Queen Of Catskills’ Revives

1-22-10

In our nation’s early days, teamsters driving ox-drawn wagons up the old Catskill Turnpike from the Hudson to Unadilla and points west would stop at a tavern in Stamford, which soon was renting rooms and developed into the Delaware House.
 In 1825, the Erie Canal dried that up.
Crews of Irish immigrants built the Ulster & Delaware – “The Ugly & Dirty,” local folks used to call it – arriving in Stamford in 1872 and stopping there.  The heyday of Stamford’s grand hotels – 20 in all – followed.
In 1900, crews of Italians (a generation later, the latest immigrant group) finished the railroad to Oneonta, the beginning of the end of that
grand period.
After Route 23 was completed from the Hudson River to Norwich, everyone driving from New York City to Oneonta came through Stamford.
In 1985, I-88’s completion from Port Dickinson to Schenectady ended that.
Yes, Stamford’s prosperity has waxed and waned with transportation innovations, so community leaders are charting a future where the destination’s intrinsic qualities will matter most.
“‘The Good Life Starts Here’ is the brand now; but it’s too general,” said Velga Kundzins-Tan, Western Catskills Community Revitalization Council community resource manager.  It has offices on Main Street next to the Grand Union.
She and Linda Stratigos, Western Catskills executive director, see Stamford’s outdoors offering – fishing, hiking, hang-gliding, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling – and its arts community – the numerous galleries and musical offerings – as powerful economic-development magnets.
A half-dozen years ago, Kundzins-Tan was involved in Don Dales, repositioning of nearby Hobart as “The Book Village of the Catskills” – the New York Times wrote about it, and the idea took off, so there’s a model of successful branding right in the neighborhood.
Driving into Stamford, you see surface indications that the village is suffering from the same maladies as similar Upstate towns.  But scratch the surface, and you soon discover wellsprings of enthusiasm and enterprise that are being marshalled on a range of economic-development fronts.

Bill Hauser, Stamford Central school board president, calls people around here “resilient.”  But, judging from plans on the drawing board, it’s more than that.  To wit:
• Covidien’s Hobart plant, former Tyco, former Mallinckrodt, former D.M. Graham Laboratories (which Doc Graham started in his garage in the 1960s), is expanding its local workforce to 800 employees, and is building the largest medical vault in the world.
• The venerable Delaware House on Stamford’s Main Street – the Delaware Inn for the past century – is in the midst of a $2 million redo into a mini-convention center, to be completed by fall, under the auspices of the Catskill Watershed Corp.
• Robinson Terrace, a nursing home, will begin construction of a $9.5 million adult home/assisted-living facility in the spring at county Route 18 and Buntine Road, according to Pam Harmon, administrator.   Funded 100 percent through a competitive HEAL-NY state grant, the building will include 30 rooms and studio apartments for residents, and 30 rooms for people who needed a higher level of care.  It will also create 40-50 “brand new jobs,” Harmon said.
• A half-dozen Main Street buildings will be renovated in Stamford this summer, and another half-dozen in Hobart, paid for with $3.5 million from the state’s Main Street and Restore New York programs, according to Stratigos.  The centerpiece in Hobart is the former Delaware Valley Propane building, which will house Liberty Rock Books, expanded to 85,000 volumes.
Book Village founder Dales believes this will push an already successful marketing effort to “critical mass.  Our only limiting factor is the number of buildings that are available.”
• A meat-processing plant for organically grown cattle is being proposed by Bill Eckland, owner of Eckland Farm Machinery.  The family has been part of the local business scene for generations.
• And the former Scotch Valley Ski Resort, an economic mainstay – and quality-of-life enhancement – before it closed 10 years ago, has been purchased by Oorah, a New Jersey-based philanthropy, with plans to reopen it and the adjoining 48-condo community, Deer Run Village.

The state Power Authority’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pump Storage Plant and the colleges at Oneonta also contribute to a stable employment base; Bassett has a clinic, and two-county ONC BOCES’ headquarters is in the former Rexmere Hotel.  Then there’s tourism and the second-home sector – 50 percent of the property around Stamford is owned by part-time residents. 
Stratigos, Kundzins-Tan and Dales are just a sampling of a varied and enthusiastic leadership corps that is moving all these efforts forward.
Stamford has an energetic village mayor, Mike Jacobs, the hard-driving defense lawyer.  The description is literal, too:  He races sports cars at Watkins Glen, Lime Rock and across the nation, and has dabbled in NASCAR as well.
His counterpart in the town, Supervisor Mike Triolo, a retired banker, is economic development director for the Catskill Watershed Corp., which since a 1998 compact between New York City and its reservoir-watershed communities is committed to providing economic-development funds and assistance.
In addition to Western Catskill and Catskill Watershed, two well-watered foundations – Robinson Broadhurst ($40 million in assets) and the O’Connor ($60 million) – are looking out for the community good.
On Oct. 6, for instance, Robinson Broadhurt hosted a luncheon at Fred’s – owner Larry Johnston recently completed its renovation – for 60-some community leaders to launch a strategic-planning effort, facilitated by Andrew Marietta, director of Oneonta-based Council for Community Non-Profits.
The result, Marietta reported:  a 30-member steering committee and a list of community priorities to pursue. 
Robinson Broadhurst’s chairman Lad McKenzie said the steering committee will meet in April to decide on a first project that will yield concrete results.
There’s a lot going on in Stamford, McKenzie said.  “The main reason (for the luncheon),” he said, “was to get organizations together, and try to work together rather than everybody off doing their own thing.”
The best, it seems, may be yet to come.