Vicki Pratt Gerbino (L) of EDC Warren County and Tori Riley of Washington County LDC will soon share office space and combine their efforts on regional development.
By Peter Miller
As the Business Journal prepared the adjacent article on EDC Warren County, we learned that that organization will soon be co-locating with Washington County Local Development Corporation in a coalition of forces in downtown Glens Falls. In the other article, Vicki Pratt Gerbino explains the significance of that move from the Warren County perspective. However, we should understand why it is important to the Washington County organization, as well. We spoke with Tori J. Riley, President of Washington County LDC.
What is the mission of Washington County LDC?
“The mission of Washington County LDC has always been to provide economic and community development focus on initiatives throughout the county. We’re a little unique in that most surrounding counties have separate departments – EDC, LDC and Planning. In Washington County, that’s all done within LDC.”
What are the areas that you are currently focusing on?
We’re currently assisting in the expansion of several manufacturing projects throughout the county and on the expansion of broadband accessibility in our rural communities. That’s going very well. We’re compiling a road count analysis of where broadband currently exists and where it stops. That will help us to identify funding specifically intended for unserved areas. In fact, the project to expand broadband throughout Cambridge will go live tomorrow.
We’re making real progress, and we’re working closely with the providers to understand what projects they have underway and how we might expand the reach of those projects. The Route 4 Corridor from Kingsbury to Ft. Ann is slated to be connected soon, followed by Route 40 to Argyle. The high-end manufacturers in those areas should have broadband service by the end of the second quarter of this year.
We’ve also focused on offering many planning and informative funding seminars for both municipalities and businesses who want to be better equipped to apply for new funding sources.
I’ve always felt that it was important to identify opportunities to attract new businesses, but I’m also confident that if we take care of what we have and help them to grow, succeed, thrive, and expand, that’s a great marketing technique to bring other businesses here. Yes, we’ll get some indirect jobs from GlobalFoundries, and we look forward to helping them succeed here, but we want to make sure that these programs that we offer are just as applicable to the businesses that are already here.
How does the LDC board of directors operate?
Our board of directors is a mix of private business owners and elected officials. So when we have a business that’s interested in locating or expanding here, we can pool our resources to discuss with them their current needs, as well as how we can get things done to meet their future infrastructure needs. With all of us involved, we can make things happen, and we save quite a bit of time in the process. There’s a great collaborative spirit here among the towns and villages; we all believe we are public servants.
What will the co-location with EDC Warren County mean to your organization?
Well, we’re starting by sharing services and identifying areas in which we are both short staffed and can share resources and information. I’ll have an office on Glen Street, but I won’t be there all the time. This bi-county region is very large and we need to support each other. What’s happening in this region is bigger than any one organization. In order for us to fulfill the obligation we have, we need to work together and to collaborate.
I have a great working relationship with Warren County, Saratoga County, Essex and Rensselaer Counties, and we all need each other. When one of us succeeds, we all succeed. For most businesses, most residents, and every tourist, county lines are invisible. Our workforces and our resources are shared, and we all have an obligation to help these businesses grow so there are jobs and professional opportunities for our children to plant their own roots here to sustain this three-generation community.
I’m very excited about co-locating with EDC, because you can take care of your community better – with a bigger voice – when you partner with others. It’s a great opportunity for the region – another in a long line of Warren-Washington partnerships. And we’re all on the same team. Competing against our neighbors is very passé. To contact Tori Riley, call 746-2292 or visit the website: www.wcldc.org.