Trustees review economic study
Scot Beard
Issue date: 3/17/05 Section: News
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The study, which was requested by the Board, took about six months to complete and includes information such as job growth in north Alabama, availability of building sites, vacant buildings and local leaders' perceptions of development in the area. Another part of the study includes the creation of a directory that makes critical economic material easy to find.
One of the findings in the study is that many different organizations must cooperate to attract new business and to prevent the repetition of some tasks.
"It seems several organizations from the local, state and national level have to work together," said Dr. Jim Couch, one of the researchers. "Sometimes they coordinate well together, but sometimes they don't."
One of the ways to determine economic development is through the increase of total jobs in an area. Total jobs are the number of newly created jobs, plus the number of expanded jobs. Of the counties in north Alabama, the study found that Madison County by far had the most job growth, with an increase of over 12,000 jobs from 1997-2000. Morgan County was second with almost 4,000.
Lauderdale, Colbert and Franklin Counties lagged far behind with an increase of less than 2,000 each.
Another part of the study includes what UNA can do to help with local economic development. The findings show that UNA does help some with the development, but there is more that could be done.
The university has done several things to help out, such as the economic development seminar two years ago, which was intended for local leaders and members of the community and was conducted by a branch of the Economic Development Association of Alabama.
UNA also helps by educating the business leaders of tomorrow, but that is not enough.
"UNA should take a greater role," said Couch. "We need to step forward and shoulder some of the burden."
Some of the suggestions put forth in the study include helping in the recruitment process, conducting studies and working with local organizations to determine better ways to market the Shoals to prospective companies.
The study also indexed the amount of building space available and the amount of land available for industrial park growth. This information was provided by the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.
Lauderdale, Colbert and Franklin Counties all have plenty of available square footage in buildings that can be used for new industry, but only Colbert County has an adequate enough supply of land to create new industrial parks.
The EDPA listing of available buildings and sites is also included in the study and can be found on the Internet at www.edpa.org.
Overall, the study is meant to help attract new businesses to the Shoals and to revive the local economy.
"The economic development in the Shoals is one of the top priorities in the area," said Couch. "But until we make it the top priority, we will continue to suffer."
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