Due to the very nature of their work, which involves traumatic incidents and injuries, police officers and firefighters have a higher likelihood of developing addictions to opioids as a result of stress and mental health issues, Lynda Battaglia says.
And as director of Genesee County’s Mental Health Department, Battaglia wants to alleviate those employees’ stressors in any way possible — beginning right alongside of them.
"We think of the physicality of their jobs. The extra gear and uniform and what they have to carry, what they have to do, physically, they're more susceptible to potential injury as well as acute or chronic pain, oftentimes, which is treated with opioids,” Battaglia said during this week’s City Council meeting. “On top of that, we have their continued and repeated exposure to traumatic events every day that they are working. They're responding to calls that are unpredictable. They have very high stress jobs. We couple mental health with the physical demands of the job, coupled with, you know, the potential for high risk. These disciplines are at higher risk for developing dual diagnosis, which is mental health and opioid addiction.
"So by us getting ahead of the curve and developing this program and doing check-ins, it will allow for firefighters and officers to just be able to share what's on their mind, that they can get that out instead of keeping it in. To keep it in it just grows, and that's when real problems start to be created,” she said. “So we need to address it more in the moment. I'll have specific and certified counselors assigned to this program that are culturally competent, that they understand the work that these two professions do in these two departments.”
Mental health is becoming a larger issue for public safety officers across the country, Batavia Police Chief Shawn Heubusch said. It’s part of the city’s police and fire pilot wellness program for embedded services in both departments. Services will be paid for with $18,000 from an Opioid Abatement Fund through Genesee County.
Bi-annual mental health check-ins will be scheduled every six months with licensed mental health professionals, with a focus on assessing mental health and providing support. There will be ride-alongs at least once a year to offer opportunities for clinicians to accompany officers and firefighters during their actual working shifts, plus periodic wellness workshops, which will be open to all officers, firefighters and their families, and crisis intervention as needed.
“So a lot of the programs that we're looking at doing are, they're not groundbreaking, but they're simple and to the point. We're going to look at some mental health check-ins with our officers and our firefighters. They'll be scheduled on a regular basis. Obviously, we're in August now, so probably one before the end of the year, and then, evaluate the program moving forward right along,” he said. “So we'll have clinicians right along with the officers and with the firefighters on staff to get a better understanding of their jobs and what some of the stressors are and try to assist them with whatever that may be. A lot of it will be breaking down barriers between public safety individuals and mental health. That's the biggest thing we have to overcome.
“So we're pretty excited about the program. We've been talking about it for a long time, doing everything that we can support our officers and our public safety employees in the city,” he said. “We think this is a huge step forward, and I want to thank Linda for the opportunity to partner with us also.”
City Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr., a former police officer and retired lieutenant, added that’s “another step in a positive direction, it’s a positive thing to address this.”
Heubusch emphasized that he was not looking for any direct feedback from the clinician sessions spent with officers; there wouldn’t be any reports issued to him, and the police union has not opposed this plan, he said.
“It’s just getting the officers, firefighters, accustomed to that person that's with them, and then breaking down the barriers, having some conversation. It's not a fitness for duty type thing, or anything like that. That is really just having a support mechanism for our staff and an outlet at some point in time,” he said. “One of the biggest things that is climbing in our field is suicide, and unfortunately, officers are seeing that there's no other out for them so we want to do everything we can to wrap services around them if they need it. If something comes up where there is a need for further services or treatment, those are discussions that we'll have.”
These sessions were not going to be considered formal therapy, Battaglia said, just an opportunity for employees to talk and share with the mental health professionals.
Three weeks isn't exactly right around the corner, but it's at least on the horizon for a dozen business owners desperately waiting for handicap parking to be restored, and that's where the timeline stands as of Monday evening, according to City Manager Rachael Tabelski.
Work has been mapped out with traffic cones, tape and fencing several weeks ago, and officially kicked off with a groundbreaking ceremony a week ago, and now is expected to further ramp up with the ongoing commotion of the $15.5 million building project.
"Construction continues to progress toward site and utility work being finished in the next three weeks to open up that first row of parkng which we did discuss will be reopened for those Washington Street businesses," Tabelski said during council's conference session at City Hall. "Once the site work is complete, the contractors will move on to placing footers for the building and bringing in various construction trailers on site for the remainder of the project."
The city proposed this plan as business owners heavily complained about losing that adjacent row of parking next to their offices, citing the on-street parking on Washington Avenue as insufficient and dangerous for people with disabilities and assistive walking devices.
In related action, City Council approved:
A contract with Barron & Associates to perform work for the new police station being constructed downtown in the parking lot of Alva Place and Bank Street. The company was selected out of four proposals to perform special inspections services for the construction at a cost of $40,000.
Barron, based in Clarence, is a geotechnical consulting company that performs subsurface investigation and analysis and design and consulting services, construction inspections and testing.
A $200,000 law enforcement technology grant obtained by Police Chief Shawn Heubusch to be used for small equipment and contract services for the police department.
An agreement with Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp./Batavia Downs for city police services on several dates at the Park Road facility throughout the summer.
Dates include June 21 and 2; July 5, 12, 19 and 26; and August 2, 9 and 16.
Downtown property owner Sharon Kubiniec made a return visit to City Council Monday evening to remind the elected leaders that, despite the good intentions and efforts made so far to rectify a parking issue around the new police station in progress, “we are not flourishing.”
Taken from the city’s mission statement to create and sustain a vibrant, affordable, safe community that includes a supportive environment where businesses continuously flourish, she emphasized that the last portion was certainly not true for those dozen small business owners since construction began a couple of months ago.
Kubiniec also read through the city’s vision statement, countering with how life has been since work began in the parking lot at Alva Place and Bank Street in downtown Batavia several weeks ago. One portion that states, “our community members will be actively involved in the decision we made and active in bringing our plans to life,” was countered with, “We now know that in March of 2023, the negative state environmental quality review (SEQR) was approved by Batavia City Council. A negative SEQR means that the construction project has no negative effect on the environment,, traffic, and noise level of the area … that the parking lot surrounding the project area will remain open to the public.”
“Each affected business should have received direct notification of the proposed parking lot closure last summer when the plans were finalized.
“You took 85% of our parking,” she said. “We bought these businesses because they had parking.”
“I just want to have a sit-down meeting where I can have a back and forth because I really do believe that you guys can give us answers that will put our fears to rest,” she said during the council’s meeting at City Hall. “I’m not trying to be contentious with you. I'm just trying to gain information. And I don't know how this process works. I've never heard of a SEQR before … I’m just trying to gain information. I don't believe you understand the undue stress that this has placed on the businesses along Washington Avenue. We are all just trying to go to work, do our jobs and make a living every day as each patron, patient, employee and citizen of Batavia approaches us to complain about the egregious lack of parking in our offices.
“We still do not have handicapped parking. We appreciate the new plan to open up one row of parking. But I beg of you that you allow us to have a two-way conversation regarding the next two years, two years that will deeply affect our businesses,” she said. “I want to say my words very carefully because I have no ill will towards anybody. This has just affected my life immensely over the last couple of months. I'm not sleeping; I'm stressed to the max because my property value has changed when trying to sell a business, and that is all halted because our whole parking lot was closed off. That scares people; they don't want to buy businesses in downtown Batavia because they find out our city council can just close a parking lot without any warning.”
She also said that one of their worst fears — patient safety being compromised by using Washington Avenue for handicapped parking — has already happened, with three people falling between their vehicles and the medical office to which they were headed.
“We have cameras on our sidewalks, and our sidewalks right now are being utilized 10 times more than they ever were before. So I have much more traffic on my particular property,” she said. I’m just begging you to have a meeting with the business owners to just sit down because, as I just did with (Police Chief Shawn Heubusch), he was able to put one of our fears to rest by telling us that the employees of the police department will not be parking on the outside, but they will be in that secured facility. So please just sit down with us. That’s all we’re asking. I’m not looking to break anybody; I’m not looking to attack anybody. I just want to get information so that we can put our minds at rest and assure our patients that they’re going to be in a safe environment.”
Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr., a decades-long police officer and retired lieutenant who, in a prior meeting, said he thought some of the protests was in a tone of being against the new police station, asked if the business group had an attorney. Kubiniec said yes.
Jankowski quickly referred the matter to City Attorney George Van Nest, who advised council that since the group had retained counsel that no discussions should take place.
“Under the circumstances, since counsel has been retained, I would suggest to the council it's not prudent to engage in back and forth dialogue if there's a potential litigation threat,” Van Nest said. “The second thing I would say, council, is there was an update issued April 30, relative to phase one, phase two parking. There's nothing more to add to that at this point in time relative to timing. When there are further updates, they’ll be provided by the project team.”
