Herkimer County needs spokes branching from Webb’s tourist hub

This spring break it was my choice to hit the road up and down the east coast, spending a trip with my parents.

We decided to visit colleges throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region, planning on gracing eight institutes of higher learning with our presence. Spread over just an eleven day trip, this meant we could kiss a stress-free vacation goodbye.

First on the list was

Gettysburg College, in the famous Civil War battle town. Since the interview and tour of campus were scheduled for Monday, March 26th, the preceding weekend we headed down to poke around the small city.

Playing tourist for a while certainly reminded me of my hometown Adirondack Mountains.

The people in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania live to serve travelers and visitors just as a large portion of the population does in Old Forge.

In Adams County, there are twenty-one townships. One of them, Cumberland Township, which surrounds Gettysburg, has roughly 5.6% of the county’s population (i.e. – About 1 in 20 people live there).

Simple math would show this to be a roughly proportionate: Cumberland represents 1 of 21 townships, and 1 out of 20 people live there.

But is the value of Gettysburg proportional?No way.

The economy of the entire county draws heavily from battlefield visitors, who arrive from the entire U.S.

Gettysburg generates enough income and attention for the surrounding communities to be considered vital to the county’s survival.

Old Forge has a similar relationship with Herkimer County.

We generate hundreds of thousands of tax dollars from retail sales and property tax levies, every summer and winter.

Sylvia Rowan, the county clerk in Herkimer, emphasized the importance of this recently in a conversation I had with her.

But is our value paid back to us by the county government?

Many in our hamlet and surrounding areas feel it is not.

The county government is taking advantage of an area with a tiny constituency, some say. A small constituency to maintain, coupled with an extraordinary gross income, means the county makes great profits. These profits should go right back up to the area that generated them, right?

That’s the theory.

But with the larger villages and the City of Little Falls and their denser population needs, the revenue collected ends up staying down below for the most part.

There has been recent progress in funding services to the Town of Webb, Rowan insists.

She points to the new DMV office in Old Forge, a connection to the county seat that is vital for a town separated by an hour and a half of bumpy roads.

They are looking into expanding hours at the office as well.

And there are county road improvements, including upcoming work on the South Shore Road.

Is that enough? That is the question we, as a town, have to ask ourselves.

Certainly, the distribution of funds and services is far from fair. Compared to what we give to Herkimer, we get minute amounts back.

But I believe there are ways to invest in our town that will satisfy both the southern as well as the northern part of the county.

It does not take too much imagination to dream up plans of upgrading, advertising, and promoting our area (as accessed through the Herkimer thruway exit) that will bring tourism to the entire county, and stimulate businesses in Old Forge as well as Herkimer.

This is the strategy Adams County, in Pennsylvania, uses.

The entire county is geared toward promoting their gem, the historic borough of Gettysburg, and neighboring communities are rewarded for their geographic proximity and the access points they provide.

Each of the other 20 townships still has an identity, but the attention given to the tourism of Gettysburg adds a punch to their economies that Herkimer, Ilion, Little Falls, and Frankfort currently lack.

You can follow Colin Criss on Twitter @ADKCurrent