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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.”

See also: Police station project manager explains need for space around construction site

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.”

“They show no empathy for the patients,” he said. 

Howard Owens contributed to this story.

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 discussion.

Pearl explained the scope of construction, the need for the use of parking space next to the primary construction site, and the coordination and liability issues involved.

With five contractors involved -- there is no lead contractor -- there is a lot of complex work that needs to be coordinated with timelines that need to stay in sync.

The sudden dust-up over parking has contractors nervous about staying on schedule, Pearl indicated.

For this $15 million project, there is a general contract, a site contractor, an electrical contractor, a plumbing contractor, and a heating contractor. They’re all under separate contracts.

See also: Downtown business owners battle for their patients, city considers options

“Now that this has become an issue, I have to speak on behalf of this group because they're aggrieved now, too,” Pearl said. “They’re under contract that go under state and federal government rules. And they're like, ‘Wait a minute, nobody can agree to just be moving this fence around because there's insurance issues, liability, and all kinds of stuff. Plus, we need space to work.’”

In the meeting with business owners, Pearl said he tried to convey the message that “this is our world.” He tried to show them what the contractors are supposed to be doing and why.

“We’ve got to put that fence up all around the parking lot on the city's boundary, and then we will transfer all the liability to the contractors," Pearl said. “They're responsible for everything that happens here. They can't have people in here. They're not trained, they're not wearing safety gear. The first thing the contractor is going to do is come in with expensive equipment, like a Thruway project or something or a road project. They're gonna be grinding up all this asphalt because it's all getting refurbished and pulled up. And we got to access the sewers and infrastructure elements underneath.”

Pearl explained that the need for contractor space next to the job site involves much more than asking workers to walk an extra 40 feet, as some business owners seem to believe.

Once the asphalt is ripped out, a sewer line must be removed. It is buried 15 feet underground on the west end lot.

Then, all the footings for the walls need to be dug out. Digging out the footing space and foundation will create debris that must be moved into the west end of the lot where it can be sorted -- refill, recyclable, and waste. 

The stormwater draining system gets rebuilt.

A mesh of conduits and tubing needs to be installed with contractors needing easy access to supplies.

All-terrain vehicles with forklifts will need to move around the perimeter of the building in space that was seemingly designated as parking before city officials learned those renderings were wrong.

Scaffolding will be erected around the building and will intrude into that same "parking space."

While some workers can show up with their tools in their sedan, Pearl explained that the concrete guys can’t do that. They drive pickups with all their tools in compartments around the bed of a truck.  Concrete workers need to work fast. They have a limited time to complete tasks once the concrete is poured. 

“What they're doing is constantly going back and forth to their trucks,” Pearl said. “You'll actually see them moving their trucks because they're working fast. When heavy concrete comes in, there's a time limit on it for their working procedures. They're not going to allow us to tell them to park across the street. That's insane. From their perspective, they don't even want to park over here (he pointed to the site plan). They want to park here. And then two hours later, they're gonna be here, and three hours later, still here. They'll work not an eight-to-five. They'll stay if the poor require them to stay till 10 o'clock at night.”

Quality control testing needs to take place on the job site, which means equipment needs to be set up and stored close to the new construction.

“They can’t do that across the street because they gotta be where the thing is happening,” he said.

Each contractor needs a trailer for office space, so there are five trailers total, plus one each for state and federal inspectors.

Utilities need to be run to those trailers and the job site.

Moving all of that infrastructure to the other side of Alva would mean double installation of infrastructure.

“That's multiple of everything,” Pearl said. “So technically, my message was, we can do anything you want. But we're going to crucify the budgets."

Workers' safety is also at risk if they have to cross a public roadway from the job site to a staging area.

“If we're having people walking across the public street, we’re putting workers at risk,” Pearl said. “Guys get busy, tired, dirt in their eyes, they're sweaty, they might not be paying attention after the 100th time walking across the street.”

Pearl said the map showing swaths of parking around the construction site went out before it was shown to him. During the Monday meeting, he said Tabelski apologized for the miscommunication.

After Monday's council meeting, Council President Eugene Jankowski expressed frustration that some people seemingly can't except that city management made an honest mistake.

He said that rather than castigating city employees, those affected should understand that a mistake was made and that the city is trying to rectify it.

“There were timelines that had to be met,” Jankowski said. “Rachel had an older drawing. It wasn't an updated drawing, and she thought she would be ahead of the game by getting it out to them.  When  Ken (Pearl) found out about it, he realized that she had sent out the wrong drawing. She apologized to everyone in the meeting earlier today (Monday), explaining that that was her mistake and that it wasn't intentional. However, I've seen affected business owners on Facebook saying the city lied and that the city purposely blindsided us. That's not true. It was an honest mistake. And we're doing our best to correct that.”

