Paper Mill Island

On any given summer weekend, the village of Baldwinsville plays host to an array of tourists and locals. The bridge downtown lights up with thousands of dollars worth of LED lights. Night owls fill the sidewalks outside pubs and restaurants. And the streets echo with the roar of live music emanating from one of the area’s most unlikely live music venues: Paper Mill Island’s Budweiser Amphitheater. 

Situated amid the waters of the Seneca River in the northwest Onondaga County village, Paper Mill Island is a long sliver of land dividing Baldwinsville. Street lamps and small maple trees line the walkways of the 1.6-acre park. The towering amphitheater and its shallow, concrete stage and brazen Budweiser logo face west, overlooking the winding river. 

The amphitheater represents only part of an economic revitalization project started in 1997 that has transformed the village into a tourist attraction and brought in national musical groups from Rusted Root to Ani DiFranco to Alabama Shakes.

For decades prior to the building of the park, Paper Mill Island was little more than an empty eyesore in the heart of Baldwinsville. Lodged between the Seneca River and Lock 24 of the Barge Canal, the man-made island was created in the early 20th century with the digging of the Barge Canal. Prior to that, it housed a paper mill and marina. 

In 1995, Dan O’Hara, now director of the New York State Fair, was elected mayor of Baldwinsville and, with the help of the local government and members of the private sector, sought to make use of the blighted property. “Ever since I moved to Baldwinsville years ago I recognized it was a quaint community with a lot of potential,” O’Hara says. “At the time, there were a lot of vacant buildings downtown and we were trying to figure out how to make the waterway into an economic engine.”

The western corner of the island presented a prime piece of waterfront property, but decades of pollution from the mill and marina had left it a brownfield site. The land was valued at $250,000—a sum O’Hara and village trustee Rick Presley were wary to pay before first assessing its viability. 

“We had to make sure the site had potential to be cleaned up and made into something better,” says Presley, who has served on the Baldwinsville village board since 1989. “We didn’t want to accept a Trojan horse.”

But after the village engineer’s analysis deemed the tainted land suitable for a park, the owner of the parcel—the Spensieri family—agreed to donate it to the village. On Dec. 31, 1997, the property was gifted to Baldwinsville for a ceremonial fee of $1.

With the land secured, the hunt for funding began. O’Hara began applying for grants from all levels of government. More than $1 million came in from various agencies. The money was used to clean up and renovate the island as well as stimulate the economy in the town.

“A lot of it was timing,” O’Hara says. “Andrew Cuomo {then secretary of Housing and Urban Development and now governor of New York} had announced the Canal Corridor Initiative, which was allotting funding to rejuvenate canal communities.” Baldwinsville received a $900,000 federal grant from HUD alone.

Less than three years after the village purchased the property, the overgrown eyesore that lurked along the river had been replaced by a lush park sporting a $250,000 amphitheater donated by Anheuser-Busch, the beer giant with a plant just east of the village on Route 31. O’Hara, Presley and other local officials cut the ribbon on the amphitheater Sept. 16, 2000, at the second annual Celebrate Baldwinsville festival.

On the Waterfront

New establishments soon began to spring up throughout Baldwinsville. On June 9, 2000, just months before the dedication of the amphitheater, Lake Effect Bar and Grill opened its doors across the street. Other local watering holes like Sammy Malone’s and Pizza Man Pub were quick to follow, as were restaurants like Canal Walk Café.

“We wanted to get people off their front porches and onto the sidewalks,” O’Hara says. “And the best way to do that was with an entertainment venue. People needed a reason to go downtown.” 

The amphitheater and park attracted not only locals, but tourists traveling across the state on the Erie Canal. “Usually on the weekends boats are parked two deep up and down the canal,” says Joe Wilkinson, a volunteer at the Baldwinsville Visitor Center who has lived in the village for more than 50 years. “People come from all over the place and stop here. It wasn’t like that 10 or 12 years ago.”

