Web Sites

Hopefully you have seen our new website, I say our, but really it is your web site, we are encouraging input from the Westfield community and the world community. An indication of how valuable a web site is to show your community to the world was demonstrated today when I got a communication from England asking us to trace someone from Westfield who’s father was killed in the D Day invasion in Europe.

Tops Market

We should all be pleased with the investment Tops have made in our community. It has enhanced our commercial area and is indicative of the confidence this company has in Westfield.

Incubator

I visited the Fredonia University Incubator in Dunkirk last week with members of the WDC Board. What a great facility for our region. It is nurturing many new high tech businesses that will hopefully blossom into thriving companies in our region.

Check it out if you are in Dunkirk.

Another Great Evening

Jacks Barcelona had standing room only Monday night to hear Shawn Wilder our local Chautauqua Idol. What a great evening sat outside enjoying the music, food and weather. Westfield summer activities continue to grow.

Great Weekend

The sun is shining and  it feels great, Westfield at this time of year holds promise for a very enjoyable summer with pleasant walks down town to the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings, a real small town America feel. Chat with both old and new residents, get a coffee at Sapore or in the market, sit on the bench in Moore Park and just enjoy that feeling of living in an uncomplicated community that  goes to the heart of what life is all about. No need to keep up with the Jones’ just do what makes you feel good.

Green Shoots

The economists lately have been using the subject term to explain what is going on with the economy. I would like to think we are seeing those shoots in Westfield also. Obviously the move of the Erie Life magazine to our Main Street was a sign, but in addition I have had 3 businesses this week that I have met with that would like to open businesses in Westfield two of which will be in our downtown district. Spring is always a time of promise and I am hoping that promise transcends into reality as far as these businesses are concerned. It is a little premature to give details but keep tuned to this blog .

Good News For Westfield

I mentioned about a month ago I was hopefully going to post some good news, I happy to report I now can.

This week we will be having a new business with 9 direct employees moving into the ROR building on Main Street. Erie Life Magazine soon to be called Great Lakes Life will be moving their operation to Westfield. This is a big deal for Westfield not  only will it put 9 more people on Main Street to use our stores and restaurants but they are expanding rapidly and intend to bring on more people once they get settled.

They picked Westfield because of our location in NY as they are expanding east, but because it fits their image and because they were made to feel welcome. An open day is planned for May so please welcome this new exciting business and show them that they made the right decision.

Westfield News Letter

I wrote about our first News Letter from the WDC about 3 months ago, our second one is now out and has been circulated to about 180 recipients. Well we keep improving and this latest letter is I believe very informative and is a means for people to get up to date with what is going on in Westfield. Sara Herrmann our editor has done a fantastic job in producing interesting articles and news.

Stay tuned we have a number of other initiatives in the works not least of all is our web site www.westfieldny.com update.

Service with a Smile

To often today you come across people in the service industry that really shouldn’t be there and so it is nice now and then to be served by people who are pleasant, cordial and actually smile. Hopefully Westfield has many of these people in our small village, but I want to relate my experience today.

The Town offers to take your trash Saturday morning at the transfer station on Bourne Street, today it was about 10 degrees, so anyone working outside would justifiably be not too happy, but the guys who took my old carpet and bags of trash were pleasant, smiled engaged me in conversation and wouldn’t let me lift the stuff into the dumpster. I believe if you have a job that deals with the public you might as well enjoy it or find something else to do. It must be difficult for those guys Saturday morning to enjoy disposing of other peoples trash but they certainly don’t show any discomfort even if they feel it from time to time.

I believe that our small community has this kind of service to offer in many areas and it to a certain extent differentiates us from many larger communities were the personal touch is many times lacking.

Communication

Well we are now over the elections and we are back to stability, I guess our elected officials must be doing a good job as most of them retained their positions, Town Supervisor, County Executive and many of the Trustees etc. It is nice to see some new faces also, David Spann as Trustee hopefully will bring some new ideas into the mix. Also I am pleased to see the Town and Village talking more about consolidation of efforts although this has been a trend for some time now.

So what does this mean to the residents of Westfield, it means consistency of effort. There is great deal of work taking place, which unfortunately most of the residents don’t hear of, time and time again in our meetings communication with the residents of Westfield, or lack of, is always a hot topic. Unfortunately for various reasons all the good things that are happening are not heard. We at the WDC are trying to remedy this by updating our web site, and now producing a news letter, but you would not be reading this blog if you hadn’t visited the web site. The people who don’t yet use the internet for their news information, we also need to reach. unfortunately our news media does not always capture real news items and we hope as time goes by that will change, in the meantime we are continuing to develop our electronic communications via the internet and hope that the news papers will catch up.

