By David Tyler

The town of Manlius and the Greater Manlius Chamber of Commerce are teaming up on a multi-pronged business development plan that they hope will pay dividends for the local business landscape.
The kickoff of this collaboration is a buy local campaign that will be conducted on the town and chamber social media channels. During the holiday shopping season, the chamber is profiling area retailers, jewelers and restaurants on its Facebook and Instagram pages (@greatermanliuschamber). It is also encouraging other local businesses to join in by connecting through the hashtag #shopgreatermanlius, where they can promote holiday specials.
“Our efforts now, will hopefully lead to more money spent in our community,” said Aerik Radley of SECNY, who is a board member with the Greater Manlius Chamber of Commerce. “We’re going to collaborate to come up with the plan for economic development moving forward.”
While the kickoff of the campaign is taking place during the holidays, it is intended to be the beginning of a long-term collaboration between the town and the chamber.
On Nov. 22 at 3 p.m., the town will host an online listening session focused on commerce in Manlius featuring chamber president Bill Haddad. This is the second listening session in a series that will precede the town’s comprehensive planning process. The town is embarking on a two-year project to create a comprehensive plan, which board member Katelyn Kriesel said would include a business development plan for the town.
“We’re starting that process with the comprehensive plan, but there’s things that we can do along the way to facilitate economic activity,” Kriesel said. “Alongside that, over the next two years the comprehensive planning process will flesh out a true economic development plan where we’ll have a much clearer idea of the types of assets the town of Manlius has.”
The town is also updating its zoning – an effort led by Councilor Sara Bollinger – with the hope of becoming more business-friendly and making it easier for businesses to navigate through what can be a complex planning and permitting process.
Kriesel, who is on both the town board and the chamber board of directors, is hopeful that collaboration between the two entities will help the town shed some of the reputation it has gained throughout the years that the town is a challenging place to do business.