The City of Batavia is "ready to roll" out its presentation to a selection committee after receiving the news that it, once again, has reached the finalist stage in an Empire State Development Downtown Revitalization Initiative competition.
"We're ready to roll," said City Manager Jason Molino this morning, revealing that five city leaders will be representing Batavia on Thursday afternoon in downtown Rochester. "We will make a half-hour presentation, followed by 15 minutes of questions."
Molino said Batavia's presentation will focus on the 88-acre Business Improvement District in three distinct categories:
• Arts, culture & entertainment.
• Healthy living & wellness.
• Prosperity for all.
"It's all about creativity and innovation ... ways to enhance the quality of life," he said.
Molino said the fact that the city has just come through a 15-month Comprehensive Planning process should bolster its chances.
"We had a lot of community input during this time, which has helped develop our process," he said.
At Thursday's interview, Molino will be joined by City Council President Eugene Jankowski, BID Director Beth Kemp, City School Board President Patrick Burk and Batavia Development Corporation Coordinator Julie Pacatte.
Molino said he wasn't aware of what other three cities are finalists but did say that officials of those communities also would be presenting on Thursday.
Word that Batavia is one of four finalists spread quickly this morning. The Batavian found out via a message on Twitter this from City Councilman Adam Tabelski,
"This is certainly great news for the community -- to be a finalist again," Tabelski said..
City officials filed the formal application for the $10 million award last week.
In 2016, the City of Batavia was a finalist from the Finger Lakes Region but eventually lost out to Geneva.
