Since taking the position as Ellenville's Economic Development Officer in July, Dan Hauspurg has appeared at village board and workshop meetings, adding suggestions for different ways the village can improve economic fortunes. But for those who've wondered what else Hauspurg has been up to, wonder no more: Dan Hauspurg's been working hard to bring interest back to Ellenville.

"Ellenville is sometimes a forgotten corner of the world," says Hauspurg.

One of Hauspurg's primary goals right now is trying to spur activity in the Main Street Grant program's second phase, whose rollout was reported on last month.

Hauspurg says he's been working with the Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO), the company in charge of administering the program, to increase awareness and participation in the program, sending out flyers and going door-to-door to the different businesses that can take advantage of it.

Hauspurg's been informing business owners in the target zone — consisting of Center Street, Ann Street, Canal Street, and Main Street — of the myriad ways to take advantage of the program, such as through loans and grants provided by Ellenville's Local Development Corporation (ELDC).

"The Main Street Grant is a matching grant, so if you're doing $10,000 worth of work, the grant is for $5,000, and you have to come up with the other $5,000," explains Hauspurg. "ELDC, as a part of this grant, has said if you're a qualified applicant, you can get a $4,000 loan for sixty months at 3%, in addition to a $1,000 grant, again, provided you qualify, which goes a long ways towards meeting the property owner's match.

"I want people to get an idea that, as a group, as a community, if every property owner participates in this grant, the investment that goes into Main Street will pay itself back time and time again, just making it an inviting place to be. This is like having free money handed to us for a six year investment, your building investment."

Hauspurg is also focusing energies on crafting a sign program which would utilize the village's Streetscape Grant. Ideally, the program would strategically place signs on Route 209 to direct traffic into the village's downtown area.

"That drive through on [Route] 209 will give the knowledge that there's something in Ellenville other than 209," he says. "With the traffic on 209, how many people don't know Canal street exists, and don't take the time to make a right turn?

The sign program would potentially take its cues from the proposed comprehensive plan which has been in the works from Peter Fairweather Associates for the last several months. The plan designates certain areas of the village as different zones, such as the Municipal Zone and the Mountain Gateway, which ties into yet another project Hauspurg is working to make a reality by partnering with the Nature Conservancy and the Department of Parks to create an entrance to Minnewaska State Park by Berme Road Park at the intersection of the Smiley Carriage Road and the Canal Trail.

"I see that as having enormous potential," he says, explaining that the park's forthcoming new master plan is providing the perfect opportunity to float the idea to the Nature Conservancy, which manages the park that's owned by the Department of Parks.

"Both of the organizations this summer learned the value of the carriage trails for access by fire equipment," he says. "The fire up at Minnewaska did a huge amount of damage, and it really came to light how important those carriage roads are for access into the park, particularly since there hasn't been a fire up on Sam's Point for fifty years, and that's a tinder box waiting to happen."

Finally, Hauspurg is also working to streamline and update the micro-enterprise grant which not only funds his position, but also will provide benefits and small loans to interested business owners.

"This was the reason for creating the Office for Economic Development," explains Hauspurg of the fund. "The grant was approved, but it was never put into an administratable [sic] form. The funds-release was never achieved, and what I've been trying to do is get us to the point where those funds can be released by [the Department of Housing and Urban Development]. What's been involved in that is I've needed to change the terms of the contract, because it was never really looked at all that carefully, and the goals of the contract were overstated."

Hauspurg explains that the grant necessitates the creation of a certain number of jobs, but he saw that the village needed to implement a way to document what jobs would be created, and that the number of jobs necessitated — about 70, he estimates — would be too much for the amount of money the grant would provide. He wants to make the grant more accessible to more people, he says.

"The way the wording's being changed is we're focusing on creating and retaining fewer jobs, but in addition, the grant will be applicable for what's called 'business assistance.' So if there's a one-guy shop out there, he doesn't need to create a new job to apply for this loan, he just has to show he's an lower-to-middle income individual, and if he needs some help, like new stock on his business, or whatever business expenses he might run across, he can get that loan, qualify for it, and not show that he's created a new job out of it."

Ellenville's Mayor Jeff Kaplan feels that Hauspurg's efforts in the position have been promising so far, especially in light of the currently bleak economic climate the world over.

"What I am observing is there is a need for the office," says Mayor Kaplan. "The fact that we have some grants that we can have somebody right centralized within our area to follow up on them, and that be his focus, is a really valuable process. He's constantly keeping his eyes and ears open. The unfair part to him is really that he came in during probably one of the worst times you could find for economic growth of anywhere."

As to Hauspurg's work with the Main Street grant, the mayor is glad that the economic development officer has been able to take a lead in ensuring that the grant's benefits are taken advantage of.

"It's another justification [for the position]…I think that [Hauspurg] is a valuable tool in staying on top of the businesses and telling them what they can and can't do with the money," he says. "He can do it more effectively because that's what his focus is going to be, rather than RUPCO that has a number of other projects on. I see that as a real valuable plus to this position."

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