Regional Economic Development Council starts taking proposals to keep Fort Drum soldiers in north country post-Army

“Fort Drum is vital to the North Country’s economy, and the soldiers and spouses who currently serve and live here are the key to unlocking the full economic potential for this region,” Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul said in a statement. “Next Move NY is creating a robust workforce training pipeline to help soldiers and their spouses receive in-demand training while connecting them with employers, allowing them to thrive, succeed and ultimately stay in the north country.”

Each year, more than 3,600 10th Mountain Division soldiers leave military service from Fort Drum, and those leaving soldiers take about 1,000 family members, including spouses and children, out of the region when they leave. Fort Drum officials report that a majority of soldiers from the post leave the area once their term of service in the Army ends.

In November, Hochul announced that her administration had awarded the north country development council $10 million to fund a program they’d pitched to keep Fort Drum soldiers in the region. At the time, the north country council reported that the region had 48,000 more jobs on the books than workers in its borders, and the region is poised to lose more than 17,000 workers in the next decade. Labor force participation is down, according to the north country REDC, to about 53% of people in the region, and more people who live in the north country leave the region daily to work than enter it.

The $10 million grant in November was pitched to run the Next Move NY program, which began taking applications for proposals to operate parts of the program on Thursday.

The north country REDC is looking for programming that will provide fast-tracked educational programs for soldiers, career training, job placement, business recruitment and a center built to help soldiers start their own businesses. The Next Move program is also looking for proposals to establish so-called “live, love, stay,” retreat programs aimed at selling soldiers on the benefits of staying and working in the north country.

The REDC laid out a four-year timeline for the project, hiring a regional employment liaison in the first year, programming in each of the seven north country counties within three years, and a physical employment center in a majority of those counties by year four.

The REDC plan has been endorsed by Johnson Newspaper Corp., owner of the Watertown Daily Times, and by more than 70 other local employers across the region.

Other prominent companies looking to build a presence in upstate New York appear ready to capitalize on the program. Micron, the company that’s agreed to take significant federal and state tax credits and construct a state-of-the-art microchip manufacturing site in Onondaga County, listed New York’s significant military population as a key reason for choosing New York for the site. Micron has stated its goal is to hire veteran workers as often as possible.

According to the governor’s office, the Empire State Development agency approved a $1 million grant to Advocate Drum, formerly the Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization, for activities and programs to enhance the post’s military value to the Army. And in December, it was announced that Fort Drum would host the U.S. side of a multi-domain task force focused on Europe, bringing nearly 1,500 extra soldiers to the post.