Press release:

In advance of the upcoming Veterans Day holiday, the Old Courthouse will be illuminated green from Nov. 6 through Nov. 12 as part of Operation Green Light, a nationwide initiative to support veterans and raise awareness about the challenges faced by many veterans.

Operation Green Light also focuses on sharing resources that are available at the county, state, and federal levels to assist veterans and their families. This collaborative effort was developed by the NYS Association of Counties and the NYS County Veteran Service Officers’ Association in 2021 and was adopted this year by the National Association of Counties and the National Association of County Veteran Service Officers.

Locally, the Genesee County Legislature is set to adopt a memorializing resolution in support of Operation Green Light. We want to make sure our veterans and their families know that their service matters, that we are grateful for their sacrifices, and that it is now our turn to make sure they are served by their county government and our community.

In addition to lighting the Old Courthouse green in honor of all those who have served, residents and businesses are encouraged to demonstrate their support by changing an entryway light bulb to a green bulb. By shining a green light, we let veterans know that they are seen, appreciated, and supported. While this event is focused around the week of Veterans Day (November 6th -12th), participants are encouraged to continue shining the light year-round. Participants are encouraged to share photos and messages on social media using #OperationGreenLight. 

Submitted photo.

The LED lights that illuminate the Old Courthouse at Main and Ellicott in Batavia are now rotating in the hues of Ukraine, yellow and blue.

Those are the colors of the country's flag in honor of its blue skies and flaxen fields of wheat.

The color scheme was unanimously approved by the Genesee County Legislature.

Press release:

Representatives of Lighting Design Innovations and Cedar Street Sales and Rentals are pleased to announce the completion of the third phase of the feature lighting at the Old Genesee County Courthouse site in Batavia.

The firms sponsored the donation of lighting design activities and lighting system luminaires, components, and advanced control system to accentuate the building façade and its location in the cityscape by lighting the courthouse corners with RGBW color changing LED luminaires.

The advanced lighting control system allows the County to program coordinated colored light displays for the new courthouse corner lights and the cupola, which received its color-changing light as the first phase of the project. Initial system programming and controller training was sponsored by Vertex Lighting Solutions. 

The illuminated façade of the Old Genesee County Courthouse is the backdrop for the new white LED lighting that was provided for the Soldiers’, Sailors’, and Marines’ Monument as the second phase of this project. The monument lighting was unveiled Memorial Day 2019 in time for the monument’s centennial, celebrated in August of 2019.

Although the final phase implementation was temporarily delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, County personnel worked with the consultants to complete the work in time to be shared with the community for Labor Day 2020.   

Photos and video by Howard Owens.

It was a beautiful morning in Genesee County, with temperatures in the teens so trees stayed flocked even though the sun was out and the sky was blue.

Top photo, from Court Street, looking toward the Old Courthouse.

The snow-covered eagle atop the Upton Monument taken through the window on the third floor of the Old Courthouse.

The Rowell Mansion.

Centennial Park (in black and white).

Centennial Park (in black and white).

The Barber Conable Post Office Building in Batavia.

The flag pole outside the Old Courthouse.

A photo from late this afternoon of the Old Courthouse in Batavia decorated with wreaths hanging from the windows.

After I finished up at Batavia Downs last night (video coming), I opened an email from Brian Graz suggesting a photo of the full moon.

Well, we already had a great one from Jim Burns Friday but thinking about it on the way I home, I wondered what the moon might look like behind the Upton Monument.

Well, the top of the monument wasn't sufficiently illuminated at that time of night to properly expose in a shot with the moon in it (at least not with the equipment I had with me) but it did work out pretty well to get a shot of the moon and the Old Courthouse cupola.

This is the prettiest time of year around the Old Courthouse and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

Also, the daffodils in front of City Hall are blooming.

A lighting ceremony of the cupola on top of the Old Courthouse in Batavia was held at 8:30 p.m. on Monday.

The new lights are made up of four colors which can be mixed to create any color. The lighting design and equipment was donated by Lighting Design Innovations, Paul and Kim Mercier and Vertex Solutions.

Installation of a new LCD lighting system atop the Old Courthouse in Batavia was completed this week and for Memorial Day Weekend, the cupola is illuminated with alternating red, white and blue lights.

The system, donated by Batavia-based Lighting Design Innovations, has a color pallet of thousands of shades to fit any occasion.

The value of the system is $7,500 and is computer controlled.

Paul Mercier, a partner in the company, pitched the idea to the County Legislature in February and said his company would donate the system for the cupola.

"For us, the significant aspect of being here is we believe in community," Mercier said.

Mercier suggested that at some point, the Legislature may wish to support a fundraising effort to illuminate the entire building.

The folks at Lighting Design Innovations want to give something back to their community, so they are offering to donate hardware, software, lights and wiring to illuminate the cupola atop the Old Courthouse 365 days a year.

Paul Mercier, a partner in the company, told members of the County Legislature about the proposed donation at a meeting of the Public Service Committee earlier this week. The committee voted to accept the donation, which is valued at $7,500.

"For us, the significant aspect of being here is we believe in community," Mercier said.

LDI is a multinational corporation with headquarters in Batavia and an office in Western Canada and clients spread throughout North America, Mercier said. They chose to base the company in Batavia because his partner is from Batavia and they like it here and think it's geographically well placed for their business.

"People often ask why we’re in Batavia and I always say, it’s the best place to be," Mercier said. "It’s the best place to be for business. If you take a string on a map and go 500 miles we hit a great deal of the population and I can tell you that within that 500-mile string, we are working in all of it right now."

Mercier shared a few slides of municipal lighting projects installed by LDI.

Then he presented mock-ups of what the Old Courthouse might look like with illuminated decorative lights.

While LDI is donating just enough equipment to illuminate the copula, it's Mercier's hope that other people in the community will step forward with donations sufficient enough to enable the entire building to be illuminated. As part of his presentation, Mercier showed Photoshopped mock-ups of what the courthouse might look like when fully illuminated.

The lighting system consists of LED lights that can display millions of colors that shine on an object, such as the cupola, with color designs being made by software attached to the lighting system.

Assistant County Manager Matt Landers said the new system will replace a conventional lighting system that is used on special occasions. The electricity cost between the less-efficient system and the new LED system used more frequently will be about the same, Landers said.

Mercier, Landers and county staff did meet one evening recently for a demo lighting of the cupola. 

“What I was surprised by that night is how from how far away you can see the cupola," Mercier said. "It is truly a beacon from all directions.”

Once the lighting is installed, which Mercier said is an easy process, he thinks legislators will be eager to see the entire building illuminated.

"You’ll love the way it is, we have no doubt about that, but we think you’ll want to consider a second and third phase that you can celebrate all over again that you’ve illuminated something else on the courthouse," he said.