downtown

The local Girl Scouts have a new home, 5 Jackson St., Batavia.

After the location the Girl Scouts occupied in City Centre was sold, the local office and retail shop was relocated to vacant retail space just about a block away.

It took about a month to get settled in, but the retail shop is now set up and the staff is ready to help local scouts and leaders.

The scouts will host an open house at its new location from 3 to 6 p.m., Monday, Feb. 28.

The grand opening will include free drawings, prizes and discounts on scouting items as well as a food drive for the Salvation Army and Batavia Agri-Business Child Development.

The shop is open from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, with the service center opening at 8:30 a.m.

Pictured above, from left, Stephanie Burgett, customer service, Marlene Worthington, membership manager, Kathie Waika, program manager and Robin Ettinger, membership manager.

Margarita's Mexican Restaurant on Jackson Street has closed.

Owner Carlos Hernandez was not available for comment today.

NOTE: If you bought a Margarita's gift certificate from The Batavian within the past 30 days, return it to us for a refund. No refunds will be issued without return of the physical gift certificate and the purchase must have been made in the past 30 days.

At least eight buildings in Downtown Batavia were tagged with graffiti some time since later yesterday evening, according to police.

The police report doesn't specify which buildings, but the building owners were notified that police officers spotted the graffiti sometime around 2 a.m.

There has been a little tagging of downtown buildings in the past, but this new tagging does not match the previous words/symbols left.

Chief Randy Baker said the police officer wasn't even sure what the message of the tags were.

Baker suggested that anybody who is downtown after dark call police and report any suspicious activity around buildings.

UPDATE: Downtown property owner Ken Mistler is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the tagger.

City DPW workers were busy Monday night in Downtown Batavia. Crews hauled off a good deal of the snow that was blocking walkways between parking and the sidewalk along Main Street. Tim Walton supplied the picture below of the snow removal.

It's an annual complaint from downtown merchants -- piles of snow that mound up between roadside parking and the sidewalk on Main Street. The snow, merchants say, discourages foot traffic into their stores.

This morning, one merchant made an effort to open a little walk way through the snow after a loader closed it with a pile of ice. The merchant said he couldn't even budge the ice block that fell onto the sidewalk.

City Manager Jason Molino said it's cost prohibitive to remove the mounds after every snowstorm, but the city does schedule a time for removal as resources permit.

Molino said there was a full city crew on last night plowing and salting, so the city is down to about half staff for today.

"Everything will be removed," Molino said, "but it depends on when we have the manpower."

Because of the heavy traffic on Main Street and the equipment needed for the removal, it can only be done at night, Molino said.

Yvonne Burgess has a real talent -- she can turn an ordinary cupcake into a work of art.

She stopped by The Batavian office Thursday afternoon to show of the decorative "flower box" of cupcakes she had with her and showed off mobile phone pictures of several other designs she's come up with.

The owner of Fry Dogz, a mobile food service, Burgess is looking to expand her business to offer customers cupcakes designed to fit any occasion.

"I feel a lot of enjoyment making these," said Burgess, explaining why she would like to make this speciality her primary business.

She would like to open a retail location, offering other baked goods, as well, in Downtown Batavia, but first, she said, she needs to demonstrate that she can make money making cupcakes.

A cancer survivor (she said she had a brain tumor), she said she's recently found it easier to work for herself, and making beautiful cupcakes is what she enjoys doing most.

"I couldn't find work that suited me (after getting cancer) and this does," Burgess said. "I love creating things and helping others. That's just me."

To contact Burgess, call either 585-591-7911 or 585-861-0414.

Christmas came twice for Jan Nichols of Batavia.

Nichols picked up a big present at the Batavia Improvement District Office today -- a $500 gift certificate for a shopping spree at participating downtown businesses.

The prize was the award of a contest sponsored by the BID called "Shop in the Zone."

Thirty-five downtown businesses took part, with entrants being required to stop at at least 12 businesses and fill out a participation card.

The winner was drawn from all qualifying entrants.

The contest ran from Dec. 1-24.

After a decade of giving financial advice as a staff member of other firms, Batava-native Marc Staley has decided it is time to strike out on his own.

He planted a big flag downtown -- signing a lease in a former bank building at the corner of Jackson and Main streets (most recently the location of the former House of K) -- and signed on as a financial advisor for LPL Financial, one the largest investment firms in the nation.

