Oct 16, 2025
After decades of focusing on the village’s Main Street district, Cobleskill Partnership Inc. is broadening its reach to serve the entire Town of Cobleskill. The nonprofit, known for projects like the community plaza and events such as Arts in the Park and Cobleskill Day, aims to unite businesses across Routes 7, 10, and 145 to strengthen the town as a whole.
Long limited to the immediate downtown area, Cobleskill Partnership Inc. is expanding its
borders.
The board of directors voted last Thursday to work for the entire Town of Cobleskill, not just
the village.
Formed in 1997 to improve Cobleskill, the all-volunteer CPI has completed numerous projects,
including the community plaza at the corner of Main and Division Streets, two façade-
improvement programs for businesses and homes, and most recently, offering grants to
business owners, homeowners and non-profits.
CPI also sponsored events such as the Arts in the Park summer concert series, Halloween trick-
or-treating, a March soup stroll, poker walk, Cobleskill Day and others.
But all of those projects and events focused on the downtown business district. CPI is now
reaching out.
“For years we’ve wrestled with what our area should be,” said Jim Poole, the last remaining founding CPI board member. “Now we’ve decided to include the entire town. It’s a sensible change.”
As CPI established itself as a downtown-only organization, business owners in the Price
Chopper Plaza and others along Route 7 to Shad Point felt excluded, according to CPI Vice
President Bruce Tryon, former Times-Journal Sales Manager.
“I’d talk to them about CPI, and they’d say, ‘Why should I join? You don’t include us,’ ” Tryon
said. “Now we’re going to work with them. This is long overdue.”
While maintaining its ties to downtown Cobleskill, CPI will be contacting other businesses along
Routes 7, 10, 145 and elsewhere in the town to get their input on future activities.
“Cobleskill’s a small place, and all of us need to work together to make our town a better place
to live, work and visit,” Poole said. “That’s what CPI is all about.”