ORCHARD PARK N.Y. (WIVB) – The Community Benefits Oversight Committee wants to make sure everyone walks away a winner once the new stadium in Orchard Park is built.

Construction on the new Bills Stadium continues to progress. There’s a big push to include minority, women and service disabled veteran owned businesses (MWBE/SDVOB) in this project. Community leaders met on Monday to say that progress is being made there, but that there’s still room for improvement.

“Building generational wealth, giving opportunity to our communities is what we need to have and I believe this is a great opportunity to make sure that the footprint has been started,” said Rev. Mark Blue, who was recently named the chair of the CBOC.

“This is a perfect opportunity to give back to the community and I look at it as being an opportunity to make sure our communities are being reached out to and our communities are getting a piece of the pie,” Blue added.

The committee met Monday at the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library to talk about what actions need to be taken to include more MWBE/SDVOB’s in the stadium construction.

“The community comes out and supports the Bills organization as a whole, we want to make sure that they feel that same love. This investment is more than just the dollars, we’ve really grown the entire region and economy of Western New York,” said Penny Semaia, the vice president of new stadium relations.

The committee is brainstorming ways to recruit more locally owned MWBE/SDVOB’s and is hopeful they’ll reach closer to their goals.

“I’m encouraged and I’m very hopeful. This brings a lot of individuals to the table and building teams and minority participation, MWBE and veteran participation. They’ve opened the window of opportunity for our community and it’s very inspiring,” Rev. Blue said.

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Sarah Minkewicz is an Emmy-nominated reporter and Buffalo native who has been a part of the News 4 team since 2019. Follow Sarah on Twitter @SarahMinkewicz and click here to see more of her work.

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