When New York State business operation restrictions first took place in mid-March, TEAM Tioga immediately realized the potential devastating effect this would have on the local economy; in particular the backbone, our small businesses, non-profits and other critical workforces.
TEAM Tioga went into action creating the Tioga County Economic Recovery Advisory Council, and recruited members that owned or provided services to small businesses and important workforces. The Council held weekly meetings to report impacts to businesses and workforces.
The Council quickly formed work groups that acted to either mitigate impacts or address the needs of businesses. This “Response” phase lasted into the summer, as many business and workforce issues took some time to resolve. New York State’s Phase 1 through Phase 4 of reopening also prompted the need to clarify confusion, specifically providing business owners with assistance on the timing and requirements to reopen safely.
In late July, the Economic Recovery Advisory Council turned its attention to building and documenting a path to a more resilient future. The result of this work is the Tioga County Strategic Economic Recovery Plan, which provides a guide for next steps with a clearly defined goal “to create an action plan to position Tioga County for success in the future economy”.
Tioga County’s businesses, economic sectors, and workforce will be better able to withstand future health-related events that force categorical economic shutdowns. Numerous service providers, agency representatives, business owners, and nonprofit workers volunteered many hours to develop short-term (Recovery), as well as long-term (Redevelopment) impacts and strategic actions, which will guide our community to quicker economic success if faced with similar future events and challenges.
Martha Sauerbrey stated, “As Chair of the Tioga County Legislature, I think it is critical that we have this Plan to guide our community into the new economy. Our dedicated business and service stakeholders created a plan that is straightforward and will put us on a resilient, successful path to recovery. Thank you to all those who participated and thank you to the Tioga County Legislature for your support in this effort.”
The Director of the Broome-Tioga Work Force, Robert Murphy, stated, “Tioga County responded to the COVID-19 crisis with unprecedented willingness to improve its service delivery and try new solutions to solve new challenges. We at Broome-Tioga Workforce NY proudly worked with Tioga County, its people, its companies, education professionals, and its governmental resources and contributed to its Strategic Plan. It would be fair to say that we perhaps learned more about Tioga County and its resilience because we contributed.”
Jennifer Gregory, executive director of the Southern Tier 8 Regional Board, stated, “Team Tioga quickly assessed pandemic impacts and developed focused strategies to support local business needs. Many thanks to County Planning Director Elaine Jardine and Team Tioga for offering an innovative approach that sets an example for other community leaders drafting their recovery plans.”
“Who could have forecasted the impact that COVID had on all areas of our businesses,” said Sue Ann Williams, Tioga County Branch Manager of the Chemung Canal Trust Company. “Putting a plan in place for future incidents made sense! Glad to be a part of working toward common goals that are equally shared within our County.”
From the small businesses point of view, Robert Griffin, certified small business advisor with Binghamton University’s Small Business Development Center, stated, “As advocates for small business owners, I am grateful to have been included in a process that is sensitive to the urgent needs that entrepreneurs have for local strategic support. We believe that the collaboration between our local small businesses and our communities is critical to helping us collectively restore confidence and keep businesses healthy for years to come.”
Tompkins Cortland Community College’s primary mission is to serve the community by meeting educational needs, which often means responding to specific workforce training and development needs. As such, Carrie Whitmore, director of Continuing Education and Workforce Development at TC3 writes about her participation, “We are always anxious to do what we can to gain a better understanding of the workforce needs of Tioga County, so we were honored to take part in the Tioga County Strategic Economic Recovery Plan process. It is important that every stakeholder play a role in our community moving forward, and this plan helps spell out what we can do as a college to support economic and workforce recovery in Tioga County. We are excited to have been a part of the process to create this plan, but more excited to do our part to ensure a bright future for Tioga County.”
The Tioga County Economic Recovery Advisory Council approved the Strategic Plan at their Oct. 21 meeting.
The next step for this important project is implementation. The Committees involved in developing the Plan will be working towards transforming the listed Recovery and Redevelopment strategic actions into reality over the next six months to one year.
Tioga County’s Strategic Economic Recovery Plan can be found on the County’s website at www.tiogacountyny.com/media/8734/tioga-co-strategic-economic-recovery plan_approved.pdf.
For questions and more information, contact Elaine Jardine, County Planning director, at jardinee@co.tioga.ny.us or by phone at (607) 687-8257.
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