batavia

Of the dozens of people milling about a spit-polished brand new LandPro Equipment site on West Saile Drive Friday morning, not many could compete with the diehard dedication of John Deere collector Marty Frenchie, who was scoping out the trademark grass green-colored tractors in the 75,000 square-foot building’s showroom floor.

Frenchie, as he’s mostly known by his friends, has 13 tractors, and “maybe” looking for number 14 during LandPro’s grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony. He’s familiar with all of the dealers and decided to visit this branch on the town’s north end of Batavia during the morning’s festivities.

“It’s great, it’s close to home,” he said, sharing why he collects Deere tractors. “I got it in my blood.”

Frenchie, while not a farmer of the county’s 200,000 collective acres, certainly fell into the group to whom Glenn Gibson represented. The Ag & Turf Division business manager for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S. for John Deere, Gibson gave “a heartfelt thank you for everyone who made this day possible,” from the financial end of things and LandPro ownership and employees to “all of the city officials that helped support this project, and the construction teams that built this absolutely beautiful building,” he said.

“But most importantly, thank you to our customers that LandPro has had the privilege of serving,” he said. “Just a little bit on the history in Genesee County. So John Deere has had a location here since the 1950s. And if you get a chance, there is a beautiful painting that's in the showroom that really depicts that history really well and all of the dealer organizations who have supported this region. Agriculture is the number one industry in the region in Genesee County, with just under 500 farms, operating about 200,000 acres and generating about $250 million to the local economy.”

“Genesee County is very, very important to John Deere and, more broadly, the whole Western New York region. And so … we really appreciate the investment that (Argonne Capital Group) and LandPro are making to build on that legacy here in the region. Today, we are focused on serving the greater good to help the world produce food, fiber, fuel and infrastructure to meet our needs by 2050,” he said. “There'll be 10 billion people in the world, so we'll need to increase our agricultural production by 60 to 70 percent. To tackle these challenges, two years ago, John Deere launched our smart industrial strategy, and our aim is nothing short of revolutionizing the agriculture and construction industries. We want to unlock customer value across their production systems and across their equipment life cycles to make sure that change and that productivity is sustainable for all.”

What does that mean?

• Leveraging technology to enable smarter, more precise and productive machines to add value throughout the life of their machines to keep them operating and minimize cost, he said. Continuing to focus on innovations, such as alternative power and electrification across many product lines.
• Autonomous solutions — the company’s tillage tractor that they can operate day and night.
• A continued focus on artificial intelligence and neural networks on machines “in order to help growers take crop management from a field level down to the individual plant level.”
• And a great example of that is our new sea and spray sprayer — spraying just the week. So you're realizing a 70 percent savings in the chemicals applied, he said.

“So you may have heard the tagline ‘nothing runs like a Deere.’ And that's true. But our commitment goes beyond the products. And it goes to the communities that our exceptional dealers serve. And so, together with our dealers, we run so that life can leap forward,” Gibson said. “So I'll finish where I began. And that's just a huge thank you to everybody who made this day possible. And as good as today is, our best days are ahead of us. And I think the investment in this building in this community is a shining example of just that.”

LandPro President and CEO Tom Sutter recalled standing in a rural field 20 months ago with cattails up to his eyes, “trying to figure out where this thing’s gonna go,” he said. And on Friday, he recapped that being surrounded by a team of “phenomenal” people, all of whom he wanted to thank, he could only admire the finished product and look back in awe at what they all endured.

Managing a construction project that size from the ground up, for starters. The land was wild with trees and foliage and, of course, full of cattails. Anyone who drove by during its development would have seen the skeleton of structural beams, a scene quite the contrast to a paved sidewalk surrounding the 75,000 square-foot building with a showroom entrance, corporate offices, a large training room, walls decorated with colorful agricultural photos in plexiglass, a 54,000 square-foot shop with a drainage system and heated floor.  Other challenges were COVID-related issues and delays.

Sutter thanked the county Chamber of Commerce, GCEDC, Batavia, and many company and corporate members.

