NORWICH – A motion to provide public funding for a study of overnight accommodations in Chenango County passed the county Board of Supervisors on Monday, but not without deliberations from opposing officials.
A total of $9,000 will be allocated to the Development Chenango Corporation (DCC), the nonprofit arm of Commerce Chenango, to contract with Susan M. Payne, a community and economic development consultant located in nearby Endwell in Broome County.
“I have been very supportive of this,” said Norwich Town Supervisor Dave Law, chairman of the county’s committee on planning and economic development. He added that support for the project may lead to bigger projects on the horizon. “I think this is going to be a big help to us.”
The study will provide area officials, public and private, with a snapshot of the supply and demand of overnight accommodations including hotels, motels, inns and bed and breakfasts throughout the county. According to advocates, data may be used to bolster business travel and tourism to the county.
DCC argues the county may currently be losing tens of thousands of dollars each year to travelers who can’t find adequate accommodations and choose to stay in neighboring Broome, Otsego or Madison counties. Additionally, it says lack of accommodations is stifling growth of local events, including the summertime Chenango County Blues Fest and Gus Macker basketball tournament.
DCC says the goal is to use survey data to attract private developers to the county for building projects and entice existing hotel and motel owners to make improvements to their facility.
“We have heard a lot of horror stories, and some are touching accounts of people who have had problems with accommodations in Chenango County. Unfortunately, it’s all anecdotal. We can’t quantify it,” said Commerce Chenango President and CEO Steve Craig. Craig also noted there has never been a formal study to assess hotels and motels in the county, and the most recent informal survey was completed in 2007.
“Seven years ago, there was no Chobani; NBT was still a local bank; Frontier had not expanded to Sherburne; and Golden Artist Colors hadn’t expanded to the City of Norwich,” Craig said, citing business growth as a determinant factor for a professional study. He added accounts of one area business that footed upwards of $30,000 on lodging in Madison County for business travelers in 2013.
But despite a convincing argument that the county is losing out, some county leaders argued if there was an opportunity to benefit from more lodging, then it’s something that would have already been addressed in the private sector.
“The private sector are the people who determine whether it’s economically feasible to build a hotel in Chenango County, in Norwich,” said Afton Supervisor John Lawrence, arguing local taxpayers shouldn’t bear the burden. “If they’re not doing that and the hotels that are here are not growing, doesn’t that speak a lot to a study that the private sector may have already done?”
Craig said while it’s true businesses may have considered the prospect of building projects before, updated data could be the worm on a hook that attracts new developers in the future.
What’s more, an accommodations study would provide the county ammo for the fifth round of the New York State Consolidated Funding Application program (CFA). CFA applications to spur economic development in the ten regions across the state will be submitted for the fifth and possibly final time in 2015.
The pending survey will also go a long way in promoting the attractiveness of Chenango County, said City of Norwich Supervisor Robert Jeffrey.
“We need to have something as a tool to show data,” he said. “That’s what’s going to help (Commerce Chenango) hopefully go out and tell the story that we do have opportunities here.”
A vote to permit $9,000 to DCC for a professional survey ultimately passed the Board of Supervisors in a 18-5 vote.