MONTICELLO, NY — Dr. Karin Hilgersom, president of Sullivan County Community College, on July 2 updated the county legislature on her effort to build momentum for the creation of a Healthy World Institute (HWI).

Hilgersom has said she’s held a series of meetings, the most recent of which were in the towns of Liberty and Bethel, but the sessions were sparsely attended. Hilgersom is asking for a commitment from county legislators to bond $8 or $10 million to pay for a new building at the college in Loch Sheldrake, which would house HWI.

She said the design process has not started because hiring an architectural firm would cost some $200,000 for this sort of project, and she doesn’t want to spend that kind of money unless she gets a commitment from the county that it will bond the money necessary to complete it. The State University of New York (SUNY) would contribute $10.5 million for the project, funds that had previously been allotted for a Center for Advanced Sciences and Technology or CAST building; but that project was shelved.

Hilgersom described the HWI as a project that could enhance the county. She said, “Sullivan County is a community that has been in a state of economic decline….” She said the reasons for that were mostly beyond anyone’s control, but “that means the roads need help, the jail is decrepit, the college is in a state of decline, when it comes to facilities and enrollment.”

She continued, “But really what it means is that businesses, corporate entities, whether they’re small or large, they don’t necessarily want to choose communities that are in a state of decline to relocate or do a start-up; they’re not going to choose this county… so how do you get out of that? I don’t know the answer, but I can tell you this—it’s not by the maintaining the status quo.”

She also said she thought the HWI would create jobs, beyond the immediate ones needed for construction. She said businesses like communities with good higher education. She said, “They really like community colleges because we do a lot of hands-on training. If a company came in here tomorrow and said, ‘We’re going to hire 300 employees, and then we’re going to have a turnover of 40 employees every year, but we need you to do a program in electrical maintenance or electrical repair,’ or whatever it is, we would do it. We would be up and running as soon as possible to assist, because that’s part of the mission of a community college.”

In trying to build support for the project, Hilgersom has attended two town meetings, something she said she did not have to do working on new colleges buildings in Oregon and Washington, where, she said, “towns don’t have supervisors,” and county governments operate in a very different manner than New York.”

She said, “One of the things I like about the town structure is I think it creates a high level of citizen engagement… but on the other hand it does make it hard for folks like you who are trying to serve the county in a very centralized way,” but have to be mindful of the view of elected officials in 15 towns. “You get a lot more information thrown at you than what you might get if you were a legislator in another state in the west side of the country.”

During the two meetings on this topic that the legislators have participated in, they have not given much indication about whether or not they support the effort. With the cost of a new county jail looming, as well as other capital costs, some lawmakers can be expected to resist committing the county to this project.

Hilgersom said she would like to hear a decision from the legislature in September.