batavia

As far as Brandon Armstrong knows, his is the only black-owned barbershop, in Genesee County.

In honor of Black History Month, Armstrong held an open house on Thursday morning, with coffee and donuts, to both celebrate the month and to officially unveil his new logo and new business model for Royals Barber Shop at 317 Ellicott St., Batavia.

When Armstrong opened his first barbershop at Ellicott and Liberty (now Eden Cafe) in 2011, it was likely the first new barbershop in Batavia in a number of years, after a long period in which stylists were in vogue and barbers were passé. In the years since, four or five new barbershops have opened locally, though a couple didn't last long.

More than a dozen years since that first venture, Armstrong is still in the barbering business, and he says he's stuck with it both because it's a lucrative business and because he enjoys it.

"I feel like it's one where you can be yourself a little bit more," Armstrong said. "It's nothing too uptight, but it's still super professional. You can still be yourself. A lot of it's not really too hard of work, I feel like, but it still can be hard work. It's an equal balance of everything."

The new logo comes with a change in the business that he hopes will serve the business better, his customers better, and his employees better.  Unlike most salons and barbershops, his barbers are members of the staff, earning an hourly rate plus commissions.  It's no longer like they own their own businesses, with all the consequences and responsibilities that go with being self-employed, but they're getting a regular paycheck.

"Now they're bankable barbers -- that's my thing, being bankable barbers," Armstrong said. "Being bankable barbers means they will be able to bring their pay stubs to the bank and get a house or get a loan for a car."

Armstrong said with employees instead of contractors, he will be able to better maintain regular hours, which will benefit customers.  Also, with booth rental, there is also a cap on how much money can flow into the business.

"From what I'm learning is that you can't really scale the business, if you aren't being able to profit the right amount and put it back into your business," Armstrong said. "This way, we're able to get some money flowing through the business and be able to get loans for the business. It means being able to scale the business."

Now that he's a proven entrepreneur with a track record of success, what advice does he have for young people in the community, particularly people of color, in light of Black History Month, who are drawn toward going into business for themselves?

"Be the best that you can be," Armstrong said. "Work the hardest. You can outwork your competition. Whatever you're involved with, you have to practice at it, and you have to become the best at what you do. Try to be the best at what you do. Practice makes perfect. Whatever it is that you're involved in, make sure you're practicing and working hard, and it'll pay off."

The Emergency Response Team was deployed on Dellinger Avenue early this morning to assist Batavia PD with the execution of a warrant, Police Chief Shawn Heubusch said.

The police department announced at 7:15 that Dellinger was closed to public access.  The street was reopened at about 7:50 a.m.

Heubusch said there were no difficulties during the operation, and there were no injuries.  He said more information will be released later today.

I spent most of my life in education -- 13 years of it in Batavia: kindergarten at Washington School, first to eighth grade at St. Mary's on Woodrow Road (for first and second grade, we were in the basement of Notre Dame High School because the elementary school was being built), and four years at Notre Dame on Union Street. 

My three-years younger brother Dan spent part of his elementary years at St. Joseph's on Summit Street and then graduated from Notre Dame.

Lastly, my 11-years younger brother Jim went to elementary at John Kennedy on Vine Street, Batavia Middle School on Ross Street and then Batavia High on State Street. 

So, between the three of us, we had a bunch of Batavia schools covered.

After high school, I went on to St. John Fisher College in Rochester for five years ( I had an illness as a junior which required an extra year). Upon graduation, I spent one year teaching sixth grade at St. Peter and Paul School in Rochester, and then after spending three years out of education, I taught fifth and sixth grades for the next 32 years at three different elementary schools in the Rochester City School District. 

If I'm doing my math correctly, that's 51 years either being taught or doing the teaching, although any good teacher will tell you that you never stop learning. There's a lot you can learn from your students, too.

Everyone reading this article spent some amount of time in school. In Batavia, if you were Catholic, depending on where you lived, you could choose between St. Mary's or St. Joseph's on the north side or St. Anthony's (heavily Italian) or Sacred Heart (heavily Polish) on the south side for elementary school. 

Today, only St. Joseph's is still operating. 

Then it was likely on to Notre Dame for high school.

If you went to public school, it was Pringle, Lincoln, East Washington, Jackson, Brooklyn, Robert Morris, or John Kennedy Elementary.

Today, Jackson and John Kennedy are still operating, and Robert Morris has reopened partially. 

Then it was on to the Middle School and Batavia High, which has been on State Street since 1961.

What did all these kids in all these schools have in common? Well, if it was between the 1950s and the early 2000s, they were using the same “technology” that I did in my student and teaching career. And the thing all of those who are still around have to realize is that almost all of those classroom tools we relied on to help us learn are gone, probably never to return. My intent in this article is to take a nostalgic look at the classroom equipment of days gone by.

