The number of unemployed people in Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties has surpassed the 5% mark, with Sullivan approaching 6%. Ulsters figure of 5.5% is the highest unemployment rate since 1995. How can that be when we have all of these boards spending money and "creating jobs" for us through these various agencies? It's quite simple, the issue of really creating any jobs has long been on the back burner. Go to any agency meeeting and listen to a discussion about upcoming development or hear a developer who wants millions from our public coffers.or cheap financing or tax breaks....and you will hear NOTHING about creating jobs. The least amount of talk is about any possible jobs. Someone may say the word "job', but no one will ever insist on or give too many details. No one ever has to come back with their payroll records to show how the investment paid off. Even when we pump millions of public dollars into a project, we don't get jobs. We get crap low paid mostly part-time jobs and buildings that out of towners build at night on the cheap. Nobody wants to look at that end.
Lance Matteson, President of Ulster County Development Corp. said, " We are glad for any kind of job growth," but "what we need is the kind of private sector job growth that can drive the economy."
He says that now and talks a good game. But when he and the Ulster IDA board members should have created jobs, they lost them. They could have created good paying local construction jobs for their $125 million at Woodland Ponds in New Paltz. They could have insisted they create good paying permanent jobs with health plans. They could have demanded that. They didn't. It would be too much to ask. Treated as something that would get in the way of progress. A bother. Trivial. Stupid. Annoying.
Now transient workers from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida and Georgia are invading the area. They know no rules. They have many construction jobs created by OUR industrial development boards. The ones that are supposed to promote the economic well being of the residents of the county.
You reap what you sow. We need to start creating jobs for local people. That will more than likely help trim the Ulster county unemployment rate.
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Has any one of your members gotten a job from TSEC yet?
To their credit, TSEC has included labor and the IBEW from the start. Solar Energy Theory and Installations are part of the IBEW NYS apprenticeship program.
I would be happy if TSEC hired IBEW contractors when they needed help. But TSEC is not the entity that creates the "solar" jobs. Any jobs would come from the companies that are part of TSEC and that is just beginning to develop.
However, unpaid jobs are abundant. Many volunteer hours have gone into this whole process. Maybe things will really work out for the people of Ulster and the Hudson Valley this time.
Thanks to Michael Hein and his horrible record with Lance and team. Hein and Lance have done squat for us. My question is why did we support the guy. NO JOBS! No work for us. What are we doing?
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