UTICA NANO WINDFALL LIKELY TO BENEFIT US In Particular, Mathes Sees Boon For Richfield By JIM KEVLIN • for www.allotsego.com Utica’s nanotechnology dream is about to come true with Governor Cuomo’s announcement last week that GE Global Research and an Austrian company, AMS AG, have committed to operations that will create 1,500 jobs in Utica and Marcy in the next five years. That can only mean good things for Otsego County, said Sandy Mathes, president of the Otsego Now economic…
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WHITHER COOPERSTOWN? Attend Thursday’s Community Open House To Help Chart Future Of Baseball Town, USA By JIM KEVLIN • from The Freeman’s Journal COOPERSTOWN – Last October, a two-day “charrette” – a planning exercise – sought inputs from 60 participants on what Cooperstown’s future should hold. In the eight months since, Elan Planning staffers and a community advisory board have been reviewing the results, and will lay out preliminary conclusions at an all-day Community Open House, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday,…
AllOTSEGO.com EXCLUSIVE COUNTY IN ‘HUNGER GAMES’ FOR $1.5 BILLION IN FUNDING COOPERSTOWN – For the past month, four delegates from Otsego County have been part of a six-county task force seeking to win $1/2 billion in state funding, and to do so must out-compete at least four other regions of Upstate New York. The four representatives are county Rep.Craig Gelbsman, R-Oneonta, who as owner of First Choice Cleaners is also representing small business; Cooperstown Mayor Jeff Katz, representing municipalities; Sandy…
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER If We Pursue Economic Development With Iron Logic, It Will Happen Here By JIM KEVLIN • allotsego.com Here’s what’s new about economic development in Otsego County: It’s driven by iron logic, locally grounded, data based. Take tourism. The privatization of the county Tourism Office into Destination Marketing of Otsego County puts hospitality professionals, led by the ultimate pro, Otesaga GM & VP Jim Miles, in the driver’s seat. The goal is simple: “heads in beds.” The target…
Broadband Plan Set: IDA May Let Contract With Telecom Firm By JIM KEVLIN • HOMETOWN ONEONTA/The Freeman’s Journal Edition of Thursday-Friday, Dec. 4-5, 2014 The future in Otsego County is not now. But it could be now in the next 2-3 years. The IDA-commissioned Broadband Feasibility Study has found a $30 million public-private high-speed system can happen in Otsego County, and the agency is prepared to contract with a “telecom” to implement it as soon at the IDA’s Thursday, Dec.…
Broadband Plan Readied IDA To Let Contract With Telecom Firm Editor’s Note: This article appeared in the Dec. 4-5, 2014 editions of The Freeman’s Journal & Hometown Oneonta. By JIM KEVLIN • allotsego.com The future in Otsego County is not now. But it could be now in the next 2-3 years. The IDA-commissioned Broadband Feasibility Study has found a $30 million public-private high-speed system can happen in Otsego County, and the agency is prepared to contract with a “telecom” to…
Fingers Crossed. Forums May Achieve ‘Single Point Of Contact’ Editorial for the edition of Thursday-Friday Oct. 16-17, 2014 Otsego County has never done economic development – and never will, county Treasurer Dan Crowell told the 2014 Otsego Leadership class when it convened last April at the Cooperstown Graduate Program. Economic development requires risk-taking, Crowell said, and the county Board of Representatives simply has been unwilling to risk taxpayer money. He couldn’t imagine the reps ever will. That’s prudent; they shouldn’t.…
Forums May Build ‘Single Point Of Contact’ By JIM KEVLIN•HOMETOWN ONEONTA Edition of Friday, Oct. 17, 2014 Three forums for small-business owners – in a month or so – are being planned, with a goal of achieving what’s been an elusive “single point of contact” for economic development in Otsego County. “We want to outreach to people in the trenches,” Bob Hanft, county Industrial Development Agency chair, told the county board’s Intergovernmental (IGA) Committee – its responsibilities include economic development…
New Broadband Plan For County Takes Shape By JIM KEVLIN • HOMETOWN ONEONTA A three-person team from FARR Technologies of Sioux Falls, S.D., spent three days in Otsego County last week, tightening a schematic for achieving broadband Internet service countywide within five years. FARR’s mandate is to provide, by mid-October, “information we need to aggressively apply for state and federal funding,” said Sandy Mathes, Otsego County IDA president. He plans to ask the IDA board to approve funding applications when…
County Will Go It Alone •By JIM KEVLIN• Hometown Oneonta/The Freeman’s Journal For the time being, anyhow, the County of Otsego doesn’t intend to participate in the “single point of contact” economic-development strategy. The county Planning Department has been renamed the Planning & Economic Development Department, and will continue handling the small-business programs that the former county Economic Development Office did under Carolyn Lewis, who resigned last August. The county IDA (Industrial Development Agency) “is doing the big grants,” said county Rep.…