Rapid City Journal, SD
07-01-06
Meeting stresses cooperation
Cooperation is the key to economic development, according to participants
Thursday at a town hall meeting at Northern State University.
South Dakota cannot rest on what it has, Gov. Mike Rounds, who attended the
event, said. “We have to continue to look to the future to see what we have to do
to improve it.”
People at the meeting shared success stories, thoughts and ideas in roundtable
and large-group discussions.
Cornelia Butler Flora, an Iowa State University professor and the meeting’s
keynote speaker, asked the 80 people attending to talk about ways to promote
and follow through on economic development in their areas.
“Everyone in small towns has maybe more time than money, but still not much
time at all,” Flora said. “That’s why it’s so important we put all ideas together.”
Tom Farber, who works with an economic development group in the Britton area,
said collaboration with other communities is invaluable. Communities should try
to emulate what works in other areas, he said.
Craig Johnson, director of an economic development group in Spink County, said
involving the city and county in projects from the inception is critical. “It’s really
the only way you can do it in these small towns,” he said.
He pointed to city and county involvement in an ethanol plant being guilt north of
Redfield, which could mean 35 jobs for the area.
It’s also important to remember that each community is specific, said Carol
Thomas of the Northeast South Dakota Regional Aging Council. An idea that
works in Aberdeen might not work in Java, she said.
“While some might need a little help, others need a lot. There are some people
out there that are capable of generating some wonderful ideas; they just have to
know how to do it,” Thomas said.
Rounds said South Dakota has the best business and entrepreneurial climate in
the nation.
“What we have to realize is that it takes more than that to bring people in or keep
people here, which is what we’re trying to do,” he said.
“We’re moving in the right direction.”
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