We just finished our Community Leaders Breakfast, and I have to say that we are very pleased with the results. The EDC had over 620 of our closest friends at the meeting, and, of course, many were there to see Alma Powell of America’s Promise Alliance. She provided an inspirational message, and I liked how she tied her ideas about helping our youth with economic development. She nailed the message dead-on, and I hope most people walked away understanding the importance of helping our youth and, more importantly, how multi-faceted economic development is. Powell’s message of our youth being the reason for talking about economic development is so true and clear.

Bloomington-Normal is so lucky to be a truly outstanding community. It has so many assets. In many ways we are a model for other communities. Most people don’t realize how often all of us come together to work on common issues, how often the two communities support each other and the ongoing cooperative discussions the two communities have about common problems. Sure, there are times they don’t agree, and certainly, the cultures are different, but both are high-quality communities. As I said in my remarks at the meeting, we are a community that many people envy.

We need to continue to work together when issues arise. Right now everyone is being hit by tough budget cuts. Unfortunately, as the recession is working its way through the economy, the local units of government are being pinched. Loss of income and loss of sales tax revenue are just now trickling their way down into local government. This will also impact our budget and what we can do, as 30 percent of our budget comes from local government.

Regardless of these issues, the message from the EDC is this: We will continue to help local business grow and expand through our retention program. This puts businesses in touch with a wide variety of programs and services available to them at little or no cost. This strategy is the best for a recession. It prepares companies for when we climb out of our economic morass and puts them strategically in the right place for growth.

If you want a business retention visit, give us a call. We will be happy to come and meet with you. We will develop a personalized plan for growth and expansion for your business, or we can simply listen to your opinion about various issues, because that is important too.