February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
And as a further enticement, the county has commenced building a full-size Gaelic football and hurling pitch, which it will maintain in Tibbets Brook Park.
The county’s chief executive, Andrew J. Spano, intends leading a delegation to Ireland in the months ahead, targeting medium-sized and small Irish companies ripe for expansion in the America. Once he has commitments from a “critical mass” of three or four, Spano envisages an “incubator” site in Westchester, where the businesses will be encouraged to grow.
In a Columbus Day interview, Spano expressed open admiration for Ireland’s recent economic success, and said Westchester needed to be a part of it.
“My intention is to go back to Ireland in the months ahead, talk to technology companies, and try to get them to partner with the tech companies here, or else to invest here,” he said.
He said the mission would concentrate on small and medium size companies that have potential to expand and want to do business in the United States.
“It’s the small companies that grow the economy — because they get bigger,” he said. “I tell you, if you don’t get involved in this, you die economically.”
Spano, who has visited Ireland before, said he has tracked the country’s industrial strategy carefully. “At its core, it was focused on education, and it has worked so well.”
Pointing out that Pace University has a campus in Westchester, he said he also planned to deepen the education links between Ireland and the county.
Spano, an Italian-American, has long been a favorite of the Irish community. He was central to the Gorta M