Representatives of the Pulaski County Commission and the county’s five cities agreed Thursday afternoon to move ahead with plans to create an economic development organization that a consultant says is essential to growing the county.
County and city representatives have been meeting monthly for nearly a year in an informal working group along with Adam Prager, a consultant hired by the county and the Meramec Regional Planning Commission to administer a $175,000 Department of Defense grant to study ways Pulaski County can diversify its economy beyond sole reliance on Fort Leonard Wood.
The county has no fatal flaw but it does have significant challenges, Prager said, chief of them being a lack of access to key data needed by companies considering relocating to the area.
“You, unfortunately, are not the kind of community where you can rely on readily available data; that means you are being bypassed,” Prager said.
Prager also warned that Pulaski County has to “get its real estate house in order” by producing an inventory of what commercial property is available for sale and who owns it.
If that doesn’t happen, “Pulaski County is going to miss out,” Prager said.
“It’s just not equipped to do things together on a regional level,” Prager said. “The absence of that organization really hurts this county.”
Several agency representatives explained what they could do to help Pulaski County.
Terry Luetkemeyer of USDA Rural Development said his organization often can guarantee loans that make it possible for smaller local banks to finance public buildings and infrastructure, but he cautioned that Pulaski County’s income levels will restrict how much help is available. Personal income in Pulaski County is relatively high compared to other rural counties in Missouri, he said.
Mike Nichols of the Missouri Department of Economic Development detailed programs of state tax rebates and credits that are available for businesses that create jobs and said his organization also helps explain local tax incentives that are available to cities and counties.
Tax rebates aren’t always popular in local communities, Nichols said.
“Basically the way we talk to people is we say, ‘You aren’t losing any revenue. You’re keeping all you have, you’re just abating taxes you don’t have now to spur economic development,’” Nichols said.
Responding to questions from Pulaski County Presiding Commissioner Bill Ransdall, Nichols said his organization could help retrofit buildings such as the Lee factory in Richland or the Paramount hat factory in Dixon, depending on ownership details and the amount of potential job creation.
Tom Stehn, the Missouri Department of Transportation District Engineer for south-central Missouri, said he understands that businesses can’t grow if they don’t have good roads to transport their products.
“We really feel that transportation is interlinked with economic development,” Stehn said.
Under certain circumstances, MoDOT can provide matching grants of 50 percent for additional construction projects and can sometimes even provide 100 percent grants for major job-creating non-retail projects such as the Wal-Mart regional shipping facility in St. James. Past examples include the rebuilding of Missouri Avenue to Fort Leonard Wood during the federal Base Realignment and Closure process, a St. Robert off-ramp on Interstate 44, and Waynesville’s plans for expansion of roads leading to Highway H near the Lowe’s car dealership north of Interstate 44.
Responding to questions from Ransdall, Stehn said the Highway 17 bridge between Crocker and Waynesville is definitely confirmed, and the same is true of a road widening project on Highway 28 between Dixon and Interstate 44.
However, he cautioned that due to increasing fuel and oil costs and the need to keep the budget balanced, some projects to which MoDOT has committed may be pushed back one year.
“Could Highway 28 and Highway 17 be affected by that? We don’t know; we’ll have to see about that,” Stehn said.
Ransdall said he was disappointed that local bankers and other businesses hadn’t been invited to attend the meeting, and that no notice had been given to the media beforehand.
“Like a lot of places, we’re in tough economic times and fuel prices are killing us,” Ransdall said. “Some of the banks have talked to us about helping this (economic developer) project get started … it’s embarrassing for us to sit here as the hole in the donut.”
Ransdall said he’s been told by developers that Pulaski County is especially harmed by its lack of a county economic development web site.
“A number of people said they went to the web and the first thing that they got was Pulaski County, Arkansas,” Ransdall said. “Then they narrowed it down to Missouri and they came up with a local web site where people can write anything they want about local elected officials. If businesses want to come in here and they go to the web and all they find is Pulaski County, Ark., and then that local web site, I’m not sure how interested they’ll be in coming here.”
John Greenlee of Gascosage Electric Cooperative in Dixon suggested that Ransdall come to a co-op board meeting to present his case for funding of an economic developer.
“They’re open to opening their purse when they think a project is worthwhile,” Greenlee said, but he cautioned that a project needs to be seen as benefiting the entire area, not just a portion of the multi-county service area of Gascosage Electric Cooperative.
Prager said he didn’t think Pulaski County leaders should let finances stop them from hiring an economic developer, despite the fact that similar offices in adjoining counties have budgets of $200,000 or more.
“The issue isn’t having the funds available; the issue is getting the right players to the table,” Prager said, noting that many counties with far fewer resources than Pulaski County already have an economic development organization.
“You guys aren’t short of funds to do economic development like some other counties are,” Prager said.
Speaking briefly, Ann Kutscher, a district representative in Congressman Ike Skelton’s office, said she was pleased by what she had heard and would convey that message to Skelton.
“You have the right people in the right places; I wish I could tell you that I know the key,” Kutscher said. “Congressman Skelton is truly interested in rural economic development, as well as in Fort Leonard Wood.”
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