"I believe in this area," said Staley, who is also a hockey coach at Notre Dame High School. "While other firms are pulling out, I wanted to stay and work."

The 37-year-old Staley is married to a local teacher, Erin, and they have two children, Helaina, 3, and Luke, 1.

"We love this community," Staley said. "I've had the chance to go to other places, but my wife and I decided that this is the place we want to live. This is where we want to raise our kids, so I have to build my career around that decision. That's non-negotiable for me."

When he decided to open his own brokerage, he decided to represent LPL Financial because the company has a strong reputation -- ranked by J.D. Power as number one in customer satisfaction for investment performance and number two for customer satisfaction for investment advice -- and the firm's ability to provide a range of advice to big investors and small, just-starting-out investors.

"Folks are leery of Wall Street right now and investing in general," Staley said. "I wanted to make sure I partnered with a company that represents Main Street more than Wall Street -- one that helps me deliver world class independent research, state-of-the-art technology, and the freedom to deliver to my clients what they need.

"Even though this is a new endeavor for me, I work for the same people I’ve always worked for -- my clients," he added.

While LPL Financial was tops in the nation (for Independent Broker Dealers) in revenue in 2009, Staley acknowledges that a lot of people in this area may not have heard of the firm.

"I feel a little like the guy who brought the Tim Horton's to town at first," Staley said. "For a lot of people, this is the first time they're hearing of LP Financial."

Even so, after opening for business at the beginning of December, Staley said he's had a steady flow of new clients walk through his doors -- exceeding his first-month goals. In part, that's the location, but also, Staley said, he's been around town a long time and a lot of people know him.

He picked the location, he said, because he plans to grow and be around for a long time.

It wasn't just sleigh bells you heard ringing in the days before Christmas. It was also cash registers.

Downtown merchants say they are quite pleased with their 2010 holiday season and hope it means there are good things to come in 2011.

"The numbers aren't official, but it was probably our strongest Christmas in a couple of years," said Greg Gluck, owner of Alberty Drugs. "It was certainly better than last year and probably better than the year before, which is probably a good sign for everyone."

Besides filling prescriptions, Alberty sells gift items and greeting cards.

Owners of The Enchanted Florist, Charles Men's Shop, Glass Roots, Adam Miller Toy & Bicycles, Valle Jewelers and 3D Wine and Spirits all say sales were up a bit this year, though nobody is saying "Wow, I can't believe how great it was!"

But any improvement over the past few years is a welcome sign that at last some people have money to spend and they're spending it.

"The top shelf wines sold and the wines on the bottom shelf sold, but the wines in the middle didn't sell as much," said 3D's owner, Dave Buchholtz. "The people who have the money are spending it, and the people who don't, aren't."

At Charles Men's Shop, owner Dave Howe agrees to a point. He said 2010 was a good improvement over 2009's Christmas season, but he said he heard from a lot of customers who were looking for quality from a local shop. He said people seem tired of overpriced, overhyped "buy one get six free" sales.

"People are less apt to drive all over the countryside," Howe said. "They gave us a shot first to see if we can help."

Next door, at The Enchanted Florist, Kathy Saile, said Christmas sales were up and met her expectations for the season.

"We didn't have any product left over and we were able to make all of our deliveries," Saile said.

At Adam Miller, people came in looking for bikes, hobby items, puzzles and unique toys you just can't get in the chain stores, said John Roche.

"The last two weeks we were swamped," Roche said. "It was way better than what I expected."

The strong sales locally matches reports of strong holiday sales nationally. The New York Times reports:

After a 6-percent free fall in 2008 and a 4-percent uptick last year, retail spending rose 5.5 percent in the 50 days before Christmas, exceeding even the more optimistic forecasts, according to MasterCard advisors SpendingPulse, which tracks retail spending.

The rise was seen in just about every retail category. Apparel led the way, with an increase of 11.2 percent. Jewelry was up 8.4 percent, and luxury goods like handbags and expensive department-store clothes increased 6.7 percent.

There was even a slight increase in purchases of home furniture, which had four consecutive years of declining sales. The figures include in-store and online sales.

The day before Christmas, Valle's Jewelers was packed with customers, and co-owner Mary Valle said the store was busy throughout the holiday season.

The store ran several promotions and advertised heavily for Christmas shopping, Valle said, and it seemed to pay off.