“It’s great working with all of you. I mean, look at this. Look at this beautiful building behind us. They put it in from the ground up. So I can't thank you all enough. You put up with a lot of hardship. So thank you all guys for putting up with that,” he said. “And our customers are so important, you all make this happen.”

Chamber of Commerce President Brian Cousins was on hand with the big pair of scissors and to offer his congratulations. LandPro is twofold, he said, in its benefits for Genesee County and beyond.

"I think it's absolutely fabulous. They've obviously been a staple inside the county for a very long time. It's great for both consumers and agricultural support throughout our region,” Cousins said. "The store is beautiful. It's always great to see the people expand; they get additional jobs, and they get additional support. So I think it's just a wonderful asset to our community as a whole. Agriculture is the number one industry in the community. So having another branch and another support and a larger mechanism to be able to lean on for a resource for our agricultural workers or even our residents is outstanding.”

The location is at 4540 W. Saile Drive, Batavia. For more information, go to LandPro or call 585-948-5261. 

Photos of Friday's ribbon-cutting for LandPro Equipment's grand opening of its West Saile Drive store and shop, by Howard Owens.

For anyone who grew up in Genesee County, you may recall those fun weekend nights of pulling on a pair of roller skates and gliding around the floor of Skate 98 as a DJ blasted dance and rock tunes and the dimmed atmosphere was a great canvas for colored scrolling lights.

If you’re yearning for some of those fun nostalgic times — and decent exercise to boot — or looking to build some new memories, management at the McCarthy Ice Arena has brought back public roller and inline skating from 7 to 9 p.m. every Friday. 

And for only $5 a person, rink Manager Kati Murray says.

“We’re trying to get people in here to skate for a couple of hours,” she said to The Batavian Friday afternoon. “We do not have rentals, but we’re in the process of getting them, we might rent them out from a place. We have music, just like we do for the ice skating.”

The Batavian asked if the place does anything with lighting, and Murray said, “Funny you ask that.”

“We’re in the process of putting up lights that flash, we’re putting them up for next Friday,” she said. “We’ll have flashing lights and a black light, and we’re getting updated music.”

Skaters will get the entire floor to bop along to tunes, in between taking breaks for a snack from the concession stand. This is the second week of public skating, and Murray believes it will take some time for people to catch on that the rink is open for this activity.

There are also two nights of floor hockey: Tuesdays have five adult teams already signed up, and Wednesdays are offering pickup teams for kids 14 and under from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and one for adults 7 to 8:30 p.m. Those are just beginning, and anyone interested in joining can just show up at the designated time.

The cost for Wednesday’s teams is $10 a person, and goalies are free. For more information about any of the teams, email adam@mccarthyicearena.com.

There’s still time to dig out and dust off those rollerblades from the garage, and head out to the ice arena on Evans Street, Batavia. For more information, go to McCarthy Ice Arena. https://www.mccarthyicearena.com/ or call 585-250-4040.

Submitted photos of rollerskating at the David M. McCarthy Memorial Ice Arena in Batavia, top, and playing floor hockey, above.

Press release:

The Board of Trustees of Notre Dame High School is pleased to announce that Mrs. Melissa Lindner has been named the new principal of Notre Dame High School of Batavia, effective July 1, 2023. 

President of the Board James Sutherland made the announcement, saying, “We are excited to welcome Melissa to our Notre Dame family.  Her experience in private education is extensive. She comes to ND from Saints Peter and Paul School in Williamsville, NY, where she served as principal for the last four years.  Melissa has a strong history as a school leader, teacher and coach. Her impressive background in coaching includes both primary and high school level experiences, where she oversaw the Athletic Director and coaching staff, but most notably, she has coached at the collegiate level as well.”     

Mrs. Lindner brings a wealth of experience and commitment to Catholic education. She has a passion for STREAM, (integration of Science, Technology, Research, Engineering, Arts and Math) and was a featured presenter at the National Catholic Education Conference on the subject in 2022.  Melissa is looking forward to inspiring faculty to have an active focus within STREAM education and to be an instructional leader who will work collaboratively with staff and parents to provide a positive impact on teaching and learning.

