Message from the City

reetings,

Batavia has a proud history that illustrates we are very good at reinventing ourselves. With the arrival of the New Year 2023, our town is now 190 years of age, making us the oldest city in Kane County. In 2033 we will have the opportunity to celebrate Batavia's Bicentennial.

When it comes to building on our history, Batavia has become one of the best communities in the region to claim this tradition. Consider that 100 years ago local jobs were largely centered along the banks of the Fox River where a second channel (now today's pond north of Houston Street) was excavated by hand with the assistance of horses and plows to create a second channel of the Fox River. That created four riverbanks which became the location of a variety of manufacturing facilities that used waterpower as their principal source of energy to run their equipment. Those businesses included three windmill-making plants, a wagon factory later converted to a plant for building truck bodies, a firm creating paper and boxes, and a foundry creating casting that included making the molds in which were poured the Academy Awards statue, and 11 limestone quarries where stone was dug out and hauled away to Chicago to assist in the rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1871. The largest of the quarries was located on the west side of the river and eventually named the Hall Quarry Park, which became the community swimming pool now utilized for almost 100 years.

Today if you visit the same Fox River banks you will find a lot of repurposing and reclamation has taken place. One of the windmill factories is now our municipal center and police station. The second river channel has been partially filled in and is now the site of McDonald's and Walgreens. Another large section of the original second channel now referred to as 'the pond" is owned by the Batavia

Park District and is surrounded by the Riverwalk, the Peg Bond performance center, the Batavia Depot Museum, Waterford at the Fox subdivision, Riverain Point Apartments, and the Quarry Stone Pond Condominiums. Perhaps most popular of all is the former railroad track rights-of-way that ran the banks of the river and served all the businesses along the way which now has been purchased by the Kane County Forest Preserve and city government for the Riverwalk bicycle trail and walkway, running along the east and west banks throughout the entire length of the town and used by thousands of bikers and walkers annually.

I share this lesson about our history because in 2023 you are about to see a fabulous history sign program that is now being put together around our town to tell Batavia’s impressive story. The sign program has been funded by the generous Dunham Foundation based in our area and will feature professionally made signs placed at a variety of locations to tell Batavia’s very unique role in America's past. It will offer a most informative walking tour and offering an online feature that will allow the whole world to view the signs and learn all about one of the most fascinating history lessons found in northern Illinois. The signs shall be installed one at a time over a multi-month time frame in 2023.

Batavia has much to be proud of and in 2023, our 190th year of existence, we are about to share the story of our past with the rest of the world.

Jeffery Schielke

JEFFERY SCHIELKE Mayor of Batavia

Aldermen

Serving until May 2023

Ward 1 Christopher Solfa • csolfa@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 2 Alan Wolff • awolff@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 3 Dan Chanzit • dchanzit@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 4 Tom Connelly • tconnell@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 5 Abby Beck • abeck@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 6 Michael Russotto • mrussott@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 7 Keenan Miller • kmiller@cityofbatavia.net

Aldermen Serving until May 2025

Ward 1 Jennifer Baerren • jbaerren@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 2 Leah Leman • lleman@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 3 George Ajazi • gajazi@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 4 Tony Malay • tmalay@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 5 Mark Uher • muher@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 6 Nicholas Cerone • ncerone@cityofbatavia.net

Ward 7 Sarah Volgelsinger • svogelsi@cityofbatavia.net