batavia

Genesee County has gotten some attention from the Department of Homeland Security due to a severe weather watch for the next few days.

Department Commissioner Jackie Bray was heading this way to work alongside the county’s Emergency Management Services team, Legislature Chairwoman Shelley Stein said Wednesday evening.

The commissioner — whose most recent Twitter posts include news that Governor Kathy Hochul declared a State of Emergency -- planned to be embedded with county workers throughout the weather event, Stein said. Hochul's declaration Thursday morning was for 11 counties in New York predicted to be impacted by heavy lake effect snow.

The counties include Genesee, as well as  Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Jefferson, Lewis, Niagara, Oneida, Oswego, St. Lawrence, and Wyoming. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, all commercial traffic had been banned on multiple state roads and state Thruway I-90 from Exits 46 to 61.

Citizens are to brace for the most heavy accumulations of up to four feet of snow in the Buffalo area. Hazardous travel conditions and local power outages may occur as a result of the combination punch of snow and wind that's been prevalent in weather forecasts. Hochul has urged New Yorkers to stay alert and avoid unnecessary travel Thursday evening (tonight) and Friday.

Several people have been dispatched to combat the elements, including 70 operators, seven supervisors, four equipment operator instructors, four mechanics, one operations manager and one support staff in the Western New York region, the press release stated.

The City of Batavia is prepared, Manager Rachael Tabelski said, and she has been talking with police, fire and public works departments, and county, utility and state leaders all day to ensure storm protocols are in place. Tabelski was glad to see that state roads and the Thruway are being partially shut down early as a proactive measure.

"I think shutting down truck traffic early is very helpful ... and rerouting trucks -- We just want to keep as many arterial roads open as we can," she said Thursday afternoon. "We will be determining early in the morning if we will close City Hall. We're hoping to remain open to serve all of our residents."

During talks with municipal leaders, Tabelski was reminded that commercial trucks that use the Thruway and other major highways have gotten stuck idling during intense storms, and that makes it nearly impossible for snowplow operators to do their jobs and clear snow. Rerouting that traffic well before a storm hits was a good move to help alleviate that issue, she said. 

All major department personnel from the police, fire, public works, snow removal and water and sewer plants will remain open Friday, but the mall market slated for Saturday has been canceled, and the Yard Waste Station will be closed this weekend as a precautionary step, she said. 

"I'm not saying we're rusty, but it's our first snowstorm (this season); we've got a great team in the city and county," Tabelski said. "Stay safe, stay home, use your generator outside and not inside, don't use stoves to keep warm, make sure you've got batteries ... don't light candles inside. We feel as prepared as we can be for one of these events."

As for feeling confident that a storm of the predicted intensity -- with quantity and speed of potential snowfalls -- Tabelski couldn't commit to that. "We just don't know," she said. But, per the popular adage, it's better to be safe than sorry.

She also wanted to extend a "thank-you" to those city, county and state employees that are out there in the middle of the night plowing and clearing roadways "so that we can live our lives" and remain safe.

Batavia City School District and all after-school activities will be closed Friday, Superintendent Jason Smith said. The Batavian will be publishing an ongoing list of closures and cancellations as they are received.

So hunker down, snuggle up, and get ready for some wintry weather to safely endure from inside.

File photo of January's snow clean-up, by Howard Owens.

The Town of Batavia Planning Board voted unanimously on Tuesday night to appoint itself the lead agency in the environmental review process for a new Tractor Supply location at 8727 Lewiston Road.

Tractor Supply is planning a 24,000-square-foot building to replace its current store at 4974 East Main Street Road.

Not only will the new location be larger, but Tractor Supply will also own the land and building.  The company leases the current location.

"The main effort is to expand into a larger space and be an all-inclusive store that competes more with The Home Depot, Lowes, and those types of stores," said attorney Ryan McCarthy.

Real Estate broker Tony Mancuso said previously that he has potential tenants already considering the former Tractor Supply location, so it may not go vacant long.

The current location is owned by 1515 Management Company Inc., which appears to be a company based in Iowa with principles living in Boca Raton, Fla.

Tractor Supply is acquiring 5.08 acres, a portion of a 50-acre farm field owned by the Call family and actively farmed by MY-T Acres.  The five acres will be divided into four parcels.

