Press Release:

HomeCare & Hospice will be participating in the Genesee County United Way Annual Day of Caring on May 23. 

United Way volunteers will be matched to local agencies and non-profit organizations to assist in hands-on projects in their communities. 

HomeCare & Hospice of Batavia will be seeking volunteers to assist in cleaning the Pathway of Life Garden at Grandview Cemetery which is a memorial brick garden surrounded by beautiful foliage, flowers, benches, and a place of relaxation and quiet reflection. The bricks are a lasting public tribute to your loved ones.

Volunteers are needed on May 23 beginning at 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. to complete pruning trees, pulling up the walkway to remove roots, weeding, grass removal, and power washing of benches and walkways.

Individuals or teams can sign up to volunteer by contacting Caitlyn Farnung at caitlin.farnung@unitedwayrocflx.org or by calling 585-242-6517. Volunteer registration is open until May 10.

If you or someone you know could benefit from hospice, please contact HomeCare & Hospice at 585-343-7596 or visit homecare-hospice.org.

Press release:

The Batavia Muckdogs have officially released their 2024 promotional night schedule.  This season the Muckdogs will have four fireworks shows -- June 1, 15, July 3 & 20, $1 Hotdog & $2 Beer Night return, four brand new theme nights, & a blast from the past!

This season, fireworks shows will be sponsored by Graham Corporation & Batavia Downs (Sat. June 1), Oak Orchard Health, HP Hood, & Rochester Regional Health (Sat. June 15), Tompkins Bank & Turnbull Heating & Air (Wed. July 3), and O-AT-KA Milk Products (Sat. July 20). The Helicopter Candy Drop will make a return on Saturday, July 27, vs Jamestown. Dwyer Stadium will also feature some new things, as Dave’s Ice Cream will host a giveaway night, Bark in the Park (bring your dogs to the game!), Kids Free Night (July 5), and Bills Mafia Night.  The Muckdogs will also have something old but new in 2024 as well.  On Friday, June 28, Batavia Clippers Night will be at Dwyer Stadium for fans of baseball in Batavia from decades past.  The Muckdogs will have lots of other fun and giveaways this summer.  The Muckdogs will also have a free T-shirt giveaway on Sunday, June 30 & the Helicopter Candy drop courtesy of Pete Zeliff returns on Saturday, July 27. The full schedule is available at www.canusamuckdogs.com.

The Muckdog's opening weekend is set for Saturday, June 1, at 6:30 vs. the Elmira Pioneers with post-game fireworks and then back Sunday, June 2nd 4:05 vs. the Niagara Falls Americans with meet the team night. 

Season tickets are on sale starting at just $99.  585-524-2260 or visit www.canusamuckdogs.com for special promotions, season tickets, or group information.  See you at Dwyer Stadium this summer.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a Public Hearing will be held by the Town of Batavia Planning Board regarding an application for a Special Use Permit by East Coast Speedway (Jason Bonsignore) to open and operate a racing track on property that was the former polar wave at 3500 Harloff Road, Batavia, NY - Tax Map 151.  This is in a Commercial/Recreation District.

Said hearing will be held on Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the Batavia Town Hall at 7:15 p.m. at which time all interested persons will be heard. Written comments will be accepted prior to that date.  You may email the Chairman at  kjasinski@townofbatavia.com or text 219-9190.

by order of the Town of Batavia Planning Board
Kathleen Jasinski, Chairman

Click here for further information or to register!

The local press was not permitted in a meeting on Monday between business owners concerned about impacts on their shops during the construction of a new police station in Batavia, but afterward, the project manager spoke exclusively with The Batavian about what he tried to communicate during the

On Monday morning, workers moved a construction fence off the sidewalk behind a group of office buildings on Washington Avenue, Batavia, that was erected late last week in preparation for the start of construction of the new Batavia police station.

Dr. Tom Mazurkiewicz said he and other businesses in the complex were upset with the placement of the fence and even just moving it off the sidewalk isn't good enough.

Come by the Holland Land Office Museum and check out our new mini-exhibit, "St. Joesph's Drum Core: 53 Years Later!"

From April to the end of September, view photographs, uniforms, and other artifacts relating to the nationally ranked local drum corps from the twentieth century!

Beginning in 1931 under the direction of Rev. T. Bernard Kelly, pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Batavia, the St. Joseph's Drum Corps was created and went on to be nationally ranked. Winning 8 New York State American Legion titles and other national titles! The drum crops were active until 1971. However, they have a reunion corps called the "Mighty St. Joe's" in Le Roy.

