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A few of the new board members were unfamiliar with the plan that
was released in September, prior to the start of their term. For
other board members this was the first group discussion and they had
a lot of questions and important observations, such as how it would
work with other like documents and plans, and how recommendations in
it would be deployed. The plan, hosted by the Lincoln & Logan
County Development Partnership, is the first of its kind. It is
described as a living document that will change with needs and
opportunities. And, it is intended to serve as a guide that would
bring participating entities together, strengthening the effort
toward economic growth.
Vandewalle & Associates of Madison, Wis., was contracted to
create the plan. Scott Harrington of Vandewalle has been present to
facilitate community discussions and led the board's discussion in
December.
Harrington began with these points:
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The goal of the
plan is to look at what economic development in this county
could be, what opportunities are out there and what steps could
be taken to advance toward those.
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The initiatives
are what's important, and the action items are figured out on a
case-by-case basis and how those get structured.
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This is best
described as a framework, as a guide to what is out there and
what you could achieve if you took certain steps.
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"It is by no means
exclusive. There clearly are, and will be other things that come
up."
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This plan's focus is on the big or
whole picture.
Harrington said the need for a plan begins with the question: "If
you've got limited resources in terms of personnel and funds that
you're going to put toward economic development in a proactive
basis, where are those resources best spent?"
Some of the foundation of the plan includes a broad range of
information and analysis of federal, state and local government
statistical data.
But, "it isn't until we really meet with the community (that) we
can understand what the trends mean," Harrington said.
This was accomplished by culling information from community
business, agriculture, education and government leader task forces
that were organized for this purpose, and when a Vandewalle team
toured and conducted interviews of key community leaders last
spring.
Also incorporated in the plan's creation is the company's
knowledge of and experience with other communities.
Harrington explained that the plan has two primary action parts:
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5 strategic
initiatives -- These are fairly large items with a broad
framework that the planning team believes the community should
really focus on.
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39 action
initiatives -- These items, located in the back of the document,
help activate the strategic initiatives. These are divided into
three priority levels:
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Level 1: most
important to do.
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Level 2: have a
timing component.
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Level 3:
important, not as time-sensitive, but to be done as resources
become available.
Why have an economic development plan?
Harrington said the plan is a framework and guide for the
development partnership to work on with various participating
entities: the city of Lincoln, Main Street, tourism bureau and the
county. It enhances limited resources.
"Where others are already working on the same things, it pulls
everyone together under one umbrella to leverage what each brings to
the table -- a situation that makes 1 + 1 = 3 and gains efficiency,"
Harrington explained.
There is nothing in the plan that requires anybody to do
anything. It has suggestions and recommendations that each entity
will need to decide on as the development partnership would advance
the plan, he said.
Board input
Harrington opened the floor to the board.
Chuck Ruben, finance chairman and farmer, opened with a couple of
comments. He noted that the plan identified money from wind farms as
possible revenue for initiatives.
"No money would be available from that," he said. "The county
currently has $1.3 million less than last year for its general
operation and needs all that money."
Ruben also pointed out that under agriculture, the document uses
the words "farmland preservation."
"You don't want to use that terminology," he said. "It has legal
use in the courts that would take the right of sale away from the
farmer."
Harrington said it was intended to identify agriculture as
important.
Ruben suggested other terms to substitute.
Board member Gene Rohlfs initiated questions, which other board
members expanded, that stimulated much discussion and hard
examination of the county voting on the plan, any liability it would
carry, potential misinterpretation by future boards, and how and if
changes would be made to the plan.
Harrington emphasized that the plan:
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Is a guide that provides direction that various entities can
choose to participate in as the initiatives are brought forward.
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The plan belongs to the partnership. The county could ask the
partnership to take something out.
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The county's vote shows agreement with the general framework of
the plan and that these are things you think are important and want
to do.
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The document belongs to the development partnership, and they
could make any changes they would want to make to it.
Terry Carlton, board member and partnership liaison, clarified
the participation and support from the county.
"For years the Logan County Board has been part of the Lincoln &
Logan County Partnership," he said. Representatives of the county
helped choose to do the plan and who was to do it, he said.
Carlton clarified that there was county board input and that
there were many different committees representing sectors of our
communities during the development of the plan.
Not everyone was in agreement on all points. "Some of these
points we argued very strongly -- 'STRONGLY' should be in all
capital letters," he said.
He illustrated his point by saying, "There was a recommendation
to add a big block of school representatives." He could agree to
having a couple of school representatives.
Carlton added that this document does not hold any legal stance
for zoning. "The county has authority over land use through zoning,"
he said. "We choose how that gets that done."
Ruben remained concerned about what future boards might interpret
from this plan. "Once you vote yes for this, you're giving tacit
approval to everything in it,"
he said. "And that's going to come back without a memory of the
board. That document is probably going to outlast probably everyone
on this board."
