MONTICELLO, NY — The project that’s towering over everything else in Sullivan County, in terms of economic development, is the Resorts World Catskills, the casinos slated to open in March 2018, which are currently seeking to fill 1,400 jobs. But there are also other projects going forward.

Jennifer Flad, executive director of the Sullivan County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) said at a meeting at the government center on December 7 that the organization has been working to help several commercial solar installation projects. She said two projects have closed recently: one in the Town of Delaware and another in the Town of Liberty. She said further that the board will soon vote on resolutions for three more solar projects, another one in the Town of Delaware and two in the Town of Thompson.

Councilperson Ira Steingart, who is also chair of the IDA, said that when a solar producer goes to a town to apply for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement, the PILOT benefit goes only to the town, and not to the county or school district. With IDA projects, the PILOT agreement payments are shared among the taxing authorities.

Although in theory it would be possible for the IDA to negotiate PILOT agreements on behalf of the county and the school distict even in towns like Fremont that have opted out of tax exemptions for solar projects, he said that the agency has decided to not pursue agreements in such towns.

He further said that solar projects are complicated and only a limited number are allowed in each region. “Sullivan County is getting most of the projects that are allowed in our region,” he said.

Distillery

When Marc Baez, chair of the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development spoke, he talked about the possibility of a large new distillery coming to the county. In his report, he wrote, “We are in the running for a 100,000 square-foot European distillery. The firm will employ 200-plus people. Principals from the company have visited Sullivan County twice with Empire State Development (ESD) representatives. The president and CEO visited the second time with interest in locating near SUNY Sullivan in order work with the college for employee training purposes. They met with SUNY Sullivan President Jay Quaintance and were taken with the campus and the potential opportunities there.

“Update: We are in the running and have been providing cost estimate data relative to construction, infrastructure needs, utilities needs etc., to the firm so that they may provide data to NYESD for incentive application purposes. In other words, we are being seriously considered for this project in a very competitive environment,” Baez said.