The business group had initially attempted to seek answers from the city and encountered what it called “a gag order,” so it retained an attorney to file a Freedom of Information request so that all involved could read the SEQR and background materials and get those answers, Kubiniec told The Batavian.
“The city responded that, ‘due to the volume of records involved, the city of Batavia will have records available by Sept. 6, 2024.’ This was a disappointing response given that these records are mostly electronic and typically available within 20 days,” she said.
Kubiniec commended Heubusch for being willing to take time and answer some of her questions before the meeting began.
The Batavian reached out to the two at-large council members, Bob Bialkowski and Rich Richmond, and Jankowski for further comment about why the elected city leaders won’t talk to the business owners and if they feel they are representing the city’s vision statement for businesses.
Jankowski passed those questions on to City Manager Rachael Tabelski, who responded later Tuesday afternoon.
“We have engaged in various and multiple discussions with the business owners; the fact is that the business owners have retained counsel, and it would not be prudent for the City to engage in any further dialog at this time,” she said. “We have been open and transparent regarding the plans for the police station and the accommodations the City is making to assist the impacted businesses, which we will continue to do when practical.”
Bialkowski responded to The Batavian and said that “I sympathize with the business owners,” but that it seemed as though the city had done all it could do at this point. He believes that a front row of parking to be used for those with disabilities will be available to those businesses. He didn’t understand, however, why the two sides couldn’t talk just because the business owners have an attorney, as many professionals do.
Richmond did not respond to a request for comment.
The city released an updated parking plan on April 30 in an effort to compromise with its initial layout, which restricted parking for the cluster of businesses along Washington Avenue and State Street. At that time, Dr. Adam Gregor said that while he appreciated the effort, he didn’t believe it was really enough of an improvement. Kubiniec said it was “a step into the right direction” but did need more moving forward.
The last two days have seen a whirlwind of activity — social media posts, email chains, a petition and attempts to reach out to City Council -- from the group of Downtown Batavia business owners upset and overwhelmed with parking issues due to the new police facility construction staging area and a lack of handicap parking directly in front of their offices in the parking lot at Alva Place and Bank Street.
The business group is seeking at least a thousand signatures on the petition, filed with change.org. The petition urges the “City Council of Batavia to take immediate action by restoring promised parking spaces during construction of our much-needed Police Station.”
“By doing so, they can improve accessibility for those who need it most while supporting local businesses that contribute significantly to our city's economy,” the petition states.
The idea behind the document is so that “the city can understand how many people this affects,” property owner Sharon Kubiniec said Saturday. The business group will then present it to city council and pertinent staff involved in the project, she said.
"April 10, they promised one row of parking along the north side of the buildings as well as the west end to be provided by Dr. Canzoneri and Village Physical Therapy. So we’re looking for one row of handicap parking, we’re concerned about our handicap patients," Kubiniec said. “I have been in that building for over 40 years, and very rarely has Washington Avenue sidewalks ever been plowed. And the snow builds up there. December when patients are parking on Washington Avenue, climbing over snowbanks to icy sidewalks, those are accidents waiting to happen, and that’s what we want to avoid.”
When the business owners first learned about a new police station being built in that lot location, “we thought it was great; we would be safer,” she said. But they were never brought to the construction site to actually see the setup.
Once fencing went up, their patients were shut out from parking close to the offices and relegated to street parking, which many have objected to as insufficient for elderly patients, those with disabilities, and those with walking devices. Business owners have since said they have lost customers due to the inconvenience and hassle and are concerned about their patient's safety.
“The business model shows businesses thriving, we’re not thriving. For us not to be considered is horrible,” Kubiniec said. “They’re trying to make the police department happy, that’s wonderful, but it can’t just serve one sector of the population.
“I’m not trying to put the blame anywhere,” she said. “Let’s move the fence back 40 feet so we can use that one row of parking. We are trying to amicably solve the problem. We want to be reasonable, we want a win-win for everybody. When Eugene Jankowski says you need to give a little, well they need to give a little as well.”
City Manager Rachael Tabelski emailed Kubiniec an update Saturday that using a shuttle bus for patients was not going to work because no city employee was available to drive the vehicle, but she was checking on pricing from RTS as another option.
Other updates would be forthcoming as to “the city’s accommodation plans,” Tabelski said, and “we are working on different options to help the business owners on Washington and State and pushing our architects to relook at site/staging layout.”
Although there wasn’t ample detail, it was a response, which Kubiniec appreciated, she said.
“The unknowing is what’s so scary for businesses,” she said. “We need more communication.”
On Thursday, she attempted to talk to City Councilman-at-Large Bob Bialkowski, who informed her that council members were not to discuss the police station issues with business owners. Council President Eugene Jankowski said that all such matters were to be referred to Tabelski as the project lead.
Kubiniec questions that line of authorization since a letter dated March 8, 2023, related to the state environmental review, states that “City Council of Batavia announced its intent to serve as lead agency on Feb. 13, 2023 …” If the council was the lead agency for the SEQR at that time, she believes council members should have the authority to speak to business owners now.
Dr. Joseph Canzoneri, who owns his own podiatry practice on State Street, posted his thoughts on social media Saturday morning. He opened with “People of Batavia,you are getting forced a new police station guaranteed to have cost over runs with a budget set at almost $15.5 million today and it hasn’t even started yet?”
“They need one, and I certainly would agree to that. But at what expense to the community and to the taxpayers as well as businesses directly involved in the proximity in Alva Place?” he continued.
The planning board approved final plans without inviting any of the affected businesses, he said, and no impact studies were done as to the “sheer volume and parking spots needed to continue to do business.”
“Their remedy was to create parallel parking for disabled people and exhausting distances for people to walk just to support the businesses they support for years. They knew what they were doing and when questioned about the disability act they said because they own the parking lot they could basically do what they want,” he said. “Jankowski city council president is hell bent to fulfill his selfish legacy of a new police station. No matter what detrimental affects (sic) it has on the community. He is shameful to call people antipolice as he scapegoats the attention created by the injustice for those that oppose the planning and staging area which destroys valid parking for businesses to survive and safety considerations for patients.”
He also urged people to remember this during the next election.
Jankowski said that even though Canzoneri “said hurtful things about me I’m confident we can still work something out for all the businesses and their patrons.”
“It’s the right thing to do, and I’m not giving up,” Jankowski said. “The city manager has been working tirelessly on solutions to resolve the business owners’ complaints.All options are being explored but it does take a few days to make them work.”
As for the petition, here it is in its entirety:
In the heart of Batavia, NY, a personal struggle is unfolding. Patients being treated by these local businesses are attempting to attend their appointments but find themselves having to park far away from their destinations. Most of these people are elderly and qualify for handicap parking, which has been removed. This situation is causing undue hardship, with some finding it impossible to keep their appointments. Some are even resorting to double parking on Washington Ave and unsafely exiting their cars. Other customers have found that they now must carry their heavy computer from the Mall parking lot to Millennium Computers for service.
This issue stems from the City Council's decision not to restore parking in the downtown lot at Alva and Bank Street where the new Police Station is being built. Businesses were promised one row of parking along the north end of this lot, adjacent to their establishments - a promise that remains unfulfilled.
The lack of adequate handicap parking for businesses on State Street and Washington Ave is causing suffering not only for patients but also for clients, employees, and businesses themselves. The current situation threatens both public safety and local commerce.
We urge the City Council of Batavia to take immediate action by restoring promised parking spaces during construction of our much needed Police Station. By doing so, they can improve accessibility for those who need it most while supporting local businesses that contribute significantly to our city's economy.
Please sign this petition if you believe in creating an accessible city that supports its residents' health needs as well as its local economy.
A private meeting that began at the city police station Monday for a dozen downtown business owners to discuss parking concerns with city management and the architect of a new police station spilled out before City Council later during an open conference session at City Hall.
The meeting lasted for more than an hour, and when walking out of police headquarters at 10 W. West Main St., Patrick Privatera, owner of Village Physical Therapy, seemed none too optimistic about the future of the business that he established in the corner of Alva Place and State Street, adjacent to a parking lot that is being completely devoured by construction staging for the new police facility.
“So we deal with patients who have mobility issues that have cardio, cardiac, you know, less than lower cardiovascular stamina, they can't walk from across the street. I mean, it's easy to say go park by a JCPenney, but if you're someone with COPD or can't walk 50 feet, that's going to make the difference between coming to our office and not coming to our office. They're not going to come to our office.”
That’s not how he understood it would be when city management spoke to business owners in January 2022. Manager Rachael Tabelski had introduced the idea that “we’re going to be neighbors and build a police station” without any discussion, he said.
