Utica Business Owner Goes Online to Keep Residents Afloat of City Happenings

In the past year, Cass Bar and Grill Owner John Sattman has been entrenched with helping the City of Utica plan successful events from the Ice Festival to the Riverwalk.

Now, the entrepruener and Downtown Development Authority member is getting out of the meeting room and into the online world to inform residents of all the happennings in the small town.

Sattman independently created and launched www.utica-events.com.

"If we don't try to drive more traffic downtown, I'm afraid our city will die," he told Patch. "This site allows businesses and the community (individuals, City of Utica, DDA etc.) to post events in a more central location that hopefully people will find."

Sattman has been seen around town posting flyers, announcing the new website, which is geared toward web savvy users.

"The posters have a QR code on them for those people who carry a smart phone. They can scan the code and go directly to the site," he said.

Sattman wants to remind the community that Utica can be a destination for bar and restaurnt crowd, a shopping haven for women with its independently owned boutiques and a feast for historians, since it has a historic downtown district.

In the past year, Utica has held a number of free festivals such as the Ice Festival in February, the Riverwalk and Old Mill Art Festival in July.

Next up on the Utica events calendar is the Utica Zombie Crawl Oct. 13 as dozens of zombies dripping in red paint will receive food and drink discounts at downtown restaurants and then make their way to the Utica Lions Club Sinister Haunted House on Moscone Drive.

"This site is intended for events that draw people to Historical Downtown Utica," said Sattman.