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News story reprinted on 12/28/2006
By Ruffin Prevost
Gazette Wyoming Bureau
Published on BillingsGazette.com
CODY, WY -- Business leaders here are set to launch an ambitious four-year economic development plan aimed at adding 400 jobs and increasing workers' earnings by more than 20 percent.
Forward Cody is a plan developed this fall for the Cody Economic Development Council by Georgia-based consulting firm National Community Development Services.
The program seeks to raise as much as $1.7 million, mostly from private businesses, to fund efforts to foster growth of existing businesses, recruit new ones and attract young families to the city, where the median age is steadily rising.
Tim Mahieu, an investment adviser and vice president of the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce board, said the plan is aimed at managing growth and addressing a number of stumbling blocks in developing Cody's economy.
"We're not going to just let things happen in Cody," Mahieu said. "We're going to create what Cody is going to be."
Key goals of Forward Cody include:
- Creating 400 jobs paying a "family-sustainable" wage.
- Generating new payroll of $13 million from new or expanded operations.
- Increasing worker earnings by 21 percent, to equal the state average of $33,000 a year. Forty percent of jobs in Cody pay less than $19,000 annually.
- Attracting at least 100 young families to increase school enrollment and balance the city's rapidly aging population.
- Supporting private developers and public agencies to prepare 100 acres of commercial property and build at least one 20,000-square-foot commercial building.
- Increasing the availability of affordable housing.
NCDS Chief Executive Officer Howard Benson said the plan was a departure from previous efforts in Cody to establish and sustain an economic development agency.
"This is a community primed to grab ahold of its own bootstraps," Benson said. "Once they make that turn - instead of just trying to maintain an economic development council, but working to attract and recruit and expand the job base - then all kinds of good things can happen."
Mahieu said similar programs have worked well in Cheyenne and Laramie, and Sheridan has just completed fundraising for such a plan.
Fundraising in Cody will begin early next year, he said, and will likely last between six and nine months, during which time a permanent economic development director will be hired.
The Cody chamber is accepting applications for a new director through Jan. 26.
"Previously, the chamber director has had a dual role," Mahieu said. The director's role included working on issues for chamber members and on economic development issues.
Hiring separate heads for the organizations will allow each to focus on key issues, cooperating when it's beneficial for both, he said.
Benson said his organization interviewed more than 60 Cody business leaders and individuals, who discussed concerns and goals similar to those outlined in past studies, including ones done in 2005 by Randall Travel Marketing and the Wadley-Donovan Group.
"Almost all of the goals from those make sense," Benson said. "And people in Cody have backed those. They've had the targets. What they have not had is a plan and structure to go after it.
"Forward Cody puts that structure in place and puts the money and resources and leaders behind it to get it done," he said.
The plan is aimed at managed growth targeting businesses that fit well with Cody, Benson said.
"No one wants to upset the balance of nature and ruin the natural advantages that make Cody and Park County so appealing," he said. "But no one told us they wanted to maintain the current economic status quo, either."
Benson said census figures show Cody to be "the fastest-aging community in the fastest-aging state in the U.S.," with young families moving elsewhere for better jobs, while retirees move in to enjoy the quality of life.
Other issues include the lack of a nearby interstate highway, an overdependence on seasonal retail and hospitality jobs, low wages and housing prices outside the range of more than one-third of Cody residents.
Focusing on health-related industries is one solution, he said, including nursing care and rehabilitation facilities.
Other targeted sectors included data processing, research and testing labs, sporting goods manufacturers and light manufacturing business that make high-value, low-weight goods that can be shipped at minimal cost.
Expanding tourism beyond the summer months is also a goal of the program.
Fostering growth of existing businesses is also a Forward Cody priority, Mahieu said, with an eye toward helping local entrepreneurs expand or start new ventures.
"This will all grow the local economy, create a better tax base, offer residents better services, get more people earning a better wage and see more dollars spent translating to better infrastructure and a more stable economy," Mahieu said.
For more information, contact the Cody Economic Development Council at 307-587-2777.
Contact Ruffin Prevost at rprevost@billingsgazette.com or 307-527-7250. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
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