Baer said he is also contacting people “in the business of conducting feasibility and marketing studies about the possibility of getting involved” with the project. And, “we are starting to make some preliminary contacts with major national corporations in the technology industry,” he said.

“We are in the early stages of working with the Empire State Development Corporation, as well,” Baer said.

In addition to Baer, members of Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-Greenport) staff, State Senator Stephen Saland (R-41st), State Assembly members Marcus Molinaro (R,C,I-Red Hook), Peter D. Lopez (R,C,I -Schoharie), and Tim Gordon (I-Bethlehem), Hudson Mayor Richard Scalera and Common Council President Rob Perry were part of the group that met behind closed doors on the campus of Columbia-Greene Community College on September 17.

Peter D. Wohl, the Regional Director of the Capital Region, Empire State Development (ESD), was in Hudson for that discussion and characterized it as “a very productive meeting.”

According to Wohl, ESD will be involved in this process in several ways. Specifically, “ESD will work with Art and/or his task force to continue developing the formal plan of action, providing information, guidance, and insight as required. Both ESD’s Capital and Mid-Hudson regional offices will remain in close contact with Kaz and local Workforce NY and Department of Labor representatives, engaging when appropriate.

“ESD will complement Kaz’s efforts to market the existing facility and surrounding property through web-based listings and outreach to attraction, retention, and/or expansion prospects.

“ESD will seek to identify existing companies within the Capital and Mid-Hudson regions [as well as prospects] whose workforce requirements align with the skill sets of displaced Kaz and LB employees,” he said.

Kaz Inc., one of the largest employers in Columbia County, announced on September 8 that it will begin outsourcing all local manufacturing operations and will close its twelve-year-old Greenport facility early next year, adding nearly 350 people to the county unemployment rolls. In March 2008, Hudson furniture manufacturer, LB Furniture Industries, LLC, filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 and ceased all operations. The sixty-year-old company once employed a workforce of 250. Its 300,000 square foot facility now sits abandoned in the South Bay. The loading dock equipment manufacturer, W.B. McGuire, closed its Hudson Avenue plant in 2006, putting 72 out of work.

The county, under Baer’s leadership, is now in the process of creating an intergovernmental task force to develop a proposal and market the facilities and workforce currently available to either a new or existing business willing to relocate to Columbia County.

Just this week, in further response to the recent plant closings, the City of Hudson created its own economic development task force through the Hudson Development Corporation (HDC). Dubbed “Hudson First,” the group consists of Scalera, Perry, Jason O'Toole (private business owner), Peter Markou (HDC Director), Seth Rapport (attorney), and Alderwoman Wanda Pertilla (D-Second Ward).