Seemingly forever, the blackboard, or chalkboard as it was also known, was a main point of use in every classroom. I have to admit I made full use of mine right up until my retirement in 2006. In fact, I used it so much that some days I would go home looking like I spent the day working in a gypsum mine. 

My former students will still remember being called up to the blackboard two or three at a time to work out math problems. 

Most teachers had a job chart where each week students were assigned a task. One of those was to clean the erasers at the end of the day. They would either go outside and clap them together, causing a dust storm that looked like Oklahoma in the 1930s, or later on, there was a machine to run them through. Another job was to wash the boards at the end of the day, but I was such a stickler I would do them again after they left.

As time passed, whiteboards with dry-erase markers became the norm. Today, virtually every classroom has a smartboard, which is connected to the internet and makes a lot of the older equipment useless antiques. 

Of course, each student has a laptop computer or tablet to use too.

Cursive writing, or actually even printing. I'm sure you all recall the green tagboard cursive letters in white script that virtually every elementary teacher had on display in the classroom. A certain amount of time each day was devoted to practicing printing in the primary grades and then cursive at the intermediate level. Writing assignments were either printed or done in cursive. 

If you went to Catholic school like me, the nuns were fanatics about it. Maybe it was in their sisterly vows. “I swear that I will torment elementary students about perfecting the Palmer Method of cursive. So help me God.” 

It never happened to me, but I have been told by others that rulers on the back of hands were sometimes utilized (especially if you were left-handed) to help emphasize a kid's devotion to cursive perfection (but right-handed). Also, I know this sounds sexist , but why did the girls always have better cursive?

Today there is almost no need for writing of any kind, with the possible exception of math problems. Most things are written with a keyboard on a computer, tablet, or even a phone for homework. Most classrooms today have a minimum of pencils, pens, and paper. It simply is not needed. There is also a shortage of nuns so I guess rulers are not needed either to keep those fingers in place on the keyboards.

This is going way back, but 16mm  films and projectors were once the way to see movies. In the Rochester District, you had to order a movie from a central supply location, and it would be delivered to the school by a messenger. Then you had to reserve the projector from the library where it was kept. 

In my first school, you could never get it on a Friday afternoon because the same lazy teacher always beat you to it. Once you got the movie and projector, there was at least a 50 percent chance the film would break at some point, and you'd have to splice it with tape. Some of the movies had been spliced so many times they were almost unwatchable. If the projector light bulb blew out, that was the end of the movie for the day because, apparently, new bulbs were only made in Mongolia or somewhere.

In the 1980s, VCRs came into use so you could more easily watch movies on a TV. Televisions (still the kind with “Rabbit Ear” antennas) became popular to watch big events like presidential inaugurations. Often classes would have to combine together because each school only had a couple TVs. In the late 80s, video cameras were introduced to record school plays and events. 

Today, every school has wi-fi, and each classroom has that previously mentioned five-foot-high smartboard connected to it, so all those previous viewing methods are obsolete.

Before big Xerox stockholders got rich from the copier business, we made copies with a mimeograph machine. A toxic fluid was poured into it by teachers, and some lawyers could probably make a bundle today after finding out what health problems were caused by exposure to that stuff. 

We would make a master carbon copy, clip it into the machine, and turn the crank to roll off the number of copies we wanted. This often resulted in purple fingers, and if the copies were “hot off the press,” the students would be sniffing them, which was probably as bad as smoking. 

Copiers are still a problem, too, with adding toner and the constant jamming. If hidden microphones were ever placed in copier rooms, lots of teachers would be in trouble for their (expletives deleted).

Finally, we would use a machine called a filmstrip projector. A strip of film would come in a metal or plastic container. Usually, there was an entire box of these devoted to a certain topic. The strip of film would be inserted into the projector (again requiring those light bulbs from Mongolia), and the teacher or a designated student would turn a knob that advanced the film one frame at a time.

Accompanying these strips was a record or audio tape that would narrate the topic. When a beeping noise occurred, that was the signal to advance the frame. For example, if the topic was Batavia, NY, the tape would say something like: “Batavia is a small city located in western New York,” while on the screen would be a map of New York State with a red dot showing where Batavia is. “Beep”. The film would be turned one frame. “ Batavia is the seat of Genesee County.” The film would show a map of New York State counties highlighting Genesee County and Batavia. “Beep.” And so on ad infinitum. 

Or should I say ad nauseam because the people chosen to narrate these film stips must have been hired from a group of failed announcers due to their extremely boring and annoying voices. 

About halfway through the filmstrip, you would look around, and students were either asleep or drawing funny-looking pictures of you.

Whether you attended school in Batavia, Le Roy, Alexander, Oakfield, Rochester, Buffalo, or Tucumcari, New Mexico, if it was before the 2000s, you used one or more of the classroom things I described. They were all successful aids in learning to a greater or lesser degree, but their time has come and gone like the feather quills and inkwells of the 1800s. Like phone booths and dial phones, today's kids would not have heard of most of these things if you asked them. As they say, time marches on. But it can sometimes be enjoyable to think back to the “good old days” and the things our teachers used to educate us.

