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Summit aims to coordinate tourism in Hudson Valley Heritage Area
by Hallie Arnold , Kingston Daily Freeman
10/05/2004

HYDE PARK - Ask ten people in the mid-Hudson Valley what they love about living in the region, and you're likely to get 10 disparate answers.

Some will point to a favorite mountain hike, others to one of the region's noted historic sites, while others will speak of an artist showing at a local gallery.

Creating a system that unites all of the unique attributes of the Hudson River Valley is the job of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, and was the goal of a day-long Heritage Area summit Monday at the Henry A. Wallace Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

The first half of the day included presentations on the history of the Hudson River Valley and discussions with Heritage Area administrators, both local and national.

But it was during the afternoon that some of the roughly 200 participants - who represented roughly 40 agencies and organizations - got involved, during a brainstorming session led by Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Public Forum Institute in Washington, D.C., which coordinated the summit.

Speakers included U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley; Carmella Mantello, director of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area and the Greenway Council; Ned Sullivan, president of Scenic Hudson; and Col. James Johnson, executive director of the Hudson River Valley Institute.

"Today was a great turnout," Mantello said afterward. "We had a couple hundred people, and the beauty of it is that they're sculpting our program. Like the Greenway and the Heritage Area, we're not bound other than by the legislation, and maybe by the (Heritage Area) plan ... we can take what they say, from the grass roots up, their eyes and ears, and move forward with it."

Using a computer system called "eForum," participants were able to interact with on-screen questions displayed on a large screen, rating the importance of various issues related to the Heritage Area using hand-held keypads. The audience was divided into four groups, each of which brainstormed ideas on a single topic ranging from increasing public awareness of the Heritage Area to increasing local heritage preservation projects, after which all of the ideas were rated by the group.

Ideas generated in this fashion included straightforward suggestions like coordinating the operating hours of local historic sites so visitors could go from one to the other without checking each site's individual schedule and creating a system of Heritage Area signage that would graphically link each of the sites across the region.

Other suggestions included taking the overall goals of the Heritage Area - which are to recognize, preserve, protect, and interpret the nationally significant cultural and natural resources of the Hudson River Valley - and revamping them to be specific to the towns and cities in the region; identifying revenue-generating opportunities to defray operating expenses for historic sites and other not-for-profits; and using the Internet to create virtual tours and links to individual websites.

Ortmans said the information gathered at the summit will be compiled into a report that will be available at the Public Forum Institute's website in one week.

"I think there's some very simple steps, things like ensuring that everything opens at the same time on the same days may seem obvious, but also making sure there's better coordination between the various modes of transportation, making sure that you actually make the connective pathway," Ortmans said. "These seem to be very practical and doable steps towards trying to formulate that network."

To access a copy of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area summit report, visit the Public Forum Institute's website at www.publicforuminstitute.org.

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