The North Country’s Regional Economic Development Council was one of three statewide to win $10 million in state funding. The money will go to retain and retrain Fort Drum soldiers and their families once they leave the military. The North Country region is expected to experience a shortage of nearly 50-thousand workers over the next decade.
With about 35-hundred soldiers at Fort Drum transitioning into civilian life every year, along with their spouses, the plan, called Next Move NY, will encourage some of those people to remain in the North Country and fill the workforce gap.