Jankowski suggested that small business owners might be more understanding of the fact that everybody is trying to do their best for the community.

“The part that really perplexes me is and it causes me severe disappointment, that we're trying to do something good for the community and our police department and our public safety, which is very valuable in this community. I really take public safety very seriously. And yet, we're meeting all this resistance over a few parking spaces we're trying to accommodate. But that doesn't seem to be good enough.”

Pearl noted that the public part of the police station construction story has always been that this was a three-phase project, with a new police station, new secure parking for the police, and rebuilt public parking.

People seem to have missed the “rebuilt public parking,” he suggested, because that means eliminating all of the existing parking lot.

“When you build a police station, you're talking about doing a 100-year building if you can pull it off,” Pearl said. “If I'm building a warehouse for my business, I might only care that it lasts 20 years. I’m going to invest low in it. A church might want the building to last 200 years. A car dealership, I'm gonna remodel it in five; I don't need certain standards the same all the time on a project. We spent a lot of time working out all this stuff. I think when this is all done for the public. They will get something that boosts that neighborhood. Because somebody's spending money on it, in my experience, that tends to give people comfort if they want to think about investing in something, new or remodeling something, because now somebody did it, values are going up a little bit. If nobody does it, nobody does it, you know”

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.

He claimed that city officials presented plans to the businesses showing the fence being placed in the parking lot, where space is striped for a second row of cars, keeping the first row open for business parking.

After the fence was erected, he said city officials told him OSHA requirements dictated the location of the fence and "the plan changed."

He doesn't believe there is an OSHA requirement for that particular placement of the fence.

"They're just lying about everything," Mazurkiewicz said. "It's a mess."

Brett J. Frank, the city's director of public works, declined this morning to comment on the situation, citing a meeting planned for Monday evening as the reason.

City officials will meet with representatives of the businesses, which are mostly medical offices, at 5:30 p.m. at the current Batavia police headquarters. Mazurkiewicz said the issue has also been added to the City Council agenda for Monday. That meeting starts at 7 p.m.

On Friday, City Manager Rachel Tabelski put out a statement addressing the parking issues:

“The City of Batavia Police Department will move from their 167-year-old converted mansion, known as the Historic Brisbane Mansion.  There have been no less than five studies conducted since 1991 to determine the future of the police station in Batavia, as well as a citizen task force commissioned to investigate possible site locations.  The location of the new facility was identified by the task force.

“Working with the construction team, the City will continue to provide the community and surrounding businesses, and their patrons with free parking with some restrictions in place.  The safety of the construction workers and those using the Alva lot is the highest priority.  At this time, the West Side of the Alva Parking Lot is available for medical/customer parking; the streets of Washington, State, Bank and Alva have free on-street parking as well.

“Patrons of Washington and State Street businesses without mobility issues are encouraged to park in the City Centre lot, leaving adjacent street parking for individuals who need access.  The City recognizes that parking will be inconvenient, but the goal is to minimize the impact on businesses and residents.  The City looks forward to project completion and appreciates everyone’s assistance and cooperation during the 18-month construction period.

The lack of parking is costing him business, Mazurkiewicz said.  He had seven clients cancel appointments on Thursday and Friday and two on Monday morning. 

He had one 90-year-old client try to walk from the open spaces behind Millenium Computer to his office, which is at least 150 yards across three grass outcroppings that disrupt the sidewalk.

He said city officials told him they would create three on-street handicap spaces, but Mazurkiewicz believes that many elderly patients either can't or won't parallel park if that's required to use those spaces.

"We need at least eight handicapped parking spaces," Mazurkiewicz said.

He said one customer told him, "I can walk 20 feet, but I can't walk 150 yards," and he added, "What about a mom with a baby in a car seat? That's 50 pounds. Is she going to carry it 150 yards?"

When asked what he expected in terms of parking availability once construction is finished, he said he didn't know. "They haven't told us," he said.

The city is building a $15 million, 21,000-square-foot facility at Alva Place and Bank Street. It is partially funded by a $2.5 million USDA grant and low-interest loan from the USDA.

Joanne Beck contributed to this story.

Press Release:

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.

Press Release:

The Byron-Bergen, Elba, and Oakfield-Alabama learning communities are teaming up to “stick it to type one diabetes”. All three districts have students and staff affected by Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) and are working together to make a big impact at the largest T1D event in the world.

On Sunday, May 19, the three communities will come together at Sea Breeze Park for the annual JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) One Walk. The global initiative raises millions of dollars for T1D treatments and cures but, for this team, it’s personal. 

“Oakfield-Alabama is proud to partner with our neighboring school districts and community members to support this cause,” said Oakfield-Alabama Superintendent John Fisgus. “So many people are affected by Type 1 Diabetes, and it is so important to raise awareness and join forces in these events.”

