New steps forward for economic development

Tourism and public transportation face challenges

[May 23, 2013]  With only three members of the Logan County Board's Executive and Economic Development Committee present -- chairman David Hepler, Gene Rohlfs and Chuck Ruben -- no votes could be taken, but there was still discussion on multiple topics on Monday. County board member Jan Schumacher was also present for the discussions, as well as Brian Bergen, executive director of the Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership.

Reports from the development partnership

Bergen gave brief updates on the status of economic ventures in the county.

The first update was concerning a business incubator. Bergen said the development partnership is working with the USDA to create an incubator in Atlanta. He said the business incubator will be in a brand-new building, and the development partnership will own 50 percent of the property in conjunction with Atlanta for 10 years.

The second update focused on the wind farms coming to the county. Bergen said that the Sugar Creek company has approached New Holland to purchase property for the purpose of using it for maintenance buildings.

Bergen commented on the development partnership's efforts to analyze the county's working population. He said they will be looking at other counties to see what those counties are doing to help bring in the right industries to provide jobs for the younger population.

Hepler asked Bergen if he would be able to create a series of benchmarks for determining the effectiveness of the development partnership. Bergen said that his previous work in other similar organizations has used a similar method of thinking, and he said he would be willing to show the committee what he thinks would be a good series of benchmarks.

"We have to judge ourselves on some kind of progress," said Bergen.

One of the larger issues he commented on is the population decline the county has experienced. Specifically, the younger population is not staying in the area. Bergen also said that this is not just a problem in Logan County. He said even Chicago is losing people who are moving to coastal areas.

Bergen added that it may be easier to attract the younger populations once they have gotten married and started families, as those types of people may want to be closer to family members who live in the area.

"People tend to want to be back where they grew up when they have families," he said.

Finally, Bergen gave a small update on Logan County entering a CEDS region. A new committee for the region will be formed with representatives from Logan, Mason, Woodford, Peoria and Tazewell counties. Bergen recommended that he not be one of the representatives on the committee, but he would be willing to take on an advisory role.

"I think someone else would get more information out of it than me, because they will hear things differently," he said.

Bergen said that 51 percent of the committee will be elected officials, with the other members coming from business, education and other economic fields.

Tourism decisions complicated

After Bergen's reports, the conversation turned to tourism. The board members have expressed confusion in recent meetings over what to do next. The tourism board is unsure how to go about finding a new director after the recent interactions between the city and the tourism board, leaving the status of such a position unclear.

Chuck Ruben said he hopes to see some answers before the county starts to work on next year's budget, which would make budgeting easier.

Public transportation system

Finally, the committee discussed a $530,000 grant that the county will receive for the public transportation program. The grant comes with a condition in the form of an employee who will spend a majority of time monitoring the process. While the program is running in a tri-county region, Logan County will specifically act as the recipient of the grant. As a result, Logan County will have to find the employee to oversee the grant expenditures.

[By DEREK HURLEY]