ELLENVILLE – No casino at the Nevele... what's next? Thanks to Ulster County and its executive Mike Hein, Ellenville (and Wawarsing) will get about $1 million to start the process of getting a Plan B for local economic development up and running.

Well, the money is really an advance on the revenues that would be shared with Ellenville and Wawarsing from the casino okayed by the state for Sullivan County to mitigate the adverse effects of gambling in the area. And the starting point for the gift of the cash is actually the naming of a "million dollar committee" by Hein.

The committee, which consists of Steve Kelley, CEO of Ellenville Regional Hospital, former legislator and Ellenville village manager Mary Sheeley, the Reverend Julius Collins, Candido Perez of Optimum Windows, Richard Travers of the Rondout Valley Business Association and Jeff Kaplan, Mayor of Ellenville, has just had a first "getting to know you" meeting in which they voted Julie Lonstein, local lawyer, as chair.

"This was just an informal meeting," Sheeley said this week. "There is going to be a public kick-off meeting and Mike Hein is arranging that I think. We just kicked around some concepts, threw some things on the wall to see what might stick."

"We are very appreciative that our county and county executive would direct these funds that they will receive due to the casino down to our area," Kaplan added, pointing out how enlightening he'd found the committee's first meeting. "What I picked up was that we have taken for granted the natural beauty of the area. We haven't done enough to market it that way, and I believe that if we start to develop Ellenville as a place of trailheads we can bring business to the area. It's something we've never really done. So, forget about gambling coming here, instead come here to hike, or bring your mountain bike."

Kaplan went on to paraphrase much of what Aroma Thyme restaurateur Marcus Giuliani said at a recent "Plan B' meeting at the Ellenville Government Center earlier this month.

"People come to the region and they go to Minnewaska and when they're done hiking they go to New Paltz," he said. "We can work to give them another point of entry to the park. We have the Smiley Road, over by Berme Road, and we have a nice car park there already. It would take a little money, because the Smiley Road needs some work so we need some assistance from the state and from the park system, but this is doable."

The first thing, though, is better marketing for the area.

"It's definitely going to get our website together," he added. "We need to let people know what we've got here. And after they've hiked and biked, maybe they go to the Shadowland, or to our restaurants."

Until that public meeting for the Million Dollar Committee is announced by the county, the next big chance for the community to discuss these matters, and ways to bring more funding to the town (including numerous state grants all accessed by a joint application process due in June, but set for initiation in the coming months) will be at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, February 9 at the Ellenville High School auditorium.