Bredesen Visit Offers Hope For New Jobs
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
By GARY NELSON/gnelson@crossville-chronicle.com
Under a gray sky accompanied by blustery winds, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen was greeted at the Rockwood Airport by a crowd of more than 100 who came to hear of an opportunity that could bring jobs into Cumberland, Roane and Morgan counties. It could mean companies building or relocating in the area.
Gov. Bredesen was joined by Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber to discuss the communities' participation in the Orange Carpet Tour.
The program is designed to acquaint veteran site selectors with development opportunities in Tennessee's rural communities and to give those communities the opportunity to gather feedback from veteran business consultants.
"Each of these communities has demonstrated a willingness to collaborate and work together on a regional basis. At the end of this process, these communities will see how they are perceived by highly regarded site selection experts and how to use that knowledge to make themselves more competitive," Bredesen said.
Morgan, Cumberland and Roane County mayors signed a memorandum of understanding requiring the counties to provide preliminary data for the Orange Carpet Tour, present an economic development project presentation to the site selection consultant in order to receive suggestions and feedback, seek out opportunities for regional collaboration, work with ECD regional jobs development specialists and community development specialists to implement action items identified by the site selection consultant, and submit quarterly reports to ECD regarding progress of implementing action items identified during the Orange Carpet Tour. The reports must be available for a period of two years.
Cumberland, Morgan and Roane have already entered into the Plateau Partnership Park on a piece of land in the three counties consisting of more than 1,000 acres.
"We are within a stone's throw of one of the partnership properties right here," Bredesen said. "It is a great example for the state of Tennessee and you are definitely on the radar for a number of companies considering relocation to Tennessee."
Bredesen said large-scale projects like auto plants are among the top targets for economic development, but they wouldn't just concentrate on them.
"The state also needs to emphasize lower-tier projects that have a greater likelihood of relocating to Tennessee," he said. "We're trying to focus on better paying jobs. Jobs that aren't going to be just minimum wage paying jobs."
Bredesen toured the state Monday in support of the Orange Carpet Tour.
Bredesen also announced the state has contracted with a Chicago-based consulting firm, Plante Moran, as its site consultant to evaluate and suggest improvements. The company will suggest communities how to best market themselves.
Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber said rural areas may be attractive to manufacturers seeking lower costs and a group of loyal workers.
Adam Rujan will head the tours program for Plante Moran.
Rujan said his tours and evaluations will give communities a better idea of what they need to do in order to attract companies to their area.
Area county mayors reacted after Gov. Bredesen's visit.
"I feel really good about this. We've been working on this Plateau Partnership for a while now and the opportunity just seems to be getting bigger and better. This really is a tremendous opportunity for us," Cumberland County Mayor Brock Hill said.
"This is huge. It is good news for all of us," Roane County Mayor Mike Farmer said.
Morgan County Mayor Becky Ruppe said, "I think this is awesome. It's another piece of the puzzle. We had a piece today, a piece last week and a piece the month before. Pretty soon we'll have the whole puzzle together. This will help us to be ready. It's very exciting. I probably won't sleep much tonight."
Other counties included in the Orange Carpet Tours are Clay, Pickett and Fentress; Lauderdale, Haywood and Tipton; Lewis, Wayne and Lawrence; and Coffee, Franklin and Lincoln.
The tours are patterned after red carpet tours that many urban chambers of commerce have used. The Orange Carpet tours are also part of Bredesen's Rural Opportunity Initiative.
The strategy is a three-pronged approach to increasing economic development efforts in the state's more rural areas. In addition to the tours, the initiative includes an expanded series of tax incentives for companies investing in rural communities with historically high unemployment and the Rural Opportunity Fund, a new source of capital available to rural Tennessee businesses.
Kisber said, "The work won't end when the Orange Carpet Tour is over. Our department is ready to work with each of these communities to develop solid action plans based on the feedback they receive."
