batavia

As I headed down Bank Street to church at Northgate this past Sunday, I noticed something in the road ahead of me. I thought "what the heck is that?". As my car got closer I noticed, it was a pair of shoes!

All the cars just kept going by them, mine included. As I settled into the pew at church I kept thinking about those shoes. How in the world did they end up there? Did someone set them on top of their car as they were getting in to go somewhere and forgot about them? Was someone angry and threw their shoes out the window? Maybe they were nestled in a backpack on the bag of a bicycle rider? Or maybe, just maybe they got tired of walking  in their own shoes! How many times have you heard someone say " try walking in my shoes"? Yes we all have walked many miles in our own shoes. We have all had many life experiences, some pleasant and some not so pleasant.

During this holiday season, we are all putting extra miles on our shoes while we are busy getting ready for Christmas day. Currently, our shoes are working overtime trying be prepared for the big day. Our shoes are taking us to the local malls, standing at the oven baking the Christmas cookies, trudging through the field to find the perfect Christmas tree, standing outside of Walmart ringing the bell, singing carols on the streets, walking across stages to practice the Christmas play and the list goes on and on.

Do you know where your shoes are? Where have your shoes been taking you lately?

If you are tired of walking in your shoes, try someone else's on for size. You may find that your shoes are not that bad after all. But, if you are tempted, feel free to stop by the roadside and try these ones on. I stopped after church and picked them up out of the middle of the road and moved them to the curb just in case the owner went looking for them or if  by chance someone wanted to try walking in someone else shoes for a day.

 Today's example goes back to the ordinary home, after a couple of days with massive displays on large properties.

This home on Elm St. in Batavia may be modest in size, but takes full advantage of the given space with plenty of lights and decorations.

Today's Christmas light post is one I found on the ride out to Jim DiSalvo's property on Fargo road. 

This well decorated home is the first one you see when you turn off of Route 5 and onto Fargo. While it may not have the half million bulbs the showcase down the road does, this home has plenty of lights and characters. There is also speakers with Christmas music playing.

(I'm also taking suggestions if anybody has homes they would like to see featured on The Batavian)

"This is part of our Christmas tradition every year."

Those are the words Debbie Renteria yelled to Jim DiSalvo from her car window, as she drove her children around DiSalvo's Stafford property early Friday evening. You could see the smile, and sense of satisfaction on DiSalvo's face.

It is probably something he hears a hundred times a week during the Christmas season, and has for the last 14 years.

DiSalvo started decorating his enormous front yard with lights almost a decade and a half ago and it keeps growing every year.

"It's a lot of fun," said DiSalvo, who is the president of Applied Business Systems and manager of Team America Racing, where his son Jason is a star Superbike rider. "There is nothing I enjoy more than walking outside on a night like this and seeing the cars and the people."

DiSalvo's property is tucked away at 9180 Fargo Road in Stafford, just as you leave Batavia on Route 5, but once you make a sharp turn, you can't miss the decorations.

Almost every tree on the property has lights, there are over a half million bulbs in use and there are over 350 different lighted characters in the yard. Practically every tree has its own power outlet in the ground near it, there are over two miles of underground cable in use, there are an additional 500 extension cords in use and it takes four 200 AMP generators powering the show.

There is also two very large speakers and a 250 watt amp playing Christmas music that can be heard from the street.

DiSalvo has a full light crew that starts putting up the decorations the first week of December and finishes in mid-to-late November. The lights stay up until January 5.

The amount of people that visit Jim, and wife Connie's home is a number that DiSalvo couldn't even estimate. He says that on weekends the traffic is bumper-to-bumper.

"I like to sit in the front yard and watch (the people visit). It's non-stop," DiSalvo said.

The DiSalvo home must have more Christmas spirit than any other location in the area. Last week, the DiSalvos hosted over 300 Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts from the area for hot chocolate, cookies and a tour of the property.

 People often stop and leave gifts on DiSalvo's front porch, and he witnessed one of the most unique acts of the holiday season he has ever seen this past week.

DiSalvo noticed somebody dressed as Santa Claus sitting near a tree in the front yard, so he went to investigate.

"I asked him if he was really Santa," DiSalvo joked.

It turns out that the unidentified man has done this for a couple of years now. He sits in DiSalvo's winter wonderland dressed as Father Christmas with a bag of toys, waiting for his eight year old grandson. The child comes to check out the lights and gets to meet Santa, and receive gifts.

