Photo courtesy of the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce
On Thursday, the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce hosted and economic development luncheon with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission speaking about the community, industrial and commercial sites and connecting with other community partners.
Chamber President and CEO Dani Pugsley spoke to KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot News to share some of the key takeaways.
Listen:
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
The turnout was great. We had planned for about 50 people, and that’s exactly what we had. ASU does a fantastic job with their accommodations in the Trout Room, so it was a packed house, and we were glad to see that many people come out and want to know more about community and economic development.
Biggest takeaways I think for me was when the Arkansas Economic Development Commission really explained what it is that they do versus what is expected to be done on a local level. And I think some of that was just the general knowledge of the resources that are actually there for our local community and for the state as a whole.
I think right now one of our biggest is, is going to be definitely on workforce. You know, one of the things that we keep hearing about are different plants across the state that are closing down. We want to make sure that that doesn’t happen or become a factor here in Mountain Home in the Twin Lakes area.
And so myself and members of our staff, we are going out and starting to talk to some of our local manufacturers and just find out what are those needs in the workforce.
So, for us, it’s just to make sure that we can fill the positions that we have and make sure that we don’t lose anybody.
Pugsley states housing and child care are large components of economic development.
Listen:
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
Housing and childcare. Those are the two top issues that are definitely needed, but not always talked about. And that’s the hard part is when you have to match those salaries with the housing that’s available. Before COVID, housing was not a problem in this area. There were plenty of rental properties, apartments, single family homes, and we are struggling to find affordable options for people.
And I think that’s part of the reason why we are. We’ve seen a decrease in some of our younger population wanting to stay or come back to this area to fill some of these jobs. We have talked to a couple of developers about what it would take to get some other housing options here, but a lot of what they want right now, every community wants housing.
Every community wants this and that, and we’re all fighting for the same things. So a lot of it with these companies, well, what are you going to do for me? What incentives can you give us to come here? They want the sidewalks and the sewers. They want all of this stuff in place before they even commit.
Between housing, child care, right now trying to find affordable, quality child care, and it’s definitely not just in this area, but across the state, that’s, that’s huge for a lot of families.
When asked what companies are looking for in a community, Pugsley states it comes back to quality of life.
Listen:
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
What they want is the mindset, especially for larger companies, has really shifted since even the eighties. Back then it was all about cheap land and smokestacks, uh, industrial parks. And so now what they’ve realized though, is to get people to actually relocate and move their families. They want that quality of life.
They want to know that their employees are going to be safe. That they have great school systems for their kids, that they’ve got things to do on the weekends. There’s so many facets that go into this. But the other thing that they want is they want to know that the community is united, that the community wants their business to come.
They want to know that they are going to have growth, that they’re going to continue to see the amount of customers or visitors, you know, go through their front doors and that it’s not going to be short lived. And that’s what I think we’re seeing right now is for the longest time we knew that our trade area Was well over 200, 000 people, but a lot of larger retailers would look at our population alone and say, you can’t support us.
Well, now, with the way that technology has really evolved and we’re seeing it with the placer data, these companies are actually seeing what we’re seeing is that a lot of our businesses right here in the Twin Lakes area are performing in the 90th percentile and above for the country. We’ve been saying that for years.
Been saying it. And now we have the evidence. And I think that’s what you’re seeing is a lot of these businesses, we don’t actually have to recruit near as much as we used to because they’re finding us. You know, when they’re looking at where do we want to go across the state and you start to plug in those numbers, we’re it.
We’re popping up on the top of the list, which is a great problem, you know, great place to be. Um, right now, our hardest part is finding places for them to go. Trying to find the right piece of land, the right acreage, and you know, you have to look at everything from the roads and the access points, so just a lot of different things going into it.
FULL INTERVIEW
Listen:
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
Dani, how was the turnout yesterday? The turnout was great. We had planned for about 50 people and that’s exactly what we had. ASU does a fantastic job with their accommodations in the Trout Room. So it was a packed house and we were glad to see that many people come out and want to know more about community and economic development.
Biggest takeaways I think for me was when the Arkansas Economic Development Commission really explained what it is that they do versus what is expected to be done on a local level, and I think some of that was just the general knowledge of the resources that are actually there for our local community and for the state as a whole.
Economic Development of course has been Much talked about in our community over the past several months, but let’s talk about where are we now? What do we need to do in terms of the Chamber’s view and your strategic plan on how we as a community need to move forward with our economic development? I think right now one of our biggest focuses is going to be definitely on workforce.
You know, one of the things that we keep hearing about are different plants across the state that are closing down, whether it be from Tyson to Husqvarna. We want to make sure that that doesn’t happen or become a factor here in Mountain Home in the Twin Lakes area. And so myself and members of our staff, we are going out and starting to talk to some of our local manufacturers and just find out what are those needs in the workplace?
Are they still struggling to find employees? What kind of training opportunities do they need? And just having those conversations. So for us, it’s just to make sure that we can fill the positions that we have and make sure that we don’t lose anybody. You and I were both at the Mayor’s Roundtable on Thursday morning, and we heard from Baxter Health and Danfoss, and they were talking about the new physicians that are moving in.
