Rep. Schwerd Says Committee Will Seek

Alternative To ‘Single Point Of Contact’

By JIM KEVLIN • allotsego.com

COOPERSTOWN – The county Board of Representatives’ committee in charge of economic development has decided not to collaborate with the IDA’s “single point of contact” strategy.

County Rep. Betty Ann Schwerd, R-Edmeston, who chairs the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, told the county board this morning the IGA is interviewing two consultants to take on the tasks formerly performed by the county Economic Development Office.

Schwerd didn’t ask for a motion, and no vote was taken on whether the county board as a whole supports the new approach.

The office has been without leadership since Carolyn Lewis left as director last August to become SUNY Oneonta’s economic development coordinator. In April, Zondra Hart, Lewis’ assistant, resigned.

“Now there’s no staff,” board chair Kathy Clark, R-Otego, observed today.

Last month, IDA director Sandy Mathes proposed assuming the county office’s responsibilities, furthering the “single point of contact” strategy that came out of the second “Seward Summit” last November.

The most common estimate, although not universally accepted, is that the county Economic Development Office was costing about $170,000 a year; the IDA is seeking $250,000.

Schwerd gave her committee report and the meeting continued, but county Rep. Jim Powers, R-Butternuts, brought the issue back up. “I don’t understand what we’re doing with economic development,” he said.

Some of the loans made previously by the IDA are “1,000 days overdue,” said Clark. “We feel it’s important we get ahead of what’s down there.”

The IDA has committed $3 million, generated over time by fees on development projects, to the “single point of contact concept.” In contrast, Schwerd, who until now has supported the “single point” strategy, now said, the $250,000 is “taxpayers dollars. We’re trying to be responsible.”

Since the staff has gone, “the number of people calling in right now don’t require a fulltime employee – even a parttime one,” she continued. “The real question is, what can we afford? What is our return on investment?”

County Rep. Rick Hulse, R-Fly Creek, an IGA committee member, said he sees hiring a consultant to run the Economic Development Office as “the shortterm solution.” Once Mathes makes public a strategic plan he is developing, attitudes might change, Hulse said.

The IDA board is meeting at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow.