CUOMO DUE
IN ONEONTA
TOMORROW
By JIM KEVLIN • for www.AllOTSEGO.com
ONEONTA – Governor Cuomo’s office has announced he is coming to the City of Oneonta tomorrow to make “an important announcement” at 2:45 p.m. at Foothills Performing Arts Center.
Local officials have been told no more than that.
With this year’s CFA round of economic-development applications just beginning, the only big “ask” pending right now is City Hall’s application for a $10 million grant that might be awarded to one city in the Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Region, or might be split among two or more.
This spring, Mayor Gary Herzig submitted an application detailing how $10 million would fast-track Oneonta’s extensive plans for affordable housing, downtown upgrades and creating a “gateway” to the “Finger Lakes of Beer” resulting from the Home Brewery Act of 2012. He said the city is at a “tipping point.”
Prepared with the help of Otsego Now CEO Sandy Mathes, the application seeks the whole $10 million the details how it would be put to good use.
While local officials either didn’t know or were unwilling to talk about it, absent some surprise that seems to be one topic that the governor might address.
The visit is particularly significant – and rare – because Cuomo’s responsibilities range across 62 counties and many cities and communities larger than Otsego County.
He last stopped in the county in May 2014 to meet President Obama, who was visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He also stopped at Foothills in 2010 when he was running for his first term.
He can go back to.the city he has nothin to offer upstate at all. He has been nothin but another let down.
Cuomo has got to stop by and pander to local Dems bc he has screwed them so badly of late. Help from the Upstate Revitalization Initiative? Nope, the word Otsego is only mentioned four times in the entire 150 pg …. How about money from SUNY Poly? Nope, that’s for Utica and Syracuse silly! How about Start-Up NY? Nope, can’t even get one certified employer! So Cuomo’s upstate jobs initiative ain’t bringing any jobs here. Don’t be fooled, he hasn’t done jack for the Leatherstocking Region!