“I have two daughters, Sophia and Mckenna, with Type 1 Diabetes and I’m so grateful for the support from their Oakfield-Alabama school community,” said ‘Stick It’ team captain Mary Hughes, herself a staff member at Byron-Bergen. “I’m also amazed by how the Byron-Bergen community rallied to support me and my family when my second daughter was diagnosed last December.”

The same month that Hughes’ second daughter received her T1D diagnosis, Michael, a kindergarten student at Elba was also diagnosed. 

"The Elba community has been amazing during Michael's new diagnosis and has allowed his friends in school to learn about Type 1 Diabetes,” said Michael’s mother, Ashley Diehl. “Mary and I have been friends for years and now our children are in this together. We've joined forces to bring awareness to Type 1 Diabetes so others can look out for signs of diabetes in people who are undiagnosed and so our friends and family can help us work toward a cure.” 

“Elba Central School is pleased to participate in the walk to raise funds for JDRF,” said Elba Central School District Gretchen Rosales. “One of the cornerstones of Elba Central is to come together for our school family; when one of our Lancers is in need, we are all ready to help. Similarly, the Byron-Bergen and Oakfield-Alabama school districts operate with a shared mission - our school families support each other. I am pleased to join with Mr. McGee and Mr. Fisgus and the three-school community to fight for the collective future of all families in need. We are proud to be united in this effort.”

Each year the JDRF One Walk brings over 900,000 participants together worldwide, but team “Stick It” isn’t stopping there. Members of Team “Stick It” are heading to the Buffalo Marathon on May 26. Michael’s father, Jimmy Diehl, and Byron-Bergen Director of Instructional Services Betsy Brown will both run the half marathon. Oakfield-Alabama SRO Jordan Alejandro, Byron-Bergen SRO Josh Brabon, Byron-Bergen Athletics Secretary Mary Hughes, Byron-Bergen High School Counselor Kristie Holler, and Oakfield-Alabama Teacher Jen Prichett will run the full marathon to raise awareness for T1D.

“Byron-Bergen is all about taking action to support our community,” said Byron-Bergen Superintendent Pat McGee. “I’m proud to see the Bees hit the pavement with our friends and neighbors to raise awareness and support for our community members living with Type 1 Diabetes.”

“Our team’s goal is to educate our friends and family about Type 1 Diabetes and the research that is needed to find a cure for our kiddos and people everywhere,” said Hughes. 

For more information about these events or Team “Stick It”, visit the JDRF “Stick It” team page. 

Terry Anderson, a journalist and a Batavia High School graduate who gained international attention after being taken hostage by an Iranian-backed terrorist group, has died in Greenwood Lake, in the Hudson Valley.

He was 76 years old.

Anderson was the Beirut bureau chief in 1985 for the Associated Press when he was kidnapped by armed men who dragged him from his car after he dropped off a tennis partner following a match. The pistol-wielding men yanked him from his car and pushed him into a Mercedes-Benz.

The terrorists were reportedly members of Hezbollah, an Islamic Jihad Organization in Lebanon. He was reportedly blindfolded and beaten and kept in chains and moved to 20 different hideaways in Beirut, South Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley.

His release came 2,454 days later following intense lobbying by his sister, Peggy Say.

Anderson and Say were born in Lorain, Ohio, where their father, Glen, was a village police officer. While still children, their parents moved to Batavia, where their father worked as a truck driver and their mother, Lily, was a waitress.

After Anderson was kidnapped, Say didn't feel the case was getting enough attention from the U.S. government and the United States. She launched a national campaign to raise the awareness of people to the plight of her brother and other hostages held by Hezbollah.

Say, who had returned to Batavia after relocating for a time, enlisted fellow journalists, humanitarian groups, world figures, and U.S. citizens in the cause, which led to the nation being festooned with yellow ribbons. 

She also received assistance from many fellow Batavia residents, such as Anne Zickl, who died in 2014.

Say died in 2015 at age 74.

Terry Anderson's daughter Sulome told the New York Times that Anderson died following complications from a recent heart surgery.

Anderson's last public appearance in Batavia was in February 2011 to dedicate the International Peace Garden.

Press release:

Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature unveiled the final state budget Saturday, including a payroll tax credit for local news outlets, modeled on the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, in the sweeping package. With the passage of this bill, New York is now the first state in the nation to incentivize hiring and retaining local journalists. This game changer for the local news industry comes just months after the launch of the Empire State Local News Coalition, an unprecedented, grassroots campaign powered by more than 200 community newspapers across the state.

Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Senate bill sponsor, said: “I’m elated that our first-in-the-nation Local Journalism Sustainability Act is passing in the state budget. A thriving local news industry is vital to the health of our democracy and it’s our responsibility to help ensure New Yorkers have access to independent and community-focused journalism. Thank you to Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Governor Hochul, our Assembly Sponsor Woerner and the over 200 local publications of the Empire State Local News Coalition who helped pass our bill. Our efforts will help ensure that our democracy will not die in darkness.”

"Without local news coverage in our community, there would be a lot that our local governments do that voters would never know about nor have any way to realistically question; there would be no accountability," said Howard Owens, publisher of The Batavian.  "We created Early Access Pass to give the community an opportunity to support local journalism and help us hire more reporters. This tax credit will help those dollars, along with our vital sponsor support, go further, and should open the door for us to hire more reporters, which is the legislation's primary purpose. We're hopeful this legislation will help ensure Genesee County continues to get the local news coverage it needs and deserves.

"I also want to thank our local representatives, Assemblyman Steve Hawley and Sen. George Borrello, for their support of this critical piece of legislation," Owens added. "They both recognize the importance of local news coverage to our community and understand the crisis state the local news industry is in."

The program--$30 million per year for three years--allows each eligible newspaper and broadcast business to receive a 50% refundable tax credit against the first $50,000 of an employee's salary, up to a total of $300,000 per business. $4 million will be allocated to incentivize print and broadcast businesses to hire new journalists. The remaining $26 million will be split evenly between businesses with fewer than 100 employees and those with more than 100 employees, ensuring that hyperlocal, independent news organizations can access these funds. 

After stalling for years, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act catapulted into a top legislative priority this session following the early-2024 founding of the Empire State Local News Coalition and the coalition’s mobilization of support from hundreds of New York hometown papers as well as a broad range stakeholders from around the country, including the Rebuild Local News Coalition, Microsoft, and El Diario. Organized labor, including NYS AFL-CIO, CWA District 1, and national and local news guilds, also played a critical role in mobilizing support for this historic bill. 

"The Empire State Local News Coalition is thrilled by the state budget’s inclusion of a payroll tax credit for local news outlets modeled on the Local Journalism Sustainability Act. New York is now the first state in the nation to incentivize hiring and retaining local journalists–a critical investment given that hundreds of New York’s newspapers have closed since 2004, leaving too many New York communities without access to vital local information. The objectivity of this credit shows that there is a fair way for public policy to support local news without jeopardizing journalistic integrity. This program is a model for other states across the U.S. to follow as communities across the country raise their voices to save local news,” said Zachary Richner, founder of the Empire State Local News Coalition.

“We’re incredibly proud of the 200 newspapers in our coalition, which built an unprecedented grassroots movement in support of saving New York’s local news industry in a few short months. We’re especially grateful to Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, whose tireless advocacy for this tax credit was instrumental in moving it through the legislative process. The coalition thanks Governor Hochul, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Heastie, Assembly Sponsor Carrie Woerner, and the entire legislature for supporting this industry-saving policy, and we look forward to continuing our advocacy for local news in the years to come," Richner continued. “Other states and stakeholders interested in replicating this playbook and hearing about lessons learned should reach out to us at info@savenylocalnews.com.”

Since launching in February, the coalition has quickly mobilized stakeholders across the state to rally behind the bill. In addition to rallying with grassroots advocates in Westchester and Albany, members led petition drives, letter-writing campaigns, editorials, and advertisements, sounding the alarm on the decline of local journalism.   

New York’s leadership on this issue could change the course of local journalism in the U.S. The budget’s inclusion of this tax credit comes at a watershed moment for the journalism industry: New York State has experienced hundreds of newspaper closures in the past few decades. 

A 33-year-old Lockport woman has been charged with murder by the Genesee County Sheriff's Office for allegedly causing the death of Michael Poole and then attempting to conceal Poole's body in a remote area of the town of Alabama. 

Kathryn A. "Kat" Henry is charged with murder in the second degree, a Class A-1 felony, which carries a potential sentence of 15 years to 25 years in state prison. 

The body of the 59-year-old Poole, from Olcott, was found in Alabama on March 19 during an investigation into a report of a missing person from Niagara County.

Henry is accused of conspiring with another person in the death of Poole. The other suspect is not yet named and has not yet been arrested, but charges are expected. The Sheriff's Office said there is no concern for public safety.  The suspect is already in custody on another matter.

Henry is also charged with:

• Assault in the first degree, a Class B felony
• Concealment of a human corpse, a Class E felony
• Hindering prosecution in the first degree, a Class D felony
• Tampering with physical evidence, a Class E felony
• Conspiracy in the second degree, a Class B felony
• Conspiracy in the fourth degree, a Class E felony

Henry was arraigned on Friday and ordered held without bail.

