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Friday afternoon news roundup

By Philip Anselmo

From the Daily News (Friday):

• Batavia police are still baffled by bloody clothing and a pillowcase that were found in March in a dumpster in back of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on North Street. Reporter Scott DeSmit writes: "None of the items had holes or cuts consistent with foul play and no other bodily fluids were found." One of the shirts found was "saturated with human blood," which would indicate a lot of blood lost.

• On the agenda for City Council's next meeting: revisions to the city code and a transfer of $10,000 to a "Dwyer Stadium reserve," plus a few other items. Before the regular meeting gets underway, the council will hold a public hearing for residents to comment on the proposal to remove a traffic light at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Ross Street. The meeting is at 7:00pm Monday in the Council Board Room on the second floor of City Hall.

• Larry's Steakhouse plans to open in July at 60 Main Street at a spot once occupied by Harry's and Prato's. On the menu: steak, seafood and pasta.

• Mothertime Marketplace opened today at Batavia Downs. At the weekend event, vendors will be selling used toys, clothes, furniture and other items. It is open from 10:00am to 6:00pm today, from 10:00am to 5:00pm Saturday, and from 8:00 to 10:00am Sunday. Admission is $2 for adults. Visit www.mothertimemarketplace.com for more information.

• A Genesee County Chapter of the American Red Cross benefit raffle held Saturday at LeRoy Country Club drew a crowd of nearly 200. No mention of how much money was raised for the association.

• The Genesee County Business Education Alliance will hold a Spring Breakfast Meeting at Bohn's Restaurant in Batavia at 7:15am May 16. It costs $15. Call Melinda Chamberlin at (585) 343-7440 for more information.

For the complete stories, the Daily News is available on local newsstands, or you can subscribe on BataviaNews.com.

From the Notebook

By Philip Anselmo

Can't seem to dredge up anything of great import in the way of news this afternoon. Whenever that happens, I head out into the community, into the shops on Main Street and elsewhere, into the parks...

Batavia police tell me they don't have anything to report — I've called them twice today so far. We should probably consider that good news. Strange though, since a city councilman told me that the city was already 300 calls above where they were this time last year.

Still not much luck connecting with the busy city manager. I did get a couple City Council members on the phone today, but didn't make it much further than that. I'll be meeting with Sam Barone next week. Looking forward to it. Sam mentions fishing, bowling and reading under special interests on the city's Web site. I'm a fan of all three myself, though I'm only good at the last one.

Also, I found this fine shot of the bend in the Tonawanda River in my camera. Have those bulbs popped yet?

Then I met with Hal Kreter over at the county's Veterans Service Agency. He's a great guy — a longtime U.S. Marine himself — who works for an organization that fills the gap between the American veteran and the no doubt intimidating bureaucracy of the federal government.

That's about all for now. But here's a note before I go: The Batavian's MySpace is humming along. We've picked up 30 friends so far — honestly, I don't know if that's very many, but I'm excited about it. For those of you interested in that, please stop by and check it out. We'd be happy to be your friend. For those who aren't interested or just don't know much about the site, it's a social networking hub where anyone can register and create a personal profile for themselves, meet other folks, keep up remotely with friends. Music is big on MySpace, so we're hoping to link up with a few bands, maybe even put together a music video from time to time to bring back here to our site. Look for that in the future.

Batavians choose not to live like they do in big cities.

By Charlie Mallow

There have been a few postings about the state of our neighborhoods and people’s opinions of the rate of decline. From someone new to the area or familiar with big city living, some missing paint and a little litter are not anything to be concerned about. People in big cities have had to live with falling property values, absentee landlords and drug activity for years. The obvious question is, why wouldn’t the people of Batavia point to the precursors of decline and pull together to keep the quality of life we have always enjoyed?

Make no mistake the natural instinct of someone in elected office is to gloss over the obvious decline in the quality life. If you’re in public office and you want to stay there, why would any rational person draw attention to the problems? It’s not an election year.. Besides if you draw attention to the problem and you are in office, you will then be expected to do something about the problem. That is how the system has worked for years. Inaction or denial by elected representatives has been the reason for decline in all our major cities.
Batavia is a little different and so are its people. Batavians care about our quality of life and elected people who understand that there is a problem and are willing to do something about it. In this city, improving our neighborhoods is not a political issue. We are past the notion that there is a developing problem, we are on our way to looking for solutions.
Last night’s Neighborhood Improvement meeting was another small step forward. Those meetings have become gatherings for landlords, volunteer groups, public officials and regular citizens to work together and find solutions to our small problems before they get bigger. Our acting police chief reported on a new program to help landlords protect their property and help police spot drug activity. City inspections reported over 800 letters being sent out for violations in the last month, more than double what we did all of last year. They also reported that almost 80% of the violations were taken care of quickly and how most property owners accept the letters as a reminder. There was a report on the success of the “helping hands” volunteer group with their work on Thorpe and Watson Streets over the weekend.  Ideas were passed on for ways to educate the public, so that they can be more aware.
With a little work and by people taking responsibility for the problems we have, Batavia will never be like Buffalo, Rochester or Chicago. Batavians choose not to live like they do in big cities.

 

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