I was really pleased with how this picture turned out and I'm glad Don Burkel has given me an excuse to re-run it.  This morning he announced the winners of the BID's Holiday Window Contest, and Valle Jewelers won.

Second prize went to Adam Miller Toy & Bicycles and third prize to Spa at Artemis.

Honorable mentions: C.L. Carr/Mistler Building, Continental School of Beauty, Floral Fantasies and WBTA.

Previously: Downtown Christmas Lights

It's a complaint I heard from Downtown Batavia merchants last winter, and a sore subject that came up at a BID meeting over the winter -- snow piled up along Main Street. Now merchants are grumbling again after the first big snow storm this year.

The big mounds make it exceptionally hard for customers to come downtown, park on Main and walk into a business. Generally, when the snow is piled up like it is, only the driver can get out of a car and then must walk a half a block or more in traffic to the nearest opening to gain access to the sidewalk -- and then walk back to the business he or she wants to enter.

Ken Mistler, who is opening a gym at Main and Jackson in a few weeks, is also concerned about the practice of city public works crews piling up snow right in the middle of the parking lot behind his building. The large pile can take up as many as 20 parking spaces, and with several popular businesses on Jackson, that doesn't leave much parking room left with convenient access to those businesses and the gym.

He said he isn't worried about his customers walking some distance to get into the gym -- they are, after all, into fitness -- but he is concerned that the additional parking his gym requires means that customers of the Jackson Street businesses will find it harder to park and face longer walks.

Those 20 or so spaces are much needed, Mistler said, so he suggested the snow be piled behind the empty Latina's market, not in the middle of the most used parking area off Jackson.

City Manager Jason Molino said the city is constantly reviewing snow plowing and removal procedures, but removal is not a priority during a storm and can only be accomplished as manpower and equipment availability dictates.

"Our first priority, when we have a snow storm like yesterday, is to make sure the thoroughfares are clean, the major arteries in the city are clear, and then the side streets and then we get into snow removal," Molino said during an interview on Friday.

At the BID meeting this summer, Board President John Roche said downtown merchants need to be vocal about letting City Hall know that they want to see snow removal become more of a priority this year.

We'll see what happens.

Jeff Gillard, above, was honored as the volunteer of the year for the Business Improvement District, and Kent Ewell, owner of O'Lacy's was given the "Spirit of Downtown" award at today's BID annual luncheon.

Today's lunch was at Mother's Chicken and Fish on Ellicott. After our meal, owner Tim Chugg and I started chatting.

He's pretty upset that the new brick bench across the street from his store, outside the Pok-A-Dot, remains unfinished several months after the project was started.  There's been no sign of progress all spring.

I checked with Don Burkel at the BID, and he said there's an unresolved issue the DOT holding up the entire Ellicott Street project.

"We're anxious to get it finished, too." Burkel said. "We hope to have the entire project finished by late spring."

The second “Jackson Square Inside” Concert will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 24 at Batavia City Centre (formerly the Genesee Country Mall).

It features the OHMS Band. The concert is sponsored by the Batavia Business Improvement District to bring people downtown and get everyone ready for the June concert series “Outside.” 

The April concert is in conjunction the Genesee County Chamber’s Annual Small Business Week Showcase which features a variety of merchants and various food vendors.  The showcase runs from 5 to 8 pm.

For information about exhibiting at the showcase, call Kelly Bermingham at 585-343-7440 ex. 26.

For more information about this and other downtown events visit the B.I.D. website at  HYPERLINK "http://www.downtownbataviany.com" www.downtownbataviany.com or call 585-344-0900.

The Downtown Batavia Public Market returns Thursday, June 25 for its third year of operation, according to Don Burkel, manager of the Batavia Business Improvement District.

The market will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and run until Sept. 10 and operate at the corner of Ellicott and Center streets.

"This year the Market will be open on Thursdays to accommodate  residents and employees of the businesses and government," Burkel said.  "This provides a convenient venue for them to shop for fresh vegetables, fruit, baked goods, fresh cut flowers, honey, specialty BBQ sauce and popcorn and lots more within a short distance of their homes and places or work."

There is plenty of parking at the location, Burkel noted.

For those interested in being a vendor at the Downtown Public Market they can contact the Business Improvement District Office at 585-344-0900 or for more information visit the BID Web site.

Monday, a couple dozen downtown business people gathered at Generation Center on Center Street to discuss ways to improve the business environment downtown.

John Roche, owner of Adam Miller Toys, made an especially impassioned plea for businesses downtown to promote other businesses downtown.

He noted that often times people wind up in Batavia without knowing much about all that downtown has to offer. He talked about when he finds an unfamiliar face in his business, he is sure to tell them about other retailers or places to eat.  He said all of the businesses need to support each other this way.

