Little Valley
Little Valley is a village in Cattaraugus County, New York, USA. The population was 1,130 at the 2000 census.
The Village of Little Valley is in the northwest corner of the Town of Little Valley. Little Valley is the county seat of Cattaraugus County and also the location of the county fair (held in August in the fairgrounds north of the village). The village is north of Salamanca, New York.
The town’s name is a relative comparison of two tributaries (the other being the neighboring Great Valley) of the Allegheny River.
History
Prior to 1868, the Village of Ellicottville was the county seat, but the presence of the railroad in Little Valley prompted a move. The Village of Little Valley was incorporated in 1876.
The US Post Office-Little Valley is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Politics and government
The village is operated by a village board that consists of a mayor, a deputy mayor, and three trustees. All serve four-year terms, and most of the board is up for re-election on the same year, meaning that two to three years can pass without any village board seats up for election.
The mayor of Little Valley is Norman Marsh, a Republican. Marsh was re-elected through 2015 in an unopposed election on March 15, 2011. The village board consists of a deputy mayor and three other trustees.
Geography
Little Valley is located at 42°14′58″N 78°47′59″W (42.249555, -78.799775).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.0 square miles (2.6 km²).None of the area is covered with water.
Little Valley Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River, flows past the northeast side of the village. A smaller creek, Lees Hollow, flanks the Little Valley Creek on the southern side of the village.
State routes NY-242 and NY-353 converge at the village. County Routes 5 and 14 enter the village from the north.
Since the former New York State Route 17 route between Salamanca and Steamburg was discontinued in the 1970s, it is almost impossible to travel from Steamburg to Salamanca (or reverse) without either using Interstate 86 or passing through the village of Little Valley. (Theoretically, a maze of county and back roads could be used to circumvent this, but it is highly impractical.)
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,130 people, 427 households, and 266 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,127.3 people per square mile (436.3/km²). There were 513 housing units at an average density of 511.8 per square mile (198.1/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 95.58% White, 1.86% Black or African American, 0.80% Native American, 0.09% from other races, and 1.68% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.77% of the population.
There were 427 households out of which 32.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.8% were married couples living together, 13.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.7% were non-families. 32.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.99.
In the village the population was spread out with 25.0% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 31.7% from 25 to 44, 18.5% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 110.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 107.1 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $28,750, and the median income for a family was $31,875. Males had a median income of $27,500 versus $20,962 for females. The per capita income for the village was $14,458. About 11.2% of families and 15.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.7% of those under age 18 and 7.4% of those age 65 or over.
businesses
Little Valley’s main attraction is Little Valley Speedway, a half-mile dirt track used for stock car racing and demolition derbies during the summer. It is one of the most popular race tracks in the area and doubles as the Cattaraugus County Fairgrounds, the site of the annual county fair.
The Village of Little Valley also has:
One Crosby’s convenience store. Crosby’s operated the former Dairyland on the western side of town before closing that location and buying the former Uni-Mart in the center of town.
A bar, owned by Frank Hughes, known as the Hughes Hotel. One full-service grocery store (Brooks Market, formerly an A&P until 1971) that also serves as pizza and sub shop. A laundromat. One restaurant (Suzanne’s), operates on limited hours
DiVine Occasions, Inc.is a full fledged Teleflora Florist which has fresh flowers,plants,tuxedo junction, asher’s chocolates, party supplies, gifts,coffee bar, and so much more.
Salamanca Area Beverage, a distributor of beer and other beverages. Rock City Chrysler-Dodge automobile dealership. A public outdoor pool, the only one of its kind in the area. An ice skating rink, built on Lyle Underwood Pond, and weight room. An elementary school, built in 1921, that is part of the Cattaraugus-Little Valley Central School District. It had served as both elementary and high school until 2000, when Little Valley Central School merged with Cattaraugus Central School. As part of the merger, Cattaraugus-Little Valley agreed to keep Little Valley open. A referendum put forth by the school on December 5, 2006 to close the building and consolidate all school operations in Cattaraugus was rejected, largely due to backlash in Little Valley. The building currently houses grades three through five from the entire district; Little Valley-based students grades two and under, as well as grade six, previously occupied the building, though the school board moved those to Cattaraugus in exchange for Cattaraugus’s third through fifth graders. A playground and former practice field is also owned and maintained by the school.
Little Valley Volunteer Fire Department Inc. Formed on July 13, 1888 as Citizen Hose Company #1.
Three churches; Methodist and Congregational in the center of town and a Wesleyan Church on the western border.
The Pat McGee Trail, a pedestrian walkway and cornerstone of Cattaraugus County’s trail system, running 12 miles along an abandoned railbed from Cattaraugus to Salamanca and named after the late state senator Patricia McGee. A handful of snowmobile trails also converge upon the village thanks to its central location in the county.
A local bank, the Cattaraugus County Bank, which is headquartered in the village and has several branches in Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and southern Erie Counties.
In 2001 a Chamber of Commerce was started. It is known as the Little Valley Area Chamber of Commerce. They host different events: “Cheers to Little Valley,” and sponsor “Christmas on Main St.”
Two radio stations, classic hits WGWE (105.9) and weather radio WWG32 (162.425), are licensed to the village. WWG32 is based in Cheektowaga, while WGWE has its headquarters in Salamanca. WGWE’s tower is located about a mile south of the village atop Fourth Street.
Despite the village’s small size, it was, for a time, the home of a conglomerate. Pirshlo, Inc., owned by Lloyd and Rebecca Long, owned and operated the Uni-Mart, the laundromat, a tanning booth by the name of Island Tan, a weekly newspaper known as the County-Chronicle and several apartments for rent. Lloyd Long was arrested in November 2007 (and later convicted in July 2008) after it was discovered he had been hiding Pirshlo’s ownership of two supposedly Seneca-owned Uni-Marts in Salamanca and evading taxes on tobacco in the process.[4] The laundromat, tanning booth, apartments and Uni-Mart have been sold off to other companies while the newspaper has been shut down.
Bush Industries had a factory on the western side of the village for many years; said plant was closed in Feb 2008. Half of the approximately 100 workers were offered jobs in the main plant in Jamestown, but those jobs would be cut entirely after only six months. The factory was reopened under the name “Innovative Wood Solutions,” a locally owned company that also owns a plant in Randolph.
Historically, the village is well known for its numerous knife businesses, including Cattaraugus Cutlery Company, W. R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co., and their many spin-offs, that resided in the village in the early part of the 20th century. None of the cutlery businesses remain in Little Valley, although many are still in business elsewhere.
Three weekly newspapers have operated out of Little Valley; the first was the Cattaraugus Republican (founded 1867, originally based in Ellicottville, but later acquired by the Salamanca Press), the second was the Little Valley Hub (operated from 1881 to 1964), and the most recent was the “County Chronicle,” which printed from 1992 to 2007, with some of the earlier years being based in Salamanca.
