Honeoye Falls Village Trust Will Wagner (standing) leads the discussion with local businesses on their concerns and issues. Sentinel photo
On Thursday morning, November 2, 2023, Village of Honeoye Falls officials met with local businesses to discuss ways to help them. Representing roughly two dozen businesses, twenty-six people attended the event, held in the Mendon Community Center on North Main Street in the Village.
Mayor Rick Milne welcomed everyone and then turned the meeting over to Village Trustee Will Wagner. Wagner, who has an impressive resume of private business experience, including in the area of sales, did an expert job leading the meeting.
Business representatives spent time discussing a number of topics ranging from communication to sharing ideas on how to bring new business owners to Main Street. Village officials seemed particularly interested in grants since several businesses expressed interest in how to obtain them.
Another area of concern was the reestablishment of the old Mendon/Honeoye Falls Chamber of Commerce. Businesses were asked to “do homework” for the next meeting to identify how such a business group could add value to them and at what cost in annual membership fees this value could justify joining the Chamber.
Melissa Tuft announced the Village will be kicking off their 2nd Annual Village Business Holiday Decorating contest, with the winner announced on December 9th after the HFFD Christmas Parade. Wagner promised to work with the Village team to “create some type of shared document where we can keep updated business contact information for future communication needs.”
Wagner told the attendees, “Our Village team felt great about the conversation and the passion you all showed about the community as well as your businesses.”
Mayor Milne and Trustee Wagner will be working with the County to have a representative at the next meeting (tentatively slated for late January/early February) to discuss this in more detail.
If you aren’t on the Village distribution list for information on these meetings and would like to be added, or if you have any questions please respond to wwagner@villageofhoneoyefalls.org.
