Attracting an economy

One common theme rang throughout the special night meeting of the Mineral County Commissioners on April 23 at the St. Regis Community Center – the future.

The discussion began with presentations from members of the Mineral Community Hospital staff on hospital efforts that could ultimately bring more business to the county and during the public comment portion of the evening, Sharon Patterson of the MSU Extension Office asked a question that allowed the county commissioners to discuss the future of the county as a whole.

“George (MCH of Business Development George Bailey) talked about the possibilities of bringing in more business to Mineral County,” Patterson said. “What do you have in place, what incentives do you have to give to businesses who relocate?”

Patterson added that she is aware of other counties offering incentives for businesses who relocate such as tax breaks, land or even buildings.

“Well there are tax incentives,” Commissioner Duane Simons said. “To my knowledge that’s about the only thing we can offer them at this point. We don’t have any land to give them.”

Elaborating on her question, Patterson asked if there was a county resource for interested businesses to approach when they are seeking to relocate – adding that her office gets a lot of questions regarding things like three-phase power from prospective businesses.

“We say we want jobs, we want jobs, but what do we do to entice them to come here,” Patterson asked.

Bailey made a comment commending the commissioners for their support whenever the hospital has approached them with their plans for future expansion.

“We are limited here in Mineral County (when it comes to enticing businesses),” Commissioner Roman Zylawy said. “When we were established we only got 10 percent private land, which some of you own and live in your homes on and the county took a little chunk for its own. Yeah we have a little bit of land by the airport but that happens to be a piece of area without three-phase power for commercial use.”

Commissioner Zylawy added that while the county has the interstate and the railroad and is in a good location for benefitting companies, they don’t have things like three-phase power.

“Everybody wants to bring business in and we are kind of low on the totem pole,” Commissioner Zylawy said. “Basically my philosophy is we are just going to have to rub elbows with the right people, go to conferences when we can and make sure they remember us. But right now we are all kind of after the same thing. We need to think of something, but it is not just thinking of something it is finding the right businessman who wants to come for the right reasons at the right time.”

Kevin Chamberlain of the MSU Extenstion Office said the commissioners have been working hard with business retention and expansion in the community.

“It’s kind of a proven method for how jobs are created in these rural communities,” Chamberlain said. “The businesses that are already here that have decided to do business here and would like to stay here – if there is an opportunity for them to expand then we can do it through that means.”

Chamberlain added that they are currently trying to get grant in order to install three-phase power at the airport in an effort to bring in other businesses.

“For many years it was ‘oh you can’t do that because there is nobody interested in it,’” Chamberlain said. “We’ve tried the not build it and they won’t come and we proven that because we didn’t build it and they didn’t come. Now we are going to try the other route and hope they come. At least at that point we can go forward.”

Chamberlain also commended the efforts of the airport in becoming self-sustainable and “making a name for itself” by renting out hangars.

“That’s a huge part of it,” Chamberlain said. “It wouldn’t take much to turn this (the local economy) around.”

To illustrate his point, Chamberlain mentioned that adding three jobs in the county would change the unemployment rate in the county by a tenth of a percent.

“Think about that on a large scale in terms of what little it would take,” Chamberlain said. “Then think about a business come in with 20 jobs, 50 jobs, 100 jobs. Three jobs will change us one-tenth a percentage point can you think about 50?”

Chamberlain added that bringing in a new business also creates the need for an increase in infrastructure – things like housing and schools and gave a hypothetical scenario of a company coming into the county bringing 150 employees and hiring 150 residents.

“Could you imagine if 75 of them lived in St. Regis, among those there’s another 70 kids and your school has 70 new students next week,” Chamberlain asked. “I mean there are going to be some changes and that’s the kind of things that happen and the commissioners try to swallow when these things take place. It’s one of those be careful what you ask for in some cases and we haven’t had those problems but those are all things to consider.”

Chamberlain concluded by saying “it’s really easy to say Mr. Commissioner bring in jobs,” but “a whole lot more goes into it.”