“It is an honor to be coming to an established preparatory school environment whose excellence is always at the forefront.  As a dedicated Catholic School teacher, coach and administrator, I look forward to empowering the school community to continue to grow in all aspects while keeping the strong traditions of Notre Dame always in perspective”,  Lindner said.   

She would like to thank the Board of Trustees for their confidence in appointing her, commenting, “as soon as I walked through the doors of the school, I felt like part of the ND family.”

“For over 70 years, ND has left an indelible impression on our local community, as her sons and daughters have gone on to impact communities throughout our nation and our world”, states Sutherland.  “We are proud to see a new era of leadership as Melissa Lindner brings both impressive experience as well as a strong background as a Catholic School educator.”

Please join the Board, staff and faculty of Notre Dame in welcoming Mrs. Melissa Lindner to her new position.

Shop Oliver's Candies or visit the Sweet Life Country Store's facebook page

Developer David Mazur said he's been building apartment complexes and running the ones he builds for 18 years.  He has a formula. He knows it works. And he knows the type of tenants he expects to be attracted to his units.

With that experience, he's sure the 80-unit complex he is proposing for Medtech Park by GCC will be market rate, with rents ranging from $1,350 to $1,895 per month (that rate could be as much five percent higher once construction is done, he said).

To qualify for a rental agreement, tenants must have a job, if not retired, and a monthly income of 3.5 times the monthly rental rate.

That rules out college students as potential tenants, he said, and parents can't co-sign for a child. Whoever signs the rental agreement must live in the apartment, he told the Genesee County Planning Board at Thursday's meeting.

After his presentation, when told that other developers have promised market-rate complexes only to change the terms during construction, he said he's 100 percent certain that won't be the case with his development.

"I have never had a project go a different direction other than market-rate," Mazur told The Batavian ."So I'm not sure what happened in the past with other developers or what their performers were, what their plans were, but this is 100 percent designed to be market rate."

The Grand Island-based developer said in his other projects, 60 percent of his tenants are seniors, sometimes retires, with the balance being working professionals.  The seniors, especially, he said, are looking for and demand quality units.

"(Countertops are) either gonna be quartz or granite," Mazur said. "All the finishes are higher end. That's where go back to, like I said, retirees because it's 60 percent of my base at other locations. They want it. They want just new, fresh, crisp places. Some have never lived anything brand new. They look at it, like, I want it, this is what I'm going to live in."

There will be 60 garages for the 80 units, with outdoor parking available for the rest.  

Amenities will include a dog park, and the complex is pet friendly, with some restrictions on dog sizes.  Tenants in apartments with shared hallways are limited to smaller dogs, less than 30 pounds.  The townhouse apartments will have a bit more flexibility, he said.

When Mazur found out the Medtech land was available for development, he said he saw an opportunity to do what he's done successfully in places like Grand Island and Tonawanda -- to build a complex for people that want to be close to a city center -- such as Batavia -- while taking in the country air.

"That's our portfolio," Mazur said. "It's full of what I call country or township apartments. When I found the parcel was available, to me, it made sense. You're a stone's throw from the action downtown. And, you know where the property's sitting -- we can't promise what's going to happen in the future, what else is going to be built there, but right now, it's farmland. So it's gonna be a nice setting for people to have the dog park, walking areas, things like that." 

He said he hasn't investigated bus routes in the area but said that most people moving into market-rate apartments own a vehicle. 

The plan calls for six 12-unit buildings and one eight-unit building with 24 three-bedroom apartments, 42 two-bedroom, and 14 one-bedroom, with 36 single-car detached garages.

The total project cost is expected to exceed $12 million.

Jim Krencik, senior director for marketing and communication for the Genesee Economic Development Center, said the Genesee Gateway Local Development Corporation, an adjunct to GCCEDC, approved a sale agreement for Mazur to acquire the 14 acres for the proposed development in December for $200,000.

