Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which has been the North Country's most outstanding corporate citizen for decades, has now virtually completed its contribution to the region by selling its Rouses Point plant to a new benefactor. (It will remain, of course, in its Chazy laboratory operation.)

Akrimax is the owner of Wyeth's Rouses Point plant and will take over entirely in 2009. In the meantime, it will lease space back to Wyeth as Wyeth prepares to expand its quarters in Puerto Rico.

For the people of the North Country, there could hardly have been a better ending to what had been an extremely fretful two-plus years of wondering what would become of the drug-manufacturing operation and its employees. Wyeth said all along that it was working hard to sell the plant to some firm that would put it to best use and would see to the future of the hundreds of people who worked so hard and faithfully there.

It's easy to suspect corporations are being disingenuous with such promises. We've seen many companies abandon the North Country and never look back. What were the chances that a colossus like Wyeth would sincerely try to arrange an outcome that left 800 workers with the same jobs they had when the company left?

Wyeth didn't slam the door and leave town after dark. It negotiated in good faith a future for Rouses Point and its people that couldn't have been better for anyone.

Wyeth was not only treating its employees in a first-class manner, it was making the whole North Country the beneficiary of its good citizenship.

The highlight of the annual drive kickoff of the United Way of Clinton and Essex Counties was always the announcement of the contribution of Wyeth and its employees -- invariably in six figures. That will be an enormous loss for the charity, but one it has had three years now to prepare for.

Practically on its way out of town by now, Wyeth has left two extremely generous and welcome jewels in its legacy of giving to the region: Two weeks ago, it donated $400,000 to the new Surgical Services complex at CVPH Medical Center; just before that, it gave $250,000 to Clinton Community College for scholarships for science and mathematics students.

Wyeth has been a dream neighbor in Rouses Point and a model citizen to the greater North Country. No company could surpass its record of good work and responsible behavior.

We heartily welcome Akrimax and want Wyeth to know it has been a thorough pleasure having you in Rouses Point. In Chazy, we delight in the fact you are staying. In Rouses Point, you will not soon be forgotten.