The exhibit includes uniforms, photographs, instruments, and much more of members of alumni of the Drum Corps.

The mini-exhibit is available during regular museum hours, Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. with regular admission. Come and check it out on your next visit to the Holland Land Office Museum.

Today, making bread is easy. You buy a loaf of frozen bread, defrost it, and bake it. In 1996, there was a machine called the Bread Machine. You would put all the ingredients into the machine and turn it on. It would mix the ingredients, time the bread to rise, and then bake the bread. Now, you can go to a supermarket and buy fresh bread.

In the ‘60s, my grandmother, Jennie Bellow, would bring her homemade bread to Batavia every Sunday. We all enjoyed her bread and took it for granted. On one of my Sunday sleepovers in Le Roy, I watched my grandma get out all sorts of things to make her white bread. Flour, yeast, and Crisco were some of her ingredients. She also took out a flat piece of wood, a towel, and five bread pans. I asked why she was getting everything out the night before, and she said I would find out the following day. 

Early the next morning, I watched her make her bread. I had no idea it would take all day. First, we would measure the flour, put the yeast in warm milk, and add one scant wooden spoonful of Crisco. We would mix the ingredients by hand, which is called kneading. The towel was to cover the dough, hoping it would rise. Finally, the bread was ready for the pans. The result was beautiful but so time-consuming. My grandmother was born in 1900, and making bread was a way of life for women in the 1900s as it was in the 1800s.

One of the first things Joseph Ellicott did as a local agent of the Holland Land Company was to have mills, both grist and saw, built in Batavia to encourage settlement. Before the erection of the gristmill in Batavia in 1804, the people sometimes did not have bread or anything to make it from. Flour was brought on packhorses before the roads were of such a character as to allow better transportation. The Tonawanda Creek dam was used to power a sawmill and, a little later, a gristmill.

Both corn and wheat grain had to be ground for bread and other foods. The grindstones at the gristmill reduced corn to meal and wheat grain to flour. “Rye and Indian,” made from cornmeal and rye flour, was the only bread the early settlers could make. Grinding the grain into flour for the pioneers meant a journey to the gristmill by ox sled in both summer and winter.

I wonder if the giant stone doughnuts that stood on East Main Street near the corner of Ross Street could have been gristmill stones. Many years ago, they were at the entrance of a burned house. I can remember them always being there; after the fire, they disappeared.

In the Holland Land Office Museum, there is a colonial kitchen. You can imagine our early settlers cooking in the kitchen using a fireplace. Upon request, you can view a reflector oven. This was one way the early settlers made bread. A reflector oven is a box usually made of tin designed to enclose an article of food on all but one side to cause it to bake by capturing radiant heat from an open fire and reflecting the heat toward the food. The next time you buy freshly baked bread at your local supermarket, think of the time it took to make bread from “scratch!”

I treasure the memories of cooking and baking with my grandmother. I know how to make her bread from scratch, but it is not the same not having my grandmother next to me in her cobbler apron showing me how to knead the bread.

Terry Anderson, a journalist and a Batavia High School graduate who gained international attention after being taken hostage by an Iranian-backed terrorist group, has died in Greenwood Lake, in the Hudson Valley.

He was 76 years old.

Anderson was the Beirut bureau chief in 1985 for the Associated Press when he was kidnapped by armed men who dragged him from his car after he dropped off a tennis partner following a match. The pistol-wielding men yanked him from his car and pushed him into a Mercedes-Benz.

The terrorists were reportedly members of Hezbollah, an Islamic Jihad Organization in Lebanon. He was reportedly blindfolded and beaten and kept in chains and moved to 20 different hideaways in Beirut, South Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley.

His release came 2,454 days later following intense lobbying by his sister, Peggy Say.

Anderson and Say were born in Lorain, Ohio, where their father, Glen, was a village police officer. While still children, their parents moved to Batavia, where their father worked as a truck driver and their mother, Lily, was a waitress.

After Anderson was kidnapped, Say didn't feel the case was getting enough attention from the U.S. government and the United States. She launched a national campaign to raise the awareness of people to the plight of her brother and other hostages held by Hezbollah.

Say, who had returned to Batavia after relocating for a time, enlisted fellow journalists, humanitarian groups, world figures, and U.S. citizens in the cause, which led to the nation being festooned with yellow ribbons. 

