Tech initiative receives county's feedback

THOMPSON FALLS – The results from the Sanders County Community Development Corporation received from a recently held feasibility survey waging public interest in establishing a rural technology center in Sanders County came back with positive numbers.

SCCDC held a public meeting to go over the results of the survey. The survey was mailed out to every postal customer in Sanders County, totaling to approximately 6,400 people and received a return of 7.6 percent; a number above average.

“This isn’t a public hearing. It’s a courtesy of sharing public results of a survey,” said Jen Kreiner, executive director of SCCDC.  “Our goal here today was to present this and get feedback… this is the beginning of the conversation if this project moves forward.”

Although many members of the public did not attend the meeting, Kreiner went over the results with the board members.

The feasibility study was made possible through the Big Sky Trust Fund, through the Montana Department of Commerce. It was aimed at determining whether or not the possibility of establishing the first regional technology center in Sanders County was possible.

The technology center, also known as a business incubator, aims at attracting technology driven fields and businesses to an area. The center would provide a business incubator for entrepreneurs, rentable space for existing technology business, pilot project opportunities, meeting space and training facilities.

These centers often include low overhead and leave a small footprint on the local communities, focusing on light or clean industries.

The survey asked 15 questions waging support, best location and how to fund the project.

In all, 69 percent of respondents were female and 31 percent were male. Almost 35 percent of respondents were in the 60-69-age range, with 50-59 being the second large age range.

The study found that almost 63 percent of the respondents said they would benefit from the creation of a technology center, either in their professional or personal lives. Over 76 percent of respondents supported the concept of including a technology initiative as part of SCCDC’s countywide economy strategy.

The survey showed that 378 respondents said the center should be privately funded, while 330 said public funding was the solution and 114 said through tax levies.  

The particular question focusing on funding was a “highly contentious question,” said Kreiner.

“Overall, I think the goal is to have it be a private enterprise, have businesses investing in what this is for our county,” Kreiner explained.

Slightly over 42 percent of participants said the center should be housed in Thompson Falls, while almost 31 percent said it should be housed in Plains, showing these two cities as the most popular choice.

The survey also found that those with a businesses who responded, were for the most part home-based, with the largest category falling into professional.

According to Jim Rexhouse, former executive director of SCCDC and the independent consultant who administered the survey, the write-in comments provided insightful information.

One 55-year-old stated that Sanders County did not need growth.

“Higher taxes, crime and pollution come with growth. If you can’t make it here than leave. We do not need more people here, we like our community as it is,” said the respondent.

Another 66-year-old respondent had quite a different take on the center.

“We need skilled people living in our communities to feed them,” the respondent noted.

During his study of incubators throughout seven states, Rexhouse did not come across a center based in a community as small as the ones in Sanders County.

After talking to 16 different centers, it was determined this technology center, if it was built, would be unique.

“I haven’t talked to anyone or read anything about any single rural community saying we’re going to do this, we are going to make this successful, we are going to base this on technology, we are going to prove that you can do this in a rural area,” Rexhouse said. “I think you better be ahead of that curve than behind it.”

If the one-of-a-kind center came to fruition, the focus would need to remain clear in order to help ensure its success.

“The focus that needs to be retained is that this is a technology incubator and you have to maintain that purity or it’s just going to be more office space,” Rexhouse explained. “It’s got to be true to its original intent.”

For now, the project is in the very beginning stages and will most likely take three or four years until any groundbreaking occurs, if it even occurs at all.

“What we are trying to do here is mold it right now,” Kreiner said. “That’s what we are going to do through these phases; figure out what it is, we don’t know what it is yet.”

Even though the idea is still in the works, the ultimate goal is clear.

“We do know that our goal is to diversify our economy; plain and simple. Bring in alternative forms of business and employment opportunities,” Kreiner explained.

Rexhouse said it was important to find the “creative class” of people who would be drawn to this area.

According to a study distributed by Rexhouse titled The rural growth trifecta, outdoor amenities as well as the creative class and entrepreneurial context all play together as one.

“Tests confirm that the interaction of entrepreneurial context with the share of the workforce employed in the creative class is strongly associated with growth in the number of new establishments and employment, particularly in those rural counties endowed with attractive outdoor amenities,” stated the report.

Rexhouse explained that the creative class is a group or people who are mobile and involved in the arts, engineering and computer sciences. These people who deal with creative ideas and things are an important group to target in this area.

“You get them here through tourism and convince them to stay by offering them something,” Rexhouse said. “This technology center will show them that we are serious…and that we are hosting technology businesses.”

Rexhouse’s report should be complete within the next month or two and from there the board will take the recommendations, options and alternatives to decide the next step.