Batavia may buy building for public works, charity food pantry space
The Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry and Clothes Closet could have a new home, and public works more storage space, if the city council agrees to buy an industrial building next to the public works headquarters on North Raddant Road.
Aldermen will discuss the idea at a committee meeting Tuesday night.
The proposal calls for borrowing $5 million to buy the 54,377-square-foot building at 400 N. Raddant Road and retrofit the part of it that public works would use. The charity pantry would pay to build out its space.
The building could also house the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, CHIP-IN Batavia and the annual toy drive by the Batavia Action Committee for Community, Environment and Social Services organization.
According to a city memo, public works could use more space to store equipment, including items it currently stores outside and at a garage on North River Street that it hopes to tear down for redevelopment.
The items include the tables used for outdoor dining this year on South Water and North River streets, which a private business is storing for free.
The charity pantry, which began in 1981, has been looking for a larger space for several years. It has been in a city-owned building downtown at 100 Flinn St. since 1992. It does not pay rent; the city donates its water and electricity, and Nicor covers the natural-gas bill.
The pantry lost outdoor space it used for processing food donations, conducting immunization clinics and hosting job fairs, when the sewage treatment plant next door expanded. It has also been borrowing parking from nearby offices. It stored clothing donations at the former First Baptist Church, until the city razed that building in 2016 to make way for the One North Washington development.
A move to Raddant Road would put the pantry closer to many of its users, who live in the Batavia Apartments at Kirk Road and Wilson Street, according to the memo.
The toy drive has been nomadic recently. It, too, stored donations at the former church. Since then, it used the former Walgreens downtown, then an office space on South Water, then the Newton House office building, then a former furniture store on Batavia Avenue. This past year, the new owners of the former Sam's Club on Randall Road hosted the toy distribution. So far, there is no place for the 2021 toy drive distribution.
CHIP-In Batavia helps homeless students in the Batavia school district, and those who are eligible for free school lunches. It does not have a storage space for donations of items.
RSVP's office is in the Batavia Government Center.
The city administration is recommending the city borrow money, and increasing property taxes to pay it off. They estimate the owner of a $300,000 a home would pay $24.20 each year, for 20 years.