Institute will bring new jobs, but how many isn't certain

Local businesses likely to benefit

By Craig Wolf
Poughkeepsie Journal

 

Darryl Bautista/Journal The wide variety of shops on Beacon's east end stand to benefit from the new research center to be built in the city.

BEACON -- Founding of a new institution called the Rivers and Estuaries Center on the Hudson here could, within several years, bring this town a new employer that would be one of its largest.

The economic impact of this was lost on no one. Stable employment has, if anything, become a more prized goal than ever in the era of downsizing and lost industries.

''It's going to have a nice work force,'' said Larry Johnson, president of the Greater Southern Dutchess Chamber of Commerce.

The news Beacon would be the main site was tempered, however, by revelation that there would be two satellite centers at existing institutions to the north and south, Troy and Palisades.

''It could be spread out,'' Johnson said. No one was assuring that all 500 estimated jobs would happen, or happen soon.

The opening isn't until 2006. And not all of the jobs created will necessarily be here.

But whatever part of the enterprise winds up here will apparently be the largest chunk, and that means a steady flow of spending from not only staff but from visiting scholars, students and likely, some tourists.

''People have to stay someplace. They have to eat someplace,'' Johnson said.

Wide range of jobs to come

Pay scales at research centers run the gamut, from groundskeepers to senior scientists with doctoral degrees.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, the closest model for the vision behind this center, lists 39 openings now, mostly for scientists and research assistants but engineers and welders as well.

Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, the northern satellite, said, ''I believe this center will bring international import and vital economic significance to the region.''

Other happy observers Monday included Ned Foss, head of Foss Group Beacon LLC, the company on the verge of signing a deal with Scenic Hudson, the nonprofit that has acquired the 23-acre Long Dock peninsula.

The group's development, known as Beacon Landing, would include the hotel and restaurants that the center's siting committee deemed key parts of what the center will need.

Maps drawn by state consultants, Gensler Architecture, Design and Planning Worldwide, New York, show a two-acre strip of land on the north side of Long Dock playing host to research vessels and other support functions. That strip is owned by the city.

Mayor Clara Lou Gould said that's not firmed up. She said, ''Whatever it's needed for, it would certainly be looked at.''

Site used for festivals

The site is now used for festivals and informal park land. In adjacent water, the public has use of free small-boat docks placed by the Beacon Sloop Club. Close by, the old ferry dock is under reconstruction.

Daniel Searles, long active with the sloop group, said silt deposits have reduced water depth there.

Foss said the only deep water in the area lies elsewhere, at the western tip of Long Dock. This issue remains to be discussed with state outreach coordinator John Cronin or the planners.

''We haven't had time to sit down together and see what works for us and what works for him,'' Foss said.

Nearly $26 million in funding has been lined up, Pataki said Monday. Cronin said previous estimates on construction, which were given as $132 million, are of little use until the design phase is well under way.

Benefits from construction and employment are likely to spread throughout the mid-Hudson region, given Beacon's central location and connections.

As Searles observed, ''I think being at the crossroads -- the rail link and highways -- and being in the middle of the river, is probably the main reason this spot was picked.''

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