So Much To Do, So Much To See
Successful towns are always greater than the sum of their parts and that truth was front and center as an ad hoc committee of community members set out to “brand” Westfield a few months back. The branding effort was a preliminary step in the overall redesign of the westfieldny.com website. The resulting logo blends the cornerstones of Westfield’s identity.
This issue of the westfieldny.com newsletter offers a comprehensive look at what it means to live, work and play in Westfield. As the summer season gets set to kick into high gear, we look at a successful new business that could have chosen any community along the Great Lakes, but chose to make Main Street in Westfield its home. We offer a fully-linked guide to many of the Westfield area’s summer events and activities, and we reflect on one of Westfield’s special places: Barcelona Harbor.
Summer is an exciting time to be in Westfield. We encourage you to come explore all we have to offer. For upcoming events, go to our Community Calendar.
First Fridays in Westfield
First Friday is back in 2010 with some new and exciting changes. First Friday brings hundreds of enthusiastic residents and visitors to Main Street in Westfield and offers merchants, vendors, artists and organizations an opportunity to connect with customers and the community.
First Friday 2010 will have an expanded slate of food vendors, artists, musicians, children’s activities, craftsmen, community organizations, entertainment and merchant specials. Also new this year…First Friday’s Open Container permit allows visitors to stroll Main Street while enjoying regional wines and other alcoholic beverages.
It’s an exciting new year for First Friday and we invite you to be a part of it! First Friday takes place July 2nd, August 6th and September 3rd from 6 to 9 pm on Main Street in Westfield. For more information, e-mail Rebecca@saporewinebar.com.
New on Westfieldny.com
With the Westfield branding in place, work on the new westfieldny.com is underway. The site will get a new look and several features will be added to make it more dynamic, interactive and user-friendly.
We know Westfield is a wonderful place to live, work and play and we’re working to make sure anyone with an internet connection knows it too.
WDC Update
by John Rawlinson
WDC Executive Director
Green shoots, that was a phrase coming out of the mouths of the economists over recent months. Well, I believe we have some of those shoots showing in our community. As we look forward to summer I am encouraged by some positive events that hopefully will blossom into full bloom this year.
Great Lakes Life Magazine
This magazine is now established in Westfield on Main Street in the same building as the WDC, the ROR building. It was very gratifying to have a business of this type and stature, with nine employees, move from Erie to Westfield. We look forward to a long and growing relationship with this business.
Grocery Market
We were all sweating a bit when we heard Penn Traffic who own Quality Markets went bankrupt, but we can now look forward to a newly renovated Tops taking over and bringing a quality grocery store to Westfield. I know this will be a great enhancement for our Main Street.
Main Street
I am encouraged by the activity in our downtown area; we have three buildings all recently sold and new businesses renovating the premises to open new enterprises. This will bring more people and activity to our downtown area. The Village is working with the WDC to try again for a State Main Street grant to assist our businesses with renovations and face lifts.
Our Hospital
Although nothing is definite yet and there are still some hurdles to overcome, things are looking more positive with regard to saving Westfield Memorial Hospital, thanks to the tremendous response from the community. The effort put forth by our residents is indicative of the very thing that makes a small community the place to be. The sense of belonging that people have in rural areas such as ours quite often is not found in major cities and suburbs.
Chamber News
by Tony Pisicoli
Westfield-Barcelona Chamber of Commerce
After being named one of the nation’s top ten farmers markets of its size, Westfield Farmers Market is back for its fourth season.
The Farmers Market steering committee has been hard at work continuing to develop an organization that is headed toward self sufficiency. The steering committee was previously made up of Chamber leadership and representatives from the Village and Town. Last year we added a vendor representative. This year the committee added several more vendor representatives and now vendors make up the majority of the committee. We have created a membership model that will assure all your favorite vendors will be right where you expect them to be week in and week out.
We also welcome several new and exciting vendors this year. The events committee has a full slate of activities planned including live music and an alumni weekend classic car drive-in.
A dedicated and energetic Kristen Currier returns for her second season as the Farmer’s Market coordinator. If you would like more information about the market, please contact Kristen at farmersmarket@westfieldny.com or visit our page at westfieldny.com. The market every Saturday from 9am to 2pm to October.
