By Staff Reporter
LANCASTER — The Village of Lancaster is finally getting its stage.
Village officials broke ground Tuesday, Oct. 20, on a pavilion and permanent outdoor stage at Cayuga Creek Park, the green space along the creek off West Main Street. Restaurateur and philanthropist Russell J. Salvatore has committed $200,000 to the project, and the village will pay $100,000 toward the remaining cost, The Lancaster Bee reported.
“It’s going to give us a permanent stage where different performers can come up, and we can run a smaller concert series, as well as a couple movie nights and kids’ night, for sure,” Mayor Bill Schroeder said at the ceremony, according to the Bee.
A stage residents asked for
The idea lines up with what residents told planners. In the community survey for the Lancaster–Depew comprehensive plan update, dated October 2025, respondents asked the village to “make Cayuga Creek Park more attractive and usable,” and listed outdoor movie nights and performance spaces among the additions they wanted. The plan describes the park as a creekside green space with about 1,370 feet of paved trail linking pedestrians and cyclists to nearby sidewalks.
Mr. Schroeder said the pavilion is the latest step in a turnaround on West Main Street.
“I come from an era when I remember West Main Street, and there was nothing on it — a couple of burnt-out buildings and Murphy’s [Appliances], and that was about it,” he said. “It has transformed over the last few years, and it didn’t happen overnight.”
The pavilion will sit near the base of the clock tower at the center of the park, where lower ground gives spectators a better view. Audiences will face east, so the setting sun won’t be in their eyes during evening shows, the Bee reported.
The Salvatore gift
Mr. Salvatore, whose name will be on the structure, recalled his father’s restaurant on Delavan Avenue, where, he said, many people from Lancaster drove over to work.
“I feel very, very proud to have my name on this beautiful park. I’m the type of guy that never says no,” Mr. Salvatore said.
Jeff Zeplowitz, executive director of the WNY Chamber of Commerce, presented him with a proclamation recognizing his donations to the Lancaster and Depew area, the Bee reported. Trustees Dee Miller, John Mikoley and Tammie Malone Schaefer, Erie County Legislator Frank Todaro and Town Historian Mary Jo Monnin also attended.
Later and leaner than first planned
The project has taken longer than the village first said. When the gift was announced in October 2025, the Bee reported that the board planned to accept the donation and put the job out to bid that month, with construction estimated to begin in April and finish by June. The groundbreaking came about four months after that target finish date.
The design was trimmed to keep costs down. Mr. Schroeder said last year it was modeled on a pavilion he and his wife saw in Memphis, minus that structure’s storage area and possible restrooms. “We clipped that off, and we got it down to $300,000,” he said at the time.
Trustee Gavin O’Brien said then that the pavilion would serve the village’s concert series, Fourth of July celebrations and local dance and music programs. “It’s a cool thing to have. It’s a community resource,” he said.
Mr. Schroeder also said in 2025 that he hoped moving some events into the park could ease pressure on West Main Street, where street closures for merchant events are popular but crowded. “The streets are really getting packed at some of these things where it’s getting really difficult to maneuver. I question the safety,” he said. He also suggested working with the police chief to place a Flock license-plate camera near the park to deter vandalism.
What we don’t know yet
Public records posted online do not yet answer several basic questions: who won the construction contract and at what price, whether the final cost still matches the $300,000 estimate, where the village’s $100,000 share comes from, when the stage is expected to open, and whether a camera will go up. Village board agenda packets posted online are scanned images that can’t be searched.
The Buffalo Chronicle has asked village officials for the contract details and a timeline and will update this story with their answers.
Featured image: Cayuga Creek in the Village of Lancaster, 2021. Photo by Tim Kiser / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
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