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Business

Connecting Business and Community

The CHQ Chamber is building connections day in and day out: business to consumer connections, business to business connections, and business connections with resources that help you run your business. These connections come in a variety of forms, sometimes physical connections as we frequently put businesspeople in rooms together for networking or learning opportunities, and sometimes online connections to products or promotions designed to help businesses grow and thrive. When these connection points are overlaid on the communities we serve all local businesses benefit. As a ...

Programming that Moves the Needle for Local Business

With a couple of successful new and out-of-the-box events under our belt for this year we continue to build out a full list of CHQ Chamber events for 2025 that are meaningful to our business community. This includes a broad variety of networking opportunities, advocacy events, workshops, and more, focused around meeting our mission to build vital connections, provide professional resources, and champion our local businesses in Chautauqua County. Two workshop events are coming up. On Feb. 26 we will focus on Building Foot Traffic with a workshop at the SUNY Fredonia Center for ...

The State of Business in Chautauqua County

Businesses come in all sizes in Chautauqua County, from the smallest sole proprietorship to some of the largest manufacturing facilities. So, when we set out to take a look at the State of Business, we invited a panel of leaders from across a wide range of entities that support local business in order to represent the depth of our economic sectors. It was our pleasure to host Mark Geise from the County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency, Todd Tranum of the Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier, Courtney Curatolo from the Jamestown Small Business Development ...

Wendel updates trustees on mall plan

LAKEWOOD - Plans to redevelop part of the Chautauqua Mall into professional office space are on hold. Chautauqua County PJ Wendel gave an update to Lakewood Village Board of Trustees Monday regarding the status of the mall. “I know there's some concern as to the county moving forward, but the county is in no position,” Wendel said. In December 2024, county lawmakers heard a presentation by Summit Properties, mall owners, about professional space development at the mall, located at 318 E. Fairmount Ave. Proposed departments include Temporary Assistance/Medicaid, Probation, ...

Venture Forthe cuts two-thirds of city workforce

A home health care agency is laying off 280 workers across Western New York, including roughly two-thirds of its Jamestown office. Venture Forthe Inc., based in Niagara Falls, provides health care services to seniors and individuals with chronic illnesses, mental health disorders and disabilities with 417 total workers. A WARN notice posted by the state Department of Labor on Jan. 17 states the company is laying off 280 of its 417 workers because of a contract loss. The notice states layoffs are supposed to begin March 31 and end April 13. The agency’s Jamestown office, located ...

Lake Shore Bank moving forward with stock transition

Lake Shore Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Lake Shore Savings Bank, announced Thursday the Board of Directors has adopted a Plan of Conversion and Reorganization pursuant to which Lake Shore will undertake a “second step” conversion from a mutual holding company structure to the stock holding company structure. In connection with the second step conversion, the Bank intends to seek regulatory approval to convert its charter to a New York-chartered commercial bank. Lake Shore currently owns approximately 63.4% of the outstanding shares of common stock of the company which ...