“There wasn’t really any asking what does your business need? It was just saying this is happening,” he said. “And, in fact, I’m surprised it took this long, because, I mean, I put together a pretty lengthy document of some concerned questions and concerns, I asked for a meeting, we were supposed to have met. And she was funny. It was an email exchange; she basically called me instead in lieu of a meeting and accused me of being anti-police, and nothing’s further from the truth. I just invested a quarter of a million dollars in this building and relocated my practice there. I just want some place for my patients and my staff to park, that’s it.”
He said that parking for this week has been ok, but he’s been told the entire parking lot will be closed for construction. He’d like the city to give business owners more time to figure out how to deal with this, but “they’ve got weather, they’ve committed a lot of resources to this, whether it happens or not, they need to do something,” he said.
“I hope they give us time. I have room potentially on my property there to construct our own parking,” he said. “If I had more time, I might be able to, but not in four days.”
As others headed to City Hall for the council meeting, Privatera opted not to go. He said emotions were heated, and he didn’t think the situation would get resolved in that meeting.
Dr. Tom Mazurkiewicz came out of police headquarters more frustrated than satisfied.
His take: The city isn’t willing to negotiate a reduction in the construction area's footprint and a move of the staging area to the other side of Alva Place.
Mazurkiewicz, who has a chiropractic practice on Washington Avenue, said the only response officials gave business owners to the reason for not putting the staging area next to JCPenney was, “It’s not in our budget.”
He and fellow business owner Joseph Canzoneri said that their businesses will survive the 18 months of disrupted parking even though revenue will drop significantly, but that isn’t really their number one concern, said Mazurkiewicz.
“It’s a safety issue,” he said. “That’s all I care about.”
Doctors Joseph Canzoneri, Adam Gregor and property owner Sharon Kubinec picked up the ball and ran with it during the conference meeting. Canzoneri, a longtime podiatrist also on the west side of the parking lot along State Street, spoke about the plight of his patients and the hurdles they have to overcome as it is without having to deal with parking issues.
“Many of these people suffer from COPD and carry oxygen, have cardiac issues, neuromuscular and severe back problems from trauma broke, degenerative changes, affecting balance and ability to walk any distance or on uneven surfaces, ” he said. “They have diabetic foot issues, such as ulcerations or amputations, have a leg prosthesis, individuals post-surgical both from podiatry and orthopedics (Le Roy physical therapy is affected). Patrons with poor vision are forced to walk long distances or on uneven terrain, not to mention young parents carrying children in car seats and using strollers. Many patients use assisted devices like wheelchairs, motorized scooters, crutches, canes, open cast boots and braces, making it even more difficult in the winter to traverse these distances and different terrains, curbs, grass, stone, and the list goes on.”
The issue for him and the other business owners is that their patients, although being offered parking on side streets, are parallel parking and not very close to the medical office. Parallel parking is not the same as handicapped parking, Canzoneri said, because there are still obstacles to getting out of one’s vehicle and navigating uneven terrain from the vehicle to the office.
Why are people so up in arms now, after the city has had planning sessions and press releases about construction and timelines for this new facility?
“We understand the city had public meetings regarding the approval of the police department. We understand the proposed building will be on designated city property, and the site and rendering of the building were made public,” Canzoneri said. “What we did not know is the staging footprint until nine days ago. There should be an opportunity for public input in a public hearing, especially when the proposal adversely affects the business detrimentally. We are all within 500 feet distance to the project. At a minimum, notices should have been sent out for public input prior to this project going out for bid. When was the planning board meeting set regarding the staging area? If the city bypassed this due diligence required for all projects believing that the city doesn’t need input because it is the approving and permitting authority, then that is poor communication, poor community outreach and poor planning.”
Gregor, who took over the dental practice formerly occupied by Dr. Kubinec at 180 Washington Ave. about two years ago, said that he was “deeply troubled by the negative impact this closure will have on my patients in my practice.” As in Canzoneri’s case, Gregor’s patients also have mobility issues or young children in tow, he said, and the parking lot closure will “undoubtedly create an inconvenience” at best.
“I have not once been approached regarding how this project could impact the care of my patients and on my business. My displeasure with this project arises from the fact that it is already different from the proposed plan, which Dr. Joe had just mentioned was only presented to us last week. We collectively as business owners had concerns about the construction zone footprint as it was originally presented to us. We were assured that measures would be taken to minimize disruption to the businesses operating within the complex,” he said. “However, the sudden and expanded closure of the parking lot has blindsided us and proposed this year poses a serious threat to my patients and to the well-being of my practice. The closure of the parking lot threatens to undermine all the hard work and investment I've put into building my practice in this location. The closure of the parking lot will undoubtedly create inconvenience and frustration for my patients, potentially leading them to seek dental services elsewhere.
“Furthermore, the lack of parking will likely turn new patients from choosing my practice and may even cause some of my existing patients to leave. Dental Care is already a daunting task for many individuals and adding the stress of finding parking only serves to exasperate their anxiety,” he said. “I believe that there are ways to mitigate the disruption without jeopardizing the livelihoods of those who operate here. To not care about the situation is to not care about us as medical professionals, business owners and taxpayers just as important to not care about the situation as to not care about the citizens who seek care in our offices. I hope that moving forward, we can collaborate and cooperate with each other rather than contend with one another.”
Sharon Kubinec, who served as practice manager for her husband during his time as dentist at the site, spoke as a concerned property owner and someone who knows how busy those medical practices are each day, she said. She also cited Ricky Palermo as a patient who uses at least three of the services in that complex and who will have potential difficulties navigating the path to each office in his wheelchair. Palermo was invited to tour the parking lot and surrounding areas since there wasn’t wheelchair access to the second-floor meeting room at the police station, but could not make that meeting.
“Ricky Palermo, who wanted to be here tonight, goes to Dr. Joe, Dr. Adam and Dr. Tom, and he can't go to his foot doctor, his chiropractor and his dentist for 18 months the way it is situated now over there,” she said.
She suggested that the city could do something similar to what United Memorial Medical Center had done some years ago with a bus that shuttled employees between the North Street site and Jerome Center on Bank Street when parking was tight. Only this time, the bus would pick up patients at the former JC Penney building and take them to the medical offices, she said.
Canzoneri proposed a larger parking area for patients and clients, and city and contractor staff would park in the lot across Alva Place closer to the JC Penney site, which he said would also be used as more of a staging area.
“This will still provide a convenient staging area, plenty of room to stage safely, also cost-effective, and most importantly, safety for our clients and pertness, not to mention relief to the detrimental financial risks to the businesses that are being imposed by these egregious parking restrictions and proposals,” he said.
There are more than medical practices at the complex, such as Amanda Lowe’s business. Lowe, the owner of Jagged Edges, said outside police headquarters after the earlier meeting that she hated to say anything publicly because she understands her business is sustaining far less impact than some other businesses. However, if she knew this parking restriction was coming, she might have selected a different location when it was time to relocate from her original site on Veterans Memorial Drive.
“I definitely bought the location based on knowing that I had the parking,” Lowe said. “ I wasn't aware of how big the project is. And you know, the impact it was going to have on our customers coming in. It probably would have made a difference on the location because there were two different locations I was looking at. Parking was one of the biggest reasons (she selected her current location). I knew that this was in the works before, but coming from being in the town to come into the city, I wasn't really fully aware of how long the construction would be and the impact and all the businesses.”
Marc Johnson, owner of Millennium Computers, may not experience the same impact as the medical offices, but it isn’t negligible either.
“I’ve got people coming in with heavy computers in their hands. They're not going to walk from JC Penney's over to my place,” Johnson said.
He is considering converting some of the green space he owns next to his office into parking for his business.
“I haven’t done anything with it for 20 years except mow it,” he said. “If push comes to shove, I'll just put my own parking in. Ideally, it'd be nice to share the burden with the city or whoever else and make it bigger than just a handful of parking spots for Millennium. And then, you know, my neighbors that are in the medical world can have some handicapped parking there.”
City Manager Rachael Tabelski said that she believed the information she initially provided was correct regarding construction coexisting with parking near business offices.
“Once we learned that the contractors controlled the entire site, we had to decide whether to delay the project, spend more money on it, or just take the entire parking lot and find more accommodations for the business owner.”
She said those accommodations under immediate consideration are adding wheelchair ramps for easier access to curbside parking. There are a potential 68 parking spaces on the streets around the complex. The city is also considering hiring a shuttle to assist patients from parking to offices.
“If people parked at City Centre, they could get a ride in, Tabelski said. “Hopefully, that would take care of issues with folks with mobility.”
While there were public hearings about the project where anybody could have raised parking issues, it was never mentioned.
