Recent articles regarding economic development in our area have focused on what cannot be done here. I am privileged to have the opportunity to share with our community the steps that are being taken to promote growth and economic development in the Greater Wawarsing area, including Ellenville, Napanoch, Kerhonkson, Spring Glen, Wawarsing, Cragsmoor, and Ulster Heights.

In late December of 2008, the Wawarsing Town Board voted to abolish the town's Revolving Loan Fund and create a Greater Wawarsing Local Development Corporation (GWLDC) intended to run independently of the town board. The town board then conducted a search and selected members of our community with vision, business experience, and the ability to get things accomplished, to act as board members. I am grateful to have been voted and appointed as Director of the GWLDC by this board, and together we are working towards the greater good of our town.

In our first six months of operation, we have been busy assembling numerous resources and developing sources for many millions of dollars in financing opportunities that we can use to encourage and finance business growth in our town. We have also been taking a long look at town assets that we can enhance and promote in attracting this growth. We are currently working with several existing companies in the town that are looking at expansion and developing additional working capital, we are assisting numerous prospects in looking at vacant commercial properties in the town, and we are working with residents who have approached us and that have business ideas and business issues that either need encouragement or professional development assistance.

The GWLDC Board knows that in building a great economy, there is no defining moment, no grand design, no one killer idea, no lucky break, no miracle that waves its magic wand. But there are people with visions, and the commitment it takes to implement them. We, and those who are working with us, know that achieving a more prosperous community takes effort, effort, and more effort in the form of investments of time, energy, and money. We believe those visions can fit themselves piece by piece together into a greater fabric like a giant quilt. The GWLDC is dedicated to being a catalyst to these efforts for building a great economy.

We agree with many of you that a more robust economy in Wawarsing includes a healthy and prosperous Ellenville at the very center of town surrounded by prosperous communities. Many of you believe in that future and are frustrated by what seems like a steady decline. The GWLDC and those Wawarsingians we are privileged to work with believe that there is no better place in the world to create a great economy.

Why? In your heart you know. We are in a truly unique and beautiful part of the world that begins with the rich biodiversity, stunning scenery, and fascinating history of the area. There are days when the landscape and views around us are breathtaking and nothing short of spectacular.

But it is in the history of our communities that we believe we can find guidance. Out of the abundance of agricultural and natural resources grew communities that built the nation's first highway and canal system. The railroad that followed brought wealth and population. Local people developed and produced innovative products here and, in time, specialized manufacturing plants that prospered and attracted talented crafts- and trades-people.

While our history may offer us inspiration, our immediate past hovers over us in a demoralizing fashion. The numerous vacant properties, the demise of our resorts, and the substantial job losses we have sustained in manufacturing in the past ten years have hugely impacted us. These losses, however, are not singular to Wawarsing. They are the same losses that every rural area in New York with a manufacturing base has been through. What has been lost in rural America are jobs and industries that someone else can do more efficiently and cheaply than we can. The facts are that our labor force has simply priced itself out of the world market due to our higher standard of living, and that this is not necessarily a bad thing. It has occurred in the same way as the mom who goes to the supermarket and buys the most she can at the best price.

To those of you who would compile, publically list, and take pot shots at the numerous overwhelming problems that you have discovered about aspects of Greater Wawarsing, that is not the recipe for sustainable growth. The fact is that there are and always will be problems. Problems are not unique to Greater Wawarsing. It is Wawarsing itself that is unique. We still have many successful businesses and entrepreneurial talents in Greater Wawarsing that continue to prosper despite the woes that have seemingly afflicted not only Greater Wawarsing but the entire country, if not the entire world.

In order to lift our local economy, we need to be champions of and invest in marketing our abundance of natural assets. We have many industry leaders here, we have some of the greatest natural resources on earth, and we have many tangible reminders of our unique cultural history. The challenge before us, therefore, is to marshal as many resources as we can to invest in ourselves, so we can make the most of what we have and market it to its best potential.

To all Wawarsingians, Ellenvillers, Napanochians, Kerhonksonians, Cragmorians, Ulster Heightsters, Greenfield Parkians, Lackawackians, Spring Glenians; to all of you located in the Town of Wawarsing, we invite you join us in appreciating and building upon our great legacy. Come stop by the office of the GWLDC at 77 N Main Street in Ellenville, or call us at 845-647-5150 and bring your ideas and plans for developing or expanding a business here.

Michael R. Siegel was appointed Director of the Greater Wawarsing Local Development Corp. in January of 2009. He is a practicing attorney in private practice specializing in Business Contracts, Real Estate, and Administrative Law. He became a Park Ranger in NYC Parks in 1979, was promoted to become NYC Parks Historian in 1985, promoted to Assistant to the Brooklyn Borough Parks Commissioner in 1987, and then became Director of Capital Projects for NYC Parks and Recreation in Brooklyn in 1989. In 1994 he became Chief of Staff in Brooklyn Parks and left Parks in 1996. He's a founding member of the Rondout Valley Growers Association; helped resurrect Ellenville's Farmers' Market; and was appointed by the County Legislature as a team leader for the County-wide Ulster Tomorrow Consortium. He and his wife, Barbara Caldwell, have owned and operated a small specialty farm in Wawarsing since 2001.