Tractor Supply will occupy a parcel 340 feet from Lewiston Road.  There will be another parcel between that parcel and Lewiston Road.  It's expected that the parcel, zoned commercial, will be developed at some point, as well as the other two parcels being acquired by Tractor Supply, but there are no firm plans for development at this point.

The new location will have 110 parking spaces, which is 10 fewer than required by ordinance, which means Tractor Supply will need to apply for and receive a zoning variance.

McCarthy said Tractor Supply, which operates nationwide, knows the flow of its business well, and the store will not need 110 spaces, which means less land to cover with asphalt.

Plans to convert the farm field into commercial development have been on the books for more than 20 years. As part of the project, Tractor Supply will start construction of a road -- initially a driveway into the new store -- that will eventually connect Lewiston Road to Veterans Memorial Drive on the north side of The Home Depot.

A planning board member asked if it will be necessary to install a traffic light at the new road and Lewiston Road, and Mancuso said, "not yet."  Not until a planned roadway is installed directly opposite the location that will connect Lewiston Road with West Main Street Road.  That vacant land, in the town's Comprehensive Master Plan, is designated for commercial development.

The proposed project will be back before the board in a month when the board will review the environmental impact report.

John Sumlin, III, 43, of West Main Street Road, Batavia, is charged with five counts of criminal contempt 1st. Sumlin is accused of violating an order of protection by contacting the protected party by telephone while being held in the Genesee County Jail.

Ronnie K. Johnson, 52, no permanent address, is charged with grand larceny 4th and burglary 3rd. Johnson was arrested on a warrant stemming from a criminal complaint reported at 7:15 a.m. Aug. 2 at a location on East Main Street. He was arraigned in City Court and ordered held in the Genesee County Jail. He is also charged with grand larceny 4th and conspiracy 5th, charges that stem from a criminal complaint filed on Aug. 19 at a location on East Main Street.

Nicholas J. Mruczek, 39, of Batavia, is charged with harassment 2nd. On Nov. 6 at 9:45 p.m., Mruczek allegedly physically harassed a woman during a dispute. He was issued an appearance ticket.

Benjamin A. Boyce, 41, of Batavia, is charged with dog running at large. Boyce is accused of allowing his dog to run at large at 8:35 p.m. Oct. 31 on Woodrow Road, Batavia. He was issued an appearance ticket.

William J. Galliford, 62, of Bergen, is charged with failure to appear.  Galliford was arrested on a warrant and arraigned in City Court and released on his own recognizance.

George J. Budzinack, 42, of Rochester, was arrested on a bench warrant after allegedly failing to appear in court as ordered. He was arraigned in City Court and released on his own recognizance.

Johnnie M. Waston, 39, of Dodge Street, Rochester, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child and harassment 2nd. Waston is arrested in connection with a disturbance reported at 7:04 a.m. on Oct. 21 on Shady Lane in the Town of Batavia.

Connor Jenkins Rombault, 25, of West Avenue, Brockport, is charged with DWI, moving from lane unsafely, and speed not reasonable nor prudent. Rombault was stopped at 10:09 p.m. on Nov. 11 on Lake Street Road, Le Roy by Deputy Mason Schultz. Rombault was processed at the Genesee County Jail and issued an appearance ticket.

Four designs for entryways into Batavia City Centre were unveiled this week to mall merchants and City Council members.

The designs vary from one another at each of the four locations — including near the former Sunny’s, Hawley Insurance, and Le Beau Salon.  One design builds on the red brick exterior with doors and windows to let in the sunshine; another one leads into a glass vestibule and has a large hanging basket of flowers nearby; a third one features multiple hanging flower baskets with a sloping structure above it, resembling a slight roller coaster effect; and yet another entrance goes a bit wild with low maintenance greenery, and a bench.

Craig Jackson of Batavia Stagecoach Florist spoke on behalf of fellow merchants.

“They thought it looked pretty good,” he said. “The one near Sunny’s is a little fancier. It’s a fairly decent design of entryways to make the place look a little better.”

There was also some relief that there would be no more silo-style entrances, he said. Silos were originally built as separate areas from the mall, and they have collected a lot of water spots and damage over the years from a poorly designed roof.

"Basically, you're seeing a design still with a vestibule, but a very welcoming entrance into the space,” City Manager Rachael Tabelski said during City Council’s meeting this week. “Hunt Engineers has been working on this for the last six months.”

