Recession and opportunities

Rouis delivers Sullivan State of the County Address

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — The dire state of the economy in New York, and more specifically in Sullivan County, was brought up at the top of the speech. It came from Jonathan Rouis, the county chair, in the annual State of the County Address delivered at the government center on January 27.

Rouis touched on some alarming statistics for the county in the first few minutes of the address. He said, “For Sullivan County, this recession has meant fewer available jobs for our residents, and harder economic times for our families. In two years, our unemployment rate has gone from 4.8 to 8.6 percent. The number of properties currently in foreclosure proceedings is at a ten-year high, and applications for assistance, such as those from Home Energy Assistance Program, are up by more than 30 percent.”

There are looming issues that the legislature will be forced to face regardless of the tight budget. The dwindling space in the landfill, for instance, must be addressed. On that matter Rouis said, “Our Solid Waste taskforce is currently evaluating a number of options and completing cost-benefit analyses on each, and I encourage my fellow legislators to be open-minded and reserve their judgments until the taskforce has presented all of the options and analyses.”

Another issue about which the county has limited options, is pressing ahead with the construction of a new county jail. Rouis said this is one of many projects that has been put forward to officials in Albany and Washington DC for consideration to be funded through President Barack Obama’s $8.75 billion stimulus or recovery plan. These projects also include such long planned facilities that are not mandated by the state but that legislators consider important to the future of the county.

Rouis said, “From our mandated new county jail and infrastructure needs at the Green Technology Park to the proposed widening of Route 17 from Harriman to Monticello, there are several shovel-ready projects in Sullivan County, and we remain confident that we will capture a portion of the available funding to move these projects forward.”

In addressing the effort to streamline county program, Rouis quoted the new president. “Last Tuesday, President Barack Obama discussed the need for high-functioning government entities, saying it shouldn’t be whether a government is too big or too small, but whether it works. I am certain my fellow legislators and other elected officials around the county share this vision, which we can achieve by enhancing programs whose work is effective and eliminating programs that simply don’t work.”