Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 8.38, FLX Morning brought to you by Enstec Automotive and Trailer, your go-to destination for hauling and vehicle services, 2567 Edwards Road, Waterloo, online at enstecautomotive.com. It's our monthly visit, Zoom this month, with Jeff Shipley, Seneca County Chamber of Commerce, discoverseneca.com. Good morning.
Jeff Shipley: Yeah, good morning, Ted. Good to be here.
Paul Szmal: So, we begin with a world-famous driver safety course, and I looked it up this time. It's the one-day, six-hour course coming up. You are correct. It is the one-day course. It's this Saturday coming up, actually, and it's not too late to sign up if anyone else is interested. And special treat, Legacy Agency of the Finger Lakes is going to be supplying lunch for everyone, so there's going to be a nice pizza party going on, so probably a good one to go to if you are in need of saving some money off your car insurance or knocking a few points off the license. So, it's good for three years. It is Saturday from 9 to 3.30, and it's always a fun time. So, that's driver safety.
We've got our business after hours coming up this month, or I'm sorry, into December. It's going to be the holiday-themed party at Lions National Bank. Yeah. We're excited to be at that venue. It's the last one of the year. Those forums, I heard the earlier replay from the FLX Chamber. Those forums are really a great way to interact with the community, interact with the business community, and so much business gets done. So many people are so busy that they don't have time to talk and meet with their neighbors, and they learn so much just by interacting with their peers. So, we look forward to closing out another business after-hours schedule.
And then, obviously, the big one is our annual dinner, third Thursday in January. It's always the biggest event that our Chamber will put on, and we're really excited about that event because it's also a way to celebrate local businesses and individuals who have made our community stronger. We give away three community awards. We're just about ready to announce who those are going to, so stay tuned for that. But it's just always a great ticket, and it's a great event, and we hope to see as many people as possible.
Jeff Shipley: Well, and a great chance to tell the story of what's been a pretty successful year in business. We've kind of fully emerged, I think, knock on wood, from the pandemic and a good year in tourism. We were going to talk about those numbers with Teresa. Maybe we'll talk about them a little bit at the end of this segment, but just a chance to spread the news.
Paul Szmal: Oh, it absolutely is. It's a great forum for that, great venue. You know, all the key decision-makers from our community are in attendance, and so it's just a positive, upbeat night, and it's really a celebration of all that we have accomplished over the past year from a community standpoint. So just a great way to have our community come together.
Now this is neat. You're putting together a project to help connect local schools and the business community through internships, or volunteerism, or methods to be discovered. So tell us about this plan.
Jeff Shipley: Yeah, so this one started actually with a call to us from one of the school districts, the Waterloo School District. And we've been talking about this for some time in our One Seneca series. The State Department of Education is retooling, revamping how the State Regents Program works, or I guess doesn't work, as we move forward, and they're going to be bringing more of that experiential learning to the fold. So one of the school districts, Waterloo, approached us about how can we partner more with the business community to help place some of these students, whether it's an internship program, whether it's volunteer hours, because volunteer hours are so important to our school districts. And so they're looking to get our students with some real experience, open their eyes maybe to some of the opportunities that exist here. I know Waterloo has three tracks, if you will, that the state has approved. Geneva has some different ones. So it's a way that we can start to bring, in a meaningful way, a connection between our business community and the schools to give our young students some practical experience, but also, hey, look at what we have in this area. I don't necessarily need to move uproot and move away. I can find opportunities in my own backyard. And that's really what the initiative is all about.
And we're actually talking now about how do we expand that approach and make it into more of a regional concept. And so we're really excited about this, Ted. If a business leader out there is listening to this and wants to get involved, I would encourage you to call the Chamber of Commerce, reach out to us, because I think there is a seat at the table for everyone here.
Paul Szmal: This is great for students, too, because when applying for colleges, volunteerism and service and things are something they increasingly take a look at.