He noted that a personal recommendation from one business owner about another business carries a lot of weight with customers.

Today, the Daily News, has a story about BID efforts to bring more customers downtown.

It's a fine story, but I wish I had taken notes on John's speech (I was there to be a businessman, not a reporter).  John's impromptu address was full of vigor and community spirit. John isn't mentioned in Joanne Beck's story at all.

As a complete aside, I finally made the Daily News, though quite accidentally, I'm sure and not at all noticeable to anybody but my mother, if she saw the picture, but I'm sitting in front of Don Burkel in this photo.

We received this press release from Don Burkel at the BID:

Downtown Batavia –  The Square Is Back!  “Jackson Square Inside” Concert will be on Friday, March 13th, Batavia City Centre (former Genesee Country Mall) from 7:00-9:00 pm,  featuring  The Ghost Riders.  This is the first of two “Inside” concerts to bring people downtown and to get everyone ready for the June concert series outside.  This concert is sponsored by: Batavia Business Improvement District and the Batavia City Centre Merchants Association.

The next “Inside” concert will be on Friday, April 24th featuring The OHMS Band (6:30 pm-8:00 pm).  This performance will be in conjunction the Genesee County Chamber’s Small Business Week Showcase.

For more information about this and other downtown events visit the B.I.D. website at   www.downtownbataviany.com  or call 585-344-0900. 

 

Don Burkel, Executive Director of the Batavia Business Improvement District (BID), said there is hope and incentive for future business owners and shoppers downtown. Burkel said some of the incentives currently in the works could include: a coupon book and a shop-and-dine night—during which downtown shoppers can get discounts at local eateries and find sales at local merchants. Businesses may also look to benefit from cooperative advertising with the media.

The BID continues to plan events coming up in March and April and has already confirmed the bands, the Formula and Ghost Riders to perform at Jackson Square this summer.

Yesterday, we ran a post about the push by some members of Batavia's City Council to cut down on the funding for downtown celebrations, such as Summer in the City and Christmas in the City. Councilman Bob Bialkowski explained that they only wanted to limit the amount of funding available to cut down on overtime costs, but that they would not eliminate the celebrations altogether. Bialkowski justifies the push for cuts as a measure to minimize the city's property tax rate. Opponents of the cuts, however, argue that any cut in funding would shift too much of a cost burden onto the Batavia Business Improvement District, sponsors of the events.

What do you think?

Earlier this morning, one of our readers, John Roach, left the following comment:

It’s a shame that after all the hard work by BID, the 5 Republicans on City Council have submitted a budget proposal that will take enough money away from city celebrations and events that it might kill the Summer/Christmas in the City.

That caught our attention, and we set out to find exactly what the City Council had planned for budget cuts that might affect future events downtown. We asked for comment from Council President Charlie Mallow and Don Burkel, director of the downtown Business Improvement District. Burkel has not yet commented. Burkel responded via e-mail at noon today:

"There should be no budget cuts for Christmas in the City, Summer in the City or any other BID activities, as this would definitely have a negative impact on the downtown businesses.  In this time of economic hardship the merchants need these events to generate activity to attract shoppers and visitors to the Batavia Business Improvement District."

Mallow responded in an e-mail:

"I was sent a proposed amendment to lower the city's contribution from a few of the council members. Council will be talking about this proposed amendment as well as the rest that were submitted on Saturday.

"From my point of view a consensus was come to on the amount of this line item in the last budget. I do not support the cut, I think its unfair and hurts the businesses downtown and I think doing anything to jeopardize either event would lower our quality of life in the city.

"The members that proposed the amendment alluded to the idea that they had a majority in favor of the cut. I find that hard to believe."

While we were waiting to hear back from Mallow and Burkel, we also spoke with a few other members of Council: Rose Mary Christian, Kathy Briggs and Bob Bialkowski.

Bialkowski, who expressed an overall optimism about the budget process this year, said: "We're not eliminating any downtown events." Instead, he said, several members of Council were looking at ways to reduce overtime costs—especially those related to the management of downtown events—to help reduce the property tax burden. While this would not "eliminate" downtown events, it would reduce the funding available for them.

According to the budget proposal prepared by the office of the city manager, actual overtime costs so far paid out in the current budget season total more than $530,000, as listed in the budget's general fund. That total does not include such special funds as water and sewer, ambulance—in which overtime costs exceed $300,000—and the mall, which for some reason is maintained as a separate fund.

Nevertheless, most of those overtime expenses fall within the budgeted amounts. In fact, both fire and police overtime costs were under. For some reason, the communications department totaled more than four times what was budgeted. To date, that department has accrued $28,612 in overtime costs, while a mere $7,000 was budgeted.