As soon as Hunt finalizes the design and related documents, the project will be put out for bid, she said.

“Ideally to begin by spring,” she said.

The city has $1 million of grant money set aside for the project.

"Right now, we believe that the entire million dollars will be dedicated just to redoing the silos at this point with construction costs. But we want to put in some other alternates in the project such as flooring and painting," she said. "The existing mall maintenance crew has been taking down ceiling tiles, and we're looking to see if we can repaint those ceilings similar to what we did here at City Hall. So just multiple different ways to spruce up City Centre." 

Aside from new ideas for mall facelifts, city officials have been trying out a mall market on select Saturdays. They are encouraged by the gradual increase of vendors and foot traffic. Jackson has noted an uptick of customers during these Saturday mornings, he said.

“I’ve gotten more traffic in the store because of it,” he said. “It has brought people in here on the weekends … about 10 to 15 more customers and they're buying things, that’s good for us.”

Current mall maintenance staff work on Saturdays, and are available to assist vendors with set-up, Tabelski said. There has been no overtime so far, and the whole market idea is “a beta test,” she said, which is an opportunity for real-time vendors and shoppers to use the market and test it out to uncover any issues before more fully launching it.

Vendors bring in their own tables and supplies, and the concourse can accommodate up to a 10-foot-high truck of goods to fit inside if necessary.

“We think it’s going well, we definitely want to see more activity with vendors and shoppers,” Tabelski said.

The next market is scheduled from 8 to 11:30 a.m. this Saturday, and nine vendors are registered to participate. Vendors include the core staples of Porter Farms, Tastefully Simple and Garner Farms, plus Dilcher’s Concessions, Gracefully Designed, Flint’s Maple, and Wright’s Homestead.

The market is also scheduled for Nov. 26, Dec. 10, and Dec. 17.

For those people that have criticized the city for putting any more money into City Centre, Tabelski said it makes no sense to do otherwise.

“We have a very large space in our downtown, whether we agree with how and why it got here. There is no value for doing nothing,” she said. “The merchants deserve a whole lot of respect from the community. They are offended when people say ‘just tear it down.’ We need to be creative with small programming.”

Those merchants — property owners within City Centre — have invested their lives and livelihoods into that space, she said, and the city needs to invest as well. Second-floor apartments are “a complete option” as a way to repurpose the mall building, and potentially “get the property back into private hands,” she said.

Renderings of City Centre entrance designs courtesy of City of Batavia.

A case involving chalk drawings on the exterior of City Hall has been referred to the Genesee Coumty District Attorney’s Office, Police Chief Shawn Heubusch says.

Stemming from an Aug. 8 graffiti spree in which the brick columns, doors and sidewalks were marked with about a dozen crude pictures, city police have investigated the matter, Heubusch said, and are now waiting to hear if “any criminal charges are applicable,” he said in response to The Batavian’s request for an update.

The drawings, thought at the time to be “anti-ReAwaken Tour” depictions that rejected hate and fascism, were discovered after a City Council meeting that ended around 8:45 p.m.

City Manager Rachael Tabelski and Public Works Director Brett Frank, along with city police officers, then inspected the building’s exterior to find out how much graffiti was done.

Police had also checked the surveillance cameras, and “videos have been accessed and watched,” Tabelski said.

“It’s still a continuing, ongoing investigation,” she said Tuesday. “I am hopeful it will lead to an individual, or individuals, being held responsible for defacing public property.”

At the time, police said the person responsible will face a charge of criminal tampering, a class B misdemeanor. The City of Batavia was going to keep track of the cost of the cleanup and submit an amount to the police for the case.

File Photo of graffiti drawn in August at City Hall by Alecia Kaus.

Press release:

Tompkins Financial Advisors in Western New York, based in Rochester, has added Batavia native Margaret Brown as a wealth advisor. In this post, Brown is responsible for building and maintaining client relationships, as well as lending expertise through executive financial planning, wealth management and estate planning.  

“Over the last 20-plus years, Margaret’s experience in wealth management, along with consulting and educating professionals and leaders, makes her a superb asset to the company and its team-based approach to client service,” said James Sperry, Tompkins Financial Advisors senior vice president and managing director for the region. “We know she’ll continue to grow in this role.” 

Prior to joining Tompkins Financial Advisors, Brown served as a vice president and financial advisor at Citizens Securities. She has her Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) series 6, 7, 63 and 66, along with Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) and Life & Health licenses in various states and is currently completing her Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification.   

