Astorino: “A great atmospher for business”
TARRYTOWN – Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, announced a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to revamp the economies of Westchester and surrounding counties.
Astorino is calling the initiatives, Westchester Smart.
Today, business leaders and representatives met with Astorino at a roundtable discussions in in Tarrytown to share ideas on improving the local economy.
“One of the goals that we have is to create 500 jobs in the next couple of years, with companies that are hiring and those jobs are really in the high tech/ healthcare field”, said Astorino. “We’re working with seven different counties actually. This is an initiative that we’re doing with Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan and Ulster Counties and I think we can far exceed 500 jobs.”
That’s the minimum goal, the county exec said.
Astorino designed these “Smart Initiatives” to have five major components. There will be training and placement for the 500 jobs to be created working with local universities, a Mobile App Development Bowl, the first of which will be to design an app to help with the care of Alzheimer’s and Dementia, a “mobile-friendly” website for Westchester County called westchestergov.com, a Navigating Westchester Forum which will bring real estate, planning experts, municipal officials and public advocates together to expedite/improve the overall developmental process and a Summit for Non- Profits and Profit entities, within the county, to bridge the gap between them.
Astorino said Westchester has, “…a great atmosphere for business, a million population, rich diversity and something we have here, which is second to none, is a high-skilled workforce”.
He is planning on bringing attention to the initiatives to the city soon in the hopes of gaining businesses who are looking to relocate.