What's most apt here, however, is the overtime cost for "community celebrations," which has totaled $4,997 so far. Those are the costs that Bialkowski has called into question. He says that if the city could get more use out of volunteers for the downtown celebrations and shift the schedule for assistance from public works employees from the weekend to Friday and Monday, the cost would drop from, say, $1,000 to $500, since overtime costs would be avoided.

"I'm a big believer for volunteering for events," he said. "We're just trying to keep any property tax minimal. We're looking at all costs, trying to keep it down as low as possible."

Cutting back on overtime costs are just one way he would hope to get expenses down for the next budget season. He has proposed a list of amendments, he says, that would reduce about $70,000 in "miscellaneous items" and by sharing services and getting more time out of certain city vehicles.

Christian and Briggs said that the cuts proposed by Bialkowski and others would, in fact, cut the funding for downtown events and shift the cost burden onto the BID, which would not be able to manage, and so be forced to eliminate the events.

"Some council members have recommended cuts in this area," said Briggs in an e-mail. "One suggestion was cutting it from $3,000 to $2,000. Nothing is definite yet. In my opinion the events shouldn't be scrapped. I'm not going to support this cut. We can't expect the Business Improvement District to pick up all of the cost, and we have to have some celebrations, right!"

Christian is of the same mind. She says that she is "not one of them," referring to some other members on Council who are trying to cut the funding for downtown events. Instead of those cuts, she said that she asked for City Manager Jason Molino to see if he can cut 1 to 1 1/2 percent from elsewhere in the budget. She hopes to get an answer on where and how that might be pulled off at the session Saturday.

"We'll see if Jason can find cuts in certain areas," she said. "The budget is astronomical. It's $24 million. We have to be realistic. The economy is a disaster. The stock market is a disaster. Even the president has said, it's not up to government, it's up to us. It's up to the people to make a change."

From the Batavia Business Improvement District:

This is a contest for children, twelve years and younger, to make a holiday ornament and enter it into this contest. The ornaments will be displayed on a Christmas tree in the Batavia City Centre. The winners will be announced on Friday, December 5th. Winners will be announced at Christmas in the City, at 6:45pm, on the Main Stage in Batavia City Centre.

The Ornament Committee is looking to have prizes to give out to the various children whose ornament(s) win in the different categories.

If you are interested in donating a prize to this contest please contact Loretta Delpriore at 344-1283 by Wednesday, November 19th or fax the form below to: 815-4310. She will provide you with contest forms and other information.

Click here to download the donation form.

If you're looking to save a few bucks, learn yoga and taekwondo or get some free grub, you may want to search out the Downtown Batavia Coupon Book. It looks like this:

Inside, you'll find deals for a free cup of java at Main Street Coffee, a week of classes at Cain's Taekwondo, a session of tai chi at Blue Pearl Yoga, $35 off a pair of glasses at Optique, and much much more. The booklets of coupons include more than 30 downtown businesses and cost $2 each. You can find them at these locations:

Adam Miller Toy & Bike, Angotti Beverage,  Carlson’s Studio, Charles Men’s Shop, Christiano Cellular, Continental School of Beauty, Grugnale’s, House of K, Main Street Coffee, Marchese Computer, Optique, The Cutting Shack, The Spa at Artemis, Valle Jewelers and Washington Towers.

Information from the Batavia Business Improvement District.

Work has begun on the Ellicott Street improvement project -- or should I say, measurement has begun.

I stopped into the Pok-A-Dot for breakfast this morning. Staff and clientele alike told me crews have been outside the restaurant for four days measuring.

I watched the same line, the same spot get measured six times while I was there.

Since I've never worked construction, maybe this is normal (I don't know), but it seems to take the maxim "measure twice, cut once" a bit far.

Batavia's downtown Summer Sidewalk Sales kick off Saturday, July 12th from 10:00am to 2:00pm. Be sure to stop by these shops for special deals:

• Adam Miller Toys & Bikes
• Continental School of Beauty
• House of K
• PIECES Gallery
• The Mane Attraction Salon
• Valle Jewelers

Summer Sidewalk Sales are sponsored by the Downtown Batavia Improvement District.

Every morning I get online and go mining for news, mostly Batavia news, because thats why I'm here: to inform Batavians. I plug in keywords in search fields. I read through the news briefs at WBTA's timely-kept Web site. I scan the digital newspapers in the area for anything (geographically) of interest to our readers here in Batavia and, more and more, around other parts of Genesee County as well. Nevertheless, some days, no matter how many information wells I plumb, no news comes up.

That being said, Monday's are almost always a guarantee for news. Something had to happen over the weekend. Someone must have done something worthy of that half-inch bold font headline. A party somewhere must have gone wrong, and now someone — or a few someones are cooling it in the clink.

