Warwickâ€™s winning formula - Westfair Communications

Historical Society curator Michael Bertolini on the Warwick Village Green.

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On a sun-splashed morning that showed the village of Warwick for the picture postcard it is, Michael Newhard, mayor and 25-year village businessman, told a tale of shear victory.

“I”™m cutting one or two ribbons per week,” he said. ”˜It”™s been interesting to see how this national economy has affected us. We”™ve actually had more businesses opening in the last year than in many years past.”

The midweek traffic ”“ “not a source for complaint; it’s our lifeblood” ”“ and 100-percent Main Street occupancy bear him out at a glance.

“I think people who have lost their jobs are deciding to go the entrepreneurial route,” Newhard said. “People see there”™s a certain level of security in having your own business and the village of Warwick is a great marketplace for small business.”

With a population of 7,000, the village”™s layout resembles older towns that rose before the car ”“ pedestrian friendly ”“ and in this case, “We’ve never let go of that,” Newhard said. “And because of that, we have grown at a reasonable rate and a sustainable rate ”“ but growing very vibrantly from the inside out.”

The village looks quaint, but it is not under a bell jar as evidenced by tech-savvy companies such as:

Warwick Valley Communications (WVC) on Main Street, a cable, phone, Internet, business communications, 106 employees. “A full-service company just like Verizon,” said Duane Albro, president and CEO. “We have a national conferencing business. We have a national wholesale business where we carry communications traffic for major carriers. If you were to walk through our office you would see a density of high-speed communications equipment that rivals any company in the world.”

Mechanical Rubber on Forester Avenue, maker of seals and gaskets for defense and aerospace. “We do quite a lot with nuclear submarines,” said President and CEO Cedric Glasper. He bought the 10-employee company in 1995 and has grown it from a 6,000-square-foot pad to 54,000 square feet; and
Parse 3, a custom-design software company on First Street with 25 employees. It has President Peter Ladka embodying the computer-age dream of working exactly where he wants and business is “great and getting better.” He has a fan in Albro, who calls Parse 3 “a world-class software company right across the street.”

Albro continued, “So Peter”™s company is world class, Cedric”™s company is world class, and I think my company is world class. You look around and say ”“ hey, is this Warwick? What most people don”™t see is the collaboration that goes on here between people like Cedric and myself and between the public and the private sectors for the betterment of the community. It’s not about economic growth for the sake of economic growth, it”™s growth that will help the community while not outgrowing our bounds.”
The Village Merchants”™ Guild earns high praise for, among other sleights of promotion, keeping $50,000 in village coffers last year.

“We basically coordinate events on Main Street,” said Mary Beth Schlichting, proprietor of Frazzleberries on Main Street, one of a pair of country stores she and her CPA son run. She is co-chairperson of the guild, itself a committee of the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce. The chamber boasts 450 members townwide; 150 members are in the village and “the vast majority” participate in guild activities.

“We maintain a vibrant environment on Main Street,” Schlichting said. “We embrace the seasons in a way that few other villages do and really put forth an effort to bring people downtown to show them different experiences.”

Guild efforts include a home and garden expo, summer sidewalk sales, Ladies Night Out, the just-held Taste of Warwick and Home for the Holidays at Thanksgiving.

Warwick”™s biggest event is its Warwick Valley Community Center and chamber-sponsored Applefest, a celebration in the village that last year drew 30,000 and is expected to draw the same Oct 4. (The Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce web site has details on bands, events, parking, accessibility, etc.)

Debbie Iurata, Schlichting”™s guild co-chairperson and co-principal with husband, Bill Iurata, of Peck”™s Wines and Sprits on Bank Street, is the guild”™s treasurer, a typically funless assignment, but in this case she runs a small economy. The chamber prints Warwick dollars, which accounted for $50,000 in purchases last year. Ninety percent of Warwick dollars goes to merchants and 10 percent goes back to the guild to run the program. She and Schlichting call the program “a complete success” in the shop-local movement.

The chamber”™s roster also includes 17 bed and breakfasts; 44 restaurants; seven historical buildings; three wineries and six apple orchards.

Frank Petrucci at Country Chevy/Saab on Main Street is a boy again walking beside the new Camaro on his second-generation lot. He believes he has seen the worst of the economic times and the business his father started is upshifting. “It will be a long climb, but we”™re excited.” The sharp white Malibu on the showroom floor “is the car that is going to save GM.”

Garrett Durland and his brother Stuart have done their father, Kenneth Durland, and grandfather, Harry S. Seely, proud with the restoration of their Oakland Avenue Seely & Durland Insurance headquarters. The now third-generation business dates to Harry Seely in 1934, who also founded the chamber of commerce; the building entered the family in 1979.

Insurance has been affected by the downturn ”“ “We’re not in a bubble” ”“ but Garrett said there is an inherent insulation in that much of the insurance business is mandated. He and his brother also have organized a network of insurance agencies to discuss industry issues and Garrett is chairman of the Applefest.

