LCEDC hopes Bottom Up right direction
March 04 2011
By Marilee Johnson
News Editor
South Platte Sentinel
March 2, 2011
Since it’s from the “Bottom-Up,” don’t expect anything to “trickle down” from Governor John Hickenlooper’s new economic development plan.
Still, Rich O’Connell, executive director of the Logan County Economic Development Corporation believes this time around, the strongest foundation may actually start at the bottom and grow up from there.
The plan – initiated by an executive order signed by Gov. Hickenlooper when he took office in January – is hinged on involving all Colorado residents in developing a strategic economic development plan for their county from the “bottom-up” to chart a course for economic revival county by county in Colorado. According to the executive order, “In order to grow Colorado’s economy, it is vital to engage Coloradans across the state in developing a comprehensive and collaborative approach to economic development. This new approach is designed to identify the needs, priorities, vision, strengths and weaknesses of each of the state’s counties, and incorporate them into 64 economic development plans, tailored to each county. These plans will roll up into 14 regional plans that will comprise a comprehensive, statewide economic development plan.”
O’Connell was part of a group of about 10 people representing Sterling, Logan County and the LCEDC at a Bottom-Up Regional Work Session in Limon on Jan. 17. It was the Governor’s first regional economic development meeting.
“We met with the Governor and his economic development staff, where they laid out the overall idea of the Bottom-Up plan,” said O’Connell.
Since then, Hickenlooper’s staff and Darlene Scott, regional representative with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), have designed the process for completing a statewide economic development plan by May 15.
On Thurs., March 3, a follow-up “Next Step” meeting will be held in Haxtun.
The local contingency will be taking with them the LCEDC strategic plan, the Logan County master plan and some comments based on the recent Community Economic Development Assessment prepared through the OEDIT.
“The Governor’s office doesn’t want to change what we’ve already done,” said O’Connell. “They want to provide resources
to firm up those parts that deal with new jobs and job creation.”
The LCEDC strategic plan includes the following goals: Complete recruiting prospects for Logan County Industrial Park, adress public policy issues that affect Logan County, identify industrial/commercial properties to encourage expansion, target complementary industries seeking to re-locate, promote retail development, manage financial resources, develop summer internship program and collaborate with the community.
According to the initiative, Gov. Hicken-looper has launched the bottom-up plan to identify economic development priorities for each county and to reach the widest range of interests and assure the greatest amount of input possible.
The goal is to assure that the statewide economic development strategy is truly representative of all 64 counties.
Counties are asked to submit their most recent county and/or regional economic development plan, to establish and communicate a process to develop and/or update the county’s economic development plan template by April 15, to establish and communicate a process to develop a regional economic development plan and to participate in regional meetings during this initiative process and work in a collaborative manner on a regional basis to incorporate county plans into a regional economic development plan.
“The LCEDC – along with the City of Sterling and Logan County – are cooperating with the Governor’s office to help put a regional economic development plan together with the main goal to put Colorado back to work,” O’Connell said. “We would hope to benefit along with our region by being able to access the state’s resources for planning and budgeting to better plan for the types of programs the state is identifying.”Citizens are encouraged to take an online survey on these issues at www.advancecolorado.com.
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