From left, Lakewood Village Trustee Ben Troche, Mayor Randy Holcomb, and Trustee Ellen Barnes conduct business Wednesday. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

LAKEWOOD – Christmas in the Village is scheduled for the first three Fridays and Saturdays in December.

Lakewood Village Trustees heard a presentation Wednesday by Michelle Turner about the event that will be presented by the Lakewood Community Development Corp.

Turner said the LCDC had asked her to help with the December event to help draw people to the village.

“So what I thought of was, instead of doing a one-day, one-hit wonder, let’s just do maybe three weekends in a row and have various events go on throughout the village during those Friday nights and Saturday days,” Turner told trustees.

Here are some highlights:

– Fridays: sleigh rides, photos with Santa Claus, outdoor movies, and Christmas caroling.

Saturdays: build a snowman, candy cane relay races, craft vendors, make and take Christmas crafts/letters to Santa, and a human library featuring an author reading from his or her selected works followed by a question-and-answer session with the author.

“Instead of taking out a book, you rent the author. So they sit down for an hour and they tell their story,” Turner said. “So instead of actually reading a book, you can actually hear the story from the author.”

Turner noted craft vendors will not be charged a fee to participate.

“We’re just trying to just have something for everybody,” Turner added.

For more information visit lcdc.org or visit LCDC’s Facebook page.

Trustees also heard from Brian Kulpa, an architect and urban planner with Imagine Solutions of Amherst, regarding the Chautauqua Mall.

Trustee Ellen Barnes said village officials want to see what can be done with the mall since many retailers have left. She added that officials asked Kulpa for preliminary ideas on how else the property can be utilized and how to maybe repurpose it.

“The village has lost a lot,” Barnes said.

In 2023, the mall got a break on the property’s tax assessment. Chautauqua Mall Realty Holding LLC, filed an Article 7 case in state Supreme Court seeking a reduction in the mall’s property valuation from $6 million to $670,000. After hearing arguments in the proceeding, state Supreme Court Justice Grace Hanlon ruled that the mall’s new assessment be decreased to $4,020,000 through 2026.

The 2023 filing came after the town of Busti, village of Lakewood, Chautauqua County and the Southwestern Central School District had to reimburse the mall a percentage of taxes paid in 2020, 2021 and 2022 after the mall’s taxable assessment was decreased late in 2022. Court records show that in 2020 the mall’s assessment was $9,260,000, and that amount was reduced to $5,772,000. In 2021 the assessment was $9,260,000, and it was reduced to $5,592,000, and in 2022 the assessment was $9,260,000, and it has been reduced to $4,965,000. The 2023 tax assessment from the Busti tax assessor was $6 million — an amount mall officials said was too high even though the mall was purchased for $6 million in September 2022.

“We’re interested in seeing something constructive happening,” Mayor Randy Holcomb noted.

Village officials did not say when talks will be held with mall ownership about a possible repurpose of the property.

“I’d like to see the mall come alive again,” Barnes said.