Bellsnyder: The Best Small Town Economic Vision is to Invest in your People

Yesterday, our city council voted to annex a vacant lot and an agricultural barn into the city limits. They committed taxpayer dollars to annex and develop these properties because they firmly believe this is a visionary project that will open up new business opportunities for our community.

Discussing economic development can be tricky, as it's a broad and often misunderstood term. While the city council's intentions are good and undoubtedly have the community's best interests at heart, it's essential to emphasize the importance of a community-focused approach to economic development. This approach, which considers the unique needs and challenges of a small, rural community, is key to meeting a small city's economic development needs more effectively and sustainably.

Our community is not alone in facing these challenges. Decades of misinformation about community development have led to our decline. We are witnessing the closure of businesses, a decrease in local investments, and a shrinking population. Our once-shiny towns now look neglected, run-down, and dull. It's high time we took stock of our situation to reverse this trend.

The current vision and strategy for economic development investment is built on a mindset of top-down investment. Our economic ecosystem benefits those who are at the top, our bankers, landowners, and politicians, and in many ways, it benefits those who already have the financial means to do what they need to do. In the case of our project, they employed the "if you build it, they will come" strategy, which might make for a good movie concept, but it has not been a winning strategy for developing a community.

Fix the Foundation

Here's the hard news: No one is coming to save your town, and a vacant lot with water, sewer, and gas installed will not change the direction of your current economic growth.

What I think can be the most concerning aspect of these kinds of "investments" is that they claim precious taxpayer dollars that could be utilized on those things that make the community attractive to new residents and business opportunities that will grow your community.

Studies say that the CEO of a business or a potential employee will screen a community based on a first impression and that a critical criterion for a final decision is how it feels about the community's character. Of course, we love our communities because we live there, but if you were to truly make an assessment, a pro/con list for your community, thinking as an outsider, where would you rank it? Or what if you asked your citizens to bring you one sticky note with a specific project in your community that needed to be addressed?

Now, make that your city's to-do list. Take care of those tangible things, and the growth opportunities will follow naturally.

Grow your Own

More hard news: It is unlikely that an outside employer will be coming to your community to save you. Your best strategy is to Invest in your citizens and create opportunities for them inside the local economy.

Most of our towns previously offered a menu of locally available services, including dentists, car dealerships, multiple clothing stores, pharmacies, and various restaurants and cafes. Our town boomed with two grocery stores; our neighbors owned all those businesses, and we supported them.

But somewhere along the way, shopping on Amazon, trips to the city for those services, and brain drain got the best of us. We raised our kids, educated them, and instilled our values in them, and then we outsourced some of our best people to other communities and other opportunities.

According to the US Census, our county's median household income is about $10,000 below the state average, and the individual household income is around $33,000. Additionally, our local economy is driven by a large sector of government jobs. The school district and the hospital district are our major employers, so we lack a diversity of jobs and a small business mindset. Government jobs provide security and benefits but are not high-paying jobs with much room to grow. What's most unfortunate is that they set the market for other jobs in the community, resulting in lower wages overall in the economic ecosystem.

The stale economy created by this dynamic has driven graduates to higher-paying jobs and better opportunities elsewhere. Our graduating students choose career pathways we don't offer or won't cultivate. However, the future of a community depends on your ability to change your thinking and, figure out how we support young professionals and attract those who have left to return home.

Consider creating and funding economic development programs that encourage remote work and offer skills development in trades or services your community needs to improve. It is especially important to build programs and find ways to invest in individuals who may not have the resources to attend a traditional four-year college but are interested in specialized training such as culinary arts, plumbing, welding, electrical skills, or mechanics, as these are all businesses your community needs immediately today.

You will be met with Resistance.

One more piece of hard news: A group of influential people in your community can only see the old way, as they are very well served by the place where your community sits right now. Others won't see the big picture, dig in, and support doing things the way we've always done them.

Rest assured, you will be met with resistance. Those in charge will initially be closed-minded and respond poorly to being challenged about their decision for a path forward.

Their belief system only supports economic development the old way, built upon investing in "things" rather than people, because investing in people can be risky.

Nobody really likes change, and no one enjoys being met with the unknown. It's easiest to put forth an economic development vision, especially for politicians, where you can claim immediate victory. In the case of our annexation project, for example, "See, look what we did'!

Their position isn't wrong, but nobody wins when a body of decision-makers, especially elected officials, choose to see things only one way. In the case of our project, for example, if partnership and collaboration had been the goal instead of the "win," it could have yielded many positive results. Any project built upon shaky reasoning that causes division and mistrust or misprioritizes our resources is most decidedly a losing outcome for any community.

Activity does not always yield progress.

The concept of "activity over progress" plagues many of our communities. We get so caught up in doing something and claiming victory over it that we never stop to consider whether we are actually accomplishing anything.

There are concerning trends in our communities that we need to be focusing on. Is our population growing or shrinking? Are new businesses opening up, or are our businesses closing? Does your community offer diversity in housing options or restaurant choices? Are the old ways of doing things working for us? Is your government responsive to your needs? Where do your citizens go to buy a pair of socks? We must ask ourselves these questions and work creatively to implement programs and policies to address the answers.

The approach to doing small community economic development must be different. We can't continue to rely on decades-old ways of thinking. We need to use our limited resources to meet our community where it is instead of looking only at economic development with the belief that someday. Small rural communities were built by a generation of doers. People who pull themselves up by their bootstraps to create a life for their families and future generations. These forefathers of our communities built hospitals and school buildings. They invested in what would serve the community and its long-term needs. They didn't wait for a big business to come to town to save them. We need to get back to that way of thinking. Small towns are the best places on Earth to live, to raise a family, and to retire. Let's focus the investments we make in our communities toward things that will strengthen our current assets and support our people right now, today.

This winning economic development strategy will most certainly secure our future.