REGIONAL – When Governor Cuomo's office announced $83 million in spending on economic development projects in the mid to lower Hudson Valley last week, the big winners for our readership were many, at first glance.

Sullivan County-based Catskill Mountainkeeper will be getting $1,857,275 to create a renewable energy outreach program for the Catskills using a variety of means to engage local municipalities in changing their energy use patterns. Wawarsing's getting another $600,000 for the Napanoch Sewer District, while Ellenville's getting $30,000 for new sewage planning work. The Williams Lake Project's getting $750,000 to get its new resort plans into construction, while the D&H Canal Historical Society will be getting $500,000 to purchase the 1797 Depuy Canal House across the street from its museum in High Falls.

There'll be nearly $70,000 for Women's Studio Workshop to create a Rosendale Arts Festival, $500,000 going to the Mohonk Preserve for trailheads, $130,000 for a cidery at the Stone Ridge Orchard, and $13,500 to Ellenville's Shadowland Theater for flooring and lighting purposes, as well as funds to the RUPCO non-profit for a Kingston artist housing project and other big industry-sparking or agriculture-bolstering projects around the region.

A lot of attention was drawn to the fact of what areas did NOT get funding, until it was noted that they didn't put in project applications. There was also much note of a controversial Kingston-based water bottling plant not getting anything.

Then again, it was later noted that that plant is also supposed to be part of the Start-Up New York program, another economic development project of the state whose funding has yet to be announced (along with final allocations for the long-pending New York Rising grants).

What is up with Start-Up New York, many are now wondering? And what might this program offer to the southern part of Ulster County, which often seems forgotten by both state and county government?

Start-Up NY is seen as another response by Governor Cuomo to the charge that New York is too expensive, too regulated, and too difficult to attract or retain business. The focus of the initiative is on the State University of New York campus system, with college towns and campuses seen as a draw for attracting high-tech and other start ups, as well as venture capital from all over the world. It allows approved start ups or business expansions to operate tax free for 10 years if they move into a space within the parameters outlined. Those include being located within a mile of a SUNY or other college campus, although "satellites" can be established... which is how SUNY Ulster, based in Marbletown, has been able to entertain business proposals for Tech City, the former IBM plant in the Town of Ulster.

Don Katt, the president of SUNY Ulster who has been working with Start-Up New York for the last two years since its announcement, recently noted, "The college submitted three applications to Start-Up in late October. We expect to hear sometime this month or early in January if those three applications have been accepted. One of them is the Niagara Bottling plant, the two others are smaller. One is looking in the Town of Ulster, the other in Esopus. All three are manufacturing businesses and we're also in discussion with a fourth manufacturing firm that is currently operating in four other countries and looking at a site in the Town of Ulster. They're in the process now, and they will be considered in early 2015."

Any chance of anything for the southern part of the county from Start-Up NY?

"It's always possible," Katt said. "For our original application we used one building at Tech City as an example of the facilities that are available and the state approved our location. That's the only approved site so far."

What about a satellite campus for SUNY Ulster down in the Ellenville area?

"We mounted two major initiatives under my predecessor," Katt recalled, in answer to the question. "That last one was in 1978, and we wanted to establish an active presence and used the high school in Ellenville. We tried in earnest on this, worked with the school and city leadership and we mounted a full court press on this. But the enrollment kept declining every time. Even with all the studies and the clever programming, it didn't catch on."

Did that failure 36 years ago doom the area for good? Because if there was a satellite of SUNY Ulster in Ellenville High School, then any site within a few miles of the high school would be eligible for consideration under Start-Up NY.

"You know, we can think about doing it again," the president, set to retire at year's end, continued. "The problem then was we had to keep cancelling classes because of lack of enrollment. We'd get two or three signups but not enough to have a class, and you had to have a minimum number to justify the expense of the class."

Meanwhile, in neighboring Orange County, recently announced grants included $1.65 million for the conversion of the old Middletown train station into a new location for Middletown Community Health Center, several hundred thousand for breweries and cideries, $1.25 million to a New Windsor LED lighting manufacturer, and over $600,000 to the Village of Kiryas Joel for improvements to its water system. In Sullivan County, there will be several municipal sewer and water system upgrades and the creation of a microenterprise loan fund, which the entire region will also be doing with the aid of a $1 million grant.

Biggest of all for the region? How about $3 million for a Legoland theme park in Rockland County and $2.9 million for broadband in rural Delaware County.

As for Start-Up NY, Mount St. Mary's College in Newburgh is already approved and up and running with several applications already, while Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake is entertaining ideas and SUNY New Paltz is also getting several projects underway.

Ah, opportunity. If only geography and the chutzpah of applying for everything will work, again, for all of us...