"We saw many new people in the store," Valle said. "People wanted to shop in the county and they verbalized it."

Advertising also paid off for Jeremy Almeter, owner of Glass Roots. For the first time in the five-year history of his business, he ran advertising -- exclusively in The Batavian -- promoting his handmade glass Christmas ornaments.

"For the first time, we sold out of ornaments," Almeter said. "We saw at least 20 faces in the store we'd never seen before."

Top: Mary Valle and Kamilla Kabel. Kabel, the former owner of House of K, is helping out at Valle's.Top inset, Dave Howe; bottom, Dave Buchholtz.

WBTA's Geoff Redick contributed to this story.

Business owners and people with jobs that leave them only limited time for lunch are the target audience for South Beach Restaurant's noon-time buffet, according to owner Ken Mistler.

Mistler launched the buffet a month ago.

"People on lunch hour need to get in and get out and eat at their own pace," Mistler said.

The buffet allows people to come in, place their drink order and immediately serve themselves -- no waiting for a meal to be prepared and multiple courses to be served.

The food is all freshly made each day, Mistler said. Nothing is frozen.

And the available entrees also change each day, based on what's available at the market.

Already there've been days featuring meatloaf, steak, fish, chicken, pork, ribs and all kinds of pasta dishes.

"We want people to get a good, wholesome meal and still be in out quickly if that's what they need," Mistler said.

The buffet includes a full salad bar -- at least 24 items each day -- and fresh, homemade soup.

"We have a new soup recipe every day," Mistler said.

The desserts are also fresh and made from scratch, according to Mistler.

The buffet is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the cost is only $10 (drinks sold separately), though it is not "all you can eat."

Felicia Pfalzer parleyed two large pizza's into a 42-inch plasma TV this week.

The Darien resident was the lucky winner of a drawing offered by Main St. Pizza Company to celebrate National Pizza Month (October).

Above, Main St. owner Vic Marchese with Pfalzer after presenting the prize this afternoon.

A person alerted me earlier that a parking enforcement officer was on Center Street chalking tires. I went out to try and get a picture, but couldn't find him, only the chalked tires (FWIW, this picture is not of my car. Mine was in a parking lot with one chalk mark at the time).

The person who told me about the tire chalking said she had never seen parking enforcement downtown before. I spoke to a business owner and another office worker -- who always parks on the street -- and neither of them had seen it before. One shop owner remembers parking enforcement one day last summer.

I called Chief Randy Baker to ask if this was something new or what's going on? He said nothing has changed.

"I beg to differ that people haven't seen him out before," Baker said.

Baker said there is a two-hour parking restriction downtown and the city employs a part-time parking enforcement officer who monitors parking, addresses problems when he sees them and responds to complaints.

I asked the chief for statistics on the number of parking tickets written per month and he said that number should be available in a couple of days.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democrat running for governor, is reportedly going to make a campaign stop in Downtown Batavia this afternoon. He's scheduled to stop at Larry's Steakhouse, but that could be moved to the Homestead conference facility inside the mall, and he will appear either at 4:30 or 5 p.m. (we've heard different accounts).

One protester is already outside of Larry's. His name is Jay D. Fuller and he's from Medina. His sign reads, "Healthcare is about caring, not $$$" and "Paladino is right." When I spoke to him, he talked about some land-use/political issue in Medina. The connection, I gather is that Cuomo authorized state grants to the family Fuller has a dispute with. "I think he should know who the money is going to," Fuller said.

Meanwhile, as I left Larry's, Joe DioGuardi's tour bus drove by. DioGuardi is a Republican running for Senate. I'm not sure if he was just passing through or if he made an appearance. The bus turned off of Jackson Street, which is where the local GOP has set up shop.

A fire on Thursday caused $5,000 in damage and disrupted business for TopLine Shirt Co. But owners Tim Walton and Rob Credi say normal operations will resume on Monday.

Here's their full statement:

TopLine Shirt Co. is set to resume their normal business hours of M-F from 12-5 p.m. starting Monday, Oct. 25 after cleaning up from a recent fire. TopLine had been operating on limited operating hours since a fire occurred at the shop last week.

The fire started around 6:30 on Thursday night when one of the flash ovens malfunctioned and caught fire. The flash oven is a dryer similar to a large heat gun that radiates heat downward to dry ink onto shirts after they are printed.

