Seneca County's Local Governments
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The Local Government Assistance Project is an evolving effort to assist local governments in rural counties improve their prospects for community and economic development by increasing their effectiveness and governance capacity. Borrowing from the Cornell Local Government Program's successful Business Retention and Expansion approach, systematic survey and interview techniques are used to highlight common or pressing technical assistance and educational needs identified by local officials. as well as opportunities for intermunicipal cooperation. A Task Force that includes key local officials helps adapt the generic process to local circumstances, interpret the survey results and formulate and pursue recommendations for responsive "next steps". This publication reproduces the written materials that resulted from the application of this concept to Seneca County, New York. The project was conducted as part of a larger county-wide effort, funded by the US Department of Labor, that was intended to stimulate economic redevelopment in the county in the wake of extensive downsizing of the Seneca Army Depot. This publication details the procedures used in Seneca County and emphasizes the task force recommendations adopted. The survey and interview responses of officials from each of the county's municipalities and school districts, which served as the basis for the task force recommendations, are also extensively reviewed.