"With the support of the Town of Batavia, City of Batavia, and GCEDC, we're pleased to see Countryside Apartments moving forward," Krencik said. "This project enhances our market-rate housing stock and can accelerate our Batavia Home Fund to support future residential improvements in the city."

The Batavia Home Fund collects revenue from developments and makes the funds available for rehabilitation and similar projects for residential homes in Batavia. 

Krencik said the Countryside development is eligible to contribute to that fund but not draw from it.  

Mazur said he doesn't know yet if he will apply to GCEDC for any potential project assistance.  It's early in the planning process, he said, "and that's putting the cart before the horse."

Based on his previous experience, Mazur said he believes he won't have an issue filling all 80 units once the project is complete.

"Like I said, we've been in the business  now for about 18 years, and I've had people with me that have been there the whole 18 years. So, again, the style of buildings that we're building, we build the same buildings in different townships, we already know our cost structure, we know our problems, and we tweak the issues from the first project to the second project. We may change color, and it will be different for different townships, but really, it's a process that works for us. And it takes a lot of the risk out of the game."

Previously: Apartment complex with 80 units proposed across the road from GCC

An outdoor project that’s taken quite some time in the creation mode seems to be coming along now, city officials say, teased by warmer weather and sunnier days.

City Manager Rachael Tabelski recently reported to City Council about “a really positive meeting on Jackson Square.”

“The redesign is going extremely well,” she said, adding that by working with Architecture Unlimited and an engineer who works with them have been creatively frugal in the design phase. “We hope when we go out to bid we can create substantial cost savings for the project. One of the items was the original project had footers in the stage, and by just placing concrete blocks instead of these footers is going to save us upwards of $150,000 on the project.”

Architect Kenneth Pearl said the Jackson Square stage was a type of pre-engineered wood (photo above) in a rather eloquent description, she said.

“So it'll be a very nice finish that will hold up the roof, and will be very similar to what we use on our buildings, on a rubber roof with kind of tongue and groove panels above it, and that will hopefully have a 20-year warranty,” she said.

A handicap ramp will be removable, so that it won't be built directly into the structure, will be something that can be “absolutely safe to roll up gear and or persons that need to use that ramp,” she said, and will also be removable so that it won’t jut out into the audience.

Another cost savings measure is to analyze the brickwork that is there, and some of the concrete larger slabs which architects have discussed, they are going to try to remove and salvage them in lieu of a concrete base so they don't sink again, Tabelski said.

“Because what happened before is they were just placed there and they sink like they might in a residential project. And with reusing those, we should save another significant amount of money. We want to look at different concrete dye colors to add just a little bit of textual and color elements to the flooring,” she said. “But overall, Jackson Square is really the paintings on the buildings, there's not much that needs to be done there. The catenary lighting, which is the lighting that goes above will still be part of the project.”

There will be LED performance lighting on the stage with color changes per holidays and special events. For example, Fourth of July would feature red, white and blue lights. Cobra heads will also be used, which are outdoor fixtures mounted to poles and mainly used for street and roadway lighting but can be used for other general area lighting.

“We’d have control over that. We also have one or two Cobra heads, (DPW Director Brett Frank) hooked me up to that,” she said. “As soon as we take possession in the phase two LED light changeover from National Grid, we'll be able to put dimmers and timers on that so we can turn those Cobra heads off during performances.”

The Jackson Square project has been at least three years in the making, reaching a point of requesting bids and City Council approving one in June 2022. But Mark Cerrone Inc., after receiving word that the company’s bid of $654,000 was selected, backpedaled with last-minute revisions and add-ons, hiking the bid up to $847,950.

Council then rescinded its approval and rejected that and two other bids for the project. The design went back for what Tabelski called a “deep dive” into potential cost-cutting revisions since it had to go back for a whole new bid process anyway.

The project is to be primarily funded with a $750,000 Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant, plus $225,000 from National Grid, Tabelski said.