 

 

Support Westfield Memorial Hospital – It is time for action.

Let’s see how much our community values our Hospital?

Westfield Memorial Hospital is once more having to justify to the Department of Health  its value to the community it serves.  New York State Dept of Health is now threatening to close the hospital’s Emergency Room when the transitional designation the hospital is currently operating under terminates in June 2010. If this happens the current volunteer Emergency Service viability also will be under question. How many of our volunteer EMT’s will be able to spend the time from their other duties to transport cases to Dunkirk or Jamestown? What will that then do to our volunteer Fire service?

Many of us who have been here long enough remember when Welch’s pulled out their head office, at that time its significance and impact on the community perhaps was not realized by the majority of residents of Westfield and therefore we were not as vocal or demonstrative in fighting the change as we should have been, I include myself in this catagory. The impact of the change at the Hospital could be equally as devastating and therefore this time we must make our voices heard by our elected politicians in Albany.

You now have the opportunity with the benefit of our current technology to tell Albany what you think by visiting www.WMHsaveslives.org, and demonstrate to them that rural communities like ours need access to emergency care just like the bigger cities, we matter just as much, if one of us dies because we can’t get quick emergency care it matters just as much as if it was someone in Buffalo or downstate.

Let us show our politicians that small communities like ours are a force to be reckoned with.

Things to do in Westfield

I am amazed at the creativity that our businesses are using to stimulate peoples activity and get them out from in front of the television and into social settings.

I dropped into Sapore our Main Street restaurant last Wednesday to find it packed with people enjoying the food ambience and chess, yes chess. It seems Wednesday night is the time to challenge your skills at chess. There were at least 4 games going on and I detected a very competitive spirit. It is not my game, but it was enjoyable seeing people competing in this way and having fun.

Talk about having fun, try Thursday night at Zebros, perhaps a slightly younger crowd were watching the weekly volley ball tournament, when teams from local businesses come together on the beach next to the tikki bar to fiercely compete at volley ball. Another enjoyable social time with the sunset over the lake thrown in at no charge.

So who said there was nothing to do in Westfield, the opportunities are there for young and old alike.

Human Capital

Small Town Assets.  I know I sound like a broken record sometimes, and tend to repeat myself, a sign of my age I guess, but I want once more to highlight one of our greatest growing assets in our community, human capital.

I met last week with a marketing professional who recently moved to Chautauqua to enjoy his retirement and fruits of his many years of building a successful marketing business. Does he want to sit back and watch the sun sets over Chautauqua lake, well maybe sometimes, but what he really wants is to contribute to the community, and which community, Westfield. He sees what many others see when they move into our area, a small community working hard to improve itself and the lives of the residents, and people who welcome him and are anxious to utilize his talents.

We are blessed in that we are seeing this happen at an increasing rate, and therefore our human capital is growing, and a momentum is building. We must take every opportunity to nurture these people who bring this kind of experience and talent to our area. The Ambassador Program developed by the WDC is an example of how we welcome new people into the community. Only today we were contacted by a professional couple wanting to move to Westfield and looking for a connection to our Ambassador Program. The WDC web site (www.westfieldny.com) provides an opportunity for anyone in the world to get a glimpse of Westfield, and many are liking what they see.

Hopefully the contributions of these talented people will continue to help our community. Capital can be measured in many ways- buildings, equipment, dollars and cents- but human capital is the thing you need to get there.

Customer Service

It is kind of a passion with me, customer service. I learned in my other life of Marketing and Sales that the customer is always right, even when he is wrong you have to make him/her feel that they are right. In any business you have nothing unless you have customers, so why do so many businesses neglect the most important thing, customer service?

In our small community of Westfield we have many businesses that recognize the need to cultivate their customer base, but there are still some that don’t get it. It is particularly important in a small community as bad experiences spread quickly and can have disastrous effect on your business, so your front line people- the ones that actually communicate with your customers- are so very important. You can have the best product in the world but without customers you have nothing. So let me tell you what I think you need to address more than anything else: train your employees, train your employees, train your employees to deal the right way with your customers.

