How has becoming a largely green community impacted jobs and everyday life in Lewis County – and what does that mean for the County’s future growth? EV: Lewis County is a strong supporter of alternative energy production. We have the potential for additional wind farms and commercial scale solar opportunities are in the pipeline. These green energy businesses will begin to create a larger segment of our employment and will encourage new skill development to work in these operations. The projects also bring enhanced property tax revenue to improve the overall community. “Providing location opportunities for not only our established businesses, but new businesses as well, is vital to growth of Lewis County.” As the Council’s Marketing Specialist, what do you find yourself promoting most often to attractvisitors to Lewis County, Brittany? BD: We get many visitors throughout the year, whether it is for our snowmobiling and ATV trails, our famous “Cream Cheese Festival” to support our major employer and producer of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Kraft Heinz, our State horse trail system, the many lakes, streams, and rivers, and hunting opportunities – and more. Many of these people end up staying here, buying a camp here, or retiring here. People see the value in Lewis County. They may not be from Lewis County, but when they are here, they call it home. Couple that with our strategic location, proximity to major U.S. and Canadian markets, an extremely dedicated and hard-working work force, plenty of natural resources in various forms, a very friendly and inviting business climate, and you get the perfect mix of life and work. Now a days, the life-work balance is extremely important to businesses and companies, and Lewis County is the perfect spot to grow your business and enjoy a balanced lifestyle. It is the natural choice for business success.
A number of facilities in the County produce speciality paper, paperboard, packaging, wood products – that sort of thing. I understand that the economy in Lewis County revolves around the success of your farms, 200 of which are fam- ily-owned dairy farms. Can you please tell the readers about the “Naturally Dairy” campaign? BD: It’s true that dairy agriculture continues to be the backbone of our economy in 2018. Without the dairy industry, our economy and communities would not be where they are today. Although the industry is currently struggling it will continue to be our backbone as many of our small businesses here in Lewis County were established to support the dairy industry. We are currently in the middle of a County-wide dairy campaign called “Naturally Dairy” to help promote the industry and educate the community on the impact the dairy industry has on our economy as a whole. We will continue to support our dairy farmers, but also hope to see more and more value-added agriculture to help offset any potential burdens on the agricultural industry as a whole in the future. We have a thriving winery, apple orchard, breweries, hop and lavender farm, goat farms, honey, produce farmers, and more, to help continue to sustain the agricultural industry. Lewis County thrives off both types of agriculture and we will continue to do whatever we can to support farmers.
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DECEMBER 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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