2022 - 2023 RCS Community Guidebook

RAVENA, from page 29
Street in Ravena,” Musso said at
a business panel in the village
Dec. 3. “It was like a warm hug
— it was ‘Come, come, we want
you,’ and it really felt like we
were coming home.”
The village is business friendly,
other entrepreneurs agreed.
Steve Douglas, owner of Rail to
River Brewing, said a turning
point for bringing his business
model to life came when the
village’s zoning board gave it
their stamp of approval.
“That was when we knew this
would work,” Douglas said.
“Everybody has been just fantastic,
everybody has been enthusiastic.
The community has
been incredible.”
Rail to River Brewing’s grand
opening the day after Thanksgiving
2021 was a full house,
with customers packing the nanobrewery
to the rafters, with a
line of customers snaking out
the door.
“We have had quite a few new businesses coming
in. We have Alli’s Bridal, which was the old Davis’
Drug Store site, and we also approved a comic
book and collectibles gaming store that shares
that building with them. Both are on
Central Avenue near Main Street.”
— Mayor Bill Misuraca
Musso said a small-town business
can compete against major
national competitors by offering
something those bigger
businesses can’t — the personal
touch.
“We give that personalized service
and we are always there,”
Musso said. “If I am awake, I answer
the phone. We even had a
customer who got their phones
the day before Thanksgiving
and called me and I told them
to come on Thanksgiving. He
couldn’t believe it. So he came
on Thanksgiving and he got his
phones activated.”
A small Main Street business
offers amenities bigger chains
can’t.
“We are always there — you can
always get a hold of us,” Musso
said. “It’s not ‘press 1’ for this,
‘press 2’ for that. People are so
tired of calling places and you
can’t talk to a human.”
As the community continues to
grow, there are challenges that
need to be met, the mayor said.
“The biggest thing that we are
trying to do is upgrade our infrastructure
and our delivery
of water and containment of
wastewater because that is the
bedrock — if you want to open
a business, you have to have
your utilities so the upgrades
to our water plant and distribution
are a big thing. That’s the
very first phase,” Misuraca said.
Several areas in the community
are in a flood plain, so flooding
is an issue in some places. The
village recently built a bioretention
pond off Main Street
behind the municipal parking
lot, and another bioretention
pond is going in at Faith Plaza.
Both projects utilize state grant
money and are aimed at using
green resources to prevent
flooding.
“I think the first one was in the
neighborhood of just under a
half million dollars,” Misuraca
said. “We do as much of the
work in-house as possible,
which keeps the costs very
low because instead of having
to contribute a percentage of
money for a matching grant,
we use our skilled workers to
do the job, which is called ‘inkind.’
It saves us a lot of money
out of pocket.”
See RAVENA, page 32
Dignified Personal Services
“Four Generations and Over One
Century of Service to Our Community”
19 PULVER AVENUE • RAVENA, NY 12143
518-756-8333
WWW.BABCOCKFUNERALHOMEINC.COM
PRE-PLANNING AVAILABLE • HANDICAPPED ACCESSIBLE
Steven Douglas, of Rail to River Brewing on Main Street, working behind the scenes at his new nanobrewery.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
30 • RCS Community Guidebook RCS Community Guidebook • 31