Russ Steele
I attended the Economic Resource Council's Annual Meeting and Investor Partner breakfast this morning, along with about 85 other folks interested in Economic Development(ED). After some excellent remarks by Rod Fivelstad the Board Chairperson this year, and Gill Mathew the new ERC President, we got to the issue on everyones mind: a clear statement of what we want economic development to be in Nevada County.
To start the discussion Gil Mathew offered three questions for attendees to ponder:
What is economic development?
What would ED look like if we did it well?
What would it look like if we did not do it?
Gil also pointed some past success and to three cornerstones upon which we can build:
A regional air park - expand and grow our connection to the rest of the world
Sierra College - train, and retain our work force
Excellent Hospital - care for growing senior population
Several people at my table grumbled that our excellent elementary and high schools were not included.
And then I think Gil went off the track a bit. He did not mention the challenges we face in having a robust economic development program in Nevada County. With out recognition of the challenges you get too many blue sky ideas.
To name just a few of the challenges:
The Rising transportation costs business due to our rural location
The lack of housing for families at all economic levels
The limited commercial and industrial space for business to expand and grow.
The lack of broadband coverage across all segment of the region.
Each table was asked to answer one of two questions, but all tables got the same question which most chose: What kind of economic development do we want to do in Nevada County? I was not encouraged by the answers, it was way too much of what we have done in the past when we all should be thinking about the future. We are in a changing world and doing more of the same is comforting, it is not going to produce the result we expect in the future. However, I did hear a nugget, or two, that when combined might be worth some consideration.
In my next post, I will explore how we might combine some of these nuggets for synergy in future economic development. In the mean time check out George Rebane's blog post at Rebane's Ruminations, he has some strong views on the meeting.