Jeff Shipley: Right, absolutely. And I think it's important to note that this is not the BOCES program, right? BOCES is a program on its own, and it's for, you know, you have to be a certain grade level in order to be placed and have those types of hands-on training experiences. This is something different. This is going to be starting freshman year, or potentially sooner, but freshman year. So this is a very different experience altogether. We really are excited about the potential, about the possibilities, you know, hearing from the national level, the federal level, it sounds like states are going to be equipped to do more when it comes to an educational opportunity. So this has real potential, I think, for the future, and really a way that can transform our region, our workforce, and the workforce skills that it brings to the table.
Paul Szmal: We've been talking for years about the trail concept that began with the wine trails around the Finger Lakes. There's a cheese trail, a sweet treats trail. Now a proposal to create a statewide underground railroad corridor. I've been learning more and more about all of the various parts of the state that were involved. We all know about Auburn and Harriet Tubman, but there were fingers of that underground railroad from as far west as Buffalo and as far east as the Hudson River.
Jeff Shipley: Yeah, there sure was. And you know, the Finger Lakes is, especially this part of the Finger Lakes, right, with Seneca Falls, is very well known for the role it played in the women's rights movement. Well, I'll tell you, the women's rights movement was very intertwined with the abolition movement as well, and this is a great example of how our area is going to take center stage in a big way on this proposed scenic byway. There's always been the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad network, but this is now taking it to a next level. It's creating a scenic byway designation, and really, it's going to be the biggest in the nation. It's going to stretch from New York City to Niagara Falls. It's going to be about 500 miles of trail. We'll go through 22 different counties, including Seneca County, Ontario County, and of course, Cayuga County, the home of Harriet Tubman.
And it's been such a fun project getting immersed in, Ted, because I'm learning so much more working with our local historian, so much more about the properties in this community and nearby that played such an important role in the Underground Railroad. And there was one of the more famous ones in Seneca County is the McClintock House, and that is such an important asset for the Women's Rights National Park. But again, that tie, that connection between Women's Rights and the Underground Railroad is so strong here, and we're really excited about this. We think it's going to showcase our community in a great way. We're so happy to be part of the proposed trail here in Seneca County.
It's going to cut through Seneca County as it makes its way from Auburn, and it's going to go through on 5 and 20 through Seneca Falls and Waterloo, and then following into Geneva. So this is a really interesting project. It's still probably a year and a half in the making, but right now we're looking for support, whether that be from municipalities along this proposed route, or just organizations, organizations, businesses, or individuals. There's a way for you to get involved and show your support for this. We need to show the interest, the public interest for this, to help get over the first turtle. But we're really excited about this, Ted. There's a lot of sites in these communities here, and it's a great story waiting to be told.
Paul Szmal: Would this be a federal effort? Would this be one of those national heritage corridors?
Jeff Shipley: Yeah. So the ultimate goal is to make it one of America's scenic roads, scenic byways. And so ultimately, yes, it is a federal program, but it does run through the New York State Department of Transportation. So we are doing our all to try and shore up the support and check some boxes off.
Paul Szmal: So at the end of the year we always hear those use it or lose it ads for things like hearing coverage or vision coverage. Use your insurance before it runs out at the end of the year. You're sort of doing the same thing with tourism, telling people that have paid time off, don't leave it on the table. Take some time off and visit your local attractions.
Jeff Shipley: Yeah, absolutely. You'd be surprised, but in New York State there are over 12 million days of paid time off that's annually forfeited by New York employees. And so what this campaign is all about is trying to encourage those employees to first of all use that PTO because it is proven that it's good for mental health, it's good for employees to recharge, recoup, and it actually leads to more productivity for their employers. But this is an effort to encourage people to use that paid time off to go and explore their own network, their own state, the assets in their backyard. So we're really excited to be a part of this statewide push to encourage the use of PTO in your own backyard. And we're really excited for what the potential is to really have our region, the eyes opened up for people that have never even been to this part of the state. It's such a great area as we all know, and that's kind of what it's all about.
Paul Szmal: All right. Wow. Lots of good stuff. Jeff Shipley, Seneca County Chamber of Commerce. Thanks for the visit. As always, appreciate it.
Jeff Shipley: Yeah.