(Authors note: as is usual with my writing I try to make my articles nostalgic with a touch of humor mixed in. If you care to comment, I would love to hear any anecdotes you might have about any of the equipment I mentioned. Or, maybe I forgot some things that you could add. However, if you have any political comments about today's education there are numerous forums to do that. Please keep to the spirit of reminiscence here. Thank you.)

Press Release:

The Genesee County Republican Committee will be meeting to endorse candidates for the 2024 Election.

The following positions will be open:

• United States Congress
• NYS Senate
• NYS Assembly
• Genesee County Sheriff
• Genesee County Treasurer
• County Coroners (2)

If you are interested in running for one of the above positions please contact Republican Chairman Scott German at 585-409-4870, GeneseeChair@yahoo.com, or mail your resume and letter of intent to PO Box 151, Batavia. All letters must be received by Tuesday, Feb. 13.

A larceny was reported at Ulta Beauty with three subjects running from the store on foot toward the ESL Credit Union, where they apparently got into a silver SUV and fled the scene.

The stores are in Batavia Towne Center on Veterans Memorial Drive.

Law enforcement units are converging on the area.

Responding units have gone to secure communications, so there aren't likely to be further updates on the search or pursuit.

After Monday’s latest city budget session — which grew contentious at times — at least two City Council members said they are against any tax increases, while City Manager Rachael Tabelski has made it clear that maintaining the status quo for a tax levy isn’t feasible to continue the same or better level of services. 

Councilman-at-large Bob Bialkowski said early on that he wouldn’t go for a tax increase, and Councilwoman Tammy Schmidt later said that since she’s been representing Ward Six, the total budget has gone from $29 million to $33 million to this year’s proposed $37 million, and a $4 million-per-year increase for the budget is “not sustainable.”

Her comments came on the heels of the police department budget presentation, which included a report recommendation from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services to increase the force by five officers, from 20 to 25, at a cost of $84,500 each, which includes starting salary, FICA, retirement and holiday pay. Medical would add another $12,000. There was no discussion about uniforms, equipment and vehicles for additional officers. 

“I mean, the budget’s up over a million dollars; that’s just the police budget," Schmidt said. "I think we could try to add one a year, but I don't think, I wouldn't vote for a tax increase at all, I can already tell you that. My constituents live in a poor district, I have to represent Ward Six. And my ward isn't going to go for even a penny, because the water bills are up, you want a storm sewer tax -- I won’t vote for that either, because my constituents call me all the time, and I won’t vote for a tax increase, because I’m sure the assessments are going up. We can’t raise the bills every year in the city of Batavia when 80 percent of the people are at poverty level. You know, the people sitting around this table might not have a problem.”

At that point, Schmidt got cut off by her fellow council members and city staff offering input about her comments. City Manager Rachael Tabelski questioned the 80 percent figure, which Schmidt said she surmised from the school district’s free supplies program. 

The city school district does offer a free and reduced lunch program, per the New York State Nutrition Department, which has federal funding support. School districts must be eligible based on their specific poverty rates and have to apply for approval. Batavia City School District is eligible because it has an “Identified Student Percentage of 40 percent or higher according to building level data,” per the district’s website.

As for an actual poverty level, the latest U.S. Census numbers put the city’s poverty at 13.3 percent, compared to the overall Genesee County level at 10 percent. 

There was further discussion and debate about income levels in the city. Tabelski said that there are some 45 percent people in the city making at least $60,000 a year, to which Schmidt replied that she couldn’t survive on that income, and she knows the city manager’s household makes much more than that. 

The median household income, according to 2022 Census Bureau figures, was $54,937 for the city of Batavia. The median income is in the middle of the income range, from lowest to highest, so about half are lower and half are higher. The per-capita (what an individual makes) income in 2022 dollars is $34,517.

Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. said he understood Schmidt’s concern.

“And we have to understand also that a lot of people here expect a certain service, and they want to be safe, and they want their streets to be safe. And we are very safe if you look at us, because we're also putting money aside, we're putting money in reserves," he said. "Some of this increase in the police budget includes the current budget for last year, that 80,000 some dollars isn't covered over into this budget, so then technically, it doesn’t count because we were supposed to spend it in last year's budget and it's being brought over.”

Tabelski further clarified that “we settled the contract before wages to be included. We took from the contingency, so you're not even comparing apples to apples. Last year's budget for this year is not the same comparison,” she said. 

The 2023 adopted budget for the police department was $4,374,567, and the proposed 2025 budget is $5,048,862. This includes personnel of 20 patrol officers, with one vacancy, five detectives — one for juvenile and one for narcotics — one supervising detective, the police chief and assistant chief and two school resource officers, both paid for by the school district but supplied vehicles by the department. 

The department has been interviewing for a crossing guard position, and Tabelski proposed the creation of a full-time confidential secretary position to add to the current full-time records clerk and a part-time clerk. She also suggested that the part-time clerk position would be kept on the books, though the job may not actually get filled. 

