Wheatfield Business Association celebrates 40th

by Susan Mikula Campbell
Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, February 8, 2007

Forty years ago, James Stevenson and a group of fellow businessmen formed the Wheatfield Businessmen’s Association to work together for the good of the business community as well as the town. Stevenson was the group’s first president.

This Saturday, Feb. 10, Tom Stevenson of Stevenson Construction will be installed as president as the Wheatfield Business Association celebrates its anniversary with a dinner dance. The “men’s” was dropped years ago from the organization’s name after women became members.

This will be the second time Tom Stevenson has served as the organization’s president.

“It’s quite an honor,” he said. “No. 1, because they picked me, and No. 2, that I’m keeping the legacy alive, following in my father’s footsteps.”

Much of the group’s historical data has been lost or misplaced over the years, but longtime members and some, like Stevenson, who are descendants of original members, say the group’s mission is still the same.

“It creates a platform for local businessmen and businesswomen to address local and regional concerns,” said Kenneth Franasiak, president/CEO of Calamar Inc. “It’s a wonderful, community-based asset.”

Franasiak’s grandfather, Stanley Brzezinski, was a founding member. He came to the United States from Poland and eventually started a manufactured housing community on River Road (Lynch’s Trailer Park) and became Wheatfield’s longest-serving supervisor (more than 20 years). Some of the other founding members were Bob Demler (related to current Supervisor Tim Demler), Hank Scibisz, Glen Sisson and members of the Stoelting family.

Over the years, the Wheatfield Business Association has been involved in numerous business-oriented activities, from supporting the establishment of the Summit Park Mall to fighting the “anti-business” two-tier tax system. “We passed the hat and created a legal challenge,” Franasiak said.

More recently, the Wheatfield Business Association was the first community organization to voice its support of the proposed Magical World of Oz project. The project, if it comes to fruition, would create construction jobs, some 5,000 permanent jobs and sales tax revenue.

“If they applied the anticipated sales tax revenue directly to tax relief, we could cut property taxes by 50 percent for all of Niagara County,” Stevenson said. “That’s one of our things – tax relief and improving the business climate. We’re doing our part to help the economy to pull Western New York out of the doldrums.”

For membership Chairman Carol Beck of Ronald Beck & Sons trucking company, one of the most important benefits the group provides is health insurance.

“How does a little business get it by themselves?” asked Beck, a member since the 1980s when the group still had a lot of farmers as members and few women.

It pays to be a member, whether as a farmer or a small business. With the help of M.J. Brzeczkowski of State Farm Insurance, the group’s first woman president, “We got much, much better coverage at a lot less price,” Beck said.

Outgoing association president, Jim Candella of Candella’s Countryside Landscaping, first joined the Pine Avenue Business Association because he did a lot of work in Niagara Falls when his business was first starting. He’s been a member of the Wheatfield group for 17 years and won its Business Person of the Year award in 1993 and its Business of the Year award in 1997. This Saturday, he will receive both awards again, this time in the same year.

Candella agreed that being able to group together for health insurance from one supplier is an important benefit of the business association. Also extremely important is the ability to make contacts with others in the local business world and share ideas. Even more contacts are made in the community by participating in the organization’s civic activities. The group also provides special activities and tours for members and their families.

“It’s definitely worthwhile,” Candella said.

Among the association’s long list of civic activities are co-sponsoring town fireworks, providing two scholarships for graduating high school seniors, helping with the town’s Miss Wheatfield Pageant and Halloween and Christmas parties, providing benches in front of the town’s Community Center, creating a Land of Oz float for North Tonawanda’s Canal Fest and putting flags along Niagara Falls Boulevard each year before the Fourth of July.

Beck also pointed out that members stand by each other. The group lobbied the state Department of Transportation about five years ago when the state wanted to take away the most direct of two driveways serving Sandy’s Family Restaurant at Williams and River roads.

Saturday’s Wheatfield Business Association dinner dance, which begins at 6 p.m. at St. Johnsburg Fire Hall on Ward Road, is open to the public, according to new secretary David Territo of Territo Photography. In addition to dinner and open bar, there will be music with a DJ, door prizes and a raffle for a pair of diamond and ruby earrings. Tickets are $25 and available at the door or from any board member.

Among other officers, not previously mentioned, who will be installed at the event are: Dan Clark of Sandi’s Family Restaurant, vice president; and Rob Allen of Rob Allen Entertainment, treasurer. New members of the board of directors this year will be: Candella, Brzeczkowski, Bob Heisner of Project Future and Sheila Maracle of Maracle Home Improvement. Calvin Pfohl of Calvin Pfohl’s Farms is a returning board member.

For those interested in joining the Wheatfield Business Association, the group meets the fourth Monday of the month at a local restaurant for dinner and usually a speaker.

From a small beginning by a few businessmen 40 years ago, membership in the Wheatfield Business Association has grown and now fluctuates between 105 to 135 members. Candella said.