Brown is actively involved in her community and volunteers alongside her family at Bethel Express, a Rochester-based youth ministry.   

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As property manager, Jarrod Clark has really taken the Harvester Center under his wing.

After all, he discovered that his family four generations ago once owned and sold the property to Johnson Harvester, and how rich it has been with successful incubator business start-ups and well-known products, including Massey Harris farm equipment and Melton shirts.

“It’s kind of gone full circle for me,” Clark said after Tuesday’s Planning & Development Committee meeting. “It bleeds history.”

Fairly soon, it might just be brewing beer — as in locally produced brews in a tasting room and an adjacent small restaurant. He was representing Bill and Michelle Snyder, owners of Windy Brew in Strykersville, who want to open a similar site at 56 Harvester Center.

“It’s not going to be a huge facility,” he said. “It probably would seat 20 to 25 at the bar, and another 10 to 15 at tables, and everybody is drinking their beer and eating their pizza and pretzels.”

Originally proposed as a brew pub, the owners had applied for a special use permit. However, they quickly changed course after the committee informed Clark that a pub wasn’t allowed in that zone, but that a restaurant was allowable, and beer could be served there.

Windy Brew produces beer that will be available, along with other New York State brews and possibly wine, at the Batavia location, Clark said. Someone who he won’t identify just yet has also expressed interest in opening a commercial kitchen adjacent to the Snyder’s property.

“There would be room for multiple different users. So there'll be some lockers and stuff in there. There might be some seating as well. The idea is, we're really lacking a bakery in Batavia. So we're trying to find somebody that would be willing to operate a bakery out of there,” he said. “Primarily, we have a big Italian heritage here, where are you going to buy fresh Italian bread? So you're getting it shipped in from Rochester and dropped off at Southside Deli. So that would be a huge benefit … and cookies, pastries, things like that.”

“I think it’s going to be great for our building,” he said. “We both (the anonymous tenant) want to see it succeed. My goal is to get like-minded people there.”

One of the Center’s best-kept secrets is that it houses 75 business tenants that manufacture and/or sell products and services. The Snyders were “ecstatic that they don’t need a special use permit,” he said, and are shifting plans immediately. He and his other future tenant should be disclosing their plans in the next few weeks.

“For the last eight to 12 months, we’ve been looking for people in an operation or looking to do this,” he said. “There is a need for this. It’s the community driving what’s needed; many people are wanting to open a kitchen.”

Food trucks would be able to use the communal kitchen for food prep before loading up and going on the road to sell items, he said, and there are those types of mobile businesses that would benefit from such as operation.

After all, it’s costly to operate a bakery — early morning work hours, utilities, inventory, finding good recipes and people experienced in baking, plus maintenance of bathrooms. It would hinge on a kitchen set-up, he said.

“So when you have some networking and some people that you're working with, and you have other people coming in that may be visiting some of the other kitchens, you have an outlet of selling your product,” he said. “It’s not all on you. You're not the only one paying the gas bill, you're not the only one paying the electric bill. So the idea would be to get some sort of a house tenant that's a bakery and then possibly add three or four food trucks in there. And there should be enough room where there could be maybe a small Mexican takeout only or an Italian restaurant.”

Admittedly, the building — quite large with many compartments and business ventures, and a bit difficult to navigate  — can be a confusing concept for folks, Clark said.

“So it's not unlike this building to do new and different stuff that nobody's seen or heard of before,” he said, referring to the latest building applicants. “They kind of really fit us well. And we're willing to work with people that kind of look outside of the box.”

File Photo of Harvester Center on the east side of Batavia, and photo of Jarrod Clark from an online site.

Malcolm K. made his personal best catch at DeWitt Recreation Area on Monday, a 43-inch, 21-pound Northern Pike.

Submitted photo.

City residents who own the breeds of farm animals listed on the newly adopted ordinance are being given a six-month grace period to find new homes for them, City Manager Rachael Tabelski says.

City Council approved a revised local law Monday evening that prohibits any city resident from owning, possessing or harboring the following farm animals:

• Cloven-hoofed
• Cattle
• Horses
• Sheep
• Goats
• Pigs
• Swine
• Llamas
• Alpacas
• Ducks
• Turkeys
• Geese
• Ponies
• Donkeys, Mules

Exceptions include being allowed to have a maximum of six chickens, as long as they are penned and maintained appropriately, with no accumulated feces, odors or related mess; special events with prior approval of an event application; and animals in transit to or from a veterinary facility or other destination out of city bounds.

