Adams County council gets tips

Yakima economic leader addresses fledgling group

ADAMS COUNTY - Adams County economic development leaders met in Grant County Thursday evening.

The Adams County Development Council met in Big Bend Community College's ATEC Building at the behest of council ex-officio member Allan Peterson, who wanted the council's members to be aware of the ATEC facility's availability and what it had to offer.

Community college President Bill Bonaudi appeared in a recorded message to the council.

"For several years now, we've been very interested in economic development as it has progressed in Adams County," Bonaudi said. "We are very active partners of the Grant County Economic Development Council, and we hope to be equally as active with your organization. We've been very pleased with the development we've seen occur recently."

Such activity must originate within a community, Bonaudi said, but the community college hopes to be a resource for the council. The college district encompasses all of Adams and Grant counties and a little bit of Lincoln County, he noted.

"We think this is a wonderful first step," he said. "We know we can be an effective partner for you, and hopefully you'll let us know what your needs are and what your perceptions of our ability to help you will be, so we can sit down with you and bring the kind of economic change you envision for Adams County."

With 12 of 21 members in attendance, there was not a quorum present to take action at the meeting.

Following the main portion of the gathering, council Chair Stephen McFadden talked about the four packets received by the council in response to its request for proposals for marketing services.

The executive committee would make a choice regarding a firm and then e-mail members with its recommendation, asking members for review, comments and approval, McFadden said. The move was made in order to make the council's June 30 budget deadline for state funding, he noted.

The meeting's speaker was David McFadden of the Yakima-based New Vision Yakima County Development Association, who spoke for about an hour on where the Adams council, which was officially incorporated in August 2007, should go, based on his experiences and questions submitted by council members.

David McFadden and Stephen McFadden are not related, but Stephen McFadden said they go back to when he was a newspaper reporter in Yakima covering David McFadden's association.

David McFadden said economic development is more an art than a science, and covered a wide range of suggestions, including the importance of supporting the existing industries while recruiting new businesses.

"We learned taking care of your local businesses and industry is really the face of economic development," he said. "If you are a jobs-oriented organization, realize that two-thirds to three-quarters of your jobs you're going to count over a 10-year period are created by indigenous businesses in your own community. If you are taking care of local businesses and have a mindset to address their needs, you are doing the very things that will help you become attractive to new industry as well."

David McFadden recommended adopting a give-year plan and sticking to it, but also setting 30-day, 90-day and 180-day goals for the new council. He also suggested maintaining a Web site is a high priority, and can be done affordably.

"You should become the source of information on Adams County," he said.

David McFadden urged the members of the Adams development council to be patient, especially when facing opposition to growth or people who expect results quickly. He advised them to take measure of the moves they have already made.

Asked how Adams County is looked upon by the state's industries, David McFadden said that it really isn't, which is an opportunity for the region to change it's image. This is a task easier to do than changing a negative image, he added.

Stephen McFadden told the group later he liked the opportunity David McFadden's statement suggested.

"It won't take us long to put the right materials in place … to put ourselves on the map in Washington State or in Eastern Washington region," Stephen McFadden said. "We're just going to have to do it over a couple years period of time."