That was an experience that sums up why DiSalvo puts together the biggest display of area Christmas lights.

"It's all for the kids, really," DiSalvo said.

Here is a Flickr page with 23 photos of DiSalvo's Christmas lights, but it is advised that you take the short ride to Fargo Road to get the full effect.

 The biggest challenge facing the Batavia boys basketball team this season is taking on teams with size.

Victor has plenty of size, especially 6-foot-10 center Rob Page.

But the Blue Devils used an up-tempo pressure defense, with some zone mixed in, and a fast paced offense to overcome a second-straight slow start to beat the visiting squad 67-54.

Victor jumped out to a quick lead though, as Lee Lomenzo hit two quick baskets and Page dumped one in, giving their team a 7-2 advantage in the opening four minutes of the game.

Each of the three Hoy brothers had a basket in the next four minutes as Victor led 15-11 after the first period of play. It was the second consecutive game that Batavia has trailed after the first quarter.

Joe Schlossel and Robert Hoy had two straight baskets, with Hoy hitting an and-one, and Batavia took a 16-15 lead early in the second quarter, and never fell behind.

Schlossel hit two more baskets in the second quarter, Adam Pettinella nailed a 3-pointer and Andrew Hoy scored nine of his 15 points with eight rebounds and three assists as the Blue Devils took a 32-23 lead into the half.

Victor went on a 6-2 run near the end of the third quarter and cut the lead to 44-43, but Marcus Hoy drained a 3 at the buzzer to give Batavia a 47-43 lead after three quarters of play.

After a Pettinella 3-pointer gave the Blue Devils a five point lead, Victor was never able to get any closer than that the rest of the way.

While Andrew Hoy led the Blue Devils in scoring for the fourth-straight game, his supporting cast came up huge in this game.

Robert Hoy scored a season-high 15 points and Schlossel added 14 points, playing much bigger than his 6-foot-2 frame. Schlossel and the rest of the forwards held the 6-foot-10 Page to just four points.

Marcus Hoy had eight points with 12 dimes Dakota Irvin had five points with seven boards. Pettinella pitched in eight points.

David Vistocco led Victor (3-1) with 17 points, with Lomenzo getting 14 and Tyler Brooks finishing with 13.

Batavia beat two defending state champions and opened up with a win in the Olean Tournament, then beat Pittsford Mendon on the road before this game. That makes the Blue Devils 2-0 in the Monroe County League and 4-0 overall.

Batavia is at Pittsford Sutherland on Wednesday.

A child riding in a vehicle northbound on Alexander Road suffered a minor injury when a southbound Jeep Grand Cherokee reportedly served into oncoming traffic.

The Jeep clipped the other vehicle and then careened into a telephone poll -- severing the poll about half-way up its length -- near 8804 Alexander Road.

The child was transported to a hospital for evaluation, according to Deputy Richardson, primarily, he said, as a precaution.

The Jeep was driven by Kayla Tyoe, and the vehicle had two additional passengers.  The other vehicle was driven by Tracy Cooper.

Richardson said the investigation is ongoing to determine what caused Tyoe's vehicle to reportedly cross into the oncoming lane.

UPDATE: The Daily just posted a story with a few additional details.

The second house in our series of Christmas lights is located on North Spruce St. in Batavia. 

There isn't nearly as much volume as our first example from Thursday, but does a nice job of spreading out the displays over a large front yard, with great trim around the house itself.

 The Batavian will be posting at least one photo of a house in Genesee County decorated with Christmas lights each day until Christmas.

Our first post is a fantastic example of a well decorated home. The house, located on at the corner of Eugene Street and Fordham Drive in Batavia, had lights on all sides of the house and must have taken hours to set up. It is well worth the short drive to check this one out.

I spotted this mural on Swan Street in Batavia a few days ago and was taken by the idea that it was probably painted prior to 9/11, and it's still there -- on what is otherwise a pretty run-down old building.  The mural, which consists of two panels of the New York City skyline, is signed "John Howard."

From the New York Farm Bureau:

New York Farm Bureau members today elected Dean Norton, a dairy farmer and agricultural consultant from Batavia, N.Y. as the organization's new president.  Eric Ooms, a dairy farmer from Kinderhook, N.Y. was elected as vice president.