During that conversation, Tabelski abruptly suggested that the council go into executive session to discuss a personnel matter. Since, per the open meeting law, that general statement is not a sufficient explanation for a private discussion, The Batavian asked if the meeting was to discuss a specific person, and Tabelski said yes. 

A few minutes later, the open meeting resumed, and Tabelski said the confidential secretary position would be part of the police budget. If council opted to add those five extra patrol officers, that would mean an extra $425,000 in expenses, “that we’re going to have to start to plan for, either in this budget or the next,” Tabelski said.

Jankowski is in favor of a “slow, work-toward-this policy” so that the group can evaluate the city’s needs before jumping into a costly move to add extra personnel, he said. 

There may come a point when there is no choice, Tabelski said. 

“Councilman Bialkowski, I have the greatest respect for you, but you can't tell me to keep taxes the same and still deliver the same service, then say you're the manager, you figure it out. As my legislative counterpart, we’re here together to work on this. These meetings are more robust than they've ever been because we want to be completely transparent,” she said. “I get the budget from the department heads. I'm slashing and burning budgets, they hate me for a month and a half, then I come here, and do my best to sit down with our department heads and try to give you all the information of what we are doing, and we just heard a lot of maintenance … and we’ve gotta pay the piper. 

“And this is really what we wanted to talk to you about. We understand that everyone’s costs have gone up, but I do believe the average citizen expects a small incremental increase in what they’re paying to keep the city services here,” she said. “I absolutely believe that’s the case 90 percent of the time. We will face $2 to $3 in tiny, incremental changes.”

As Genesee County Animal Shelter staff and volunteers prepare for the mandates handed down by New York State for a new companion animal law, there’s no doubt some apprehension in the air.

Dog control officers Sarah Fountain and Catherine Stewart have been at the Route 5 shelter for more than two years each, and though confident in what’s currently being done to care for the animals, they know that modifications to the status quo are coming.

“It’s very overwhelming,” Fountain said Thursday, with two thick packets of the law and guidelines sitting nearby on her desk. “I think change is very scary for people. I think some of this stuff is already being done.”

There are the bigger alterations of the physical building, which sits alongside County Building #2, including a new HVAC system that keeps the air temperature between 60 and 80 degrees, separate ventilation systems for the adoption and stray side of the shelter, larger kennels for both dogs and cats, isolation rooms for sick dogs and cats, treatment rooms for dogs and cats, separate washing facilities for both dogs and cats, additional wash sinks for volunteers, and daylighting for diurnal lighting. 

Those are no small fixes, as they will require major spending, to be offset with a grant for up to the maximum amount of $500,000 the county is hoping to receive. There are also the physical implications of doing work alongside caged occupants. County officials are reaching out to adjacent shelters for assistance with temporary housing while much of the upgrades and repairs are being done, Fountain said. 

Then there are the boots-on-the-ground changes — those day-to-day items that she and Seward and the daily core eight volunteers for dogs and about 15 for cats must abide by per state Ag & Markets law. 

“We have to keep documentation of every little thing, and there’s more training for volunteers and everyone who’s coming into the building,” Seward said. “It’s something we already do, but we have to increase it, keep more detailed records — are they eating, are they drinking, going to the bathroom, the noise levels and temperature levels.”

Other data tracked by animal shelters includes animal handling; behavioral assessment; enrichment and stress reduction; management of bite/scratch cases; and sanitation, plus written protocols approved by a licensed veterinarian, including nutrition and feeding; physical examination; emergency veterinary care; pain management; vaccinations; parasite control; anesthesia and surgery, if performed on-site by the organization; humane euthanasia; and outbreak management/control of infectious diseases.

They both agreed that the animals are well taken care of, and the shelter operation has become one of those “well-oiled machines.”  However, there are a few things that could use attention, such as the temperature. While there hasn’t been a problem with maintaining proper heat during winter, it has gotten very hot during summer. They have some air conditioning and fans, but “it does exceed 80 degrees” on those exceptionally blazing 85-degree days, Seward said.

She looks forward to having something more stable in place.

“I think it’s a good thing. We have struggled to keep them — it’s not all the time, but there are times when we struggle to keep the temperatures down, and we’re moving dogs around to get everybody to where we can keep them comfortable,” she said. 

“And when it’s warmer than 85 degrees, it’s not ideal for the people or the animals,” Fountain added.

They have shuffled dogs around to different spots in the shelter if a room is particularly sunny and warm and make sure they’re near a fan, they said. 

“This past summer, part of it was trying to move them to different spots. We had this room that seemed to be too hot, the way the sun's coming in later in the day, that we have one particular dog room that gets particularly hot. And I think it has to do with the way the sun's coming in," Seward said. "We’ve had to move dogs to the other side to a room that is cooler, we’ll move them over there under more fans over on the other side. And then move them back if we get it cooled off, and move them back before we're open to the public.” 