“This ordinance shall take effect immediately after the date of passage and in accordance with law,” it states. “Residents with existing animals that are now regulated will have a six-month grace period before enforcement action will be taken.”

Since the city doesn’t have enough staff to physically check out every residence in the city, this ordinance will be enforced based on complaints about alleged offenders.

The resolution initially included feral cats on the list. However, a public hearing about the law brought out about 15 people to speak about that inclusion. Council members agreed to table a prior vote to further discuss the cat situation. The group later removed feral cats from the list.

 “So yes, it does not restrict feral cats in any way,” Tabelski said Tuesday. “The folks who came in to discuss feral cats were extremely informative. And I was glad to hear that they're still out there working in our community, and have plans to address any type of cat colonies and cat communities.”

During the meeting, advocate Todd Vaarwerk spoke on behalf of Independent Living of the Genesee Region and those with service animals. He noted that the resolution had not changed other than excluding cats, and was concerned that ADA rights were going to be violated.

“I implore you one last time to fix this error,” he said.

Anyone with a certified service animal who is protected by federal Americans with Disabilities Act stipulations will not be affected by the local law, City Attorney George Van Nest said during the meeting.

If someone complains about a neighbor, and that person has a documented service animal, the city’s code enforcement staff will verify it before issuing any penalty.

“We will be relying on any type of complaints to look and see if there is a violation and go from there,” Tabelski said. “There's other federal laws that supersede our ordinance, such as the ability of residents to have support animals, and we'll certainly understand and take that into consideration upon responding to any type of complaints.”

To read the resolution, go HERE.

Photo submitted of goats in the city that were part of a neighborhood's complaints to City Councilman John Canale, who brought the issue to council earlier this year.

It says right on the building, "Arts Council," but GO ART! Director Gregory Hallock has been concerned that people don't realize that Seymour Place at 201 East Main St. is a place anybody can come in and see art.

"I think a lot of people don't see our sign, and a lot of people still think we're a membership club," Hallock said. "Yes, we have members but you don't have to be a member to come in."

His solution: Install some works of art -- in this case, sculptures -- in the garden plots in front of the red brick building at the corner of East Main and Bank streets in Batavia.

Hallock and the GO ART! staff had become familiar with the work of Bill Schutt from his showing at the Ramble, what's on display at Eli Fish Brewing Co., his entries into an art competition there, and knew he worked in metal, which seemed like the perfect medium for sculptures placed outside the building.

It might come as a surprise to some that Schutt is an artist.  The Basom resident has been a volunteer firefighter for 32 years and spent a dozen years working for either Genesee County Emergency Management or Mercy EMS.

He often tinkered around the house, working with metal, installing bookshelves or other useful items for the house, often embellishing whatever he made with artistic touches. A few years ago he became inspired to make sculptures using scrap metal on his property.

He's recently branched out into making larger pieces, so the commission from GO ART! came at an opportune time to expand his portfolio.

Schutt's pieces are about "our shared humanity," he said.

The first one is a riff on a popular social media meme about the difference between equality and equity. In the meme, three people of different heights are shown standing on boxes, trying to see over a fence to watch a baseball game.  They're all on the same size box.  The tall person can see, the smallest person can't see at all. That is equality, according to the meme. When the boxes are restacked, so the tallest has no box, the medium-height person has one, and the shortest has two, all three can see.  The meme labels that configuration, "equity."

The second sculpture is of people in silhouette. Their faces look the same but they're all different based on hairstyle and the jewelry they wear.

"It's kind of a reminder that we are more the same than we are different," Schutt said. "We need to celebrate our differences and find our common humanity.  Art does that. It brings together all walks of life."

Hallock loved the work, he said.

"I didn't know what he was going to do, and I'm pleasantly pleased with the pieces," Hallock said.  "The message of equity and unity is there."

Submitted photos.

 

Ja'vin McFollins tossed two TD passes, including one in the closing seconds of the game for a come-from-behind victory on Saturday in Brockport to give the Batavia Blue Devils the Section V Class B championship.

Batavia beat Monroe 14-8.

