Recruiting jobs requires funding
When it comes to the local job situation, Warren County can?t shake its bad fortunes.
Already gasping from the departures of Carrier, Findlay, DeZurik, Aquatech and Powermatic, the community was dealt another blow to the midsection with the announced shutdown of A.O. Smith.
Yesterday?s announcement was hardly unexpected. A.O. Smith had been drastically reducing its local workforce for the past six years and its current base of 160 employees is just a shadow of its once-mighty payroll with over 900 employees.
Still, the news of a factory shutdown is never easy to stomach. It?s one thing to speculate about a plant closing. It?s quite another to call all employees together and deliver the harrowing news that their jobs will cease to exist in a matter of months.
This is news Warren County residents have grown accustomed to hearing and it?s a trend we must find a way to reverse. To do that, our county commissioners must stop treating economic development like an afterthought.
Refusing to raise property taxes is a popular stance around election time and it?s a sensible philosophy. That philosophy has to change, however, when we don?t have available funding to even build a road to property in our industrial park.
For folks scratching their heads and wondering why Warren County can?t recruit new industry, the answer is simple. For companies with the luxury of locating anywhere in this country, Warren County cannot compete.
What if a company with 300 jobs wants to locate in a spec building in Warren County? We don?t have one.
What if a company with175 jobs wants a road leading to 15 acres in the Mt. View Industrial Park in Morrison? We don?t have that road.
What if a company wants to construct its own building on 10 acres in the city of McMinnville and have immediate water and sewer access ready? We don?t have 10 acres in the city or water and sewer ready.
But, by the way, we do have a perfectly good WastAway building. Just don?t make any loud noise, create extra traffic, or emit any type of odor and the building can be yours ? provided your application is approved by the city?s Board of Zoning.
Everything is so difficult in Warren County.
Yet when companies evaluate property in other towns, these communities miraculously have spec buildings. They have roads leading to available land and utilities that are ready to go as soon as a meter is hooked up.
Industrial recruiters in other towns have the luxury of wining and dining company executives when they visit their communities. The way Warren County funds industrial recruitment, we can take those executives to Krystal and offer them a night at the Scotish Inn.
It all comes down to a matter of funding. Since it?s budget time, our county and city governments must find a way to fund the Industrial Development Board?s $680,000 budget request this year.
Industrial Development Board budgets in the future should be submitted with the idea of speeding up our slow-moving process. Warren County, unfortunately, doesn?t have the luxury of gently following a five-year plan or a 10-year plan. We can?t wait that long to attract new jobs.
For years, commissioners have rallied around the cry of ?no new taxes? and look where that?s gotten us. We?ve cut corners, sacrificed funding and lost the ability to remain competitive with communities willing to pump money into industrial recruitment and attract new business. In short, we have gotten exactly what we?ve paid for.
If Warren County keeps conducting business as usual, we?re going to keep losing jobs that won?t be replaced.
Investing in the future of this community means exactly that. We can?t make an investment by constantly reducing funding. The past 15 years are a perfect example of that.