News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Economic development has become a centerpiece of the hotly contested campaign for three open seats on the Sisters City Council.
The issue is nothing new in Sisters. For years the question of how Sisters can attract businesses that don't detract from Sisters' small-town ambiance and natural beauty while at the same time providing "family-wage" jobs has plagued civic leaders.
For Cherie Ferguson, Executive Director of the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce, there is still a need in the community to define what is meant by "economic development," what the community wants and what it is willing to do to pursue it.
She notes that people have different experiences that give them varying perceptions of "where the gaps are" when it comes to economic development.
For Bill Willitts, the developer of the FivePine campus at the east end of Sisters, the major gap is in focused leadership. He believes that Sisters needs an economic development director to focus on business recruitment and retention.
"Very soon Sisters and La Pine will be the only Central Oregon communities without an economic development director," Willitts told The Nugget.
He noted that Madras and Prineville have economic development plans with the assistance of EDCO (Economic Development for Central Oregon).
"Sisters has neither a plan nor a director," he said.
Willitts envisions a director as being responsible for attracting and retaining business and for seeking support and assistance for existing businesses. He thinks an economic development director would follow every lead developed by EDCO to locate businesses looking to relocate for better quality of life and a better working environment.
Willitts also believes an economic development director could leverage Sisters' status as an "economically distressed community" to seek grants that would support infrastructure that would in turn help attract businesses.
"I just think there's dollars to be harvested there if we have a savvy economic development director," Willitts said.
Ferguson thinks the community needs to evaluate whether Sisters is ready to have an economic development director - whether there is enough consensus and enough tools available for that director to be successful.
"Part of the readiness is everybody having some common goals when it comes to economic development," she said.
One key question revolves around how a position would be funded and who the economic development director would work for.
Mayor Brad Boyd has suggested that the Chamber could devote a portion of room tax revenues it receives to funding a position, with additional funding from the City. The Chamber has been resistant to that suggestion, concerned that diverting a significant amount of room tax revenues would hurt marketing and tourism promotion - the purpose for which those funds are intended.
Willitts thinks an economic development director should be autonomous, but have a close working relationship with the City and "have the ear of the Mayor." In Willitts' vision, the director would be able to advocate for businesses and smooth the bureaucratic processes of dealing with City Hall.
The position would be funded through a public/private partnership involving Deschutes County, the City of Sisters, and EDCO, with the Chamber providing private-sector yearly fund-raising.
Willitts said that one key to getting anything done is to "heal the EDCO relationship."
After a flurry of discussions of economic development last year, EDCO backed off working with Sisters.
"The biggest problem that I see in Sisters is that no one is on the same page," said Eric Strobel, business development manager for EDCO at that time. "A vision statement for Sisters growth is not providing any unifying vision. We would like to help, but until everyone is on the same page there is not a lot that we can do."
Such a "healing" may be on everyone's agenda.
"Let's have a calm conversation where we get all the players at the table and figure out what models are out there, what levers we have," Mayor Brad Boyd said. "We just need to sit down and refocus (and decide) what can we realistically do here."
Boyd is cautious about what he thinks the city can do and what the community can expect out of economic development efforts. He notes that any tax relief the city can provide prospective businesses is "miniscule" and insufficient to attract anyone here in the face of high land costs and transportation challenges.
He is skeptical about what leverage the city can develop from its "economically distressed" community status, - which, he notes, Sisters shares with many other communities in the state.
"There are some low-interest loans available for development, but they don't go to the city," he said. "They go to someone who is building a building - and in this economic climate, that's not happening."
Still, Boyd says he is open to discovering what other tourist-based mountain towns have done to promote compatible economic development and applying models that have worked.
Ferguson finds that encouraging.
"I am so relieved and thrilled to hear that the mayor wants to come to the table and see what the next steps are," she said.
Ferguson said she understands that the city must work within certain constraints, but she says if there is a better understanding among all parties, it is easier to discover "where the windows of opportunity are that are outside those constraints."
Ferguson also noted that the discussion must continue beyond the city council election campaign.
"Regardless of who is sitting in what seat, we still have economic development," she said.
What do you think about Sisters' economic development needs? Let The Nugget know. E-mail [email protected] or comment on this story online at http://www.nuggetnews.com.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)