Tuesday marked the sixth round of New York State’s Regional Economic Development Council presentations.
Ten regions, including the Southern Tier are competing for up to 25 million dollars in grant funding.
Since 2011, the Southern Tier’s been awarded nearly $420-million in grants for nearly 400 projects, but Binghamton University President and Council Co-Chair Harvey Stenger says there’s still plenty of work left to do.
Stenger said, “We’ve listed 12 priority projects, most of them have very strong leveraging, usually five private dollars to one public dollar.”
Of those dozen priority projects, Stenger says he’d look to use part of the $25-million to continue to help the 34 thousand veterans in the region.
Harvey says the region has done well, reducing veteran unemployment 75 percent in the last year alone, but more can be done.
Stenger said, “We’ll be focused on the job training at the Salvation Army at the SUNY Broome site as well as making sure that we can get them to the industrial parks where a lot of the jobs are.”
Three Rivers Development President Betsey Hale says she wants to help seniors with the development of 20 unit affordable housing complex in Downtown Elmira.
Hale said, “A key piece of this is that it gives our veterans a place to live in, it gives them an opportunity to trained,”
Aside from seniors Hale has her sights on putting money towards a salt mining company in Tompkins County to help save 200 jobs.
Stenger said the region still needs to focus on students.
He said, “Trying to get those really bright kids who came here from out of the area to stay in the Southern Tier perhaps starting their own business or working together in perhaps a small start-up business.”
Five of the ten regions will receive $25-million and the remaining five, 10 million.
Each region is also competing for up to $15-million in tax credits to help attract business to their region.
