Taking ideas and bringing them to life

Right in the central business district of Spencerport, Fuse Creative has a space where they do graphics, design logos and do business marketing. They also do vehicle wraps, signage, and according to its founder Domenico Colaprete, they do “anything pretty much art related”. Dom started the company in June of 2017 and a few years later Harry Sotomayor came on board as a partner. Fuse Creative has been at its current location on South Union Street since January of 2020. They have big clients such as Christa Construction and then they have smaller clients such as the sports bar Clutch on the Canal in Spencerport. They did all the graphics and signage for the new sports bar.

Their work space is located very close to where the old railroad bridge used to be on Union Street. At the time when that bridge got torn down in 2013, Dom was working for Skooba Design in Rochester and Harry was growing up in Rhode Island. While Harry is from another state, Dom grew up in Spencerport. He has fond memories of going to the Spencerport carnival with family and friends when he was a kid. Although Dom and Harry don’t live in Spencerport now, they are very invested in the community, having a space in the village and working with Spencerport businesses.

“One interesting thing about Rhode Island that they don't do here in New York is drink coffee milk. I'm sure most New Yorkers reading this are asking themselves "what is coffee milk?". The best way I can describe it is that it's the same as when you mix milk and chocolate syrup to make chocolate milk. In Rhode Island we have coffee syrup. It's a very normal thing to drink there but extremely uncommon everywhere else,” Harry says.

Opinion Piece

We want Spencerport to be a destination. Having a mid-size retail chain next to Walgreens would attract people from Chili, Gates, Hilton, Brockport, Greece. A mid-size retail chain would fit by this corner because it would complement Walgreens which is another retail chain. Not too far from this corner is a Kwik Fill and a McDonalds, so the appearance of another retail chain would fit into the mix. It’s been four years too, since the Walgreens was built, and over ten years since the Tops gas station was built, so it’s not like a retail chain is being built every year. In fact, the best outcome would have another retail chain built next to Walgreens, but that would be the extent of it. If there were more than two retail chains, it would start to build up and look like Brockport near the corner of Route 31 and Lake Ave. and we want to remain “Someplace Special”.

We are a suburb of Rochester and only fifteen minutes from the city. We aren’t a small town like Hilton or Churchville and we should act like it. Building another mid-size retail chain next to Walgreens would be a step in the right direction for Spencerport to be a place that people from other towns want to come to.

Spencerport is growing. There were twelve new businesses that started in Spencerport in 2021. There’s new construction in the village next to Grandpa Sam’s. There are new townhouses being proposed across from Barefoot Landing and there’s an Amazon shipping building being built in southeast Ogden. Let’s continue this progress of strengthening Spencerport and build a mid-size retail chain next to Walgreens.

Dan Bauman

Studio 259 is in Barefoot Landing Plaza

In Spencerport, there are thirteen hair salons! One of them that has been around for a while is Studio 259. Although there was a fire at this studio in 2018, they were able to rebuild and keep the business going that began in 2016. Studio 259 is in Barefoot Landing Plaza which is home to nine different businesses. They are open Tuesday thru Saturday and although you can try to be a walk-in, it is best to make an appointment before coming in.

There’s not many places to find local artwork for sale on the west side. You can go to the Hart Gallery 27 in Brockport and here in Spencerport, you can also go to the Union Street Coffee House where Alexandros Hatzigiannidis has a lot of monoprints hanging up. You can purchase his artwork at the coffee shop in the central business district or you can go on his website and purchase something at www.godsngladiators.com He sells wall art, monoprint garments and classic apparel.

Did it even snow in December? There was a heavy snow a few days before Christmas as I walked into Pontillo’s in Spencerport for a slice of pizza. I had noticed that their neighbor had put a sign above the door that said that they buy, sell, and trade used goods.

Frosty The Snowman was playing on the T.V in Pontillo’s at 4:15PM. For a second, while waiting for my slice to cook, I was watching the show with the worker in the pizza store.

While I ate my slice, a delivery guy came in with cases of soda. I asked him if he was surviving the weather and he said that he was hanging by a thread.

As I left Pontillo’s into the snow, I looked through the window inside the used goods store and it was mostly vacant. Actually, the Dry Cleaners sign was still above the door. They were not open for business yet.

It’s now the middle of January and the used goods store is still mostly empty inside, so I called the store to find out when they would be opening. The owner said that their grand opening would be on February 1st.

By Dan Bauman