The Seely & Durland building at 13 Oakland Ave. is very much in the mold of Joanne Graney”™sÂ Charlotte”™s Tea Room next door at 15 Oakland Ave. and part of the village”™s 24/7 charm offensive that Graney”™s fellow village restaurateur John Christison said peaks during snowstorms. Other village may shut down when the flakes fly, but in Warwick, Christison said, “Everybody comes out.”
“It an extraordinary, vibrant place with active players,” Newhard said.

The architectural spine of the village is on the state and national registries of historic places, “And that has a tremendous impact on what we do here,” Newhard said. “We have great respect for the history and we try to create a modern vision utilizing that historic fabric. That”™s critical and it’s been successful.

“Its beauty has always been an integral part of the village,” Newhard said. ”˜People who come through this community who have never seen it are just wowed by it. They say, ‘This is like the town I grew up in, but that no longer exists.”™”

The Warwick Historical Society maintains seven buildings, including Baird”™s Tavern, which hosted General George Washington July 27, 1782, an event the village annually commemorates. The 1810 House and The Old School Baptist Meeting House on a central knoll constitute a village green to define village greens.

Michael Bertolini is curator of the Village Historical Society and chairman of the village”™s Architectural Review Board. The region”™s wealth, he said, sprang first from apples, butter, milk, peaches and apples. Bertolini called the early farmers “extraordinarily smart people who always had a sense of who they were and what they were doing. They had come mostly from Connecticut. They lent tremendous stability to the region.” Later money arrived via rail. It was railroad money that built the Victorian masterpieces that today house Charlotte”™s Tea Room and Seely & Durland Insurance, among others.
If the municipality appears to be something of a movie set, it is: “In & Out,” a Kevin Kline comedy was filmed in the village. Bertolini would like to see more movie and modeling shoots, notably those that would pay to use historical society properties.

The village of Warwick is within the town of Warwick, which has two other incorporated villages: Greenwood Lake and Florida, both of which Newhard praised cordially and both of which are represented in the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce.

The biggest employer in the village is the 75-bed St. Anthony Community Hospital on Maple Avenue with 500-plus employees, a member of the Bon Secours Charity Health System, according to Deborah Marshall, the Bon Secours vice president for communications.

“The real estate business is steady,” said Diane Massey, associate broker with Re/Max Benchmark Realty Group. “There”™s an influx of people into the village and there”™s a true sense of community spirit. Our community defines who we are. It”™s our lifestyle. It impacts our daily lives. And there is such a vibrant sense of community here. We”™re consistently promoting our region through the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce. This is truly a place where people want to do business. People want to live and work here.” She said the diversity of home prices ”“ $200,000 to $1 million ”“ leads to a diverse population, another asset.

“I’ve been here for 25 years and it”™s basically been good for 25 years,” said John Christison, owner of Yesterdays on Main Street and, along with his wife Peggy Murphy, owner of The Sleepy Valley B&B on Sleepy Valley Road. “When we opened Yesterdays we were primarily thought of as meat-and-potatoes, but over the years it”™s changed. We have a lot of salads. There’s low-carb dishes. Lots of pasta. I never imagined when I opened I would be serving salmon and crab cakes ”“ you went to a seafood restaurant for that ”“ but now I sell a ton of salmon.”

The Warwick Valley Farmers Market in the village”™s South Street parking lot Sundays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through October has proven a hit, according to the mayor and a chorus of enthusiasm at its mention during a recent breakfast organized by Warwick resident, chamber vice president and HVBiz Editor-at-Large Pam Arace.

The farmers market is a chamber-village partnership and features the bounty of 25-plus farms. It is underscored by down-home neighborliness: “At the market you can buy the freshest produce and also take stock of how local folks are adjusting their lives, their purchases and their priorities in the ever-changing economic environment.”

The mayor called the market “one of the oldest and one of the best farmers”™ markets anywhere. It”™s an example of a public-private partnership ”“ very much like we did on Railroad Avenue where the village bought the park and renovated it and out of that renovation came the renaissance of Railroad Avenue.”

Railroad Avenue is where Next Level Floral Design is. Thomas Salamone has established a flower store there, expanding from Park Avenue and Long Island where he was already in business. He tells of mowing seven acres of lawn at his house ”“ a pitfall of country living ”“ and balances it with the story of a police escort to St. Anthony”™s Hospital for him and his son, who had knocked his head in the mud room (and who was fine). “The benefits of country living,” he said.

For a businessman who cut his teeth in the storefront chaos immediately south of Grand Central Terminal, Salamone could only wonder, “Is anything wrong here? Not really. I could maybe gripe about the parking meters, but ”¦” He left the thought unfinished. For today, it seemed the parking meters were not that important.