“We went through the process, and in everyone's mind, you saw a rendering that still had the big L going through it where parking is,” Tabelski said. “We all should have jumped to the conclusion, ‘Oh, that's great at the end, but what happens during construction,’ right? I definitely lean on the architects we work with and the contractors to guide me through this because I'm neither. I'm a city manager. But I do want to make sure that our businesses have what they need to get their patients in, and I go to a lot of the businesses, so it's definitely not personal; we want to help. We don't want to hurt their business in any way.”
She said the city is “all over” a proposal by Marc Johnson, owner of Millennium Computer on Washington Avenue, to convert a green space he owns next to his building into a parking lot.
“It'll be a temporary construction, an accommodation,” Tabelski said. “We will be (working on it) as soon as we can get millings and build a foundation out there. He has offered -- as far as I know -- I'd hate to speak for Marc -- to allow some public parking there as long as he reserved spots for his business. So, we're interested. He came with this great solution and I think we can get eight to 10 spots there. There's also another grass parcel. I'm not sure who owns it, but I'm going to try to find out and see if they'd be interested in a similar thing.”
Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. said he understands that it's going to be an inconvenience for people.
“But it's been an inconvenience for men and women in the police department to work in an antiquated building and not be able to serve the public. That building is not just a building; it's a tool because there's certain requirements for juveniles, for victims, for defendants. They have rights. They have laws that protect them and we are not able to comply with that as efficiently get in the building, not to mention that the gentleman we all know, wasn't even able to get into the building for a meeting,” Jankowski said, referring to Palermo. “It’s not easy to get a sense of where the new building will be. So when I hear we're supporting the police, and then I see that it doesn't appear that we're supporting the police. I know as a former police officer, how I would be feeling right now when I hear all this outreach and all this stuff going on. And I see the city making every attempt to try to make accommodations. But it's not making anybody happy. So we’ve got to reach a middle ground, we’ve gotta reach some kind of compromise, we have to get this building over the finish line. Because if we don't, it was explained just a few minutes ago, extreme cost overruns will put the project in jeopardy.”
After the meeting, he said that he was very disappointed in the city's response when “we’re trying to do something good for the community and our public safety, which is very valuable to this community.”
“I really take public safety very seriously. And yet, we're meeting all this resistance over a few parking spaces that we're trying to make accommodations for. But that doesn't seem to be good enough,” he said. “This is all temporary. This is only for a few months, and we're doing our best to try to work it out in the meantime. And there are many ideas, and I'm sure the city manager will find a solution that will do her best to accommodate as many ideas as we can any way we can.”
When asked what he thought about Jankowski’s public response to business owner comments and an appeal for consideration, Canzoneri said he felt “terrible.”
The Board of Assessment Review currently has one position to fill. The term is a five-year term and will expire on September 2028. The Batavia City Council is seeking a City resident who is interested in volunteering as a member of this committee and has knowledge of property values.
Residents interested in applying for this position can obtain a Committee/Board Volunteer Application from either the City Clerk’s Office or on the website at www.batavianewyork.com, Find It Fast. The deadline to submit applications to the City Clerk’s Office is April 22.
For further information, please contact the City Bureau of Assessment at 345-6301.
A city revenue workgroup brainstormed several potential strategies in the past few months for ways to infuse the city’s coffers, including boosting the tax base with new developments; encouraging legal retail cannabis shops; pursuing voluntary public service contributions from nonprofits; selling off city properties; and enact a stormwater user fee.
Out of the myriad suggestions and ideas, they’re all on the table, with not one seeming to be the magic solution just yet, City Manager Rachael Tabelski said during a review of the process so far.
“So the workgroup wanted to find new revenue sources to continue to assist the city in keeping a low tax rate while providing critical services to the residents, as current major revenue sources are limited, and rely heavily on property and sales tax,” Tabelski said during City Council’s business meeting Monday at City Hall. “And just to note, the aid from the state has not increased nor decreased in the last five-plus years. But I want to point out that our group didn't find a single silver bullet.
"There's no one answer to give us a sustainable revenue source that's going to allow us to pay our employees the wages they deserve to do the work that our residents require," she said. "So it's going to be an amalgamation of many different strategies, some that are one-time revenue sources, some that we might be able to count on an ongoing basis, like the cannabis tax.”
The goal of the group, first and foremost, was to understand the current sources and trends of revenue, and then to draft new ideas for how to bring in more of it, she said.
She noted that the property tax levied in the city “has grown slowly over time, as has sales tax revenue that has remained flat,” including the cable franchise fees, utilities and state aid. Fines, forfeited, and parking ticket revenues have decreased significantly, though new software has allowed for online parking ticket payments, tracking — and even an opportunity to dispute them, Police Chief Shawn Heubusch said.
That new system will be a way to bring those numbers up to estimated revenues of $25,000 in 2024-25, he said.
Tax-exempt properties make up 32 percent of the tax base in the city, which is a lower number than some council members expected, they said. And it’s about half of the nonprofits in other municipalities such as Salamanca, Rensselaer, Albany, and Ithaca, according to group findings.
“I think it’s important that you put that stat in there, because it seems like more, you know what I mean? I mean, compared to the feedback I received from the public, it seems like we're being overrun with nonprofits. I kind of thought the same thing. That perception was off from the reality of this statistic. Because when you look at this statistic, we're not going to be as bad,” Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. said. “So maybe we should be aware of it early. It's a good thing. So that we can keep an eye on that, so we don't get overwhelmed. Like 60 percent, that's a lot.”
The point was that other municipalities, many with larger portions of non-taxpaying property owners, have approached these owners and asked if they would be willing to pay something for their police, fire and any other public services received.
In one case, a university agreed to help out and paid a regular, and "lucrative" fee -- only after being asked for it.
Tabelski also reviewed a stormwater user fee that would be paid for by all property owners.
“So any building or parcel that is a sewer or water user today, pay sewer and water fees to the utility. While they may not pay property taxes, they still have to make those utility payments,” she said. “If we were to continue to explore sectioning out stormwater as a utility, which I do feel is a very good idea because we have multiple different unique characteristics of stormwater in our city, including the big ditch and the Grand Canal that we certainly could formulate capital plans for. We wouldn't be able to spread that user fee across anyone who has an impervious surface area. And we might be able to reduce that fee. Now, it would not be part of the general levy. For our property owners, it would be a utility user fee. So the more square feet or surface area you have, the more you would pay in a runoff stormwater type fee.”
This involves a complete analysis of the maintenance of the stormwater system to determine whether existing operation and maintenance gaps exist, Tabelski said. If gaps are identified, the analysis will provide an estimate of additional tasks necessary to rectify these gaps and how that would impact future revenue requirements for the Stormwater Fund and capital improvements.
Stormwater currently functions as a department within Public Works and is supported by the taxpayer through property and sales tax and other revenue generation.
Councilman Bob Bialkowski said that he is against this suggestion for individual homeowners, especially in a time of inflation. Fellow member Al McGinnis, who first raised the issue of increasing revenue by tapping nonprofits to contribute something toward their public services, said it's a fair system for everyone.
“This was a revenue enhancement that overall helps us lower taxes … We've got 32 percent of the city that doesn't pay taxes. They don't pay for fire. Nothing for DPW, they don’t pay for police. This is a way of leveling the playing field, and having skin in the game,” he said. “There's nothing wrong with having tax-exempt pay their fair share. And this is part of that. It is morally wrong to have them get services and not pay for them.”
That wasn’t the point for Bialkowski and his constituents, he said.
“I’m sorry, I know what you’re trying to do. I agree with you. But there might be a need to look at other ways, other methods, “ he said.
He routinely gets phone calls from people who are leaving New York because of the cost of services, he said.
One of the newest ways to raise revenue has been legalized cannabis sales, and resulting sales tax for the city, Assistant City Manager Erik Fix said.
A pop-up retail cannabis shop at Empire Hemp on East Main St. this past fall was able to take advantage of the city’s opt-in with the state, and two dispensaries have completed documents with the intent to open retail locations for a projected $750,000 in sales in this next year, Fix said. That’s to bring in about $33,000 in sales tax revenue.
“So that is a little spot that we're hoping to see some help in the current year going forward,” he said. “So kudos to council for opting in on that as an opportunity to grow some revenue.”
The workgroup explored other options of selling defunct and brownfield city properties and a possibility having to do with Climate Smart Communities that “has just come to our attention,” Tabelski said.
"If you garner enough points, they are giving communities $10,000. So we need to look into that and see if we'll qualify and what activities Council might need to take if we need to become a climate-smart community,” she said. We also looked at public safety payments from corporations when they enter into PILOT agreements as an option, but again, these are one-time revenue payments, not something that would be operationally sustainable in the long run, like your sales tax or your levy.
