When the NYS business operations restrictions first took place in mid-March, TEAM Tioga immediately
realized the potential devastating effect this would have on our local economy, in particular the backbone,
our small businesses, non-profits and other critical workforces.
TEAM Tioga went into action creating the Tioga County Economic Recovery Advisory Council, and
recruited members that owned or provided services to small businesses and important workforces. The
Council held weekly meetings to report impacts to businesses and workforces. The Council quickly formed
work groups that acted to either mitigate impacts or address needs of businesses. This “Response” phase
lasted into the summer, as many business and workforce issues took some time to resolve. NYS’s Phase
1 through Phase 4 of reopening also prompted the need to clarify confusion, specifically providing
business owners with assistance on the timing and requirements to reopen safely.
In late July, the Economic Recovery Advisory Council turned its attention to building and documenting a
path to a more resilient future. The result of this work is the Tioga County Strategic Economic Recovery
Plan, which provides a guide for next steps with a clearly defined goal “to create an action plan to position
Tioga County for success in the future economy”. Tioga County’s businesses, economic sectors, and
workforce will be better able to withstand future health-related events that force categorical economic
shutdowns. Numerous service providers, agency representatives, business owners, and nonprofit
workers volunteered many hours to develop short-term (Recovery), as well as long-term (Redevelopment)
impacts and strategic actions, which will guide our community to quicker economic success if faced with
similar future events and challenges.
Martha Sauerbrey states, “As Chair of the Tioga County Legislature, I think it is critical that we have this
Plan to guide our community into the new economy. Our dedicated business and service stakeholders
created a plan that is straightforward and will put us on a resilient, successful path to recovery. Thank
you to all those who participated and thank you to the Tioga County Legislature for your support in this
effort.”
The Director of the Broome-Tioga Work Force, Robert Murphy, states, “Tioga County responded to the
unprecedented COVID-19 crisis with unprecedented willingness to improve its service delivery and try
new solutions to solve new challenges. We at Broome-Tioga Workforce NY proudly worked with Tioga
County, its people, its companies, education professionals, and its governmental resources and contributed to its Strategic Plan. It would be fair to say that we perhaps learned more about Tioga County
and its resilience because we contributed.”
Jennifer Gregory, Executive Director of the Southern Tier 8 Regional Board, has this to say, “Team Tioga
quickly assessed pandemic impacts and developed focused strategies to support local business needs.
Many thanks to County Planning Director Elaine Jardine & Team Tioga for offering an innovative approach
that sets an example for other community leaders drafting their recovery plans”.
“Who could have forecasted the impact that COVID had on all areas of our businesses”, writes Sue Ann
Williams, Tioga County Branch Manager of the Chemung Canal Trust Company. “Putting a plan in place
for future incidents made sense! Glad to be a part of working toward common goals that are equally
shared within our County”.
From the small businesses point of view, Robert Griffin, our area’s Certified Small Business Advisor with
Binghamton University’s Small Business Development Center says, “As advocates for small business
owners, I am grateful to have been included in a process that is sensitive to the urgent needs that
entrepreneurs have for local strategic support. We believe that the collaboration between our local small
businesses and our communities is critical to helping us collectively restore confidence and keep
businesses healthy for years to come.”
Tompkins Cortland Community College’s primary mission is to serve our community by meeting
educational needs, which often means responding to specific workforce training and development needs.
As such, Carrie Whitmore, Director of Continuing Education and Workforce Development at TC3 writes
about her participation, “We are always anxious to do what we can to gain a better understanding of the
workforce needs of Tioga County, so we were honored to take part in the Tioga County Strategic Economic
Recovery Plan process. It is important that every stakeholder play a role in our community moving
forward, and this plan helps spell out what we can do as a college to support economic and workforce
recovery in Tioga County. We are excited to have been a part of the process to create this plan, but more
excited to do our part to ensure a bright future for Tioga County”.
The Tioga County Economic Recovery Advisory Council approved the Strategic Plan at their October 21
meeting.
The next step for this important project is implementation. The Committees involved in developing the
Plan will be working toward transforming the listed Recovery and Redevelopment strategic actions into
reality over the next six months to one year.
Tioga County’s Strategic Economic Recovery Plan can be found on the County’s website at
https://www.tiogacountyny.com/media/8734/tioga-co-strategic-economic-recovery-
plan_approved.pdf.
For questions and more information, please contact Elaine Jardine, County Planning Director, at
[email protected] or by phone at (607) 687-8257
Tioga County Preparing for Success in Business, Non-profits and Workforces.
