Chamber chief keeps visitors center dream alive
When New Paltz”™s Regional Chamber of Commerce bought a commercial building and four acres on Main Street in 2005, its president, Joyce Minard, had a vision for the property.
“I”™ve accomplished all the goals I”™ve set out to do, except one,” said Minard, who has been president since 1979. That goal is to create a true Hudson River Valley Visitors Center.
“Our offices are a bit smaller than our old location,” said Minard, “but it has plenty of sunlight and actually feels a lot bigger. It”™s also a big plus to be paying a mortgage rather than rent.”
Minard says the purchase was made with the vision of creating the visitors center. Architect Rick Alfandre made a preliminary sketch of what the two-story building would look like, as well as the green technology it would incorporate. Right now, it”™s just a sketch, but Minard sees it as a blueprint for a real center that would span the mid- Hudson Valley region”™s seven-county area.
“Twenty years ago, we had a small building right at Exit 18 off the Thruway,” she said. “We had thousands of people stopping to ask directions, what was in the area to do, where were the local hotels…could we recommend overnight lodging or a good restaurant? Many were amazed they could visit West Point, Mohonk Mountain House and Hyde Park all in the same general location, and that”™s where I got the idea.”
Minard has been working on it ever since.
When the chamber moved its offices farther down into the village, Minard expanded its services, offering brochures from Westchester historic sites and parks to hiking trails in Ulster County and skiing to the north. “There is just so much happening right here,” she said. “It”™s not just about promoting New Paltz for us ”“ anything that will bring tourism here benefits all of us.”
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That topic was touched on by the Pattern for Progress breakfast on Feb. 22, where elected officials touted their counties”™ parks systems and were dismayed at the list of sites the state is planning to close. ( See www.nysparks.state.ny.us.)
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State plans call for closing Donald Trump State Park and Philipse Manor Hall in Westchester; historic sites in Rockland, Dutchess, Columbia and Orange counties will be cutting back hours of operation at several golf courses and closing some pools in an effort to reduce overhead.
James O”™Donnell, deputy county executive in Orange, said counties have resources to keep the region”™s parks operating and up to par. “We have county jails where inmates who are well-behaved can get out and do these jobs and maintain the park system; it benefits both, because we need a labor pool and because the county jails offer little in the way of work-release programs for people who are serving time but are not considered ”˜problems.”™Â Why are we closing down recreation areas when we have the manpower ”“ it seems like no one is using any common sense.”
Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus said there is a tourism group that meets regularly, its mission to brand the Hudson Valley. “Most people visiting here don”™t know geographic boundaries…we need to market the Hudson Valley as a region.”
Minard said a regional visitors would fit the bill. “We have the location, we have the drive and determination, we have the vision and even this rendering of what it would look like; what we don”™t have is the $2 million or so it will take to build it.”
Minard is on the board of Hudson Valley Tourism and said while the tourism website is great, a brick-and-mortar visitors center would bring the treasures of the Hudson Valley alive to visitors.
Now, all she needs is a philanthropist to step up to the plate.
“Exit 18 is the kind of half-way mark for people who are going to the Catskills. Once they get here, they want to know what”™s there to do around here. When they see the display of places to visit and hotels to stay in all around the region ”“ from counties all along the mid-Hudson ”“ they realize they have hit the jackpot.”
Until that philanthropist comes along, Minard said the New Paltz chamber will continue to tout the sights, tastes, sounds and hotels around the Hudson Valley to its visitors.
“No matter where it is; there is so much to do and see here. The visitors center? It”™s a dream, but I hope it will be a dream come true for the region.”