Commerce Chenango updates economic-development plan

NORWICH — When Commerce Chenango last drafted an economic-development plan, the economy was doing great and nobody had ever heard of Chobani yogurt.

Obviously, a lot has changed over the past several years, which means it’s time to update the region’s economic-development plan, says Jennifer Tavares, director of economic development for Commerce Chenango.

“We have a very good base of a plan that was done back in 2005 and 2006,” she says. That plan was always meant to be a five-year plan, and now that it’s been more than five years, it’s time to update, she says.

Over the next several months, Commerce Chenango will work with the community, local-government officials, nonprofit organizations, and businesses to update the countywide economic-development strategic plan. The county says the new five-year plan will gauge its economic status and help identify goals and strategies necessary to improve quality of life, increase economic-development opportunities, and achieve greater economic sustainability in the county. 

Chenango County Industrial Development will use data collected during the process to update its own strategic plan, and the plan will also supplement Commerce Chenango’s comprehensive plan update, Tavares says.

Community members can participate in the planning process by attending one of several public meetings Commerce Chenango will hold this month. The meetings are scheduled for:

Sept. 10: Bainbridge-Guilford Central School District, Bainbridge, 6-8 p.m.

Sept. 12: BOCES, Norwich, 6-8 p.m.

Sept. 20: Unadilla Valley Central School, New Berlin, 6-8 p.m.

Sept. 25: Moore Memorial Library, Greene, 6-8 p.m.

During the meetings, Commerce Chenango will ask community members for feedback about the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats that impact economic development in the county. Those attending can also provide input about what goals and strategies the area needs to achieve economic success.

Commerce Chenango will pair that information with insight and data it collects through surveys of business owners and managers as well as municipal leaders. The plan is to identify key goals and strategies by the end of October, and to complete the new five-year plan by the end of the year, Tavares says. While that seems like a short timeframe, Commerce Chenango already has a solid plan in place from which it can build, she notes. 

Looking back to when that economic-development plan was launched in 2006, Tavares says the many changes in the region show exactly why a new plan is necessary. Back then, things were just getting started at the Chobani yogurt plant. In fact, the Chobani brand wasn’t even launched until 2007, but there were about five employees at the plant in those early days. Today, Chobani employs about 1,200 people in Chenango County.

Other businesses have also made changes, Tavares notes. Some are hiring, but many have cut jobs amid the difficult economy. This July, Chenango County’s unemployment rate stood at 8.5 percent, down slightly from the high of 8.7 percent reached in July 2009 but up sharply from 4.9 percent in July 2006.

It all adds up to a host of changes that the new economic-development plan needs to address. 

Going forward, Commerce Chenango will use the new plan in a variety of ways including applying for grant funding and as a resource for municipalities within the county, Tavares says.

For more information about the strategic-planning effort, visit www.chenangony.org.

Contact DeLore at tdelore@tgbbj.com