Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, IA
06-03-06
ISU researchers looking at best fits for southwest Iowa's economic development
PHIL ROONEY
An Iowa State University project is helping regions within the state determine
what types of economic development they can most successfully pursue.
ISU economist Dave Swenson calls it targeted industry research, and following
work in southeast and southern Iowa, the focus will be on Council Bluffs and the
surrounding counties.
The Center for Industrial Research and Service at Iowa State worked with the
Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Commerce Department to
partner on a grant to provide technical assistance for targeted industrial research
for areas of the state that had room for economic growth.
Swenson and others are studying multiple-county regions in Iowa to give those
areas a sense of the industrial structure and identify where they may have a
competitive advantage in recruiting businesses.
"I try to teach them about their economy," Swenson said. "I try to give them a
handle on their strong points."
Researchers meet with an area's economic development directors to see if they'd
like to have the study done and to learn what they would like to learn. Most don't
have good statistics on how much income they can generate, Swenson said.
The study also attempts to determine if a potential new industry will link well with
existing regional activities and give companies a way to grade growing industries
and get a better multiplier affect - that's money being used to create more money.
Some suggestions then may be offered.
Swenson will do the study and subdivide it to measure the region's capacity. He
looks at the population and the labor force, providing information on how those
have changed and what that has done to the region's capacity for growth.
"You have to overcome A to get to B," he said.
Swenson said one basic fact of economic development is that people follow jobs
and jobs follow people, something that increasingly leads people and jobs to
urban areas.
"That maxim is true everywhere."
A southeast Iowa project led to a marketing plan and more requests for technical
assistance. A still-to-be-completed study showed southern Iowa is slow but for a
Clark County casino.
That may not have been the news Tim Ostroski wanted to hear, but now he can
help develop a plan.
Ostroski is the executive director of the Creston-based Southern Iowa Council of
Governments. During his 26 years in the area, he's been a part of numerous
projects, many of them infrastructure based, and has worked on economic
development with varying successes and losses.
The communities he works with soon will have a focus for pursuing new
development.
Ostroski received a preliminary draft of the report in March and will have a final
report presented with a round table economic group on June 21. It then will be
shared with regional economic development people.
"It really wasn't a surprise, but I think it was an eye-opener," Ostroski said. "The
statistics were depressing but somewhat encouraging."
Ostroski admitted he's not sure how that can be, but he can find some good in
the numbers.
The population in southern Iowa is aging and shrinking, but there is wealth to be
spent in the area for development, he said.
"The elderly population is probably not one that's going anywhere, and that's a
market to be addressed," Ostroski said.
That information opens up the need for more services, especially medical, and
could lead to growth in those areas.
"You look at the numbers, say 'Where are we going?' and you plan from that,"
Ostroski said. "Information is always powerful."
For Ostroski, the whole point of the study is to know what the numbers are, and
then you can do what needs to be done. An example is in agriculture, where land
in the area may now be used for something other than planting corn and
soybeans.
"What's the best use of the land?" he asked. "Target the uses and activities
rather than the traditional 'Let's go out there and try to locate everything.'"
He feels the process will help banks and industries in making their decisions.
"It's not always about how big you are, it's what you do with what you have,"
Ostroski said.
He admits it may not make sense for the area to pursue an auto manufacturing
plant. It does make sense to expand agricultural opportunities, especially in the
area of biodiesel production, including using products other than corn. Southern
Iowa also may explore possibilities with lumber, using wood pellets as a heating
fuel.
Still other possibilities can be developed from tourism.
The process and the reaction from business so far are good, Ostroski said.
Swenson said he generally would make a presentation to the group he's working
with and turn them loose to do their jobs.
"There's a whole lot of regions that their prospects aren't great," he said. "There
are whole lot of regions in the state that aren't going to grow, and to assume
otherwise is irresponsible. They're not going to grow."
Those regions would include the counties with static populations or those that, in
some cases, already have started to lose population.
Plants that close in smaller communities have as serious an impact on those
areas as Maytag's closing in Newton, Swenson said. But they don't get $10
million retraining programs, governor's visits or anywhere near the same amount
of attention.
"That's why we're studying these areas," he said."