Arlington is
not the only rural community struggling to maintain economic foothold in the
Walmart and .com world. What set’s Arlington apart from some communities is a
willingness to stake a claim to the future; insisting on a dynamic and
proactive program of economic development.
Economic
development has been important for many years in Arlington. The difficulties
faced were in part due to the fact that private, motivated, citizens were
carrying the torch. While earning their paycheck, a few champions volunteered
to take on development as a second job but could not always devote the time
required. In August, of last year, Arlington took an important step towards
establishing a permanent foundation for economic development: Hiring someone to
do it full-time.
To help
defray some of the costs associated with hiring full-time professional economic
development the Arlington Community Development Corporation and the City of
Arlington enlisted the help of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development
(GOED) through the Economic Development Partnership Program.
The program
provides matching grants to assist in funding equipment and training needs, new
staff, or to elevate existing part-time staff, for the purpose of developing or
expanding local and community economic development programs.
Arlington is
not the only rural community to partner with the Governor’s Office on the
economic development, almost every county in the state has applied for some
economic development money.
GOED
Partnership Grant Administrator Cherissa Wright says the job and wealth
creation associated with grant money has been very promising. “Through the 24
funded programs a total of 1042 jobs were created or retained in 2014 and we
are anticipating another 218 jobs in 2015.”
Every GEOD
partnership dollar is intended to have a multiplier effect by helping bring new
businesses to communities, helping retain existing businesses or providing ways
to further develop local wealth.
“The programs
that have been funded through the partnership grant are varied. Many assist
with salary for full or part-time economic developers, some assist with work-force
development efforts and some are targeted towards entrepreneurship,” GOED
finance director Kim Easland says. “Equally diverse are the communities
receiving money - from Kimball [pop. 703] to Sioux Falls [pop. 164,676] and
everywhere else in between.”
Arlington’s
$88,310 grant is spread over four years and requires matching funds from the
City Economic Development Fund and the Arlington Community Development
Corporation.
“Jason is an
excellent example of why the Economic Development Partnership Fund is so
important to South Dakota,” said Commissioner Pat Costello. “By assisting
communities like Arlington to have a full-time developer, and providing that
person with the training tools they need, we are putting more and more
communities on a pro-active path to development.”
Dick Werner,
District 22 State Representative, sponsored one of the House bills that
eventually became Senate Bill 235, referred to as “Building South Dakota,”
which is responsible for funding economic development efforts in the state.
Rep. Werner adds,
“What's good for Arlington is good
for South Dakota. I wanted to have every community, willing to have a
stake in the game, to be able to have someone in their community that
could wake up every morning to work on economic development.”
Now that the
grant monies have established the position the truly hard work will follow.
Together the citizens of Arlington along with the Development Corporation, the
City, the school and GOED can work together to build a bright future.
Picture, from
left to right: Cherissa Wright, Kim Easland, Jason Uphoff, Pat Costello
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