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Gillibrand tours Alpina, says she's excited by signs of local economic growth

By Howard B. Owens

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand spent some time in Western New York on Tuesday, including at least two stops in Batavia.

Gillibrand met with area Democratic leaders for lunch at Larry's Steakhouse and then toured the Alpina Products factory under construction at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park.

The facility, which will produce

Blue Devils suffer heartbreaking loss in Class B semifinal

By Howard B. Owens
Batavia vs .HFL Section V Class B semifinal 2023
Zailen Griffen inched the ball over the goalline for one of his three touchdowns while senior lineman Alex Merica begins the celebration.
Photo by Howard Owens.

Heartbreaking is the best way to describe the Batavia Blue Devil's 26-20 loss to the Honeoye Falls/Lima Cougars in the Class B football semifinal on Friday night.

The boys' varsity squad was by no means guaranteed the win when the defense made a costly mistake late in the fourth quarter.

But the mistake gave the Cougars' offense new life after the defense had snuffed an apparent scoring drive in the red zone.

First-year head coach Alex Veltz took responsibility for the mental error, saying he hadn't properly prepared his team for a rare circumstance in a high school football game: a blocked field goal attempt.

Steve Hyde's retirement plans? Step out of the limelight, help with a new grandchild

By Howard B. Owens
steve hyde
Steve Hyde.
Photo by Steve Ognibene.

At only 61, Steve Hyde isn't planning a second career after his final days with the Genesee County Economic Development Center; he's planning to try out an actual retirement -- for awhile, at least.

"My kind of core values in retirement, I think are, I want to spend more time with my family, do a little traveling," Hyde said in an exclusive interview with The Batavian on Monday. "I'll try to be around to help out, but it's time to step away from the limelight and the leadership role a little bit."

Hyde has led the EDC for 21 years, overseeing the construction of eight shovel-ready industrial parks, including WNY STAMP, the Genesee Valley Agribusiness Park, Apple Tree Acres, Buffalo East Tech Park, and Gateway I & II corporate parks, among them. During that time, GCEDC has assisted more than 500 projects, from building expansions to whole new factories, worth a combined $2 billion-plus of investments leading to the creation of thousands of new jobs and increased tax revenue for municipalities and school districts.

Weekend football: Eastridge ruins Senior Night at Batavia

By Nick Sabato

Batavia’s struggles in Monroe County League play continued as they fell to Eastridge on senior night, 38-14.

The Lancers got off to quick start after Batavia’s opening possession stalled after three plays, and Jametrius Lewis returned the Blue Devil punt 54 yards for a touchdown to go up 6-0 just

Sign of the times, or a big can of worms: first digital sign proposed for downtown

By Joanne Beck

As members of the city’s Planning and Development Committee mulled a request Tuesday for a digital sign  — which would be the first one approved for downtown Batavia — all action came to a hush at one point.

Members Ed Flynn, David Beatty, Chairman Duane Preston and John Ognibene looked

GCC's Harvest Fest showcases local ag, features farmers' market and petting zoo

By Billie Owens

The community is welcome to join hundreds of GLOW (Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, Wyoming) region high school students at the fourth annual Harvest Festival and Farmer's Market on Thursday, Oct. 15, at Genesee Community College.

The event aims to expose students interested in careers in agriculture to all the local opportunities

Pavilion schools host 'Eclipse Learning Night' for community

By Pavilion Journalism Class
pavilion eclipse event

By Darrell Upright and the PCS Introduction Journalism Class

Tuesday night, Pavilion Central School hosted its first-ever full-district community event, “Eclipse Learning Night,” in preparation for the  April 8 total solar eclipse. 

Hosted nearly two weeks before the celestial occurrence, 400 students and their families mobbed the Middle-High school’s

Genesee ARC celebrates 50th anniversary at annual meeting

By Howard B. Owens

Press release:

Genesee ARC’s 50th Anniversary Annual Meeting was held Friday night, just two days shy of the actual May 1, 1966 date that the agency was founded. Master of Ceremonies, WBTA's Dan Fischer, welcomed the 200 guests to Genesee ARC’s Community Center Forum.

The first order of business presented

Sponsored Post: Thank you to the generous sponsors & everyone who helped make the Genesee County Fair possible!

By Lisa Ace

Thank you to the generous sponsors of the 2015 Genesee County Fair 
Alpina Foods, Arctic Refrigeration, Baskin Livestock, Batavia Starter, Big O Farms, Brad Vokes Trucking, B's Pet Grooming, Cargill, Carolina Eastern‐Crocker, LLC, Carquest, Castilone Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Corfu-Darien Veterinary Clinic, Cummings & Bricker, Dig Safely NY, Freed Maxick CPA's P.C

New revolving loan fund intended to spur redevelopment in city, towns and villages

By Howard B. Owens

Genesee County Economic Development Center -- through its financing arm, Genesee Gateway LDC -- is committing $500,000 to redevelopment projects in the City of Batavia as well as the business districts of Genesee County's towns and villages.

The money to start the new revolving loan fund is seeded from revenue

Part 5: Trump, trade and the local economy

By Howard B. Owens

NAFTA

This is part five of an eight-part series on trade and how changes in policy might affect the local economy.

While farmers worry about the impact of changes to the current world trade regime and the place of the United States in that scheme, even local ag leaders have

2020 Richmond Reads selection is 'Nothing More Dangerous' by Minnesota author Allen Eskens

By Billie Owens

By Samantha Stryker, Community and Adult Services librarian, Richmond Memorial Library:

At a small gathering last Thursday, the Richmond Reads committee and Richmond Memorial Library revealed the 2020 Richmond Reads title -- "Nothing More Dangerous," a 2019 mystery by Minnesota author Allen Eskens.

The reveal was also streamed live to

Hochul reviews the State of the State during visit to GCC

By Howard B. Owens

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul was in Batavia at Genesee Community College today to review Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State speech.

After cheering the Buffalo Bills and talking a bit about how well Batavia and Genesee County are doing, Hochul highlighted key elements of the speech, which outlines some of

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