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Like Alex's Place on Facebook, complete the registration form and become eligible to win a $100 gift card from Alex's Place. Click here to enter.

More than 150 people have already downloaded our new iPhone app.

Today, a problem that was preventing news alert notifications from going out was fixed, so now those users will actually get the alerts we send out.

To download the iPhone version, click here.

To download the Droid version, click here.

The entire staff at Cedar Street Sales & Rentals wants to thank you for your patience during the road construction project. We are movin’ on up from a beat up, one lane dirt road to a paved road complete with lines. Cedar Street is now paved, the bridge has been raised to accommodate tall tractor-trailers and some of the sidewalks leading to the park have been completed. The balance of the work is scheduled to be finished next spring. We are excited. It was much overdue and it will really look nice once completed. The sidewalks will serve a much needed purpose allowing access to our beautiful Dewitt Park. 

For most of November it was difficult at best to get to our business. Many times the wait was 15 minutes or more and customers were forced to try both ends of the street. We greatly appreciate our loyal customers who took extra time out of their day to pick up rental equipment, buy a part, shop for a new snowblower or chainsaw, or just stop in to browse. We realize that your time is precious and we can’t thank you enough for supporting us. 

We want to thank Zoladz Construction for a job well done, especially considering the time frame and conditions that they were given to complete the job. They worked incredibly hard and tried their best to be as accommodating as possible to the businesses and homes on Cedar Street. 

As a token of our appreciation we are raffling off a Shop Local Christmas Gift Basket complete with Oliver’s Candies, Kutter’s Cheese, Finger Lakes Wine, local movie and dinner gift certificate and $100 spending money! No purchase necessary. It’s our thanks just for stopping in. The drawing will be held on Wednesday, December 18th.

Thank you again for 20 years of support. God Bless and Merry Christmas. 
Guy Clark
Cedar Street Sales and Rental

DECK YOUR WALLS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON WITH CUSTOM FRAMED CANVAS PRINTS AND FABRIC WALL GRAPHICS FROM VINYL STICKS!

Are You Looking for that Exceptional Gift for that “Hard to Shop For” Person? Let Vinyl Sticks Sign & Decal Company Help!

Don’t “Break the Bank” shopping online for removable wall graphics. Vinyl Sticks uses high quality fabric vinyl to create visually stunning wall graphics and art. Do you have a photo of your son or daughter making that big play at the game? Let us turn it into a one of a kind LIFESIZE wall graphic for their bedroom!

Need a gift for Grandma? How about a framed Custom Wall Canvas? This is the same high quality product you would receive from a professional photography studio; only ours is made in-house, right here in Batavia and it won’t leave your pockets empty. This holiday season, give a gift that your loved ones can cherish for years to come!

Call Adam or Joe at Vinyl Sticks today at 585-300-4307 and they will gladly provide you with an estimate and answer any questions you may have.

Please take a moment to check out the gallery at www.VinylSticks.com.

Since opening nearly a year ago, Vinyl Sticks has quickly become Batavia’s premier Sign and Decal Company. Vinyl Sticks uses a state-of-the-art wide-format printer and software to create stunning graphics, banners, vehicle graphics and much more. They have graphics that allow you to advertise on glass, while still being able to see out of the glass. These one-way window graphics make great gift ideas for business advertising and custom designs for the rear window of vehicles. 

Vinyl Sticks offers free estimates, free consultation, and of course design, production and installation services. Feel free to visit Vinyl Sticks, located at 23 Ganson Avenue in Batavia, NY. Off of Route 63, turn onto Evans Street; go past the Falleti Ice Arena, and at the stop sign go straight onto Ganson Avenue. Vinyl Sticks will be on your right.

Gift Certificates are available in any amount!

If you have an iPhone, you can now download The Batavian's mobile app from the app store. Click here for a link to the app. 

It's a very simple app: It's a feed of what is posted to the home page and we will send alerts of select stories we post to the home page. The cost is $1.99. At best, with fee, we hope to offset our costs in providing the app.

For the Droid version, click here.

