For Immediate Release
February 5, 2002

Tools of the Trade: Economic Development Toolkit Opens the Door to Opportunity for Georgia Communities

Betsy Hueber, president of the Thomaston-Upson County Chamber of Commerce, asked Georgia Tech's Economic Development Institute to assess the community's needs for technology development.   (300 dpi version)

Many Georgia communities lack the resources to launch effective, enduring economic development programs.

To help those cities and counties, the Georgia Institute of Technology's Economic Development Institute (EDI) has assembled a set of "tools" applicable statewide. In the past year, EDI has assisted more than 45 communities in this manner.

Determining the right tool for a community depends on that locale's economic development level and needs. For places that have recently started an economic development program or hired a professional economic developer for the first time, EDI's community economic development readiness assessment offers a checklist of essential factors for a successful program. It helps identify immediate actions a community can take given its readiness and resources.

Two years ago, Lawrence Barker, then newly hired executive director of the Mitchell County Economic Development Commission, asked EDI to perform the assessment. According to Barker, this evaluation "should be the first order of business" for a community as it begins to formalize its economic development efforts. His community has implemented each of the assessment's five recommendations.

As the next step, EDI recommends its community economic development strategic assessment, which identifies long-range actions that form the basis of a 10-year economic development plan. It is useful for communities creating or updating their economic development plan or revitalizing their existing program, says EDI's Joy Wilkins.

Lawrence Barker, executive director of the Mitchell County Economic Development Commission, led a community assessment that involved community leaders and led to multiple recommendations

In Mitchell County, Barker subsequently asked EDI to undertake this assessment, which involved a six-month investigation of the county's economy, infrastructure and resources for industrial and economic development.

"The benefit of the assessment was to give us a baseline on which to proceed," Barker says. "It also got some of our local business leaders involved in the economic development process who otherwise would not have been involved."

EDI's toolkit contains diverse services that help with decision-making and are often integrated into strategic assessment. For example, in Wayne County, EDI's local impact analysis (LOCI) helped determine the fiscal impact of a likely industrial investment that became the basis for strategic assessment recommendations for targeting industries. Wilkins notes these tools often are provided as follow-on services.

In Fayette County, EDI's fiscal impact tool for land use planning service (FIT) is helping community leaders answer the question: "If our community's development follows current land use patterns, will our local government have sufficient revenues to meet the increased demand for services?" Chris Clark, president of the county development authority, says, "I would recommend this process to those communities facing unprecedented growth, as well as those wishing to pursue a controlled and managed development of local resources."

Another example is the site identification and technical evaluation (SITE) that helps to objectively pinpoint the best site(s) for industrial development. Last spring, Washington County officials chose locations for short- and long-term industrial investment using SITE. According to chamber of commerce President Theo McDonald, "We needed some outside eyes to take a look at our county without any preconceived notion."

For communities already addressing urgent economic development issues, EDI's technology opportunities assessment identifies areas for furthering technology development using local resources and those available from Georgia Tech. For instance, last year at the request of Betsy Hueber, president of the Thomaston-Upson County Chamber of Commerce, EDI's TechSmart team performed this assessment. It led to technology leadership training and to formation of the Technology Education Cooperative, a community alliance fostering collaboration on demand for technology services, such as telecommunications.

A new service in the toolkit -- the incubator readiness assessment -- determines whether a community should examine the feasibility of a business incubator. Recently, this service helped confirm the timing was right for launching an incubator in Tift County and helped secure funding from the OneGeorgia Authority.

Communities can access these tools and other specialized services through Georgia Tech's regional offices located across the state.

RESEARCH NEWS & PUBLICATIONS OFFICE
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA

MEDIA RELATIONS CONTACTS:
Jane Sanders (404-894-2214); E-mail: jane.sanders@edi.gatech.edu; Fax: (404-894-4545) or John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail: john.toon@edi.gatech.edu.

TECHNICAL CONTACT: Martha Schoonmaker (404-894-0332); E-mail: martha.schoonmaker@edi.gatech.edu or Joy Wilkins (770-536-6901); E-mail: joy.wilkins@edi.gatech.edu

Writer: Lincoln Bates