By Stefan Yablonski
In every corner of Oswego County progress is evident — a reflection of the boom being experienced by the entire region.
“I think that especially because of Micron and the opportunities that that provides, it also provides some challenges that we have known for a while,” said Austin Wheelock, executive director of Operation Oswego County. “But now we really have to solve these. Many of them are infrastructure-related — especially in the areas where they are going to see the most potential for growth.”
In southern Oswego County you have some infrastructure challenges, he said.
“They are more rural areas and have been able to get by without having infrastructure upgrades for a while, so it is something we are working through,” he added. “We are working through the expansion in the Industrial Park in Phoenix. We are working with our infrastructure partners to make sure that we can meet the needs for industry over the next several years by expanding infrastructure into the new park expansion. We are working on funding for that right now. We hope to see some movement — shovels in the ground later this year or early 2025.”
He was at the old Miller site “just there recently meeting with the owner. They are going to have about half that space ready.”
“When I say half — it’s 700,000 square foot — so when I say half, that’s about 350,000 square feet that will be ready,” Wheelock said.
The remainder of that space will be ready the next year.
“That is a premier location, not just for Central New York but all of New York state,” he added. “There just are not buildings of that size with that type of infrastructure and access to rail sitting around available in New York state.”
It is “a huge attraction site” for the area.
“When we are going after major projects that are looking to expand, that is a premier site because it is a building that already exists and there just isn’t that many of that kind with that kind of infrastructure,” he said.
There is some infrastructure that needs to be modernized, he noted, “But it’s a great facility. We are working with the owners and they are going full speed ahead.”
Micron
“Things are going great. The Micron steering committee, which I’m a part of, is being lead by SUNY Oswego. They are getting close to releasing their action plan on that. That will probably be near the end of February or early March,” he said. “Everything is moving forward related to that. We have identified a lot of positive momentum and some areas that we need to improve. One of those is infrastructure, another is housing.”
Some of the other things they are looking at are workforce, adding additional workforce programs, looking at obstacles to getting folks into the workforce like transportation issues and health care.
“We are trying to solve a lot of things. But I think we are creating a good road map of where we are at and what we need to do, some best practices of how to get there,” he said.
Collaboration
“I have been up here in Oswego County going on 18 years now and I have never seen as much collaboration and working together between government and nonprofit organizations and industry as I have seen over the last year plus,” he said. “Educational institutions, government, nonprofits, industry and everybody — all working together! I think we all see an opportunity in front of us. We all know that this is bigger than any one of us.”
It’s not just because of Micron that everyone is all working together, he added.
“Micron sort of exacerbates it. It’s a challenge and an opportunity for existing companies to find all the people that they need — if you throw a large player like Micron into the mix it makes things harder.
“A lot of our workforce partners including CiTi BOCES PTECH, Workforce Development Board, all of these groups are coming together. CenterState CEO is also working together with New York state and other partners to improve the workforce for the future.”
They are putting all the pieces together.
“I think it’s going to be great for Oswego County. It’s going to keep more of our young talent here,” he said. “They are going to see opportunities here and not think they have to go elsewhere.
“I think there have always been opportunities. But this is something that is so big that everybody knows about it. You don’t have to go looking for it. This isn’t going to just help Micron, it’s going to help a lot of our other manufacturers. This is going to bring a lot of recognition to our area for people that are here who maybe going into high school right now and also people looking from outside the area. They see Central New York as a real opportunity to start and to continue a career.”
What they are trying to do is prepare everything from the infrastructure to real estate, he explained.
“We are working on a bunch of different things right now. There are a lot of locations — we just have to get them ready (one possibility is the former Nestles site in Fulton) so that when these opportunities come we won’t have to play catch up. We are going to see a lot of construction going on in Oswego County over the next five to 10 years; not just for industry but residential as well.”
Something to look out for in the spring is going to be the construction and groundbreaking for the Daldrop project; the cleanroom manufacturing down in the industrial park, he added.
“I believe right now they are starting to bid projects. Hopefully, we will see construction there this spring and continuing through the summer. They hope they will have a building up by the end of the year, but we’ll see how the weather treats us,” he said.