Daily logs will be mandatory for cats as well, tracking how many minutes a day they have interactions with others and what the interaction was. 

“I think we’ll all have to be checking. We have a system with the cats right now set up. We’re tracking, feeding, and watering so that they get enrichment time," Fountain said. "We need to get into a routine of doing that tracking. I think we just started with the cats, and now we’re going to move on to the dogs.”

With a smaller core group of volunteers working with the dogs, Seward sees that being a little easier to manage than with more people and more opportunity for variety, interacting with the cats since there’s a settled routine and schedule for the dogs. Seward and Fountain like routine.

“Sarah and I have a routine, we come in and in the morning we’re the ones that feed and let out the dogs, and we clean, sometimes there’s volunteers that help with that. But we come in and we do kind of the basic care for the day, everybody gets fed, everybody goes outside,” Seward said. “Throughout the rest of the day, it’s more spot cleaning, everything gets scrubbed in the morning, and then as the day goes on, we just do it kind of as needed. We have a great group of volunteers that comes in in the afternoon. And they kind of have a schedule for who does what days, but it’s a smaller group.”

For as many guidelines as the state has passed on to them, the officers aren’t certain how all of the tracking will be managed. Will it be done via computer or manually written and available in hard copy form? “They haven’t given us an answer as to how they’re going to monitor that,” Fountain said. 

Having all of the information in a computer program would be nice, they said.

Along with the new revisions, we will be replacing all of the cat cages — they’re too small for the new regulations, have slatted bottoms which won’t be allowed, and should be compartmentalized so that sleeping, eating, and litter box areas are properly separated.  

The adoption kennels need to be reconfigured so that there are some bigger cages for those larger breeds of dogs that come in. A sink/wash set-up will be built in the dog adoption area, specifically, “readily accessible sinks shall be convenient to all animal care areas. Single service soap and towels or electric hand dryers shall be available at all hand-washing locations.” Space is to be mapped out to provide isolation areas for animals with infectious diseases, so as not to spread those to others.

Sound will be another focal point. Each animal shelter “shall minimize continuous exposure of personnel and animals to sound levels exceeding 85 decibels. Active measures shall be taken and documented to minimize sound levels in housing areas. Such measures may include modified kennel design, relocation of particularly loud animals, or use of visual barriers, sound baffling, and behavioral enrichment protocols.”

Each animal shelter is to use a decibel meter at a minimum of once weekly to measure the level of sound in their kennels during cleaning and resting times. “A record of such measurements and the date such measurements were recorded shall be maintained by each animal shelter.”

The current shelter floor has been peeling and needs to be addressed, which will happen as part of the overall project, Seward said. There are pros and cons to consider, from the additional time it may take to complete the ongoing tracking and related paperwork and how to manage several animals during interior construction to the final outcome, she said.

“We have an issue with the flooring back there that the floors need to be refinished, where our flooring is peeling up and it's not truly disinfectable as is. Okay, so it doesn't make sense to fix the floor without also adjusting the kennel sizes. It doesn't make sense to fix this and then take out a wall, and now you have a place missing the floor sealant or whatever they decided to put on. So we kind of need to think of the bigger picture and make sure everything's done in an appropriate way to fix the issue. Not piecemeal things together,” she said. “We do take a lot of pride in taking good care of our animals. Some of the physical changes need to happen to provide the best care. As least temporarily we’re going to have to adjust, we’re going to have the animals out of here short-term. I think this shelter does so much good, we need to upgrade some things.”

They’ve already had a companion animal consultation and visits from officials to take a look at the building. The grant application has only just been approved by the county Legislature for submission, and Fountain and Seward hope to hear something by this spring.

Meanwhile, the new law will take effect Dec. 15, 2025. 

Calling for an end to U.S. funding what they term "genocide" in Gaza, members of the Genesee County Democratic Socialists of America conducted a protest Saturday outside of  Batavia City Hall.

"A lot of people died, a lot of people are displaced," said Logan Cole, secretary for the group. "It's not only that, but they can't come back, they have nowhere to go. The rates of death, especially the death of children, rival that of historical incidences of genocide, including the Armenian Genocide and even some of the concentration camps back during the Holocaust."

Asked for his views on Hamas, Cole said, "Their tactics are not ones I support, but it is very difficult whenever you are held in an area, in an open-air prison, and I think historically, violence has become something that is sort of inevitable when you're putting so much pressure on a particular population."

Asked if Israel shouldn't defend itself against terrorists, Cole said, "I disagree with the characterization of terrorists. I don't think the word terrorists has a place in the discourse. I don't think it's appropriate. It's like, you know, the difference between Hamas, which has killed thousands of people, and the IDF (Israel Defense Force), which I also don't consider terrorists, which has killed tens of thousands of people, where their violence is sanctioned by the state. To me, that's a minor point. I think that I hope for a ceasefire. I hope to end funding the atrocities being committed against Palestinians and, eventually, a free Palestine that is pluralistic and democratic."

