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Smiley was born in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park but
grew up in Colorado. He attended Colorado State University, where he
obtained his degree in political science. He received his master's
degree in public administration from the University of Colorado in
1995. Early in 1997, Smiley was hired as the town manager in
Kersey, Colo., a small community of 1,400 people. He was
instrumental in developing the first comprehensive plan for the
community in 20 years. He also obtained infrastructure grants for
water and sewer and annexed several properties for the town to help
the community grow.
Smiley's career then brought him to the St. Louis area, where he
became the assistant city manager in Hazelwood, Mo., a north St.
Louis County town of 25,000. Smiley helped recruit the St. Louis
Mills Shopping Center, a $100 million mega-mall, to Hazelwood.
Smiley then switched from a city manager to the head of the economic
development and marketing agency in Chesterfield, Mo., the
second-largest city in St. Louis County. His priorities were
attracting a performing arts center to the community and helping
pharmaceutical company Pharmacia in their
merger with Pfizer, which kept the facility in Chesterfield, saved
1,300 jobs and saw a $150 million investment into the existing
facility.
He also worked as assistant director of economic development in
Clearwater, Fla., and has done consulting work for the Duncan Group
and Stellar before accepting the position here in Logan County.
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Smiley feels that bringing larger community ideas to a smaller
community will be exciting. He believes that our institutions of
higher learning are a catalyst for greater capital investment and
job growth. He also notes that our centralized location in relation
to Chicago, Bloomington, Springfield and St. Louis is ripe for
development.
Smiley has already developed some early priorities, which include
finding sources of funding for projects, including the creation of a
"business incubator" -- working with existing companies for
potential expansion. He also wants to put an aggressive business
retention program in place, write infrastructure grants and create
an economic development master plan. This plan will be a spinoff of
the Logan County Comprehensive Plan
-- taking those recommendations and putting an action plan in place.
Smiley is looking forward to starting his new position. "My
priority is to introduce myself to the community, business leaders,
political leaders and regional leaders who can help the community
make a difference," he said.
The Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership is an economic
development organization serving businesses, government and
residents of Logan County. The partnership is jointly funded and
represented by the Logan County Board, the city of Lincoln and the
Lincoln/Logan County Area Chamber of Commerce.
[By GEOFF LADD] |
