,500 to bring back the Fourth of July event at the urging of Councilwoman Patti Pacino. Since the city wanted to approve a transfer of funds from the defunct centennial celebration committee for a resurrected Wing Ding, Pacino said she would only vote for that as long as her fellow council members also approved extra funding for Picnic in the Park. And so they did. 

After seeking various ways to make it happen, Hallock feels it’s just not feasible, he said.

“With funding drying up for both the Ramble and Picnic in the Park, GO ART! and the Ramble Team joined forces last year to put on the Ramble Explore ART! and Music Festival in hopes of keeping an event alive within this amazing community we are part of,” he said to The Batavian Monday. “GO ART! made the commitment again for this year prior to hearing about a possible funding opportunity from the City of Batavia. It was a welcoming surprise when we heard the City of Batavia was willing to help fund Picnic in the Park this year; however, there is no guarantee this funding will continue beyond this year. With the Ramble just three days before July 4th, GO ART! just does not have the capacity and resources to put on Picnic as well.

“We have reached out to numerous groups asking for help, but we have been unable to secure any. We are willing to assist any organization by providing all the files and information needed to put on the event if anyone is willing and able to step up,” he said. “It is estimated that the event in today's dollars costs $20,000 to put on.”

City Council is expected to vote on a final 2023-24 budget during its business meeting on March 13. That includes GO ART! funding of $2,500 to support the arts and $4,000 for the picnic. The group and City Manager Rachael Tabelski were informed that GO ART! was committed to the Ramble and had “declined Picnic in the Park late last week,” Tabelski said.

So what happens to that funding?

“As far as the proposed budget, the line item is still in the budget, council has the option, and may dedicate or reallocate the funding through a budget amendment to general events account or not expend the funds altogether,” she said.

The picnic is not the only event not to make an appearance this year. Assistant City Manager Erik Fix recently announced that the Wing Ding Committee has put a halt on plans for this year’s event, initially scheduled for Labor Day weekend to correlate with a Wings Over Batavia Air Show. There didn’t seem to be enough time to properly map out the event, and members wanted to reconsider a date for the event.

Not all is lost for summertime fun. The Italian Fest will make a second annual return in July, The Ramble Explore Art! and Music Festival will also be happening in July, plus Friday night Jackson Square concerts throughout the summer and other concerts and special events at various downtown and across town venues to check out at The Batavian’s calendar. The air show will be making a comeback Labor Day weekend at Genesee County Airport.

File photo of the virtual 2020 Picnic in the Park during COVID, by Howard Owens.

Click here to view: 334 W Main Street. Batavia.
Click here to view: 117 State Street. Batavia.