Today, that wasn't the case. We heard from the county sheriff's deputies and the city police, but they were all about alcohol busts over the weekend. Whether that meant selling it to people who shouldn't have it or driving after drinking too much of it, that was all they reported about the weekend — to us, anyway.

So it got me thinking. What makes the news?

Well, without turning this into a debate about how we the media need to focus more on positive, happy, make-you-feel-good news — because there really is plenty of that; it just doesn't make the front pages all the time and more often than not isn't written well so isn't worth reading — the news I find in my morning searches will fall pretty cleanly into one of a few categories: bad news (car crashes, crime, high profile death), news released by Genesee Community College, finance or sports. But there wasn't much of any of it this morning.

So when Batavia's downtown business director Don Burkel walked into Main Street Coffee this morning and asked me what the scoop was, I told him: no scoop. I told him I searched and searched and couldn't come up with anything. What happened over the weekend, I asked him. Didn't stuff happen? Wasn't there news?

For sure, he said. Good news.

Batavia's Public Market opened for the season Saturday morning. Despite the weather threats of hail storms and the like, the market was a raving success. Folks came out to buy from vendors who were eager to sell their wares. And I can understand his elation. Public markets make me feel the same way, and it isn't even my job to get excited about downtown business. Public markets have seen a real resurgence in the past decade or so. For good reason. They're an intersection of culture and finance that harken back to the Greek agora, the public gathering place where everything happened. Whenever I get the chance to visit the market in Rochester, I get giddy. They've got good cheap eats. Fresh produce. You can typically hear at least three languages spoken. And somehow the otherwise avaricious act of purchasing for a small moment in time turns cultural. Unlike, say, big box retail shops, that mostly smell of plastic and make me feel more neurotic than usual and sometimes even hostile towards my people.

So there was that. But also...

Jackson Square hosted its second Friday night concert of the season. The Ghostriders played, the square filled, people danced. And the whole evening seemed a foreshadowing of the weekend to come — Ramble Music and Arts Fest.

Downtown was good cheer, straight up and down, this weekend. And Don told me all about it with a beaming smile. Because it really was a good weekend for Batavia. And that was the news. Summer arrived, and Batavians got out and took advantage. They stayed close to home, and close to home proved worthy of sticking around for.

All this to say, sometimes good news is exactly that and deserves its place in the cycle of crime, death, finance, sports. Not that all good news is real news. I bought a pair of sneakers recently, and they're comfortable, and that's good news for me. But I doubt anyone else would care, and they shouldn't.

There are so many ways a community gets out and acts like one, and when it does it so blatantly and in a way that blots out the bad that gets the front page most every other day, it's worthy of shining a light on.

So, if you've got a keyboard and an Internet connection, and you know that your town, village, city, neighborhood, hamlet got out and manufactured some good news that just doesn't seem to get the credit it deserves — blog about it. Write a post. Write it in a way that you think is interesting. Put yourself in the story. We're not journalism teachers. We won't call you out for that. Just tell the story. Because sometimes the news cycle lets us down, and we could all do with a good story told well of folks doing good things.

They say it's going to be ninety degrees by the end of the week. You'll probably be able to see the Niagara power station glow and hear it hum from a mile away as the pulse of a million or so air conditioners suck its electric stream. At least, that's the apocalyptic look on our upcoming summer heat surge — and anyone who remembers the great Northeast Blackout of '03 will know what I mean.

On a brighter note, sunshine and hot humid days also bring blooming bouquets. Batavia's Downtown Business Improvement District understands that, which is why they've financed the hanging of some 90 baskets of flowers on light poles along Main Street from the post office to Liberty Street. As you can see, they haven't quite bloomed yet, but the pretty purple petals are a pleasant sign of things to come.

BID Director Don Burkel says the flowers will "give color to Main Street" and just make it a better place to be for pedestrians and motorists. City crews mounted the baskets, and they will monitor the irrigation systems attached to the poles to keep the soil wet and the flowers growing.

As long as the weather holds, the baskets should stay out through September, says Burkel.

Batavia's Public Market is less than a month away and in need of a few more donations to help lock all the pieces into place. In particular, market director Don Burkel is looking for two picnic tables and a smallish outdoor shed. Also:

If you are an artist (painter, photographer, sculptor, etc.) or crafts person (cloth, jewelry, pottery, weaving, wood, etc.) that would like to sell your handmade products at the market please give us a call.

The market starts June 28 and runs through October 11, every Saturday from 9:00am to 2:00pm in the Center and School streets parking lot (across from O'Lacy's Irish Pub). You can expect fresh produce, baked goods, coffee, flowers, handmade jewelry and pottery, barbecue, Batavia-style pizza and more.

Call the Batavia Business Improvement District at (585) 344-0900 for more information.