On the ground

Farm Catskills has invited author and economist Michael Shuman to speak in Delhi (at the Legion Hall) on Saturday October 24th at 2pm, on the topic of “Building Living Local Economies”.

They would like to get feedback from as many locally owned businesses as possible prior to the event to help tailor Michael’s talk to the needs and interests of Delaware County.  There is a short online survey for business owners, available at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=aO6RyE1MI_2bENzDWiAbJSJg_3d_3d

FMI, call Amy Kenyon, 607-643-1724

Building Local Living Economies
Free and open to the public!
Saturday October 24th 2pm
American Legion Hall, Delhi
Special Guest Speaker Michael Shuman
followed by local foods and business reception and book signing

From our farms to our Main Streets, locally owned small businesses are the foundation of our communities.  How can we do more to grow our local economy and encourage thriving local businesses?  Come to this event to learn more about what everyone, from local government leaders to banks, from business owners to consumers can do to be part of the movement to strengthen sustainable, vibrant communities in the Catskill region.

Michael Shuman is a dynamic speaker on local economy concepts. He is an economist, attorney, entrepreneur, and the author of several books including The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition and Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age.

Shuman has been involved with a variety of projects related to small and locally owned business development and support, including: creating a small business venture capital fund in New Mexico; launching a community-owned company in Salisbury (MD) called Bay Friendly Chicken; organizing university-government-business collaborations in St. Lawrence County (NY) and in the Katahdin Region (ME) to study opportunities for import replacement; preparing a buy-local guide and coupon book for Annapolis (MD); and building the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE).

This event is organized by Farm Catskills, with funding support from the O’Connor Foundation and the Pure Catskills buy local campaign.

Note: Tickets are available for purchase from this web site — see the “Upcoming Event” section of the sidebar.

We’ve been a bit remiss about keeping the blog up to date during the course of this nail-biter election, for which we humbly apologize.

On the other hand, for the past month there has been little to say except, “They’re still counting.”

Well, that and, “They decided that Senator Gillibrand is allowed to vote in this district.”

Well, the only race in town ended today when Jim Tedisco conceded late this afternoon and Scott Murphy went public as our new Congressman!

Let me say that again, in the much more straight-forward words of our Chairwoman, Cindy Lockrow-Schimmerling:

WE HAVE A NEW CONGRESSMAN, AND HIS NAME IS SCOTT MURPHY!!!

Break out the bubbly, folks, and rack up another victory for the D Team. I don’t know about you but I could get used to this.

As a matter of fact, it’s a good sign for the upcoming local races. More on that in the coming months.

Our candidate for the 20th Congressional District, Scott Murphy, will be touring the Davenport Garden Center this Wednesday the 18th @ 1:45pm. This is open to the public and we invite you to attend. Scott will be hosted by Supervisor Dennis Valente, and we hope to have many other elected representatives from the surrounding towns present as well. Press is being invited and expected to cover this event. Please spread the word!