Press release:

Batavia Downs Gaming & Hotel has announced that the Fur Ball Gala Fundraiser on Saturday, April 13th, raised $30,000 for Begin Again Horse Rescue in Lima and Whispering River Rescue in Gasport.

Over 90 baskets donated by local companies and individuals were raffled off to the more than 200 persons in attendance.  Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas took pictures with attendees while they enjoyed food and drink.  Attendees danced the night away as they enjoyed music from DJ Jimmy B.

The charities will use the funds from the gala to support their work, which includes caring for horses, donkeys and other farm animals. 

“After the success of last year’s event, we were excited to welcome even more people to our event this year, with our attendance going over 200 people.  We are indebted to local businesses and community members who came together in support of the Fur Ball Gala,” said Jacquelyne Leach, CFO for Western OTB / Batavia Downs Gaming & Hotel and Jody Coffta, General Manager of Food & Beverage for Batavia Downs Gaming & Hotel. “We want to thank all the volunteers, our staff and the many vendors who donated food and beverages for this event.  This was truly a great team effort.  To all those who contributed baskets for the raffles, please know we could not have done this without you.”

For those interested in getting involved with this year’s local animal organizations, information for each can be found here:

Begin Again Horse Rescue https://www.beginagainrescue.org/

Whispering River Rescue https://www.whisperingriverrescue.com/

Makenzie Rich was one of more than 70 middle and high school students to attend Friday’s Rainbow Resilience Youth Conference in an effort to not only gain more information and understanding about mental health and potential suicide issues as part of the LBGTQ community but also to help others struggling with similar issues, she says.

"There's a lot of youth struggling, especially in the LGBTQ-plus community. Everyone needs help, eventually. And it's important to know that you can ask for help. And there are people that are willing to help you as long as you're willing to reach out,” Makenzie, 17, said during a break from a suicide prevention workshop at Genesee Community College. “Today's amazing, it turned out really nice. We had a big group of participants. The workshops, I think, are very informational. It's a lot of help and just things that you wouldn't really realize in daily life.”

Katelyn Zufall was conducting the suicide prevention workshop, and was pointing out “some of the little things that you wouldn’t see to realize when someone is struggling and how you can help them by realizing those little signs,” Makenzie said. She offered some suggestions for what one can do if concerned about another person’s mental status.

“Just checking on your friends, checking on your family. Little signs, like they're giving away things that are important to them. They're just, all of a sudden, extra happy after seeming kind of gloomy for a while. Just check in,” she said. “And anyone that you are comfortable talking to, just check in with anyone.”

Bottom line: open communication is “super important,” she said. 

Zufall reviewed a list of Dos and Don’ts, such as Do validate the person’s feelings, ask if you can help, be patient and let them know you care. Don’t interrupt or speak over the person, tell how they should feel, jump in with solutions, be scared of their feelings or critical and blaming.

Open about her own identity as a lesbian, Makenzie, a junior at Batavia High School, has had her own family struggles, she said. 

“Not everyone in my family is super supportive,” she said. “But with GLOW Out!, I have a great support system. And I have a lot of friends that I am very thankful for. And people that I can reach out to. But family was a big struggle for me for a while.”

GLOW Out!, established in the spring of 2019 with the sole intention of creating the first Pride Festival in the four-county GLOW region, provides education and awareness of and around the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other) community, creating and maintaining a safe, inclusive, and equitable environment for LGBTQ individuals.

Sara Vacin is executive director, and one of her programs is a safe-space youth center at First Presbyterian Church in Batavia. It is there that local students and families have met and forged supportive networks, branching out to other initiatives, including a state-wide conference in Albany attended by several local students, including Makenzie.

Her efforts seem to be helping.

“I have a stronger connection with my family,” she said. “There are still times where I struggle a little bit, but I know who I can reach out to when those times are hard.”

The day was a filled with workshops, a panel and full representation from Genesee County Mental Health, Vacin said. There was a clinical supervisor, two nurses, a therapist and two care managers there throughout the day.

“What was really cool was that they were not just here in the beginning or the end, but were here all day providing information,” she said. “And it speaks volumes about Genesee County, and that they wanted to participate.” 

A total of 72 students attended, with the largest contingent from the Byron-Bergen school district, she said. 

The Genesee County Youth Board honored some of the community's most dedicated and service-oriented teenagers at the board's annual Youth Recognition Dinner on Thursday at Terry Hills.

The youth were recognized for their accomplishments and their volunteer efforts in their schools and communities.

The Youth Worker of the Year Award went to Ally Terranova Laura Williams. Both Terranova and WIlliams are social workers in the Elba Central School District. They were recognized for creating a supportive environment for students and families and establishing the Helping Hands Food Pantry, which has helped address food insecurity for some district families. 

Bonnie Duthe was named Youth Volunteer of the Year. Duthe is a volunteer at the Batavia Community School's Heart of Kindness Center. 

