Jamestown Pride Festival

The first event is a “Slow Roll” sponsored by Pearl City Cycle that starts at at 5:30 p.m. It’s an all ages event that will involve people bicycling at a slow pace from Winter Garden Plaza on North Main Street through parts of Jamestown.

On Friday, June 9, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church will host a presentation by LGBTQ+ civil rights champion B. Proud. The award-winning photographer will be discussing her books “First Comes Love” and “Transcending Love” which portray healthy relationships within the LGBTQ+ community. That presentation starts at 6:30 p.m. at St. Luke’s Undercroft located at 410 North Main Street. A representative of the New York State Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion will present a proclamation that recognizes the event as being “of important cultural significance by the New York State Executive Chamber.”

Jamestown Pride Committee Representative Emily Van Wey said a variety of activities will be taking place on Saturday, June 10 as Jamestown Pride collaborates again with the Jamestown Public Market between 10:00 and 4:00 p.m. on Third Street between Cherry and Pine Streets, “So, we will have vendors, we will have different activities there. We will have drag queens, we will have music, we will have yoga in the morning provided by Amplified Movement. And, so, there are a lot of opportunities. Covenant Manor has offered up their space as a quiet space in case anyone just needs a break from the crowd or just a little room to decompress.”

Van Wey said a 21 and older event will take place from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., Saturday night at Sneakers Bar on 10 Harrison Street. That event will feature local drag queens from Lip Poppin Productions.

Jamestown Pride Fest will conclude with a Pride Service at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Sunday, June 11 starting at 10:00 a.m.

Van Wey said it’s important to have these Pride events for members of the LGBTQ+ community, “Really just to create a safe environment and a place for our community members just to show up to be their authentic selves. And also family and friends of people who are part of the community to support their loved ones and really to learn more about how to be a better ally and how to be there for people who might be different from you.”

For more information, visit Jamestown Pride’s website at https://www.mhachautauqua.org/jamestownpride

Jamestown Local Development Corporation meeting (April 19, 2023)

Over a half million dollars in American Rescue Plan funded grants have been approved for eight Jamestown businesses.

The Jamestown Local Development Corporation awarded $500,000 in Machinery and Equipment Upgrades funds as well as $50,000 in New Business Development funds at its monthly meeting.

Ballgame Heroes and Pearl City Cycle will each receive $25,000 under the New Business Development grant fund.

Jamestown Businesses Receiving ARP New Business Development Grant Funds

Department of Development Grant Manager Tim O’Dell said Pearl City Cycle is opening a retail store at 245 Fluvanna Avenue and will use the funds for store signage as well as painting the interior and exterior. He said Ballgame Heroes will use the funds for updating security systems, new displays inside, as well as for store programming and events.

The five businesses receiving $92,000 each in Machinery and Equipment Upgrade grant funds include:
– Colecraft Commercial Furnishings toward a $361,792 total project
– Dawson Metal Company toward a $134,900 total project
– El Greco Woodworking, Inc. toward a $143,952 total project
– International Ordnance Technologies toward a $226,600 total project
– National Wire & Metal Tech Inc. toward a $320,000 total project

Crown Street Roasting was awarded $37,500 for a $50,000 project

Jamestown Businesses Receiving ARP Machinery & Equipment Upgrades Grant Funds

O’Dell said 29 full time and three part time jobs are to be created and 163 full time and five part job positions retained through the funding.

The Machinery and Equipment Upgrades grant has a 25% match requirement for the businesses as well as job creation benchmarks that must be met or funds could be clawed back.

Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said the department reached out to 18 businesses about applying for the Machinery and Equipment Upgrades grant. Included in that list was Jamestown Skate Products, which is owned by JLDC Board member Pete Scheira. Scheira did not submit an application for funding.

Jamestown Businesses Contacted About ARP Machinery and Equipment Upgrades Grant

Surdyk said, when asked why these specific businesses were contacted, said they were businesses that had made past inquiries and expressed interest in grant opportunities.

JLDC Board member and City Council member Kim Ecklund expressed concern that when the grant applications were being accepted in January, businesses had already developed their budgets for the year and might not have had the 25% capital match budgeted that’s required. She added she’d still like to see more and different businesses participate in the grant programs.