The 19-yard TD pass to Vincent Arroyo left one second on the clock and Julia Petrie kicked her second point-after of the game.

Batavia scored first in first quarter on a McFollins to Cole Grazioplene 38-yard TD pass.

McFollins was 9-16 passing for 172 yards.  He was intercepted once.

Cam McCinic was the leading rusher with 66 yards on 16 attempts.

Grazioplene had three receptions for 85 yards and Arroyo snagged two passes for 58 yards.

Garrett Schmidt led the defense with 13 tackles and Avion Bethel had eight and McClinic six.  Schmidt also forced a fumble and a fumble recovery.

To view or purchase prints, click here.

Photos by Steve Ognibene

If you are the owner of this cat, or know who is, the light tan and cream feline has apparently been hanging out in the city's north side for quite some time, a concerned citizen says. Please contact joanne@thebatavian.com with any information you may have about this seemingly young, lost kitty in Batavia.

Submitted photo.

Zonta Club of Batavia-Genesee County had the first of its two-day Holiday Festival Saturday at Batavia Downs Gaming & Hotel. The event will continue from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the venue, 8315 Park Road, Batavia.

This is the club’s 10th annual artisan and vendor marketplace, with at least 100 vendors, a visit from Santa Claus from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a Buffalo Bills door prize.

Zonta Club of Batavia-Genesee County has a mission to enrich the lives of women and girls, and is dedicated to advancing the status of women worldwide through advocacy and action.

Photos by Howard Owens.

Genesee County veterans gathered today at the locations and landmarks associated with the local men and women who served the nation in times of war and peace.

The ceremonies started at 9 a.m. at Genesee County Park, where former Assemblyman Dan Burling was the keynote speaker and he celebrated the freedom that the men and women who served helped secure.

"We just had an election yesterday," Burling said. "And though it may not appear to be everything that we want it to be, it was a free election. It was a free election that was guaranteed by the men and women who have served this country over the years, over many, many, many years and still served today."

Other ceremonies were held at the VA Hospital, the NY State Vets Home, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument (Upton Monument), Trigon Park, the War Memorial at Jerome Center, and GCC.

"We're all brothers and sisters," Burling told the veterans in Bethany. "We all served together and anyone who puts the uniform on, who puts their hand on the Bible and swears that they will defend this nation is a friend of mine and a friend of everyone, so I want to thank you all, all my friends."

Photos from Genesee County Park, the VA Hospital, and the Upton Monument.  Photos by Howard Owens.

Dan Burling, middle.

Frank Panepento, a teacher at Batavia Middle School, Nathan Korzelius, middle school principal, and Danielle Bergman, assistant medical director of the VA Center.  Middle school students made wood blocks with a patriotic etching as a gift for veterans at the VA Center.

 

Artist and Batavia native Anthony Terrell was amongst friends and family during a showing of his paintings Thursday at Haxton Memorial Library.

Not just any paintings, this collection of six pastel-hued works was in memory of his sister Onnalee Berrios. “Amethyst Clouds Over Oakfield” was an appropriate title for each piece washed in shades of purples, pinks and blues.

The evening was about remembering Onnie, as he called her, and reconnecting family members, fellow artists, friends, and the Blue Devils' “60s Girls,” made up of 1960 Batavia High School graduates, which included Terrell’s sister Veronica.

Living in New York City, Terrell gets asked why he likes to come here to visit. Because people "people treat me nice," he said.

He would have been remiss not to make special note of one of those people who made an impact on his career, he said. His former high school art teacher Mary Tyler certainly deserves credit for her kind critiques.

Early on, she looked at Terrell's artwork and told him that he had a gift to pursue.

“It wasn’t good,” he said. “But she told me that, and I thought I was Picasso.

“And I gotta tell you, she was absolutely instrumental to where I am now. You know the work when you're that young, and you're trying to be an artist, you're generally copying Picasso, Modigliani, Monet, all the famous artists, you're trying to capture what they've done,” he said. “I wasn't capturing it, but she kept encouraging me, because, she said, ‘I think you have talent. I think you should stick to it.’ And those are the days that I was using old cans of house paint, and Red Devil paints that we used to paint our bicycles with, anything that we could get our hands on. And every time I give a talk about my artwork, I thank her because it was because of her.”