The board also honored the county's School Resource Officers.

Youth Recognition Award winners:

• Hannah Baldwin 
• Chase Banser 
• Anayiah Bautista 
• Liam Campbell 
• Leah Childs 
• Sydney Dundon
• Keegan Fisher
• Finn Halpin 
• Paige Harding 
• Lauryn Hawkins 
• Lucas Hoisington 
• Grace Nickerson
• Paige O’Brien
• Stephanie Onderdonk 
• Emily Pietrzykowski 
• Makenzie Rich 
• Kate Ricupito
• Lilly Senko 
• Jessica Sosnowski

School Resource Officers honored:

• Jordon Alejandro 
• Sean Ancker 
• Connor Borchert
• Joshua Brabon
• Eric Meyer
• Patrick Reeves
• Trevor Sherwood
• Miah Stevens 
• Kyle Tower 
• Ryan Young

At Thursday's annual meeting of the Business Improvement District at Center Street Smokehouse in Batavia, My Cut Barbershop was honored as business of the year and Sara Tenney was named the BID's volunteer of the year.

My Cut is located on the first floor of the Masonic Temple building, 200 E. Main St., Batavia.

Press Release:

Applications are now being accepted for the 2024 class year of United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes’ Leadership Development Programs. The following programs are accepting applications: Latino Leadership Program, African American Leadership Program, Emerging Leaders Program, and Pride Leadership Program. The application deadline is May 31.

United Way’s Leadership Development Programs champion the advancement of African Americans, Latinos, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and emerging professionals in board and leadership positions across the region. Each participant is encouraged to enrich their personal and professional leadership skills, learn the principles of boards of directors, gain an understanding of community opportunities and challenges, foster genuine communities of belonging and inclusivity, and broaden connections through networking.

“If you thrive on engaging, learning, and networking with diverse and like-minded individuals driven to enhance organizations and impact communities, I encourage you to explore United Way's distinctive leadership programs. Upon completion, you'll join over 2,000 program alumni who are paving the way for meaningful change," states Dr. Sheila Strong, director of leadership development and equity.

The Leadership Development Programs will commence this fall, and spaces in each cohort are limited. Reserve your seat now. The tuition fee is $600, and scholarship assistance may be accessible for individuals demonstrating financial need. 

For further information and to apply, visit unitedwayrocflx.org/get-involved/leadership-development. Please direct any inquiries to leadershipdevelopment@unitedwayrocflx.org.

Press Release:

On Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., law enforcement agencies across Genesee County and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will provide the public the opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. 

There will be three locations across the county where citizens can dispose of their medications. Sharps will only be accepted at the Batavia location which moved from the Alva lot this year. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked. 

The Batavia Police Department, in conjunction with United Memorial Medical Center, will be accepting prescription drugs and sharps at the Batavia Police Department, located at 10 W. Main Street, Batavia. 

The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office will accept prescription drugs ONLY at the Pembroke Town Hall, 1145 Main Rd. Corfu. 

The LeRoy Police Department will accept prescription drugs ONLY at their headquarters at 3 West Main Street, LeRoy. 

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. 

Rates of prescription drug abuse in the United States are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs.  In addition to DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, there are many other ways to dispose of unwanted prescription drugs every day, including the 11,000 authorized collectors that are available all year long. 

The Batavia Police Department Headquarters has one for everyday collection of drugs located in the lobby at 10 West Main St., Batavia. Containers are also located at the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office on Park Rd, Batavia, and the LeRoy Police Department. 

Sharps are accepted at United Memorial Medical Center, 127 North Street, Batavia. 

The FDA also provides information on how to dispose of prescription drugs properly. More information is available here: www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/where-and-how-dispose-unused-medicines. 

For more information about the disposal of prescription drugs or the April 27 Take Back Day event, go to www.DEATakeBack.com.

A reader submitted this photo and said Spencer Wuest took a picture of a porcupine this past weekend while walking in the woods in Alexander.

Minor injuries are reported after a vehicle struck a building at 4814 Ellicott Street Road, Batavia.

The location is Brach Machine.

The vehicle is reportedly elevated on a bollard.

Town of Batavia Fire and Mercy EMS dispatched.

UPDATE:  A 28-year-old man may have suffered a medical issue while driving on Ellicott Street Road when he lost control of his pickup truck, according to Deputy Jeremy McClellan. He sustained an apparent shoulder injury and was transported to UMMC for evaluation and treatment. McClellan said a code enforcement officer responded to the scene and determined the building remains structurally sound.

Anyone who has lived in our area for any length of time, especially along the Tonawanda Creek, knows that the waters can be unpredictable at times. We only have to look back just a few weeks for another example. There have been many instances when its flow has overreached the banks of the creek and invaded the surrounding properties. The most extensive of these floods in Batavia occurred 80 years ago during a spring thaw.

