Community Beer working with other brewers

In 2012, Community Beer Works, 520 Seventh th St., became one of the first craft breweries in Buffalo. Now, the brewery is looking to do collaborations with a number of local breweries either every month or every other month,  Head Brewer Robert Turley said. A collaboration with Pressure Drop introduced a new Double-IPA called Fat Rips and a collaboration with Big Ditch will introduce a new pale ale. CBW is also working to get closer to its roots when they were a smaller brewery. By Zachary Jones and Emily Miller 

Elmwood Loses Business as Stores Close

Elmwood Avenue is experiencing a change in its retail landscape following the recent closing of multiple stores. Among the stores that have closed are Red Siren, 976 Elmwood Ave., and next-door neighbor Blue Sky Design Supply, 978 Elmwood Ave. Shoppers like Lisa Zain, a West Side native, have their favorite shops and are not surprised when stores come and go. “There are five different women boutiques, all within a couple blocks. So, if you don’t do something special, no one is going to go in or notice you,” Zain said. Gutter Pop Comics, temporarily moved from its original location at 1029 Elmwood Ave., to 986 Elmwood Ave., while it prepares to move to the former Record Theatre Building, 1786 Main St. By Dasha Hicks and Maria Lascarro

W.S. after-school programs could face cuts

            At the end of the school day for the past 20 years students have been playing, drawing, learning music and making friends at schools and community centers across the West Side. Some have been receiving counseling, others have been getting help with homework.

            All of this might come to an end should the federal budget cut the funding it gives to these programs through the state.

            President Donald Trump’s $4.8 trillion budget proposal released Feb. 10, includes a $19.4 billion block grant that states would receive. The administration would adjust how states fund programs that support disadvantaged K-12 students. This would be done by combining 29 programs which would mean a decrease of about eight percent of the U.S. Department of Education funding.

            Programs that could be affected include those associated with the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs’s West Side locations: Butler-Mitchell Clubhouse on Massachusetts Avenue, Jon locations at Butler-Mitchell Clubhouse, John F. Beecher Clubhouse on 10^th Street and the Elmwood Village Charter School on Days Park.

            The U.S. Congress has been supportive of such funding, but the President’s budget proposal would eliminate it, said Jillian Luchner, policy manager of the Afterschool Alliance, which performs research for the community learning centers.

            “There will no longer be funding,” Luchner said, “and the students will go to zero.”  By Dasha Hicks and Maria J Lascarro