I love living in Chautauqua County. I love the change in seasons and our beautiful lakes. Most of all I love this community. There are very few places where people are so nice.

One Christmastime I was in Aldi and there was a long line. A cashier opened a new line and said, “Whoever is next can come to this checkout.” There was no mad rush to the new line. Instead everyone looked at each other and gestured politely.

“Were you next?”

“No, you go ahead”

It only took a few seconds to sort out, but it was done with kindness and respect for others. I love living in a community where people make space for each other.

We have a lot going for us environmentally and socially. We have three beautiful lakes, Cassadaga Lake, Chautauqua Lake and Lake Erie. We have a lot of interesting architecture. Economically no one can argue that things are not going well.

Something we can do is lobby for economic development money to go to local businesses. The Athenex plant was supposed to be a magic bullet. It would bring jobs and those jobs would bring people with money to spend. Some $200 million of our tax money went into that empty building. We have a true White Elephant, by which I mean a liability.

If we had just divided that money by everyone in the county (approximately 125,000 people) and given it to people as $1,600 cash it would have had a more positive economic impact. Imagine if that $200 million had been given to local businesses. We could give 100 businesses $1 million each for improvements. We could take the other $100,000,000 and put it into businesses in downtown Dunkirk and Jamestown. That would have a rippling effect.

Downtown Dunkirk and Jamestown have a wealth of interesting beautiful storefronts. We could choose two streets in each city. Central Avenue and Lake Shore Drive in Dunkirk and Main and Third street in Jamestown. We can renovate the buildings. That alone will employ people. Each building is different and will need skilled workers to bring them up to date. This is a great opportunity to transition youth from high school into the skilled trades. A community with a lot of skilled workers is a wealthier community.

Traditionally a lot of these buildings are set up so the storefront was on the ground floor and the owner lived upstairs. In some bigger buildings there were offices on the second floor and apartments on the top.

Once the buildings are useable again charge a reasonable rent for the offices and apartments but make the storefronts available rent free and invest a $100,000 grant in each business that agrees to run a storefront for a year. When people are running their own business, they care about how the storefront looks. They will sweep their doorways and shovel the snow. They will also decorate for the seasons. After a year start charging rent.

It’s true that not all the storefronts are going to make it past that year but even the ones that don’t make it will have supported the community with sales tax and by sponsoring the soccer teams and buying adds in the school programs. It’s true that investing directly in people is risky but so is investing in a factory for a company in China.

The thing is we spent $200 million of our tax money on the empty Athenex building. We really do not need any more empty buildings. We have plenty. Investing in downtowns are worthwhile because when the upstairs is full of people in the offices during the day and the apartments are full at night money can circulate within this small area. Money travels with people. When people are spending time downtown they also spend money downtown.

From the beginning the Athenex project smelled of corruption. Somehow an international company was going to manufacture a drug that did not yet have FDA approval? It never seemed like a good gamble to me.

There is a lot of slack in a $200 million budget. I feel sure that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s allies made out quite well in the deal. Let’s invest in ourselves next time.

Marie Tomlinson is a Fredonia resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com