$300,000 spent seeking permit for Marcy nanotech s

[Swimmy]

$300,000 spent seeking permit for Marcy nanotech site

This is where money should be spent, not on a theatre that has already cost a few million. Don't misinterpret me. I fully appreciate the arts, but I don't think you should spend outside your means, especially when the area cannot and will not support it!

AMD chose a site in Schenectady over Marcy because of the Schenectady site's larger size. I believe that was one of the reasons another plant a few years before AMD chose an Albany site as well. It's about time local officials got their act together and started listening to business demands. $300,000 is a good start. I hope that soon a tech plant will fill that site and bring some nice jobs along with it. Nanotechnology is today what computer science was in the late 90s. It's a hot zone and the area would do itself a great service if it could catch the wave now and bridge a connection with Albany!!!

Good luck EDGE! Keep up the good work with this one. Stay on top of it.

[strikeslip]

I've been following the Chip Fab saga for years. I agree with you on the seeming lack of proper priorities in state spending.

But as far as EDGE's performance goes . . . "too little too late" seems apropos.

While the Saratoga County site ultimately picked by AMD was still on the drawing board it was being toured by manufacturers . . . At the same time no one was showing any interest in Marcy, only 90 miles away, which had a site that was practically shovel ready. That did not make sense to me. The Saratoga site then had a serious water availability problem ... it needed approval by TWO Towns (because it straddled the border) ... and there was public opposition. Marcy was a good two years ahead of them.

I wrote to the County Executive (Eannace), ALL the county legislators, Mrs. Destito and others, questioned EDGE's seeming lack of aggressiveness, and warned them that we had a window of opportunity open that would close when the Albany area got its ducks in a row.

I no sooner wrote that letter (December 2002) than an article appeared that EDGE was shelving its application for the wetland permit. I wrote again, noting that Oneida County at that point had a serious credibility problem because it was advertising a "shovel ready" site (which meant that it had all the necessary permits) that was not really "shovel ready," and telling them that it was a mistake to shelve the permit application because of the delay it would cause.

Only Mrs. Destito responded. She said in part:

"I agree with you that at this time, we technically don't have a "shovel ready" site in Marcy. However, I do agree with the decision of the Mohawk Valley EDGE officials to wait . . .
" . . . I am confident that the lack of an Army Corps of Engineers permit will not be a major hurdle to finding a developer . . . "

She then went on about all the "advantages" that the Marcy site supposedly had such as proximity to SUNY IT and an "outstanding local workforce" as though those could hold a candle to Albany area institutions like RPI and SUNY Albany and the highly educated workforce there.

I later caught up with Mr. Eannace and questioned him about the interest in Albany and the seeming lack of it here. He came up with some excuses like the Malta site was larger, but, after I pressed him, indicated that Albany wanted things this way.

Our advantage was timing . . . but EDGE and its supporters threw that away.

<b>If I sound angry, I am. We are run by nitwits.</b>


I blogged on this a few days ago
strikeslip.blogspot.com/2008/01/edge-that-was-some-lesson.html
but if you search the blog on Chip Fab you will come up with a lot of stuff.

[Swimmy]

Your story is similar to how our elected officials missed out on the Bio Defense research lab a few years ago by adopting an "if we build it they will come policy" which the feds specifically indicated was NOT what they were looking for.