CNN - Small businesses spearhead county's economic recovery

Small businesses spearhead county's economic recovery

March 23, 1996
Web posted at: 2:00 p.m. EST

From Correspondent Mary Ann McRae

KINGSTON, New York (CNN) -- New York's Ulster County was devastated when computer giant IBM left town a year and a half ago. But the area has rallied from the loss and begun to recover.

The story of the county's experience is frightening -- but instructive to other regions as massive corporate layoffs continue rocking the U.S. economy.

"IBM was a 30-year resident of Ulster County," says Kingston Mayor T.R. Gallo. "We had all our eggs in that one basket."

But Ulster County also had an incubator -- a small business incubator. With the help of federal and state money, the Ulster County Community College created "The Business Resource Center," where displaced workers can learn new skills.

The college's resource center includes the Small Business Incubator, with a mission to provide a nurturing environment for new ventures to grow.

"These are people starting new business, expanding new businesses," says the college's Robert Brown, "and an incubator's philosophy is that they become successful." (170K AIFF sound or 170K WAV sound)

Fourteen new businesses doesn't sound like much. But for a community of 165,000 that lost about 12,000 jobs -- and saw real estate values plummet by as much as 60 percent -- it's a start.

"I think we're seeing a stabilization now as businesses grow," says Tom Collins of the Kingston Uptown Business Association.

The incubator has some responsibility for that. Brown calls the program a "kind of cocoon" giving small business owners the opportunity "to learn about business."

Applications International is one such business. Applications International owner Walter Sutkowski says he is making maybe a third as much money as he did while employed by IBM.

"Will it grow in time? I anticipate that it will," he says. (94K AIFF sound or 94K WAV sound)

Sotkowski and other entrepreneurs are taking part in the snail's-pace beginnings of Ulster County's recovery. But it is a recovery.

Officials in the county are now hoping that empty office buildings will soon fill up, and that "for sale" signs will soon come down.

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Small businesses spearhead county's economic recovery

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