The fire quickly spread from the dryer and spread to shirts that were on a nearby table, and eventually to a box of cleaning rags that had cleaning chemicals on them. The fire was kept under control, by owner Timothy Walton, who was able to grab a hose that was connected to the washtub in the nearby bathroom and spray it to keep the fire down.

The total damage is estimated to be around $5,000 which includes the loss of an oven, table, heat press and clothing.

It's "Make a Difference Day," and as part of the effort, four Batavia High School students were in downtown this morning picking up trash on the sidewalks and flower beds. Above, Donald Fagan, a senior at BHS, patrols for litter in a flower bed on East Main Street.

Ray England is 70 years old and lives in Albion. He cleans windows for a living and has a handful of clients in Downtown Batavia.

He was on Main Street this afternoon in his top hat and green scarf taking care of some shop windows when I met him.

He uses a contraption that he built himself. It's quite ingenious. One metal poll with a cleaning wand at the end. A tube is connected to the wand and an air-pressure garden sprayer on a pull cart. England can spray water up the tube and onto the window.

One advantage of the system, he said, is that his hands never get wet, so he can easily clean windows in winter.

The squeegee he uses to wipe the water off the windows has a swivel head so he can handle any shape, including rounded edges, of a window.

The idea for the design came to him after he was seriously hurt in an auto accident.

“My arm was broken in three places and split at the wrist," England said. "For two years I couldn’t use this arm. It was dead meat. That’s when the great Lord above, the great engineer, He designed the universe, showed me this idea. I put it together and I’ve been using it ever since."

England claims to have a patent on the design and would like to find a U.S. manufacturer to build it and sell it so Americans could be put to work, but he claims a German company stole his idea and is building the same system out of cheap plastic.

"Mine is made with steal and copper and I sell it for $600," England said. "They sell theirs for $1,700 and if you drop it, it breaks."

Another great sunset tonight. Here's a couple of shots I grabbed on Main Street.

The Democrats are in the mall, across from Sunny's, next to the north side entrance. The Republicans are at 5 Jackson St., Batavia.

Both campaign headquarters are decorated with candidate signs.

Chris Charvella announced on behalf of the Democrats that they will have a grand opening at 6:30 p.m., Thursday.

No word from the Republicans on their plans.

UPDATE: The GOP open house is now scheduled for 11 a.m., Saturday. Steven Hawley and Mike Ranzenhofer are expected to be on hand.

If a sellout isn't enough measure of success for the inaugural Taste of Fall Wine Walk in downtown Batavia, the obvious fun all the guests and business owners were having Saturday evening, certainly sealed the deal.

More pictures after the jump (you won't see a frown or a scowl in the bunch!):

Vic Marchese has achieved something few small business owners ever get to claim -- in just five-and-a-half years after opening Main St. Pizza Company, he now owns the building.

"I'm just shocked by how much business we're doing," Marchese said. "It's good. It really is. I'm thankful. I'm thankful to the guy upstairs, I guess."

The success has meant, however, that the original Main St. Pizza space at 206 E. Main St., Batavia, has gotten crowded. Marchese said he needs to expand. He certainly needs to expand the kitchen, he said, but he would also like more seating area.

"It's crazy, but on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday, I'll have 20 or 30 people standing out there," Marchese said.

Marchese has thought about putting in a dining room upstairs, but said it would be more cost effective to open up a dining area in the basement. He would also like to acquire space in front of the building from the city and put in a deck or patio for diners.

Marchese didn't make the building purchase on his own. His nephew, Paul Marchese, owner of Marchese Computers on Ellicott Street, is co-owner of the building.

The acquisition comes just in time for Vic to celebrate National Pizza Month in October, a promotion he's getting fully behind, with one lucky customer becoming eligible to win a big screen TV.

Marchese said he loves food, pizza, especially the pizza business. He's been at it for more than 35 years. He worked 20 years in somebody else's pizza shop, then ran Vic's Doghouse on Park Road for nine years, and now Main St. Pizza.

"I really love what I do," Vic said.

Ken Mistler, whose downtown building ownership dropped from 10 properties to nine with the sale, said it was Vic's idea and he supported it because he believes Marchese will be a  responsible downtown landlord. Mistler noted that if a poor owner got a hold of a building such as the one Vic bought, it could bring down his own property values.

"I was glad to sell it to him because I'm sure he's going to take care of the building," Mistler said. "He will be an asset as a landlord downtown."