Ideas Bloom for Food Hub

AllOtsego.com, May 20, 2016 – Rapid-fire, “food-hub superstar” Karen Karp this morning presented a full menu of new ideas for the “Food & Beverage Innovation District” planned along Oneonta’s Market Street:

Renovate the downtown parking deck to include shops and maybe even apartments.
Collaborate with SUNY Oneonta’s Sodexo catering service on a restaurant and food-service management training center in a “food hub” in the former Ford dealership at Chestnut and Market streets.
Create an Ommegang “off-site research and development brewery” at the same site. (And/or a “modest-size place for contract brewing,” 15-20 barrels at a time, for the Garrattsville-based Butternut Beer & Ale brewery.
Redo asphalt-heavy Market Street into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard, with shade trees, grass and benches suitable for “a festival site,” outdoor cafés and other uses.
Install a restaurant-supply hub in the former Sears building at South Main and Market, perhaps a satellite of the Restaurant Depot in Albany, shortening a shopping trip that now can take restaurateur all day.
Open an “intermediate drop-off point,” where farmers could bring produce to be picked up by Lucky Dog of Hamden, Delaware County, which would then spirit fresh corn and cauliflower to New York City markets.
Design multiple “connections back to Main Street,” to ensure the whole downtown benefits from the new concept.

These ideas and many more weren’t dreamed up by Karp’s staff, she said, but grew out of a series of meetings with local restaurateurs, brewers, farmers, local academe, Fox Hospital CEO Jeff Joyner and others to assess their needs. “These are the exact things that people told us they want,” the consultant said.

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Workforce Training Center In Transition

After a successful first year, the Otsego Now Workforce Training Center is moving into a period of change and transition.

Center Director Dawn Rivers will be leaving Otsego Now to pursue graduate studies in anthropology at the University of North Carolina this coming fall. Dawn came to Otsego Now about two years ago, after graduating from Hartwick College with a degree in economics and anthropology.

To assume responsibility for the Workforce Training Center, Otsego Now has retained the services of Patrick J. Doyle of Doyle Consulting.

Mayor Outlines Development Plans for City

The Daily Star, May 19, 2016 - A vision for the city of Oneonta’s future was discussed Tuesday by Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig. He was the guest speaker at the League of Women Voters of the the Oneonta Area’s annual spring dinner, held at the First United Methodist Church in Oneonta.

With the city preparing an application for $10 million in state funding to be awarded to one community in the Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council, those involved had an opportunity to put in writing the efforts that a number of organizations and agencies have been working with the city on for a number of years, Herzig said.