MOHAWK VALLEY ‘TOP PERFORMER’
Food Hub, Railyards,
Big ’17 CFA Winners
Cooperstown Wins $120K For Village Hall
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
Oneonta’s “food hub” is a go with today’s announcement that a $3 million CFA is en route from the Cuomo Administration.
“I’m delighted with the results,” said Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig. “This award assures that the project – one of the primary anchors of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative – will progress in a timely manner.”
CLICK HERE FOR OTSEGO COUNTY WINNERS
The money will allow construction to begin, perhaps as soon as spring, on what’s officially called the Susquehanna Regional Food & Beverage Hub at Chestnut and Market streets in Oneonta, site of the former Oneonta Ford.
Another winner of the coveted CFA grants, the Cuomo Administration’s vehicle for distributing economic-development funding, was the Village of Cooperstown, which won $120,000 for continue restoration to Village Hall, including making the building ADA compliant.
“We want to look at putting in a ramp at the Art Association gallery and redoing the elevator,” said Cooperstown Mayor Jeff Katz, who attended Governor Cuomo’s announcement at The Egg in Albany this afternoon. “There’s a laundry list of infrastructure projects, and all of this helps.”
Mohawk Valley was a “Top Performer” in the awards, netting $81.9 million of the $700 million given out during Cuomo’s announcement. “The economic tide is now with Upstate New York,” said Governor Cuomo in his remarks. “You can see the cranes, you can see the buildings, you can see that this is working.”
State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, listed the Food Hub as one of the top three of many projects “aimed at boosting growth and job creation” in his 51st District. The senator has been a prime mover in the economic-development campaign in Otsego County, which began with his “Seward Summits” in 2012 and 2014.
“We’re having a good day,” said Sandy Mathes, CEO of Otsego Now, which grew out of Seward’s initiative. “The Food Hub is really the brains of the whole downtown plan, and this will help us be in the ground by next summer.”
Additionally, the Otsego Now (the county IDA) received $500,000 for “landscaping and street amenities” to help convert Market Street into an arts and entertainment district, including planning, streetscape projects, gateway and lighting improvements and connections between Market and Main Street.
And $1 million was awarded to help develop the 50-acre Oneonta Railyards into a “shovel ready” site. “This money will help with planning, capital expenses and infrastructure,” said Mathes.
“You take all these projects together and they’re all pieces of a puzzle that will revitalize our city, and create jobs,” said Herzig.
“Now we just have to roll up our sleeves and get to work!” said Mathes.