"So, I reminded you the document is still under review. The first strategy explored is continuing to grow the city's tax base through new investment and the continuation of market rate assessed value," she said. "Additional revenue is only created when the tax levy increases, not when assessment increases. However, additional growth is created when the overall assessment of commercial and residential property increases.”
Group member Matt Gray said that, given his background as a business owner and property developer, “I think increasing the property value across the city through economic development is our easiest way to go.”
“We have to be behind new projects and make development, I feel, as turnkey as possible or as easy as possible so that we not only benefit from an increased tax base, but the community itself, benefits from just having development here,” he said. “So a great example right now is Carrs Reborn. We are months away from that beginning. That's an increase in property value through development. I think those are the things that I think are the lowest hanging fruit for the city in order to increase our tax base.”
Fellow member RaeAnn Engler had similar sentiments about increasing overall investment in the city, and both also said it was fair to approach nonprofits for a contribution to help pay for public services and stormwater user fees.
“And I think it's a very good point that they made that it's an ethical and moral, correct move for them to participate in the community, essentially,” Engler said.
“I agree with Matt on strategy one, which was to increase the value of the community, whether that's through increased value in the market values or developing projects that bring new businesses and thus new taxpayers into the community, which helps to build revenue for the town to continue to grow,” she said. “I think all of these strategies were good approaches. I don't know how much money they're going to make. They're going to hopefully help distribute the tax burden among the residents more equitably.”
The group and council are to continue the research and discussion as to which strategies to choose and how to proceed.
During City Council's 2024 organizational meeting Monday evening, reelected members Tammy Schmidt, Sixth Ward, left, David Twichell, Second Ward, third from the right, Paul Viele, First Ward, Kathy Briggs, Fifth Ward, and peeking out from behind Briggs, Al McGinnis, Fourth Ward, take their oaths, while newly elected member Derek Geib, center, who ran unopposed for the Third Ward seat, joins his new colleagues in the official swearing-in ceremony by City Clerk/Treasurer Heidi Parker at City Hall.
Briggs nominated Eugene Jankowski Jr. to serve as president again based on his ability to maintain "well-organized" council meetings, and he was duly voted in by the council, which also included members Bob Bialkowski and Rich Richmond.
Viele was voted in for the position of president pro tempore.
Future council meetings have been approved for 7 p.m. on the following dates:
Jan. 22; Feb. 2 and 26; March 11 and 25; April 8 and 22; May 13 and 28; June 10 and 24; July 8; August 12; Sept. 9 and 23; Oct. 15 and 28; Nov. 12 and 25; and Dec. 9.
The group adjourned for two more meetings, several resolutions and a discussion about how to raise more revenue for the city.
Two special meetings, a few pointed questions about contractor obligations, and nine votes solidified a move that City Council members, management and members of the police department celebrated Thursday at City Hall.
Council unanimously approved contracts worth $11,185,898 for the construction portion of the new police station to go up on the corner of Bank Street and Alva Place in downtown Batavia.
“I’ve just gotta say this, going out after 12 years. This has now become probably one of the major accomplishments of my career in government,” Councilman John Canale said during the specially scheduled business meeting. “And I am just so very, very happy to finally see this happen.Unless you go through that building, you have no idea what our police department has worked under, the types of conditions that they have worked under.”
Canale opted not to run for reelection to his Third Ward seat during this year's general election, and this was likely his last official piece of business for his term. He was one of nine yes votes for the following bids:
Building Innovation Group was chosen as the lowest of seven bidders for the general contracting portion of the police facility with a bid of $5,468,698.
Kaplan Schmidt Electric, Inc. was lowest of five bidders for electrical work with a bid of $1,365,500.
HVAC mechanical contracting went to Crosby-Brownlie, Inc. out of four bidders, with a bid of $1,897,200.
MKS Plumbing Corp. was the low bidder out of three proposals for plumbing and fire contracting, with a bid of $895,000.
Seven bidders pitched for site contracting, and Ingalls Development was the low bidder with $1,559,500.
Council members Paul Viele and Bob Bialkowski asked questions about the contract, including if it was “written in stone,” and whether the city would be hearing months from now that a mistake was made and a vendor needed more money.
“We do have contingency in the overall project budget,” City Manager Rachael Tabelski said. “But these are the contracts that we will be executing for the work that was in the bids.”
Viele also wanted to know about timeline: Is there one and is the contractor made to abide by it?
There is an 18-month time period for the project completion, Tabelski said.
Bialkowski also wanted some assurances about the contractor — what happens in the event a main or sub contractor stops working or files for bankruptcy?
“I don’t want to see a building half completed,” Bialkowski said.
There are provisions in the standard contract for such situations, City Attorney George Van Nest said, though “we’re not sitting here expecting that to happen.”
“Not that it’s never happened, obviously,” he said.
The public works and architectural team has checked references and feels comfortable with the lowest bidders chosen, Van Nest said, and there are bond claimsin case a contractor becomes insolvent, he said. Should a contractor cease working on the job, it goes to another contractor, he said.
“I understand Mr. Bialkowski’s concerns,” Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. said, referencing the situation at Ellicott Station, where the contractor walked off the job after closing his company.
The total police facility project is estimated to be $15.5 million, paid for with a $13 million loan at 3.75 percent interest from the USDA and a $2.5 million grant, Tabelski said.
“We would love to deliver on budget or under budget,” she said, later adding that “we’re really excited to see these bids awarded today.”
After the vote, which also included members Kathy Briggs, Al McGinnis, David Twichell, Rich Richmond and Tammy Schmidt, the audience with police department staff representation applauded.
Jankowski, a retired lieutenant, once worked at the current station on Main Street also known as Brisbane Mansion. He said that “it’s been a long road” to get to this point.
“I want to thank you for sticking through this project, it’s been 10 years, probably more,” he said. “Thank you for doing the right thing.”
Bialkowski shared some history that there was a former police station on School Street, and recalled how “you walked up the stairs, and right at the top of the hallway was the desk sergeant."
If you were asked to name the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers, it may surprise you that the answer is not second hand smoke, often portrayed as perhaps the most dangerous substance to lungs for those exposed to the fumes of others.
The top cause of lung cancer is actually radon for nonsmokers, and overall is the second leading cause of lung cancer for the general population, Public Health Educator Sherri Bensley of Genesee and Orleans Health Department says.
Not often something discussed at the dinner table or thought about in the home, radon is responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year, according to GO Health statistics.
Although the topic up to now has been a quiet one, Bensley and Environmental Health Specialist Allysa Pascoe have been taking a presentation on the road — including to City Council this week — to review the basics of radon and remind folks about the importance of what to keep in mind with this radioactive gas.
"The GO Health Departments would like residents to know that radon is the leading environmental cause of any cancer and it is the second leading cause of lung cancer, after smoking," Bensley said to The Batavian. "Radon can enter a home through cracks in the foundation, cracks in basement walls, holes, joints, dirt floors, sump pump holes, suspended floors and in the well-water supply.
“Any home (new or old), that has contact to the ground has the potential for radon to enter the home," she said. "Testing your home is the only way to know if high levels are present and corrective action is needed.”
Tests were conducted in Genesee County, and Stafford was found to be the area with the highest levels of radon in the lowest living area of the home, which was the basement.
Levels were at greater than 10 pCi/L (that is picocuries per liter), with several areas reaching greater than 4 and less than 10, including Byron, Bergen, Batavia, Le Roy, Darien, Bethany, Pavilion and Pembroke. Towns and villages of Alabama, Oakfield, Elba and Alexander had the lowest levels of less than 4.
When testing was conducted on first floors in the county, Stafford remained at 10, and was joined by Darien; whereas the 4 to 10 levels were only in Batavia, Bethany and Le Roy and remaining municipalities had levels of 4 or lower.
The health department distributed radon test kits from Jan. 17 of this year to June 30, with 37 elevated readings out of 174 total kits, Bensley said. From July 1 to now, there were 73 more kits distributed, and 23 elevated readings.
GO Health has been able to do this through a New York State Indoor Radon Grants Program meant to increase public awareness about th risks and health hazards of radon exposure. It’s a sneaky inert gas that’s colorless, odorless and tasteless that cannot be detected by one’s senses.
Exposure to radon can damage tissue and may cause lung cancer since it is a carcinogen. It also can be found anywhere, since it’s produced by the decay of uranium in soil, rock and water.
So now that you may be sufficiently scared, or at least concerned, what to do about it?
“With funding provided by the New York State Department of Health, the Genesee County Health Department has free radon test kits available to residents of Genesee County,” Bensley said. “If someone finds that their home has a high level of radon, we would recommend that they hire a certified mitigator to install a radon mitigation system to reduce radon levels in their home.”
