KINGSTON – Ulster County Executive Patrick Ryan told businesspeople at the Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce on Thursday the county is poised to move beyond COVID-19.
After two years of a pandemic, Ryan said we can now be focusing our energy on constructive things.
It is a bright future for Ulster County – even though it’s been a dark and challenging two years.”
Housing prices, for renters and new homeowners, soared in the region during the two years as the pandemic pushed people out of crowded urban areas toward the peaceful, more safer pastures of Ulster County.
“A big focus on addressing the housing crisis and really making sure that, for example, the frontline workers, who risked their lives for us during the last two years, can afford to live in the communities they risked their lives for,” he said.
Economically, the county will see the development of the former IBM plant in Kingston, and Ellenville will get a boost with a new marijuana production facility on the site of a former cutlery factory.
“We are finally bringing that back to life,” said Ryan, of the former IBM plant, “bringing in more than $200 million in capital and creating up to 1,000 new, good paying jobs.”
