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When Cape Air began service from Plattsburgh International Airport to Boston, I was concerned about the carrier's lack of a co-fare arrangement with Jet Blue or any other airline. The impression I had from the original news reports was that a co-fare arrangement with Jet Blue was in the works and would be available very shortly. But whenever I checked online, there was no such arrangement to be found.
It seemed to me that any full-service feeder airline would offer such an arrangement with another carrier so that travelers would have the ability to ticket through to major destinations without having to purchase each ticket individually.
Eventually I learned there was no such co-fare arrangement for Cape Air flights out of Plattsburgh although something might be worked out in the future. That bothered me for a while but I've gotten over it. I've come to accept that unless Boston is your final destination, you will need to look at the schedule of other flights into or out of Boston and purchase your tickets accordingly. And for most travelers, that is not a major problem.
In one respect, however, not having a co-fare arrangement for flights out of Plattsburgh works against Clinton County's hopes for improving the local region's air carrier service. When someone purchases a ticket from Plattsburgh to Boston and another ticket from Boston to their final destination, the cost for the Cape Air portion of the flight is right there in front of them and not hidden within a single total cost.
In fact, the Cape Air charge for flying to Boston is not unreasonable and can stand on its own, I think. But knowing what the amount for the flight is will inevitably lead to comparison with the cost of driving to Burlington including the ferry across the lake and parking at the airport or at one of the nearby lots. If there is only one person involved, the Cape Air fare to Boston is very competitive. But if you are looking at the cost for a family of four or five, that ferry ticket and parking begins to look reasonable compared to four or five tickets on Cape Air to Boston. At that point the decision whether to fly out of Plattsburgh or Burlington rests not with what Plattsburgh offers but rather with how well the fares from Boston to your final destination stack up against the fares from Burlington to your final destination. And that's unfortunate because it take Plattsburgh out of the equation.
Maybe I'm over-analyzing the situation. If so, it's because I really, really believe it's important to Plattsburgh, Clinton County and the rest of the North Country that Plattsburgh International Airport succeed at attracting first class air passenger service to the region.
To that end, I unabashedly commend the wisdom and the commitment of Clinton County's legislators for building the new terminal at the former PAFB flight line and for staying committed to that same goal of first class air passenger service for the North Country.
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Ed Marin's recent blog about Development of the Airport Area reminded me of a project that was under study a few years ago by the Town of Plattsburgh, the New York Dept. of Transportation and PARC — a rail freight terminal on the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base (have we come up with an acceptable name for the "new base" yet?).
The proposed site of a rail freight yard was a tract of land that was then occupied by the old base heating plant, as I recall. The heating plant is now gone. Is the rail freight yard project still alive, I wonder?
I would think that rail freight loading and unloading capability would be a significant boost for continued development of PARC and the rest of the North Country. The proposal added it to an existing rail spur and it didn't seem to be an overly ambitious project in terms of size and facilities.
I'm not sure where loading and unloading of rail cars is currently taking place. It may be done at the switching location that was built behind the Bluff Point Golf Course. Or maybe there is no such central location locally.
I remember that one of the needs expressed at such a facility was the unloading and storage of road salt. In the old Plattsburgh waterfront rail yard, road salt was unloaded and stored in the former engine repair building, I think. I don't know how it was handled this past winter. The proposed PARC rail freight yard was designed to handle bulk materials like road salt as well as easily move freight in containers to tractor trailers. All in all, it seemed like a good plan.
Even if there is not a great need for a rail freight handling facility for businesses located at PARC, there should be a need for one to serve our general area, I think. Won't new companies like Nova Bus see a modern freight handling capability as a plus for the region?
If anyone has information on whether this project is still in the works, please leave a reply.
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The most talk in recent years involving downtown Plattsburgh development was generated by the so-called Bove proposal for a retail and housing complex on the corner of Court and Margaret Streets. For better or worse, that project has been declared dead. Did the city learn anything from the dialog that came out of the proposed project?
Debate about how to revive downtown Plattsburgh has been ongoing since the Route 3 shopping malls explosion of the 1970s. To a large degree, downtown has seen a lot of improvements since its initial decline. There is no question that City Hall cares a great deal about downtown but it's not so clear that it has a clear view on what steps it should take to really make a positive difference.
Before a plan for reviving downtown Plattsburgh can be successfully accomplished, there needs to be a common and realistic vision for district.
It may well be that the perception many people use to define a downtown district is no longer valid. It is not now and may never again be a retail shopping center. It is not a social gathering place. It is not really the center of anything. And it is important that the people responsible for guiding its re-growth understand and acknowledge that.
The dialog generated by the Bove proposal involved several downtown merchants. It would be surprising if it hadn't. But who is to say that today's downtown merchants have the best vision for the downtown of tomorrow?
The people leading the city's efforts to guide downtown Plattsburgh towards future prosperity may need to expand their vision for that group of streets we all call "downtown" to include a mixture of uses, only a small portion of which include retail merchants.