The department has also proposed that all new homes be built with radon-reducing features, which would be more cost effective, eliminate potential exposure and is currently a requirement in 11 other states, she said.
The test is made of charcoal, and it is uncapped for at least 12 hours during the test period. It will be placed on the lowest level of the home that is frequently occupied. Once radon is detected, certification is not required in New York State, but is recommended, she said.
She also recommends that, when pursuing mitigation, obtain several estimates, check references, and obtain a guarantee that the mitigator will reduce the radon to below 4.0 pCi/L. Go here for more information about mitigators.
For more information about radon or obtaining a test, email Allysa.Pascoe@co.genesee.ny.us or Sherri.Bensley@co.genesee.ny.us or call 585-344-2580, Ext. 5528.
Al McGinnis would like to see a little more equity amongst those receiving services in the City of Batavia.
And the City Councilman has proposed establishing a group of a few fellow council members and citizens to make it happen.
“My idea, council president, city manager, is that we form a group of three council people, and two to three people from the outside skilled in finance, to get together, and I’d like you to be the spokesman as council president, and we’ll decide how we will approach revenue enhancement,” McGinnis said during council’s business meeting Monday. “My idea is to look at individuals and organizations that currently do not pay property tax at all, and are nonexempt status, not to pay property tax but to pay a fee to reside in the city to help cover police, fire, DPW, overall. I’m not asking for a fortune, just asking for a fair share, some sweat equity from those individuals who use those services and rely on them."
According to Tax Exempt World, there are 209 tax-exempt organizations listed for the City of Batavia, though not all of them have a physical address listed.
Those nonprofits would have paid a user fee, for example, to help offset expenses of last year’s extra $296,220 in the three-year police contract, the $800,000 for a new E12 fire department pumper, or the total $3,038,830 for police personnel expenses, plus snowplowing, road maintenance and water treatment upkeep expenses.
Councilman John Canale agreed with McGinnis about the idea, adding that “it’s always been a concern of the public” about a lot of tax-exempt organizations, such as nonprofits and religious entities, not paying for costly city services.
“And can we look at possibly have them pay to compensate for the services that they do use,” Canale said. “I think it’s worth exploring, I think it’s a great idea.”
Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. also agreed, and said that he would be available for what City Attorney George Van Nest carefully termed a “work group,” since it could not be an official committee of council members.
Van Nest also said that once there’s more concrete information for what the group wants to implement, it would have to be reviewed, per New York State standards, because there may be certain restrictions involved.
“We will come up with the ideas and review it with legal and make sure what we can do and can’t do,” Jankowski said.
These past two years may have seemed like a honeymoon phase for Batavia Muckdogs owner Robbie Nichols and the City of Batavia, but he and his CAN-USA Sports team are ready to take it to the next level, he says.
“You know, we've had great success here in Batavia with the Muckdogs and all the different things that take place at the Dwyer Stadium. And we're willing to make a long commitment to the city. And I think the city's willing to make a long commitment to us,” Nichols said after getting the City Council’s nod of approval for a lease renewal Monday evening. “It's been a great marriage. And we've really enjoyed working with the city. And I think they enjoy working with us. So we're ready to make a long-term commitment.”
Nichols, aka CAN-USA Sports, took over the lease for Dwyer Stadium in January 2021 and operated for three seasons as part of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League.
Due to the success at the stadium — which features local favorite Batavia Muckdogs, live concerts, a dance team, high school baseball, festivals, and kid-friendly events, including the upcoming blow-out for Halloween, a trick-or-treat night — city leaders offered a longer contract this time around.
Beginning in April, there will be a rent payment of $7,500, which will increase to $10,000 in 2025. Then in 2026, the rent is to increase to $11,500, along with a capital payment of $5,000. Rent and a capital payment will gradually increase from there for a total rent of $17,758 and a capital payment of $9,900 on April 1, 2040.
Capital payments will be placed in a reserve fund for use on facility improvements, per agreement between the landlord and tenant for projects of more than $25,000.
Part of the lease includes targeted capital improvement program projects, including painting and installing new flooring in the home and visiting team locker rooms; replacing home and visiting team locker room signage; installing new and upgrading sound equipment; repairing and or replacing outfield fencing; redesigning Dwyer Stadium landscaping and repairing or replacing home and visiting team bullpen areas.
City Manager Rachael Tabelski recommended that the council move a resolution forward for a vote to approve the updated lease agreement. Nichols has pledged “to make aesthetic improvements at the stadium and to pay rent in each of those years as listed in the contract and capital fees,” she said. The extension is in three terms of five years each.+
“I just want to say thank you for all you've done out there. I mean, I see signs all over the place, fireworks, Fourth of July, you're really doing a great job,” Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. said. “Thank you very much. Are we in consensus?”
Council members gave an unofficial thumbs up, with the official vote to come during the next business meeting on Oct. 10.
Nichols, his wife Nellie, and General Manager Marc Witt patiently sat through the entire meeting to get that good news since the agenda item was near the end. As per their usual, the Nichols and Witt were dressed in red and white Muckdogs gear, representing the team they have fully come to embrace as part of the Batavia community.
There have been many different events at the stadium, from various types of musical groups and entertainers to the latest annual Halloween fest, which last year drew a line of ghosts and goblins that wrapped around the corner. The Batavian had heard that the stadium might host a future Italian festival and asked Robbie if there was any truth to that.
“There's a rumor going around that we're looking at that. So we're always looking. We've always said it's the city's building, you know, the citizen’s building. Whatever we can do there that attracts more people, we’d love to do,” he said. “We definitely want more events and different events, and we're open to a lot of different things. We've already had a lot of different things there. The Halloween event has had huge success, and so whatever we can think of, we'll try it.”
With several of his uniformed colleagues seated nearby, Batavia Police Detective Thaddeus “Thad” Mart was honored for his 17 years as a police officer, sergeant and lastly as a detective with the city department during the City Council’s conference session Monday evening.
Council President Eugene Jankowski read a proclamation listing the retiring Mart’s experience, which included serving as an operations specialist E-5 in the U.S. Navy and a border patrol agent at the U.S.-Mexican border.
He then began his local career in Batavia in August 2006 as a Batavia Police officer, distinguishing himself as a field training officer, general topics instructor, serving as a department liaison to the Veterans Treatment Court and as a crisis negotiator, the proclamation states.
He was promoted to sergeant before becoming a detective in 2013, during which time he assisted in many high-profile investigations and became certified as a polygraph examiner. Mart has been part of investigations with everything from bank robbery and stabbings to burglaries, sex abuse by a teacher and murder.
Mart has been recognized for his “outstanding police work by multiple agencies citing his professionalism, attention to detail and steadfast approach,” Jankowski said, reading from the proclamation.
“He served his country, his community and the department with honor and dedication, and his approach to investigations was methodical and unrelenting. He demonstrated professionalism and courage, and he has been an outstanding trainer to many officers,” Jankowski said. “He has never sought out the spotlight but has worked tirelessly to keep the community safe by thoroughly investigating every crime and call for service he was assigned.”
So it was in a “true spirit of appreciation for 17 years of dedicated service” to the city,that City Council drafted and presented the proclamation, Jankowski said, as a way to sincerely thank Mart for his unwavering service to the community and to wish him well in retirement.
In turn, Mart was “proud and thankful” for having had the career and honor to serve the people of Batavia, he said, and the opportunity to “work with all these officers over the years.”
City Council approved a part-time City Court judge Monday to fill the remaining term of Tom Burns, who retired from his post with less than three of his six years served.
Andrea Clattenburg, a Genesee County assistant public defender since 2021, will now be the part-time City Court judge, a role established per the Uniform City Court Act. That act provides for the appointment of a City Court judge who acts in the temporary absence or inability of the city judge to exercise the power of said judge.
The part-time judge will serve a term of six years, which in this case will expire on Dec. 31, 2026, the end of the original term of Burns.
Upon his retirement, Burns told The Batavian that there weren’t enough cases flowing through City Court to justify his time there, so he stepped down effective July 14.
City Council approved Clattenburg by a vote of 8 to 1, with Bob Bialkowski, Rich Richmond, Eugene Jankowski Jr., Paul Viele, Kathy Briggs, Al McGinnis, Kathy Briggs and Tammy Schmidt voting yes, and John Canale abstaining because of his “close personal ties” to the candidate.
The Batavian asked Jankowski for his thoughts about filling a position that Burns had left because there wasn’t enough work to warrant the job.
