ELLENVILLE – Despite efforts of local and county officials to keep Gillette Creamery within the Town of Wawarsing's borders, the ice cream distributor has closed on a new facility in the Town of Gardiner, leaving the community from which the company originated.

The positive aspect of the move is that Ulster County can still count Gillette as a local business, a prospect endangered by attractive offers from out of state.

According to company president J.B. Gillette, they received an offer to pick up distribution for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream throughout Vermont, resulting in seven-digit figures in tax incentives being offered by the State of Vermont's development officers to woo the company. However, the Ulster County Development Corporation was able to work with Empire State Development and Ulster County's Revolving Loan Fund to provide the company with $1 million to aid the company's move to Gardiner, and to eventually hire more workers. Gillette will invest $5.7 million in renovations and a new refrigeration system to give the new location immense cold-storage capacity, tripling the company's current storage capabilities and offering new possibilities for the company's growth.

"We feel fantastic about it," said Gillette about the move, which will take place around this time next year after renovation on the new site is complete. "It's a necessary means for us to continue to grow and prosper."

"We've been working with the county on this for a year, and we welcome them," said Gardiner Supervisor Joe Katz. "We think they're the kind of business that's good for Gardiner, and we're also very thankful that the county worked so hard on this project. It's a kind of business that fits in with our environment very well — we're not going to have big smokestacks."

Ulster County Development Corporation President Lance Matteson said that UCDC and the county have been working with town and village officials to try and keep the company local, but couldn't find a suitable site for the expanding business.

"One by one, [potential sites] had to be kind of filtered out by the company for one reason or another. Either they didn't work for some kind of environmental reason, or location reason, or size reason, or permit-ability is sometimes an issue," said Matteson.

"Another consideration is the bottom line — the financial feasibility. This is a very competitive business the Gillettes are in, and they have to survive and compete on a cost-basis… there were very attractive offers from out of state and from the region outside of the county that could've worked financially for them, so we had to step up and do our best to match that," he said, adding that County Executive Mike Hein was "instrumental in pushing Empire State Development to step up" and contribute a grant of $600,000 to entice the company to stay in the county. Another $400,000 will be loaned through the county's revolving loan fund.

But while it seems that the 58 Ellenville- and Wawarsing-based employees of the company won't be job-hunting, the community of Ellenville is left in the lurch as the ice cream distributor spends the year preparing for its move over the ridge.

"Obviously, we're very disappointed to see another business leaving both the village and the town," said Ellenville Mayor Jeff Kaplan. "We understand the Gillettes' need to expand and leave the area, and their efforts to try to find an alternate option to leaving and their inability to do so. While we're happy they're staying within the county so it will allow the Gillette family and their employees who want to make the commute to stay here, we can't help but be disappointed that we are losing a major employer with the ability of the employees to use our goods and services available in Ellenville on a regular basis.

"It's disheartening."

UCDC's Matteson admitted that the ideal solution would've seen the company stay in town.

"It is true that losing any major employer is a hit from Ellenville's point of view," said Matteson. "But I think what you have to do is look at what could have been. If they had gone to Vermont, for example, it would've been a whole lot worse, not just for Ulster County, and not just for New York, but for Ellenville," he added, pointing out that keeping payroll in local employees' pockets is a positive that can't be ignored.

Even Gardiner Supervisor Joe Katz understands the plight of Gillette's current hometown: "I hope that Ellenville gets something in their place," he said.

However, J.B. Gillette assured that while the company was moving, his family would remain Ellenville residents, and that the company will continue contributing to charities and causes in the community.

"I'm a fourth generation Gillette here," he said. "I'm not going anywhere…. Yes, the Gillette name isn't going to be on Lincoln Street, but the Gillettes are still going to be a strong, committed part of Ellenville and the Greater Town of Wawarsing no matter where the business address is."

Furthermore, efforts to use the Ellenville facility that Gillette is leaving are continuing apace, with talks between the company, the county, and the Greater Wawarsing LDC to open the cold-storage facility up to local agri-businesses. Matteson said that Gillette Creamery's move provides an opportunity "to provide cold-storage, freezer storage, for growers in the area, for local produce." While it's currently unclear what form this potential arrangement will take, Matteson said that the demand for cold-storage in the area is great.

In fact, Todd Erling, Executive Director of the Hudson Valley Agribusiness Corporation, said that there is currently the possibility and hope that Congressman Maurice Hinchey's office will be able to provide funding for a Hudson Valley Food Systems Project, and that cold-storage at the Gillette site could provide is a piece of that.

"His office has been very supportive of a Hudson Valley Food System Project," said Erling of Congressman Hinchey's possible involvement. "There is much active and ongoing dialogue to that end."

But until plans are concrete, there's still the possibility of yet another empty facility for Ellenville to contend with.

"It could be a net positive for the area," said Mayor Kaplan, "but at this point, until we know more, that would really just be a pipe dream."