Not only has interim director Shannon Maute been hired for the full-time permanent position of Batavia’s Business Improvement District, but she also plans to hit the ground running with a new event this year.
Get ready for a strolling accordion player, sweet and savory Mediterranean cuisine and lots of fun, Maute says.
“We’re looking at mid to late summer; it will be an outdoor event with a ‘Welcome to Italy’ sign, lights strung along the streets, and vendors at stands on the side of the road,” she said to The Batavian Tuesday. “So you’ll feel like you’re in New York City for an Italian fest … with pasta and meatballs, pastries, cannolis … and I see kids doing three-legged races and sack races in the parking lot, playing the games that we used to play as kids. I’m just looking to go back to a time when the community and families did everything together.”
Maute was appointed as interim director on Dec. 14, 2021, to fill the spot left vacant by former Director Beth Kemp. She was approved Tuesday during a BID board meeting. Board members and Maute opted to give the interim position a trial run before making it official.
"It just happened," Maute said. “We both took our time, and we were both happy and so we went for it."
She also presented her vision of an Italian fest to replace the former BID Summer in the City event. It was an idea she came up with a few years ago, before COVID-19 hit and closed down most everything. The board really liked the idea, and a posting on Facebook reaped “a fantastic reaction,” she said, so she has formed a Promotions Committee to pursue it.
Her vision includes a large horseshoe-shaped layout of downtown that will be filled with food vendors, live music, children’s games and contests in an authentic display of Italian heritage similar to that of Octoberfest with its German flair, she said.
Maute and her husband Jay Steinbrenner are frequent visitors of New York City’s Italian fest, and she would like to bring that excitement and family-friendly activities to Batavia. With each of the couple being half-Italian and half-German, it has been a natural fit to be involved with Batavia's Octoberfest and now an Italian celebration. Her favorite Italian items are juicy meatballs and cannolis, though ravioli and manicotti also make the list, she said. There's also the potential economic impact of introducing the community to a vast amount of merchants, she said.
“I would really like it to be where all businesses would benefit,” she said. “Any business in Batavia would participate so (the public) could enjoy the restaurants and stores we have here.”
Hardly a newcomer, Maute, a Batavia native and resident, has been involved in local events for years. She led the way with FeBREWary, BID’s first event of 2022, which sold 467 tickets. She saw “everyone was smiling and walking down Main Street,” and hopes to replicate that kind of positive happening later this year, she said.
Anyone interested in being on the Promotions Committee or attending a BID meeting is welcome to do so, she said. For more information, go to: http://Downtownbataviany.com
File Photo of Shannon Maute from February 2022 by Howard Owens.