“When we go out for bid, they look at the scope of work, and they put a price to that with the materials and the labor … so it necessarily doesn't always line up with the budget we have,” she said at that time to The Batavian. “So we will be re-examining our bid specifications to make sure we think that pricing can come in within that.”

She was hopeful that a contractor with an acceptable bid could be approved for construction to possibly begin in 2022.

Well, that hope has come and gone, and city officials are hanging onto the expertise of Pearl and his architectural firm.

“So we’re really, really happy of the work that Ken and his firm has been able to do to bring this project into where the DRI Committee asked it to be and to be able to bid it out in what we think will be on budget,” Tabelski said. “So the hope is if everything goes well, which I absolutely hope it does, you'll see bid awards in July.”

The plan is for the Business Improvement District to host the Thursday and Friday night concerts in Jackson Square series throughout the summer, and begin construction at the end of August, she said.

Photo of a similar Jackson Square stage image, with pre-engineered wood ceiling and LED lights, courtesy of City of Batavia. 

More than 400 area residents hit about 40 sites in Genesee County to volunteer their labor to make the community a little bit better as part of the annual United Way Day of Caring on Thursday.

The Batavian stopped by a handful of the volunteer locations, such as Adam Miller Toys and Bicycles, GO ART!, the YMCA, the War Memorial, Dwyer Stadium, and the Community Garden.

Volunteers also went to six different locations for Arc GLOW, the Batavia Cemetery, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Cross Roads House, the David M. McCarthy Memorial Ice Arena, Eagle Star Housing, Ellicott Trail, the Peace Garden, Gilliam Grant Community Center, Holland Land Office Museum, Machphelah Cemetery, Purple Pony, Resurrection Parish, St. James Episcopal Church, St. Paul Lutheran, UMMC, and the Village of Elba, among other locations.

All photos by Howard Owens.

It's an annual rite of spring: Fire hydrant flushing, which helps keep the hydrants servicable for emergencies.  City Fire crews flushed hydrants in a couple of city neighborhoods this morning.

In a release, City Fire explained the necessity of fire hydrant flushing:

This annual testing is essential to maintain the communities class III Insurance Services Office (ISO) public protection classification, and to assure that fire hydrants are operating efficiently for fire protection purposes. Along with maintaining the fire rating, the test monitors the health of the city's water system, identifies weak areas in the system, and removes material that settle in the water lines. 

A work crew was in the parking lot off School Street in Downtown Batavia this afternoon, making repairs to lights in the lot.

Photos by Howard Owens.

Press Release:

Northgate Church is excited to announce that they will be hosting a Rummage Sale on Friday, May 12, from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Saturday, May 13, from 8 a.m. - noon in the gym at the Northgate South Campus, 350 Bank Street Road. 100 percent of the proceeds from this event will benefit Northgate’s ‘Connected Community’ in Gahanda, Rwanda, Africa.

Northgate will be funding food and agricultural projects throughout the village, helping many of the families learn to grow and maintain sustenance for their loved ones, which is something that is not prevalent in Rwanda.   For more information, call the office at 343-4011 or visit https://fb.me/e/13p4dKgCc

At the Richmond Memorial Library, the Batavia Society of Artists is displaying some of the best works of its members for the spring, and on Tuesday, at the annual Spring Show's opening, the best of the best were honored, including a GCC student who received the Virginia Carr Mumford Scholarship Award.

The art show was judged by Le Roy artist Lori Longhany.

The show runs through Friday, May 26.

Work crews have been busy paving the parking lot between Court Street and Jackson Street this week, completing the Jackson Street side on Wednesday, after weather delayed the work a day or two. 

Out of the approximately $200,000 project, 85 percent is for paving operations, and the remaining 15 percent is for milling, Public Works Director Brett Frank said.

Project funding is from Parking Lot Reserves, he said, for wear and tear that broken down the lot's exterior.

"The main issues with the parking lot were simply the age and condition of the parking lot," Frank said to The Batavian. "Quite simply put, it was time to mill and pave the entire parking lot, and we're past the time in which filling potholes and putting Band-Aids on the lot are considered sufficient repairs." 