The Grasshopper Lawn Care and Snow Removal is a growing professional snow removal business located in Batavia, NY, but we also serve the surrounding towns located within Genesee County.

We provide quality snow and ice removal services to both residential and commercial customers. We are a 24/7 snow removal business during the winter months, offering monthly and seasonal contracts. We plow at 3 inches of snow to make sure you are never late to work or appointments.

Get a 10-percent discount on seasonal contracts if you sign up before December 15th. Winter is just around the corner ... Don't get caught buried in the snow! Give us a call or text today at 993-7017.

Visit Personalizedbysanta.com to find the best personalized ornaments for your family's Christmas tree. Enter coupon code “batavian2013” and receive 20% off your entire order. Offer good through December 31st. All orders over $50 will receive free shipping. Our store is located on Route 5 in Stafford approximately ¼ mile east of the Red Osier. Customers are encouraged to complete their orders online, but we can make an accommodation for anyone wishing to pick up their order in person at our shop in Stafford. Just use the comments section during checkout or the “Contact Us” button on the home screen to let us know that you would like to come by the shop.

For the remainder of this season, we will remain an online-only business. But we are very excited to announce that our business on Rt. 5 will be changing its name to Main Road Christmas and be open to the public beginning in September 2014. Main Road Christmas will feature selections from some of the nation's most sought after and cherished Christmas collections including Christopher Radko, Willow Tree, Fontinini, Byer's Choice, Department 56, Jim Shore, Snowbabies, and last, but certainly not least, Old World Christmas. The store will maintain the largest collection of Merck Family's Old World Christmas ornaments of any retailer in New York State. Follow us on Facebook, follow us on The Batavian, or make an appointment to see the shop. For now, just visit www.personalizedbysanta.com -- Merry Christmas!

Thank you from Baskin Livestock

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks for the efforts of our employees, friends and neighbors during and after the fire at our animal feed mill on the night of November 7th, 2013. Although the final fire inspector determination has not been 100% established, they feel that a compactor motor inside a steel compactor box under the metal cyclone was the source of the fire. It appears that the fire started inside the compactor and could not be observed until it was well established and moved up into the cyclone. 

Many thanks for all the food, drinks, help and well wishes from friends, including St. Joseph’s School (Karen Green, Principal), Bob Evans Restaurants, Attica Package Company, the Sojda’s, Mary and Scott Case, Sandy Marky and Harry Flatt, Hans and Leslie Kunze, Howard Owens, Jason Saile, Danielle Bell and Jeff Lang, Dan Kelley and crew, Jeff Kingdom and crew, Nancy Gilmartin at Coastal Staffing, Laurie Mastin and all Bill’s friends at BMHL. And our thanks to the brave men and women who volunteer at all the responding fire companies including: Genesee County/ Alexander, Bethany, Pavilion, LeRoy, Stafford, Byron, Bergen, East Pembroke, Elba, South Byron, Oakfield, Darien, the Town of Batavia and the City of Batavia, Wyoming County/Wyoming, Warsaw, Attica, Varysburg, Bennington, Sheldon, Cowlesville, Gainesville, Perry, Perry Center York, Wyoming Correctons and Livingston County/Caledonia, Cuylersvelle and Mt. Morris. 

Thanks also to the fire companies who were called to stand by and fill in for areas which had sent their people and equipment to fight the fire at the farm. If we have missed anyone, please know that we and our employees are extremely thankful.

Baskin Livestock
9778 Creek Road | 
Batavia NY 14020 | (585) 344-4452

We have more menus online ready to receive your meal orders from great local restaurants.

Here are the menus available now:

• Big Pauly's
• Clor's
• Larry's Steakhouse
• Settler's Family Restaurant
• T.F. Brown's
• Sammy Hill's
• City Slickers
• Smokin' Eagle
• Sweet Ecstacy

The developers have also added a new feature -- you can order your meals in advance. Let's say you're in Rochester at 4 p.m. and know you won't be back in Batavia until 6:15 p.m., you can specify 6:15 as your pick-up time.

