Meadowbrook Golf Course

At about 6 p.m., Deputy Travis Demuth and Sgt. Andrew Hale were dispatched to 4040 S. Main Street Road, Batavia, the Meadowbrook Golf Course, for a report of a doe stuck in a pond.

It turns out there are several ponds on the property and after checking nearly all of them, Hale was able to clarify that the caller was on the second hole when he reported the stuck doe.

A course manager located the doe and suggested it wasn't stuck but had been left at that location by the doe's mother while mother was feeding. Hale wanted to check the doe's health and started to walk into the pond when the doe bolted. The doe was clearly fine. It ran off into the woods.

Never one to settle for the status quo, longtime Batavia developer Gary McWethy has his sights set on converting the maintenance building for his 9-hole golf course into a bed & breakfast.

“That’s what I’d like to do, if certain things go right with the zoning, and I feel comfortable with it – that’s the direction I’m heading in,” McWethy said this morning, while giving The Batavian reporter a tour of the building.

On Tuesday night, he briefed the Town of Batavia Planning Board at its monthly meeting at Town Hall on West Main Street Road.

McWethy, 79, is the former owner of McWethy Construction and developer of Meadowbrook Estates in 1987 and Meadowbrook Golf Course in 1996. The upscale development sits off South Main Street Road and includes streets such as Woodland Drive, Edgewood Drive, Fairway Drive and Valle Drive.

The golf course is nestled between Valle and Woodland, and includes a two-story maintenance building (see photos above) that is in the process of being remodeled and updated for use as a three-bedroom bed & breakfast.

“It will be (done) in an Adirondack theme,” said McWethy as he shared stories of his hunting and camping experiences with his father, Vernon, and pointed out the numerous game trophies on the walls.

Entrances to the building are off South Main Street Road, passing by the homestead (built in 1852) where McWethy grew up – “I moved there in 1943 at the age of 4,” he said – and circling back to a peaceful, picturesque view of the Meadowbrook landscape.

McWethy said his goal is to maximize the potential for the golf course and give visitors a welcoming place to extend their stay.

“It hopefully will end up a three-bedroom bed & breakfast with an area to expand, and including an entertainment area, kitchen, laundry room and everything that goes with it,” McWethy said. “All would be on the lower level, with the primary owner, who is me, living in a small apartment upstairs.”

McWethy, who said he has built more than 70 homes over a long career, said he would like to finish the project – he plans to call it Meadowbrook Bed & Breakfast -- by the end of the year, and later hopes to add a gazebo and other amenities to the grounds.

It’s a large investment for McWethy, who said he has endured some financial challenges in connection with the development’s real estate as well as family tragedies in recent years.

Despite all that, the memories of his formative years at the site are motivating him to push ahead.

“My dad farmed the 35 acres here with a team of donkeys from 1943 to the late 1950s. We had a well down the road, and 30 to 40 sheep as well as cows, donkeys and horses,” he said. “I just love it here. When I get up in the morning, I can thank the Lord and walk out the door and close my eyes and remember where everything was.”