“In my research, my research has learned that the court is pretty much backed up with cases. So I have no idea what Mr. Burns, his comment was about. I'm not familiar with it. I do know that after looking into it, as part of this process, there is a definite need for many small claims actions, civil actions and such. And that's what a lot of the part-time job does, as well as overflow and recruitment. When the full-time judge has recused himself, then those criminal cases are passed on to the part-time judge. So from what they tell me, there are standards, 90-day standards for these cases that need to be resolved. That's a state recommendation, and they really pay attention to it,” Jankowski said. “So given that short timeline, there's a lot of work over there, and they need the extra help. And plus, the part-time position, if I'm not mistaken, is required per the state. So we're gonna have it one way or another. And I believe we will make good use of it over there.”
The part-time City Court judge is paid by the state, though the position is appointed by City Council. Durin Rogers is the current full-time City Court judge. He is also paid by the state but is an elected position.
The minimum qualifications for the part-time judge require candidates to be an attorney admitted to practice law in the State of New York for at least five (5) years as of the date he or she commences the duties of the office and must be a resident of the City of Batavia.
Clattenburg is a Genesee County assistant public defender who received a Leadership Achievement Award from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, where she obtained her Juris Doctorate in general law practice in 2014.
She lists arts and culture, children, education, poverty alleviation and social services as her causes of interest.
For a 40-minute meeting, City Council got the ball rolling for some major spending Monday, including a minimum of $2.5 million for an ice chiller at the McCarthy ice arena, a $650,000 capital project for several city streets, pursuit of a $500,000 grant to outfit Austin Park with an inclusive playground and a $1.73 million water meter replacement effort.
Council also agreed to submit an application for a $1,235,000 grant of matching funds to upgrade the ice rink chiller system as part of a state Climate Smart Communities Grant Program and transfer $12,500 of video lottery terminal money (Batavia Downs Gaming revenue) for use by LaBella Associates for grant-writing services.
The ice chiller has been an issue since at least last year when council approved emergency spending for a refrigerant to keep the equipment operational. During a City Council meeting in June, members of the ice arena world, including a Batavia Ramparts coach, Friends of the Rink, and rink operator Matt Gray detailed the many activities that have reinvigorated the Evans Street facility.
Gray also outlined the difficulties of continuing an ice rink with a piece of equipment that was failing, costly and time-consuming to maintain. No one on council argued that the rink has vastly improved this past year, and all agreed they wanted to see it continue as a city recreational resource.
Council’s hope is to obtain a matching grant for bond financing to purchase the new ice chiller; otherwise, the total cost, with interest over time, will cost about $4 million, City Manager Rachael Tabelski said.
Council’s approval to pursue an environmental protection fund grant of up to $500,000 would be part of an Austin Park Master Plan renovation. The money would go toward new, inclusive playground equipment and upgrades to the current pavilion at the park that’s adjacent to the city police station parking lot.
Work began shortly before council officially approved the $650,000 capital project for four streets on the city’s north side. Traffic cones, dust, and those grooved, wavy lines in the pavement were evident from grading work Monday afternoon on Hart Street, between Bank and State streets.
The work, paid for with state Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program funds, is targeted for Fairmont, Madison and Norris avenues and Hart Street.
Council will also be pursuing two more grants: one to offset the cost of replacing customer water meters and a $500,000 New York Main Street grant for building and streetscape improvements.
The city will be replacing water meters for the remaining two-thirds of customers that have not yet gotten new meters as part of a climate change mitigation effort.
The local match for the project is $434,000, to be paid for through Water Fund Reserves, out of a total expense of $1.73 million, Tabelski said. Council is to apply for a grant from the state Environmental Facilities Corp., which has up to $15 million available through its Green Innovation Grant Program.
In early January, council members approved a one-time salary adjustment, three years of increases, an extra holiday, and a $1,500 stipend as part of negotiations for the city police contract that was set to expire on March 31.
In an effort to retain employees and become more competitive with cities comparable to Batavia, the deal was struck to bump up salaries with a 3 percent increase the first year, followed by a 2.5 percent for each second and third year, Assistant Manager Erik Fix had said.
The total budget impact for the three-year deal is an extra $296,220.
At that time, Councilman Bob Bialkowski asked if the extra holiday would cause any issues with overtime for officers, and Chief Shaw Heubusch didn’t believe it would. During this week’s meeting, Bialkowski said that he’s been waiting for a list of police salaries and has not received them yet.
Councilwoman Tammy Schmidt told him about the online site of seethroughny, which lists salaries for any government position in New York State. Bialkowski still wanted to obtain a current list from management, he said.
"Remember why we did this,” Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. said.
Jankowski wanted to remind Bialkowski and others that the reason they approved the raises was to align the salaries with comparable areas to attract quality candidates for vacancies and retain current employees.
The city of Geneva has been previously used by officials and consultants for comparison to Batavia. Geneva has a population that is smaller -- just under 13,000 -- and a median yearly wage larger -- $44,000 -- than Batavia. Top pay in Geneva for the police/fire departments is $125,633, with many salaries falling within the $70,000 to $90,000 range.
Batavia’s population is about 15,000, with a median yearly wage of $33,000.
Batavia’s highest salary is $141,275, and has a few in the $50,000, $60,000 range, and several in the $70,000, $80,000, $90,000 and $100,000 range.
More specifically, a longtime, upper level position of sergeant is in the $140,000 range, and a police officer that began in 2020 makes $68,382. Another officer that began in 2022 makes $50,815.
With the new contract in place, that new officer will go to $52,339.45 in the first year, to $53,647.94 the second year, and $54,989.13 by year three, for a total raise of more than $4,000 over three years. For an officer making $68,682, that will put him at $73,999.16, or $5,317 more, by year three. Obviously, the higher the salary is, the more the cumulative raise will be.
This part of the 2023-24 budget has already been sealed with council's vote to approve the contract. A public hearing for the budget and related tax cap override has been set for 7 p.m. Feb. 27 at City Hall.
Filel Photo of Councilman Bob Bialkowski by Joanne Beck
Citing reasons of double diesel fuel costs and rising supply, health care, retirement and employee wage expenses, City Manager Rachael Tabelski is calling for a move to exceed the state-regulated tax cap -- which would be the second override in three years for the city -- during this budget season.
“The 8 percent inflation the economy is facing challenges this budget, forcing the city to consider overriding the tax cap,” Tabelski said in a memo to City Council. “To balance the fiscal year 23/24 City of Batavia budget I recommend that the City Council of the City of Batavia consider overriding the tax cap.
“According to New York State’s property tax cap legislation, if a city government decides to adopt a budget with a property tax levy that exceeds the level set by the state, the city government must pass a local law to override that cap,” Tabelski said.
Tabelski is to provide a budget presentation and Council is expected to review and discuss her recommendations during its conference session next week. The session is set for 7 p.m. Monday in the Council Board Room at City Hall.
The proposed levy of $6.6 million would help to cover costs of a total $33.5 million budget and $19.4 general fund budget that includes a flat tax rate of $8.94 per $1,000 assessed value, a flat sewer rate, and a water rate increase of 30-cents, Tabelski said. The levy is raised from all real properties subject to taxation by the city based on the assessment roll for the fiscal year 2023-24.
She has also recommended a required public hearing to be set for Feb. 27.
Materials including salt, gas and electric are on the rise between 15 and 40 percent, while employee wages are at $400,000; retirements at $300,000; and health care just under half a million dollars, she said. Those are some of the rising costs imposing the need to ask for an override — unfortunately, not an unprecedented ask in city history.
Batavia City Council members voted to override the state’s 2 percent property tax cap just two years ago, passing a 7.5 percent property tax increase as part of the City’s 2020-21 budget. Part of the blame went to then Gov. Andrew Cuomo for withholding some of the video lottery terminal money from Batavia Downs revenues, though this year a similar portion was earmarked for the police department’s request for guns and equipment.
Other sections of the budget are up for discussion during future work sessions slated each for 6 p.m. on Jan. 31 for Public Works, general government and administrative departments; Feb. 7 for police and fire departments; and Feb. 9 for an as-needed session.
There is time allotted for public comments during this meeting. Speakers need to sign up prior to the start of the meeting.
File Photo of City Manager Rachael Tabelski by Howard Owens.
Assistant City Manager Erik Fix has proposed a new form of communication for his colleagues.
While they weren’t using anything like rotary phones, Fix said the current phone system is “antiquated” and in need of a boost. Also, the current phone system is no longer being provided by CISCO Systems, he said.
He had met with a committee comprised of the city manager’s confidential secretary, Angela Dickson, Police Chief Shawn Heubusch, Manager Rachael Tabelski and KI Consulting and Bolder IT Strategies to ferret out the best options for a new phone system.
Four vendors submitted applications, and the committee scored each one according to weighted cost, functionality, and usability, plus five other criteria, he said.
“In the end, all members agreed that Ring Central, Inc. scored the best out of the four proposals,” Fix said during City Council's Monday meeting.