After the protest, Cole emailed The Batavian the text of a statement he made later in the day during the protest.  Here is the full statement:

So much of the discussion surrounding the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is designed to derail conversation about atrocities being committed against Palestinians or prevent one from being sympathetic to those in Gaza. One of the rhetorical devices that has been frequently employed in the propaganda and conversation surrounding Palestine is the thought-terminating cliché. A thought-terminating cliché is an overused piece of language that is intended to stop an argument or conversation, rather than give it the attention it deserves.

For example, the word “terrorist” and the concept of terrorism are often used to try to halt discussion of Palestinian losses so people do not become sympathetic to them. At times, the Israeli media would take the figures of Palestinian casualties provided by the Gaza Health Ministry and say that all of them were terrorists — for example, Israeli news sources would say instead of 9,000 Palestinians killed (many of which were literally children), “9,000 terrorists eliminated.” As far as I’m concerned, the word “terrorist” has no place in the discourse about Palestine.

Sometimes, an important problem is marginalized because it is cynically deployed as a thought-terminating cliché. Bigotry against Jewish people has been a huge problem, as we recently saw at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and the synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh and Jersey City. Lately, speaking out against the atrocities committed against Palestinians and the Zionist (right-wing, nationalist) ideas that underpin them by groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and initiatives like BDS, has been deemed by some, including the Anti-Defamation League (the ADL), as “antisemitic.” Zionism is not Judaism — indeed there are more Zionist Christians in the United States than there are Jewish people in the world. Declaring an anti-Zionist statement is antisemitic solely on that basis is itself a form of anti-Jewish bigotry because it associates the entirety of Jewish people with the modern form of Zionism, which takes much of its inspiration from atrocious ideologies like Manifest Destiny and eugenics, which themselves were used to justify other genocides. Conflating anti-Zionism and anti-Jewish bigotry through the use of the term “antisemitism” takes attention from the real acts of hate and violence being committed against Jewish people every day. The use of antisemitism as a thought-terminating cliché hurts both Jewish and Palestinian people.

Ironically, perhaps the most commonly used thought-terminating cliché is the idea that the subject is complicated, complex, or that it requires nuance. Nothing ends a conversation or stops someone from asking questions faster than saying a situation is complicated.

The fact that there is a genocide in Gaza is not complicated:

• More than 25,000 dead (more than 10,000 of them children)
• More than 60,000 wounded
• More than 7,000 trapped under rubble
• More than 100 times as many children die everyday in Gaza than in the Ukrainian conflict zone
• More than 1.9 million people have been displaced in Gaza — that’s more than 85% of the population
• Only 5 doctors remain in Gaza
• 83 out of ~1,000 journalists in Gaza have been killed (more than 8%)
• More than 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners detained
• More than 70% of homes have been destroyed in Gaza
• 95% of those facing starvation in the world are in Gaza right now

It’s not complicated. We can’t stop thinking about Gaza. There needs to be a ceasefire, a halt to all US support for the military exploits against Palestine, no further Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, and a free Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Press Release:

Lion Ron Metz, president of the Lions Club of Batavia, welcomed Josh Bender, executive director of the GLOW YMCA, who updated club members about YMCA's progress with the ongoing Healthy Living campus project in downtown Batavia. 

The director noted that it started six years ago when a casual group of people had an initial discussion about proposals of remodeling locker rooms. With time, the ideas morphed into a $30 million project shared with Rochester Regional Hospital. 

The grand opening is projected for the fall of this year, with most of the glass enclosure facing Main Street nearing completion. Josh noted three-quarters of the new 80,000-square-foot facility will be occupied by YMCA programming and have children, teens, and multipurpose rooms, as well as the gym, workout rooms, and traditional “Y’ spaces. 

The new project has plans to employ 200 full- and part-time staff, and membership is projected to be 4,000 or more.

Batavia and Notre Dame faced off against each other in both Girls and Boys Basketball in support of a good cause at Genesee Community College.

The Hoops for Hope Tournament benefited the Michael Napoleone Memorial Foundation.

The Notre Dame girls won the first game 29-24. For the Irish, Sofia Falleti scored eight points and had five rebounds. Emma Sisson scored seven points and had 17 rebounds. For the Blue Devils, Isabella Walsh scored 15 points.

In the nightcap, Batavia beat Notre Dame 53-49. Carter Mullen led the Blue Devils with 17 points. Casey Mazur scored 12 points and Gavin White and Justin Smith each scored eight. For the Irish, Jaden Sherwood scored 20 points.

Photos by Pete Welker.

Press Release:

The Historical Horizons Lecture Series is set to make a return in Spring 2024, presenting a captivating lineup of four Wednesday lectures at Genesee Community College, sponsored by the GCC History Club.

