MONTICELLO — President and CEO of Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development Marc Baez gave a positive assessment of Sullivan County’s fiscal trajectory over the past 10 years to the Economic Development Committee on Thursday, August 7. 

He noted fiscal challenges that the county has faced, but said there is, “another side of that coin. The other side of that coin is there are some good things happening in Sullivan County.”

Baez said when he comes to speak at Legislature, he talks about the same projects because “economic development takes a long time.” 

He pointed to Grossinger’s project, a recent acquisition of resort property in Liberty by PPG Development for $14.75 million, and said, “that is a major project for a community that’s been suffering for a very long time. It’s gonna be impactful.”

Baez said there are several businesses interested in Liberty’s former PepsiCo plant. Baez said the building is being cleaned out and once he has access to it, he’ll be better able to assess what construction needs to be done to install a new business into the facility. 

“We have a lot of interest… The building is a very good building: it’s relatively new, it’s got power, water, sewer, parking, everything that you would want next to the highway.” 

Baez said the FIMFO campground project in Highland is finishing their EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) and that there will be a public hearing on August 25. 

“Hopefully that decision will go on the positive side…it’s been a three-year long process –  the largest, longest project in terms of building a record [of economic development] that we’ve had in the history of this county, including the casino and other large projects, so the record is really comprehensive and thick,” Baez said,

“One of the things that we have to do as economic development people is look at where we’ve come,” said Baez. “Ten years ago, we were markedly different than we [are] today.” Baez said unemployment rates were consistently in the double digits a decade ago, particularly in January, February, and March. “We don’t see that anymore; we just heard 2.9% unemployment. That’s a ridiculously low number. The good thing is, we maintain it: we maintain single-digits now throughout the year. It’s wonderful to see that. It tells us that we’re making huge steps moving forward.” 

“There are some great things that are taking place through [the Legislature’s] policy, through economic development, through tourism, through chamber work, everything that is positioning us to be very successful in the future.” Baez highlighted the advances in infrastructure: “I can’t emphasize enough how important that infrastructure study is. We need to know what our water and sewer is, it’s the foundation for economic development.” 

Baez then focused on the Archtop Fiber Broadband funding: “I hope people understand what impact that’s gonna make once that’s in place, it’s going to be absolutely phenomenal, and the speed and acceleration and growth rate in certain energy sectors is really gonna take off. It’s been a thorn in our side for a long time. But those are huge steps.”

Baez spoke about a proposal to add a third lane to Route 17. 

“We’re 100% behind it… it needs a third lane.” Baez said, citing the amount of traffic, and safety issues during construction, and the amount of development that’s happening along the corridor, as reasons for the third lane. “There’s 7 million square feet of industrial commercial space in Orange County right now either being built, existing, or about to be built and approved. We have 3.3 million, which is a pretty darn good number for Sullivan County, of pre-approved sites. Tourism’s doing an awesome job, it continues to grow…  A lot of people are traveling down that highway to get here.”