Adams optimistic about state’s growth

Speaking in Tarrytown last week, a leading advocate for statewide business growth and economic development said he is “optimistic” that New York is “moving forward” in reclaiming its status as the Empire State in the national economy.

Kenneth Adams, president and chief executive officer of the Business Council of New York State, told an audience at the annual Westchester Arc Employer Recognition Breakfast there is “a spirit, a can-do attitude in Albany” this year to tackle the state”™s economic challenges and find common solutions to spur job growth and business investment.

“We”™re very interested in innovation and the concept of innovation as the foundation for the economic development of the state,” the Brooklyn resident said.

Despite an exodus of businesses and work force talent, the state still is the eleventh largest economy in the world, Adams said.

“We know that New York still has the gifts and assets that made it the Empire State in the first place.”

“There are regional variations on this theme, but the economic challenges that we face are basically shared all across the state,” Adams said.

Westchester Arc, which serves more than 1,600 developmentally disabled residents in the county, honored several Westchester companies, school districts and municipal agencies for their roles in providing employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. Carolyn Holodak, a Yonkers City Hall employee for seven years, and Keith Caminiti, employed at Lexington Square Caf̩ in Mount Kisco for 13 years, received the agencyӪs annual Anthony Cannata Memorial Employee Award.