With several projects and upgrades scheduled over the course of the coming months, the year looks to be a busy one for the Oswego County Department of Community Development, Tourism and Planning.

Updating of the county’s tourism Web site will be one of the department’s major undertakings.  The changes will better showcase the county’s many offerings and attractions as well as improve the site’s accessibility and navigation.

Department director Dave Turner, explained, “We’ve started a process to separate the tourism site from the county government site to make it easier for people to find us. We are also planning for a new design and new features that we hope will help in bringing new businesses to the area while benefiting our current private sector partners as well.”

If all goes according to plan, the new site would launch late this spring, at which point redesign efforts on the county government Web site would begin.

Turner would like to see an increase in outdoor programming in hopes of luring more visitors to the county, either via streaming video or television. With calls coming from all across the country, inquiring about area fishing conditions and such, Turner feels this could be a very effective method to reach out and show what Oswego County has to offer to those unfamiliar with the area.

He hopes that state money, tax credits or other incentives will be allotted for these types of activities in the future, adding, “currently there are no programs to assist us in this area, but we are trying to convince the state that this could be a big help in bringing tourist activity to our area.” In addition, he hopes to see continued growth in advertising, by using radio as another means of promoting the many assets that Oswego County has to offer.

The department has also been working with the city of Fulton to get consultants in place regarding the Brownfield Opportunity Area grants they have received from New York state. Turner noted several locations in Fulton have been visited and are through the first two stages of the process. This includes analyzing a vacated building or property, testing for possible contamination or hazard that may be present at a given location and cleaning up or rectifying said problem.

The third phase involves acquiring a new occupant to overtake the site. The department is scurrently working with a firm selected in Fulton to finalize contracts and hopes to look at further plans during the spring and summer. Turner noted that the city of Oswego has also applied for similar incentive-laden grants and he hopes to also work with them in a similar manner as they progress with this process.

Recent discussion has also suggested that  farm protection plans may be revisited throughout the course of 2008. Speaking to the importance of these issues, Turner stated, “We are hearing that there is an interest in developing agriculture protection policies ... You can put a house just about any place, but you can’t grow agricultural products just anywhere.”

Other big plans on the horizon within for the department include continuing to assist the towns of Pulaski and Mexico with their respective Main Street projects, helping with several land-use plans for the town of Oswego, continuing to help locate grants to help small cities and towns revitalize their downtown areas and providing housing programs to assist those in need through small cities grants, restore grants and home grants.

“There are so many things out there that can help that people wouldn’t even know are available to them,” said Turner, “we just try to help guide them in the right direction.”