In the days, weeks and months after the COVID pandemic protocols settled down and kids were able to return to school after all of that isolation, an odd phenomenon occurred, and many struggled with the desire to return.

For Batavia resident and Flower City School teacher Zach Arenz, he was able to spark student interest through the magic of music.

“I just think at the core of teaching, it's so important for kids to feel connected. And in a world where I think we're increasingly disconnected from one another, it's important to grow those relationships at the school, with their teachers, and get the kids excited to be at school each day,” Arenz says. You know, we're four years post the beginning of the pandemic … but attendance is still a big issue in schools; getting kids to want to come to school is a struggle for a lot of them. And I had one kid recently tell me that the reason he came to school that day was because he had band with me. And, I mean, in the days that I feel most stressed, and I just feel like am I doing it the right way? You hear something like that and you're like, wow, the teachers make such a huge difference in our kids’ lives.”

Press Release:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Press release:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click here for further information or to register!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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