I'm in a similar situation (but i live upstate in Buffalo) I have not found any flight schools in the area that seem to prepare a pilot for an airline job as well as the schools in florida or in the southwest.  Hopefully someone can answer who has more information.

I also would like to stay in this region but at this time it looks like i will end up going down to FL.

hey thats cool, im in almsot the exact same situation as you are.  have you checked into the florida regional airline academy? they seem to have a good airline transition program, what do you think?

well ive checked into prior aviation, and they seem to be the best option for localtraining, and i might go this route

i am going to visit florida regional airline academy on march 24th, ill let you know what i think of it

i also want to try to talk to some students when i am there and see what they think  (they wont lie since they arent trying to sell me something like the admissions counselor is)  they will be straight up and honest

have you talked to any local schools or anything?

hey winky-

well i just got back from my trip to florida
i visited florida regional airline academy while i was there.  This is the only real pilot "academy" i have visited so i cannot compare it to anything else

well here are my impressions of it:

It seemed like a really nice academy.  the majority of students really seemed to like it and were happy there.  The staff seems very helpful and genuinely interested in your success (but i guess they would be with the $ you spend to go there lol)

one of the things i really liked was the professional atmosphere there.  The students all had on uniforms as well as the instructors.  I saw the classrooms for the ground schooling, and some only had about 10 chairs, so classes are small and it seems like you can get individual help if you need it.

I went up for a discovery flight in a piper warrior (their standard single engine trainer) and it seems like a great aircraft.  my instructor showed me just how stable it was and how hard you have to try to make it stall.  He even let me fly it around for a good 30mins or so.  It went really well, while in the air i also talked to him about the school.  He is a recent graduate of the school and he got his cfi there.  he isn't sure if he wants a job with a regional airline anymore so untill he decides what he wants to do he is just doing what he likes and building hours at the same time.  (he was being honest too with what he told me) he said its a good school, they teach well. the one thing he warned me about was be careful about the apartments/living arangements the school will offer for you, they will overcharge you for an apartment.  he said you are much better off to find one on your own, it will be cheaper.

right in their facility, they have a room of class 6 flight simulators (the only thing they dont do is have motion) they seemed like very nice simulators.  they have various simulators including simulators for a B-737, crj (regional jet) and i think the other was a BE1900??  they also had simulatiors for piper warriors and seminole

it seems like a really good school to go to and from what i saw i would recommend it.  

What i think i am going to do is either go through JCC and use prior aviation as my flight school and then after i have get my commercial rating with them, then go to the florida regional airline academy for their flight officer program they have
or, i might just skip JCC since i will have a 4 year degree this august and go right to prior directly for my flight training and then on to florida.

i hope this information helps you out, if you have any more questions let me know,
when you meet with the JCC program director please let me know what you thought of it, thanks!