New steps forward for economic development
Tourism
and public transportation face challenges
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[May 23, 2013]
With only three members of the
Logan County Board's Executive and Economic Development Committee
present -- chairman David Hepler, Gene Rohlfs and Chuck Ruben -- no
votes could be taken, but there was still discussion on multiple
topics on Monday. County board member Jan Schumacher was also present for the discussions,
as well as Brian Bergen, executive director of the
Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership.
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Reports from the development partnership Bergen gave brief updates on the status of economic ventures in the
county.
The first update was concerning a business incubator. Bergen said
the development partnership is working with the USDA to create an
incubator in Atlanta. He said the business incubator will be in a
brand-new building, and the development partnership will own 50
percent of the property in conjunction with Atlanta for 10 years.
The second update focused on the wind farms coming to the county.
Bergen said that the Sugar Creek company has approached New Holland
to purchase property for the purpose of using it for maintenance
buildings.
Bergen commented on the development partnership's efforts to
analyze the county's working population. He said they will be
looking at other counties to see what those counties are doing to
help bring in the right industries to provide jobs for the younger
population.
Hepler asked Bergen if he would be able to create a series
of benchmarks for determining the effectiveness of the development
partnership. Bergen said that his previous work in other similar
organizations has used a similar method of thinking, and he said he
would be willing to show the committee what he thinks would be a
good series of benchmarks.
"We have to judge ourselves on some kind of progress," said
Bergen.
One of the larger issues he commented on is the population
decline the county has experienced. Specifically, the younger
population is not staying in the area. Bergen also said that this is
not just a problem in Logan County. He said even Chicago is losing
people who are moving to coastal areas.
Bergen added that it may be easier to attract the younger
populations once they have gotten married and started families, as
those types of people may want to be closer to family members who
live in the area.
"People tend to want to be back where they grew up when they have
families," he said.
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Finally, Bergen gave a small update on Logan County entering a
CEDS region. A new committee for the region will be formed with
representatives from Logan, Mason, Woodford, Peoria and Tazewell
counties. Bergen recommended that he not be one of the
representatives on the committee, but he would be willing to take on
an advisory role.
"I think someone else would get more information out of it than
me, because they will hear things differently," he said.
Bergen said that 51 percent of the committee will be elected
officials, with the other members coming from business, education
and other economic fields.
Tourism decisions complicated
After Bergen's reports, the conversation turned to tourism. The
board members have expressed confusion in recent meetings over what
to do next. The tourism board is unsure how to go about finding a
new director after the recent interactions between the city and the
tourism board, leaving the status of such a position unclear.
Chuck Ruben said he hopes to see some answers before the county
starts to work on next year's budget, which would make budgeting
easier.
Public transportation system
Finally, the committee discussed a $530,000 grant that the county
will receive for the public transportation program. The grant comes
with a condition in the form of an employee who will spend a
majority of time monitoring the process. While the program is
running in a tri-county region, Logan County will specifically act
as the recipient of the grant. As a result, Logan County will have
to find the employee to oversee the grant expenditures.
[By DEREK HURLEY]
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