City work crews have been milling and paving the Court Street parking lot this week next to Save-A-Lot between Court and Jackson streets in downtown Batavia. Photos by Howard Owens.

Click here to view 334 West Main Street, Batavia.

Click here to view 117 State Street., Batavia.

Click here to view 0 Galloway Road., Batavia - Town.

Fifteen young Genesee County residents celebrated their first communion on Sunday at Resurrection Parish in Batavia.

"Communion, also known as the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, is the source and summit of the Catholic Faith," said Jason Smith, director of Faith Formation at the church. "Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and when students receive their First Eucharist, they have been thoroughly prepared through Faith Formation classes so that they understand and appreciate this concept.  It is a significant event in the Catholic faith, and is one of our seven Sacraments.  Sacraments are designed to draw us closer to God and experience God's love and grace."

Photo by Steve Ognibene.

Press release:

Progress on the South Lyon Street Bridge is moving at a good pace as today over 120 cubic yards of concrete were poured for the bridge’s new deck. Union Concrete, the contractor on-site, will have to “wet-cure” the new concrete with burlap sacks and sprinklers for the next 14 days. After that is completed, approach slabs can be formed and poured between the roadway and the bridge to keep the project on schedule for completion in June.

Submitted photos.

Press release:

On May 9, the Genesee County 911 Center took a call from a local business that had received a call from what was believed to be a juvenile stating there was a "bomb on a school bus" at a location in the City of Batavia. 

Through the investigation of patrol officers and detectives, it was determined that the call was false and that an eight-year-old child on a bus made the call, knowing it to be false. 

Officers located the school bus in question, which was empty of students at the time. Out of an abundance of caution, the bus was cleared by an NYSP K9 that specializes in explosives detection, and none were found. 

The case has been turned over to the Juvenile Detective for the Department, and no further info is available at this time.

Work crews completed repaving the public parking lot off of Court Street, by Save-a-Lot and Main Street businesses in Downtown Batavia.

Photos by Howard Owens.

There just isn't enough room in the Genesee Valley Ag Park on the east side of the Town of Batavia for a project as large as the Fairlife plant announced today in Monroe County.

The 745,000-square-foot facility will be built by Coca-Cola and create an estimated 250 jobs in the Town of Webster.  The company is expected to invest $650 million in the project.

Asked if the Genesee County Economic Development Center competed for the project, Jim Krencik, senior director of marketing and communications for GCEDC, said it is against agency policy to discuss what companies might have looked at Genesee County as a possible site location for a facility.

"The huge winners here are the dairy farmers," Krencik said. "Wherever it's located in our region, the dairy farmers are the biggest winners."

When asked a follow-up question, he said with HP Hood and Upstate Niagara Milk Cooperative operating in the park along with planned expansions, the Coca-Cola facility wouldn't fit in the park.

Asked about potential sites in Genesee County for such a facility, he said there could be, but that would depend on available infrastructure, and he reiterated the policy of not discussing negotiations with businesses.

HP Hood is the largest land owner in the Ag Park. Its current facility sits on 80 acres, and the company also owns a 22-acre parcel to the factory's north, and 30-acre and 17-acre parcels to the west. All three of those parcels are currently vacant.

The Coca-Cola project in Monroe County has echoes of another soda company's foray into the dairy business -- when Pepsi Co teamed up with the Theo Muller Group to build a Greek yogurt factory in the ag park.  Pepsi and Muller invested $206 million into the project only to close the doors less than three years later.

Pepsi sold the 363,000-square-foot plant to the Dairy Farmers of America for $60 million.

Hood purchased the plant in 2018 from DFA for $54 million. Hood immediately expanded the plant by at least another 100,000 square feet.

The other failed Greek yogurt project, the plant built by Alpina, is now a dairy processing facility for Upstate Niagara Milk Cooperative.

The big difference, perhaps, between the Pepsi and Coke projects is that Pepsi was trying to start a new business line and enter the emerging and competitive market of Greek yogurt. And the product, some critics pointed out, wasn't really Greek yogurt. Pepsi Muller found it hard to get its products on grocery store shelves. 

