There may not have been much enthusiasm about the economic future of Ulster County since IBM left the Kingston area 30 years ago. New enthusiasm was generated in the same former IBM space at iPark 87 on the east side of Enterprise Drive in the Town of Ulster. Hundreds of educational, economic and political leaders gathered there to see a purple ribbon marking the opening of the Ulster BOCES Career and Technical Center cut with a large pair of ceremonial scissors. As instructed, they cheered.

“Our generation was kind of the first one that felt the rug pulled out from under us when IBM left,” local congressmember Pat Ryan, one of the speakers, said. “It’s particularly important, I felt, at least … that if there’s one thing I wanted to try to take some risk on and lean in on, it was that our

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