Last Wednesday, July 12, Ulster County Office of Economic Development director Suzanne Holt presented a status report on the progress of the Ellenville Million and requested the reallocation of funds as asked for by the county's committee in charge of the Million's expenditures.

This week, Chris Kelly of the County Executive's office clarified the amounts the town and village were looking at getting as part of the county's competitive proposal for up to $20 million in state funding, and explained why such figures were less exact than many wished.

"We're talking $7 million in straight up cash. No project in our proposal is bigger than Ellenville's, and additionally there will be tax credits allowing various revenues on top of that amount for coming years," Kelly said. "We're trying to remain competitive and we don't want to show all of our cards... We can't give away our recipe for our competitors to use against us."

As for the "Ellenville Million," approximately $467,000 of the funding set aside from the state's casino approval process has been spent on nine components originally outlined by the Million's committee two years ago (the management of many of those components has been delegated to Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress). Those components originally included the development of an economic development fund, a tourism/marketing campaign, renovation of the Hunt Memorial building, the enhancement of outdoor recreation opportunities, improvements to Shadowland Theatre, a Main Street façade program, upgrades to water and sewer infrastructure, development of high speed broadband, and a management/grant writing component.

Much of the program, Holt explained last week, has found success. However, she added that some components haven't been so lucky, especially the development of high speed broadband, necessitating a reallocation of funds.

Also, the original $150,000 issued to water and sewer infrastructure improvements has been reduced to $45,000. The economic development fund component has been renamed "Jump Start" with funding reduced from $175,000 to $125,000, with funds to be utilized as grants to new businesses and developers within the village, town and the county establishing and maintaining rules of use. The tourism and marketing component will see an increase in funds from $100,000 to $151,500. BBG&G of Campbell Hall has been contacted by UCEDA to develop marketing opportunities (the website, Find Ellenville, was designed for this purpose). The increased funds will be used to assist village and town businesses to promote events and tourism-related attractions. The original allocation of $75,000 and $100,000 to Shadowland Theatre and the Hunt Memorial building will remain unchanged, despite requests for additional funds.

While those components won't waiver, the development of a new grant-matching component will allow for businesses, nonprofits and local government to subsidize the matching fund requirement of outside grants. $105,000 has been allotted to this component.

The Main Street façade program will be increased by $25,000 after originally starting at $25,000. Four grants have been issued to downtown businesses to improve their store fronts, Holt said, with three completing the proposed improvements thus far, including Tony & Nick's on Canal Street.

The project management component, started at $75,000, has been reduced to $48,900.

The original high speed broadband component has been nixed, with the original funding of $150,000 reduced to $75,000 as the program shifts to exploration of a pilot program to install Wi-Fi towers to deliver internet access throughout the village. A similar program, she noted, is up and running in Kingston.

A new component for vocational training and workforce transportation will be allocated $50,000. As written in the approved resolution, "Consistent with the original goals of the Ellenville Million Program, this new component will be used to provide training to prepare residents of Ellenville and/or Wawarsing for re-entry to the workforce and/or to provide limited transportation services."