Jacques Lacasse and his wife Amy came through Baldwinsville on July 20 while boating across the state. The couple lives in Montreal. “We just stopped because it looks like a cute place,” says Lacasse. “And I hear there’s a concert here tonight. We’ll probably go watch.”

But while the amphitheater brings people to town, many local business owners question its impact on the economy. “Everyone thinks the island is a bonanza for us, but it’s not,” says Dennis Sick, who owns two restaurants on Oswego Street (Route 48)—Mohegan Manor and Club Sushi—and recently opened La La Land ice cream. “I think it’s a great venue, I just doubt if I’ll get two people in here after an island event. It doesn’t hurt me, it just doesn’t help me.”

Sick says that rather than bringing people to dine and drink in the village, island concerts provide competition for bars. “People go to a concert for four to five hours, eat and drink on the island, then they’re not going anywhere else,” he says. “Most of their events revolve around drinking.”

Sharon Reiser, executive director of the Baldwinsville Chamber of Commerce, believes the island benefits bars but takes away from boutiques and novelty shops. “Lock 24 {Restaurant} is always packed and they benefit from boaters who come and stay for the weekend,” she explains. “Those people might go to Canal Walk Café for breakfast, but concertgoers come and take parking away from the boutiques.”

Bringing the Noise

In the last few years, the island has begun to attract attention from national musical acts. In the past, the Budweiser Amphitheater had typically been booked by regional groups or cover bands. In 2009, Umphrey’s McGee announced its tour would make a stop in Baldwinsville between shows in Buffalo and Quincy, Calif. It was part of a national tour that included major festivals such as Wanee, Rothbury and All Good. 

Since then, local promoters—primarily the booking agency Upstate Shows—have booked a series of national acts at the roughly 3,000-person venue, including Rusted Root, Bright Eyes, The Wailers, The Disco Biscuits, All That Remains, Ani DiFranco and the July 29 Alabama Shakes appearance. 

“I got a call today from a guy from New York City who’s driving up just for the Alabama Shakes show,” said Eric Binion, co-owner of Upstate Shows. “That’s what happens when high caliber talent like this comes to a place like Baldwinsville.” 

And as traffic increases through the small town, the reputation of the venue grows. “Generally artists let us know where they want to play,” Binion explains. “Some know right off the bat, and more and more often, that place is Paper Mill Island.”

But the venue still fills its schedule with local and regional acts. On Tuesday nights in June and July the town of Lysander hosts free concerts with acts ranging from the Baker High School marching band to the Joe Whiting Band. 

“I’ve been doing gigs at least once a year there for about 10 years now,” says Whiting. “The Tuesday concerts bring out a lot of families and kids, but then they also bring in big-time national acts. B’ville is a really happening place these days.”

The only vocalized concern by residents is the noise the venue generates. The stage faces west toward the water, but residents of Charlotte Street just across the river have had issues with the sound. 

“Stuff used to rattle off our neighbors’ shelves. It was really loud for a long time,” says Karen Gates, who lives on Charlotte Street. “But now they’ve got a person who monitors the noise and it’s usually not so bad.”

That “person” is an employee hired by the village to pay attention to sound levels in the village and make sure the music doesn’t exceed 75 decibels. “We typically hire a college kid or young person to drive around with a meter to make sure the decibel levels stay where they need to be,” says Presley. “We used to have a lot of complaints, but I think we’ve got it down to a pretty good science now.” By simply turning down the volume, the village has been able to placate many neighbors.

And Gates says she and her family also enjoy the music for free from time to time. “We sit out on the dock sometimes and watch the shows rather than pay the $20 or whatever it is to go watch,” Gates says. “Then if we don’t like the music, we just go inside.”

The free Tuesday concert series concluded this week with After FX, but Upstate Shows has a few concerts coming up in September including Rusted Root on Sept. 18 and Keller Williams with Donna the Buffalo on Sept. 22. For more information and tickets visit upstateshows.com.