By Fred Larson

Last year the paper published my essay titled “Ripley: Believe It Or Not.” At that time the development of a County Industrial Park in Ripley was still a proposal. As a new member in 2024 of the Chautauqua County Legislature’s Economic Development Committee I watched a You Tube video of a 10 minute power point presentation about the Ripley County industrial park site to the Economic Development Committee on December 13, 2023.

The Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency (CCIDA) had commissioned a consultant to evaluate potential economic development sites only in the “North County.”

Apparently, based upon the consultant’s recommendation, the CCIDA announced in 2023 that the county’s only new industrial park would be in Ripley with an estimated cost of $16,000,000.

The Ripley site will eat up “every penny” of the $4,800,000 Federal American Rescue Plan dollars from the Biden administration that the County Legislature had budgeted for industrial parks. The Legislature turned this $4,800,000 over to its CCIDA in 2023.

The Town of Ripley has a population of about 2,300 people. Google Maps shows it would take a person about 50 minutes to drive from Frewsburg or about 45 minutes for a person to drive from Silver Creek to Ripley for work. By contrast, the site is only 2 miles from Pennsylvania. It would take only 11 minutes for a resident of North East, Pennsylvania (population 4,100) to drive to a job in Ripley, and only 20 minutes from Harborcreek Township, Pennsylvania (population 17,000). It is likely, therefore, that many of the workers at the Ripley site will be Pennsylvania residents rather than Chautauqua County residents.

A very different approach to the development of industrial parks was taken by the county in 1998-99, the last time a major county investment was made in industrial/business parks.

The county’s Industrial Parks Task Force in 1999 recommended to the County Legislature and the County Legislature approved a $13,000,000 investment in 3 industrial parks: the General Stoneman Industrial Park on Hunt Road in Busti (the birthplace and still home to Southern Tier Brewing and other businesses), the Chadwick Bay Industrial Park in the Dunkirk area (next to Nestle/Purina) and the South County Industrial Park (now home to Serta Mattress and other businesses).

These industrial parks are located in the County’s two largest metro areas where a clear majority of the County’s workforce lives.

In 2017, the county wisely bought back 60 acres of land in the South County Industrial Park in Ellicott from Bush Industries under former County Executive Vince Horrigan using $200,000 of state money.

Until 2024, the county and its CCIDA apparently did little to make this land “shovel ready.” Happily, there is now a March 2024 Engineering report outlining steps the county needs to take to make the 60 acres of land “shovel ready” and an estimated cost to do so.

It is incumbent upon Chautauqua County and its CCIDA to get this 60 acres “shovel ready” as soon as possible. Even if only 35 of the acres are useable for a new manufacturer, our experience shows that 35 acres would probably lead to about 200 new jobs in our County’s largest population center.

While it would be good for the economy of Chautauqua County if there were substantial economic development at our Thruway interchanges, including Ripley, would it not be logical to have as our new number one County priority to add industrial/business park lands in our Dunkirk-Fredonia and Jamestown metro areas that already have the water, sewer and other infrastructure capacity to handle new development?

The County Legislature appoints one of the seven CCIDA directors. In addition, a county legislator sits on the band the County Executive appoints the remaining five board members, subject to the Legislature confirmation.

The County Legislature should take its oversight duty seriously for the estimated $16,000,000 Ripley development. The CCIDA has now purchased 63 acres in Ripley for $2,000,000 or $31,000 per acre for “Phase I” and plans to purchase another parcel of 85 acres for “Phase II”.

The County Legislature should ask a number of questions about the Ripley development site. First, how much of the 63 acres in Phase I will be useable for development? Second, is the use of the Ripley site likely to be warehouse distribution rather than manufacturing? Third, if the likely use is to be warehouse distribution, what are the projected number of jobs per acre? 2? 5? We need to know the estimated cost of taxpayer dollars per job created. Fourth, for the 85 acres proposed for “Phase II” how much of that acreage will be useable for building and parking?

The addition of warehouse/distribution facilities along the Thruway in Chautauqua Count is a good thing. The public, however, has a right to know what the likely job creating impact will be from an estimated public investment of $16,000,000 in Ripley.

Fred Larson served as Chautauqua County Attorney from 1998-2005, was a member of the Chautauqua County Industrial Parks Task Force member in 1998-99 and currently represents Jamestown on the Chautauqua County Legislature.