Tyler's influence still runs strongly through him, now as an accomplished NYC artist with Sphinx Works. As life goes, he discovered the "it's a small world" element in Batavia, by meeting someone who lives in Tyler's former home, and taking a tour while reminiscing about his late teacher. Her backyard was filled with all sorts of botanicals in gardens that seemed fitting for an art lover. She mentored him through encouraging words, he said. 

"Yeah, she took a liking to me. There were only three black students in the school. Me, my sister and Rick Thomas, who still lives in Batavia," Terrell said. " At the time, the Beatles just got started making it big in '63, and then the Rolling Stones and the Kinks ... Nixon had come in at '68, right after I graduated, but Kennedy really made a big difference. So the economy started getting a boost, because there's always a sense of promise, you know, from when Kennedy made his speech to Martin Luther King was coming, and so forth."

Being in only one of three African American families wasn't always easy, he said. At one point, his parents wanted to buy a particular home in the city, but Batavia was "very conservative, and it was not pro-African Americans at all," he said. 

"The neighbors, our neighbors, put up a petition saying that 'tell the owner that the neighborhood did not want blacks living in their neighborhood,' even though we were well respected. And we were forced to get a house when we looked and looked and looked, and looked again," he said. "But when they see your color, even Batavia ... we ended up getting 14 Lehigh Avenue, which is a house that nobody wanted because it was next to the railroad tracks."

He attended Jackson Elementary at that time, and then, when in the former Junior-Senior High School on Ross Street, he wasn't considered one of the smart kids. He didn't like science and math, but teachers wanted kids to pass, so they would offer different levels of studies, Terrell said. He enrolled in shop class. and it was there that he met Mary Tyler.

"I didn't really know her, but I liked being around the easels. And it wasn't math and it wasn't science, which I never was good at in high school," he said. "I just literally fell in love with Mary Tyler. She encouraged me, so I haven't forgotten my roots."

Sounds just like his sister Onnie. His late sister was supportive, understanding, and a guiding force to help a young boy navigate through small-town ways and limited rural opportunities.

“I loved coming over to her house. And the pictures which I’m going to talk about, are a reflection of that,” he said to the group of about 25 attendees. “If you could connect with a person that would kind of keep you straight on the path, as she did, it was very beneficial to me.”

Not long after graduating from BHS in 1967, Terrell went to live in California for a few months before returning to work at Doehler-Jarvis in Batavia. In April 1969, while many of his classmates had gone on to college, which Terrell’s family couldn’t afford, he was drafted into military service. It was during the Vietnam era, and he still remembers reporting for duty on the second floor of the former Mancuso’s Theater on Main Street.

He and his fellow recruits were processed, put on a bus, issued ID “dog” tags and then sent by plane to Fort Dix, NJ. He served in the Army until May 1971, and returned to a job saved for him by Doehler. "I got a promotion," he said, going from melting down assorted metals — a hard, sweaty job — to making casts for Briggs Stratton lawnmowers and General Motors car parts. Business was booming at the time, he said, thanks to a special steering column part called a saginaw, which Doehler made for GM.

Still, it wasn't really a fulfilling job, so he eventually decided -- with some insistence from his mom -- to get out of town. He packed up for NYC in January 1972. His brother Francis was attending law school there.

"It was a very cold morning, very cold," he said. "My mother had called my brother and told him to 'get your brother a job.'"

Terrell learned his way around, taking his first subway and having “no idea where I was going.”

“I was really naive," he said. "It was really frightening for me."

He did get a job by the end of his first week and stuck it out for a year before quitting and getting another job for a dry cleaning service. He also met his wife at that first place that dealt with stocks and bonds. Gwendolyn worked in the legal department, and it must have been meant to be: they have now been married for 50 years.

She was one of the people he thanked during the reception, attributing her patience and support for his longtime success as a full-time artist. 

He ran through his thank-yous, which included his mother, who brought him into the world, and Oakfield resident and former art teacher Terry Kolb, who helped to organize the reception. Terrell then reviewed each piece of his collection in memory of Onnie, who died in 2003 at age 64.

He recalled how they would sit in rocking chairs with their feet up on the porch railing, going back and forth while enjoying the time together. Each scene and related memory depicted a strong brother-sister bond.

Terrell described how some unknown inspiration prompted him to put masking tape over his initial pictures, in varying directions for an illustration board. Once knowing that, the novice observer can note how the paintings have geometric movement of lines within a sea of pastel colors.