Be sure to bookmark BataviaEats.com to keep up with new restaurants as we add them and for future online ordering from local restaurants.

Click here to enter. You must both like the Council Opticians page on Facebook and complete the registration form to be eligible to win. Only one winner selected.

• Able to integrate a menu that suits your company's special considerations while maintaining and enhancing the holiday spirit.
• Tasteful, classic, and elegant holiday decorations.
• Traditional Friday & Saturday nights available along with the increasingly popular weekday events.

Question: Last June I accidentally rolled over my left foot while standing on uneven ground. There was an audible pop from the knee and I felt something let go. To make a long story short, I have seen a local doctor and had X-rays taken. They showed a torn meniscus in the left knee. I was given a shot of cortisone in the knee joint and not much else. I have been taking NSAID on a daily basis and an occasional hydrocodone pill for the pain. The joint gets sore and stiff at night after being on it during the day. Rubbing it down at night and in the morning with Bengay does help. My question is: What is the short-term and long-term diagnoses of this condition in the terms of healing. Can this condition heal itself without surgery? If not, can this condition be corrected through an arthroscopic procedure? I am a 65-year-old male and have been told, my knee joints are pretty much worn out. I don't look forward to spending the rest of my life limping around. It has slowed me down, but has not stopped me from my normal daily activities.

Answer: As with any injury in the body, when the meniscus is damaged, irritation occurs. If the surface that allows the bones to glide over each other in the knee joint is no longer smooth, pain can occur with each flexion or extension. The meniscus can be damaged because of a single event or it can gradually wear out because of age and overuse.

A torn meniscus is damage to the cartilage that sits on top of the tibia and allows the femur to glide when the knee joint moves. Physical examination and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the test of choice to confirm the diagnosis of torn meniscus.

Because there is different blood supply to each part of the meniscus, knowing where the tear is located may help decide how easily an injury might heal (with or without surgery). The better the blood supply, the better the potential for recovery. Blood supply to knee cartilage also decreases with age, and up to 20 percent of normal blood supply is lost by age 40.

The risk of developing a torn meniscus increases with age because cartilage begins to gradually wear, lose its blood supply and its resilience. Increasing body weight also puts more stress on the meniscus. Routine daily activities like walking and climbing stairs increase the potential for wear, degeneration, and tearing.

Some meniscus tears can be treated conservatively without an operation (less than 5 percent) using anti-inflammatory medications and rehabilitation to strengthen muscles around the knee to prevent joint instability. Orthotics may be useful to distribute the forces generated by walking and running.

If conservative therapy fails, surgery may be a consideration. Knee arthroscopy allows the orthopedic surgeon to assess the tear within the meniscus and repair it. Options include sewing the torn edges together or trimming the torn area and smoothing the injury site.

In older patients with degenerative joint disease (alo known as osteoarthritis), where the cartilage wears out, treatment options may be considered over a longer timetable. Exercise and muscle strengthening may be an option to protect the joint and maintain range of motion. As well, anti-inflammatory medications may be considered to decrease swelling and pain arising from the knee joint.

Cortisone medication injections into the knee joint may be used to decrease joint inflammation and to bring temporary symptom relief that can last weeks or months. A variety of hyaluronan preparations are approved for mild to moderate knee arthritis and include hylan G-F 20 (Synvisc) and hyaluronan (Orthovisc).

As a last resort, joint replacement may be an option with substantial degeneration of the knee if conservative measures fail and symptoms of pain and decreasing joint range of motion affect quality of life and prevent the patient from performing routine daily activities.

There is no cookie-cutter approach: The treatment of a meniscus tear depends on its severity, location, and underlying disease within the knee joint, as well as patient circumstances. Consult your doctor to determine what’s the best course of action for you.

Todd Lorenc, M.D.

Ask the Local Doctor is sponsored by Insource Urgent Care, 35 Batavia City Centre, Batavia, (585) 250-4201. To submit a question to Ask the Local Doctor, e-mail askthedoc@thebatavian.com. To submit your question anonymously, if you wish, you can use our online form.

For more information, visit our facebook page or  www.gillamgrant.org