FLEMING - In February 2007, newly hired Auburn City Manager Mark Palesh attended a community meeting during which lawmakers, lifelong Cayuga County residents and new neighbors envisioned a revitalized county.
Sam Tenney / The Citizen
State Sen. Michael Nozzolio speaks at the Cayuga County Office of Tourism's National Tourism Week luncheon at the Springside Inn in Fleming Thursday afternoon. Several speakers gave updates on Call to Action: Blueprint for our Region's Future action plan.
State Sen. Michael Nozzolio speaks at the Cayuga County Office of Tourism's National Tourism Week luncheon at the Springside Inn in Fleming Thursday afternoon. Several speakers gave updates on Call to Action: Blueprint for our Region's Future action plan.
Unveiled in that meeting was the seven-pronged economic development report, A Call to Action: A Blueprint for Our Region's Future, developed six months prior by 23 community stakeholders dedicated to a prosperous Cayuga County.
Fifteen months later, Palesh and more than 200 other people listened as state Sen. Michael F. Nozzolio, members of the Blueprint group and county officials conveyed the progress made and what remains unfinished.
“This update energized people,” Palesh said Thursday. “We have good people in the community trying to do good things.”
Held at the Springside Inn in Fleming, the Blueprint group updated about 210 people representing state, county and city governments, educational and business leaders, and others from various sectors on the seven areas of focus: cultural development, infrastructure technology, health care, riverfront development, the Stardust Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, watershed protection and job development.
“You can feel the excitement in the room and everyone is extremely positive,” Nozzolio said. “Our Blueprint group really wants to take our community to the next level. I couldn't be any happier.”
In the past year, the group has enabled the formation of a nonprofit organization that will work towards the creation of a music theater festival in and around Auburn, attracted a number of physicians to the county stationed at Auburn Memorial Hospital, secured a $500,000 grant for the revitalization of the Owasco riverfront-Market Street area and created the watershed steward position, among other things.
Born last year from a collaboration between the Stardust Foundation, the Emerson Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the state, through Nozzolio and Cayuga Community College was the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, an arm of CCC that will infuse entrepreneurship in curricula and projects, in hallways and classrooms and into the minds of business savvy college students considering their future in the workforce.
The institute received yet another financial boost yesterday, as Nozzolio announced that he secured $100,000 in state funding for the construction of a “Smart Classroom Center,” providing students access to the newest technologies for business endeavors.
This funding is in addition to the $65,000 secured by Nozzolio last year to establish the institute, which is led by Cayuga Community College business professor and Fred L. Emerson Foundation Endowed Chair in Enterprise and Innovation Tom Paczkowski.
Looking at job development, the group secured funding to cover the start-up costs of new businesses, Executive Director of the Stardust Foundation of Central New York Guy Cosentino said. But this funding doesn't come without a cost.
“That money will go away if there cannot be action by the city and the county,” he said.
Cayuga County Legislative Chairman Roger Mills said he is directly involved in discussions with both the city and county planning committees, all of which are actively working to create the framework for the funding.
“We don't intend to let that money slip away,” he said.
“I personally am very excited about all of these initiatives,” he later added. “If they can happen, even in a small extent to what is envisioned, it would be a very positive thing. The possibilities are limitless.”
Auburn Mayor Michael Quill said he sees great promise in the work being done.
“Our community is on the verge of great things,” he said. “I just can't wait until it all comes together.”
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net
Fifteen months later, Palesh and more than 200 other people listened as state Sen. Michael F. Nozzolio, members of the Blueprint group and county officials conveyed the progress made and what remains unfinished.
“This update energized people,” Palesh said Thursday. “We have good people in the community trying to do good things.”
Held at the Springside Inn in Fleming, the Blueprint group updated about 210 people representing state, county and city governments, educational and business leaders, and others from various sectors on the seven areas of focus: cultural development, infrastructure technology, health care, riverfront development, the Stardust Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, watershed protection and job development.
“You can feel the excitement in the room and everyone is extremely positive,” Nozzolio said. “Our Blueprint group really wants to take our community to the next level. I couldn't be any happier.”
In the past year, the group has enabled the formation of a nonprofit organization that will work towards the creation of a music theater festival in and around Auburn, attracted a number of physicians to the county stationed at Auburn Memorial Hospital, secured a $500,000 grant for the revitalization of the Owasco riverfront-Market Street area and created the watershed steward position, among other things.
Born last year from a collaboration between the Stardust Foundation, the Emerson Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the state, through Nozzolio and Cayuga Community College was the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, an arm of CCC that will infuse entrepreneurship in curricula and projects, in hallways and classrooms and into the minds of business savvy college students considering their future in the workforce.
The institute received yet another financial boost yesterday, as Nozzolio announced that he secured $100,000 in state funding for the construction of a “Smart Classroom Center,” providing students access to the newest technologies for business endeavors.
This funding is in addition to the $65,000 secured by Nozzolio last year to establish the institute, which is led by Cayuga Community College business professor and Fred L. Emerson Foundation Endowed Chair in Enterprise and Innovation Tom Paczkowski.
Looking at job development, the group secured funding to cover the start-up costs of new businesses, Executive Director of the Stardust Foundation of Central New York Guy Cosentino said. But this funding doesn't come without a cost.
“That money will go away if there cannot be action by the city and the county,” he said.
Cayuga County Legislative Chairman Roger Mills said he is directly involved in discussions with both the city and county planning committees, all of which are actively working to create the framework for the funding.
“We don't intend to let that money slip away,” he said.
“I personally am very excited about all of these initiatives,” he later added. “If they can happen, even in a small extent to what is envisioned, it would be a very positive thing. The possibilities are limitless.”
Auburn Mayor Michael Quill said he sees great promise in the work being done.
“Our community is on the verge of great things,” he said. “I just can't wait until it all comes together.”
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net
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britt_bort wrote on May 16, 2008 11:59 AM:
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