In Coke's case, its Fairlife brand was launched in 2012 and is widely distributed, having already hit $1 billion in sales.

According to the company's website, Fairlife is an ultra-filtered, flavored dairy drink. The process reportedly removes the lactose and much of the sugar and leaves behind more protein and calcium.

Gov. Kathy Hochul praised Coca-Cola for selecting Monroe County as the location for its new plant.

"This decision by Fairlife to expand their operations in Monroe County marks the next chapter in New York's agricultural success story," Hochul said. "New York's dairy industry serves as a crucial economic engine for our state, and this $650 million investment from Fairlife will create jobs and drive economic impact, particularly in the Finger Lakes."

Flames and smoke are showing from a second floor at 39 Manhattan Ave., Batavia.

Unknown if occupied.

City Fire on scene.

UPDATE 10:12 a.m.: Fire is out.  Visually, no apparent significant damage to the structure. 

UPDATE 11:32 a.m.: The cause of the fire is under investigation, said Chief Josh Graham. Nobody was home at the time of the fire, and there were no animals present, Graham said. No injuries reported. "At approximately 9:46 this morning, we are alerted to a possible structure fire," Graham said. "Before we arrived on location, they called and updated us and said there was actual flame showing. Crews made entry and quickly extinguish it. It was a small room-and-contents fire on the second story. Right now, they're doing salvage and overhaul through the structure."

Graham praised the work of the firefighters. "We were actually given a tour at the fire station at the time. And so they were out ready to go and got here within a couple of minutes, and that speaks volumes to our ability to be able to go in there and knock these fires out before they get out of hand. They did a fantastic job today."

Two Town of Batavia projects — the Kings Plaza Pump Station and Force Main Upgrade —  originally planned for completion in 2020 had been put on hold due to Covid-19 and increased pricing, city officials say, pushing it out to December 2021 when additional funding was available.

During that same time, the town’s wastewater flows increased to approximately 1.2 to 1.4 million gallons per day, which exceeded the town’s current contractual limit of .85 million gallons per day, as established in the Wastewater Facility Agreement dated in February 2015, city officials said.

“So basically what you’ve got, the Town of Batavia was awarded a grant from the New York State Community Development Block Grant to upgrade the Kings Plaza pump stations and make improvements to the existing water main that connects to the city's sewer system. They are over capacity right now,” Public Works Director Brett Frank said during City Council's conference meeting Monday at City Hall. “The pump station has a maximum capacity of .54 million gallons per day (MGD), and the town would like to plan for future growth … there’s concern with their current exceedance of the contractual former limits in the full capacity of the plant, and we believe we should not yet approve a capacity of one million gallons per day. This agreement will address these concerns and proposes modifications to ensure that the town adheres to the current capacity flows of point .54 MGD.”

City Council was asked to approve a resolution of agreement between the town and city of Batavia that the town will stick with an average .54 million gallons per day, and that if it goes above that, “daily monetary penalties will be levied by the city.”

City Attorney George Van Nest said that the city has “the ability to have penalties for going over that, which it’s in there, but we haven’t stipulated what those penalties would be.”

The town is also asked to agree that a new 12-inch force main will be installed from Kings Plaza Pump Station to River and South Main streets, and that the city may inspect the project.

“The upgrades at the Kings Plaza Pump Station will include a new master sewer meter,” the resolution states.

Council members Bob Bialkowski and Eugene Jankowski Jr. said they were concerned about the town paying the penalty, “and that’s not solving our problem,” Jankowski said, “and they’re getting away cheap to cause a problem for us.”

They wondered if the town should have to do its own water treatment, and Frank said that’s already in the plan.

“We’re actually engaging in those engineering services to potentially expand the wastewater treatment plant, and that would all be at the cost of the town of the Batavia to do those engineering services,” he said.

The matter was forwarded on to a business meeting that followed, and Council approved the resolution for the city manager to execute a related state Department of Environmental Conservation BSP-5 form.