It would be a significant step forward for the city if its leaders would tell us what they learned from the Bove project dialogue. If, out of the ensuing debate, a new vision for change was generated, that could be a significant step forward. If nothing new came out of it, nothing new is going to happen for downtown Plattsburgh.
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The thing about New York's annual struggle with the budget is that even after it passes, no one is happy with how it came about. This year there is every indication that the budget that passed yesterday is not the one the state will finally wind up with.
Every state revenue prognostication foresees a decrease in state revenues in several areas tied to a downturn in the economy. Every prognostication, that is, except the one that this budget is based upon. # Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno explains the difference in revenue projections this way — "I'd rather be optimistic.... What the future brings, no one can tell."
Excuse me?
So don't be surprised if, right after the November elections, the state revenue numbers become slightly less out of focus and a special legislative session is called to cut back on state spending. If you look closely, you may even detect that the state isn't spending what it passed in the budget.
Experienced observers of how the state operates understand that there is a big difference between budget approval and actual state spending.
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Nova Bus will be locating a major manufacturing facility in Plattsburgh and that is good news. When the plant is fully operational, the company expects to employ up to 435 locally. Those jobs are expected to pay between $12 and $18 per hour according to Nova Bus.
You can't help but notice the similarities between Nova Bus, a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary of Volvo Bus Corp. and the Bombardier manufacturing plant in Plattsburgh, a Canadian subsidiary that assembles commuter rail cars. Both companies produce transportation vehicles for large metropolitan transit systems and both companies have located in Plattsburgh, in part, to meet U.S. content provisions that are part of almost all large metropolitan contracts.
Plattsburgh has become the poster child for the entire reasoning behind adding those U.S. content provisions into the bidding process.
As we have seen with Bombardier, though, local employment levels are entirely dependent on metropolitan area transit systems having the financial wherewithal to replace aging commuter vehicles and then which manufacturer wins the bid.
Still, having two such manufacturers in Plattsburgh certainly spreads out the impact should one or the other experience a slowdown. It is even conceivable that some workers could shift from one manufacturer to the other as production levels rise and fall. Of course, if both companies experience such a slowdown, and that's not a huge stretch given the fact that both produce products for essentially the same customers, then the negative impact on the North Country will be even deeper.
It would appear that the production line jobs these two manufacturers will offer are a good match for a large segment of the North Country population. Presumably there are already training programs in place for younger workers and that entered into the Nova Bus decision to locate in Plattsburgh.
It makes you wonder if there are other manufacturers, particularly in the global transportation sector, who might also look to locate in the region.
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Plattsburgh was never really in the running for the proposed Bombardier aircraft-assembly plant, but just how far out of the running we were is really kind of astounding.
According to a P-R article, the Montreal Gazette reported last week that one industry source said Bombardier is asking for $750 million (U.S. funds) in incentives from the state or province that wants the facility.
Those kinds of terms can't be met by small countries, much less by a community the size of Plattsburgh.
There is no point complaining that large multi-national corporations shouldn't be expecting taxpayers to underwrite their investments. It is what it is and you only need to look at several Japanese auto plants in the U.S. to see how it works for the companies and communities involved. There are many other examples as well.
Keep in mind too that Laurentian became serious about locating in Plattsburgh after they met with the Governor of New York, the staffs of two U.S. Senators and a Pentagon official.
The days are over when a community can say to potential new employers, "We're a great place to locate!" and point out quality of life issues. That simply isn't enough anymore.
Now there are several local and state organizations that can create financing, tax incentive and other packages to help lure a potential new employer to the region. And they seem to be doing a pretty good job of it.
This is all well and good but as we look at the wheeling and dealing going on in Albany this week to determine where state funding will be spent, it's a little disconcerting to wonder what is being traded to whom. If funding packages for local development organizations are traded away from one community to another, will the North Country be unable to compete in the new corporate environment? Will there be Tech Valley haves and have nots?
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Welcome to North Country BizConnect.
We hope this site will become the North Country's discussion forum for any issues involving this region's economic future.
BizConnect welcomes comments from everyone concerning economic development issues in the North Country but we've placed a special emphasis on discussion topics raised by our "Featured Contributors." They include:
- Paul Grasso, executive director of the North Country Workforce Investment Board
- Howard Lowe, Director of Economic Development for the PSU Technical Assistance Center
- Colin Read, dean of the PSU School of Business and Economics
- Mark Barie, president, CDC Real Estate
- Ed Marin, president, Gradients, LLC
Each day we will be looking at news stories as they relate to economic development in the North Country. Our "Featured Contributors" will offer their insight into these issues and all users are invited to comment on their blogs or enter their opinions in the forums.
The purpose of BizConnect is to promote discussion on local issues, but it is essential that that discussion be cordial. If we consider the comments of any member, either in reponse to a blog entry or in any forum topic, to be less than cordial, we will delete those comments in their entirety. If any member persists in posting comments in a tone we consider to be less than cordial, we will revoke that person's membership.
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