City to Move Forward on Schoolhouse Restoration

A timely donation of $25,000 from local philanthropist Charles Todd has allowed the City of Columbia to move forward on pursuing a grant to fund restoration of the Shoemaker Schoolhouse as a new Monroe County Welcome Center. The Columbia City Council will vote Monday evening whether or not to authorize the submission of an application to the State of Illinois to provide roughly half of the funds needed to complete the nearly $59,000 project. Todd's donation--along with "in kind" contributions from the City and volunteers--will provide the matching funds needed for the grant.

The project will renovate a one-room schoolhouse built around 1850 for use as a facility to serve visitors. The schoolhouse is located on Illinois Route 3, the Great River Road Scenic Byway and—much earlier--the Kaskaskia Trace, in Columbia, three miles southeast of I-255.

Since Illinois 3 is the first exit for travelers crossing the Jefferson Barracks Bridge into the state, visitor use of the facility, when open, is expected to be high. The Tourism Bureau Southwest Illinois estimates that the Welcome Center could, conservatively, generate $50,460 per month in economic impact or $605,520 annually.

City Website Gets New Look

City of Columbia staff and colleagues from Monroe County participated last month in an economic development marketing workshop sponsored by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). A major theme of that workshop was the importance of marketing communities via websites and social media; as a consequence, the City's website will be getting a facelift over the next few weeks.

According to Bob Ady of Ady International Company, 62% of corporate leaders now use community websites as their primary source for evaluation of potential sites for new locations. This is a big change from even a few years ago--a change that corresponds with the rise of site selection consultants who have multiple clients and little time. Ady observes:

If a community doesn’t have a website, the website cannot easily be found or it doesn’t have the right type of information, the consultant moves on to other communities that have the information he or she needs.

Columbia's website will be undergoing reorganization and redesign as part of the facelift. Expect to find information more easily--and find more of it--and expect more graphics, links and features.

Dow Rebounds, But Economic Signals Remain Mixed

The Dow Jones industrial average yesterday rose past the 10,000-point milestone for the first time in a year--evidence of a Wall Street rebound from the financial crisis--but fiscal woes are likely to persist, especially for state and local governments.

State tax collections across the nation from April through June dropped by a record 16.6 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a report released today by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. The report observes that tax collections were down by $63 billion for the year ended in June—roughly twice the amount the states had received in stimulus money up to that point.

This dismal data highlights a hard truth: there can be a long delay between the time the economy begins to improve, as some economists believe is happening now, and the time that the change is reflected in state and local finances. Many people were out of work or earning less, income tax collections were down 27.5 percent for the quarter, and sales tax collections were off by 9.5 percent.

Will the economic climate get better soon? Not if history is any guide. While the most recent past recession officially ended at the close of 2001, states faced their worst budget crises in the two years that followed.

Discover Columbia's Parks on September 19th

A scavenger hunt discovering Columbia’s parks, a variety of games, and kids’ art projects are just a few of the hands-on interactive activities planned for Play Day 2009 in Bolm-Schuhkraft Park (known to many residents as the “city park”) on Saturday, September 19th. Visitors will enter the park and rediscover play.

Created and hosted by the Columbia Play Commission, in collaboration with KaBOOM!, and with funding from the Kiwanis Club of Columbia, the Monroe County YMCA, the Columbia Rotary Club, Traube Tent Company and the City of Columbia, the free event is designed to discover the fun, education and recreation available in the city’s many public recreational areas and playspaces. Envisioned as a day to play by organizers, the event will feature interactive stations that will introduce visitors to the themes and activities found in Columbia’s parks, many of which are little known--or completely unknown--to many residents.

Events run from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. that day. Admission is free, and this is a rain or shine event.

“It’s really just a fun afternoon to get out and discover our parks,” states John Traube, chair for the Play Commission. “Our hope is that families and kids of all ages will come for the fun and leave with a better appreciation for where to spend unstructured afternoons year-round.”

KaBOOM! recognized Columbia this year as a “Playful City USA,” a national recognition honoring cities and towns across the nation committed to taking action for play. Columbia was the only community in the St. Louis metropolitan area so honored.

More details on this event are available via the Play Commission’s blog.

You're a Good Man, Charlie Todd

Charles Todd has a long and distinguished history in Columbia. Among other things, he founded the laundry cleaning company which today is Crown Linen Service and established Toddhall Retreat & Conference Center.

For the past two years, Todd has been an active member of Columbia's Heritage & Preservation Commission. He helped that group erect a columbarium in historic Warderman Cemetery and provide for burial of indigents with both his personal time and money. This week, it will be announced that Todd has donated $20,000 to the City of Columbia to spur renovation of the historic Miller-Fiege Home.

Members of the Heritage & Preservation Commission are now asking the Columbia City Council to name Charles Todd the first ever Commissioner Emeritas, in recognition of his long and sustained service.

Making a List, Checking It Twice...

One of the basic tenets of economic gardening--any well-planned economic development program, in fact--is that growth should arise from nurturing of enterprises already growing in the local environment. Columbia is well-positioned for such growth not just because of its many small firms but because of some of its larger companies, as well.

Inc. Magazine recently released its tally of the 5000 fastest-growing companies; two are in Columbia (Illinois, including Chicago and its suburbs, only has 224): MAVERICK Technologies and Traube Tent Company.

The Inc. 5005000 (as the tally is called) is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2005 through 2008. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2005, and therefore able to show four full calendar years of sales. Additionally, they have to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent--not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies--as of December 31, 2008. Full-time and part-time employees are included in the head count; independent contractors and temporary employees are excluded.

Other Communities, Other Visions

Local leaders in many parts of the country are finding creative new ways to spur economic activity in their cities and counties:

In California, the City of Santa Clarita began hosting stakeholder meetings for business leaders as the economy turned sour and more businesses began looking for help from government. The mayor's economic development summit helped leaders from the chamber of commerce and the industrial association meet each other. The City’s strategy also included a luncheon for commercial brokers that was held to target rising vacancies and to share resources for attracting new tenants. The meetings were perceived as valuable, offering more ways that the City and the business community could proactively come together to address the downturn, and efforts eventually resulted in the City bringing Advanced Bionics Biomedical Company and its 350 jobs to town.

The City of Lake Forest, Illinois provides local businesses with a checklist of all events in the city so that owners and managers can synchronize their business goals, promotions, marketing and sales with opportunities available in the community. The City's Economic Development Department calls this service "Lake Forest’s Marketing Machine."

In Tennessee, Unicoi County officials are planning a sustainable tourism initiative with its goal to create new businesses that would support tourism. The county will use a $50,000 GEMS of Appalachia Grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission and matching funds from the Joint Economic Development Board and the Conservation Fund to sponsor educational workshops early next year for business owners and entrepreneurs in Unicoi County, the Town of Erwin, and the Town of Unicoi. According to Mayor Greg Lynch, the program is targeted to people "who are close to retirement, maybe wanting to start a bed-and-breakfast, something to sustain them for the rest of their lives, or young people wanting to start up their own guide business, [for example] to be river guides..." The county also is considering culinary tourism focusing on Appalachian Mountain cuisine.