Danfoss is hiring people as fast as they can, so the need is here. Need is definitely still here, for sure. Does the employment need match the housing availability in this area? Because that’s a crucial component of economic development that’s not talked about very much. Housing and child care, those are the two top issues that are…
definitely needed, but not always talked about. And that’s the hard part is when you have to match those salaries with the housing that’s available. Before COVID, housing was not a problem in this area. There were plenty of rental properties, apartments, single family homes, and we are struggling to find affordable options for people.
And I think that’s part of the reason why we are seeing, um, Um, A decrease in some of our younger population wanting to stay or come back to this area to fill some of these jobs. Is that something that the Chamber? Is working on, or conversations that you’re having? We have. We have talked to a couple of developers about what it would take to get some other housing options here.
But a lot of what they want, um, right now, every community wants housing. Every community wants this and that, and we’re all fighting for the same things. Not just in Arkansas. Not just in Arkansas. So a lot of it with these companies, well, what are you going to do for me? What incentives can you give us to come here?
They want the sidewalks and the sewers. They want all of this stuff in place before they even commit. They also want tax incentives that have to come from the city, county, state level that the chamber. That we definitely don’t have the money to do. Uh, we, you know, we are trying to incentivize as much as we can.
And that was part of our ask with the economic development funding source was to be able to incentivize some of these companies, uh, to come in. And, you know, maybe it’s just us help with some of their permit fees or their construction cost. Something as simple as landscaping. There’s so many little factors that go into this.
But, yeah, between housing, child care, right now trying to find affordable, quality child care, and it’s definitely not just in this area, but across the state, that’s, that’s huge for a lot of families. There are detractors, though, to economic development. They say that we, you know, we have some, uh, opportunities here, uh, at home that we need to address and use money, local monies for that as well, uh, and that.
Economic development is just fine the way it is. What are your thoughts? Just fine the way it is. Uh, you know, and I’m going to keep going back to 2018 2019 when those conversations were being had right here in our area that our population was declining. You know, people were leaving faster than they were coming in.
Uh, people were struggling to find jobs, find quality people to work. And that’s why the Baxter County Forward Initiative was even created. And there were so many sub… out of that to address all of the issues that we had. And what I’m afraid of is if we get comfortable, we were very fortunate and lucky during COVID to see, uh, we still saw visitors.
We’ve had, you know, over 50 months of consecutive, uh, sales tax growth revenue, which is almost unheard of. And so I don’t want us to think that we’re okay and just get settled and complacent because. Anything could happen tomorrow and we could go right back to where we were. I know you get calls every week and companies looking to come here, uh, excited about the opportunities that they see in this area.
What are the main things when they look at this area and say, I want to start my business here, what do they want? What they want is the mindset, especially for larger companies, has really shifted since even the 80s. Back then, it was all about cheap land and smokestacks, uh, and now… Industrial parks.
Industrial parks. And so now what they’ve realized, though, is to get people to actually relocate and move their families, they want that quality of life. They want to know that their, um, employees are going to be safe, that… They have great school systems for their kids, that they’ve got things to do on the weekends.
It’s there’s so many facets that go into this. Um, but the other thing that they want is they want to know that the community is united, that the community wants their business to come. They want to know that They are going to have, um, growth that they’re going to continue to see, uh, the amount of customers or visitors, you know, go through their front doors and that it’s not going to be short lived.
And that’s what I think we’re seeing right now is for the longest time, we knew that our trade area was well over 200, 000 people, but a lot of larger retailers would look at our population alone and say, you can’t support us. Well, placer data. These companies are actually seeing what we’re seeing is that a lot of our businesses right here in the Twin Lakes area are performing in the 90th percentile and above for the country.
We’ve been saying that for years. Been saying it and now we have the evidence and I think that’s what you’re seeing is a lot of these businesses we don’t actually have to recruit near as much as we used to because they’re finding us. You know, when they’re looking at where do we want to go across the state and you start to plug in those numbers.
We’re it. We’re popping up on the top of the list, which is a great problem, you know, a great place to be. Um, right now our hardest part is finding places for them to go. Um, trying to find the right piece of land, the right acreage, and you know, you have to look at everything from the roads and the access points.
A lot of different things going into it. A lot of rumors. A lot of rumors about different businesses that are opening and who are coming, who’s bought land, who hasn’t, who has job posts online that I love it. I know. I do too. But so, any breaking news you can share with us? Anybody coming that Can’t share anything yet.
I’ve been working on a really big project for quite a while, since February, um, and I’m hoping within the next month I can finally either say yes or no to this project. Um, now there’s a lot of rumors and sometimes, you know, we do. We have companies that come, they pick out land, they’re doing soil samples and we think they’re coming and at the last second, maybe it’s not the right fit.
Um, but it’s always fun for me to, to get on social media and just see those conversations of what businesses people would like to have and what they don’t want. Do any of them involve chicken sandwiches? But you know, the thing is, is we can support all of these chicken restaurants. Um, if we couldn’t and the foot traffic wasn’t there, they wouldn’t be coming to Mountain Home.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI