Building the Local Economy

Three Basic Principles for Building the Local Economy

My dream scenario for building the local economy in this region runs something like this. An individual who currently lives here or someone who went to school here returns and starts a business. This person creates a manufacturing company producing a high value product in the technical field (medical, materials or mechanical engineering), a quality household or recreational product, or a needed service. Sales of these products and services are spread out regionally, hopefully nationally, and perhaps even at the global level. It is critical for the local economy the dollars from outside the area are brought into the community through sales of products and services. When the flow of dollars into the community falters, the local economy disappears. In many ways we are quite fortunate to have very good base of manufacturing and services that sell their products at both the national and international markets. This dream scenario is based on several fundamental principles for building a local economy.

The Importance of Connection to Place
One principle is that successful long-term business development must have a connection to place. The entrepreneur must connect to the local area in some way such as family, education, community, or attraction to the area (recreation, natural beauty, etc.). Our more visible manufacturing firms such as Hewescraft, Hearth and Home, or Colmac Coil, all have a very strong connection to this place. This emphasis on attachment to place is sound for a couple of reasons. First, the business owner is not likely to pick up and move the business to another community. Second, the profit from the business goes to the local owner.

If attraction to place is so important, we need to ask what features of place are likely to keep our potential business leaders at home or to bring back our alumni. Nationally, during the past decade 2.2 million more Americans moved from the city to the country than the reverse. Places with mountains, lakes, seashores and nice climates are the most popular destinations. Why do people choose to live in Stevens County? In January, 2005, WSU Extension conducted a random sample survey of residents of Stevens County and asked that very question. By far the most popular reason was the "Natural Environment". Our lakes, mountains and rural landscape are the key reasons people choose to live here or to move here. Family or friends, born or raised here, and own property here, were distance second choices. CSG, which employees almost 100 people, would not be here today if it were not for the natural beauty we all enjoy.

The Requirement of Advanced Telecommunication Services
A second principle is that successful long-term business development depends on reasonably priced advanced telecommunication capacity and services. It is the rare business today that does not depend on substantial telecommunication bandwidth and redundancy services to conduct its research, purchasing, marketing, customer support, and sales. Washington Dental Service and CSG two fairly new businesses to this area, would not be in Colville today without the availability of ample bandwidth and telecommunication support. These companies today employ nearly 200 people.

The Necessity of a Strong Sense of Community
A third principle is that building prosperity in a place requires a strong sense of community. People working together to raise families, build recreational facilities, put on events, and make improvements in the physical landscape of the community are all necessary for building prosperity. Communities where a lot of conflict exists are not attractive locations for building a business. Without strong community support, the local economy is likely to decline. Successful communities address controversial issues constructively working towards sound long-terms solutions to these concerns. Do we have a sense of working together to improve our community in Stevens County? Again we asked this question in our 2005 survey of Stevens County. When asked the question: "Would you describe the area where you live as place where people mostly help one another or a place where people mostly go their own way," 76% of those completing the survey indicated that their area was one where people help one another. When asked what is the best thing they liked about Stevens County, the second most frequent answer (following the natural environment) was "friendly people".

Stevens County is indeed fortunate to have these basic assets of natural beauty, telecommunication capacity and sense of community. We need to think about ways to improve these assets and to build on them to build prosperity for this region.