While the discussion and decision regarding the ARPA grants awarded to Jamestown Skate Products and It’s Your Day was removed from the agenda, JLDC Attorney and City Corporation Counsel Elliot Raimondo did share that the city was still waiting to hear back from the U.S. Treasury Department, “I spoke to the Congressional representative today on that issue. The Treasury Department has, for lack of a better term, bounced him from person to person to person. So, we’re still waiting on what is the status of state and local fiscal recovery fund guidance, specifically what they mean by violations of ethical rules.”

WRFA has reviewed the federal guidelines for the $28 million in ARPA funding awarded to the city in 2021 and did identify a provision that states “Recipients may not use [the money] in violation of the conflict-of-interest requirements contained in the Award Terms and Conditions, including any self-dealing or violation of ethics rules.”

We also have reached out to the Treasury Department office for clarification to see if any of the grants in question violated the “self dealing” provision found in those guidelines, but have yet to receive a response.

The JLDC also approved $5,100 in Downtown Programming funds for the Juneteenth Festival to hold a free concert event on the Wintergarden Plaza on Friday, June 16 as well as concert at Spire Theatre on Saturday, June 17. These concert events will be in addition to traditional festivities held in Jackson-Taylor Park in celebration of Juneteenth.

The program for young children through adults runs through August 20.

Assistant Library Manager Danielle Bertolini said a bike rodeo with Pearl City Cycle from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. will kick-off the reading program this Saturday, “It’s really great for kids who are just learning to ride a bike or want to improve their biking and safety skills. They’ll have cones and an obstacle course. And I believe we’ll have JPD here as well to kind of talk about bike safety. And we’ll have a helmet decorating station, so it’s going to be a lot of fun. And then also on Saturday the 25th, we have our teen summer reading kick off which is a tie-dye and pizza party which is happening from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.”

Bertolini said kids can track minutes read on reading logs, “Basically, when they turn in their reading logs they’ll get entries for the grand prize drawing. We’re also doing a ‘Read for Beads’ program this year. So at the beginning of summer when kids start the summer reading program, they’ll get a lanyard and a little tag on it. And throughout the summer when they turn in their reading logs, they’ll get beads and charms as incentives for reading. So throughout the summer they can fill up a whole necklace, or maybe even a few necklaces.”

She said there also will be bingo sheet with literacy exercises. Kids prizes include lego sets, magna-tiles and pop-its. Prizes for teens include a 3D printing pen, light box, and lego set. The prizes for adults include at $50 gift card to Dots and a $25 gift card to the Good Neighbor Bookstore.

The library also will be bringing the reading program to Jamestown Schools‘ Summer LEAP program as well as the City’s Summer Playground Program.

The Summer Reading Program is free and folks can sign up at the Prendergast Library or find more information online at prendergastlibrary.org/summer-reading-program/

Jamestown Pride

A Slow Roll Bike Ride by Pearl City Cycle will start downtown at 5:30 p.m. Friday. That will be followed by a free ages 21-and up event at 9:00 p.m. at Sneaker’s Bar on Harrison and Institute Streets that features burlesque troupe, Laced Up Ladies.

Jamestown Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith said Saturday is the main Festival day starting at 8:30 a.m. with yoga at Comedy Center Park, followed by a Pride Flag Raising ceremony on Tracy Plaza at 9:30 a.m., “So that’s a really integral part of what we do, because there is a lot of celebration but this is showing the importance of the Queer community in Jamestown and Chautauqua County in general.”

Smith said the Pride market in conjunction with the opening of the Jamestown Public Market then takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on West Third Street and part of North Main Street, “So the Pride market has all sorts of different things. The Rise Journey are actually some of our sponsors who are handling a question and answer tent. So you’ll be able to ask questions about the Queer community. If you’re in the Queer community and want to know more. If you’re outside of the Queer community, because it’s with the Public Market so we’ve set this up so many people will be there who don’t necessarily think they have a reason to celebrate Pride, so now they have a place to go to ask questions.”

Smith said other activities during the market include games, performances, story telling, other resource tables, as well as Pride merchandise vendors and food trucks.

Evening activities taking place at the Wintergarden Plaza include DJ Little Italy and performers Thee Suburbia, Islaya, and Daphne Always.

Pride festivities take place nationally in the month of June to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising of 1969 and in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

All Jamestown Pride events on Saturday are free and family friendly.

For more information about Jamestown Pride Fest, visit facebook.com/JamestownPride.