Tonight, I attended the Kirksville Regional Economic Development Inc. (K-REDI) meeting at the Shrine Club. For those who don’t know, this is an organization of business owners and just interested citizens that is focused on attracting and supporting new businesses to the Kirksville Area. Phil Tate talked about the current status of his operations. He is basically Kirksville’s salesman, working for us by flying all over the country to follow leads, attend conventions, meet with companies and entice them to our area to set up shop, in hopes of bringing high-paying jobs back to the Kirksville area.
He started out by frankly discussing some of the challenges he faces when trying to market Kirksville to companies, asking us to continue to send him leads and ideas. Then he brought us up to speed on K-REDI’s current big project, which is a forensics DNA laboratory that is looking to Kirksville as a possible center for their Midwestern operations. This is a big, big deal. He has already arranged meetings with folks in the area and the Truman president to make sure we can supply them with workers, resources, and whatever else they might need. Kirksville won out over a number of other communities to host this company, which doesn’t surprise me at all.
I spent some time with Phil after the meeting to talk in more detail about some of the challenges we face and how we can meet them. He shared with me that he’s often fighting an “image problem” when it comes to attracting businesses to town. There’s a very human side to economic development: convincing CEOs and their families that Kirksville is a great place to live. He and I both agree that this town really grows on you. But one of the challenges he faces when bringing corporate folks up here to visit is that Kirksville’s charms are not as readily apparent on the surface. It’s not just the CEOs and upper-level management – it’s their spouses, who are looking for charm and shopping. The thing is, we HAVE that – we just can’t get that across upon first visit. I’ll be the first to admit that: my own first visit to Kirksville was in the dead of winter, and my family at the time was less than impressed. The street widening improvements on Baltimore a couple years ago were a great practical start. But I believe that just a few cosmetic changes would begin to make a world of difference, particularly when it comes to our downtown district. The downtown improvement plans are chugging along and now the courthouse area has new sidewalks, benches and attractive edging – not to mention ADA-compliant ramps at each corner, which were a major liability for the city before.
This DNA lab, if it goes through – and, as Phil emphasizes, is still far from a “done deal” – it would definitely bring more jobs and opportunities for us, with the possibility of future expansion if business goes well. It was great news for me, as I am particularly interested in the possibility of bringing more technology jobs to the area, and using technology to better market our city to help with this image problem. I’m going to be sharing my ideas with Phil over the next few months. If you have any of your own, please let me know!There’s a brief Daily Express article here about the forensics lab.
No tags for this post.