Batavia has seen many high flood waters in its history. In 1887, there was a flood called at the time “the greatest flood Batavia has seen in years,” and in 1902 the waters damaged the Walnut Street bridge, in what was called a “record breaker,” and even the flood of 1959 caused considerable hardship. 

However, in March 1942 it would see its greatest flood in its history. That March there was still a good deal of snow on the ground of the city. In typical Western New York fashion, a large snowstorm came through on March 15, added to the white coverage. Yet, on the following day, the temperatures rose quickly and the snow changed to rain. 

The precipitation caused much of the snow drifts to begin to melt, especially in the hills near Attica and along the tributaries of the Tonawanda. The creek soon flooded as water poured in Alexander and filled the low areas that bordered the creek. One particular area that was hit hard was the streets south of Ellicott Street in Batavia. 

Water-filled streets like Jackson, Swan, Hutchins, and Otis. As the water flowed under the Walnut Street bridge, then still open to vehicular traffic, it spread to West Main Street and to the northern side streets. 

Many of the residents of those streets were forced to evacuate their homes as the waters continued to rise, and many sought out friends or relatives living in higher points in the city. 

The Red Cross stepped in to assist and helped 225 families find safe and dry lodgings. Those without another place to go were given shelter at the YMCA and school buildings that were unaffected. The only effective means of travel along many of the streets of Batavia, looking more like the canals of Venice, Italy, were boats and canoes and other forms of watercraft. 

Most homes had cellars full of water, and in some worse cases, the waters reached the first floors. The people living in the flooded areas could not return home for several days, but when they did return they were met with severe damage to their homes and properties. 

In the end, the Tonawanda Creek crested at 14 ½ feet, the highest in history. In total, nearly $500,000 in damage was caused.

The 1942 flood, among others, caused the city to strongly look towards how to better manage the waters of the Tonawanda to prevent a similar deluge. Flood control improvements were authorized in 1948 within the Flood Control Act passed by Congress. 

The improvements were completed by late 1955. Some of the improvements included: widening the creek to upwards of 100 feet, adding a retaining wall, clearing the channel, extra bank protection in suspectable areas, and improvement of existing drainage systems.

Staff and leadership of CCOR — Companion Care of Rochester — celebrated the return of an office to Batavia Thursday with a meet-and-greet open house at the agency’s satellite office that serves Genesee and Orleans counties.

This is CCOR's second licensed office, and it has landed at 32 Ellicott St. downtown. While recruiting efforts may have been hampered during those pandemic months, Communications Manager Brooke Findlay said the agency now has built up a local base of 860 aides.

“I feel like during COVID, as with a lot of other agencies, we certainly felt the struggle. But I would say in the last several months our recruiting efforts have really been ramped up. And we've been able to find some really great candidates and onboard more people than we had in the past couple of years,” she said. “We want people to know that we are a family-owned and operated company. We've been serving Western New York for 27 years.

“And we just want to be able to be the people in the homes that are taking care of our clients when their loved ones can't be there,” she said. “We just are excited to kind of be making this appearance in Genesee County and serving the residents of Batavia.”

The agency was founded by Al Gauvin of Rochester, who remains involved as board chairman. 

The Ellicott Street office opened in late August 2023 to serve both home care service clients and people looking for work as personal health care aides and managers. Findlay said tuition-free training and certification are provided so that employees can become personal care assistants.

Services include grocery shopping, meal preparation, household chores and companionship, as well as assisting folks with hands-on care, such as bathing, getting in and out of bed, and personal care needs. Aides don’t dispense medications, she said. 

Care is provided in the home, apartment buildings or independent living communities for clients, she said. CCOR’s goal is a simple and continuous one, Chief Operating Officer Molly Dillon said.

“Our goal is to reach underserved areas where we have a lot of great team members,” Dillon said. “And we already have a lot of great clients out in Genesee County, and we're looking to have more of a presence out here. We're very excited to be back in Batavia. We've had an office in Batavia in the past, and it's really been a big, close-to-home kind of location for us. So we're just really excited to be here right now.”

She further explained the Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program, which is “where people can take care of a friend or a family member and the consumer is kind of leading the care, hiring, and oversight.” Through that program, the agency has more than 350 aides comprised of family members and friends of clients.

“And we provide payroll processing, some training and support programs,” she said. 

A staff of five people and 12 local aides work out of the Batavia office, and “we’re always bringing on more,” she said. 

Clients typically get started by phone or through the website by completing a needs assessment, which is right on the home page. This allows staff to learn what clients are looking for. You are most likely to begin with Amber Tower, who wears two hats: billing specialist and office coordinator. 