• Greet every customer that enters your business with a smile and engage them in conversation.
• If they are repeat customers use their name, try and remember their name for their next visit.
• Engage them in conversation, weather, family, sports, news, but talk to them.
• Remember to smile.
• Thank them for their business, and ask them to come again.
• If they have a complaint, listen don’t argue or defend, if you win the argument you have probably lost the customer.
• Don’t show stress, or complain, they do not want to hear it.
• Don’t make excuses, if you have a problem apologize and ensure them that it will get fixed.

You get the message. I could name the businesses that get it, but I don’t need to- they are the ones with all the customers.

The list goes on and on but I am sure you have got the message.

First Fridays

Even with the weather a little cold for this time of year a lot of people were on Main Street last night to celebrate “First Friday”. We had a new store open- Park View- and it seemed a lot of people wanted ice cream and to visit this unique old time soda fountain. During my time there people were lined up wanting to round off their evening with a delicious ice cream cone.

It was great to see so many people walking the street socializing and talking to the vendors. As the summer moves and hopefully the weather improves I am sure “First Fridays” will become a regular outing for many people just as the Farmers Market on Saturdays is now the place to be.

Hoorah people are reading my blog

I was very pleased to see a comment by Rob on my post “Summer is coming and Westfield is the place to be.” Look at the comment and listen to the podcast. What is being said is what we who live in Westfield and Barcelona know already, it is nice that people who do not live here think the same way.

New Business Potential

It is not often the WDC gets the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a business that wants to locate in Westfield and can have a global impact.

TimberFish Technologies (www.timberfishtech.com) is such a business, and you can read about the founders, Jere Northrop and Aaron Resnick, on our web site.

Last week many of the WDC board had the chance to see the pilot project and better understand the various technologies developed by TimberFish and potentials for implementing these technologies. This business has potential to revolutionize fish farming as it is currently being practiced, and provide the world with a truly contaminant-free fish food at lower costs than are currently being incurred. Additionally the process can assist current fish farms with the ability to treat their waste in an environmentally safe way.

The WDC board backs this company 100% and is currently assisting them in their efforts to find investors and a building for further development of  an R&D facility in Westfield.

Summer is Coming and Westfield is the place to be.

Having just come from a Chamber Board meeting I am overwhelmed by the activities taking place in Westfield this Summer.

From things like the Farmers Market with more vendors this year, First Fridays with main street thronging, to Celebrate Westfield to welcome the Westfield Academy alumni, we have a community that is alive and well. Visit our Community Calendar on this web site to see the extent of activities and opportunities to enjoy these Summer months.

This does not happen automatically, a lot of work by many volunteers is necesssary to bring these events to the public, so I will repeat the message in my earlier blogs, get involved. You will feel a great deal of satisfaction from contributing to your community and there is a great feeling being part of a winning team. Call me at 326-2200, or the Chamber at 326-4000 if you want to be part of this team.

Boom Town USA

No, this title does not refer to Westfield yet, but my hopes are that eventually we might feel that we are in this category. The title refers to a book written by Jack Schultz, a nationally recognized expert on development in small communities. Joel Seachrist and I recently drove to Bradford, PA to attend one of Mr Schultz’s seminars, and we got the chance to talk with him and subsequently sent him information on what we are doing in Westfield to help our community grow and prosper.

I was  pleased to receive a very encouraging response from him indicating, in many respects, we are moving in the right direction. Like many small communities we have our challenges, but doesn’t everyone? In our current economy there are many other communities suffering more than Westfield, perhaps to a certain extent because we did not have as far to fall.

We have now joined the internet world of FaceBook (search for the group “Great Things About Westfield, NY”) and Twitter (JohnTRawlinson) and you can there see Jack Schultz twittering about why Welch came to Westfield. I know I wish their head office would have stayed here, but let’s be thankful for their plant and some office personnel.

Visit Jack Schultz’s twitter feed and you might find it interesting to see some of what he promotes here in Westfield.

Regional Flavor Conference

I attended this conference today and was most impressed with the content and speakers. I believe that we have great potential building that will capitalize on our Agr-Tourism asset and the Concord Grape Belt Discovery Center will be able to make Westfield a destination that should attract tourists in the future. If you ad the already established Cross Roads Craft and Farm Market with 55000 visitors per year, we can start to develop critical mass in the tourism market that can only help all our local businesses.

One theme that came out of the conference was that competition is good and that the synergy that comes from business clusters getting together benefits all. The wineries have proved this by demonstrating that they have been better able to increase business by collaborating than working individually. There are many other business clusters in our community that have the opportunity to do the same. Restaurants, B&B’s, Antique Stores and many more.