He said that future boards may not understand the intent of
accepting the plan and may think, "Apparently this is what we ought
to do."
Moving on to other concerns, David Hepler, board vice chairman,
said, "I'm not going to vote for a document without evidence, such
as footnotes."
He said that one asset listed was a skilled work force. "I'd like
to see more specifics: what are the skills, age categories and
genders; as well as comparisons to surrounding areas."
Terms should have definitions, such as what Ruben brought up
about the farm preservation, using the terminology "best practices
for farming." Terms should be footnoted and referenced for
understanding, he said.
He noted that a lot of the data seemed to be from the 2000 census
data but was not identified. It would be important to know the
source and the date; then when new information becomes available, it
could be updated, he said.
He also thought that there needed to be more said about keeping
on the cutting edge of technology, particularly at this time
broadband initiatives.
Higher education
On another subject that concerned him, Hepler observed
demographic information that showed 10 percent of Lincoln Community
High School students are at a poverty level that qualifies them for
free or reduced lunches, "when it's actually closer to 35 percent,"
he said.
And, he noted that the data showed about 52 percent of Lincoln
Elementary School District students qualify for the food program.
Combined with the statistics that roughly 16 percent of Logan
County residents have an attainment level of a baccalaureate degree,
compared with 30 percent in the 10 counties around us, this shows
two reasons local kids are not going on to college.
"It (the plan) leans more toward vocational education rather than
a college attainment," Hepler said.
He felt that the plan did not take economic need sufficiently
into consideration and argued for more emphasis on affordable
college access.
"We have a community college network. Kids can get a two-year
education in some discipline, start to finish, here in Lincoln," he
said.
Harrington said the plan does talk quite a bit about education,
recognizes its importance and suggests some strategies, but given
the complexity of the issue did not go into a great amount of detail
on any one thing.
He said the plan calls for representatives from all levels of
education and from the business community who would make decisions
along the way on:
[to top of second column] |
 Tourism
Jan Schumacher felt tourism was recognized in the plan but that
it was "given short-shift."
"Our potential for tourism is vastly unrecognized in this
county," she said. "I would like to see (us) build a compelling
place, not just for residents, but for visitors as well. We need to
envision ourselves as a real destination. The potential is
incredible and a real economic driver," Schumacher added, and then
observed the following:
In summary:
Both Harrington and development partnership director Joel Smiley
emphasized that this is a "living document" that would change as it
is worked out now and in the future according to needs and
opportunities.
Bill Martin, who serves as the other county board representative
to the partnership, thanked everyone for their input.
Concerning ag terminology he said, "I think, Chuck, you presented
your case very well." He said he would take the recommendations back
to the partnership board.
Harrington also encouraged board members to submit any requests
written as specifically and succinctly as possible for the
partnership to review.
In his summary Harrington said:
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I'm glad you are passionate about the things that you are,
because that is really what it (the plan) is intended to capture.
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This kind of input and discussion is really critical. There are
opportunities, there are some real issues here, that do need to be
addressed. I strongly appreciate that.
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My company doesn't like writing plans that a community finds to
be meaningless or ends up on a shelf. Our success is whether
something positive happens as a result of it. That's the important
part of it. That's how we measure success.
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He urged getting the plan completed and moving on to the tasks.
In waiting, there could be opportunities missed.
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The faster,
collectively, we get there, the better off we're going to be.
The partnership retained Harrington for an additional five months
to help get the plan into action.
A bit of history on the development of the master plan
The Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership sought and
gained grant funding to create a master plan.
Vandewalle & Associates of Madison, Wis., specializes in helping
geographic areas such as Logan County refocus theirs economic
strengths to compete in a global economy.
Last spring the development partnership invited community
participation to launch local research that would go into the plan.
A broad cross section of people from the community attended and were
split into 10 focus groups.
Local elected officials, community businesses and economic
development professionals addressed such matters as manufacturing,
agriculture, high-tech industry, broadband, health care, elementary
education, high school education and higher education.
The Vandewalle team made visits to the community and also
gathered U.S. and state government statistical data.
During the process, the team used its knowledge of other
communities, analysis of local data and responses from focus groups
and personal meetings to identify some of the challenges, and then
formulated initiatives that might move our communities forward.
In September, Vandewalle planner Scott Harrington returned to
present the drafted plan to the public.
The Logan County Board is the last of three entities to approve
the plan. The city of Lincoln and the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber
of Commerce approved the document in November.
[By
JAN YOUNGQUIST]
Related links
Related past articles
Information to help you understand the who, what, how, when and why of Logan
County’s economic growth planning
How the Logan County
Comprehensive Plan was developed
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