Fred Larson
MAYVILLE – A new (and former) member of the Chautauqua County Legislature who represents a portion of Jamestown isn’t wasting anytime in addressing his main purpose for joining the legislature.
Jamestown attorney and legislator Fred Larson (D-District 12) said last year that if elected, he wanted to focus on ways to strengthen economic development in the county. As a result, he’s serving on the county legislature’s Planning and Economic Development committee and has already brought up a couple of issues he’d like to see addressed.
One issue involves the effort to make sure the county industrial development agency is doing all it can to have a location “shovel ready” should an outside business express interest in coming into the area.
“In this modern economy, companies don’t wait for a community spend two or three years to put a company in position to get up and running with a factor or a facility for business,” Larson said. “You’ve got to have sights that are ready for a company, to go to the town of Ellicott, go to the town of Busti and apply for a building permit, essentially, and say that those sights are ready. They have utilities and they’ve been cleared by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.”
Larson said he also wants to make sure that the county is doing all it can to take advantage of the new StartUp NY program – which focuses on providing tax breaks for new businesses that set up near college campuses.
“A business, in say South Carolina, that’s fed up with a workforce, they see these TV ads on CNN and other networks about StartUp NY being ten years tax free, I want to make sure that when that company reaches out to Chautauqua County that we’re ready to deal with that company and we’re ready to help them get the StartUp NY benefits. Establish the company here and hire the people here because we desperately need more jobs – good jobs – for our people.”
Larson said throughout this year, he will continue to press county development officials and the County IDA on those two issues. This is Larson’s second stint as a county legislator. He also served on the legislature in the 1980s and 1990s.
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