Public Power - June 2008 - (Page 68)

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT A Team Approach to Economic Attraction By Cathy Swirbul Melody Thompson of Canby, Ore., had an epiphany after she attended the American Public Power Association’s Community & Economic Development Conference in 2005. The conference helped Thompson understand public power’s role in economic development and to see the value in building a local team to help attract businesses to her town. “Among other things, I learned about the effectiveness of using a community response team to meet with prospective businesses interested in your community,” she said. Team members would include leaders Mayor from numerous community leaders.” Catherine Comer, Canby’s economic development manager, took on the task of implementing the team concept. “Most larger communities have an economic development marketing staff that can go to trade shows to induce outside companies to visit their communities,” Comer said. “Canby, which has just 15,000 residents within the town limits, doesn’t have the staff or funds to do this. A lot of what we can do is just respond well to companies that contact us, to be as responsive as we can,” said Comer. Comer assembled a team including the mayor, city administrator, community development director, chief of police, chamber of commerce director, a business leader, and represen- sions the first call that came in—from a broker representing American Steel—turned out to be the most economically fruitful for Canby to date. American Steel had outgrown its location in nearby Portland and was looking for a large parcel of land on which to build a 190,585square foot facility—to employ 120 workers. “We have been marketing our 300-acre Canby Pioneer Industrial Park for years,” Comer said. “Up until now, the businesses moving to our park required 20,000 to 40,000-foot facilities and here was a company that was looking for 190,000 square feet,” Comer said. “We didn’t anticipate this large a jump in the prospects we were courting, but our response team was prepared to handle it.” Comer hosted a breakfast I learned about the effectiveness of using a community response team to meet with prospective businesses interested in your community. from all sectors of the community who would report on their area of expertise to the prospect. “This seemed like a way that a small community like Canby could compete in the larger market by demonstrating preparedness and commitment tatives from the utility, school district and a regional partner from the county and state. They met for several sessions to share their expertise with one another so each team member could report on all aspects of the community to a prospect. “I did a presentation to the team to let everyone know what land is available in Canby and the kind of businesses we want to attract. As a rural community, Canby’s strategy is to seek a diverse mix of manufacturers and distributors,” Comer said. “If you train your team correctly, any one of those team members could represent your town well. Then the team is united as one spokesperson.” Following the training seswith the community response team and six American Steel executives. The executives shared details about their business and needs. Each team member presented a different aspect of Canby that connected to those needs. The team performed so well at those meetings that American Steel CEO Craig Schwartz sent a note to Comer. “The team’s enthusiasm was infectious. The pro-active attitude toward new business growth was evident. ‘How can we help you and what do we need to do?’” was the flavor of that meeting, the note said. Canby was one of four communities American Steel was considering. The company PUBLIC POWER Order entry, work order and billing for video, data, and voice services Broadband Billing Solutions for Utilities Automated provisioning of FTTH Network and all other technologies Use your existing utility billing system or ETI’s optional module 800.332.1078 www.etisoftware.com 68 JUNE 2008 http://www.etisoftware.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - June 2008

Public Power - June 2008 Contents Perspective 10 Questions Finding Common Ground on Climate Change Solutions A Patchwork Approach to Renewable Energy Whose Grid Is It Anyway? The Little Utility That Could Benchmarking Customer Service Can Prairie Hay Power Your Town? Storming the Control Room Investing in the Smart Grid Coming of Age: Superconducting Cables Community Broadband Economic Development Customer Service Human Resources For Governing Boards Safety Parting Shot

Public Power - June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.