News Story Published On 2/28/2006 in The Daily News Journal, Murfeesboro, TN.
Destination Rutherford scores high on jobs test
Consultant says initiative aided in 9,200 new positions.
By John Callow
Destination Rutherford helped bring in more than 9,200 jobs in a three-year period, generating $455 million in earnings, according to a report card on the jobs initiative.
"An A-plus-plus? Absolutely," said Mike Seabolt, vice president of National Community Development Services. His firm helped put the Destination Rutherford initiative together in 2002 and has been looking over its shoulder since then.
Destination Rutherford is a partnership between the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, Rutherford County and its four municipalities to promote economic development in the county. The group raised more than $3 million to fund a four-year jobs initiative.
The original goal was to add a total of 1,800 new primary jobs in the three-year period of 2003-2005. The actual total, Seabolt said, is 9,279 with $455 million in direct earnings.
Destination Rutherford assisted 68 companies with creating jobs here, including recruiting new companies and helping existing companies.
"There's no way to tell ifcellular phone repair those jobs would have been created without (the initiative)," he said. "But you can look at the way (Rutherford County was) performing before and the way it's performing now. Prior to Destination Rutherford it was hard to have focus and funding and the accountability. I can tell you, though, because Destination Rutherford is focused, it's getting results."
Terry Haynes, chairman of Destination Rutherford, is proud of the results.
"It's hard to argue with the numbers," Haynes said. "They're pretty impressive. I'm not naive enough to suggest it's all because of Destination Rutherford, but it's safe to say Destination Rutherford has had a huge part."
One of the goals of the initiative was to raise the average hourly pay, Haynes said.
"Wages was what hit us between the eyes when we started talking about this," he said. "We thought we were rolling right along, then the results of a study came back telling us our average hourly wage was going down."
That trend reversed, said Steve Benefield, president of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.
"In 2002, our average was $17.63 and now we're in the mid-$20s," he said. "That kindsocial security number by state of job creation is what we were looking for."
The wage numbers are important to people earning hourly pay, Seabolt said, but the net personal consumption expenditures resulting from the job creation have a ripple affect across the entire county. The goal was $58.2 million. The result is $396.6 million.
"That means if you're small business owner — or a large business owner — the impact is pretty awesome," he said. "If you can grow the size of the pie, you don't have to take business from others. That's why it's good to have the entire waterfront rising."
The original initiative is in its last year, but the Chamber of Commerce is bringing Seabolt's firm back to find out what should happen next, Benefield said.
"In the next 60 days, NCDS will be in the community talking with our partners in Destination Rutherford," he said. "We've had many positive comments from our partners. They seem to feel really good about the investment. Now NCDS will be meeting with many of the people who provided the funding because we want to know what issues they're facing and how we can come back and takeeliminar virus troyanos gusanos those things on."
Continuing to act on the economic issues facing Rutherford County and its residents is important, Seabolt said.
"You've done it right, for the right price, and you've got to keep on keeping on," he said. "You can't just stop. There are plenty of other communities that are out there now trying to do what you've done for the last three years."
Haynes said he agrees with Seabolt.
"We've gotten this momentum going," Haynes said. "I liken it to a train. We're on the track and moving. We could stop stoking the fire and we'd keep going for a while, but we'd eventually run out of steam and stop. We have to keep putting coal on the fire.
"Four years is not a long time in the overall scheme of things, not given what we're trying to do," he said. "I suspect (Seabolt) and his group will come back to us with numbers and goals for a new phase of Destination Rutherford because I think the community is still behind the program."