Technical Assistance Center Supplies Answers

Community outreach is fundamental to the mission of Plattsburgh State University, and one of the best examples of this is the Technical Assistance Center (TAC) based in the School of Business and Economics. As the new acting director of TAC, I have been pleased to discover how many North Country business people, government officials and educators know about our services and have called upon us to assist them with research, planning and economic development projects.

TAC History:

TAC has been providing assistance to the North Country for over 30 years. Founded in 1971 to be an economic development outreach agency, TAC’s mission is “to increase northern New York’s capacity to stimulate economic growth and to enhance the qual-ity of North Country organizations by providing valuable information, consulting and research services.”

One of TAC’s first employees was Ray Richardson, now Senior Vice President for Strategic Business at Empire State Develop-ment Corporation. Ray recalled how TAC got started in the early 1970’s, “President George Angell wanted PSU to help enhance the depressed economy in the North Country and wanted the campus to play an active role. Angell asked Bill Dempsey, who later became the director of TAC, to apply for a grant from the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.” In 1971, PSU received its first EDA grant, and TAC was born.

Ray initially became involved with campus economic development through a predecessor of TAC, the Economics and Regional Resources Institute, when he was a graduate assistant. He joined the TAC staff as a research associate in 1971. Said Ray, “Presi-dent Angell was trying to create as many opportunities for students as possible. I was exposed to economic development at Platts-burgh State and it changed my whole career path.”

TAC is now a department of the School of Business and Economics, under the direction of Dean Siamack Shojai. The EDA classifies TAC as a “university center” — one of only two in New York State — the other one is at Cornell University in Ithaca. (There are 68 university centers nationally). As a result, TAC has a large service area, covering 16 counties across northern New York. It is funded by a combination of Federal grants, State support and user fees. TAC’s staff has an entrepreneurial spirit, and is always on the lookout for opportunities that can bring funding or jobs to the region. We often work in partnership with local gov-ernment, non-profits and private businesses.

Running a successful business, more than ever before, depends on having good information. TAC specializes in finding and an-alyzing data, especially census data, to help local officials and business people make better decisions. Our staff is expert at mining the Federal Census database. TAC is an affiliate of the New York State Data Center, and our staff attends special seminars about researching, interpreting and presenting data.

TAC publishes County Profiles for each of the 16 North Country counties in our service area after each new census is released. Each booklet contains a wealth of demographic information about the county including a list of the major employers. The latest ver-sion of Country Profiles is currently being completed and will be in distribution by early 2003.

We also publish the Financing Guide, a resource for businesses seeking non-traditional financing alternatives.

Our office issues the quarterly Market Basket report, researched by Judy Bissell and the quarterly Cost of Living Index reported by Dorothee Racette. Both are printed in the Press-Republican. TAC reports the local cost information to ACCRA’s Cost of Living Index so that Plattsburgh is listed along with hundreds of other communities across the country.

TAC Adds GIS – Geographic Information Systems:

Many people have heard of GPS – Global Positioning Systems – the handheld or vehicle-mounted computers that tell you exactly where you (or an object) are located using geographic coordinates. GPS devices do this by receiving a signal from a satellite orbiting hundreds of miles above.

GIS is a software program that runs on a personal computer and converts data into geographic location visuals such as maps or graphics. It is a powerful data management tool. Here is a simple example. A retail storeowner is considering adding another store because she knows many of her customers drive a long way to reach her present location. She has a list of customer addresses, but it does not give her a clear sense of the best geographic location for the prospective new store. By applying GIS software to the customer address database, a map can be generated which shows where clusters of customers are located, thereby giving her visual clues about the best spot for another retail outlet. The same principle applies to product distribution, sales territories and targeted mail campaigns, or any data that has a geographic or spatial characteristic.

So far, the government sector has generally made greater use of GIS than business. TAC’s first large scale use of the GIS system came as a result of participating in a grant received by Franklin County’s Department of Social Services from the New York State Departments of Transportation and Labor. The grant was for a welfare-to-work program in conjunction with the Social Services of-fices in Clinton, Hamilton and Essex Counties. GIS was used to help TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) clients locate public transportation or transportation routes. Data was developed which included the addresses of TANF clients and major employ-ers seeking workers. Route maps were produced to make it easy for employees to get to their jobs. TAC employees Bill Ferguson and Mike Stephenson implemented the project. Bill worked on transportation planning issues, while Mike handled the GIS applica-tion.

TAC’s GIS system is available to assist local businesses and governments, and we have a rich database of geographic “attributes” such as roads, industrial parks, schools, libraries, medical facilities, and more. Some organizations have acquired their own system to address major GIS applications. GIS has become an especially important tool for local governments because of its ability to manage records and infrastructure assets. Government planning departments are using GIS to digitize tax maps, often with much higher ac-curacy than before. The Clinton County Planning Department is using GIS to improve records management, and the County plans to eventually integrate Geographic Information Systems throughout its operations.

Glen Cutter is the senior planner and the GIS expert in the Clinton County Planning Department. Glen is digitizing the tax parcel boundaries for the entire County, which provides a valuable data layer for the Real Property office, as well as all other County departments. Glen reports that thus far two municipalities have been completed out of the 19 within the County. The entire project is expected to be complete in approximately one year to 18 months. The Real Property office is undergoing a transformation from the old Mylar and ink mapping process to digital mapping made possible by GIS.

The Planning Department has also utilized GIS to aid the County Legislature in the redistricting process, and has used GIS to im-plement mapping projects for other County departments. The Health Department utilizes GIS to track permits issued. Virtually every County department will eventually benefit from GIS.

The Emergency Services department plans to utilize GIS to improve its enhanced 911 system and emergency response planning. TAC is working with Emergency Services Director Jim King to assist the department develop GIS applications and identify grants to support new GIS projects. Our geographic database was used to map information about the April earthquake to show where the ‘quake was felt and at what magnitude. This information was useful to local, state and federal emergency management officials who responded to the earthquake.

One of the chief reasons many local governments are adopting GIS is that it helps them come into compliance with the Govern-ment Accounting Standards Board (GASB) requirements for reporting annual financial statements. All government entities that re-ceive federal funding are required to report on the condition and value of their physical assets and infrastructure. This includes roadways, water and sewer systems, electrical utilities, etc. An inventory of all these infrastructure assets is a perfect application for a GIS database.

The City of Plattsburgh is also actively using GIS. The Community Development Office uses TAC to map Empire Zones. Kevin Farrington, the new City Engineer, is currently evaluating the City’s GIS needs, and TAC is providing assistance, including staff training.

GIS is equally useful to businesses, helping them get more value from their data. Given good data, visuals that display trends or patterns can be produced and seeing the data displayed graphically makes it easier to present and understand. There is a big differ-ence between viewing data in a spreadsheet and seeing it presented in map form, and this can effect the conclusions drawn from it. By displaying the data using GIS, decisions concerning customer preferences, sales trends, store locations, distribution routes, and marketing plans are often easier to make. Primelink hired TAC to create maps of their existing and proposed fiber optic system.

We welcome your inquiry about our economic development service, and would be pleased to demonstrate the power of GIS soft-ware and how it can be put to use in your business or organization. TAC can help you make informed decisions about your data, as well as provide the latest economic and demographic trends. Community outreach services have been a hallmark of PSU’s commit-ment to economic development in New York’s North Country since 1971. At TAC, we supply answers!