This is an essay about my town of Sheridan. I’ll call it The Joys of Campaigning. Many times during my educational years, we were asked to write essays: about our family, our summer vacation, our most influential person, our town. This is how I would write it now.

Sheridan borders Lake Erie on the north and covers 37.3 square miles of Chautauqua County with a population of approximately 2,500 people. Traveling south on Center Road from the lake, you reach the southern border with the town of Arkwright. Pomfret and Dunkirk to the west, Hanover to the east. Those are the dry statistics. That’s what I would have written for my school assignment. But through running for a seat on the town board, traveling the roads of the town, talking to many of the residents, and also thinking back on the formative years I spent here, the story of Sheridan becomes much richer.

For instance, I mentioned Center Road. Drive all the way up to Straight Road, turn around and start down the hill. You will have the most breathtaking view of the lake; you can see across it to Canada. The road cuts a straight line through the trees right down to the lake. Lucky are the residents who have property with that view!

The downside of the absolute straightness of Center Road is that some who use the road like to test their NASCAR or AMA qualifications. There are several intersections and a set of railroad tracks that are either potentially dangerous or have already proven to be deadly when prudent speeds are not observed.

Some two, four, or more wheeled vehicles attempt to reach the sound barrier.

Not only on Center, but on other less frequently used roads and dead ends, misuse of the roads causes concern, distress, and property damage to folks who reside there. Let’s exercise more respect and caution, hotrods and mess-makers.

For the most part, folks have expressed satisfaction with Sheridan living. Many of the homes in town are beautiful, professionally landscaped, many are average (like mine), and many appear to show that their inhabitants are struggling to get by day to day. It needs to be a focus of the town, to help direct those residents to the aid that will help them along. Newer residents especially are confused about where they live. I have mentioned before how the town is divided into five ZIP codes and four school districts, also different telephone exchanges – but with cell phones, that doesn’t have the effect it once did. However, they are all in Sheridan when they vote.

Sheridan still has a couple organizations in town. It has a VFW, a large facility with a World War II tank in front, located where the White Star Restaurant had once been; and a Historical Society, based squarely in the center of town. The building where it is housed once was the meeting place of the IOOF (the Odd Fellows) and also served as the town’s offices and court until the town took over the former St John Bosco Catholic Church and its adjoining rectory and community center.

Now the center of town has one church, the United Methodist Church, located next to the well-known Hamlet Farms fresh produce and plants.

If anyone desires fresh fruit and vegetables, they need only travel down Rt 20 in Sheridan. Going back to the center of town, (where there used to be a blinking light), we have a nice little small-town atmosphere in our Post Office and the “Crossroads II ” diner with home cooked breakfast and lunches.

We used to have a little general store kitty-corner to the diner, way back run by the Tucker family, and lastly named G&G. Now, Sheridan has no convenience store. Once a Yellow Goose on Routes 20 and 39, it became part liquor store and part convenience store.

Unfortunately, the convenient part of the store could not continue operation, but we now have a very nice liquor and wine business there. Sheridan folks’ closest run for their bread and milk is either Tops in Silver Creek, Cave’s in Forestville, or Country Fair at the dreaded roundabout (which I love). Poor Sheridan doesn’t even have a Dollar General. (Ha)

My grandmother had a grape farm and I grew up picking, tying, and driving the tractor down the rows. Grape farming is Sheridan’s big business. Our traffic jams are caused by the enormous grape pickers. It’s truly something to watch them in the vineyards and the truckloads of grapes going to produce something we are proud of here in Sheridan – our wine. I always thought that concord was our only type of grape, but I have found out that many other kinds are grown here, and the variety of wines produced here is extensive. I live in the center of the winery triangle, Liberty Vineyards, Merritt Estates, and Willowcreek. We also have Woodbury Winery. I woke up this morning to see a light dusting of snow on the unpicked purple grapes among the vines across the road from me. Really a pretty sight.

I feel like Sheridan is caught in a moment of time where we are looking back at a history of a more tight-knit community, of farmers’ Grange meetings, of home bureau and gardening clubs, of town sponsored Halloween parties and Easter egg hunts; and a future where we can again rebuild a shared sense of pride in our town, in maybe a different way, by the way we present our town to the travelers who use our roads to go from Silver Creek to Fredonia or Dunkirk.

A Welcome to Sheridan sign should invite them to a pleasant five- or ten-minute drive, (the major eyesore need not be mentioned here, it has already received plenty of publicity), and places to stop along the way. The population of Sheridan dropped from the 2010 census to the 2020 census. That is the wrong direction.

If individual taxes are to be kept low, improvements to the town’s facilities such as the community center and Sheridan Bay Park, the development of other amenities that Sheridan residents can enjoy, the maintenance of town roads and bridges, the water line, streetlights, internet connectivity, cannot be accomplished without increasing the tax base and seeking help from county, state, and federal sources. Making the town attractive may seem superficial but, along with holding down the taxes, it invites residents and businesses.

I have only been able as an individual to make small contributions, such as maintaining flowers in places along Route 20, organizing summer concerts, which have shown a few sparks of community spirit and enjoyed by residents of the majestic St. Columban’s home on the lake. Being active in the Historical Society and the VFW Auxiliary also gives me opportunities to contribute to my community. I’ve been regularly attending town board meetings, held the second Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. The town has a revamped website where meeting minutes can be read, and I encourage residents to join meetings or view the website. I campaign to be on the town board so I can help, not oppose. I appreciate the childhood I enjoyed in Sheridan, the safety and security of a small town upbringing, the close friends, and good neighbors; and I want to give back.

I worry about the future, that sense of community that shields people in a small town is being shattered all over the country. Acts of hate are increasing. People around the world who are suffering under feuding regimes and have no neighborhoods left would not take for granted what we can have in our country. Our problem may be too much freedom. Freedom when abused is anarchy.

Freedom should be coupled with responsibility and respect, that is what our form of government is based on, at every level. I have come to appreciate my little hometown. It boasts a United States Congressman, Daniel A Reed, who is buried in Sheridan Cemetery.

His grave, forgotten, now has a plaque which identifies his service and the attention it deserves. We used to have a parade on Memorial Day, our Memorial Day remembrance ceremony used to bring a crowd.

Now very few attend, and it feels like it is treated like a school essay, an obligation that you have to do. Regardless of whether I become a member of the Sheridan Town Council or not, I will continue to participate, to contribute as much as I can, to my hometown.

Susan Bigler is a Sheridan resident. Send comments editorial@observertoday.com