Local Ford Leadership alums produce plan for rural economic development

Scott Swanson

A group of local community leaders is proposing the creation of an organization focused on promoting and supporting economic development in rural Linn County.

Jo Ann McQueary of Sweet Home, a longtime participant in local efforts to build tourism and other economic development in the county, presented the proposal Tuesday, Aug. 9, to the Sweet Home City Council.

The 24-page document was prepared by graduates of the Ford Institute Leadership Program, which trains local residents for leadership roles in the community: Sheryl Casteen of Lebanon, Sharon Kanareff of Sweet Home, Craig Martin of Sweet Home, Brownsville City Manager Scott McDowell, McQueary, John Morrison of Brownsville, Ronn Passmore of Lebanon, Peggy Purkerson of Harrisburg and Bob Thayer of Lebanon.

The writers describe the plan as “a modest proposal for addressing economic vitality – or lack thereof – in rural Linn county.”

The plan calls for implementation of five specific strategies aimed at connecting area businesses with existing help from agencies and programs, navigating the regulatory environment, and marketing assistance in the age of social media.

McQueary told the council that the plan was the result of a common realization that jobs are key to solving community needs for housing, health and well-being and other social issues, and economic growth.

She said the writers were among several hundred people, divided into “cohorts,” who participated in five annual training programs offered in east Linn County by the Roseburg-based Ford Family Foundation beginning in 2005.

The aim of the Ford Leadership Program was to invest in building “human capital,” rather than “building that library or Taj Mahal,” she said, adding that the foundation has spent about half a million dollars on the effort.

Participants in the training learned how to build a community project, how to build community consensus, how to work in groups and effectively as organizations, how to write application and successfully land grant money – “all the components that you need to do projects in your community,” said McQueary, who has continued to participate heavily in the foundation’s efforts in Linn County.

“Watching people use those tools in the groups that they were involved in has been pretty phenomenal.”

The Rural Linn Economic Development proposal is a result of that, over a 2½-year process. The nine participants formed a “Go Team” that “did a ton of research” over that period, she said.

“It was a long, long slog,” McQueary said. “We didn’t start with this idea.”

Specifically, the plan calls for:

– Establishment of a rural-focused, primary point of contact that will collaborate with all existing service organizations to align and focus resources. The RLED group would coordinate and leverage services and efforts already in place by other, more local economic development, government and educational agencies. It would catalogue such resources and help connect them with people who need them. It would also assist local businesses in navigating the maze of government rules and regulations.

– Connecting new entrepreneurs with learning opportunities and start-up support. RLED would employ a business accelerator approach based on business incubator and service models developed by Eugene-based Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network (RAIN) and the Senior Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). These may include assistance with business loans, grants and other financing.

– Assisting existing or relocating businesses with successfully implementing their growth strategies. RLED would act as a behind-the-scenes partner in assisting small businesses with marketing, finding potential collaborators that would allow a business to focus on its core skills and specialties, suggest additional products or locations and finding skilled labor.

– Linking existing and potential rural Linn County employers with a skilled and trained workforce. A trained workforce, the proposal states, “is critical to attracting new business and retaining existing businesses.” RLED would coordinate existing efforts to develop skilled workers by Linn-Benton Community College, local high schools and others, and would advocate for training programs that would meet the needs of existing and potential rural employers.

– Advocating for improved market conditions, legislative, regulatory or government; particularly those directed at workforce readiness and development. The proposal states that rural communities that are often not represented well in negotiations that affect their local economies and businesses. RLED would provide a voice for rural communities and businesses in legislative and regulatory negotiations in an effort to “stimulate, rather than stifle, local rural business growth” in areas such as System Development Changes, building permit and civil engineering process.

“We believe these strategies are best achieved with face-to-face contact between a knowledgeable planner and the rural business owner,” the writers state in their preface.

The plan calls for a full-time “skilled” economic development director to lead and supervise staff and volunteers in “promoting and supporting a business environment that fosters economic success and livability for businesses and residents of rural Linn County. The plan also calls for a budget of $150,000 per year for three years, which includes part-time support staff.

The writers acknowledge that this is a “significant amount, but not extravagant if one is serious about improving the economy in all of rural Linn County.”

They propose that 60 percent of that be funded from government sources, 20 percent from private and 20 percent from grants. Government sources include the county and all of its cities, school districts, utility companies, regional and local educational districts, chambers of commerce and other business development groups, health care, and businesses that contribute to and stand to benefit from an improved economy in Linn County.

McQueary emphasized that the document is simply a starting point, asking the council, which had just spent an hour and a half discussing its goals for Sweet Home prior to her presentation, to simply look at it as an “opportunity” to cooperate with other local communities and agencies to lay groundwork necessary to boost the local economy and create jobs.

She also noted that the visioning process used by Lebanon to create its economic development strategy mirrors much of the RLED proposal, as well as the 2014 Livability Study which focused on ways Sweet Home could address a wide variety of community needs.

McQueary also made it clear that the writers of the proposal are looking for feedback.

“Nothing is cast in stone about it. Tell us what you think,” she said. “Could it look just like this? It could look identical to this. Will it? Probably not. Does it need to be a stand-alone organization? Absolutely not. What we care about is that there is a function. We care about the same thing you do.”

Council members noted that the proposal reflects many of their own goals and commended the obvious research that went into it by the committee.

She emphasized that rural communities need to band together to make things happen for themselves, noting that the Council of Governments serves three counties and its efforts toward economic development focus on the hubs – Albany, Corvallis, Newport, Lincoln City.

“ OK, that’s great. Where is Sweet Home? We’re in east Linn County,” she said.

“As we work together on this, what we know is especially in rural communities, we all can’t stand alone. Those days are over and we know that. So we like the concept of working together. Especially, Sweet Home, Lebanon and Brownsville should work together.”

She said they need to act without depending on other entities, referring to COG’s focus on more urban populations.

“We cannot wait for you to bring it to us. We are going to proact,” McQueary said.

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