Piggott, Rector, and Paragould to form Economic Development Coalition
In pursuit of regionalism, the communities along Hwy. 49 plan to form an ED coalition. No news yet what the coalition will involve or what the goals will be. To hear the state and ED consultants speak, regionalism is a good in-and-of-itself. I've said it over and over again, but I'll say it again: Regionalism has its place but Community Development is small-town Economic Development. Completing Hwy. 67 North to Missouri will help. Building a regional airport would provide a great tool. But the bottom line is this: if your community doesn't have good schools, if your quality of life is not attractive, if your downtown is not healthy: your community will never see healthy growth.
Comments
Hmmm, not much info in that article on this. Actually, it sounds like the folks involved don't really know where this project is headed. Someone probably just came up with it and it sounded like a good idea at the time, so the council decided to run with it. That seems to be the way some small-town city councils work, in my experience.
When will people realize that if you can create a place where people want to LIVE, there is no way anyone will want to WORK there, especially in a rural area. Duh. I don't think you need an ED background to figure that out.
*sigh*
Posted by: Arkansas Student | November 12, 2006 09:43 PM
Adam: I totally agree with your comments. Good schools will attract so much more. I understand that many small towns want to band together to improve their areas. And that is not all bad. Just don't forget the schools.
Posted by: ArkansasAdvocate | November 14, 2006 06:02 PM