Demographics

At the 2010 census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 there were 2,656 people, 1,048 households and 718 families residing in the village. The population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 2,213.3 people per square mile (885.3/km²). There were 1,174 housing units, with an average density of 978.3 per square mile (391.3/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 94.2 percent White, 0.9 percent African American, 1.8 percent Native American, 0.5 percent Asian, .7 percent from other races, and 1.8 percent from two or more races. 2.8 percent of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

31.8 percent of households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.8 percent were married couples

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 15 percent had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.5 percent were non-families. 26.4 percent of all households were made up of individuals and 11 percent had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 2.98.

In the village the population was spread out with 28 percent under the age of 20, 7 percent from 20 to 24, 25.5 percent from 25 to 44, 26.7 percent from 45 to 64, and 12.9 percent who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.7 years. For every 100 females there were 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.6 males.

The median 2000 income for a household in the village was $32,446, and the median income for a family was $38,617. Males had a median income of $33,889 versus $19,464 for females. The per capita income

Per capita income

Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the village was $15,904. 12.9% of the population and 9.8% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 22.8% of those under the age of 18 and 1.9% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Businesses

Silver Creek has a number of businesses, varying from small companies to regional and national corporations. It has a delicatessen

Delicatessen

Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods". The word entered English via German,with the old German spelling , plural of Delikatesse "delicacy", ultimately from Latin delicatus....

, a pizzeria, a Chinese restaurant and a supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

. Rem-Tronics, Excelco Development, Newbrook Machine Corporation and Petri Baking Products are local employers. A sign-maker and computer store are located in the former Millar Lumber Building on Central Avenue, between Hanover and Elm Streets. There are several automobile dealerships in the area.

The former J.B.'s Lamplite building downtown is rich in local history. In 1972, it was was built after the former Barone's Market was gutted by fire. It too burned in 2001, becoming R. T. Creekers until it closed in 2006. As of 2011, the Silver Creek American Legion

American Legion

The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...

 post occupies the building. An army-navy store

Surplus store

A surplus store or disposals store sells items that are used, or purchased but unused, and no longer needed. The surplus is often military, government or industrial excess often called army-navy stores in America...

 carries a variety of military, law-enforcement, fire and ambulance and Boy Scout

Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...

 merchandise. The former Geitner Theater doubles as a fitness center

Health club

A health club is a place which houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise.-Main workout area:...

 during the week and a teen nightclub on weekends. A stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 studio features works by local artists.

Health care and law enforcement

Silver Creek is served by the Lake Erie Regional Health System, which consists of Lake Shore Hospital in Irving

Irving, New York

Irving is a hamlet located in Chautauqua County, New York, USA. It is located near the east town line and the eastern county line in the Town of Hanover. US Route 20 and New York State Route 5 pass through the hamlet, which is also next to Cattaraugus Creek; New York State Route 438 terminates just...

, Brooks Hospital in Dunkirk and Tri-County Memorial Hospital in Gowanda

Gowanda, New York

Gowanda is a village in New York in the United States and lies partly in Erie County and partly in Cattaraugus County. The population was 2,842 at the 2000 census. The name is a local native term meaning "almost surrounded by hills" or "beautiful place among the hills...

.
Trauma cases are treated at the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

 and UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pennsylvania

Erie, Pennsylvania

Erie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...

. In August 2009 a flash flood affected Silver Creek, Sunset Bay and Gowanda. As a result of the flood, the New York State Department of Health

New York State Department of Health

The New York State Department of Health, ', is the governmental body responsible for public health in the state of New York. The cabinet-level department is headed by the Health Commissioner, a position held since January 24, 2011 by Nirav R. Shah, M.D., M.P.H.....

 closed Tri-County Memorial Hospital until a building can be constructed in a different location in Gowanda. WCA Hospital in Jamestown

Jamestown, New York

Jamestown is a city in Chautauqua County, New York in the United States. The population was 31,146 at the 2010 census.The City of Jamestown is adjacent to Town of Ellicott and is at the southern tip of Chautauqua Lake...

 also treats patients in the region. Silver Creek is served by a village police department with about 15 full- and part-time employees; it also handles security when the village court is in session. The department is assisted by the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department and the New York State Police

New York State Police

The New York State Police is the state police force of over 4,600 sworn Troopers for the state of New York. It was established on April 11, 1917 by the New York Legislature, in response to the 1913 murder of a construction foreman named Sam Howell in Westchester County, which at that time did not...

.

