• CHEER: You can always count on a few shots of Niagara Falls during an NFL broadcast of a Buffalo Bills home game. This Sunday, the Bills and Niagara Falls will be back on the screen when “Peyton’s Places” airs its premiere season 5 episode on ESPN+. In a clip released last week, Peyton Manning and Bills quarterback Josh Allen are at Niagara Falls State Park filling up a wooden barrel with various Buffalo sports memorabilia, including a red Bills helmet, before throwing it into the water for a trip over Niagara Falls. Manning says this is their attempt at ending the curse plaguing Buffalo’s sports teams. The episode is aptly titled, “The Bills Mafia.” We’ll see in the months ahead if their efforts to end the so-called curse work, in the meantime, enjoy Sunday’s episode.
• CHEER: It’s always rough to see a popular local attraction at odds with neighbors and the local municipality. That was the case for the Niagara Pumpkin Farm, which is currently in its third season, offering seasonal food, haunted hayrides, a corn maze, and a pumpkin house. It has also been the subject of noise complaints from nearby residents and Town of Lewiston lawsuits charging it with operating without the proper permits. With fall in full swing, things have calmed down and the farm operators and town officials are working together to get through this season. Both town Building Inspector Ed Zimmerman and Fire Inspector Patrick Martin toured the property and offered the farm operators safety recommendations to implement, which they did. A lawsuit from the town was withdrawn without prejudice, though it can be brought again in the future. Town officials said, though, they haven’t received any recent complaints from residents, with the farm abiding by town requests. Let’s hope it continues into the next fall season.
• CHEER: The Dream It Do It program recently celebrated its Niagara County successes in getting more students interested in manufacturing jobs. Originating in Chautauqua County in 2009, Dream It Do It expanded to Niagara and Erie counties in August 2024 with the ultimate goal of creating a pipeline of skilled workers to fill out the local workforce. Manufacturing accounts for 14% of Niagara County’s workforce, with 275 different companies employing 8,566 residents in 2025. They have a combined payroll of nearly $425 million, while the goods made and shipped are worth $3.4 billion. So far, Dream It Do It has formed partnerships with or is in talks with seven county school districts. Those include Niagara Falls, Royalton-Hartland, Wilson, Newfane, Barker, North Tonawanda, and Lockport. From those districts, 1,507 students ages 13 and older are enrolled in the programs offered. They can take a trip to any of the manufacturers participating, take part in camps for applied learning and hear from industry speakers. It’s a good start and we expect the important program to grow in future years.
• JEERS: We’re now eight weeks in with the 2025 I LOVE NY Fall Foliage reports, and you may have noticed from this week’s past map that leaf colors are rapidly going from bright fall colors to dark brown. In addition, the trick-or-treaters were out last night and temperatures have finally taken a noticeable dive. Not to mention, we’ll be turning the clocks back tonight, with all that brings. (We won’t get into that here.) This isn’t so much a slight on winter, which can be a fine season in its own right, but more of a sad realization that autumn is just about over and soon there’ll be no leaves on the trees at all and the sky will be grey more often than not. And snow … it can’t be far away now. We hope everyone had a chance to enjoy this really great fall season and makes an effort to enjoy its final days.