EDC launches economic development plan
Grant County EDC Executive Director Jonathan Smith speaks during the Building Prosperity campaign kick-off Thursday.
MOSES LAKE - Since forming in 1991, the Grant County Economic Development Council has helped about 27 businesses either move to the area or expand their existing sites.
Those businesses have invested more than $3 million in their facilities and hired close to 2,000 workers over the years, EDC Executive Director Jonathan Smith said.
And the county's economy has certainly benefitted from that growth, he said.
"The landscape has changed," said Smith. "The economy is much more stable than it was eight years ago, or even five years ago, and if we're going to continue to grow the economy we need to have a new strategy."
Smith said the EDC has spent the last year or so developing a comprehensive economic development strategy for the county. Their five-year "Building Prosperity" initiative was built using feedback and input from various business owners and community leaders, he said.
The EDC officially unveiled the campaign Thursday.
Campaign co-chair Tom Heath, of Washington Trust Bank, said the "Building Prosperity" plan is made up of five main program initiatives- existing business development, new business recruitment, retail and services development, improvements to areas like roads, water, sewer, rail and fiber-optics, and communications and investor relations.
About $1.7 million is needed over the next five years to fund the various components of the plan, he said.
The EDC has already raised $1.2 million, or 73 percent of their goal, from early investors.
Heath said the biggest chunk of the budget is allocated to the new business recruitment and attraction portion of the campaign.
"The largest piece goes to recruitment, since it takes the most amount of work to attract businesses to come to our county," he said.
Over the next five years, the EDC wants to see about 300-350 new jobs created as a result of new business development. Heath said they'll achieve that by hosting multiple site visits each year as well as attending various trade shows and industry conferences.
The EDC will also work on sending a tailored marketing message to dozens of targeted companies each year, he said.
"Staff will be more proactive in identifying the industries that may have or can have a competitive advantage by relocating to Moses Lake, Warden, Quincy, Ephrata, Royal City and throughout the rest of Grant County," said Heath.
Existing business development will also receive a large portion of the funding. The EDC wants to see the expansion of agricultural and industrial businesses create about 100-125 new jobs over the next five years, he said.
"Staff will be going out and meeting with existing businesses in the county to identify problems those businesses may have and help them find solutions to them so they can continue to grow and prosper," said Heath.
Overall, the EDC hopes to create about 475 direct jobs with the "Building Prosperity" campaign. And with direct jobs comes indirect jobs, said Heath.
The EDC anticipates an additional 251 indirect jobs as a result, he said.
The new direct jobs will have an estimated average annual salary of about $57,424, according to the EDC. That's 66 percent higher than the county's current average wage of $34,482.
Heath said the new jobs created will generate about $19 million in consumer expenditures a year. The county's housing, healthcare and utilities sectors will all benefit from the additional spending, according to the EDC.
Residents will also be spending chunks of that additional $19 million on food, transportation and entertainment and other services.
Consumer expenditures will also generate an estimated $179,000 in local sales tax each year, according to the EDC.
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