All of it was for his beloved sister, “because I love her and I miss her,” he said.

“But she’s still in my heart,” he said.

For those that missed the debut Thursday, Terrell’s pieces will be at the library from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Learn more about Onnalee Berrios HERE.

Top Photo: Batavia native Anthony Terrell, now of New York City, talks about the paintings he created for his late sister during a reception Thursday evening at Haxton Memorial Library in Oakfield. Photo above is of Terrell with Terry Kolb of Oakfield. Photos by Joanne Beck.

For more than two decades, a 52-acre island of farm field behind Walmart and The Home Depot and off Lewiston Road has been designated for commercial development.

Tractor Supply is proposing a new store at 8727 Lewiston Road that will occupy 5.08 acres of the farm field, which is currently owned by the Call family and farmed by MY-T Acres.

The new store will replace the Tractor Supply store at 4974 East Main Street Road, Batavia.

Commercial real estate broker Tony Mancuso, who is assisting in the development of the project, said  Tractor Supply is looking to move into a larger, more modern, more efficient building.

"They rent that building," Mancuso said. "They will own this building."

Mancuso and his father were involved with developing Veterans Memorial Drive, starting with Walmart, so he knows the history of the property.

"This has been zoned for this kind of development for over 20 years," Mancuso said. "When we did the other development, we put a road roadway up by the highway to come behind Home Depot and down (to Lewiston). So this has been on the books for 20 years so it was the logical place to go."

The developer will be Hix Snedeker, with engineering by Dynamic Engineering with legal representation for the permitting process by Hopkins Sorgi & McCarthy.

The project was presented to the County Planning Board on Thursday night and the board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the project with the following modifications:

• The applicant obtains a permit for the new road and intersection from the Department of Transportation;
• The applicant completes a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan and obtains a Stormwater Permit from the Department of Environmental Conservation;
• Given that the project is located in an archaeologically sensitive area, the applicant obtain a permit from the State Historic Preservation Office.

"With these required modifications, the proposed store should pose no significant county-wide or inter-community impact," the Planning Department said in its memo recommending approval with modifications.

The driveway into the project will take the same route as the planned roadway through the 105-acres of farmland and will be dedicated to the town so that it can eventually be part of the roadway that connects to Veterans Memorial Drive, coming out on the north side of The Home Depot. It will be up to the developer of any new commercial space on the remaining land to complete the road.

Mancuso said the same process was used when Walmart was built, with the start of Veterans Memorial Drive initially serving just Walmart.

Attorney Peter Sorgi said he expects the Calls to continue farming the undeveloped portion of the property, which they will continue to own.

The project will be considered by the Town of Batavia Planning Board at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Town Hall.

With Tractor Supply vacating its location on East Main Street Road, it will add to the inventory of empty commercial buildings on the east side of town, which includes the former CountryMax location and the unoccupied gas station and convenience store on East Main.

Mancuso said not to worry.  He expects announcements soon about new tenants for those two vacant buildings and he already has two potential tenants interested in the Tractor Supply building.

"I don't like to see empty buildings either," Mancuso said. "So I'm trying to work it out as fast as I can."

 

Press Release:

The major fundraiser for the Batavia Rotary Club is underway, and once again a Corvette or $50,000 is the prize. 

"This is the major fundraiser that allows our club to make so many contributions to the community, such as $18,000 in college scholarships to area students each year," said President John McGowan.

Rotary is also contributing $250,000 toward the Healthy Living Campus under construction on Main Street, a joint project for the YMCA and United Memorial Medical Center.

Most recently, Rotary has offered a $150,000 matching pledge for the renovation of the local hospital's Intensive Care Unit, McGowan said.

Rotary's motto is Service Above Self, he explained.  Rotarians actively engage in projects to improve the local community. 

"Fundraisers like this Corvette event are critical for helping us help others," said Lisa Ormsbee, who co-chairs the event with Laurie Mastin. 

In addition to the grand prize, there are 10 additional prizes of $500 each, Mastin explained.

Only 4,500 tickets are sold.  The drawing will be Jan. 21, 2023, at 7:30 pm live on Facebook.

Persons interested in purchasing tickets may go to www.bataviarotaryraffle.com or contact any Rotarian. 

Photo: Lisa Ormsbee and John McGowan. Photo by Howard Owens.