This past week, Governor Cuomo announced that he
would be allocating nearly half a million dollars in grant money towards
promoting small businesses and making it easier to access newly obtained state
land. Essentially, this money has been broken up into 9 total projects,
involving tourism, recreation, and small businesses in need of a capital boost.
In 2012, the state acquired nearly 70,000 acres of land; this money will go to
the aforementioned projects on this newly acquired land. The land spans 5 towns
and two counties, and as of yet, the planning boards of each of the municipalities
have come together and are beginning to form a plan in regards to what to use the
money for that works best for everyone. One of the major planned projects so
far is to expand snowmobile trails in Long Lake County to be able to include
equestrian interests, a popular activity in the area.
When
asked about the grant, Essex County Board of Supervisors Chair Randy Douglass
said “We don’t want one-time visitors to come here with only one activity in
mind. We want them to have a wide range of activities and the only way we’re
going to do that is have a good plan in place, a plan connecting the five
towns. Creating these master plans and seeing how we can reach our best
potential of promoting the Adirondacks by working together is the whole
plan in a nutshell.” Essex county will be receiving nearly
$360,000 of the half a million dollars - a very large, majority chunk.
I
think the most exciting part about this news is that a lot of the money will be
used to support businesses. As we've discussed in class, there are many viable
businesses in the Adirondacks, but not all of them are "on the map" so to speak, or are
able to fully get off the ground. Therefore, an influx in capital, even just
for a few of them within a relatively small area, would be a really great start
as far as I'm concerned.
Newly Acquired Land
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Finch-Lands.jpg
http://wamc.org/post/grants-awarded-enhance-adirondack-tourism-and-economy
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