Heupel points to North Star

Dick Heupel makes a convincing case.
The former Jay County Development Corporation executive director was back this week to provide a reprise of his remarks last August to the Jay County Chamber of Commerce. This time, his audience was an ad hoc group of local individuals involved in economic development and members of the board of The Portland Foundation.
Heupel’s message: The rules of the game have changed when it comes to developing the local economy.
The days of chasing smokestacks, providing free land to industry, and crafting tax breaks are — if not over — fading fast.
Instead, Heupel argues, when companies look at where to locate new operations their focus is on a community’s skill sets.
There’s a direct link between higher levels of education and higher pay. And if a community wants higher paying jobs, it needs to focus on educational attainment along with recreational and cultural amenities that stand out.
Once upon a time, manufacturing provided America’s highest paying jobs. But while U.S. industrial productivity has increased, the wages of production workers haven’t kept pace
Jay County, says Heupel, is ahead of the game in some ways, pointing to the foundation, Arts Place and John Jay Center for Learning. But he urged the community to continue to focus on improving itself.
“Amenities matter to economic performance,” he stresses.
Make Jay County a place where people want to live — because of its quality of life, the ranking of its schools, its cultural and recreational opportunities — and the jobs will follow.
“If you’re attractive to human beings,” he told the chamber back in 2012, “then you’ll be attractive to businesses.”
And if those heading up economic development locally are looking for a North Star to guide them, that sounds like the right one. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]