The election was held at Farm Bureau's State Annual Meeting in Albany.  Membership delegates representing farmers from around the state cast ballots. New York Farm Bureau is the statewide lobbying/trade organization that represents approximately 30,000 farm families.

Norton takes over for John Lincoln who retired today after 14 years as president and 29 years in various leadership positions in Farm Bureau.

Norton is a Senior Agriculture Consultant with Freed Maxick & Battaglia CPA's.  His family owns a dairy farm in Elba, N.Y. and runs a custom trucking operation for forage and commodity harvesting.  Norton has served on Farm Bureau's state board of directors since 2004 and was the Genesee County Farm Bureau president from 2000-2004.

"I am proud to have the opportunity to represent this organization during such a critical time for the farm families of New York," Norton said.

Ooms owns and operates a 425-cow dairy farm with his father and brothers in Kinderhook in Columbia County. 

He has served New York Farm Bureau for 10 years as Columbia County Farm Bureau President, and six years on the State Board as Young Farmer and Rancher Chair and District 10 Director.

"It truly is an honor to be selected by the membership to help lead this great organization," said Ooms.

Photo courtesy of the Farm Bureau. Pictured: Outgoing President John Lincoln (left) congratulates newly elected President Dean Norton.

There's no doubt that Genesee County can revitalize its workforce and reclaim its former reputation as a center of industry and innovation. There's also no doubt that it will take a willingness to change on the part of our communities. Alabama, in particular, could see drastic changes over the next couple decades...

Chad Zambito, vice president of marketing with the Genesee County Economic Development Center, brought us up to speed earlier today on a few of the more promising projects currently in the works for the county.

Most folks are probably familiar with the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park, which has received a lot of press coverage in the Daily News. A Canadian food processor is planning to break ground at that site in the spring. That could mean the creation of about 100 jobs. There are also hopes for the site to include a sort of agricultural showcase center similar to the New York Wine & Culinary Center recently launched in Canandaigua that would highlight the region's dairy production.

Another major project in the pipeline is the Upstate Med & Tech Park and Commercialization Center. Situated on 34 acres across the street from Genesee Community College, the park will host a Life Sciences Center that would allow college students to get on-hand training in those fields. About half of the land is already shovel ready, so expect to see some buildings going up there soon.

That brings us to the most ambitious project currently in the works at the GCEDC: Alabama's STAMP site. STAMP stands for Science, Technology, Advanced Manufacturing Park. It's situated on no less than 1,300 acres between Route 77 and the Tonawanda Indian Reservation. Zambito estimates up to 10,000 jobs could be created at the site at full build out. He cautiously follows that up with the note that it would likely take some 25 years to acheive that.

All the purple buildings in the center of this map would house the manufacturing centers. Zambito said the site would likely be used for the production of photovoltaic cells that would harvest electricty from sunlight. In fact, this project, situated in a region that is already coveted for its potential wind energy, could become the foundation of a green energy industrial complex. This project is still some years from any actual construction. The GCEDC is right now getting the designs finalized and hopes to start bringing potential investors and manufacturers out to the site for visits later next year.

Click here to download a copy of the STAMP project map.

Buffalo Pundit links to a story about the economic hard times in Detroit and draws a comparison with Western New York.

From the Time.com story:

When a state lives with a story line of decline for so long, it doesn’t just affect the mood. It becomes part of the culture. Whereas America’s history has been one of expanding horizons, yours has become funnel-shaped. Much like the postbellum South, Rust Belt culture looks backward at an idealized past–a nostalgia not for plantations but for three-bedroom houses paid up on blue collar salaries. (See pictures of the remains of Detroit.)

“It used to be you could get a job at one of those factories, even without an education, and make a decent living to support your family,” says letter carrier Dina Schueller, 33, of Saranac. Now her husband has been laid off from his construction job, and her brother moved to Maryland for work. Like many left-behind Michiganders, she’ll be seeing fewer family members this season.

We've had discussions about the future of Western New York before, and I know some people are skeptical that the local economy can ever grow again, but when you look at efforts to bring new manufacturing businesses to Batavia and Alabama, for example, then it's hard not to be hopeful that renewed growth is a real possibility.

WNY has a lot going for it, such as natural resources, open spaces, an available work force, affordable housing.  There's no reason there can't be a renaissance of sorts.

Philip visited the Genesee County Economic Development Council today and is working on a post now about some of the things GCEDC is doing to help expand business opportunities in the county.