Cazenovia Chamber Prioritizes Economic Development

By Betsy Powers
Appeared in the Cazenovia Republican's Our Town Editorial
October 30, 2002

Lately my involvement with the Greater Cazenovia Area Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee has brought me into contact with many interesting and intelligent people much more versed in the subject of economic development than I am, but luckily very willing to share their knowledge. Peter Cann, Executive Director of the Madison
County Industrial Development Agency is one such person who brought me a few more steps up the learning curve. Peter recently gave a new economic development profile of Madison County New York area and several OCD (Office of Community Development-U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development) articles on community economy. Our
town, Cazenovia, must be viewed within the context of its surrounding areas.

The community of Cazenovia has significant resources supporting the establishment of business operations. We know this because we have seen it happen. One resource is location. We are in the center of New York State and considered by corporation location consultants to be in proximity to Toronto, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Philadelphia and New York
City. When people ask me why I live where I do, one of my reasons is because I am near to New York City which I consider very important. A second resource is a heritage of supporting industrial companies and entrepreneurs. I was amazed to learn that within Madison County there exists in business today three companies founded in the 1800's (one as early as 1824) and five more founded before 1937.

Here's another very interesting comment. In this same County profile our "labor quality and work ethic (are) rated very high with a special skill for multi-tasking due to the hands-on experience of the local farm culture". "Job content needs to be challenging to assure long term retention". There's a positive resource!!! And then of course, there are our Quality of Life Amenities including outdoor activities, sports, cultural facilities and events and family activities.

According to one of the OCD reports by Kayce Donoho (Dec 1996) titled "Money Drain in your Community" by doing a quick analysis of your community economy you can learn " how your community economy works, where to reduce income leakage from your economy and how to increase the prosperity in your community." These are pragmatic observations which can quantify the extent to which local residents go out of town to buy basic goods and services. We need to know if existing area businesses are investing their money outside the community or are they supporting local ventures. We need to know whether they are buying their supplies outside the community.

And further and perhaps most immediately relevant is the question are community residents, local businesses or local governments investing and spending local resources on ventures that do not pay off? These are questions, that when answered, will help us move forward with success in our economic development efforts!

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