Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward points out that the North Country seems to have a will for self-survival that transcends the rest of the state. She makes a compelling case, and we have to agree with her.
Speaking off the cuff at last week's annual legislative breakfast hosted by the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce and attended by 180 area business leaders, she said that we, in this region, will succeed in spite of problems on the state and federal — and even international — levels. This is because we have an inborn instinct to take care of ourselves and not wait for outside help.
That's true. Generation after generation, the North Country has not looked beyond itself to find ways to succeed.
When Plattsburgh Air Force Base closed, before the flag had even been folded for the last time, the Plattsburgh Intermunicipal Development Council, later to be Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corp., was searching to find ways to turn this glum news into a benefit. It formed itself and then examined and brainstormed ways to bring new sources of prosperity to the vacated base.
While other doomed installations were throwing their hands into the air, blaming a flawed process for their misery and expecting the federal government to solve their problems for them, the North Country was embarking on a new and unfamiliar route to civilian industrial and business growth.
As Sayward noted, Tupper Lake citizens have found the means to reopen a closed ski center. Malone is engaged with getting the burned-out Hotel Flanagan resurrected as a Best Western. We don't wait for higher levels of government to come knocking with offers of help. We help ourselves.
Garry Douglas, president of the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce, talked at the breakfast about the annual survey his organization compiles on the issues local leaders perceive for their businesses. When it comes to measuring business confidence, the survey asked for participants' general outlook for 2010 for their own business and for the New York state economy.
The results seem very revealing and illustrative of what Sayward was saying.
In terms of each individual's own sales or business activity, 60 percent expected it to improve, and 27 percent expected no change. That's 87 percent not feeling that 2010 would see their businesses decline.
When asked the same question about the state economy, though, 66 percent expected it to get worse, and only 6 percent expected it to get better.
So we're optimistic for ourselves but not the state. We don't regard outsiders as enhancing our position, but we most definitely do regard ourselves as being able to enhance our own standing.
The North Country has a history of self-reliance and taking care of our own. We do not look for others to bail us out.
Sayward was right on the mark, and Douglas has the numbers to prove it.
