The Chautauqua County Partnership for Economic Growth (CCPEG) has announced the awardees of its 2026 Economic Growth Fund (EGF) program. The program was created to support economic development projects that focus on revitalization and long-term strategic investment throughout Chautauqua County, consistent with the County’s economic development strategic plan. This year, 13 different projects will receive a total of $217,500 in grant support from CCPEG, which is levering total investments of more than $8.4 million throughout the county.

Projects that received funding this year are located in nine different communities, including Bemus Point, Busti, Dunkirk, Falconer, Jamestown, Lakewood, Mayville, Sherman, and Westfield. Grant awards typically range between $10,000 and $20,000; however, requests of up to $50,000 were considered.

Applicants receiving the largest amount of EGF support for 2026 are the Villages of Mayville and Bemus Point, each of which will receive $25,000 to support projects related to outdoor recreation. Mayville’s funding award will go toward its Kayak Launch project, which has a total project cost of $100,000. Bemus Point’s funding award will go toward its Integrated Trail System project, which has a total cost of $57,890.

Three other projects each received $20,000 in funding support. They are the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation for its Jamestown Meetings and Conferences initiative, the Village of Lakewood for its Hartley Park upgrade project, and the Chautauqua Lake Child Care Center in Mayville for its Expansion Planning & Talent Attraction project.

A total of 38 letters of interest were received as part of the 2026 EGF process, with 31 of those projects being invited to complete and submit an application for funding. Of those 31 applications received, a total of $872,234 in total EGF support was being requested for projects that had a combined value of over $11.7 million. The final 13 projects were selected based on a number of criteria, including: readiness, economic impact, leverage potential, geographic distribution, alignment with the county’s economic development strategic plan, and input from CCPEG’s public-private Advisory Board.

“This year’s EGF process was especially competitive with over two dozen projects certainly being worthy of support. This made it extremely challenging for our grant committee to select this year’s grant recipients,” explained Josiah Lamp, CCPEG Program Manager. “While we wish we had additional funding in our EGF budget to support more projects, we are still extremely grateful to provide this resource to eligible applicants.”

Funding for the program was provided by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation (RCWJF). In November 2024, the Chautauqua Region Economic Development Corporation (CREDC), the umbrella organization of CCPEG, authorized the acceptance of a three-year funding award from RCWJF, totaling $1.625 Million. This grant award not only extends and enhances CCPEG’s administrative capacity, it provides much-needed local-matching dollars through the EGF program to support catalytic economic and community development projects.

Since the EGF was first established in 2022, more than $1.3 million has been allocated to 81 unique projects with a total combined value of more than $31.2 million.

“For the past five years, CCPEG has supported a multitude of high-priority projects across Chautauqua County, each of which is intended to spur economic development in our communities and across the entire county,” said Mark Geise, Deputy County Executive for Economic Development and CCPEG Advisory Board Co-Chair. “We once again look forward to realizing the impact that this funding will have on the host communities, as well as the entire Chautauqua County region.”