Villa Roma joins
Empire Zone

By TOM KANE

HORTONVILLE — The Villa Roma Resort will be included in an amendment to the Empire Zone tax abatement program, a project that promotes business.

The inclusion was announced by Town of Delaware Supervisor Bill Moran at the town board meeting on January 16. The town board voted to approve the program.

The Empire Zone Program, which was originally granted to the Village of Monticello, the new Kohl’s Company project in Mamakating and the Empire Corporate Center in Rock Hill, is an effort in rural and depressed areas to give tax abatements, or tax relief, to new businesses or already established businesses to encourage economic development ventures.

Through an amendment, the Empire State Development Corporation which manages the program will extend the original boundaries of the program to include other municipalities in Sullivan County.

Last week in the Town of Tusten, two businesses—the former Kelly’s Adult Home on Main Street in Narrowsburg and the Lang Industries—were included in the program.

“This will encourage business in our town to expand, hire more employees and add to the town’s assessed value,” Moran said. “We’re hoping more businesses will participate.”

When Governor Pataki announced the program last summer, Sullivan County Commissioner of Planning and Community Development Alan Sorensen immediately wrote a successful grant to have the county’s businesses included in the state-wide project.

Applications must be filed by the aspiring businesses by February 7, 2002.