Congressional Delegation Supports Chamber Effort to Obtain Federal Funds

New York’s Congressional delegation is supporting an bid by North Country economic development interests to gain federal funding to help regional manufacturers.

The Plattsburgh North Country Chamber of Commerce has partnered with CITEC in a application to obtain federal funds from the Rural Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge. The goal is to determine where there are gaps in the supply chain to regional manufacturers. Plattsburgh North Country Chamber Vice President for Economic Development Susan Matton says if they are awarded the funds, they hope to keep companies in the area and make them more competitive.

CITEC is a non-profit consulting firm that works with small and medium sized manufacturers in the seven northern New York counties. Executive Director Bill Murray says the federal grant would support the region’s advanced manufacturing cluster in three ways.

Congressman Bill Owens and New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have written to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Economic Development Administration, which underwrites the accelerator program, urging that the application from the Chamber and CITEC be supported with federal funding.  Congressman Owens says it represents an opportunity to take advantage of supply chain opportunities across the North Country.

The application requests three years of funding to map and define current supply chains and then fill in the gaps.