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 Smiley
Hitting a Stride and on the Move With Lincoln and Logan County
Economic Development Measures
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[April 11, 2008]
Joel Smiley, executive director
for the Lincoln & Logan
County Development Partnership, told Logan County Board members
Thursday night that he is excited about a meeting that is being
planned take place at the courthouse on May 21. He said that there
are about five funders in the state of Illinois for water and sewer
grants. He hopes to have representatives from each of those agencies
here on that date, and he is inviting all of the county's mayors and
public works directors and engineers to the meeting in order to
assess the needs of the region. Out of that he hopes to see the
agencies talk between themselves and put together opportunities for
grants and loans for projects that are needed here.
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Smiley moved on to say that he and Bill Martin, who is the
Atlanta mayor and a member of the Logan County Regional Planning
Commission, would be going to Peoria next week to look at their
Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy. They would be taking
our data and looking into the possibility if Logan County might
piggyback on the Peoria CEDS as part of a regional plan. CEDS is a
companion document to the Comprehensive Plan. In general, the
Comprehensive Plan focuses on the geographic natural and human
resources, zoning, the current population and the desired type of
growth, while the CEDS focus is more to the financial planning
aspects for development.
A Comprehensive Plan and a Comprehensive Economic Development
Strategy are now both necessary to have in place, and they must be
kept up to date, in order to acquire state and federal funding for
infrastructure and other funds needed for economic growth projects.
The documents are used by state and federal agencies to assess the
need, likelihood of success of a project and as a benchmark that
measures if a community responsibly plans for and uses funds that
are awarded.
The prior Logan County Comprehensive Plan had last been revised
in 1978. The Logan County Regional Planning Commission undertook
developing an all-new plan that was completed in 2007 with the aid
of the McLean County Regional Planning Commission.
A manner of development and funding for a CEDS has been sought
for the last couple of years.
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On another matter, Smiley said that the partnership board is nearing
completion of its plan for a capital development campaign. The
campaign expected to kick off in June.
In conjunction with the capital fundraising campaign is a
five-year strategy Smiley has been working on. Funds raised through
the campaign would be used for developments targeted in the
five-year strategy. That plan is in its final phases, Smiley said,
and would be presented to the boards for their approval when it is
completed.
Smiley has been before village boards, the Lincoln City Council
and meeting with community leaders in the county, requesting their
input. Community boards and councils would also be included in
approving the five-year plan.
[By
JAN YOUNGQUIST]
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