Celebrating Seneca

Pumping Cash Out of Seneca

The economic impact of the Lake on this region.

Geneva’s heyday as a manufacturing center, when shipping and commerce thrived on along the north end of Seneca Lake, is behind it. But Seneca pumps up the local economy in other ways.

"The most obvious economic impact of the Lake is water supply," says Rich Rising, director of planning and economic development for the City of Geneva. "We have water capacity to serve the growth of the community, particularly industry."

In 1996, Guardian Industries, a large manufacturer of windshields and other glass products, announced plans to locate its flagship plant in Geneva, bringing hundreds of manufacturing jobs and other peripheral opportunities to the area. "Guardian would have had problems locating in areas without the vast supply of water Seneca Lake offers," says Rising.

He speaks also of the City’s plan to reconnect downtown with the lakefront and the new lakeside Ramada Inn -- it opened just in time for Reunon ‘97 -- perched alongside remnants of the Long Pier, the crumbling concrete jetty that was covered with boathouses and steamship docks some 60 years ago. Festivals, bike paths, a senior center, a daycare center (under construction), and the proposed Finger Lakes Interpretive Center (a tourism and education facility) will replace the aging Seneca Hotel and landmark Agway tower that characterized the lakefront in factories-and-steamship days. Local developer Chris Iverson owns the Ramada. He estimates it will pump more than $3 million dollars annually into the local economy.

Iverson acknowledges Seneca’s economic preeminence. "Geneva was founded because of the Lake. It meant transportation, food, and a hub of activity." It still means that, but there’s a new industry on the board: tourism.

Seneca Lake offers a 35-mile long playground and park, drawing people and their money from all over. Whether they’re fishing, visiting wineries, biking, checking out the foliage, going to college, or waterskiing, the lake brings people here who might just as easily go elsewhere. And it keeps people here." --P.R.

The Seneca Lake series was researched and written by Dana Cooke and Peter Rolph '85 — writer/editors in the Office of College Relations. Portions of the series also appear in the Fall '97 issue of The Pulteney St. Survey. To request a copy, e-mail Susan Murad at murad@hws.edu.