Onondaga County launches restaurant gift-card program; quickly sells out

SALINA, N.Y. — Not long after Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced a gift-card program for the county’s restaurants, the program sold out, as McMahon indicated in a tweet on Tuesday afternoon.

“New Flash!!!!! Our $500k Gift card program is officially closed out. Amazing this happened in hours. Those with Vouchers now have until May 10th to redeem them at the Restaurants. It is highly likely We Will look at another round as we track to make sure the vouchers get redeemed. Stay Tuned,” County Executive Ryan McMahon tweeted.

Earlier, McMahon had announced that more than 170 local restaurants are participating in the new Onondaga County gift-card program called “Keeping it local.”

The county is going to invest $500,000 in this initiative “at the moment,” said McMahon. “If things go well, we’ll do more,” he added.

McMahon on Tuesday morning announced the program at Santangelo’s Restaurant & Catering, located at 673 Old Liverpool Road in the town of Salina.

Onondaga County has launched a website for the program: www.ongoved.com/keepingitlocal.

Those interested will have until May 10 to redeem their voucher, but their gift cards don’t expire, according to McMahon.

“You will be able to print out a voucher off our website. Each voucher has a specific identification number for quality control. You will then go to Santangelo’s or another [participating] restaurant with your voucher. You will give it to the restaurant team and then it will be a match [with the restaurant]. If you print out a $100 voucher from our website, then you will give Santangelo’s a $100 check or cash … and they will give you a $200 gift card for you and/or your family to enjoy,” McMahon explained.

May 10 is when the first pause happens. May 9 is Mother’s Day.

“After May 10, we’re going to reassess the program and potentially expand the program to go into Father’s Day,” McMahon said.

In 2020, Onondaga County’s sales-tax revenue generated from local restaurants fell 33 percent amid the COVID-19 pandemic, McMahon said. In a regular year, local restaurants join auto dealers and auto-part suppliers as the top sales-tax generators for the county, he added.

David Knapp, chairman of the Onondaga County Legislature, Onondaga County legislators Brian May and Debra Cody, and Salina Town Supervisor Colleen Gunnip joined McMahon for the announcement.

For the next two months, Onondaga County plans to announce various initiatives that address how the region can recover as a community, McMahon noted as he began his remarks at Santagelo’s.

“We have to start to focus in on recovery and stimulus,” he noted.