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City-wide Garage Sale Sign up
Neighbors of Batavia Magazine Inside Information
Surviving a pandemic
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Beginnings—The only thing we have to fear.............................................................6 City of Batavia Currents—Rain barrels are back....................................................12 MainStreet—Ten new Boardwalk Shops....................................................................17 Library—Online homework help ................................................................................. 18 Batavia Public Schools—Game on—sports are back......................................... 26 Park District—Celebrate Easter.................................................................................... 30
BATV—COVID documentary coming in March ....................................................... 34 Chamber news—Ole winners announced............................................................... 35 Community Above Self................................................................................................... 38 City-wide Garage Sale—Sign up ...................................................................................2
Departments
Message from the Mayor........................................................................................................4 Business Nuggets...................................................................................................................36 Around the Block ...................................................................................................................40 March Calendar.....................................................................................................................45 April Calendar........................................................................................................................46
About the cover
Restaurant Madness Week is back. It was canceled last year but this year more than ever we all need to support the restaurants. Featured on the cover is the Beltran family: Scot, Terry, Tess, and Kristi from Daddio’s restaurant. Read their challenging story and much more about the restaurants in Batavia in our feature story starting on page 7. Cover photo Tim Sullivan. 630-995-3482 KaneNeighbors.com
Neighbors Staff and Contributors
Tim Sullivan, Publisher Linnea Carlson, Creative Director Roger Breisch, Columnist Hannah Ott, Contributing Author
Community Liaisons
Margaret Perreault, Batavia
Chamber of Commerce 630-879-7134 Patricia Leonard, Batavia Public Library 630-879-1393 Holly Deitchman,
Batavia Public Schools 630-937-8824 Allison Niemela, Batavia Park District 630-879-5235 Beth Walker, Batavia MainStreet, 630-761-3528 Griffin Price, City of Batavia 630-454-2000 Jen Brens, BATV 630-879-9300
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Neighbors of Batavia Magazine A message from our city
Greetings,
From all appearances, 2021 is shaping up to be another creative and greatly supportive year for life in our town. Needless to say, 2020 had its many ups and downs, especially with all the Corona virus pandemic related issues that arose. In the case of Batavia , I feel that a strong regard for all the medical advice given out at the state and federal level created a very guarded lifestyle for most residents who followed the calls for face masks, social distancing and restricting movements. These actions allowed for our town to have one of the lower counts of Corona related cases in the region. Good efforts by Batavia. THANK YOU!
As we begin to look forward, there are several things that are noteworthy. The first thing is not letting our guard down on the Corona virus. Please continue to have face masks handy to wear, and observe social distancing practices, until we hear differently from the medical professionals, especially as they monitor all the ever changing directives being issued at the national, state and local level. We have been very fortunate to have well-trained folks at the Kane County Health Department at our local level ensuring accurate information is being shared with our community.
The second observation I would offer is that 2021 is shaping up to be a year of considerable construction activity in our area, the biggest one being the 1.5+ billion dollar assembly of the new accelerator project well under way at Fermilab. This is one of the largest ongoing building activities in the state of Illinois at this time. This is a multi-year effort of construction taking place on the Fermi site and will continue to be so for the next few years. As such, we anticipate that there will be a constant stream of construction workers and visitors; many of whom will be coming from foreign countries and will seek to make friendly visits to Batavia to eat, shop, and admire the sites and scenes of the hometown for Fermilab.
Third, the stage has been set to continue the rapid enhancements of sites and sounds around downtown Batavia. Additional spaces are on tap for the Boardwalk Shops at the southeast corner of Wilson and S. River Sts. where two more shops will be built at the south end of the site. Across the street from the Boardwalk Shops, we anticipate that the long-discussed Shodeen mixed-use project of residential living units, retail stores and offices along with an off-street parking garage will commence construction. Added to all this, is the news that the city is in active discussions with a variety of retail and office uses along both Wilson St. and Batavia Ave. This includes several Boardwalk Shop businesses that would like to move larger spaces and be open year round. Waiting in the wings, I am told that we have over a dozen applications filed to fill any existing vacant spots at the Boardwalk Shops. Additionally, the city council has taken steps to encourage the opening of a comedy club entertainment venue in the former Batavia Bank site at Wilson and River St.
Fourth, it seems we have some new businesses wanting to either build or fill-in now vacant spaces along our portion of the Randall Rd. corridor. One of the more interesting pieces of news is that there is a highly regarded theater operator taking steps to eventually reopen the Randall 15 Movie Theater. While I do not have any definite times or dates to share at this moment, we are aware that a new occupant has taken over the property, so stand by for further news on this hopefully in the near future. Likewise, we have been talking with other retail prospects about several locations on Randall Rd. Added to this news, is that several new or existing restaurants are also in the process of opening or expanding operations in Batavia in both downtown and along Randall Rd.
So, as you have just read, Batavia is very fortunate to have a variety of new businesses wishing to put their presence within our town. In talking with folks who are striving to expand or open new businesses in town, I often hear that the ongoing efforts to brighten and restore business spaces, along with the active real estate home market are positive factors in suggesting that our town is a nice place to open a new investment.
In closing this month’s column, I want to express a tribute to Robert Krawczyk, a valuable voice as a member of the Batavia Historical Preservation Commission who recently passed away. Bob was a resident who stepped up and offered his professional training and insights to our town’s efforts to guide preservation in the right directions. Bob was a professor in the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology where he taught classes that included 3D animation and computer automated design programming. He held a strong admiration for architecture from the past, and was constantly seeking to preserve, enhance, and explain it in a fashion that would teach and encourage the younger generations to fully understand the charm and creativity found in designs from the past. He was a very valuable voice to have within the review of architecture from the past and he will be sorely missed. Bob’s wife, Corinne Pierog,
The Fox Valley Patriotic Organization is continuing their aggressive efforts to raise funds for the Flag Day Monument on Batavia’s Riverwalk. They have an ambitious schedule of three events for 2021: • April 25 Topgolf event in Naperville • August (date and location TBD) for our third annual Flags and Flannel event • Oct. 7 Clay Shooting event at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation Center (north of Elgin)
All three of these events will be outdoors and COVID-friendly. Many more details on each of these fundraisers can be found in the weeks ahead on our website: flagdaymonument.com. Also on this website is a store where such items as personalized brick pavers (for the Monument) and challenge coins can be purchased.
The FVPO is looking for sponsors for these events. Especially attractive and beneficial for these individuals/companies/organizations will be a bundling opportunity to sponsor all three events, which will provide fun participation opportunities as well as great marketing options. Please contact Cathy McNally (cathy@intownestorage.com) with questions and interest.
For the many supporters of the Flag Day Monument, we want to thank you for your continuing patience as we work to raise the last needed funds for a hopeful 2022 construction of this patriotic project. If you have already purchased a brick, rest assured that the brick company has your order and is ready to set your brick on the Riverwalk as soon as we have the monument in place. As has happened to all good fundraising efforts this past year, the pandemic has delayed our plans. But we are hopeful that later in 2021, a sense of normalcy will return to our lives, and will enable us to make Dr. Cigrand’s monument a reality in Batavia. Never has a tribute to Old Glory been needed more as a reminder of our great and strong democracy than now!
Mayor continued from page 4
was recently elected as Kane County Board Chair, and I want to extend to Corinne the sincere sympathy of Batavia on his passing.
As we roll through the rest of the winter season, I want to encourage everyone to continue to watch over your family and friends, as well as yourself, to insure you stay safe to the end of the corona pandemic. Spring is just another month and a half away and brighter days on a variety of fronts should hopefully be found in the days ahead. Stay safe.