The lectures, scheduled to take place at GCC's Batavia Campus in the Conable Technology Building, Room T102 at 7 p.m., promise to offer a diverse range of topics that appeal to both history enthusiasts and the general public. All lectures are free of charge, underlining Genesee Community College's commitment to providing accessible educational opportunities to the community.

The series kicks off on Feb. 7 with a lecture titled "'Opera Was Not Written for New York Alone': Circuit Chautauqua, English-Language Opera, and the Making of an American Middle, ca. 1910-1930." Renowned scholar Cory A. Norling, PhD Musicology, will delve into the rich history of the Chautauqua Movement and its impact on the American Midwest, exploring the role of staged opera as a cultural bridge.

Following this, on March 6, historian Jess Maxfield will present "The Cautionary Tale of Encephalitis Lethargica: Epidemic Disease and Historical Memory." Maxfield will shed light on the encephalitis lethargica epidemic of the early 20th century, drawing parallels with the ongoing conversations surrounding global pandemics.

April 3 brings us to "The Worst of the Worst: The Story of the Confederate POW Camp at Belle Isle in Richmond During the Civil War" by Associate Professor of History, Derek Maxfield. The lecture promises a compelling exploration of the Belle Isle camp, challenging popular perceptions about Civil War prisoner-of-war camps.

The series concludes on May 1 with a book talk by Civil War Historian Victor Vignola titled "Contrasts in Command: The Battle of Fair Oaks, May 31-June 1, 1862." Vignola's award-winning work on the Battle of Fair Oaks offers a fresh perspective on this pivotal moment in Civil War history.

Genesee Community College invites the public to join them for these enlightening lectures, providing a unique opportunity to engage with historical topics and esteemed scholars. Mark your calendars for an enriching experience at the Historical Horizons Lecture Series this spring.

For more information, please contact the Office of Student Engagement and Inclusion at sei@genesee.edu.

Press Release:

The Town of Batavia Republican Committee will hold its Endorsement Meeting on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. at The Batavia Town Hall.

Anyone interested in being considered for said Republican endorsement for Batavia Town Clerk should send a letter of interest & Resume to shawley@smhawley.com no later than Jan. 30 at 5. p.m.

Whether it’s $4,000 or $55,000 and larger, City Council members have financial decisions to make either with this year’s budget or those in the future on items big and small, ranging from fireworks at Dwyer Stadium to the city’s technology plan and beyond.

The group has been delving into the numbers line by line the last two weeks, getting department updates about equipment, vehicle, personnel, building, property, and infrastructure needs, future projects, and those in progress, asking questions, and getting the full picture of reality for the city of Batavia. 

“It probably sounds overwhelming, everything we’re telling you, but it’s our job to be completely honest with council on what we’re facing here as employees," Human Resource Director Rebecca McGee said during a conversation Thursday evening about information technology. "And one of the biggest things we face, one of the biggest hindrances we have, is information technology and doing our jobs, and trying to make things work the right way.” 

Apparently, things haven’t been working very well with the city’s contract for monthly maintenance with AIS. Assistant City Manager Erik Fix, who was admittedly sort of pegged as the surrogate IT guy in the absence of someone being on-site full-time, he said, reviewed the plan, which provides a person to visit on-site once a month and perform installations. 

As for handling those day-to-day technical issues, much of that has fallen to Fix and other city staff. Police Chief Shawn Heubusch and his department staff have had to consistently address issues themselves, he said.

“I just pulled up our spreadsheet, we have over 30 computers at our office alone,” Heubusch said. “That is immensely time-consuming when we have to deal with any of the problems. The investment that we have with AIS, although great, it is not enough. I have an officer, a detective actually, on staff who fixes our computers when they’re broken or installs a new program because something broke. That’s a waste of his time and his energy.”

He also mentioned the surveillance cameras, which are great when fully operational, but when they break down, it takes city public works staff to retrieve them from a pole and then someone to make a repair so that they can resume their function on city streets, he said. 

AIS serves a function; it’s just not enough, Fix said. 

“They manage and maintain all of our servers, they manage and maintain all of our equipment,” he said. “It’s that troubleshooting piece, that hands-on piece that Shawn’s talking about. It’s just a constant, constant battle to keep that up and running and avoiding probably doubling or tripling our fees and ask them to have somebody here. We’re managing bare bones.”

Another glitch in the city’s older-fashioned system is the need to do some timesheets manually, McGee said. 

“Do you know we all still do our timesheets by paper?” McGee said as the room went silent. “When we’re thinking about IT, it’s the time-savings of taking 36 timesheets and entering them. When we’re trying to weigh out the costs, it’s the time savings and the cost savings.” 

Fix suggested a 10 percent increase for both the AIS piece and software cost, for a total of $71,500. In this next year’s budget, AIS alone would be $55,000, which prompted Councilman David Twichell to suggest considering dropping the maintenance service and hiring an IT person. If full-time, however, there would be expenses of benefits and retirement costs to be considered.

