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2006 Annual Report
Enterprise and Community Development
ANCA and its partners work on issues that strengthen the entrepreneurs and businesses of the region’s economy through programs in marketing, crafts industry development, entrepreneurial support and training, workforce development, infrastructure (sewer, water, transportation and communications). Highlights of 2006 work activities are as follows:
Senator Betty Little congratulates the Quality Community Grant award winners (from left) Bob Dedrick, Ticonderoga Supervisor; Donald Covel, Peru Supervisor; George Rivers, Rouses Point Mayor; and Terry Martino, Executive Director of the Adirondack North Country Association.
- ANCA provided outreach to Tupper Lake with preparation of a Governor’s Office of Small Cities application as a joint application between ANCA and the Town of Tupper Lake. 2006 Strategic Planning Technical Assistance Funding of $24,600 was awarded to the Adirondack Park-wide Economic Development Planning Project. With ANCA’s assistance, the project will engage a contractor and various stakeholder groups as well as business and governmental leaders.
- ANCA worked with Green Community Technology, Inc. in their partnership project with the Town of Franklin to address town planning needs in relation to infrastructure and building life cycle costs, renovations, new construction and the potential utilization of green technology.
- ANCA secured $92,800 in Quality Communities grant funding toward an Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Project in partnership with the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages and the Towns of Chester and Arietta. Funding will be used for a regional planning project to assess the water and sewer infrastructure of Adirondack Park communities and to assess the obstacles and opportunities Park communities experience in their economic development.
- ANCA worked with the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks in building plan development leading into the July 4, 2006 opening of the facility. ANCA’s Board of Directors hosted their September 21, 2006 meeting at the facility and invited ANCA members to tour the museum and the Boardwalk which was supported by ANCA and the NYSDOT.
- ANCA renewed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Town of Tupper Lake to provide planning services, grant development, and governmental outreach to county and state government.
- Staff worked with the Town of Tupper Lake to address questions in the development of the Adirondack Club project and the town’s oversight of the developers’ submission of an application to the Adirondack Park Agency and the Town Planning Board.
- Staff participated on the Advisory Committee for the Saranac Lake Community Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) and assisted with contractor selection and project development.
- ANCA maintained a partnership with ComLinks in their implementation of a $530,000 program for the Northern New York Women’s Business Center and provided technical support and workshops for businesses through ANCA’s Craft Development Program.
- Staff participated in the Advisory Board of the Adirondack Community Fiber Network Project and requested increased federal and state funding to support construction in the three counties of Essex, Clinton and Franklin counties.
- ANCA participated as a member of the On Track Partnership in requesting that funding from the New York State Transportation Bond Act of 2005 be committed to the restoration of the Adirondack Rail Corridor with a particular emphasis on establishing a link to Tupper Lake from Saranac Lake and Lake Placid.
- ANCA provided a support letter to the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society in their successful efforts to secure $1M in NYSDOT Enhancement Funding towards development of a rail travel corridor to Big Moose.
- ANCA assisted Comlinks in securing additional funding of $400,000 for the Microloan Program.
Crafts Business Development:
- ANCA sponsored ten workshops, including five The Marketing Toolkit, two Design a Website In a Day, two Visual Merchandising and one Marketing Component of the Business Plan, servicing 56 small businesses. Workshops were hosted in Saratoga Springs, Indian Lake, Malone, and Saranac Lake, amongst others and included partnerships with ComLinks, the Indian Lake Tourism Committee, and the Plattsburgh SBDC.
- ANCA successfully completed contractual management and program implementation of USDA Rural Business Development Grant funding of $69,875. During the contract period ANCA developed the Marketing Toolkit — Best Practices for Gift Shop and Studio Owner and offered workshops to 135 participating businesses at 16 workshop locations throughout the Adirondack North Country region.
- ANCA provided staff support for the final editing, copy development and distribution of the Handmade in the Northern Forest Guidebook developed in partnership with the Northern Forest Center and Businesses for the Northern Forest. ANCA provided 17 onsite visits to New York companies in Herkimer, Oneida, Lewis, Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties that are listed in the guidebook. ANCA also coordinated an artisan gallery exhibit from March – April 15, 2006 at the Saranac Lake Free Library of 55 works from 21 participants in the guidebook.
- ANCA sponsored the 2006 20th Annual Buyer Days at the Saratoga Springs City Center on April 6 and 7 with 67 exhibitors and 332 buyers. Buyer Days — the region’s only gift tradeshow, generated $232,222 in show sales and $250K+ in follow-up wholesale sales. Organized the 2007 Buyer Days for April 4 -5, 2007 at the Saratoga Springs City Center.
- ANCA designed and distributed 40,000 copies of ANCA’s Adirondack North Country Arts, Crafts and Foods publications to 1,600 lodgings and chambers in the region by mid-June 2006. The publication presented a new design that included the North Country byways and map.
- ANCA provided one-to-one craft marketing services responding to 720 small business, artisan and retailer phone and email inquiries.
- ANCA provided group technical assistance and communications through 30 e-announcements and six email newsletters to 1,000 artisan, small business, retailer and support organizations with information such as upcoming workshops, programs, and craft industry trends.
- ANCA continued regional product promotion through a regional crafts portal website at www.AdkNCcrafts.com which attracted 32,400 annual visitors. Through the website visitors are encouraged to purchase products directly from studios and shops of the region via nine links on each of the website’s fifty pages.
- ANCA encouraged use of the crafts website www.AdkNCcrafts.com and presented online applications and descriptions of ANCA’s crafts marketing programs with links to regional and national resources.
Infrastructure:
- ANCA continued to encourage local involvement in DOT planning efforts. ANCA prepared a DOT contact sheet for use by plan implementers in establishing a communication network for Adirondack, Olympic and Central Adirondack Byway communities to seek assistance with their transportation and related community development projects. ANCA alerted community members along the Central Adirondack Byway of a public meeting on November 15, 2006 for a Route 28 NYSDOT Improvement Project. ANCA staff attended the November 15 meeting and provided input on the community members’ requests for traffic and safety improvements on the corridor, inclusive of sidewalks.
- ANCA staff attended a March NYSDOT meeting in Albany to discuss how ANCA can best partner our community work and communications with the NYSDOT. The meeting followed on ANCA’s goal to develop an ongoing dialogue with community members about planned roadway construction on the Byway corridors and to have a mechanism within DOT to have ANCA on a contact list for advance meeting notification.
- ANCA prepared correspondence to NYSDOT regional engineers to communicate transportation and safety projects inclusive of signage, traffic calming, sidewalks installation, traffic light installation, and proper markings of motorized routes at hamlet and village boundaries for communities involved in ANCA’s planning work for the Central Adirondack, Olympic and Adirondack byways.
- ANCA guided local businesses through the NYSDOT process of installing Tourist Oriented Directional Signage (TODS).
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