Building better
business in Bethel

By CHRIS CONROY

BETHEL — Once upon a time, Sullivan County was known worldwide and the Town of Bethel was a top destination.

Over the decades, the county’s economy changed for the worse and Bethel’s dipped just as low, if not lower. Today, that pattern is well on its way to being reversed.

A group of local business owners, working together with the Bethel Local Development Corporation (BLDC) and the Sullivan County Visitors Bureau, are out to make the area a world-famous destination once again. And it’s beginning with a little white ball and a big idea.

“[Board member] Harold Russell had told me that there was grant money available,” said Jimmy DiCarlo, owner of Friends restaurant in Smallwood. DiCarlo, Joe Tinari of the Fosterdale Motorlodge and Ed McCormack of the Island Glen Country Club, together with Gaetano’s Restaurant in Mongaup Valley decided to put together a weekend tourism package featuring food, lodging and golf. They brought their idea before the Bethel Town Board on March 8, hoping to add at least some of the grant money to their pooled resources. From the town board, they were directed to the BLDC.

The BLDC was begun in 1998 to facilitate the planning and permit process for the first of the Day in the Garden concerts at the Woodstock site and for two years, the main group it worked with was GF Entertainment, organizer of the event. In 2000, GF took over all planning and permit operations for the development of the concert site, leaving the BLDC to search for another purpose.

“The BLDC was set up to assist economic development within the town,” said Bethel Town Supervisor and BLDC chairman Allan Scott, “and that is precisely what we are attempting to do.”

The grant money DiCarlo learned of was provided to the BLDC through Senator John Bonacic’s office. With the interests of the business owners and the BLDC matching, the $10,000 grant was devoted to the tourism package plan to cover the printing and distribution of a promotional flyer.

The plan has each of the businesses offering discounts to any visitor who signed up for the package. Meals at Friends or Gaetano’s would keep them fed, a weekend of golf at Island Glen would keep them entertained and the Fosterdale Motorlodge would provide them with a place to sleep.

“We all want to promote together,” Tinari said. “I’ve been putting together packages for years… hunting weekends, fishing weekends… they always work well.”

That kind of cooperation, Tinari said, is the only way businesses are going to thrive, not only in Bethel, but in Sullivan County as a whole. “Many businesses seem to be working on the old-time mentality that they have to keep all their business to themselves,” he said. “Now you have to share… if you draw people into the county, everyone benefits.”

At the March 8 BLDC meeting, the business group announced another new partnership.

“We’re now working with matching funds from the Sullivan County Visitor’s Bureau,” Tinari told the BLDC board.

The Sullivan County Visitor’s Bureau (SCVB), under the guidance of Roberta Lockwood, will supplement any funding that will be used to promote the package outside the county. The production cost of the package brochure would not be part of the matching funds package. According to Tierney, that would bring the grand total of funding for the project to about $17,000. Now the ads will be tied into the “I Love New York” campaign ads run by the SCVB.

“Bethel is the first municipality to partner with the SCVB,” Lockwood said at the meeting.

“Roberta and her staff really know what’s going on,” Tinari said. “People in the county finally have a place to turn to [for information].”

The brochure should be produced and distributed by the end of April. Final approvals will take place at the BLDC meeting scheduled for March 22, after the regular Bethel Town Board meeting.

“What we’d really like to see,” said DiCarlo, “is other businesses take this and run with it… create their own package deals. The long term effect is the most exciting thing about this.”

For more information, contact the individual businesses at the following numbers: Fosterdale Motorlodge at 845/932-8539, Friend’s Restaurant at 845/583-1050, Gaetano’s at 845/796-4901, or Island Glen Country Club at 845/583-1010. All tourism programs offered through the SCVB can be accessed online at www.scva.net or www.catskillmeetings.com or toll-free at 800/882-CATS.