There are a variety of ways to pay for the service, including Medicaid, long-term care, insurance, and private pay, Dillon said. 

“And we also do work with a lot of long-term insurance companies as well,” she said, as Findlay added, “We’ll work with the insurance company or the Medicaid contract to make sure that they get the services.”

Prospective employees may also search for open positions and submit applications on the website. Findlay said client safety is part of the process.

“We do background checks; we also do the training in-house. So we're spending 40 hours with the aides. When they come to us for employment, we’re doing that training with them,” she said. “So we are able to kind of interact with the people for a solid week before they're being sent into a client's home.”

For more information, call 585-219-4427 or email info@CCORhome.com.

When Becky Almeter isn’t at the helm of her Batavia family business as new owner of Hodgins Engraving, she’s at the helm of the family’s sailboat.

An East Bethany resident and daughter of Bob and Mary Lu Hodgins of Alexander, Almeter has also stepped up to lead the youth sailing class this summer, sponsored by the Oak Orchard Yacht Club, where her father is beginning his third year as commodore.

Sailing has been in Almeter’s blood since she was a child, when her parents took the family on trips all over the world.

“I grew up on the docks of Oak Orchard Yacht Club,” Almeter said. “When my parents first got our family sailboat and brought it to Oak Orchard, we were there all the time living aboard during the summer. It was our home base, and from there our family sailed all over Lake Ontario and beyond, including a trip to the Bahamas during which my two brothers and I were homeschooled on the boat.” 

Sailing is not only fun, relaxing and a great way to spend a sunny day, but there are other important reasons Oak Orchard Yacht Club at Point Breeze has sponsored a long-standing youth sailing program, Almeter said.

Children ages 9 to 18 are taught the basics of sailing and water safety, have fun and create lasting memories in a day camp setting, she said. 

A member of the very first youth sailing class in 1992, Almeter. took the youth sailing program for several years as a student, and then earned her U.S. Sailing Certificate to teach, returning as instructor for several years.

After leaving the area for college, she completed her U.S. Coast Guard Captain’s 6-pack commercial license and worked on the water in various capacities. She has sailed on Lake Ontario, in Florida and the Caribbean, cruising and racing, she said.

Almeter and her husband anticipate spending much of their summer on the creek with their five children. Oldest son Joe has been in the sailing program for the past three summers, and this year he will be joined by his sister Abby.

“I am excited about directing the program, because it was such an integral part of my childhood, and I hope my children can have a part of that same experience,” Almeter said. “My memories of my childhood at Oak Orchard Yacht Club were fun, carefree summers spent swimming, sailing, going to Brown’s Berry Patch for slushies, candy and ice cream, running around playing games on the club lawn and on the playground. I didn’t know it then, but while I was having all that fun, I was creating deep bonds with my friends, learning confidence and self-sufficiency, learning how to read weather, how to feel comfortable on open water, general ‘rules of the road’ for navigating creek traffic and countless other smaller things that kids absorb through engaged activity. 

“In this busy day and age, when it’s a much more difficult time to be a kid, I feel like this program is able to give kids back a little more time and space — to turn off the screens, and step away from devices — to simply be kids a little bit longer,” she said. “Having fun, learning skills hands-on, being active and engaging in teamwork, all the things that enrich their minds and bodies in a back-to-basics way.”

The youth sailing program is a win-win for both parents and kids, she said. It builds many life skills, including teamwork, weather and wind awareness, knot tying, boat handling and more. Also, it is a healthy activity that gets kids outside, while having tons of fun and making new friends. The program is an opportunity to provide an activity kids can enjoy for a lifetime, she said.

Oak Orchard Yacht Club is at 1103 Archbald Road, Waterport. Dates are July 8 to 12 and 15 to 19 for Session 1 and July 22 to 26 and July 29 to Aug. 2 for Session 2. Camp is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Campers bring their own lunch.

Instructors are U.S. Sailing certified with a low student-to-instructor ratio, and decide where to sail and take a lunch break each day, based on the weather and curriculum. They follow the latest safety guidelines, including a mandatory swim test for all campers.  Parents can often watch their young sailors from the pier at Point Breeze.

Cost is $460 for one session of 10 days or $685 for two sessions. Discounts available include a sibling discount, OOYC member discount and early registration discount by May 1. Families should contact the Yacht Club to discuss pricing.

Registration can be done online at ooyc.org and clicking on Youth Sailing from the top banner. Once registration is completed, an invoice and any necessary paperwork will be sent by OOYC. A current medical form, waiver and safety agreement must be completed for each camper.

“I am truly honored to be leading the sailing program this year, and am looking forward to a safe, fun program for all our sailors,” Almeter said.

More information can also be obtained by contacting her at 585-813-7259 or email beckya@hodginsengraving.com.