The village has a volunteer fire department with 50–60 active volunteers and junior firefighters, operating in tandem with the Silver Creek Emergency Squad. They are trained by the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control and the New York State Department of Health's Bureau of Emergency Medical Services. On August 9, 2009 the emergency-squad building, the village fire hall and its vehicles sustained extensive damage in a flash flood; the public works department on North Main Street was destroyed (it has since moved to a new building in the former Bentges distributing plant on Routes 5 and 20 in the Town of Hanover. Several homes along Walnut Creek were badly damaged or destroyed, and the Silver Village Trailer Park was leveled by flooding from Silver Creek.
Some village streets were badly damaged or washed away by the flood waters. A funeral home

Funeral home

A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the deceased and their families. These services may include aprepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral....

, church and school were also badly damaged.

Starflight is a medivac service operating under the auspices of the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department.
Mercy Flight is a nonprofit medivac service based in Buffalo. Life Star is a medivac service affiliated with UPMC Hamot and Saint Vincent Health System in Erie. All three serve the Silver Creek area.

Grape Festival

Every third weekend in September Silver Creek hosts a Festival of Grapes to honor Concord grapes, an important agricultural product. The festival began in 1968 and features a parade

Parade

A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind...

, live music, a midway

Midway (fair)

A midway at a fair is the location where amusement rides, entertainment and fast food booths are concentrated....

, a wine tent, children's and adults' activities and a grape stomping.

In 2008, the Silver Creek Grape Festival was featured on the nationally-televised Good Morning America

Good Morning America

Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...

. Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Sam Champion and Chris Cuomo visited a farm to stomp grapes on their trip across America; taken during the 2008 election, they visited 50 states in 50 days learning about the country. Diane Sawyer called it "the first and maybe last annual GMA grape stomping contest in honor of Lucille Ball, who was born 30 minutes from Silver Creek". The four participated in a grape-stomping competition.

School

The Silver Creek Central School District has been recognized by Business First as the number-one school district in western New York, as shown by a comparison of academic outcomes and socioeconomic conditions for two years in a row.
In Silver Creek all three schools (elementary

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

, middle

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

 and high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

) are physically interconnected, to facilitate the transition to the next stage of learning. The elementary school is attached to the middle school which in turn is attached to the high school. Silver Creek maintains its own transportation department, rather than contracting for school-bus service. Its bus drivers have come from all walks of life; many are retirees. The transportation director is responsible for the district's 30 buses.

There are separate runs for pre-kindergarten

Pre-Kindergarten

Pre-kindergarten refers to the first formal academic classroom-based learning environment that a child customarily attends in the United States. It begins between the ages of 3-5 depending on the length of the program...

 to fifth-grade, and sixth- to twelfth-grade students. Four buses are used on a later run for vocational students

Vocational education

Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...

 returning from the LoGuidice Educational Center in Fredonia

Fredonia, New York

Fredonia is a village in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 11,068 as of 2009.The Village of Fredonia is in the Town of Pomfret south of Lake Erie...

 and students staying late for any reason. The buses are used for school-sponsored sporting events held at other schools, school-sponsored field trip

Field trip

A field trip or excursion, known as school trip in the UK and school tour in Ireland, is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment...

s and the annual Class Night party for the graduating class. In the event of a snow day

Weather-related cancellation

A weather-related cancellation or delay is when an institution, operation, or event is closed, canceled, or delayed as a result of inclement weather conditions...

 or an unanticipated need for early dismissal, all local television and radio stations are contacted. If the fire-alarm system is activated apart from state-required fire drills a number of town and county fire departments, law enforcement and EMS

Emergency medical services

Emergency medical services are a type of emergency service dedicated to providing out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care, to patients with illnesses and injuries which the patient, or the medical practitioner, believes constitutes a medical emergency...

 are dispatched.

There is a SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving) chapter at the high school, counseling students against destructive decisions. It has sponsored movie nights for elementary-school students with movies, food and activities.

Athletics

The school colors are black and old gold

Old Gold

Old gold is a dark yellow, which varies from light olive or olive brown to deep or strong yellow. The widely-accepted color "Old gold" is on the darker rather than the lighter side of this range....

, and its mascot is a black knight. Sports offered are cross-country

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

 for boys and girls, football and soccer for boys and soccer, swimming and volleyball for girls. The 2008–2009 boys' varsity

Varsity team

In the United States and Canada, varsity sports teams are the principal athletic teams representing a college, university, high school or other secondary school. Such teams compete against the principal athletic teams at other colleges/universities, or in the case of secondary schools, against...

 football team played at Ralph Wilson Stadium

Ralph Wilson Stadium

Ralph Wilson Stadium is a football stadium, located in the town of Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, New York. It is the home for the Buffalo Bills, of the NFL...

 in Orchard Park, home of the Buffalo Bills

Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

.

External links

• Rail-station archive