Letter to the Editor from Donald Weyer:
Essentially, the city of Batavia has ordered Batavia's City Church to cease its distribution of food to needy citizens from the church's property on Liberty Street, the former facilities of St. Anthony's Church. The reasons for the stoppage order included the safety of nearby schoolchildren, congestion of street traffic, complaints from nearby residents involving the above two reasons and including blockage of their access to and egress from their private properties. All reasonable issues, I'm sure you will agree. (I gleaned this information from an article posted on "The Batavian" website on 12/6/23.)
In reference to this City Church/former St. Anthony's Church/Liberty Street/City of Batavia food distribution clash of titans, or "tempest in a teapot": why not use Dwyer Stadium to give/share the comestibles? It has free and easy street access; a large parking lot; refrigeration facilities; seats and restrooms for waiting recipients and volunteer food distributors and supervisors; a PA system for communication between all-involved; a nearby neighborhood used to and tolerant of disruption, crowds, and noise during the collegiate league baseball season, as well as excessive street traffic to and fro the high school during the school year (we in the neighborhood are tough and resilient, shoot, we can take a mere bi-monthly food distribution, compared to the year-round inconveniences and interruptions of the combined baseball and school seasons); and heck, you could probably even get Robbie Nichols of Muckdogs fame to emcee the food handouts; he seems to be good at managing and organizing big stadium events! Plus, it would be "a feather in the cap" for the city of Batavia and its manager, Rachel Tabelski, (she did promise to assist City Church locate an alternative site, which I am doing with this writing), since Dwyer is the city's stadium, and we Batavia residents would thus "give credit where credit is due"!
Seems to me that Dwyer Stadium is a "win-win" all-around!
On a minor negative note, what does Brett Frank (one of the starring actors, along with [sort of a Fab Five] Ryan Macdonald of City Church and Chief Heubusch of the Police Dept. and of course, Rachel, and Todd Crossett, a City Church parishioner [also a former assistant Police Chief?]) and the director of the city of Batavia Public Works department have to do with the current food distribution issue on Liberty Street? Shouldn't he be out worrying about, and hastening to, street potholes; and snow plowing; and the excessive grass cutting of city-owned grasses; and the watering of overhead flower pots along Main Street; and primary and urgent snow plowing of the Mall parking lots and subsequent hauling away of all that snow (double duty or "double the work," and thus double debits from the city budget)? And leave the food distribution to City Church and the Police Department? (Oh goodness, Mr. Frank, my good man, "stay in your lane"). He's not being used as the "point-man" or the scapegoat, the "fall-guy," for what's going on over there on Liberty St., is he? Hope not! Just wondering!