The city has pulled back on community celebrations spending, reserving $4,000 from last year potentially for a request from Batavia Muckdogs owner Robbie Nichols for fireworks, which is where it went after GO Art! Announced that there wasn’t enough staff and volunteers to pull off the former Picnic in the Park event at Centennial Park on July 4. 

"Last year Council allocated funds to do a fireworks celebration at Dwyer with those funds. I did not add that in there. But I did get a request as we were walking into this meeting from Robbie Nichols. So if you'd like that, I have a written request for that," she said. "We did, however, get a letter from the Holland Land Office Museum asking for support. So I did add that into the budget, but it's certainly something Council can review."

There’s $2,500 slated for both GO Art! And Holland Land Office Museum.

Councilman Bob Bialkowski supported a contribution to the West Main Street museum, he said. 

"They are remodeling and painting, they’re closed for a month, they’re setting up new displays, they're going to be entering into an expansion project from the west side of the building, a major expansion … and doing some major work on the building too,” he said. “This small amount of support from the city really means a lot to him, and I think so many city people use it, you know, the schools, I think it’s a great educational tool.”

City staff participates in the Memorial Day parade, Christmas in the City and Veterans Day, with corresponding investments, for a total of $13,500 for community celebrations.

The city also has $12,500 for a hot water tank and $20,000 for seating repairs earmarked from reserves for Dwyer Stadium. There’s a need to improve a section of seats that have been beaten up by the weather, Tabelski said.  Those seats haven’t been able to be used, and that equaled a loss of ticket sales, she said. 

Other Dwyer expenses are $6,000 for salaries and another $3,000 for maintenance, for a total of $43,500.

The ice rink is to get $20,500, with $16,500 for a contractual expense and $4,000 for public works salary. 

In other recreational-related expenses, Human Resource Director Rebecca McGee let council members know about a new health perk for employees.

“We are excited to announce that we're able to increase our gym reimbursement program so that anybody can turn in a receipt up to $100 towards their membership for a gym,” she said. “We're pretty excited about that. Again, this continues to just keep going towards the health and well-being of all of our employees, and how seriously the city is taking that.”

Bialkowski asked how many employees take advantage of the reimbursement. 

 “We have $1,500 budgeted for it, so 15 employees,” Deputy Director of Finance Lisa Neary said.

There is also $2,500 for employee recognition, which includes fees for participation in the annual GLOW Cup 5K in Batavia.

“We’re moving towards the wellness and continuing to keep that in the forefront and focus for all of our employees. As we can see, they're pretty excited to have it, we'll take advantage of that one to help to make sure that we're all staying healthy. And then employee recognition, we had a great turnout over the last couple of years for their GLOW race, which is celebrated in Centennial Park that first week in August. So that's the increase towards that. We've had a lot of members take advantage of that over the last couple of years,” McGee said. “We’re pretty excited to be able to again continue to offer that as a wellness benefit for all of our employees, and making sure that we're all staying healthy, and being able to have some bonding time with our fellow employees and recognizing the importance of that, to have that line increase there as well.”

Other assorted budgeted expenses from general governmental services include:

• $45,000 for City Centre properties (fees and taxes) parcel #s 2, 11 and 16; 
• $25,000 for the city’s mall fees; 
• $11,000 for recycling and garbage pickup; 
• $10,000 for city facility maintenance; 
• $22,000 for court operations and maintenance; 
• $15,000 for mowing, boarding and picking up garbage for code inspection-related properties.
• The expense of $310,000 for the portion of roof over Main St. 56 Theater was negotiated, but from here on out, future sales of city properties will be considered “as is,” Tabelski said. 

The big-ticket items for major departments will be included in future articles. Council has more budget sessions scheduled for the week of Jan. 29.

Press Release:

Arc GLOW has chosen a new name for the 48th annual event held at Terry Hills Golf Course. 

GLOW Abili-TEES Golf & Bocce Tournament.

“The new name aligns with Arc GLOW’s mission of focusing on the abilities of individuals served by Arc GLOW while adding a twist to the word “Abili-TEES” as it relates to the game of golf,” said Ed Carney, chairman of the GLOW Abili-TEES Golf & Bocce Tournament committee.

It was chosen after a staff naming contest was held.

“The individuals who Arc GLOW serve have a lot of talent; we want to highlight that at this tournament while raising money so we can further help empower and support them,” said Lisa Bors, public relations director for Arc GLOW.

This year it will be held on Monday, July 15 at Terry Hills Golf Course, located at 5122 Clinton Street Road in Batavia.

Along with enhanced sponsorship opportunities, Arc GLOW has reduced the golf fee to $135 and bocce to $60 for the tournament. To reserve a spot, e-mail Sandy Konfederath at SKonfederath@ArcGLOW.org or (585) 343-1123 ext. 1715.

Keep your eyes peeled for further information on the Arc GLOW Facebook page and website, and save the date to be sure to help empower and support people of all ages with a broad spectrum of emotional, intellectual, and developmental disabilities.