The cloud-based phone system would cost $22,920 per year for five years, or 60 months, according to the contract. That includes the phones, training and installation, he said.
One of the committee’s tasks involved talking to Steuben County’s IT staff regarding that county’s usage of Ring Central. There were also conversations with the city’s own IT staff to ensure that staff members could assist with Ring Central’s installation if necessary.
All that is to say that Fix recommended that council go with this new company, which is based in California. A vote will be on council’s future business meeting, and, if approved, the new phone system would mean a budget amendment of $22,920 of contingency funds, to take effect Nov. 8.
Another spending vote to be on the next business agenda is the purchase of a new Pitney Bowes folding machine, used for automatic folding of letters, bills and other written materials being sent out from the city.
A current Pitney Bowes folding machine that was purchased in 2000 is no longer in working order, Deputy Finance Director Lisa Neary said. She recommended a machine that is a step down from a top model, but can do the required work at a savings, Neary said. The top model was priced at $10,435.80, whereas the next one down is $6,841.58.
The Batavia City Council on Monday night voted, 8-1, to hire a grant administrator, accepting City Manager Rachael Tabelski’s premise that the full-time, in-house position is essential and rejecting Council member Robert Bialkowski’s suggestion to explore grant writing/management services from an outside agency.
The position, which will report to the assistant city manager, has a salary range of $53,293 to $64,852, plus benefits.
Tabelski, reading from a memo to City Council, pointed to the city’s recent success in capital planning and receiving grants for strategic infrastructure projects – noting that city staff currently is managing more than $11.2 million in grant funds and has another $8.5 million in pending grant applications.
As a result, she is seeking a full-time grant administrator or compliance officer to manage the grant portfolio – a task that has, up until now, been handled by Tabelski and other department heads.
Her memo lists 14 new grants the city has received over the past four years in connection with key projects such as Ellicott Station, Jackson Square, City Centre, City Centre Feasibility, Richmond/Harvester street rehabilitation, Bank Street and Jackson Street water, water plant improvement, Brisbane Mansion reuse, Austin Park playground and fire truck purchase.
POSITION'S COMPENSATION TO BE SPLIT UP
Noting that the new grant administrator would be responsible for all aspects of grant management, including grant writing, Tabelski said the position would be funded through the water fund (60 percent), sewer fund (30 percent) and general fund (10 percent).
She said that expenditures in the general fund are anticipated to increase by $10,000 to fund this position.
During the discussion phase of this proposal – prior to the vote to send it to the Business Meeting (which immediately followed the Conference Meeting), Bialkowski moved to table the item as a result of his conversation with a representative of the Genesee/Finger Lakes Regional Planning Council.
He said he spoke to Executive Director Rich Sutherland about the possibility of the GFLRPC providing grant writing/management services to the city, and found out that the agency does this “at little or no cost to communities, and they’re writing it right into the grants.”
Bialkowski said that Sutherland was willing to make a presentation to City Council, adding that he learned that Genesee County “is going that route (using outside agencies).”
“Today, I had two phone calls from constituents, who are a little put out with me, because their property taxes are going up and they don’t see any growth or job opportunities in the community, but they do see taxes going up and they have some serious concerns in the directions were going,” Bialkowski said. “If there’s anything we can do to not hire someone, I’d be in favor of that.”
TABELSKI: OUTSIDE AGENCY NOT THE ANSWER
Tabelski immediately responded, stating that “even if we do allow Mr. Sutherland … even if we did allow the Finger Lakes Regional economic development council to administer the grants, all of the emails from the state agencies would still be coming to me and you – and we would have to get that information over to Mr. Sutherland and his team.”
“So, the workload wouldn’t decrease at all in our offices – and the financial tracking part of this is why we really need it because if we don’t have someone in-house, it would still fall on all of us to get the cancelled checks and everything we need to submit for a grant.”
The city manager added that she “respects” Bialkowski’s investigation but didn’t “feel that would be an adequate way to go and I would not support that.”
Tabelski said the grant administrator would take a “massive amount of paperwork off our top staff so we can get back to high-level planning for our infrastructure and strategic planning in the organization.”
At that point, Council member Paul Viele said he agreed with Tabelski, before Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. admonished Bialkowski for going behind the city manager’s back by “calling other agencies and trying to work out a deal after reading our agenda.”
Jankowski also said he didn’t want to possibly give outside agencies “privileged information” and felt that enlisting an outside agency would result in a “duplication” of services.
CANALE: IT WILL BE COST-EFFECTIVE
Council member John Canale said he wasn’t a big proponent of adding another position but in this case, the new job “opens up a whole another world to us.”
“There’s a lot of grant money out there available as we’re finding out as a city,” he said. “… so, it’s extremely important that we utilize every grant dollar that’s available to us, whether it be statewide or federal-wide.”
Canale said he believes the cost of the position at that salary range would pay for itself.
“So, in the long run, let’s not trip over dollars to get to nickels,” he added.
Council member Rich Richmond concurred, adding that the city is capable of “doing it on our own – having full and direct control and not waiting for an answer … and doing it better than the Finger Lakes region.”
Council member Tammy Schmidt asked Tabelski if the new hire would write grant applications along with managing the grants that come in.
“There will be a writing grant component but first off, I see learning the management of all the grants that we have in the portfolio right now, and being fully responsible because there are different types of audits that go on as grants close out,” Tabelski replied.
Schmidt then said the position would cost closer to $100,000 when considering the fringe benefits.
SCHMIDT: MONEY HAS TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE
Tabelski then pointed out that the city’s workers’ compensation and health insurance are separate funds, prompting Schmidt to say “it’s still money, it has to come from somewhere.”
The city manager explained that “the more money we can bring in to do these pipeline projects – to do Bank Street … is going to save money on our police building because there are things that we needed to do and it’s coming from water and sewer fund, and we’re able to raise the rate if need be.”
“The hope is that we continue to have good years and we continue to invest. But every dime we bring in for infrastructure projects is another reason not to raise rates in those funds as well on our citizens.”
The proposal then was moved to the Business Meeting where all except Bialkowski voted in favor of creating the position.
Following the meeting, Bialkowski said that he “was taken aback” by Jankowski calling him out.
“Where does it say that I have to ask the city manager for approval for doing outside homework and getting information,” he said. “The chain of command is that the city manager works for Council and that we represent the people.”
“Are you a white supremacist? Do you support fascism?”
Ross Street resident Danielle Clark, while protesting against the ReAwaken America Tour event scheduled for Cornerstone Church on Bank Street Road, directed those questions to Batavia City Council members at the outset of their Conference Meeting on Monday night.
Stating that she is “horrified” by the response of public officials in Genesee County regarding the tour, Clark said City Council should not be able to stand behind “plausible deniability” since the event isn’t taking place within the city limits.
“I’m here tonight to tell you and to tell the people of the city of Batavia, that that’s not true,” she said, before asking how much the city would be paying toward the deployment of the Emergency Response Team for the tour.
She said she spoke with a city police officer, who confirmed the ERT has been asked to deploy. She said she was not told the cost for security reasons.
“Therefore, leaving me not able to tell you exactly how much it will cost the taxpayers of the city of Batavia. But there will be a cost,” she said, adding that she was told the Batavia Police Department “shoulders approximately 60 percent of the cost of the ERT deployment.”
Clark said city leaders have an obligation to speak out against the RAT.
“I don’t delude myself with the idea that you guys, or any government agency, has the authority or the power to prevent events that are being held in a prime location,” she continued. “However, I do believe, and I am here to hold you to account for this belief, that as public servants it is your duty to clearly, vocally, loudly, express your opposition for an event like this coming to our community.
“It is your duty as public servants to let organizations like this know that this city does not stand for hate. The city does not stand for lawlessness. And we won't abide it.”
At that point she posed the “white supremacist” question to Council members and city employees in attendance, prompting Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. to tell her to direct her questions to the chair.
Clark then said, “Mr. Chair then, I would like you to ask the employees if they are white supremacists. Do you support fascism? The people of this city deserve to have answers to those very straightforward questions.”
She then said she would be “listening closely” to Council members’ response to her comments after the public comment period.
“In the days ahead, I will be listening carefully for the Council members — our Council as a whole — to publicly speak against this event coming to our area,” she said. “We await a statement expressing that you have heard our very valid concerns and to tell those attending the tour that though they have found a way around the law by holding their event inside a church, (that) outside the church, the law still stands and will be enforced.”
Later in the meeting, when no one on Council addressed her concerns, Clark darted off, blurting, “Each and every one of you, showed your true colors. You are fascists and you are on the wrong side of history.”
Then, as she walked out of the room, she used a four-letter word against the City of Batavia.