She also received assistance from many fellow Batavia residents, such as Anne Zickl, who died in 2014.

Say died in 2015 at age 74.

Terry Anderson's daughter Sulome told the New York Times that Anderson died following complications from a recent heart surgery.

Anderson's last public appearance in Batavia was in February 2011 to dedicate the International Peace Garden.

Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature unveiled the final state budget Saturday, including a payroll tax credit for local news outlets, modeled on the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, in the sweeping package. With the passage of this bill, New York is now the first state in the nation to incentivize hiring and retaining local journalists. This game changer for the local news industry comes just months after the launch of the Empire State Local News Coalition, an unprecedented, grassroots campaign powered by more than 200 community newspapers across the state.

Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Senate bill sponsor, said: “I’m elated that our first-in-the-nation Local Journalism Sustainability Act is passing in the state budget. A thriving local news industry is vital to the health of our democracy and it’s our responsibility to help ensure New Yorkers have access to independent and community-focused journalism. Thank you to Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Governor Hochul, our Assembly Sponsor Woerner and the over 200 local publications of the Empire State Local News Coalition who helped pass our bill. Our efforts will help ensure that our democracy will not die in darkness.”

"Without local news coverage in our community, there would be a lot that our local governments do that voters would never know about nor have any way to realistically question; there would be no accountability," said Howard Owens, publisher of The Batavian.  "We created Early Access Pass to give the community an opportunity to support local journalism and help us hire more reporters. This tax credit will help those dollars, along with our vital sponsor support, go further, and should open the door for us to hire more reporters, which is the legislation's primary purpose. We're hopeful this legislation will help ensure Genesee County continues to get the local news coverage it needs and deserves.

"I also want to thank our local representatives, Assemblyman Steve Hawley and Sen. George Borrello, for their support of this critical piece of legislation," Owens added. "They both recognize the importance of local news coverage to our community and understand the crisis state the local news industry is in."

The program--$30 million per year for three years--allows each eligible newspaper and broadcast business to receive a 50% refundable tax credit against the first $50,000 of an employee's salary, up to a total of $300,000 per business. $4 million will be allocated to incentivize print and broadcast businesses to hire new journalists. The remaining $26 million will be split evenly between businesses with fewer than 100 employees and those with more than 100 employees, ensuring that hyperlocal, independent news organizations can access these funds. 

After stalling for years, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act catapulted into a top legislative priority this session following the early-2024 founding of the Empire State Local News Coalition and the coalition’s mobilization of support from hundreds of New York hometown papers as well as a broad range stakeholders from around the country, including the Rebuild Local News Coalition, Microsoft, and El Diario. Organized labor, including NYS AFL-CIO, CWA District 1, and national and local news guilds, also played a critical role in mobilizing support for this historic bill. 

"The Empire State Local News Coalition is thrilled by the state budget’s inclusion of a payroll tax credit for local news outlets modeled on the Local Journalism Sustainability Act. New York is now the first state in the nation to incentivize hiring and retaining local journalists–a critical investment given that hundreds of New York’s newspapers have closed since 2004, leaving too many New York communities without access to vital local information. The objectivity of this credit shows that there is a fair way for public policy to support local news without jeopardizing journalistic integrity. This program is a model for other states across the U.S. to follow as communities across the country raise their voices to save local news,” said Zachary Richner, founder of the Empire State Local News Coalition.

“We’re incredibly proud of the 200 newspapers in our coalition, which built an unprecedented grassroots movement in support of saving New York’s local news industry in a few short months. We’re especially grateful to Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, whose tireless advocacy for this tax credit was instrumental in moving it through the legislative process. The coalition thanks Governor Hochul, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Heastie, Assembly Sponsor Carrie Woerner, and the entire legislature for supporting this industry-saving policy, and we look forward to continuing our advocacy for local news in the years to come," Richner continued. “Other states and stakeholders interested in replicating this playbook and hearing about lessons learned should reach out to us at info@savenylocalnews.com.”

Since launching in February, the coalition has quickly mobilized stakeholders across the state to rally behind the bill. In addition to rallying with grassroots advocates in Westchester and Albany, members led petition drives, letter-writing campaigns, editorials, and advertisements, sounding the alarm on the decline of local journalism.   

New York’s leadership on this issue could change the course of local journalism in the U.S. The budget’s inclusion of this tax credit comes at a watershed moment for the journalism industry: New York State has experienced hundreds of newspaper closures in the past few decades.