By MARK McGEE – [email protected]
The second part of a series on the Shelbyville-Bedford Partnership.
“Being selective is self-protective.”
That quote is from Dr. David Posen, an expert on how to manage stress, but it can be equally applied to the way Shane Hooper, president-CEO of the Shelbyville-Bedford Partnership, his staff and committee members go about choosing which businesses and industries to pursue.
“Shane can’t go out and recruit just any company to come here,” board member Christy Womack, co-owner of Dabora, Inc., said. “We are looking for companies that are early in their life cycles. We don’t want companies that are toward the end of their life cycles. We are looking for industries and careers that are building.
“We want jobs that are at a higher average wage than what we have here now. Raising our average wage for our entire community means a lot of different things.”
She points to higher average wages flowing through the county would improve the school system, improve law enforcement and attract businesses and services people would enjoy. She also adds a higher average wage would take some of the pressure off the use of the property tax for many city and county services.
To bring in quality companies it is necessary to provide certain incentives.
“We are in competition with other communities,” Hooper said. “Businesses only have so much money set aside for new ventures and new development.
“I like Shelbyville. You like Shelbyville but that is not the way business decisions are made. It is a matter of how quickly a business can become profitable. Incentives help businesses become successful more quickly. The more successful they are the more people they can hire here and the higher the wages they can pay.”
An example is Duksan Electera America which will initially hire 101 people to manufacture electrolytes for the electric battery industry when the factory is completed here.
David Coffey, whose family was involved in the trucking business locally for many years, is excited about the partnership from both a business and personal standpoint. He has been involved with economic development groups in several states and he has been impressed with the work here. He has found the most effective ones have a combination of public and private stakeholders.
“We are just trying to attract new industries but maintaining our existing industries to mom-and-pop shops,” Coffey said. “We should want to recruit the best of the best to come here and to that with things like tax incentive programs. We have to be competitive with our sister cities. We want smart, controlled growth. And we want to take care of what we have.
“We have been put on the map. We are going to continue to build on the momentum that we have. We are going to continue to grow this community in a way that is good for everybody.”
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