Geneva city workers get a history lesson

Yellow Geneva Public Works trucks lined Third Street last week by the Geneva History Center. But there was no broken water main to fix or monster potholes to be patched.

Instead, 17 Geneva Public Works and building department workers were inside learning about the history of the place where they work. Like the fact that their forerunners in the 1890s used a steam-powered trencher when installing the town's first sanitary sewer system.

"Nothing but the best for Geneva Public Works," quipped center director David Oberg, showing the photograph to a group that included guys from the sewage and water treatment plants.

Having city employees, especially public works people, become familiar with Geneva's story is one of the city's goals for the year. By the end of the week, nearly 90 were expected to sit through a lecture, take a walking tour, go through the permanent exhibit about Geneva and learn what's available in the archives at the museum.

Oberg took pains to point out some infrastructure details, such as that early city employees laying out the main streets, including Route 38, built them 20 feet wider than their counterparts did in St. Charles and Batavia. Or that there were plank sidewalks downtown until 1910, and that the city started paving roads in 1916. Some older city workers knew that a spring used to run under the first city electrical plant, located on the riverside near where the Herrington Inn and Spa is today.

And building commissioner/lifelong area resident Chuck Lencioni was the star of the group, knowing answers to questions such as "What was the first post office called?" (La Fox). When tour leader Margaret Selakovich pulled out a photo of the fire department in the early 1900s, a co-worker joked "Is Chuck in there?" No. But his great-grandfather, Agisto "Tony" Lencioni, was.

City officials consider historical preservation important to Geneva's economic and social health. Much of the downtown is a historic district; an area on South Batavia Avenue may be made a historic district; and officials are reviewing a proposed historic preservation plan. Visitors to Geneva who fill out surveys often say they like the "quaint" feel of the downtown, Oberg said. "We have a very vibrant downtown with a strong preservation ethic," Oberg said.

However, the history center can help city workers in practical ways, too, he said. Workers preparing to dig for utility placement in an older section of town can look at old photographs, maps and land records to figure out if there might be a foundation from a long-gone outbuilding, an old well, or old utility lines they could run into. Just a few years ago, crews rebuilding Third Street ran unexpectedly into an old gasoline tank, probably from when there were gas stations there in the 1920s, Oberg said. The centers' archives store Sanborn fire insurance liability maps dating back to the late 1800s. The company mapped properties in 12,000 towns again and again, listing what buildings were there and of what materials they were built.

"There is a lot we can help with," Oberg said.

In turn, he hopes the city workers will keep the museum in mind.

"The next time someone digs, I hope they think of us when they find something interesting," he said.